I've been following US politics unusually closely the past month or so. Not the doings of the current incumbent - who apparently will distinguish himself yet again by vetoing anti-torture legislation this morning - but the fight for the Democratic party nomination.

I hope that Barack Obama wins it, and goes on to win the November election. After the past seven years, I don't want to see yet another Republican - or at least, another republican like the current incumbent - in that office. It's difficult to believe that Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President; standards have certainly slipped. As Pierre Trudeau said, "Living next to (the US) is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast... one is affected by every twitch and grunt."

Given that my husband works in the coastal logging industry, I'm perhaps more directly affected than many by lovely bits of US market protectionism like the softwood lumber agreement. Not that I expect that will change. Of course, our allegedly 'liberal' provincial government hasn't helped by gutting the forest services act and otherwise selling ordinary workers out in favour of their company-owning buddies. Grrr. On the plus side, with the land use agreement now in place between the Haida and the province, at least we should be able to manage our islands forests independently and more sensibly.

Although, as following politics endlessly emphasizes, sense is in short supply.