Just couldn't do it after all ... the time for compromise is over ... .

Got to the polls and voted my conscience. Were it possible I would have voted throughout the state on every ballot for every candidate whose agendas match my own. The stakes are too high now, and the country I truly believe is in a state of such chaos that it will take millions of voters committing the act of independent thinking -- and demanding drastic change to turn it around.

I want nothing less than impeachment of those in power and will settle for no less; sorry.

I refuse to accept less than total withdrawal from the wars.

I insist upon an end to capital punishment.

I yearn for an America that never quite attained the greatness promised by her Constitution and Bill of Rights. I want another try at it in my time.

I want a nation worthy of world respect; a nation that honors commitments and treaties. A nation for whom preemptive war is unthinkable and peace is more than an idle hope of dreamers.

While fully understanding the implications of casting a vote that may have less power to make those hopes real than a butterfly in a hurricane, I have nonetheless voted my aspirations instead of my dispair.

I voted for Barbara Becnel for governor today and for everyone on my ballot who has expressed my hopes for a city, state, and country I can love and respect again. I find no comfort in deferring those concerns. I'll vote for Angelides in November. Today I voted against his lack of support for the abolition of the death penalty. I thought that his support of a woman's right to choose and of same sex marriage were enough. Not so. The elimination of capital punishment outstrips all else, and demands addressing before another life is taken in our names -- due to a dysfunctional system of justice that disproportionately devours the poor and uneducated and far too often overlooks the white and the wealthy.

Tomorrow I'll begin to look around for voices that echo my own and to work as hard as I can toward those goals for the November general election. I suspect that most of those voices are registered in Progressive Democrats of America led by Rep. John Conyers and supported by Cindy Sheehan et al. I'll continue to follow the lead of MoveOn.com and to listen for cues from Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now. I'll pay closer attention to Noam Chomsky and the writings of Greg Palast.

Now for a cup of hot tea and that scone I stashed in the freezer a while back ...

I'm feeling hungry -- and resolute. (I'm grinning with no one around to see; a good sign.)

Vote, everybody! Vote your concerns even if they're in opposition to mine. That's the way the process works. So many have died to protect this precious right that we so often squander. Never has it been more important to exercise the franchise. Our lives surely depend upon each of us each adding to the whole -- and by so doing -- together we will the move the Ship of State into safer waters. I am trustful of consensus and in our ability to achieve it through public debate.

With so much at stake and the death toll rising by the hour, those clowns in Washington are bitterly locked this day in a debate over whether marriage should be limited to a man and a woman, and that all other love relationships be forbidden by the Constitution! Does anyone truly believe that this is a matter of grave concern to the electorate? Tell that to Brad and Angelina -- Brittany and whoever will be her next captive stud. C'mon! Defense of marriage? Indeed!

There's a hint in the air that this transparent farce will be noted by voters everywhere -- and that we'll turn out this Administration of Idiocy come November! We the voters are so very much better than they know.

I'm certain of it.