Happy Blogiversary to a favorite blog buddy.

and Dude! It turns out I'm not the only one who thinks highly of yer talent....



[Please leave comments at Driftglass's place. At age 4, his blog is old enough to take it.]

Salon tonight 9 Eastern

See you next Monday. (Thanks TexBetsy for reminding me to take down the invite...)

Oh gee, I thought I wasn't going to have anything to blog about today.

h/t Sullivan, this guy is MY CONGRESSMAN. Speaking of "blog against theocracy"....

QUIZ: which word doesn't belong in the sentence?

"[O]n Sunday, March 29, Newt Gingrich will convert to Catholicism, the faith of his third wife, Calista Bisek."

What is your opinion of Code Pink?

There is an effort by Code Pink to create a hand-knit, pro-peace banner to carry to the White House on Mother's Day. I'm knitting (bright pink acrylic, ick, but it will stand up to strain and weather, particularly sun bleaching) four-inch squares which will be sewn by others into the larger piece, with contributions from around the country.

There was a comment (on the knitting forum where I announced my intentions) that Code Pink carries all kinds of negative baggage because of their behavior at Congressional Hearings.

And I'm thinking, maybe those Code Pink ladies should just sit there and knit.



I wish, actually, that I had the ovaries to risk arrest for peace, rather than something less involved. But to each her calling.

Comments open on this, after all, I make fun of PETA's methodology all the time. What do you think?

Over at the big blog today.

We were a bit short-handed over at the big blog today, so I was over there helping out. Salon tomorrow night. All's well.

Quick and Dirty on a Saturday Night

h/t Heather for the video and April Winchell for the punchline mp3's.

Saturday Song

There's something so bloggy about a big-name musician (Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies) recording a YouTube in "The Bathroom Sessions" AND allowing embed on the video. Love those guys.

On the GOP Budget Publication Thingy...

Accommodations for Michele Bachmann were made.

Dear IRS: It's in the mail.

The good news is, I don't owe a cent, and will get some back. That's how you want your taxes.

But it was a fascinating exercise from a historian's standpoint. I'm a little astonished at how much my life has changed in the past year, and how it took sitting down for two hours with paperwork to make that register. Divorced, bought a house, moved out of state, changed my family structure...and the IRS had a line-item for each one of those, at least.

I can see a historian/archeologist saying to his work-study undergraduates: "see if you can find the tax records." That and funeral records and you'll really get to know the folks and what they valued.

-------------

I emailed the fellow bloggers on this, but wanted my readers to know as well.

Dr. Zaius wrote me this am, and I'm passing it along as a favor to him, because I love that simian.

"The reason that I write is that I am intrigued by a contest that Bubs has posted on his blog. His daughter, Nora O'Sullivan, is hoping to win Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Spooksmodel Contest. The contest is judged by online voting."

BG here: Nora is the only contestant dressed like a nurse. Also, she had the good taste to not have blood on her picture. Vampiresses are so 1988.

The link to the contest is here.

The link to Bubs' blog is here.

Whatever you guys can do....Thanks.

Why didn't CNBC see that?

Didn't that screaming CNBC guy see it coming when Goldman Sachs started paying out in Scooby Doo "ruh roh" checks?

But seriously, I had to order new checks this am, and the whole "what do your checks say about you" was hard to stomach.

What does it say about America that the top five checks sold by my bank are "Winnie the Pooh"?

Our Winnie the Pooh Checks share all the fun of the Hundred Acre Woods with you. These Winnie the Pooh Checks bring all the fun and friendship of Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet and Pooh to your wallet.

God knows I need more fun in my wallet, but the most fun is when my checks say "this woman has money in her account." Which hey, is more than you can say for Goldman Sachs.

Carnival of the Liberals 87

There were an amazing number of spam submissions over at the carnival site this time around, but it was easy to find good proletariat harvested wheat among the spammer tares, and below are the ones I enjoyed reading.

Montag presents MAN ON THE STREET posted at I Miss Fafblog, Spot.

Madeleine Begun Kane presents Tough Negotiators, Those Bushies! posted at Mad Kane's Political Madness.

Stephanie Zvan presents In Which I Explain the EFCA posted at Almost Diamonds.

Mike Di Leo presents President Obama Announces Website For Holdout Opponents posted at Lost in Tarnation.

Roger Nehring presents Way to Go New Mexico! posted at equa yona.

Angry Max presents The Quests for Truth and Blood posted at Pterodactyl Puke.

JimD presents Saturday Musings: 'All The News That's Fit To Print' Edition posted at DeRosaWorld.

QuakerDave presents Be(ing) a citizen of the world. « The Quaker Agitator posted at The Quaker Agitator.

PhysioProf presents Constitutional Originalism, Natural Law, and The Ninth Amendment, posted at Comrade Physioprof.

Max Pearson presents The Progressive Puppy: Reality-based sex education? Not in my home state. posted at The Progressive Puppy.

The next Carnival of the Liberals will be held April 8 at Liberal England.

Have you ever hosted Carnival of the Liberals before? If you're a blogger and you haven't, get off your ass and give back to the fold, my friends. I wrote the details in this post. It's still the (pinko lace panties) revolution, comrades.

Thanks to everyone who submitted posts. Keep the faith and keep blogging.

I hate deadlines, but...

Today at 5 Eastern is the deadline for submitting blog posts to Carnival of the Liberals. Details here.

Regarding Blog Against Theocracy, I'll be gearing up on that this weekend. The blogswarm is April 10-12. Please be reminded that the blogswarm is for posts in favor of separation of church and state. While posts entitled "Why I Hate God/Religion So Very Much" may be well-written (and if they are well-written you may want to submit them to Carnival of the Godless), they are off-topic for Blog Against Theocracy. Thanks.

Also not accepted as submissions by me anywhere ever, are posts related to "CH3AP M@ILING L1STS". What kind of f**knozzle spams a blogswarm?

Live chat with Blue Gal and other bloggers 9-10 Eastern

Join us next week!

No headphones, webcam, or download needed.

Pat Buchanan opens my eyes. No, Really.

Pat Buchanan doesn't like the apparent casual nature of Barack Obama's presidency. And before I join Chris Matthews in a knee-jerk giggle to the old Latin-Mass lover, I think he has a point. I made this video, which, I'm sure, Pat Buchanan has watched many times just so he can boogie to the Ting Tings:



But watching Pat catch flak for his opinion made me think a bit more about why Obama has made the choice to make the presidency more informal. It runs deeper than just appealing to young people. I was on a train in the past two weeks and gawd, are those college students today addicted to their I-phones. That's obvious, but what are they doing with them? Texting friends. People they choose to be in touch with electronically.

I've noticed a change in my own internet behavior in the past two months. I'm writing this at 2:27 in the afternoon, and true story--I have not checked my actual email inbox today yet. I have email notification and watched the messages as they have come in, but I haven't actually opened and read a single one yet.

But I have read my tweets. And sent out two myself.

You guys know I'm a Twitter believer. But I have come to see that the big bulletin board of people I WORK with on the blogs is the real essential part of my day, more than even email. Therefore, I can't imagine giving up a larger portion of my life to text messaging. Good god, how do people with those little devices ever get anything else done? (I can testify that on a train they don't.)

If Barack Obama is going to tap into the political power of the Iphone/Twitter/text generation, he has to be desirable enough on that level that he will be let into that world. It's a scary and very predictable thing that in a world awash in information, we are all becoming that selective in what kind of information we allow onto our screens.

Is it going too far to say that Obama has to be the kind of President who is also a Facebook Friend in order to have his voice heard? Excellent question, Mister Buchanan, but no matter how we answer:


kthxbye

I likee!

Don't keep calm and carry on.
Originally uploaded by moleitau

I posted the "keep calm and carry on" poster at the big blog the other day and a kind reader sent me this.

And by the way, if you think I'M bad on the whole economy thing, you should read Rushkoff at Arthur Magazine. He thinks we should let the economy die. Yeah.

Sitting on the (virtual) Left Bank, watching the (class) war go by.

I'm astonished at how like the last progressive revolution this one will be. There are muckrakers (Matt Taibbi) evil big business villains (AIG) and really, Barack Obama should be reading the biographies of Woodrow Wilson rather than FDR. I worry about our addiction to experts to solve our problems. Timothy Geitner was chosen (and so was Tom Daschle at HHS) because of their expertise, but that expertise is due to their closeness to the problems that they're facing. You apparently can't be an "expert" in the healthcare crisis without having been a lobbyist for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, or an expert in Banking without having "Citi" on your resume.

I love articles about demography, marketing, and grouping of individuals along education and class status. These articles are never completely accurate, and some are out-and-out wrong. Take this one, by in The Atlantic Monthly, :

...perhaps these times of hardship will see a return of the true bohemian, as in the days when the Left Bank was actually squalid. Stylistically, some artistic people are returning to thrift chic (either Goodwill retro wear, or something akin to the party a girlfriend threw recently called “Bitch Swap,” where you trade around the rags you’re tired of). ….listen for poignant, witty Frank O’Hara stories about transformative experiences that occur on public transportation (in the rain), on This American Life. As Borders stores shutter, perhaps we’ll see a reflowering of public libraries. In any case, unable to secure those astronomical loans, more Xers will have to start rubbing shoulders with The Other, living in truly mixed neighborhoods, next door to such noncreative types as Kohl’s-shopping back-office workers and actual not-yet-ready-for-their-close-up-in-Yoga- Journal immigrants.

This economic catastrophe is teaching the Xers that their prized self-¬expression and their embrace of personal choice leads to … the collapse of capitalism. Time to inculcate not those self-satisfyingly hip and rebellious values—innovation! self-fulfillment!—cherished by the creative class (a class, after all, that includes in its ranks those buccaneering entrepreneurs who’ve led us down the primrose path), but those staid and stolid values of the bourgeoisie: industry, sobriety, moderation, self-discipline, and avoidance of debt.

Okay, who the HELL is she talking about? Well, she’s talking about herself and her artist/writer LA/New York friends. People who have, or until recently HAD, paid jobs at the Atlantic. Remember David Brooks, when he assured the “bourgeois bohemians” or Bobos, as he called them, in 2001 (also in The Atlantic):

“…there's talk of widening income gaps, and there are certainly widening social gaps -- between the people who shop at a Restoration Hardware, for example, and the people who wouldn't get all the verbal references at a store like that, all those sly references to F. Scott Fitzgerald novels and such. But as I went around the country, I didn't find much social resentment.

Actually, I saw a woman get arrested at a Restoration Hardware in Palo Alto for yelling at some of the rich customers. She was yelling "You rich bitch!" and things like that. I thought, Here's real social resentment—here comes the revolution! But other than that incident I really didn't find much. What I did find was a society that doesn't resent the elites—that doesn't have a clear sense that some people are better than others. Everybody seems to belong to their own little clique. There's no sense of inferiority. And therefore no sense of resentment.

So does that mean that Boboism is here to stay?

I don't see anything toppling it. I don't see any mass populist revolt against it. What I do see is an elite that's very good at co-opting things. Marx said the most dangerous elites were the ones who could absorb the talented members of the oppressed classes. And thanks to admissions committees and outreach programs and things like that, Bobos are very good at absorbing talented people into their ranks. So I really see this group lasting and lasting and lasting.

David, honey, Arianna Huffington is BANKING on "absorbing the talented members of the oppressed classes" and paying them in eyeballs, isn't she? And Brooks, you must kiss your lucky ass every morning that the public has a short memory, but that kinda goes without saying.

I never cared much about money, particularly in terms of salary. That sounds like a lie, even to me, but then I remember an interview I had, the interviewer asked me if I cared about money and I said no. The job interviewer said, "It's obvious from your resume you don't." There was another opportunity I had to go into management once. My boss loved my work at IT helpdesk and suggested I could move into IT management. I looked at him and said, Boss, I've seen my supervisor's computer desktop. It's full of "continuous process improvement” folders. Why would I want to give up a job where I'm actually helping people to work on that kind of ...I didn't say Bullshit but he was a former drill sergeant, so I didn't have to. I know I had his respect for my decision, since he was the same way. What you do and what you fix is much more important than what other's name you. I can smell a person impressed by the title "manager" a mile away and I avoid those people.

The thing is, we have a President like that, now, too. It's really shaking up Washington that oh my fucking god the President really doesn't care about power. Well, get this: he does care about power, but only to the extent that power will help him accomplish something. He was born after 1960. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm not laying blame and saying "the economic debacle is not MY generation's fault." This is about "You’ve handed my generation a huge mess and expect us to find a way to put Humpty back together again. What we’ve got to work with is a dustpan of worthless dollar bills owned by China."

The largest generational divide in this country is between those Hillary Clinton’s age (62 ish) AND those Barack Obama’s age (47 ish). I do feel for those almost ready to retire who feel the rug has been pulled out from under them, but get this: a whole big lot of 40 somethings don’t think Social Security will be there for them at all, let alone some fucking mutual fund.

And I really shake my head at the “journalism” above, because it points not to a real drive to end greed and downsize, but to, let’s be honest, poverty chic. The boomers will never be old and poor. They will be the seasoned and frugal generation. Everything that happens leads to the “ever new kind of cool” that boomers are so addicted to. My friend JR put it so well, “The generation that INVENTED the lifestyle is going to find a way.” Economic need? Ooh, let’s make elder communes. Tap water reduces the landfill! Local food, thrift stores, vintage! No matter what and no matter how bad it gets, the Clinton/Huffington generation will make their response to it cool.

We're facing more than an economic crisis. This is a race to the bottom at the moment, and one of the problems is, those of us who never had a big stake in capitalism aren't all that upset about it. I was reading Figleaf (nsfw) the other day and this statement astonished me: "Despite having been homeless for nearly two years and nearly homeless for another two I don't really think I know that much about poverty...in gendered terms," Well, setting aside the gender part of his statement being under-housed for four years is a sure sign of knowing quite a bit about poverty.

Is Figleaf in denial?

I spoke to a fellow gen xer about this and he said "well, but compared to the underclass in the third world he is not in poverty." I agreed, but see where we 40 somethings took that? Not to pitchforks and torches, but to bowing our heads that we are not in Darfur. It's a crazy-ness, because we have a right to get mad at the greed that says it's okay for a Presidential candidate to NOT KNOW how many fucking houses he owns off the top of his head, and a gifted white guy writer is semi-homeless for four years, but that's okay because, what, his wife doesn't own a brewery estate? And after all, at least white guy gifted writer isn't in Darfur. What is fucking WRONG with this picture? I don't get it sometimes.

A lot of boomers genuinely agree with the following simple rules:

1. The world owes everyone on this planet a decent home and a enough to live on.
2. And we've all been put here to help each other get there.
3. We’ve got to give up greed on an individual level to make that happen.

Too many of the wealthiest people on the planet don't get that. Here's an extreme thought: what if everyone who subscribed to Real Simple, Voluntary Simplicity, and Yoga Journal had cashed in what they didn't need to live on, most of their 401K's, for Darfur? They didn't, and I'm not chiding them for that. I'm saying there's a huge difference between voluntary poverty for the sake of patting one's own back in yoga sun saluation. Welcome, America, to not-so-voluntary poverty. Greed is not good.

This is not a dollars and cents problem. It is a sense of right and wrong problem. Paul or whoever wrote this down for Paul in Corinthians and Ephesians, so many centuries ago, got it. (from the Weymouth Translation)

The weapons with which we fight are not human weapons, but are mighty for God in overthrowing strong fortresses. For we overthrow arrogant 'reckonings,' and every stronghold that towers high in defiance of the knowledge of God.

For ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood, but with the despotisms, the empires, the forces that control and govern this dark world--the spiritual hosts of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare.

I have my own myopia, in that I have surrounded myself with poor struggling writers online. So I think that’s who matters. We’re the creative class who won’t be adopted by Arianna for no money down, not because we’re holding out for her money but because we really truly don’t want it on her terms. I love the Twitter bio: “will eventually grow up and get a real job. Until then, will keep making things up and writing them down.” But that’s Neil Gaiman’s Twitter bio, the guy who wrote Coraline and Sandman. Age? 48, baby. A real job? Huh.

The squalid Left Bank is now virtual, you see. And we've even got a philosophy (natch) called New Puritanism. It's the perfect muckraker/progressive/'save the world and bite the hand that feeds' zeitgeist:

The terms New Puritan and Neo-Cromwellians were coined by Jim Murphy, associate director of the Future Foundation, to describe a perceived trend in British society. The term, which has been adopted by a number of main stream newspapers and other media, refers to the increasing tendency for the young middle classes to accept increasing regulation and self regulation of their life curtailing the "consumption culture". ...The Observer suggests a further example: at the point of sale in a major High Street store the assistant states "I'm duty bound to ask you if you want to open a store card with a preposterously uncompetitive interest rate". The reporter declines. "Good," he said, "I never push them, sometimes I don't even mention them, because they just encourage people to get into debt. Personally, I'd ban store cards." Clearly such suggestions have implications for many aspects of the economy...

Gee, I'd like to buy that High Street store clerk a fair-trade latte. Wanna meet me after yoga class?

Saturday Song

I seriously love this website.

	502
6
lab.drwicked.com

I'm writing a long post about class and generational politics and Obama and I couldn't get it started and now I did. I've used this technique many times but having an online tool that goes after you to keep going is really really nice. Thanks, Dr. Wicked, may I have another?

Working on putting together Carnival of the Liberals (details on how to participate are here) plus doing the round-up for Mike both days this weekend. Plus the long post. Life is good.

First in a series?

click image for larger and feel free to steal.

Knitting and Politics go together, except.

Honestly, when someone in a knitting forum decides their opinion matters so much that they must, as an aside, use that popular knitting forum to refer to a certain current President as a, well, let's foil the google searchers and just say "mid-twentieth century central European fascist," [really, knitters, you'd think you'd never heard of Godwin's Law] and then proceed to organize via a Yahoo forum, thread hijacks at the knitting forum, in order to be "heard," I really gotta take a step back and laugh my head off.


PS I didn't link evidence here because you'd need to join Ravelry to read about it. If you are a member, it's in the "for the love of Ravelry" section.

It's like Aspie people who organize group forums online and then noisily demand not to be "healed." If you can organize your own forum, no one wants or needs to fix you. Why wasn't the yahoo group being used to unite like-minded Republican knitters? Oh nevermind. They remind me of this post. Which was and is supposed to be a JOKE. Just saying.

But all of this apparently caused a bit of tumult over at that knitting forum. I belong to the forum, but missed out on the part where the destructive drunk party crashers were ejected, firmly but without malice. As they were carried out they apparently had a lot to scream about regarding free speech, having forgotten that they were in a bar built, maintained, stocked, served, staffed, funded, and opened by someone Not Them. Also, their opinions were apparently welcomed, but the thread hijacking was not, and continued beyond a polite asking them to stop.

And again, they had created a room of their own at Yahoo that was kinda sorta working? Oh nevermind.

Elizabeth Zimmerman, who is the late high-priestess of knitting to so many of us, wrote during the very tumultuous days of the Watergate hearings:

Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises.

I send that word on to the hard-working organizers of Ravelry, with love and affection. And GOP knitters, why not go back to the Yahoo group? Work as hard on it, invest as much, as the Ravelry people did on theirs. Good luck.

Recently deleted at the BG mailbag...

Dear Blue Gal:

Are you a lesbian? I was just wondering, not that it makes any diff....

Oh let's just keep him wondering, shall we?

On topic, the obviously male editors at Gizmodo need to think about "Wellesley students" before writing an article that says math majors are all virgins based on a Wellesley poll.

Wellesley students are all female.

There's a very good reason why a math major at Wellesley would tell a pollster she's never had sex. She doesn't want him to know. Anything. About her. Ever.

And the art majors at Wellesley are busy laughing very very hard.

You're going to need a bottle of this.

After you watch the video I made last night, which is, for now, exclusively at The Aristocrats. It's a mashup of Bill O'Reilly's audio book reading of his smutty novel, with his Season Ten appearance on The View. It's not safe for work and I warn you, the sound of Bill O'Reilly's voice talking about the oral sex is not for the easily disturbed. Please leave comments over there, and thanks.

When technology fails, there's always permanent magic marker.

There was a pretty major computer meltdown (please don't call it "crash") on Amtrak on Friday, so for most of my three-hour-plus trip to Chicago I had this little scrap of green paper with CHI (yes, that's the actual item shown) to prove I was a paying customer. I so admire human ingenuity.

Oh yeah, and it's green, too. Happy St. Patrick's Day. I feel bad for the guy who accidentally fell into the Chicago River as he danced on the edge of a bridge during the parade this weekend. My condolences to his family, but I had to smile at the ubiquitous "Police suspect alcohol was involved" template. Gotta hand it to the Chicago cops for being so restrained. Pfft.

Salon tonight - live chat with BG 9-10 Eastern

Salon is over, but it's the same url every Monday night if you want to bookmark it, too. Click the image above to join in! It's just typing. No download or special equipment needed.

http://www.tinychat.com/n8kh

Last night we discovered that "heavy metal" became just "metal" when Metallica cut their hair and went into rehab. Valuable knowledge. xo to everyone who attended...

Blog Against Theocracy Promo Spots part 2

There may be more of these coming. Feel free to steal this or the ones below. Thanks.

Blog Against Theocracy Promo Spots part 1

Sure I think Huckabee is a "nice guy," but he's saying we should applaud Bush for attacking Iraq before they attacked us again. Where do I begin? With 9/11 not connected to Iraq? With the "missing" WMD's? With applauding Bush?

This kind of crap is what the Bush Apologist Cavalcade is pushing now, that we're just so much better off without Saddam, so thank you President Bush. Really. I won't mix my politics with my theology and wish "hell" for those apologists. Just jail, starting with Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Saturday Song

Announcement.

Blue Gal, the blog, is hosting the Carnival of the Liberals 33 on Wednesday, March 25, and I'm asking you to be a part of it. Basically, liberal bloggers submit posts from the past couple weeks for consideration and the host picks ten and links 'em. So you get a little backwash traffic and some linky love for your trouble. Remember COTL says I can only pick ten.

The guidelines for submissions are here. Submit your post using the handy form here or send the link via e-mail to cotl DASH submissions AT carnivaloftheliberals DOT com before 5PM Central Time Tuesday, March 24. Looking forward to reading all of these. COTL is a real labor of love and a chance for all of us to bond. As if we don't already.

If you want to be an awesome networked blogger like me (pfft) one easy (and yeah I mean easy) way to do it is to host the carnival yourself at your own blog. They're held every two weeks at blogs around the web and you CAN do it. Details are in this old post of mine. Thanks!

Holy S**t moments of yesterday.

Ari Fleisher, for whom Saddam and 9/11 are somehow intertwined. And Matthews did try to punch back, but wouldn't ask if ridding the world of Saddam was worth almost 5,000 American soldiers and the mess we are still in almost 6 years later. Why is no one asking that question of these Bush apologists?

On a lighter note, I also said holy shit when I made a joke on Twitter about doing a sex toy scrapbook page at BlogHer. The Evil Slutopia women and I are going in Chicago in July, hope you can join us. Anyway it was just a silly joke, but some very nice woman wanted me to know that the BlogHer women are already down with that:

I still have a bag of sex toys I got from one of our BlogHer speakers in '07 ;)

Okay there are sex toy speakers at BlogHer, that's fine. But I can't get my mind around the "still have a bag" part. It's free bling, right? And we're supposed to SAVE it? For two years? Well, yeah, I guess the steampunk vibrators from BlogHer 1901 are probably worth a lot of money now.

The most important thing we bloggers can do now.

[Code Pink panties, of course]

I'm convinced that if there is one project we in Left Blogsylvania can take on, it's the silencing of the AIPAC/Schumer/Lieberman cartel and the moral blindness it represents. I don't have to link Greenwald for most of you, but here.

Defeating Lieberman should be fairly easy since most of Connecticut hates him now. Schumer has picked up where Hillary left off, and as I've said before, it's clear that her rabid right wingertude on Israel was written for the New York stage exclusively. Her new role isn't as Broadway's tragic heroine failing in the Middle East, as her predecessor played, but a delightful East End romp as Ambassador to Australia and Environs, which suits her just fine (and I'm being completely sincere when I say good on her).

There should be just as much outrage over the continual gang rape of common sense foreign policy, and our excommunication from all hope for peace, as there is over a nine-year-old pregnant Catholic girl south of the border. Meet the stepfathers: IT'S THEIR FAULT.



Oh look, two old Jewish guys have outdated "Israel right or wrong" attitudes. Absolutely it's generational. Gay rights is generational, too, and it's widely acknowledged by thinking people that in less than two generations gay rights won't be a big issue. I hope by that time there's a new generation of Jewish-American politicians who understand that a state of perpetual warfare is NOT good for Israel, it's merely good for Israeli hardliners who love winning elections which, in a parlimentary system, are always just around the corner.

Speaking of generational warfare, there aren't enough Jewish babies in the world to serve in the Israeli army against the Anschluß (yeah, I said it) of Palestinian octomoms who have no "standard of living" to protect via small family size. I predict apartheid. I also predict time will run out on apartheid. That ought to scare some sense into the current cartel, but I have no hope, none whatsoever, for AIPAC kool-aid junkies. It's the saddest thing in the world that they aren't ex-communicated from the halls of power for their vicious crimes against humanity, peace, and political common sense. The end.

More fun with Twitter

A little inside baseball, but actual tweets. If you don't get it and want to, google "blogroll amnesty day."

And memo to Cardinal Ratzinger: That whole "excommunicate the 9yo rape victim's mom and not the pedophile rapist" thing is bound to make people feel all warm and fuzzy about your Church, just like they did about your Führer.

Live chat with Blue Gal and other bloggers

See you next week.

PS Jezebel is joining me at BlogHer. OMG.

Blue Gal Video Blog 3/9/09

And all the while I'm showing off how connected I am to my creative energy, my inner critic was screaming all the negative messages you can imagine. So there.

And I will have a new microphone before I do another video. That much I know.

Salon tonight 9 Eastern. Check here for the link. Hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday, PZ Myers.

Photo by BAC, from the AU meetup in 2007.

I love PZ Myers, and not just because he uses charming pick-up lines like, "No, Blue Gal, I really WANT you to lose your faith."

Happy Birthday honey. You're probably busy, but if you show up for Salon tonight we'll make a big fuss. xoxo

And your review of the Watchmen movie is the best review I've read of a movie I have no intention of seeing. LOL.

Actual tweets.

Actually, the entire episode of Meet The Press this morning was downright embarrassing, Gregory showing Newt Gingrich just what a good baby he can be. Shame.

Storms today.

We had a "take the kids to the basement" storm this morning; I'm taking that as a sign to stay close to the radio and away from the computer for the day. We're fine, it's actually bright sun right now but appears to be big wide waves of weather.

Have a happy day of rest, folks.

David Gregory scheduled to follow me on Twitter?

Hmm. How about never? Does never work for you, David?

There's some national correspondent Jamie Gangel at NBC who is starting a CAMPAIGN to get David Gregory to follow her on Twitter? No word on whether:

...he's such a douchebag he won't,
...she's so f-ing annoying he won't,
or it's all a stunt, and she's doing this to drive up twitter attention for Meet the Press, because somehow having Lindsey Graham on for the 3700th time isn't driving up ratings.

Jamie. If this is part of your NBC job, can we send you to cover Gaza instead? Because right now, your manicurist is contributing more to society than you.

For anti-Twitter snobs, let me say how much I like it. Twitter is social networking. It is not a table at Malta, or even Sardi's. I like it better than Facebook. I follow 261 people currently. I get GREAT news tips from the people I follow. Very little of "god i need coffee" or "here's what I had for lunch." If you hang out with people who have some sense of what is relevant, your twitter page will reflect.

I do not follow David Gregory. Decided to follow David Gregory for the "comedy gold" potential.

PS. One wise tweeter points out that when you email Meet the Press, the autoreply comes back "Thank you for sending your comments to MEET THE PRESS with Tim Russert." Ask Jamie to take care of that, will ya, David?

Saturday Song

If I have a chance, I'm going to take seven minutes and thirteen seconds just to listen. Memo to self: that means don't click on another tab while you're listening.

Good luck with that, Mom. :) Happy Saturday, folks.

Yes, it's too nice to blog, but...

Blogmother sez: you can use the nice weather as an excuse in seven weeks or so. And even if today feels like May, it doesn't count. Blog first, lie in the grass later. By the way, that grass you think you see is actually mud. But I'm going outside anyway.

Happy Birthday, Glenn Greenwald. I wrapped up three links for you: [Twitter, Facebook, Blog].

Michelle Bachmann no longer makes me miss Katherine Harris. Katherine would never be able to, ahem, "articulate" the terror that probable Democratic success exacts in Republicans.

Shorter Bachmann: Americans liked it when FDR gave them Social Security, and LBJ gave them more Social Security. And now with Obama, it's like, omigod, MORE Social Security and helping working people stuff! And we'll have to run against that? We'll never win elections after that!

PS Michelle, if you're a Republican, then likening Democratic policies to evolution is really really a bad idea. It reminds people of the chimperor we don't want to go back to. Ever. It also makes us look, oh, I dunno, pro-progress, and you not.

Anyone think she's a Comedy Central plant? If so, she's worth every single frakin' dime.

Blog Against Theocracy - The Video

Feel free to steal.

Geesh, even my DAD is piling on poor Rush!

Love the halo/cross thing going on there, Dad. xoxo

Comment of the year so far

Over at that Facebook group I mentioned earlier:

I dare each one of you who calls themelves "pro-sex" feminists to watch mainstream EURO or US porno for 3 + hours straight without feeling a little sick, angry, a little ruined self-esteem here and there... I also need an explanation from "pro-sex" feminists why most of them are into "alternative" pornograghy... are you blind or in denial? or insulting my intelligence?

I promise you, I have never watched porno for 3 + hours straight. Twelve minutes, tops, usually does it for me. And no I'm not blind. That whole "until I needed glasses" joke works here.

More importantly, I've never needed to question or even examine the sex lives or proclivities of any other consenting adult* in order to inform my feminism.

*And just to be clear, "consenting adult" excludes rape victims and children. Duh.

And I do think adult women can consent to all kinds of things that I would not find pleasurable. I mean, three different women married Rush Limbaugh. Nuff said.

Good morning, girls!

Today is "anti-procrastination" day, so I plan to get that crack in my windshield looked at, finally.

In the meantime, I'd like to dedicate this video to my gal pals at Evil Slutopia, the sex-positive feminism Facebook group, and the divine Susie Bright.

And yeah, this video is a real WTF moment.

Honesty and the GOP...

As the late George Carlin would say, that's kinda like "military" and "intelligence."

As I pointed out at another better blog, there is an easy fix for any Republican who doesn't like the whole Rush Limbaugh leadership meme:

"I won't contradict Rush Limbaugh directly by name because people who do that have their phone lines jammed for three days, six hundred calls an hour, and I have neither the staff nor the stomach for that kind of attention. My constituents are my primary concern and responsibility, not the members of an admittedly devoted national radio audience."

Then of course, you'll have to turn off your phone for three days. Really.

How hard was that? Well, you would have to be honest to say that. Nevermind.

Gawd. I'm underpaid, and I wouldn't take money to make them look good anyway.

Tennessee GOP bumper sticker makeover!

The Tennessee GOP has a new bumpersticker, which, ahem, calls for some translation.

BEFORE:

h/t Andrew Malcolm via Utah Savage

AFTER:



If anyone has another better version, I'd love to hear it--feel free to blog it or leave something in comments.

Hey, we've all got problems (obligatory anti-standardized testing post)

When I get a note from the teacher "Tuesday is standardized testing day. Please emphasize to your child the importance of yadda yadda ya," it's like being on a computer chat line with customer service. Teacher only has a limited range of responses in her menu, and she doesn't really believe any of them, but can only select one. Just like the multiple choice tests my kid is taking today. And tomorrow. And the next day.

I don't get a customer service survey on whether my kid is well-educated because, well, ensuring my child gets a quality education is my job as a parent. Some days it's rewarding, and some, like the last 24 hours, are exhausting. I'm a failure as a mom and I'm in wonderful, excellent company with every other mom on the planet, so at least there's no peer pressure -- we can all feel the gargantuan guilt together.



I feel for the teachers, especially those who didn't sign up for this tour of No Child Left Behind drill duty, but signed up years ago to simply teach. And yeah, I reminded my child this morning about the test and the importance of yadda yadda ya in solidarity with you.

Salon tonight - live chat with BG 9-10 Eastern

Salon is over...

See you next week!

Yes, he has no banana.

I find it really amusing the whole "we want this to fail because it's a redistribution of wealth" meme from the conservatives this weekend. Americans don't buy it, and the "want it to fail" is desperation because conservatives know in their hearts that once Americans and American corporations have a reliable way to deliver health insurance through public financing of same, no one will ever go back to the tiny banana they've put up with all these years.

It's not "French," it's not "Socialist." It's security.

And as much as I love making fun of Rahm Emmanuel, the Chicagoan sure knows how to swing his yellow fruit: his "why should we subsidize HMO's and Big Oil?" on Face the Nation yesterday? I think you found your castrati, Mister Chief o' Staff.

Rush, Castrati