Salon tonight on Skype 9 Eastern

Blue Gal Salon December 1 hosted by blue.gal.

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Careful with that hit counter...

On the very day I kill Hello, Kitty! I take a peek at my hit counter ...Coincidence?

I was thinking I might get to 500 K by the start of the year, just as a kind of game, but I think not. It's not ever been about the hits (except this post, ha) and anyway, I hear blogging is dead now (double ha).

Oh my God! You killed Kitty!

This is what I look like after trying several times to get my laptop to quiet down enough to do a video blog. I'm off to get some compressed air to clean/quiet the fan, and probably a USB microphone. Sigh.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My day was nice and my weekend lovely.

Off topic: I went to the Clinton inaugural in 1993 and wound up going back to a friend's house in Virginia to watch it on the teevee. It was a nice day, but very crowded and reserved seats only along the parade route. People's Inaugural my ass. Eleanor Holmes Norton is right. DC should make sure there are indoor venues for the hoardes of tourists to watch this historic event, particularly since it's, ahem, January.

Salon tonight. Zappadan starts Thursday. There's a promo video in the post below, and I'm working on a bollywood Zappadan video for the holiday.

xo

Zappadan promo spot. Feel free to use anywhere.

Saturday Song

The Don't Sugarcoat It Award for November 28

Dang it's been a long time since we had a Don't Sugarcoat It Award.

For those of you new to Blue Gal or who forgot, The Don't Sugarcoat It Award is for individual bloggers who write a post showing gifted prose and a flair for direct, frank, and occasionally, but not necessarily, obscene discourse.

I award these prizes when I find them, and you can't submit posts for consideration. It's a surprise to all of us that way.

Today's award goes to the beautifully-named blog Übermilf, for her lovely Thanksgiving-themed post, "Dear Fucking Assholes Who Write Gravy Recipes."

Not only is the post Don't Sugarcoat It worthy, I totally identify with her aversion to cooking organ meat.

And although Übermilf is writing about a bit of a turkey gravy crisis, you may be relieved to know that in a subsequent post, we find that at least two women in her holiday household were eventually drunk enough on martinis to make adequate gravy. That's exactly how it should be.

As is usual with Don't Sugarcoat It's, leave all comments over there. Thanks.

[Ubermilf is from Chicagoland, and has inquired about a midwest blogger meetup in 2009. If you're interested, let me know. I'm thinking spring break or early summer, and I'll organize it. bluegalsblog AT gmail]

Friday song

And remember, trials are proofs of God's care.

"It will be alright in the end. If it's not alright, it's not the end." - Anonymous

All of my family members who have been sick or in the hospital had some good news this week. Our family has lots to be grateful for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

Has anyone else seen these horrendous turkey cakes in their shopping excursions? What would possess anyone to make something like that?

I've so much to be grateful for this year. We all do. And I'm grateful for a day that is a reminder to pause and be grateful.

I hope all of you have a day full of love and gratitude.

xo BG

I just can't call him, "Barack." [BG video mashup]

We had quite a debate among the team members of the bigger blog yesterday. Some said it's anti-egalitarian to resist calling the President of the United States by his first name. I call bs on that.

I'm trying to get as much mileage out of the tag below before I retire it forever, I hope. But notice it doesn't say "George is such a goddamn fuckwad."

But which is the killing joke?

A. "The economy is so complex and problematic. I wonder what Jonah Goldberg proposes we do."

B. "The economy is so complex and problematic. I wonder what Monica Crowley's thoughts are on the subject."

C. "The economy is so complex and problematic. I wonder what ideas Glenn Beck has come up with."


My vote is with B. It makes me wanna die laughing.

9 days until Zappadan

Frank Zappa died December 4, and was born (earlier, they tell me) on December 21.

Two years ago, the blog known as The Aristocrats declared that December 4 through 21 should henceforth be known as Zappadan: the days of the year between death and birth, that ethereal time when there was no Frank, so we must celebrate him to keep his spirit safe until his birthday again.

Or it's just a great excuse for a party that has nothing to do with the greed and debt festival known as Christmas in America. In any event, it's a labor of love with the hope that Frank would be proud.

"Some people say" that the Miracles of Zappadan stuff is a buncha hooey, but I disagree. During the first Zappadan in 2006, John Bolton resigned. Then last year, Sandy Underpants went to the registry of motor vehicles during Zappadan and got a new license plate with no lines, no waiting, and free donuts.

You can make a contribution by posting something about Frank or writing something up and sending it to the Aristocrats. You will be compensated for your effort with linky love, or a post to call your own at the Aristocrats.

Details here. Thanks.

Salon tonight on Skype 9 Eastern

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The (failed) politics of (failed) mommy-hood.

Yesterday morning was typical Sunday rough, finding not just church clothes for two girls who, just yesterday, got clothes put on them on a changing table. Now they refuse to wear tights today, while at school on Friday, tights were essential. And Mom! I Can't Wear That Dress. It's red, not dark pink! The boy, my oldest, is not picky about clothes, but he simply doesn't fit into anything at 9:30 am that would have fit him at 8:15, he's growing that fast. Let's not mention that none of MY shoes (except the ugly sneakers) fit over my own swollen but healing foot.

I am permanently and forever late for church.

And that stress is relatively minor. At some point soon I'm going to have to find a job. And then if one of the kids gets sick at school, God help me.

I'm a single mother and my story is common and tiresome, even to me. But during the past week or so a new refrain has accompanied the common stressors:

Hey, at least I never dropped them off in Nebraska.



The horrible parenting tragedies happened before the Nebraska Legislature cauterized a wound and forgot to bandage it with a 30-day old age limit. Before this past week, a silly loophole in a backwater state legislature (the last in the nation to pass a bill requiring hospitals to accept abandoned newborns no questions asked) allowed any parent of any minor to drop off their child in like manner.

The thirty-six walking, talking children who were abandoned in Nebraska as a result are a small fraction of those whose desperate parents didn't have the guts or the gas to make the trip. Two mothers drove over a thousand miles to find a place of safety for their teenagers. As this morning's Wall Street Journal law blog points out: "Many parents were using the Safe Haven law only as a last-case scenario, after exhausting every other avenue to help their deeply troubled children."

My heart especially goes out to the adoptive mother, Melyssa Cowburn, whose son was abandoned to her care by a meth addict birth mother in a big box store. "Could you watch him while I pick up some diapers" and she never returned. The emotionally disturbed child would be beyond the care of any one person.

The boy has broken Cowburn's nose, cut her forehead with a snow brush and left deep bruises from biting her calf. He has put a kitten inside an oven and blinded the family's parrot.

Cowburn cannot physically control the boy, who already weighs 63 pounds. Both she and her husband are about 5-foot-6 and slender. He kicks holes in walls. He urinated on the neighbor's dog and threw canned food off the balcony. ...[He] set fire to the shower curtain one day, then flooded the apartment the next, clogging the sinks and toilets.

She flew him to Nebraska.

The Nebraska Legislature's oversight, which was "corrected" on Saturday, is probably a blessing. It brought to light bigger holes in our nation's so-called safety net (kids at risk for gang membership in some states can't get services until they commit a crime?) and reminded others of the existence, still of Boy's Town and Big Brothers programs.

And of course this issue ties in with abortion and reproduction and who should be parents. It's not that some kids would be better off not born, or that some pro-lifers care more about the fetus than any actual child. It's the disconnect, the complete disconnect, that being born is tantamount to anyone's quality of life.

The wonderful New Yorker article Red Sex/Blue Sex (do go read the whole thing) points out how the GOP convention saw Bristol Palin's pregnancy not only as forgiveable, but a non-issue, since unmarried, unexpected teen pregnancy had happened in the family/church/social circle of every single delegate there. Abstinence? In Red State Nation you attach shame to sex and a kobosh on contraception but as long as there is no abortion, and, I suppose, the baby is baptized, Jesus and "society" are content.

And when the baptized baby is emotionally disturbed and later attempts to murder his sibling, there's always Nebraska. Or there was until Saturday.

An aside: the majority of babies born in the United States today are brought into this world via Medicaid. That's a hole in the insurance system and the job benefits system and the economy that is not over when the federal insurance coverage ends after birth. And don't get me started about the so-called "controversy" of whether Medicaid should pay for contraception.

It's high time we begin to handle the issue of quality of life for children. We have an administration soon that, we can hope, gets it. (I wish to God Hillary Clinton could have been Secretary of HHS rather than State. Talk about a "pit bull with lipstick" on behalf of children, no one has done more, and American kids still need that fierce advocacy.) I certainly hope Michelle Obama steps up to the plate. "Quality of Life for Children" has a nice post-Rovian ring to it. I hope I'm not sucking the emotional moisture out of this issue to say, demography is destiny. If we don't begin to cherish parenthood and make protecting children of every age a priority...

But no one is going to make parenting easier. We parents will deal with the stress of rejected red dresses on a Sunday morning, and everything, everything, that is more important than that, in the life of our children. Without some solid national priorities behind us, though, our country's future may as well be dropped off at the proverbial ER in Nebraska.



No video blog today. Salon tonight, see you then. - BG

Newsflash.

The person writing this blog is 78% woman. Or something like that.

Blue Gal Answers Your Sex Questions. Okay, not YOUR sex questions.

Just some anonymous person. Not even anyone you even know. Trust me.

1. No. I don't care how far you go to make your girlfriend look like a guy. If she's a GIRLfriend, and you are not doing it with any men whatsoever, then you are not bisexual. Ahem, "accoutrements" to your girlfriend do not count as actual male anatomy, ever, no matter where she puts them. Okay, no linky, I've already said too much.

2. No. You don't get to sue McDonald's because some employee downloaded the naked pictures of your wife from the cellphone you left there by accident. You act as though no one has ever seen what your wife's got. On the internet. On a cellphone pic.

Wait. You had to MOVE because naked pictures of your wife are on the internet? If you live in Utah, maybe. But you're Phillip Sherman and his wife, Tina, and you live in Arkansas. It's all over Yahoo News. Give it up, dude.

3. If making your eye look like this requires ten shades of eyeshadow from a product line that includes twenty different numbered brushes just for eyes...

...if, when you are given a school assignment to write about what you enjoy, and the first thing that comes to mind is, makeup....

...if, when you write about eyeshadow, you use "getting married to it" as your chosen metaphor...

you have a fetish. Not judging you here. This is definitely a "hey, whatever turns you on" blog. But it's a fetish, and you might find, I dunno, chandelier bondage* to be less equipment-focused. Just make sure your mascara is waterproof.

*Yes, my google search hits were getting kinda skimpy.

Video Mashup by BG - Saturday Song

A little Julie London meets Rudolph Valentino. These ladies would never....

One small thing I hate about a failing economy.

The radio stations put Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" in heavy rotation. Please make it stop.

Thanks but no thanks.

I'm very grateful anytime someone wants to link this blog.

Thank you very much, Left in Aboite and ex-lion tamer.

Tagging me for a meme is a bridge to nowhere. As a rule I follow the guidelines of Omnipotent Poobah's Anti-Tagging League.

I don't do memes for the same reason, I suppose, that I don't blog about what Digby said.*

It could be great, valuable, wonderful, etc., but other people are doing it, so I can do something else.

*Yeah, I just did blog What Digby Said. Just this once.

Closing Guantanamo, one cell at a time.

It's a start... [Reuters]:

Five of six Algerians must be released after nearly seven years of captivity at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in a setback for the Bush administration.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled from the bench after holding the first hearings under a landmark Supreme Court ruling in June that gave Guantanamo prisoners the legal right to challenge their continued confinement.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison camp after he takes office in January. Meanwhile, U.S. judges in Washington are moving ahead with case-by-case reviews of about 200 detainee legal challenges.

Reading his ruling as the detainees listened in Guantanamo via a telephone hookup, Leon said the U.S. government failed to show the five detainees who had been living in Bosnia had planned to travel to Afghanistan to fight against U.S. forces.

Why do I suspect the U.S. Government never intended to show evidence in these cases? That the source of any supposed evidence could not be admitted in court?

This administration can't end soon enough.

Proof positive there are too many lawyers.

Because a bonafide douchebag was able to hire one. From Smoking Gun, h/t a much-loved reader and commenter:

Claiming that he has been unfairly branded a "douchebag" in the book "Hot Chicks with Douchebags," a Las Vegas man has filed a libel lawsuit against the volume's author and publisher.

Trust me, honey, HCwDB had you at "Las Vegas club promoter." And now your name is connected to the word "douchebag" on the internet.

As my regular readers know, Hot Chicks with Douchebags is one of my favorite places to laugh my guts out. The writing there is self-effacing, hilarious, and actually far kinder than the title would indicate.

And now with the lawsuit, Mister Douchebag1, you've arrived!

A video valentine for David Plouffe

Not my actual ankle X-Ray

...but an extraordinary, uncanny likeness.

The bone is healed, the cast is off. I'm taking little baby steps around the house getting used to being on my own two feet again.

Thanks for all the support and good wishes. You guys are the best.

And by the way, if you have any more bloggy support to give in the form of Paypal cash, it's not my turn.

It's Shakespeare's Sister's turn.

Help if you can, and thanks.



.

You can't blame Obama...

...just because the first eighty-one attorneys general had, for the most part, serious skin pigment deficiencies.

Photos of past AG's from here, running the gamut from pinkish beige to cream, mostly.

Congratulations, Mister Holder. Being AG is the same as commenting on a blog, rule number one, "don't be an asshole." Gonzales and Mukasey kinda failed there. Gonzales was actually a complete fucking asshole. And he gets no points off for being unusually non-white.

We've heard rumors that our new AG-elect doesn't like the Patriot Act. That would be a good place to START.

Salon tonight on Skype 9 Eastern

Blue Gal Salon 11/17 hosted by blue.gal.

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Vlog 11/17

Links: David Stephenson on ICE (In Case of Emergency) cell phone programming (h/t Organic George)

Living Will information by state is here.

CareNotes are not churchy. You might check with local denominations to see if they carry these for free.

The Hello Kitty picture is there ironically. Trust me.

They're STILL selling conservatism (VIDEO)

It amazes me that, watching the Sunday shows, the rationale for the failure of conservatism is, we have to sell more of it. That is all.

Update. Crap I left out Hannity.

If you're a feminist, you must have a voice. (huh?)

I had a lot of visitors here last week from the terrific blog "I blame the patriarchy." Twisty Faster is a past Don't Sugarcoat It Award winner and she's blogrolled here, too. But many of her visitors were lurkers, and none of the few who felt bold enough to comment left a link to any "blog of their own" or contact info. I didn't like getting sniped at by anonymous feminists, and turning off anonymous comments is not an option, because some non-bloggers use that option and then sign their comments and also email me off list. (Thanks, OG.) Eventually I turned off comments at the posts in question, because it just depressed me to see women who clearly had something to say, deny themselves the right to own it or actually engage in a dialogue with me. I'm right here, sisters.

I feel really bad about the whole deal, because if a feminist can't feel safe to criticize, vent, suggest, or applaud with their own hands, EVEN at a four-year-old blog written by a woman who has, in contrast, gone quite public, that there's some serious fear. Don't get me started about why don't these women have their own blogs. It's such a male-dominated blogosphere and yet, don't we have modems, too? If they were just being polite by not criticizing me at my own home, why not post a link to my blog and say "what gives with BG?" That's what the commenter at Twisty's did, but then commenter hasn't updated her own blog in over six months. Don't get me started.

If we want to LIVE as equals, we'd better start sometime, and that means eradicating the fear that keeps us hidden and silent. If the fear is defensive, we must nurture its victim. If the fear is just unwarranted anger in disguise, or worse, laziness or avoidance of responsibility, we must confront it.

h/t Tyrant of the Seven Seas, who was kind enough to ask the question, and not in a Neil Cavuto way.

UPDATE: Here are articles on male predominance in the political blogworld, both in terms of audience and writers.

Dante needs to come backand invent a new circle of Hell...

...for whoever woke up one morning and decided a

rhinestoned
Hello Kitty
Pez dispenser

was a good idea. Limited edition? Fuck me.

H/t Graphic Firing Table, who has a picture. eww.

Saturday Song

...ah for the glory days when you could go to a nightclub and watch dancing girls with fishnets and fake machine guns:

Through the GOP Looking Glass (VIDEO)

I have to admit, the long hard work on this one paid off. I'll run it this weekend at the big blog, if you have feedback, I'd love to hear it. It's not too late to spend another five and a half hours on it.

Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?

Given that my primary objection to Hillary Clinton as President and Vice-President was her foreign policy, I think you probably know how I feel about her being Secretary of State.

If, as a couple trusted emailers have suggested to me directly, someone in her staff is floating a trial balloon...

...well, I thought Terry MacAuliffe shoulda been ashamed of himself long ago.

That "No Time for Blogging Today" MemeDoesn't Actually Work Here.

I had what the Oprah-ites call an "Ah-Ha Moment" last night. Usually, I attribute new insights to God/Spirit/my higher power. This was different in that the insight came so clearly from observing the material stuff I was doing, rather than what I was thinking.

I am reading a really fun wonderful novel right now. Turn of the Century by Kurt Andersen. You might know him from his public radio show, Studio 360. Bloggers old enough to know also loved his work on the old pre-blog non-blog but would-have-been-a-blog Spy Magazine.

Anyway, last night I set a goal of sitting down to read, kids in bed and no one to bother me, by 9 pm. Mothers will recognize that it was a completely unreasonable goal, but I knew that the goal would push me to at least get some reading done.

At 9:45 I realized I was not reading, not relaxing, and was instead, wait for it... CLEANING MY HOUSE.

I learned then why I blog so much. Because I think of publishing to blogs as necessary work, rather than leisure, I allow myself to blog no matter how clean my house is or where I am with my so-called chores.

Reading and knitting? Not so much.

Earlier last night I cleared off my sewing desk so that Junior Dude and I could work on his homework on the main floor of the house. (My broken ankle is healing enough so I'm "doing" stairs now but not quickly.) So now I have one clean desk in my studio.

I can do something other than blog over there. And I can follow rule number one of my "Affirmations for the Serious Knitter": "No housework until I have knit for 15 minutes."

That said, I doubt the late William F. Buckley ever got any real knitting done.

A poem for today

The youngest is Matisse in old age:
When he lost his sight, he stopped painting, and cut paper
Over and over into bright collages.
Who knows what he could have made
With purple glue stick.

Middle child dreams in color
And though only six, knows negative space
Like her peers know princess couture.
Painting via mousepad, she stares at what she’s making
And I sigh that she’s happier at her work than at playing.

The oldest, a boy, needs another action figure.
He lies on the floor and makes Star Wars Seventeen.
Until I can get him just the right plastic figurine
A plastic spoon will stand in for a droid,
the beaters from my mixers will be ships.
The mommies of Spielberg (and yes, David Lynch), you know what I’m talking about.

Their father hated all the mess,
Which is why he now lives somewhere else.





.

OH NO, not more sluts to shame!

I'm illustrating this post with a picture of Madonna holding a very large fish. It works for me. It's my very favorite fish ever, and I've lovingly named it "Slut." Shame on you, Slut, for appearing on the stage with Madonna.

Here's the deal. I can't, just can't, become the blogosphere's token slut shamer. That would be wrong. Also, apparently I'm not even very good at it, and my jokes on the subject fall flat.

The National Enquirer should be ashamed that they just slut shamed Cindy McCain.

And will do it again as soon as they can with Sarah Palin.

Because they're women, and I'm a feminist, I must report that everything they do with their sexuality is above reproach, no matter:

1. what public stands they make,
2. and how much of a pair of fucking hypocrites their behavior makes them,
3. because their Party attempts every fucking day with POLICIES THESE WOMEN HAVE ENDORSED to get inside America's bedroom and tell the rest of us how to behave.

And if they ever hang their tits out in the street with forethought, I'm especially not supposed to giggle.

Got that? And by the way,

it's not funny.

Blue Gal's new imaginary boyfriend

Step aside, Stephen Colbert. Hugh Laurie as Doctor House is my new imaginary boyfriend.

Oh, I know. He's anti-social and slightly curmudgeonly and oh so brilliant.

Just. My. Type. It's Nurse Chapel syndrome. Totally. My love and good humor can save this one. And what's perfect is, then I can turn off the tee vee and go knit.

I love that I can watch episodes of House online anytime I want for free, too. Now I don't need YouPorn any more!

Interpreting the Body Language...

I see two people who are trying desperately not to fall out of their chairs, and failing. (photo from Sparkle Pony)

Love Sandwich!!!!

Love Sandwich with Dr. Zaius and Tengrain. They are both too much.

Well, I really didn't want to go here, but....

An anonymous commenter at the post below has accused me of something called "slut-shaming."

OMG have I been outed a shamed slut? Dang, now you know all my kinky proclivities.

Making fun of a woman who exposes her breasts at her own wedding is not sexism. Please, we have come so far, let us NOT go back to the awful days when the word feminist was defined for us as “dour, humorless, anti-sex concern troll.”

If you are who I suspect you are, Anonymous, I must tell you: there are women who would LOVE to be "terrorized" by "nine massive inches" of manhood, and men who would LOVE a woman to try to knock them unconsious by smacking them in the face with an extra large titty.

I don't have any phone numbers for you, though. Google it your own self.

A final note: I learned very early on not to get into any debates with anyone about "what turns you on is actually anti- women/God/America." If you think the panties shown above promote violence against women, there is no help for you. But I think commenting on a blog using as your homebase, a url that hasn't been updated since last May, should be illegal.

Aw shoot, do I have to set up a "this is not a sex blog, really" label for my url now?

"Not to be presumptuous..."

Salon tonight on Skype 9 Eastern

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Okay, let me get this, um, "straight."

If you're coming here from Twisty's comment section, please read this post, too. Thanks.

Prop 8 and Prop 2 pass, denying rights to lots of people, not just gay people.

But the two people below are allowed to get married, in a church, by a member of the clergy, and she gets to wear white, too. Because, um, America is a Christian country.



Remember, God made those boobs. And I'm not talking mammaries, neither.

photo from the hilarious Tackyweddings.com, who points out just how much the bride must have hated her dad. Worthy of Hotchicks, my friends.

Pffft.

There's this f2f group I helped to create many many years ago. They attempted to start an online presence with a group blog but it really didn't work out. The organizer of the blog emailed all of us today to say he was thinking of canning the blog due to lack of participation from the otherwise lively and engaging group members.

I pointed out that group blogs don't usually spring from existing groups. They spring from existing bloggers. And that we should give the group blog a decent burial and move on. I trust the right online palette will appear. [That goes double for you, Darkblack. Find a group blog where you can have freedom in both content and scheduling. I have spoken.]

Then we got this response from one of the group:

...bloggers & bloggees, who never existed before the internet age, are mostly comprised of individuals who have empty lives and a lot of time on their hands, which makes them all the more frustrated!

I wouldn't post that trollish comment except probably this person won't be here to read it.

Whether he was joking or not, I laughed and laughed. 'Cause missing out on blogging, he's missing these, too, in more ways than one:

A Wonderful Weekend with PROOF.

FranIam has photographic evidence. That's all I'm sayin'.

And I know in that one photo I look like I'm being attacked by a blob made out of twenty dollar bills. I just got drafted to be cashier for the dutch treat dinner for twenty or so.

Everything Tengrain says should be taken with a shaker o' salt. I love him.

BAC is the best friend any blogger could have. And thanks to Head Honcho Barry Lynn (yeah we'll be pimping your blog and radio show) and the entire staff of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. To say you rock is such an understatement.

I loved everything about the weekend, except those stupid pod coffee makers in the hotel room. I hate those so much I'm writing to the hotel.

I'll be updating this post as others check in.

(Happy Birthday to my sister, HL. xoxo )

And sorry no video blog today I'm wiped. In addition to two flights in two days on crutches I also worked all weekend on the Obama "getting better" thing.

Salon tonight for sure.

Badges for your blog, as shown above, are available here.

Update: DCup has more photos, including this money shot:


DCup, Zaius, me, Tengrain, and FranIam. Love Sandwich!!! And doesn't the dude in the back look like that Inside the Actor's Studio guy?

OY here's the youtube!

The previous post just didn't work.



inspired by The Hopeful Hearts Club.

Rough cut not at youtube yet, feedback appreciated.

by Blue Gal

I hear it's a blue carpet this year...

"Blue Gal, I should nominate you for a Weblog award. What's your Technorati Authority number?"

"What?"

"You know. Authority."

"Oh, you mean that number Technorati pulls out of its ass and assigns you based on some linkage algorithm known only to seven system administrators in Stuttgart?"



"Great, so I'll nominate you for "Best Small Minor Blog (Authority between 101 and 200)"

"'Small' and 'Minor' are redundant. So is the award."

"Yeah, but if you don't run there's this wordpress blog***, "Jew Against Obama" that just nominated himself."

"You mean, if I'm nominated, I might have a chance to run against Lieberman?"

"Seems like it."

"I'm in."

***Linky for Jew against Obama? As if.

Landed in DC

And because I not only have a metal boot around my leg, I also have a metal plate in my ankle, I got the full wanding/pat down security screening. And as I thought to myself "wow this is happening to me" I also thought, what are the breaches in this security system?

And that's when I realized that even in a heightened security environment, cavity searches are rare....

so to really disrupt the airline travel industry, all you need is a death wish and one of these babies:

A late Saturday Song

If I was giving away prizes for creative advertising.

In the print category, the "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It" campaign for Canadian Club Whiskey (click image for larger, h/t Accordion Guy):



And in the television spot (non political) category, this one I saw today would be a finalist:



If you've got a favorite ad of the year, post it in comments and thanks.

Spending the weekend in Washington, DC

It's not what you think and sure, I'd rather be in Chicago where the decisions are being made.

Of course, if the President-Elect were using "Palin Rules" to select his cabinet, I would be Secretary of Commerce because I've shopped. But then again, never at Neiman's.

Speaking of Palin, can you imagine the potential photoshops that will come from the 2009 Sarah Palin Calendar? This blog just won't go there, you betcha.

Anyhow, for real: I'm going to meetings arranged by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. I was honored with their first ever "Postie" award last year, and it's a delight to go to meeting (ha) with them again. It's a better, happier time politically for all of us.

Posting here will continue anon...

If you listen to one Republican today, make it this one.

nataliedee.com

Former GOP Congressman Mickey Edwards was apparently on NPR's Fresh Air yesterday to pimp his new book, Reclaiming Conservatism.

In the first few minutes of the interview he confesses that he voted for Obama. Listen here.

I don't doubt a bit that he is sincere in his desire to rebuild the Republican brand, and I applaud anyone, actually, who wants to bring the GOP back to the Reality-Based Community. It would feel really good to debate issues with a political party that wasn't thinking they could create their own reality.

There was a time when conservatives were, in my opinion, wrong about everything, but you could interpret facts differently from them and be right without necessarily dismissing them as insane. I really hope we can get back to that kind of honest debate. It was intoxicating.

Of course, we have to get past the time when those who are not, and will never be, in the RBC, eat each other alive. (see here, here, and, if you care for a right wing link (remember, I didn't make you click it, but it's a Glenn Beck-endorsed doozy, here).

I may never stop laughing.

Parsing the President-Elect's Latest Email

Dear Mister President Elect:

I'm so glad you'll "be in touch about what comes next." (1) I was terribly afraid that David Plouffe, in a fit of rare and wonderful glee, might delete all the databases.

I have a small request. Please, please, (2) stop signing your emails "Barack" right this minute. Maybe that "first name basis" crapo tests well with the 19-24 crowd, but I'm, ahem, your age, and you are now the defacto leader of the free world. And contrary to rumor, I don't know you personally.

(3) You made me laugh.

Love,

Blue Gal

PS. Okay maybe I'll paypal you some happy pills for Plouffe if you let me write the next email:

Dear Citizen! *** Join me in service to the revolution! We have found the "table" and will soon have the tools with which to eject the spying, torturing enemies of our Glorious Constitution! It is the duty of the President and the Democratic Party to serve the people. Without the people's interests constantly at heart, their work is useless. [link]


***If you wish, you may add "Death to the West" here, but it's optional.

So true...

from Post Secret via The Rotund.

I'll clean up my sidebar later...

I made this for Crooks but wanted to share with my readers, too. Because none of you read Crooks and Liars. Right.

To Do List For The Day After

Go through my sidebar and remove any reference to George W. Bush.

Clean out the blogroll for truly discontinued blogs. This isn't some blogroll amnesty BS, if you've posted anything in the past six weeks you're there. But you bloggers who kept the faith through yesterday deserve more real estate.

Remember that there are 19 Republicans up for reelection in 2010 and if any of them participate in filibusters in the next two years we're gonna get'em. Big time.

But for now we rest a little. Knit a little. And give thanks.

No liveblogging here.

I'm completely wiped out. And it's seven Central Time. Ha.

Here's my 4yo's ballot from pre school. She's definitely an Obama person.



NPR calling 9 states for Obama, including my high school home of Pennsylvania, which delights me.

Off to watch the returns and change my sheets. For some reason I want to wake up in a nice clean bed tomorrow morning.

"Look, she has gone home."

And with those five words about his departed grandmother, Obama defines himself as undeniably Christian. (Even James Dobson can't contradict Obama right then).

And with those five words, Obama came "home" himself.

That sentence was, in the final hour, the most transformative of the entire campaign. No one can doubt Obama's ingrained faith after watching that.

The manner and cadence of the statement was entirely out of the black church tradition, too. He gets an amen from everybody on that.

That stupid Rev. Wright ad aired a gobzillion times a night this past weekend, will not be remembered tomorrow morning. The tears and prayer of a faithful grandson will be.

Done.

And I got a flu shot, too. Not at the polling place.

Today is my fourth blogiversary. My first post (oh please don't go read it-- the first year of my blog sucked) asked if starting a blog on election day was auspicious, and I said I wouldn't use the blog for political grandstanding.

I really just created a blog to give me discipline to write more regularly. That worked out pretty well. Ixnay on the political andstandinggray? Not so much.

Reminder: November is Nablopomo, you're supposed to be posting every day this month, and it's not too late to start, Fafblog.

Dear Oil Companies:

Faaahk You.

According to the Energy Department's weekly survey of filling stations, the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline dropped 25.6 cents nationally to $2.40 over the past week, the lowest since gasoline sold for $2.37 a gallon Nov. 6, 2006.

Notice anything about that 2006 date?

No one in the media or the industry better open their pieholes and tell me it's a coincidence that the lowest gas prices for two election years running is the week of the election. Don't tell me Exxon-Mobil doesn't have a rule about that. I won't believe you and I don't care to.

Panties image above from my post on the same damn subject from late September, 2006. Having a four year old blog means loving the archive feature.

Don't sugarcoat it, David.

Okay, I think I kind of see where they're going with this "Chocolate Soup" show...



h/t Heather.

So they WAIT until the Republicans are almost out of power?

AND NOW you can send an emoticon of a fly-infested pile of poop on Gmail?

Here's proof:



I'm a sucker for technology. And they didn't pay me to post about this, the dicks.

Salon tonight on Skype 9 Eastern

Blue Gal Salon 11/3 GOBAMA! hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Vlog 11/3

Less than three minutes, because who has time in all the excitement?

[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

Wednesday morning

Not to jump the gun, but when we wake up Wednesday morning, things are going to be different for us liberal bloggers.

Waking up in a nation where you like the President. Kind of a high.

And yet it will be very different. It was so very easy to hate George W. Bush. We could, and did, use the biggest brush in the world to attack him.

Enjoy that little "If he were my bush, I'd shave him off" flash on my sidebar, ma hunnies. Its days are numbered.

I hate to say this before the party begins, but our support of Obama is going to require a fine detailed brush. I'm glad we have time to figure out what this "relationship" is going to look like.

As happy as I will be to watch Obama win this election, this blog will not become a house organ for the Obama White House.

I will support and fight for what I think is right. There will be lots of opportunity to go to bat for the policies of our new President. (One hundred times: I don't take the results of this election for granted.) That said, if President Obama pursues further crapo like telecom immunity or dragging his feet on closing Gitmo, I won't hide my disgust, and I will fight him.

We're so much better off waking up to a President Obama. I look forward to the work ahead.

A personal note: I almost always forget my blogiversary. I'll have been blogging for four years this Tuesday. It's been the most amazing four years in my life. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Saturday Song

"A refrigerator-size tank thrown from the space station in July 2007 will fall on Earth on Sunday, the U.S. space agency NASA said Friday." [link].



Loving me some Devo:

Space Junk

she was walking all alone
down the street in the alley
her name was sally
i never touched her
she never saw it
when she was hit by
space junk
in new york miami beach
heavy metal fell in cuba
angola saudi arabia
on xmas eve said norad
a soviet sputnik hit africa
india venezuela (in texas
kansas)
it's falling fast peru too
it keeps coming
and now i'm mad about space junk
i'm all burned out about space junk
oooh walk & talk about space junk
it smashed my baby's head
and now my sally's dead