Texas Sunset

From Ruth at Cabdrollery, on the waning of Texas power in DC:

Schadenfreude Again :

"...For any of you who may have forgotten, an established practice of redistricting after census was ridden over by ambitious Republican party members who had visions of a permanent majority. They powered the mess through, and pitted Democrats in office against right wing electorates in the 2004 election. For a time, that gave them a majority, but it resulted to my glee in the election of a Democrat to replace Tom DeLay when his misdeeds got so out of hand his party wouldn't stand for him any longer. Redistricting had gone forward in his district on the assumption that he would hold on forever, and a large segment of mixed income, mixed race voters were put into that area. They voted in Democrat .... So much for that power grab."

Schadenfreude, indeed. I remember watching the horror of the Texas redistricting fight as DeLay and his Thugs used Homeland Security and the Texas Rangers to hunt down the elected Dems who fled the Legislature rather than be counted for a blatantly undemocratic vote.

Over at Eschaton

Over at Eschaton, comrade nona noted:

TOKYO, Nov. 19 -- Bureaucrats here have infuriated the Japanese public by losing millions of government pension records. This week someone with a knife and a willingness to kill appears to be trying to hunt some of those bureaucrats down.

Riddled with stab wounds, the bodies of Takehiko Yamaguchi, 66, and his wife Michiko, 61, were found Tuesday morning in their home in a suburb of Tokyo. Takehiko Yamaguchi was head of the Health Ministry's pension division when the national pension system underwent a major record-keeping overhaul in 1985.

On Tuesday evening, Yasuko Yoshihara, 72, wife of former pension bureaucrat Kenji Yoshihara, 76, was stabbed in the chest by a man who came to her home in Tokyo claiming that he worked for parcel delivery service, police said.

Dissento responded:

Don't fuck with a ninja's pension.
Even I know that.

Words to live by.
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RICO, baby, RICO...

Meanwhile, over at FDL (and Big Orange Satan)...

Catholic Church Worked with Mormons for 11 Years to Stop Marriage Equality:
The media in Salt Lake City have discovered the documents revealed prior to Election Day that show a long-time collaboration between the Mormons and the Catholics to destroy what they call "Homosexual Legal Marriage."

Sounds like a conspiracy to me. RICO - that's all I'm saying. RICO, baby, RICO.
~

Crushes: Rose McGowan in Glasses

From The Bastardly - Rose McGowan in Glasses. ZOMG - she needs to do a movie wearing these. If she wore these on Charmed, the show would still be on.

There's nothing about this picture that I don't love, love, love. There's a dozen of these shots at the link.

I Drove All Night

I've believed that this song was a Roy Orbison song that Cyndi Lauper covered, awesomely. I was surprised to read that Cyndi was the first to release "I Drove All Night"! Orbison never released his version until 1992!

Wikipedia:

"I Drove All Night" is a song written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly for Roy Orbison. Orbison first recorded the song in 1987, but his rendition was not released until 1992, after the song had become a top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic for Cyndi Lauper in 1989.
. . . .
Notable in her catalogue for the striking use of a lower vocal register, it has become one of Lauper's most performed and well-known tracks, succeeding to endure as a genuine 1980s classic, despite a few high-profile covers being released by other artists. Lauper still performs the tune during most of her concert tours.

Music video
The music video for "I Drove All Night," directed by Scott Kalvert and Cyndi Lauper features shots of an antique car and Lauper's characteristically manic dancing. Much of the video, however, has movie film projected onto Lauper's clearly naked body. The video caused some controversy in the United States, because of its sexual situations and nudity.

Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night

Reading list

"Irrelevant"

"Thanks for the memories, but you were all completely "Irrelevant" during the historic victory that Barack Obama achieved during 2008 Presidential election. All your smears failed to change the course of history..."

Why Lieberman REALLY Wants The HSGA Gavel

And yet, now Lieberman acts as if keeping this chairmanship is the single most important part of his public life. Why would he be so desperate to keep the gavel of a committee he hasn't used? I'll let you in on a secret: he wants to start using the power of this committee against Obama.

And THIS just pisses me the fuck off:

50 State Strategy Being Killed by Letting the Organizers Go

It is worth noting, however, that the 50 state strategy's biggest opponent, for years has been Rahm Emanuel. Rahm's new job? Chief of Staff. Wonder if Obama's ok with this?

I think that he's just fine with it, actually - he'll certainly never mention it. I'm learning to live with disappointment.

Keeper

euphronius original. coined 11/5/08 at the 7th and market DD.

euphronius :

"I like my coffee black. Like my presidents."

That's a keeper.

The New Economy

If anyone wants a bid on HTML coding, or any graphics work, or page design, do drop me a line.

Just keeping the wolf from the door.
~

Troll Crushing

From the comments section at another site:

Troll: "Marriage is defined as the union of a man and a woman, check it in the dictionary. "

WRONG:

Definitions of Marriage on the Web:

* the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce); "a long and happy marriage"; "God bless this union"
* two people who are married to each other; "his second marriage was happier than the first"; "a married couple without love"
* the act of marrying; the nuptial ceremony; "their marriage was conducted in the chapel"
* a close and intimate union; "the marriage of music and dance"; "a marriage of ideas"

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* Marriage or wedlock is an interpersonal relationship (usually intimate and sexual) with governmental, social, or religious recognition. It is often created by a contract or through civil processes. Civil marriage is the legal concept of marriage as a governmental institution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage

Troll crushing - It's easy, and it's fun!
~

A Strange Alchemy

A comment from ProfWombat at Eschaton this morning:

Something happened to Obama, and to a lot of us as we watched. I'm old enough to recall well what happened with Robert F. Kennedy, McCarthyite lawyer and union buster, carpetbagger, opportunist, who, for reasons still unclear to me, grew into as decent, courageous and significant a politician as I've seen in this country.

Obama's become more than he has a right to have become, not because of his merits alone, which, while considerable, don't elevate him to Olympian heights. There's a strange alchemy afoot, in which a good part of the country has been given an opportunity to reject despair, to hope that even incremental progress can be made against the thousand unnatural shocks that we've been heir to, that American democracy need not be pronounced as dead as the Weimar Republic, nor American industry as dead as Digital Equipment, Polaroid and the Edsel, nor America's role in the world that of a destroyer rather than a builder, that of a champion of humanity rather than a militaristic bully. That's a lot, but it isn't just on Obama's shoulders; we'll all carry it, and maybe, just maybe, move forward with it, into a future that's somewhere between millennial and Mad Max, where human lives mean something and there's pleasure to be had in the satisfaction of public appetites for good, as well as private indulgences cloistered in gated communities.

So I'm going to vote today. I'm taking my kids with me. I'll tell them I'm voting for them. And for the Muslims, the women, the prisoners, the scientists, the teachers, the nurses, the human rights lawyers, the polar bears; for all those who say, 'How can I help?' instead of 'What's in it for me?', for all those who make of being human something approaching the magical. And for myself, for all my fallen brothers and sisters, for a half century's worth of hopes and fears, for possibility rather than cynicism, for a chance, just a chance.

For Barack Obama, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have made it possible for me to vote for him today, thinking he might be president of the United States.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

-- ProfWombat

Meander - I can barely see through the tears, posting this.

Thank you, Mrs. Dunham

Obama's grandmother dies of cancer in Hawaii

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's grandmother died of cancer, he said in a statement on Monday, a little more than a week after Obama interrupted the White House race to say goodbye to her in Hawaii.

Thank you, Mrs. Dunham.

Great God, you and yours traveled the long hard road, but look, just look at where you brought us with your courage and your faith.

Rest well.

Righteous

From PowerPop.

I can't help but feeling that Obama is thinking, "My daughter got to meet Bruce Springsteen tonight! How cool is that!" A dad can be no more righteous.

Added 11/05/2008: Except, of course, when he gets his girls a puppy because he just won the White House.

An Apology

My Apologies to all of those who asked me to vet documents for them and asked me, "Is This Racist"?

That answer was consistently "Yeah, probably", but I was not able to answer directly, due to lack of time and will and energy.

One of the amazing things about Obama and his campaign was his willingness to stand alone every step of the way. Not do it all alone, of course - he's needed every single person who has contributed, called, walked and ACTED in every single way.

But in the end, it's just HIM standing there, and he has stood there in the face of a storm that would have broken most of us, and in fact, it actually has broken many of us.

I look at the examples of right-wing rancor that you have sent me and I tried to answer them and answer you and I found myself without the strength or the will to answer myself.

I do not consider myself in any way the Black Male Voice - I've been on the outside my entire life, viewed with suspicion and fear from every tribe. I've never been able to bring consensus to any one ever. I don't think that I can start anytime soon, either - I do not seem to be a very nice person.

I can offer you all this however - the rise of right-wing radio has very nearly destroyed this country. Remember Hotel Rwanda? If the right cannot see past their own prejudices, history will move them aside and they are very lucky that we do it peacefully here in this country.

Vote tomorrow, if you haven't already voted, and party tomorrow, like you've never partied.
~