Tim Russert, R.I.P.

Carpe diem, kids.

Although I really think Russert was part of the Iraq war hype machine, I hope I'm not famous when I die, because it's kind of icky watching MSNBC right now with all his colleagues exclaiming how they didn't know he had a health problem.

Well, now everybody knows he had a health problem, and I'm sure that's just what he would have wanted.

But part of me is still touched seeing all the stoic newspeople choking back tears.

So yeah, carpe the diem.

Ummm, no.

So a friend of mine told me that the latest winner of America's Next Top Model was plus-sized, and I thought, cool! That's awesome!

Well, it would be awesome, if she were actually plus-sized.



I mean, don't get me wrong, she's a very beautiful woman, and I'm sure she's very talented and charismatic. (Really, honestly not being sarcastic.) But she's a size 10! That is not plus-size! That's just not really skinny! (Which, I guess, is a step.) Seriously, folks plus-sized doesn't really start until size 12 or 14 depending on the clothing brand/designer.

Unless you're paying the extra ten bucks for the same outfit, it's not plus sized!

Gaze, Internets, at what a plus-sized woman is actually shaped like!



Also, gaze at the dirtiness of my bathroom mirror and my inability to set the white balance on my digital camera!

Now, I certainly lack the talent to be a model, I'm not photogenic and I don't have the acting ability or the physical stamina. But come on, people. There is an entire industry full of plus-sized models that would probably be happy to win reality shows, too.

And besides, Project Runway is still more interesting.

Please

Send some internet love to my blog friend Goody MacGruder, whose house was destroyed by a tornado. I'm thinking of you Goody!

Lol

The PBS N Political team talking about Obama's keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004:



Found while idly browsing YouTube because Abbie's at Grandpa's and I have nothing to do.

Dennis Kucinich files articles of impeachment against President Bush.

Read all 35 articles at Zuky.

Huh. I'm a little amazed I didn't see this on the news at all in the past few days.

Well, not really amazed. But still.

Quirky Meme

I was tagged by Daisy with a quirky meme!

Which is great, because I probably have a lot of quirks.

Six quirky things about me:

1) I have a thing with tape. Clear plastic scotch tape. I'm addicted to it, somehow. At my job, in my cubicle there's a dispenser and I have to guess I go through a roll a week. I'm constantly tearing off pieces, absentmindedly wrapping my fingers with it, shredding it into strips, rolling it up into little balls, and making a huge waste. It's a serious problem.

2) I hate the sound of blown raspberries. You know, that farty noise that children make. Bi-labial fricatives. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me for some reason.

3) Every male I've ever had a romantic involvement in has known all the words to "The Humpty Dance" by the Digital Underground. From the guy I first kissed when I was twelve on. Yes, even Brian. Especially Brian.



4) I love the movie The Legend of Billie Jean, and I'm not sorry. Fair is fair!



5) I love smartees. You know, the Halloween candy that comes in little, pastel-colored rolls? My favorite part of Halloween. I lovingly savor each one, knowing that by mid-November they're going to be all gone and I will spend the entire year craving them again.

6) I only dress in black. I am the lady Johnny Cash. This dates back before the punk thing, before the goth thing, back to middle school. I only wear black. I'm in mourning or something, I guess.


~*~

Lessee, who do I tag...Jack and Lilo and Belle.

Dear 90 percent of the people I'm related to,

And a good deal of my friends, too.



If I could afford to pay Mary J. Blige to deliver singing telegrams, this would be happening on your lawn right now. No more drama!

And there goes George III again

Pointing and laughing at our dumb asses.

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Memo to disappointed women supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton: Republican John McCain wants your vote.

McCain, the senator from Arizona who has wrapped up his party's White House nomination, moved on Wednesday to woo women and other Clinton backers whose disappointment over her defeat by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama could cause them to switch teams.

..."I'm disappointed that Hillary didn't make it, being a female," said Brittany Ford, 19, a black student from Columbus, Ohio. She said she's now looking at McCain, adding simply: "I don't care for Obama."

I'll say it right now. Brittany Ford, 19, from Columbus Ohio is a total asshole. She is willing to risk my reproductive freedom and the freedom of my daughter out of spite for her practically the same, policy-wise candidate not winning.

Brittany Ford is willing to risk going back to this:

Almost any implement you can imagine had been and was used to start an abortion — darning needles, crochet hooks, cut-glass salt shakers, soda bottles, sometimes intact, sometimes with the top broken off.

Another method that I did not encounter, but heard about from colleagues in other hospitals, was a soap solution forced through the cervical canal with a syringe. This could cause almost immediate death if a bubble in the solution entered a blood vessel and was transported to the heart.

The worst case I saw, and one I hope no one else will ever have to face, was that of a nurse who was admitted with what looked like a partly delivered umbilical cord. Yet as soon as we examined her, we realized that what we thought was the cord was in fact part of her intestine, which had been hooked and torn by whatever implement had been used in the abortion. It took six hours of surgery to remove the infected uterus and ovaries and repair the part of the bowel that was still functional.

Brittany Ford is okay with women returning to a status of second-class citizens when President McCain's appointments to the Supreme Court (who would remain on the bench for decades) overturn Roe v. Wade. Out of spite for Obama, she is willing to create a situation where it might be my daughter some day lying on that table with her intestines hanging out of her.

To any Clinton supporter who is now considering a vote for McCain because they're mad at Obama: fuck you. Die in a fire. Etc, etc.

I certainly hope so.

Yes, we can?

The fast-paced developments unfolded as the long Democratic nominating struggle ended with primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

Only 31 delegates were at stake, the final few among the thousands that once drew Obama, Clinton and six other Democratic candidates into the campaign to replace President Bush and become the nation's 44th president.

Obama arranged an evening appearance in St. Paul, Minn., sending McCain an unmistakable message by claiming his victory in the very hall where the Arizonan will accept his party's nomination in early September.

Clinton was in New York for an appearance before home-state supporters. Officials said she would concede Obama had the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first female president.

Well, okay. **deep breath** Is it really all over? Can we can get down to defeating the other guys? (You do remember the other guys? The really bad ones who want to take away reproductive freedom and stay in a quagmire war for the next thousand years, just to pick two examples?)

Seems so. Let's get to it.

(Now, just don't fuck it up Mr. Obama.)

And just so everyone remembers how to be inspired again:

R.I.P.

Bo Diddley.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations.

"I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Yes. *Original snarky comment removed. But I'm sure you could guess what it was.*

Somewhere, George III is laughing at us.

So apparently the Michigan and Florida delegate issue is resolved? I can honestly see both sides of this issue. I mean, votes should be counted, but there are plenty of people who would have voted for Obama if they had been able to. It's all a huge stupid mess that I don't see any good reason for creating in the first place.

But this is my favorite part of this article.

Proponents of full seating continuously interrupted the committee members as they explained their support of the compromise, then supporters of the deal shouted back.

"Shut up!" one woman shouted at another.

"You shut up!" the second woman shouted back.

Democracy in America folks!

Krispy Kremes are better, anyway.

So by now everyone's heard of the completely inane objection to a Rachael Ray Dunkin' Donuts ad and a paisley fringed scarf it pictured. Well, in response to the bigotry and, well, sheer willfully uninformed stupidity of Michelle Malkin's readers, Dunkin' Donuts has pulled said ad.

As skippy says, two can play that game. I will be boycotting Dunkin' Donuts until said ad is restored. Skippy has the contact information if you'd like to send a pointed letter.

Also, I'm waiting for the right-wing bloggers to expose these other terrorist-sympathizing scarf-wearers:


Meghan McCain.


Sexee Pirates.


And James Goldstein, whoever that is.

Note: of all of these scarves look as much like a keffiyeh as Ray's paisley scarf. Heh, at least Sexee Pirate has it on his head, fer christ's sake. And that's not even mentioning that only a raging bigot (like, say, Michelle Malkin) would paint an entire group of cultural practices (like wearing a particular kind of scarf) as the the actions of terrorists. I mean, Hitler was a vegetarian, but I'll still eat tofu.

Absolutely Fucking Gobsmacked.

Presented with little comment, because what the fuck else is there to say.



I mean, is there hope for this country? Seriously, I'm asking.

Via George at skippy.

Ha! I knew it!

I always thought Scott McClellan had a look in his eye like the lies he was being forced to tell were making him die inside.

McClellan, whose job it was to promote the policies of his boss, calls the Iraq war in his soon-to-be released memoir a "serious strategic blunder" and "grave mistake" and chastises the president for his "decision to turn away from candor and honesty when these qualities were most needed."

Of all the Press Secretary blustering assholes, he was the one I kind of felt the most sorry for.

Beautiful People

Inspired by Natalia.


Djimon Hounsou


Ewan MacGregor


Isabella Rossellini


Miriam Makeba