the girly who shall end all girls

Westboro Baptist came to the University of Chicago. and the folks there just laughed at them.

i don't have friends in the right places, but maybe you do. please pass this info on to friends and family you may have in the state of Washington in the targeted districts. (map of Washington state legislative districts) what matters is a constituent making a contact that is not a form contact.

expanding Washington's domestic partnership law may not be a cakewalk this time.

via slog

The Faith and Freedom Network, a group "committed to preserving traditional Judeo-Christian values," is using its blog to wage a war on the domestic partnership bill. The Family Policy Institute of Washington is also crusading against the measure.
..snip...
The Faith and Freedom Network blog goes on to list the following phone numbers:

'They need to hear from you.

Dale Brandland, district 42 — 360-786-7682
Curtis King, district 14 — 360-786-7626
Cheryl Pfluge, district 5 — 360-786-1999

Secondly, these Democrats will be up for election next year. Ones with an asterisk (*) by their names have one or more Republican seat mates.

Claudia Kaufman, district 47 — 360-786-7692
Steve Hobbs, district 44 — 360-786-7686
*Chris Marr, district 6 — 360-7867610
Eric Oemig, district 45 — 360-786-7672
Rodney Tom, district 48 — 360-786-7694
*Derek Kilmer, district 26 — 360-786-7650
*Tracey Eide, district 30 — 360-786-7658

The following two senators are not up for reelection next year, but have Republican seat mates.

Jim Kastama, district 25 — 360-786-7648
Mary Margaret Haugen, district 10 — 360-786-7618'

You heard what they said: "They need to hear from you."

McCain's concession speech is very well done. classy, heartfelt, shut down the nasties in the crowd. whew.

edited to add: transcript

i have read several pieces that order me, as a woman with feminist values, to speak out against sexist or misogynist language used against Sarah Palin.

i disagree. i have held my tongue because i felt that friendship and civility were more valuable than engaging in a likely endless argument. but i'm really done here.

the language that has been used about her is remarkably similar to the language used about Dan Quayle, and i see no reason to treat her as anything other than a public figure, someone who happens to be under-informed and inexperienced, inept under pressure, and who holds policy positions that i consider to be odious.

i believe that she is anti-feminist. i will not offer her any support or protection because of mere biology. i certainly will not offer support or protection because of my feminist ideology.

“As a cold political calculation, I could not be more pleased,” McCain said, calling Palin “a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America” and asserting “she’s the best thing that could have happened to my campaign and to America.”

still hurt about Hillary? Palin is not going to kiss it better.

any woman who believes that electing McCain-Palin is in their best interest, or even a "lesser evil" than Obama-Biden is a fool.

maybe saying this is an unfriending offense. that's unfortunate.

i grew up being told that Republicans were the party of Lincoln, the creators of the national park system, admirable advocates of small government, free markets, and individual responsibility. my brother was a volunteer for the county party org during my childhood, one of those people you see in a booth at the fair.

that was over by the time i was old enough to vote. the culture war was on. my brothers and i now consider ourselves independents, while my sister is a firm Democrat.

i think my father is still one of the faithful. due to the state of his health, it's something i just don't talk about with him anymore. i wish i could.

Christopher Buckley* nails it in two:

Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama

I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.


*for the young and the furriners - Buckley's dad was of a disappearing breed - the conservative intellectual.

only in America would someone complain in the same paragraph about the Constitution being shit upon while refusing to exercise the most important right we have as citizens.

any citizen who refuses to vote as a "conscientious objector" to the current electoral system, or because the available candidates are not just so, is engaging in an activity that has the exact same results as failing to vote out of apathy or disinterest. if you believe that the system is that broken and you actually care, then you need to be out in the world working to change it - not using your energy trying to convince people that your inaction is virtuous.

every citizen has the right to exercise or not exercise their franchise. they also have the right to free speech, and can complain as much as they like. they need to understand that anything a willful nonvoter has to say about elected officials has no weight with me.

when it comes down to it, i think more of extremists than nonvoters. even if i disagree with them, they are making an effort to be represented by their government.

as much as i take pleasure in the idea of a real-life Desperate Housewives going on in Alaska, it's too good to be true and so is the banned books list floating around.

but the true stuff is still delicious:

http://www.factcheck.org/
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ (i love the Pants On Fire page)

community organizer icons.

EDITED TO ADD: more.

as i said in this thread, the rumor that Governor Sarah Palin is really the grandmother of her youngest child seemed delicious but very far-fetched.

yet it's starting to hang together.

oh, and Biden's son and brother may be trouble (via hottipper sinthrex)

i need some popcorn.

"Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance."

- from a questionnaire Sarah Palin answered while running for governor.

the pledge was written in 1892. unless the zombie founding fathers wrote it, and then rose again in the 1950s to campaign for the addition of "under God" because they forgot it the first time, they had nothing to do with it.

she also believes in abstinence education instead of actual sex ed classes, and she supports teaching of intelligent design. what an intellectual powerhouse.