Well, I missed the deadline to turn in my washcloth for charity. I feel like a real rapscallion, but work has to come first. (Cue Sad Trombone)
It actually turned out for the best, because while the cloth turned out fine to the average eye:
All I see is:
So I figured "What the heck?", turned it up to 11 on the Bad Person Amplifier and decided to test the quality of the washcloth on myself. And you know what? I freaking LOVED IT! The wave pattern, though positively riddled with errors is so soft and great for washing your face. The other side has these nice seedstitch nubs that exfoliate like a dream. Sorry children at a Haitian hospital, but I think I'm going to be using my cotton scraps to keep me in washcloths and soft skin. I promise to increase my giving to PSI and the Red Cross next year, ok? Friends?
It has often been said that the people of Iran are different from the hardline government that represents them. The events of the past few days have been heart wrenching and Americans should be paying attention to the struggles of people fighting for their right to be fairly represented. Andrew Sullivan's blog is a great resource for up-to-the minute news. You can also view recent tweets from people on the ground in Iran.
Take a few minutes to educate yourselves on the candidates for Tuesday's Special Election:
I respect your right to vote for whom you please, but you should know that I have some really strong objections to Pulido. While I am not shy about having a liberal point of view, I think it's imperative for this country to have a reasoned voice of dissent in government. It's always important for the majority to be called to task by the minority for purposes of accountability and transparency.
That being said, I don't think Pulido offers that to the Republican ticket. She beat candidates who may have actually brought something to the table during this race. Why? Because people were complacent and fell into the mantra that there's no way to defeat the machine in Chicago. By not taking part in the process, they allow this woman to represent the Republican ticket and further drain any paitence the public has with listening to those presently in the minority.
"I wish to report to Republicans in the 32nd Ward and in the 5th Congressional District that I do not endorse Rosanna Pulido. Since the primary election and more particularly over the last two weeks, I have become aware of extremely disturbing information relating to Ms. Pulido. That information can be summarized as follows:
Pulido has an established relationship with another political party, America's Independent Party.
Pulido has not dispelled concerns that she is running as a "Trojan Horse" candidate, one who exploits the name of the Republican Party to her personal advantage only to promote a non-Republican or anti-Republican, fringe agenda.
Pulido is on record as making groundless and reprehensible remarks, unworthy of a good citizen, disparaging the Cardinal of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, gays, Mexicans, African Americans, and others.
In the tradition of Islamic forgiveness, while I still believe in pardoning you for pronouncing some hateful remarks against Muslims, assuming it might have happened in a moment of rage and ignorance, the continuous revelations of plethora of your provocative statements, which were completely unknown to me until a few days ago, delineate a disturbing mindset.
Several community organizations that include Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Council of American-Islamic Relations, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, Priests for Justice for Immigrants, and other civic organizations and friends of mine, whose judgments I highly respect, have been referring to clippings of your quotes, published on blogs under the pseudonym of Chicagolady, demonstrate that while advocating your viewpoints you frequently transgressed the boundary of robust discussion and veered off to demonize and dehumanize the groups you wanted to oppose.
Considering this transgression, which is antithetical to one of the core values and attributes of a leader, I experience deep anguish in continuing my endorsement, which I extended to you earlier without the knowledge of the newly revealed testimonials of yours.
As such, I withdraw my endorsement for you for the Illinois’ 5th Congressional District seat and request you to remove the endorsement text and my picture off your website.
Take care, Moon Khan York Township Trustee Asian American Liaison of DuPage County Republican Party
Notice that they were decidedly light on the politics, but I am really glad to hear that there are some people in the Republican party who realize the importance of moderate voices. The fact that someone in office can't have this discussion in public is exactly what keeps the GOP from moving forward with the country.
Deep down in my progressive soul, I sort of enjoy watching the Republicans crash and burn. As an American, however, I would love to see them develop into an actual opposition party that can offer real ideas and bring something to the political table. Perhaps the people that are brought into the GOP by Meghan McCain will have a part in shaping that party.
"I'm happy to have participated in this process," said Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago). "Yeah, it's unprecedented, but future generations will know that we have this thing called impeachment, and whenever any of our leaders, who are human beings like us, overstep the boundaries, the process is in place," Meeks said. "We have this thing called impeachment and it's bleeping golden and we've used it the right way."
We had lunch as a staff today and were speaking a bit about school foods and what we used to eat when we were in grade school and college. When I think back to my lunch choices in one of the two cafeterias available at my high school, I almost always opted for the pizza, fries and popsicle combo - possibly some steamed broccoli doused in Velveeta as a side. I think I ate this pretty much every single school day for four years.
Mind boggling, really and no wonder that all caught up with me at this point in my life! The nonprofit I work for focuses on empowering women and children and as such, we advocate on issues that effect the lives of that constituency. The Healthy Schools campaign reminds us that the Child Nutrition Act is up for renewal in 2009 and is gathering signatures to ensure that the bill is re-authorized and given increased funding to ensure that children have the building blocks of health available to them in school. Consider adding your voice today:
I had to step back from blogging for a while - partly because I've been decompressing since the election and partly because the holidays swept me up in a tornado of family, responsibilities and friends. In my absence, some awesome friends have started writing their own blogs!
But it's time to get back to it. The day of relief has finally come after eight long, terrifying years for our country and frankly, the world. I have many a bitter Facebook friend that were very upset about the Inauguration yesterday and couldn't stop themselves from updating their status every five minutes as a reminder. Someone asked if we had been that bad when Bush was re-elected. I can tell you we certainly were - but the NewsFeed wasn't operational waaaaay back when and you didn't have to be confronted with every bitter thought in real time.
Such as it is, my conservative friends seemed to be complaining that the Liberal Media (tm) wasn't being critical enough of Obama. On inaguration day. Literally 5 hours into his presidency. Now, clearly I'm baised, but isn't that a bit of a rediculous expectation? Granted, W had one foot out the door these past few months, but are you really wanting an expose into hard hitting inaguration-day issues?! Expose on the marinade used at the Hometown Ball? Concerned editorializing about the trashed left after 2 million people left the Mall?
Let's be real. No one who was eleated about yesterday's events thinks Obama should have a free pass. I want to hold him accountable to ensure he is the president I voted for. But to ask for one day to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power and we're already bitching and moaning about... nothing in particular? Deal with it for one day.
Moving on before I get more high-falutent and self-righteous. Some thoughts from a G-chat conversation this morning:
What I learned from the transition and Inauguration festivities:
1) John Legend is super hot and smart.
Sing it to me, Johnny!
2) I really wish Whitney hadn't smoked so much crack because it should have been her singing "America" at the We are One concert
Oh, Whitney... I have to believe your comeback is just around the corner. Yes You Can, girl.
3) Vis-a-Vis Item #2 I HATE BOBBY BROWN FOR RUINING MY WHITNEY
CURSE YOU!
4) Joe Biden has a huge family.
5) I am super amazed at how Joe Biden was able to come back from tragedy to have a huge family. I wonder if he just has a strong ego or if is a sociopath (ok, that's mean - but it's how I think)
6) Old Man McGee needs to give the benediction at any major ceremony I attend BONUS SEGMENT: Fashion with Laura and M.S-S: M. S-S: did you like michelle's ball gown?
me: ... no
But it's Michelle
so I semi-liked it
I'm not a rosette person
and i thought it almost made it look like eyelette
making it look too casual for a ball
M. S-S: it did look like eyelet
me: Michelle Obama: Our Prairie Home First Lady
what did you think?
M. S-S: thought it was to die on her
but for me not so much
me: I liked the bodice and the skirt separate from each other
but together it was just too much for me
HOWEVER
how adorable are they?
M. S-S: sooooooooooooo cute
i was watching cnn coverage of the parade
and he butt bumped her
haha
me: ha!
project rungay got on Michelle about her matchy matchy cardigan for the swearing in outfit
And as a cardigan person, i was ready to fire off a bitter comment
Several of Barack Obama's big rhetorical performances have been recognized as hits from the minute he stepped off the stage. His 2004 Democratic convention speech is one example. His Philadelphia speech on race, which quelled the Rev. Wright controversy last spring, is another.
In many other cases, especially late in the campaign, the red-hots among his supporters thought he had "underperformed" or been "just so-so" immediately after an event, only to see the days-later and weeks-later reaction to the performance turn much more positive. The clearest example was his first debate with John McCain, where supporters thought he had missed chances to go in for the kill -- but over time it was clear that he had established his steady, gravitas-worthy persona.
I think his inaugural speech will be in this second category. Now that I have a chance to look at some blog-world commentary, I see that some is underwhelmed, as after the first debate. I think that the speech was in fact very well-pitched to this moment in history and the messages Obama wants and needs to send. That is, both artful and useful.
If I had to pinpoint my favorite part of President Obama's (!) speech, it would be what should have been a statement of our basic values. Of course, since we have muddied the waters so much with the past administration, it was downright inspirational to hear our country committed to true justice:
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
Let's make sure he follows through so that we can continue to hold our heads high.
Finally: You know I can't resist Kanye, especially when he opens with my favorite song at the Youth Ball!
Sorry! I know it's be a long, long time... but life has been monster busy and the holidays just make time move at least ten times the speed of superman reversing the world's orbit.
That being said, I'm still keeping up on my stuff. For example, while I know that he is the lamest of Lame Ducks and that this ship has sailed and he's basically water under the bridge and a host of other folksy Midwestern colloquialisms...
W still really pisses me off.
Even this picture makes me seeth. Let alone that he's up to some majorshenanigans in the last month of his Presidency... more on that later!
Yup! I was there, people. And it was the greatest. Having said that, I am exhausted beyond all explanation. I will be happy to recount the evening for you in the days ahead, but I'll just start by saying that I am proud of what the campaign was able to achieve and I so look forward to moving our country ahead.
That being said, I want to point out that CNN tried just a liiiiiittle too hard to sexy-up the election returns. I love me some Will.i.am , but beamed in as a hologram? Even Anderson Cooper is like "this is absurd".
We get to count the votes tomorrow, ya'll. And I, for one, would like the thank Mrs. Banks for fighting for suffrage in England, whereupon she inspired countless American women to fight for our rights... militantly!
