Melyssa-with-a-Y

This is a letter from a right-wing organization that was in today's email from the Texas Freedom Network . Since when is PP a "pro-abortion behemoth"? I say, Run, don't walk, to your nearest store and BUY SOME WINE! From: Life Decisions International Date: March 17, 2009 Do You Enjoy a Glass of Wine FRONT ROYAL, Va., Mar. 17 /Christian Newswire/ -- Do you drink wine? Millions of people do, but most are unaware of the fact that many winemakers give financial support to Planned Parenthood, the world's leading pro-abortion behemoth. "I like a glass of wine every now and then," said LDI Chairman Thomas C. Strobhar. "I am appalled that so many winemakers fund the Culture of Death. I urge my fellow pro-life activists to let winemakers know that they have a 'choice'. They may continue to fund Planned Parenthood and lose a lot of business to competitors or they may stop funding Planned Parenthood and reap the benefits that come from happy consum...

but you'll notice the Bush Countdown Clock is GONE from the sidebar! He's GONE! :) hoooray!

This afternoon, I did seven interviews with Canadian Broadcasting Corp stations all over Canada - from British Columbia to Saskatchewan to Manitoba to Ontario to New Brunswick to Yukon ( not geographically in any particular order ). They asked me questions about collecting political memorabilia -- how I got started, why people collect, what's valuable, and what's out there for Obama. I talked about my flasher collection , Cox-Roosevelt buttons , and the Obama Chapter of the APIC. The station in Victoria, BC (6th go-round) sent me an MP3 recording of the interview. I've asked for recordings of the other ones, but I actually think this one was the best. One of the producers I spoke with likened the experience to "Groundhog Day", and she was right! The station in New Brunswick also offered to send me a bobblehead doll of one of the DJs. :) If I can figure out how to post it here, I will. Otherwise, if you want to hear it, email me and I'll send you the 6MB ...

...but the "We Are One" concert is on, and it's amazing! 1:30pm (CST) Starting with Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man was genius - it was symbolic, as an announcement of a new beginning. It's one of my favorite pieces. I was in tears almost immediately. (starting to regret staying in Austin for the weekend...) Watching the Obama girls see themselves on tv was so cute! (Sasha made her mother move out of the way!) 1:40pm Bruce. Wow. The newscasters kept saying that the musicians weren't going to be singing their own music, but singing "The Rising" with a huge choir in the background was fabulous. 1:50pm Hmm... maybe Mary J. Blige should have worn something other than white/off-white so she'd stand out a little more against the steps? Oh well. Lean On Me, another great uplifting song. You go Mary J! and Michelle is singing along! :) [and, not having saved this post often enough, my Firefox crashed and I lost almost an hour's worth of comme...

I have (until now) refrained from posting any rants here about the situation in Gaza -- how Hamas is getting their own people killed; Israel's right to defend herself... etc. I mean, seriously, if crazies in Cuba or Mexico or Canada were indiscriminately dropping rockets on New York or Miami or Houston -- TRYING to kill civilians -- wouldn't we fight back? Damn right we would! But now apparently all Jewish children are targets , no matter where we live -- as Jeffrey Goldberg points out on his blog: Put aside Zahar's chutzpah -- Hamas has been happily killing Jewish children for years. What's important is that he is making an explicit plea to jihadists everywhere to take matters into their own hands and kill Jews. Any Jewish school or synagogue or JCC anywhere in the world that doesn't take this seriously is beyond negligent. This is not a time for panic, just preparation. But if you read further down in that article, French President Sarkozy points out that the m...

The Pope today told senior Vatican staff that saving the world from homosexuals and transsexuals is as important as saving the rainforest . Oy. So he's equating human industrialization encroaching on the rainforest with homosexuals "encroaching" on straight people's lives? Riiight, because every time we hang out with Aubrey, he's trying to make us gay. [Ok, so I've been to more gay bars than "straight" bars in the last month. That's definitely Aubrey's fault.] This, in addition to the furor over Pastor Rick Warren being chosen to give the invocation at President-Elect Obama's Inauguration -- a man who has said that homosexuality is akin to pedophilia. Having just seen ' Milk ' [Go see it! right away!] , I'm keenly aware that just being out was (and still is) a challenge. The last thing we need is to add fuel to the fire of the people who actually *believe* these things. I am against discrimination of any kind, for a...

will.i.am's newest -- it's a catchy song! (I love the video snippets of people singing along - Hi Kyra and Kevin!)

Today, I had to rush home at 4:15 to meet the technician from the cable company, because some of my cable channels were on the fritz -- pixelated, blacking out periodically, or not coming in at all. And the phone kept losing its dial-tone. So they had to send a tech, because my "signal was weak." Little did I know that the dead animal that was removed from the attic in September -- right before Gigi was here - the smell was awful! -- was related to the weak signal... Two and a half hours later, when the tech finally finished re-running my cable all the way across the garage and through the attic and down into the wall behind the tv, he told me that the cable had probably been chewed by a rat. *shudder* Maybe that's what killed it - it got zapped? Yuck. But that wasn't his most interesting comment. As he was finishing the paperwork, I turned on Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, who was talking about President-elect Obama's first press conference. The tech (who I think ...

and here's a little PSA to remind the Democrats not to be complacent. If you can vote early, go do it! Make sure you vote, and if you can, volunteer next Tuesday.

And if *you* live in California, please vote NO on Prop 8. Here's an eloquent and humorous post from Beth (pasted below). ( here I go on my soapbox*... ) The government (federal or state) should not be able to legislate what a marriage is -- if two people love each other, they should be able to get married. Period. And visit each other in the hospital. And get health care benefits. And all of the other things that "traditional" married couples do. And while I don't necessarily believe that this "slippery slope" will lead to anything like the Holocaust, I do believe that ANY kind of discrimination against ANYONE, because of their race, religion, gender, sexual preference, or ANYTHING, is absolutely wrong. (ok, soapbox over) read on: I am asking every American who has a gay child, parent, sibling, cousin or friend to read this through to the end. It is my plea. When Merideth and I exchanged vows seven years ago (on October 20), we asked Merideth’s si...

... and it comes with some spectacular music!

Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO makes the case for Obama. (snagged from the Daily Dish ) -- this is how this country is going to change. Can't wait to see the debate tonight!

Please give to Planned Parenthood! Here's an email that has been going around this week... it was not started by anyone at PP, but it appears to be working - as of today, they have received 18,000 donations in Sarah Palin's honor!! If you haven't done it yet, please consider following the instructions below. (I wonder how the folks at the McCain campaign feel about all those postcards they've been receiving...) Dear Friends: We may have thought we wanted a woman on a national political ticket, but the joke has really been on us, hasn't it? Are you as sick in your stomach as I am at the thought of Sarah Palin as Vice President of the United States? Since Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for the Vice Presidency, Barack Obama's campaign has raised over $10 million dollars. Some of you may already be supporting the Obama campaign financially; others of you may still be a little honked off over the primaries. None of you, however, can...

I spun myself dizzy SO many times trying to be her! And come on, Lynda Carter even has a Y in her name! Recently, the lovely Washington-area resident (betcha didn't know she lives in DC!) did an interview with Philadelphia magazine, where they asked her about people comparing Sarah Palin to Wonder Woman. Here's what she said: Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness ... that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin . She did it all, didn ’t she? ... I like John McCain. But this woman — it's anathema to me what she stands for. I think America should be very afraid. Very afraid. Separation of church and state is the one thing the creators of the Constitution did agree on — that it wasn ’t to be a religious government. People should feel free to speak their minds about rel...

"...And even if the book itself isn't that sexy, the title helps: 'Sex, Science and Stem Cells.'" The Washington Post notes that Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a chief architect of the stem cell research bill that was vetoed twice by President Bush, writes about the Bush administration's politicization of science and sex and warns that if the country elects John McCain president in November, "we'd be signing on for four more years of more of the same - the same blind faith that dogma and ideology ought to stand ahead of science and reason." ... And more government invasion of women's bodies: Ahem. The pill is not equivalent to abortion! The Bush Administration has ignited a furor with a proposed definition of pregnancy that has the effect of classifying some of the most widely used methods of contraception as abortion. A draft regulation, still being revised and debated, treats most birth-control pills and intrauterine devices as abortion bec...

How many parts of this quote make my blood boil? Hugh Hewitt on OSU-USC football game: "[I]t's probably the last football game we'll ever get to see before the United States gets blown up by the Islamists under Obama" Leaving aside his contention that the Buckeyes are going to "slaughter" the Trojans (HAH!), the Obama thing just infuriates me. What is wrong with these people?!?! In much happier news, it's being reported that former Secretary of State Colin Powell is going to endorse Senator Obama. Woohooo!!! When I was working for America's Promise in the spring of '97, there was buzz about Powell running for President. He didn't (his wife Alma didn't like the idea, among other reasons), but things are different now. It'll be very "in your face" to the Bush Administration, but they made him a scapegoat, so I don't think he owes them anything.

Oh, Al Gore, how I've missed you. Yes, yes, we are all on board with the Global Warming thing. But when I think about how different this country would be if the Supreme Court hadn't handed the election to Dubya in 2000... it makes me so sad. So when I read that you were endorsing Obama, I thought, "Finally!" but I knew you'd be for him from the beginning. I mean, Bill Clinton was a great President, but not so good in terms of the lasting legacy that would have made you a shoo-in for POTUS. And very harsh with the burning of bridges and eliminating dissenters -- surprisingly similar to Dubya. So a great big ol' raspberry to the almost-co-Presidents. HERE is the Al Gore that I know and love: "After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change," Gore said. "After eight years when our Constitution has been dishonored and disrespected, we need changes." Where was this pit bull when we needed him? [Note to the press, can w...

I have a whole list of things I am planning to blog about, including "bitter-gate" or whatever you want to call it, but when I found Tim Robbins' speech at the National Association of Broadcasters , I thought I should share it. It goes from a sarcastic history of broadcasting to total sap and utopian wishes for the future, but it's an interesting take on the role broadcasters have had in making our society more divisive, instead of less, and what they could do about it. This is a nation divided and reeling from betrayal and economic hardships. And you, the broadcasters of this great nation have a tremendous power, and a tremendous potential to effect change. You have the power to turn this country away from cynicism. You have the power to turn this nation away from the hatred and the divisive dialogue that has rendered such a corrosive affect on our body politic. You can lift us up into a more enlightened age. [...] The road we are on is leading us to a corruption of...

The Democratic contest could be called a "horse race", and it has major similarities to the race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral, 70 years ago. Will this race end the same way? Only time will tell. *Print of Seabiscuit and War Admiral from Terry Lindsey studio

Since apparently I can't be bothered to blog more than once a week any more, I thought I'd run through the various highs and lows of the past week, real quick-like. 1. Obama-mania! OK, so he didn't win California. (Really interesting take on that here .) But Superduper Tuesday did show that a lot of the country is interested in what he has to say. It's going to go down to the wire on this one, and surprisingly enough, the Dem vote in Texas might actually matter! :) 2. The Patriots didn't win! ...err, I mean, The GIANTS WON THE SUPERBOWL ! I've never been a huge Giants fan -- being a Skins and all -- but my "underdog-itis" (as Dani calls it) took over, and I had to root for little Eli and his guys. Hey, it's not my fault that Brady's pass rush couldn't protect him! Go Giants! My cousin even went to the victory parade in NYC. [Apparently the Vegas odds-makers were none too pleased with the result, though.] 3. Bill Clinton wised up and deci...