Posted by msLaura at 04:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just cut their hair that morning. Don't they look cute?

Posted by msLaura at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Original Budweiser ad:

Superfriends version:
Super Friends Whussup!

Wazzup 2008, the update:

Very cool that they found the original guys to do the remake. I love the guy outside who is getting blown away by a hurricane from global warming.

Posted by msLaura at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Do you want to see Barack Obama as our next president? Are you DISGUSTED by the thought that the other side might actually win? They could, you know. The election is far from over. Remember Al Gore? Remember John Kerry? Yep, I thought they were going to take the election. And then they didn't. We've ALL paid the price for 8 years of Bush. You, me, the planet....it has been a disastrous mistake for all of us. Enough is ENOUGH.

Now is the time to get off the sidelines and take action.

Right now, go to this link:
http://pol.moveon.org/obama/teams/index.html?id=14373-1429134-F4n7YCx&t=1
and start calling MoveOn.org members in swing states to get them connected with their local Obama campaign office.

You can do it from home. It's not hard. You're calling people who are *already* on your side, they just need to be hooked up with local resources. The online system makes calling easy: You'll get phone numbers and a script to read, plus you can practice first. You'll need an Internet connection you can use while you're on the phone (using either a land line or a cell phone). That's it!

If everyone spends just 20 minutes making calls, it can make a HUGE difference. So pick up that phone! Call tonight! Don't delay! Ready.....GO!

Posted by msLaura at 03:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/14/opinion/20081014_OPCHART.html

October 14, 2008
Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants

By TOMMY McCALL

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.

Posted by msLaura at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trains:

If the candidates were ovens:

If the candidates were computers:

If the candidates were cats:

(From Buzz Feed)

Posted by msLaura at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...I can see the end of your political career from my house.

That's Jon Voight BTW, actor, father of Angelina Jolie, and staunch Republican.

Posted by msLaura at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For all the coverage this week of Senator John McCain's background, there are some important things you won't learn about him from the TV networks. His carefully crafted positive image relies on people not knowing this stuff—and you might be surprised by some of it.

Please check out the list below, and then forward it to your friends, family, and coworkers. We can't rely on the media to tell folks about the real John McCain—but if we all pass this along, we can reach as many people as CNN Headline News does on a good night.

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be. Please help get the word out—forward this email to your personal network. And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth out about John McCain, sign up here:

http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/

Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html

"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/

2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us

"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/

3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/

4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/

5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007

"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/

6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80

"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home

7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/

8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/

"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251

9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/

"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/

10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:

http://pol.moveon.org/donate/email.html

Posted by msLaura at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by msLaura at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These "Target: Women" videos by Sarah Haskins are both hilarious and thought-provoking.

I mean, what IS up with all the ridiculous ads for:

Yogurt....

Anti-wrinkle pharmaceuticals...

Wedding shows...

Birth Control...

and Cleaning Products....

Posted by msLaura at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I ordered some little superhero toys off eBay for Julian, because he is so infatuated with all things superhero right now. I got a Spider Man and Wolverine that you have to put together and build, pretty cool and with redeeming educational value.

The other toy that I got was a Wonder Woman action figure, because:
1) I think Wonder Woman is cool.
2) I want Julian to see that women can be superheroes too.

We opened the Wonder Woman action figure first, and Julian was playing with her, flying her around. He suddenly stopped and asked me:
"Mommy, what superhero powers does Wonder Woman have?"

"Well, let's see. She has in invisible plane that she flies in. She has special bracelets that can deflect bullets and other weapons, if someone tries to shoot at her or throw something at her. She has a magic lasso, which I think she can use to tie people up and then make them tell the truth? Not sure about that one..."

I was trying to think what other superpowers WW has, when Julian interrupted.

"Mommy, I just see this (pointing at her super-enhanced superheroine cleavage, complete with golden-swirly breastplate)...her....her BOOBS!"

Um, yeah. It's tough to be a female superhero, it really is.

Posted by msLaura at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been thinking about what to write regarding the VP Debate...and it's this:

Joe Biden is the Man.

He had me at "inflection point" (see his speech in Wooster Ohio, logged in a previous entry). But after the VP debate, I love him even more. I love that he's fired up, that he's so passionate and informed about the issues, I love that he's a real person with just one house and an average middle-class income.

I love him for sponsoring the Violence Against Women Act and single-handedly doing more for women's rights than just about anyone else in politics. I love that he, a former stutterer, does not let that bring him down in the slightest bit. Hey, I've been known to stutter and stammer too. My mouth doesn't work as fast as my brain.

But mostly I love him for speaking out for ME during the debate. He called Palin out on healthcare, he called her out on Cheney, he called her out on being a parent and understanding family issues, he called her out on that MAVERICK crap, he called her out on all the things that I was yelling at the TV screen for him to do. He did it nicely, but he did it with passion and zeal and did NOT LET HER GET AWAY WITH THAT BULLSHIT.

Sarah Hepola wrote in Friday's Salon about what he did, and how she felt about it, and she expresses herself much better than I do, so I'll just include this excerpt and call it a day:

I'm no pundit and don't pretend to be, so all I can tell you is how I experienced the debate (on a couch, with beer and Vietnamese food and an open laptop, sitting beside my friend Bryan). I thought Sarah Palin began well -- good eye contact, strong body language, that devilishly clever "Can I call you Joe?" -- but as the debate wore on, I was struck more and more by how Biden was puncturing her shtick. Sarah Palin kept lobbing her zingers, and a few of them might have struck, but every time she aimed for his heart, Biden just laughed. A good-natured laugh -- not forced but an easygoing, amiable laugh that proved just how game he was for this battle, how native this environment was and how thick his skin had become. And it yanked away a little bit of her power each and every time. She went from a forceful presence to a foolish scold. Maybe I'm overstating the imbalance. But I swear she was starting to get nervous and pissed toward the end, pulling out desperate moves, like that stupid wink. Have you ever tried to discipline someone and then had them laugh in your face? It's maddening. Palin may be a pit bull, but last night, Biden was holding the leash.

I watched the debate on CNN, which has replaced its regular annoying scroll across the bottom of the screen with a special annoying scroll -- a real-time graph that charts the reactions of certain undecided groups: In this case, undecided voters in Ohio, divided by gender. Depending on your viewpoint, this is either fascinating or infuriating -- for me, it is a little of both.

At first, the division by gender struck me as ham-fisted, but I must admit it was a terrific prism by which to view the debate (to what extent it is correct, or indicative of any larger trend, I cannot say). From the beginning, Biden scored high with women and Palin was flailing. There were some exceptions to this trend, of course, but if you are interested in an overall snapshot I would have to say: Women buy Biden, and they are leaving Palin on the shelf.

This reflects my experience, and so it feels true. In a nutshell: I believe him, and I think she is full of shit. My God, my heart was pounding when Biden spoke about the loss of his wife and child -- an eloquent, moving moment that, as Joan Walsh pointed out today, was one of the key exchanges of the debate.

"Joe Biden!" my friend Bryan said after that speech.

"I know," I said.

"Joe Fucking Biden."

"I know!"

"Are you in love with him?" he asked.

"A little bit."

"What is it about him?"

I had to think on this. His face was a bit orange from the makeup. He has a bald spot, bushy eyebrows. Not my type, really. "That man is made of testosterone and decency and strong verbs."

Bryan considered this. "He might be."

I don't know what Joe Biden is made of, exactly. (I suspect a doctor would disagree with my diagnosis.) But what I know is that he is well spoken and confident and had the decency not to correct Palin when she made amateur blunders (calling David McKiernan "General McClellan," for instance). But he still refused to take her bullshit.

When Biden unleashed his righteous anger on Dick Cheney -- "Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president in American history" -- you could practically hear the stadium roar. And if you were watching that graph on the bottom of the CNN screen unfold its little narrative, you saw a spike in both genders' reactions. (Bryan took a picture of the screen at that moment, which is displayed above.)

I have complained on this blog about the frustration I feel when people talk about how Palin is hot. And so as I explain how I feel about Biden -- swoony, sweaty, Joe Fucking Biden! -- I have to check myself. To what extent is this a base physical response, a girlie crush indicative of nothing substantive and perhaps even somewhat embarrassing? Maybe. Possibly. Probably. At least a little bit.

But to what extent is it the euphoria of watching a man with real command of facts, details and history? The gratification of agreeing with the person at the microphone when you feel as though you have been robbed of a voice? The satisfaction of watching Biden knock Palin down -- not like an animal, but like a gentleman and a scholar? To what extent is it my throbbing boner (pardon the expression) for gentlemen and scholars? As one of my friends said this morning, he played the romantic hero. And I know it might sound weird, but as I watched him last night one word kept popping into my head, and that word was: virile.

Now, I have a soft spot for Barack O'Boyfriend as well. He's smart as a whip, he's good-looking, and that smooth, smooth deep voice. Yummy. But I think I have a new crush, and it's Joe F. Biden.

Posted by msLaura at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Getting fired up for the debate tonight, and getting my groove on at the same time. Everybody on board the Obama train! WOO WOO!

At the Show: The Lady Tigra [Obama-rama in Spaceland] - "First Black, First Lady" from Spaceland Recordings on Vimeo.

Posted by msLaura at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)