omgwtf!

All hail Nutmeg The Devoted, beloved brother of Holly and son of Perilous, who lived a full, healthy, and very long life full of joy and naughtiness and died in his mother’s arms this morning, 21 November 2006, at the very ripe old age of three. He was the longest-lived male rat I’ve ever had.

He will be sorely missed. His presence was a light that made us warmer, and his loss leaves our world a little dimmer.

The memories he has left behind will shine on.

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Why cant I ever think of something clever like this?

This seems like an incredibly inexpensive way to do something really, really good for the planet, as well as the added bonus of saving yourself the aggravation of all that junk mail and never seeming to be able to get off these lists for more than three minutes at a time. The site is right: it takes forever, and just because youre off one mailing list for one month doesnt mean youre not put right back on it almost immediately. Who has the time or inclination to keep hunting these people down and requesting removal from their mailing lists?

Well, these guys at GreenDimes do, and will on your behalf, for one thin dime a day. Three bucks a month (plus credit card fees), $36 a year, or $360 for a lifetime membership.

I’m going to sign up today after work.

I give a dime about the planet! Do you?

Stop Junk Mail Now with GreenDimes

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Just reading that article, and seeing and hearing and feeling the new tone that people are exhibiting with this administration suddenly, reminded me of the fact that these years of hell are over, at least for now. They are over.

Never again will the Bush administration be able to blithely roll their tanks over the wants and needs, requests and demands of the people of the United States. Never again will this man use the world as his toilet.

The terrible reign has ended.

Whether the Democratic will be able to act with the leadership they have lacked so severely for so long is a story for the future, one that will be unfurling day by day by day.

But the victory of this past election is overwhelming me. I think of it, and often I shed a few tears of relief and of gratitude that my hopes were not unfounded once again. I had grown so pessimistic, so angry, so disillusioned, so bitter, never daring to let myself do more than just think about the possibility that the people of this country would finally act to change this, to stop what was going on, to remember that we are supposed to be the land of freedom and democracy. We are a Republic, yes. But we are a democratic one. Or at least we were until this administration came along - and then things went horribly wrong.

But even with our horrible communal memory, on Tuesday we showed that enough of us remembered the power that we had to make a change. Voters turned out in record numbers, 40 percent of voters, in fact, a huge number, to kick these bastards back to the curb and give them the resounding slap they have needed for so long now.

And I keep remembering that. It will occur to me out of nowhere and the waves of relief and gratitude and vindication will crash over me and at times it’s overwhelming.

This administration has been stopped dead in its tracks. We dont even have to wait until January; Bush’s own party has deserted him. He will never be able to wreak havoc ever again. He has been neutralized. He should just go back to his ranch and spend the last two years of his filthy mockery of a presidency on vacation like he wants to.

I’ve got no problem at all with my tax money paying him a salary if he promises to never make another governmental decision for the rest of his worthless life. Him, and his select band of thugs.

The future is uncertain. But this week, we’ve won. Before we return to reality I’m going to savour it, roll in it, glory in it. I’ll give myself this weekend. After all this time, I deserve a celebration before getting back to the business of bitching about the government. So do we all.

It’s over. The Wicked Witch is dead. We can breathe again. The House has landed, and it is blue and filled with Senators, and we are, for the moment, entitled to our well-earned rest.

He’ll never be able to hurt us - really hurt us - ever again.

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“The American people have spoken out against the president’s agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy,” the Rhode Island moderate told The Associated Press.

“And at this late stage in my term, I’m not going to endorse something the American people have spoke out against.”

Now, that is how a United States Senator…no matter what party he or she is in…is supposed to behave. That it’s coming from a key Republican makes the move all the more significant. We shouldnt have to say thank you and praise our elected officials for simply doing what theyre supposed to do in the first place, but after the last decade of incredible, unbelievable corruption, it takes a strong and determined spirit to stand up and do the right thing, and that always needs to be recognized and appreciated.

I only wish he had done it sooner. He had to know without waiting all this time that the American people did not approve of his party’s shenanigans. And I’m pretty sure he didnt approve of most of them himself. It took him being ousted before he grew enough of a nut to actually represent the citizens of his country.

Still, better late than never.

I hope that his fellow Republicans see what he is doing, and follow suit. And I hope that the Democrats on the other side of the aisle see what he is doing, and stick to business in a serious manner, without letting this administration trample them further. They need to stand strong and yes, work in a bipartisan way, but stop bending to the corrupt force that has dictated the way this country operates for the last 12 years, and most especially the last six. “Why can’t we all get along” cannot work when you are dealing with megalomaniacs.

This has been a momentus week in American politics. It has been history in the making, and I am proud to have been a part of it. I am elated, but I am skeptical.

I am willing to be proven wrong. I am waiting to be proven wrong.

I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

Nice job, Senator Chafee. A little bit late, but you did the right thing at the right time at long last. Well done, old boy.

Key Republican joins Dems opposing Bolton nomination - CNN.com

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Majority! Majority!

We got the Senate!

Actually, CNN is playing nasty trickses with the numbers: The Democrats’ 51 includes two Independents: Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman.

Bernie Sanders is a raging liberal socialist. He’ll vote Democratic. Period.

Joe Lieberman is a turncoat, a hawk, and a warmonger who tends to side with the GOP on foreign policy, but domestically, he’s a Dem, and that’s better than nothing.

I’ll take it.

This is more than I ever dreamed for.

This is a great day.

Democrats win control of Senate, AP reports - CNN.com

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I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for almost six years. They were bad enough when we still had Clinton in office…it’s been a LONG 12 years since the Republicans took the majority…but since Republicans have been in complete control, the country has been almost totally airless.

Today, for the first time since September 11, 2001, I have hope again. I can breathe. I can allow myself to relax and feel like there is a brighter future for all of us.

We’ve won. We’ve won.

We’ve won.

Congratulations, Ms Pelosi, on making history with your new job. The first female Speaker Of The House. Fuck YOU, Hastert.

Record turnouts. I didnt want to hope, but I couldnt help it. I hoped so hard that finally, at long last, we really had had enough. I hoped with all my might that finally, at long last, we would stand up and say NO MORE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

And we have. We’ve won.

Thank you, America. Well done. You came through. Finally, at long last, enough of us woke up, stood up, and did the right thing.

I am elated.

Man, you know what? Blue is a beautiful colour.

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Today is election day. It is one of the most critical elections in U.S. history.

Vote. Go vote now. Vote. Really. It’s important. Vote Democratic. Dont vote Republican.

It is SUCH a thrill to be able to say that on election day. Usually I’m working the polls, and I was scheduled as an Inspector for my precinct, but I had to cancel last week because I have a very sick animal and an exam tonight so I cant make it.

Therefore, I can throw caution - and objectivity - to the wind.

Vote. Vote Democratic.

If you live in a state which is firmly wrap’t in blue, and you hate the Democrats, even though you are one - and I dont blame you - then vote Independent. Vote Green. Vote Libertarian. Anything, anything but Republican. I myself am considering doing exactly that being in firmly blue L.A., but if I were in a tightly contested state you bet your ass I’d vote Democratic. It’s too important to waste when it’s on the line. The primary goal here is to get the Republicans OUT.

We have GOT to get these guys out of here. We’ve got to break the chokehold.

I am so nervous. I am too cynical to believe we will win. I’m too much of a romantic to believe we’ll lose.

Oh, the dichotomy!

Go Vote. If we lose, and you dont vote, it’s your fault.

And if you vote Republican, thereby deciding to actually give your support to this administration of horror, then you dont deserve the right to vote in the first place. You dont vote with your party. You vote with your head, and if you vote Republican today, your head is empty and you have no business voting. This isnt about left or right anymore.

It’s about righting what’s wrong.

Why are you still even reading this?

GO VOTE.

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So okay a little while ago I was sitting here reading the news and listening to the new Paul Stanley record, “Live To Win,” on Rhapsody, which I subscribe to. Yeah, even though I hate the Real company, and the Rhapsody player is a bloated piece of crap (well they just upgraded it; it’s a lot better now but remains a bloated piece of crap), it’s still the best online music service I have found so far - it has the most songs and the cheapest subscription at $15 a month that lets me download all the songs I want to my hard drive and MP3 player. It could be $10 a month but I upgraded two months ago to the “To Go” subscription and I forget why, exactly, since there are…ahem…ways around the DRM that they employ on every song.

And it isnt iTunes. Man, fuck iTunes.

Anyway, I was listening to his latest release, which is quite charming and even has a couple of really good songs on it - “Lift” is actually terrific - the record is absolutely Paul Stanley material, and that’s good enough for this life-long, die-hard KISS fan - and preparing to liberate the poor thing from its Rhapsodic DRM hell so it could live a free and unrestricted life on my hard drive, when I noticed something in the little factoid scroll that Rhapsody has on the screen when youre playing any artist’s music.

It said something about a bootleg called “People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest,” which is a CD full of Paul Stanley banter that some wag compiled and put on a disc. (That’s not my thumb.)

I had never heard of this before, and frankly, I was stunned that someone at Rhapsody had, and furthermore that they had the foresight to include this delectable tidbit on the factoid scroll.

I just about broke my fingers, so fast did I get my Google on, and promptly discovered a mini-phenomenon in the KISS world that I had somehow completely missed. Apparently, a lot of people knew about this - how in the hell I never caught it is something I will never know. Ten anxious minutes later…it required digging to find…I had this piece of rock and roll history on my desktop.

Yes, 70 glorious minutes of hilarious, often surreal banter from one of the rock world’s premiere frontmen, all in one place, and now it’s mine, all MINE. Eighty-six megabytes of deliciousness. Paul’s banter has always been one of the highlights of any KISS show, and I’ve heard so much of it over the years of KISS concert going. For someone who never drank or took any drugs, he sure made a good imitation of a guy tripping out of his face.

Paul Stanley is a great vocalist and a sweet man and one of the nicest guys you could ever want to meet. His banter is legendary in the rock world, and KISS - love them or hate them - are one of the most influential bands in music history.

Yeah, I’ll be a fan until the day I die, no matter how ridiculous they get. And get this: both Gene (no surprise at all) and Paul (big huge surprise) are Republicans. Sometimes, loyalty means sticking with your boys even if they are a little misguided and maybe, just maybe, a little bit cheeseball.

They helped me out over some very, very rough times in my life. I’m grateful, and I owe these guys a lot.

Incidentally, in case you havent heard, the title track off “Live To Win” had its world premiere in the South Park World of Warcraft episode a few weeks back. I rarely watch television, although I’m a big fan of South Park, and usually only see the episodes online, but Scottso pointed this out to me, so thanks to him for that!

He’s playing the House Of Blues on 14 November. Paul Stanley, I mean. Not Scottso. I’m going to see if I cant mosey on over that way and catch the show. Life is hard in LA without a car, but I’ll see what I can do. I wish this godforsaken town knew what public transportation is!

The House of Blues kind of pisses me off because it’s mind-bogglingly, unnecessarily expensive, but man, this is Paul Stanley. I can make an exception!

In the meantime, though, I heartily urge you to download that file. If the download stops working for any reason, just let me know - make a comment or email me or something - and I’ll be glad to make it available again.

KISS LOVES YOU!

GOOD NIGHT!

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