I get how hard it is to separate yourself from a political party you have been a member of for your entire life, cause I was a member of that same party since I was old enough to know that there were 2 choices.

But when that party no longer holds firm on any of the things that used to make up its core beliefs, when it betrays the people who have made up it’s base and shits on things that should be sacred, it’s time to give up the allegiance to the label, or change what your definition of Democrat is and embrace the neoliberal.

The right of a citizen not to be executed without a fair trial: unless you’re a muslim.

The fundamental right of women to control their own bodies: While some may say “this doesn’t fundamentally change anything” they are generally people without a uterus. And for me, being a woman, who has worked for the party SPECIFICALLY because it is the party of choice, this shows a move away from the moral highground. This is not “Safe, legal and rare”. This is “your body is a political football and those of us in power have decided to punt you”.

Being anti-torture: Here’s the thing, if you refuse to prosecute government agents who commit torture, it ain’t much different from just being pro-torture. If there is no enforcement of a law, then it isn’t really illegal.

The environment, including no offshore drilling and “clean” coal: it doesn’t matter that these projects won’t be finished and doing actual harm to the environment until after Obama leaves office. It matters that dems started the projects and that dems sold out the environment. We expect that from rethuglikans, that is what they are. But dems are supposed to be the crunchy granola, protect the spotted owl, Al Gore in fleece and flannel explaining global warming, good guys. But offshore drilling and clean coal are bad bad bad, no matter how many ways you try to frame it.

Social Security is the untouchable third rail, or not: Every time some new right wing bloviator would whinge on about how out of control Social Security spending is for the last 15 years or so, I’d remember that every time I saw a left leaning economist talk about it, they’d laugh at the stupidity. Social Security all ready pays for itself. There mechanisms to keep it paying for itself. Anyone who talks about “runaway entitlement spending” is 1) usually a rethuglikan and 2) usually dead wrong. So what does it say that the person who is going to bring about the death of Social Security is not someone with a George W. privatization scheme, but a Democrat.

Spying on citizens is for rethuglikans, except when it’s not:Do I even need to break this down for you all, or is it a matter of IOKIYAR has now become “It’s not really a fundamental breach of your rights if it’s done by a Democrat”. The same can be applied to that fucking Stupak executive order.

How about the Dems are the party of regulating bad boy industries: You know, under Clinton tobacco companies were sued and states got fat wads of money to cover the health problems created by smoking plus insuring children. Under Obama and his merry band of banksters, we get ………

Just to give you an idea of the quality of officials currently running the show, here’s a little story about Timmy Geithner and AIG.

i haven’t even gotten into things like health care (the bill passed was fine with rethuglikans like Mitt Romney and Bob Dole) and unemployment and foreclosures and tent cities and and and.

And I haven’t gotten into things like a Democratic commander in chief should not be the head of an army that kills pregnant women and teenagers and then covers it up.

If you want to keep calling yourself a Democrat, that’s fine. But please understand that I am now going to believe that your fundamental belief system is one that is anti-woman, anti-environment, pro-torture, pro-wiretapping, kill social security, love s big corrupt industries and approves of murder.

You can either be loyal to a party or you can have your ideals. But you can’t have both, not anymore.

Lemme do some advertising for you. Really.

Blue Lyon has a post up called Where to go from here? that is all about the great big sucking hole of depression that has set in for those of us realizing that there is no hope coming from traditional methods of change.

I’m familiar with that feeling. I get gloomy sometimes. But just for a little bit. Then it’s time to pick yourself up and jump back into the fight.

This is what I wrote to Blue Lyon

I am so familiar with that deep crushing sense of despair.
We keep doing what we are doing. We keep holding feet to the fire. We keep on keeping on.
What gives me a wee bit of hope (and I may just be kidding myself, but a girl’s gotta dream) is this: the parties we have now have not always existed, and they have not always been what they are (or claim to be). Republicans started out as radical anti-slavery progressives. Dems were the conservative party.
I think the republicans will eat themselves, because really they don’t have a purpose anymore. The democrats have taken over as the party of corporate interests and screw the little people.
So there is room for a new second party, and that room isn’t being made on the right, but on the left. I still like the Greens. There is nothing in their platform that I disagree with so far. I like their candidates (except for Nader, but that might be residual democratic sour grapes) . I like that they are already established and have a (fledgling) infrastructure. If I am going to put my work into politics, I will put it there.
Otherwise, I’m building a commune in Iceland (or Spain- pro women, pro gays, pro human rights, my favorite wines and nice weather).
Sorry for the long ramble. I’m wordy lately

Neither of the 2 main parties are serving the left in any way, manner, shape or form. I think the numbers of lefties who are disillusioned with the whole process is growing, quietly but fast. I think it’s a fan-fucking-tastic time for another party to step in.

Hello Greens!

So if I had some $ and some power and the Green Party was listening to me, I would start running commercials. I would focus on the things that Greens and Dems should (or used to) have in common. Talk about single payer health care, talk about finance reform and regulation, talk about opposition to off shore drilling and the environment, a women’s right to control her own body. Run a series of images. A child getting a checkup, a bankster going to jail, a gorgeous shoreline nature shot, a middle aged mom standing behind her 20 something daughter.

Then it ends with:

There is only one party that shares your beliefs and won’t compromise them

See what else you have in common with the Green Party by checking out gp.org

That’s it. That’s all you need to start with. You just have to remind disappointed lefties that there is another option, and by putting the commercials on you give the party more legitimacy (if they have the $ to run the commericals then they aren’t just a bunch of crusty hippies in someone’s basement).

PS- Blue Lyon, you have a Green candidate running for governor of your state. I bet he wouldn’t mind if you threw all that volunteering muscle you used to use for the Democratic party into his campaign.

Since you, so graciously gave me a bloody period cake for my birthday, it’s only fair that I return the favor.

Why yes darling, that is a wedding cake made out of tampons.

You have done some amazing shit this year and I am proud as punch to have you as my friend.

Big lip smacking smooches and many many sparkles.

PS- I tried really hard to make sure this posted at exactly midnight oon your actual birthday where you are- did it work?)

(cake is by Vadis Turner at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art)

My darling friend Spring and I are trying to come up with drag queen themed food.

(There’s a wee back story, I’ve been trying to encourage Other Cousin to use the gorgeous church she owns for drag queen bingo. Spring thinks that Drag Queen Bingo should come with drag queen themed foods. )

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

Spring: Liza Minnelli-Vanelli Shake and anything with sausage

Me: Any female performers name+meatballs, The Dolly Parton Bangers and Mash:two giant mounds of fluffy mashed potatoes seperated by a long pork sausage

(Also said in facebook by me:I am totes seeing a business idea! Quick- gimmme drag queen themed food names. It will be like hooters, but all the boobs will be fake, or wait. That’s not right.)

So, gimme your best thoughts, and your worst

So you all know my other secret passion is interior design and architecture? Maybe not. It is a wee bit (more than a wee bit) like lottery shopping, or things I would buy if I had money. And I’m a wee bit ashamed of it because, you know, it’s all part of the spectacle. Then I justify it to myself by saying “it’s not like I have a house. If I had a house, then I might not spend so much time imagining a house”. So yeah, I give myself a pass on the lottery shopping bit because of poverty. Sue me, I ain’t perfect.

That was all a long into to explain why I was looking for window coverings that aren’t ugly. I was wondering if they made films for windows like they make wall decals, in some fab modernist design.

I have absolutely no idea if they do, because as soon as I saw this the guffaw went off in my head and I was bowled over by the stupidity.

(You know how I said people are rational actors, I still mean that, right up until the time the bong smoke pickles their melon or the 3rd vodka tonic goes to work. That’s kind of the point of most mind altering substances, to make you stop being rational).

So imagine this. You are a pot head, a wake and baker, the kind of person who doesn’t get out of bed without taking a toke. But right by your bed is a giant window looking out onto the street and you really don’t want to get busted by some random cop who happens to see you taking your first morning puff. But you’re also a minimalist. You hate curtains, or you’re like me and you hate mini blinds, plantation blinds or pretty much any mechanism which is going to leave bar shaped objects over your natural light source thus rendering your home into a glorified chicken coop. So you go searching for another solution.

I give you cannabis leaf window film.

So now instead of the off chance that random Officer Bob catches you taking a long bong toke through the window, you have the guarantee that every cop in the neighborhood plus anyone else who cares knows not only that you are a massive stoner, but you have killed so many of your short term memory cells that you forgot that advertising your pot smoking is probably more likely to get you busted than just getting over your fear of curtains.

And if you’re more a drug of the masses type, they’ve also got you covered. As long as your drug is Jesus flavored. Or your initial is a T.

Renee at Womanist Musings has a regular feature where every Sunday she calls out some horribly embarrassing behavior.

But today she went too far. She’s picking on bacon. Bacon. Sacre bleu! It’s criminal. It’s wrong in thousand ways. It’s bacon for the love of all that is good in the world. It’s kinda turning into a round of the dozens over there between the Canadians and their sorry-excuse-for-bacon-but-is-really-ham thing and us USians and our real, delicious bacon.

And she thinks I should be seriously shamed because I am proud of the fact that my home town invented bacon salt. Nope. Of all the things I’ve ever eaten, bacon does not give me one moment of shame. neither do reliably bacon flavored products, like bacon salt, or better yet steak frites with bacon blue cheese dressing.

It’s pretty outrageous. I may have said something about Canada being the land of bad food (dude- cheese curds (cottage cheese) with gravy, nuff said).

But you long time readers know what my real shame food is, doncha.

I freely cop to being embarrassed by my love of vienna sausages. But that embarrassment didn’t stop the Easter Bunny (aka- Uncle Jim) from bringing me a six pack of them today. Of course I’ll have to hide them in my room and eat them where no one can see me. But…………..

(oddly, vienna sausages also feature prominently in the Worst.Meal.I’ve.Ever.Eaten and one of my funniest travel stories)

(Just a friendly reminder- the subscription button is up and to the left)

This video brought to you via the awesome peeps at But I Did Everything Right

The other day, Other Cousin sent me this link to one of her

I want to find something to do with all the old lithium ion batteries we have laying around from numerous dead cell phones, cameras, etc.

I would love to find a way to turn them into solar charge holding power cells. We have mucho sun. We have ginormous electric bills. We are way too poor to afford solar panels. (For the amount of energy a 9 person family uses, we’d need about 100k for solar panels.)

Wonder thought that stripping the solar cells out of calculators and solar lights might be a way to go about it.

Suggestions? Wanna donate batteries or solar powered things? Hit me up in comments.