I'm about to lose electoral college control and I think I like it, like it.


Political beliefs aside, I am sooo looking forward to watching like 17 hours of political coverage from my TiVo once I get home on election night. No spoilers, pls, kthnx.

Slate's calling like, hundreds of e.c. votes "Safe Dem" and a whole buncha others "Lean Dem," so I'm thinking Barack's gonna come out of this with oh, about nine thousand and twelve electoral votes.

But when it comes to a dance-off, the election may go another way.


I do, however, most heartily regret the existence of any person who Photoshops Sarah Palin's head onto a bikini body.

I'm a decent Photoshopper too, but I use my skills for good, not evil.

So of course on every Web site, blog and/or magazine's list of "ingenious" money-saving tips is to ditch the $4-a-day Starbucks habit. I have to ask: What kind of person spends 80 bucks a month on coffee without realizing they spend 80 bucks a month on coffee? (Let's see: Coffee, new boots or interest-bearing savings account? COFFEE, obvs.)

On Newsweek.com today:
A Venti-Sized Recession? The more Starbucks a country has, the bigger its financial problems.

Naturally, I'm suspicious that this can be tied in a neatly wrapped package with a shiny silver bow, but here we go: "The Seattle-based coffee chain followed new housing developments into the suburbs and exurbs, where its outlets became pitstops for real-estate brokers and their clients. It also carpet-bombed the business districts of large cities, especially the financial centers, with nearly 200 in Manhattan alone. Starbucks's frothy treats provided the fuel for the boom, the caffeine that enabled deal jockeys to stay up all hours putting together offering papers for CDOs, and helped mortgage brokers work overtime processing dubious loan documents."

Still awake? Yeah, me neither.

Now, there's nothing I like more than coffee. Possibly a Nintendo Wii, if I had one. But tying the Starbucks excessplosion into the housing crisis? Ehh... I rent. And I will forever, until someone can figure out a way for me to save tens of thousands of dollars for a down payment without reducing my monthly iTunes expenditures.

What we really need is some way to, oh, CAFFEINATE the economy. We're not gonna pull ourselves outta this mortgage/Starbucks/McMansion ditch with just one Vivanno^TM Nourishing Orange Mango Banana with Matcha Blend.

Mark Malkoff knows what to do, and he started it back when this economic meltdown was still solid chocolate, long before it was shaved into curls and drizzled on the foamy surface of a 200-degree beverage.

Indeed, he made a purchase at all 171 Starbucks locations in Manhattan... in one day.

• Yes!
We!
Carve!
(.com) [by way of Daily Kos] shows off Obampkins! ...Barack-o-lanterns?


• New York Times piece on Cindy McCain makes her out to be a sad, lonely lady who's been shunned as the floozy John left his first wife for. It starts off with this telling anecdote:

"Cindy McCain was new to Washington and not yet 30 when she arrived at a luncheon for Congressional spouses to discover a problem with her name tag. It read “Carol McCain.” That was the well-liked wife John McCain had left to marry Cindy, to the disapproval of many in Washington. Fearing that the slight was intentional, she slinked to a half-empty table that never filled. “No one wanted to sit at her table,“ said Barbara Ross, , a friend who was not surprised when Mrs. McCain announced a few months later that she was moving back to Arizona. “It was like high school.” And McCain is POed -- Fox News fires back.


• New endorsements for Obama - Colin Powell, Chicago Tribune (who has NEVER endorsed a Democratic candidate), Chicago Sun-Times


• Did youse guys hear about this when it happened, ‘cause I sure didn’t: Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Bros., got punched in the face at the company gym after it was announced they were goin’ down: "He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold.”


• Target: Women goes after the Disney Princesses. Finally! Someone needs to put those pretty little things in their place. I think Cindy McCain has been pursuing a career as a Disney princess, incidentally. P.S., Did you know that Al Gore helped start Current TV? I read it in his book "The Assault on Reason." Seriously, he did. This isn't like how he helped start the Internet.




• David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party" - Huffington Post. Wow. Harsh.


• McCain “Loves Being the Underdog" - CNN.com. Well, yeah, who DOESN'T love being the underdog? I love being an underdog almost as much as I love parking tickets, the smell of moldy bread and having to walk my dog at 2 a.m.

Sweet deity in a bicycle basket! It's not like I regularly turn to Dear Abby for advice on my oh-so-post-modern existence (can't even REMEMBER the last time she discussed how hard it is to hold up a 1200-page Ayn Rand on a crowded Metro) but I couldn't believe the idiocy she's spewing today.

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend and I have been living together for a year. We split all the bills -- rent, utilities, etc. -- in half.

A few nights ago I asked him how he felt about paying for half my birth control pills, which amounts to $40 a month. Because neither of us is ready for children, I think we should share the expense.

Am I out of line to ask my boyfriend to split the cost with me? This has become a hot topic at work. The guys don't agree with me, and surprisingly, most of the women don't, either. What is your take on this? -- ALL IN LOVE IS FAIR

Abby responds that it's HER expense, not theirs: "As I see it, there are two kinds of expenses when people share a dwelling: joint expenses and those that are personal. Prescription drugs usually fall into the latter category." So is it only her "personal" expense when she starts spewing out bebehs that need dydies, milks and college educations because he's too cheap to pony up for a couple of Trojans?

Abby also suggests that if a man needs Viagra, it's his expense and not the woman's. Now, I don't necessarily agree with that either, except that it's been more than obvious for a very long time that women still make less than men for doing the very same job. But why is Viagra always the obvious counterpart for birth control pills? I would argue that Viagra is (well, somewhat) necessary, but not compared with a pill or other method that would prevent the average woman from becoming pregnant 10-15 times in her life.

Psst:

Reproduction is prohibited, but not impossible.



Another wonderful moment from this creepily narrated but brilliant video:

"There are three types of virgins:
A. Virgins by choice
B. Virgins by way of poor social skills
C. People who should be in Group B, but claim otherwise for reasons of prestige"

Anyhoo, watch it NAO!

In case you haven't already seen this, oh, I dunno, EVERYWHERE?

Newsflash: It seems that Barack Hussein Obama has gay parents! Oh em gee.



Courtesy of failblog.org

Fabulousosity from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the 'SNL' season premiere.

Ani DiFranco wrote a poem shortly after 9/11 that she later set to music and published on her album "So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter."

Fan-produced vid here:



and once upon a time
we were moonshine
rushing down the throat of a giraffe
yes, rushing down the long hallway
despite what the p.a. announcement says
yes, rushing down the long stairs
with the whiskey of eternity
fermented and distilled
to eighteen minutes
burning down our throats
down the hall
down the stairs
in a building so tall
that it will always be there

More lyrics here.

Sarah Haskins of current.tv never fails to amuse.

Um, sorry, tricked ya. I've been working long hours this past week and spent today attending a high school reunion, so there is no Sunday Night Interwebs Roundup tonight. Please don't cry yo'selves to sleep, gentle reader(s?).

Console yourselves with one of my fave Brandon Hardesty re-enactments:

• Those two guys are in a statistical dead heat. However! Here’s something you may not have thought of: Those wacky pollsters only call LANDLINES. Now, who’s most likely to NOT HAVE LANDLINES? The young, the urban, the less well-off ... Now, wanna take a gander at whom those peeps might be voting for? Right. Interesting that we haven't heard anything about this fact, since I feel like this is probably skewing the polls quite a bit.

• The Midwest Teen Sex Show has a new episode up! If you’ve never seen this Webcast before, um ... It’s not what you might be thinking.

• “Bush declares 'major disaster' area in Florida.”
Yeah, well, I claim a ‘major disaster’ area in pretty much everything Bush declares, so we’re even. (But seriously, you can make a donation toward Hurricane Fay disaster relief at the American Red Cross Web site.)

• Plus, Much Glorious Bonus Learnings! I learned from the above CNN article that someone other than Jeb Bush is now governor of Florida. My research (yeah, thanks, Wikipedia) tells me that he’s been out of office since January 2, 2007. Way to keep up with the times!

• No matter what you post on Twitter, you always sound like a jerky jerk. Then again, so do my friends usually.

• Feministing's Weekly Feminist Reader is up.

• Bestest video I saw this week:

God, I love Sarah Haskins.