The Birth of a Blog

During the course of a rapid-fire, election night e-mail exchange with my progressive friend, Allison, she finally agreed to venture into the Blogosphere with me. I’ve recaptured most of our exchanges to give you an idea of our views and the impetus that led to the creation of “open thread.”

LZ: Trust me, I have serious third party tendencies. My first presidential vote was for John Anderson, for example. But this is not the time for that. It will take all of us thoughtful, humanitarian patriots to combat the soulless bastards in the GOP.

Pardon my ignorance, but I scrolled by a Senate race in Indiana that has no Democratic candidate. Am I missing a key piece of info?

AP: I didn't know anything about it, but my friend Google tells me that no Dem filed. WHAT THE HELL?

LZ: Maybe Johnny Sellout can write a song about the sad state of affairs, and release it in conjunction with a Chevy ad. Fuckin Hoosiers!

AP: HA! I swear that was the worst thing about the World Series. Well, no, that would be Billy Cyrus singing. But totally time to change the name again, John.

But speaking of Chevy, did you see that they ran an entirely Spanish commerical several times during the WS? Muy interesante. I would have thought that would have been a story somewhere.

LZ: Might have been if anyone outside of Missouri or Michigan had watched. Sorry, but the World Series ran head-to-head with Dancing With the Stars (and Jerry Springer).

AP: This is true. But, dude, Dancing with Stars? I don't guess I know you at all.

LZ: Oh yes you do. I walked out of the house in disgust tonight when I got home (late) and that was on the big screen. Lisa offered to change the channel, but I needed space.

AP: The Dems take the House races yet concede to Richard Lugar?? What does he know about whom?

LZ: To temper my enthusiasm, I just realized that even if we take the Senate, it'll likely be 51-49 with Joe Friggin Lieberman wielding way too much power to call the shots.

AP: I just want the Senate for the committee chairs who will (who @#$! better) INVESTIGATE and oversee! But the thought of Lieberman and his ilk being in the catbird seat makes me a little ill.

LZ: Just turned over to local news and heard the nubile "reporter" talking about Jim Leach's stranglehold on the district he has "owned" for 15 consecutive elections. No doubt, he's one that many. Never mind he had to move from the Quad Cities to Iowa City after redistricting. Ooops!

AP: How did THAT happen?

LZ: He won -- not "one" -- 13-14 straight in the old district. Then survived the redistricting move to Iowa City because he's a Republican in name only. It's still too close to call, but if he wins, it's because his opponent didn't put up much of a fight.

AP: Here's what I don't get. I live in a solidly Dem county, thank goodness, but according to the numbers 8,000 people who voted Dem for everything else crossed over to the dark side to vote for Shimkus. What the hell. Just because they say he's going to win doesn't mean you have to help. The protecting-a-pedophile thing didn't make an impression at all. Last election we didn't live in this district, so I don't know what people think he's done for them, but it's clear what side he's on.

And the Dem who ran, who is pretty of the right to me, but, A) baby steps, and B) it doesn't take much, had NO money. Like one-color signs and Xerox copies no money, and he's still nearly running 40%, though I don't know what parts of the district that is.

LZ: Perhaps your county is more pro-pedophile than you know. Not to be a fear monger.

AP: You know when you said you like to be out of the reach of your audience? I see why.

So far, 157,000 people have voted AGAINST a proposal that public officials who are convicted of felonies or impeached forfeit their state pensions. I guess all those Republicans waiting for the indictments to drop have bigger families than we thought.

AP: Webb takes the lead????????????????

LZ: No supporting data for that claim. Trust no one.

AP: Yeah, I'm trying to stay up until that's somewhat more clear, or the Virginia site gives me numbers I like.

EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING

AP: Guess it's a good thing I didn't stay up until they called Virginia.

The sun ain't up yet, but thank God it's going to be a bright blue day. And thanks to you I even know what this means: “Big upset in IA-02 --- Loebsack defeats Leach!"

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