Code Neon Blue!

This magazine art from 1958 says yep! Imagine if people had decided to pursue that way back then!

Might as well make my collection complete!

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday™, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all . . . and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only “AMERICA” in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual orientation of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, which ever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

from the recent run in “Tank McNamara” about dumb things sports announcers said in 2007:

Since the contest was only for sports announcers’ remarks, statements like “Impeachment is off the table” couldn’t be entered. Luckily for some people, eh?

At the risk of giving these people undeserved blogxygen, I’m quoting part of what they had to say HERE in regards to the Army’s proposed annexation of land around Pinon Canyon. (To be followed in time by grabbing as much of the rest of SE Colorado as they can get their grubbies on.)

“The next photo that we want to examine is the Pinon Canyon photo that appears about 17 seconds into the video. That photo was taken right at sun up. The orange is the color given to the land as the sun’s rays go through the thickest part of the atmosphere. The shadows caused by the hills make the areas in shadow look more lush than they are.

No one seems to have thought of this when the photo was used, but anyone who uses the full screen mode on YouTube will see how unproductive and barren this land is. If more land is needed for maneuver training by the Army, it is hard to justify protecting this kind of land from that use.”

Yeah, it’s hard for THEM to justify. They haven’t lived on that land for generations. And they don’t even mention the ancient archaeological sites and dinosaur footprint fossils. If these wise guys can’t see any value there, how can there BE any?

For a few answers to that question, visit http://pinoncanyon.com/

For more on Mark Udall and what he believes, go here:
http://www.markudall.com/

This was passed on to me and I am putting it here to share the info, in case it reaches anyone who is interested. – S (tNN)

BLM News Release
For Immediate Release Denise Adamic 303-239-3671
December 14, 2007 Jim Sample 303-239-3861

BLM February 14 Oil & Gas Lease Sale Information Available

DENVER - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Colorado today announced that information on its February 14, 2008, quarterly oil and gas lease sale is now available. In response to public requests that oil and gas lease sale information be made available as soon as possible, the BLM is posting the sale notice for 60 days, rather than the 45 days required by law.

The BLM’s February lease sale includes 45 parcels covering 33,987 acres, including 30 parcels involving split-estate lands, where a private entity owns the surface rights and the federal government owns the subsurface mineral rights.

The lease sale will offer parcels in 11 counties (several parcels
overlap county lines) including:

* Archuleta, 2
* Baca, 2
* Delta, 3
* Dolores, 11
* Garfield, 3
* Gunnison, 2
* Montezuma, 12
* Montrose, 5
* Rio Blanco, 2
* San Miguel, 6
* Yuma, 1

National BLM policy requires that all protests filed on nominated parcels must include the specific serial number of the parcel being protested and must be received by the BLM either by mail, hand delivery, or fax by 4:00 p.m. by January 30, 2008. If a protest is filed by fax, it must be sent to 303-239-3799. This policy allows the Bureau to review protests in advance of the sale, make an appropriate announcement of protests at the sale, and meet the statutory deadline for issuing leases. While protested parcels may still be offered, bidders are notified that no lease will be issued until protests are resolved.

The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 and the 1987 Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act authorize leasing of federal oil and gas resources. The 1987 law, which amended the Mineral Leasing Act, requires each BLM state office to conduct oil and gas lease sales on at least a quarterly basis where there is interest to do so.

“Of the total acreage managed by the BLM, less than one percent experiences surface disturbance from oil and gas activity,” said Acting BLM Colorado Deputy State Director () Duane Spencer. “To minimize impacts to the land, the Bureau analyzes the potential environmental effects from exploration and development before offering any leases for sale.”

All leases come with stipulations (general requirements) on oil and gas activities to protect the environment; leases can also include specific restrictions, such as limits on seasons when drilling can occur and restrictions on surface occupancy by oil and gas operators. BLM Colorado holds oil and gas lease sales on the second Thursday of February, May, August, and November. Lease sale information can be obtained online at:

http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Programs/oilandgas/leasing.html

at each of the Bureau’s field offices, and the Public Room at the Colorado State Office in Lakewood.

Parties interested in receiving regular notification of oil and gas lease sales are encouraged to contact the State Office Public Room at 303-239-3600. Notice documents may also be obtained by calling the Public Room up to 60 days before the sale and requesting a copy of the sale notice be sent to you. There is a $5 charge for the sale notice. Sale results can be requested approximately one week after the sale for an additional $5.

The BLM manages over 8.3 million acres of public lands in Colorado. These lands are managed for a multitude of uses including recreation, mining, wildlife habitat and livestock grazing. The BLM oversees more than 27 million subsurface acres for mineral development in the state.

It’s been Monday all day, and then some.

I pretty much lost all control of my personal space in time when I took my son in for a new patient visit at his new doc’s. (Good old Dr. Benton, who has provided Mike’s care literally from birth, is retiring.)

“So,” says the new doc after his initial exam. “How long has that eraser been in his ear?”

(If you have a morbid curiosity about ears, there’s a pic on my non not-so-political blog HERE.)

So about 1/4 of my usual waking, working day went walkies. And Mike is still self-inflictedly hearing impaired. Hopefully tomorrow we can get this all straightened out….

I got a snail-mail from Marilyn Musgrave this weekend, a reply to one of the many emails I have signed and sent to her through various online groups.

This one was about SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. She was explaining why she voted against it. Except she only had whoever wrote the letter for her explain it with a lot of kool-aid based numbers — she didn’t give her REAL reason, which is that if her boy Bushie is against something, so is she.

Their basic argument? It’s too expensive. Man, they would have to raise taxes or something!

So…spending a million dollars a second on Iraq? OK.

Wasting taxpayer money by franking paper mail to respond to free email? OK.

I’d be willing to bet a year’s mortgage payments that MM is all for the proposed Colorado amendment to grant legal personhood to all fertilized eggs.

But make sure those “people” get check-ups and immunizations and antibiotics and such when they get here?

According to Bush and MM…NOT OK!

You’ll laugh until you cry…or maybe laugh so you won’t cry. Either way, enjoy a glimpse of what the world might have been like if Dubya had never been born!

It’s A Blunderful Life

A satirical look at the Huckabee message:

…if I get to the end of the day and don’t have any braincells left to write a post with, you might get a picture instead.

This is one of those days.

I stopped to get the mail on my way into town. Even though it was only 4:30 it was weirdly dark. We’ve had about every kind of precip there is in the past 24 hours. This was part of the hoarfrost stage.

My family and I went into town Friday night for Lamar’s Parade of Lights, and we wound up in front of Randa’s law office. She was there with HER family, and of course we got to talking a little shop.

Saturday was the State Central & Executive Committee Meetings up in Denver. Our Vice Chair was luckily already up there, but Randa was going to have to drive, and she wasn’t looking forward to it, since a freezing drizzle was already starting.

I was happy when she called on Saturday to say she had tried to go, but turned back when she got a good look at the highway conditions. Some things are worth dying for, but committee meetings, even important ones, don’t fall into that category!

I wish *I* did!

It’s selling for over $2K at the moment on eBay!

February 5 seems like a long ways away, but it’s really not. As you no doubt know, Colorado joined in with the many other states who will be doing their primary voting that day. I’ve seen two suggestions for the name upgrade for “Super Tuesday". I’m not in love with “Tsunami Tuesday", but I have to admit “Super-Duper Tuesday” is just TOO wildly enthusiastic. And coming from me, that’s saying something.

I was pleased to see that the Lamar Ledger editor DID find room in the Friday paper for my little article about the last day to register a party affiliation. It was nice of her to take the extra trouble.

Today I got to check another thing off my to-do list. I had been calling around last week in search of a location to hold the precinct caucuses. The Lamar Community Building is pretty central, and has good sized rooms and convenient parking, BUT there’s a big basketball game already scheduled for the same night. So the Community Building was out. Since Lamar Middle School and Washington Elementary are located almost beside it, sometimes the overflow parking washes up against their shores. So they were out too.

The largest school location is the high school. They have a nice big parking lot (which my freshman son has big dreams of getting to personally use someday, but that’s a whole nother issue, and not one with political overtones, so we won’t be doing the follow-up here). There is a small downside — folks might be leaving from the JV basketball game being held there at about the same time as all the Dems are showing up. But even considering that, the high school is still the best choice overall, so today I went to fill out an application to reserve it.

So now we cross our fingers until it gets approved. Then we only have to settle things for the county’s other towns (Granada and Holly), and we’ll be all ready for Whatever You Want To Call It Tuesday!

RootsCamp2007 was the most fun I have had in a long, long time, and I learned a bunch of stuff, too, plus got some great new ideas! (I just hope I will be able to read my notes later.)

I wanted to blog from up there in Denver, but my laptop got wonky on me. And I was really too busy taking info IN to put much OUT, plus I was kinda tired from lots of walking and not much sleeping…and uh…the sun was in my eyes…and…my dog died a few years ago…and, and, and.

To be a little serious for a minute, I have actually been bustling like mad here at home trying to get caught back up, or at least as caught up as I ever get. But I am finally pretty much up to speed. So more soon! Really!

My list of things to get done before I take off on Friday for RootsCamp in Denver wasn’t cooperating today. My fault, really, because it’s hard to trim a list when you’re adding two new things for every one you finish.

Emailing back and forth with our county chair Randa about precinct caucus locations reminded me of yet ANOTHER thing to add. I had been planning to check with the local papers as to whether they had the info for an announcement of the deadline to register or change party affiliation, December 5th.

I guess in my mind the Lamar Ledger is still a 5 day a week paper. Imagine my dismay when the editor told me they were working on putting Friday’s edition to bed Right Then, Even As We Spoke. But IF I could get her something fast, MAYBE there was still a chance to run it Friday.

It was 3:50 and I was supposed to be somewhere at 4:00. Could I write a couple paras on the hows, whys and wheres of registering party affiliation in order to be eligible to vote at precinct caucuses on February 5th in that ten minute time frame?

Turns out I could. Huh.

I can’t resist a story like this, which shows that sensible but innovative government IS possible.

Two computer analysts for the county, Ryan Sneller and Kevin Rink, were pricing mobile radio uplink towers a few years ago. When they found the going rate was around $15-20K, they decided they could do better.

So they bought a trailer locally, bought the telescoping 45 foot antenna separately, and did the rest of the work themselves. They might pound keys for a living NOW, but they were both raised on the farm and know how to Make Stuff Work.

Final cost, about $5,500.

Now if there is an emergency that wipes out the usual communications network, this trailer can be hauled to a central location, and in about 30 minutes it will provide access to a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone system, analog telephone lines, fax lines and county databases.

Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

(Photo from Lamar Ledger editor Mary Breslin)

Full story here at the Lamar Ledger

Here’s another post that recycles some of the content from the newsletter I just sent out to the Prowers County Dems. See, not cheating. Recycling. Which is a virtue.

This link will take you to a page where you can see all four of the ads being tested in a few TV markets by Center for American Progress.

The one with the start screen that says “Progressive. And proud of it.” is my favorite. (My nickname for the singer is I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Dylan.) I highly recommend that you bookmark it for re-watching on the days you are feeling a little discouraged about how far we have to go. It’s a good reminder that we have COME a long ways, and it’s progressive principles that have helped make the changes happen!

Here I am back from my not-exactly-planned holiday break. You know how it is, I bet, so I won’t go on and on….

I ran across this today, a cute little runabout electric car called the Solar Bug.

“…for city dwellers or those people living in small towns, whose primary need is local transportation to and from work and local errands, it offers a trendy and environmentally friendly way to get around.”

By my rough figures, at current gas/electricity prices, this would get me around on errands at 1/10th or less of what Dreamcloud costs to run!

The specs are right here.

Not that I am LIKELY to have a spare $15,000 next year when they go on the market…but if I did, I would sure think about buying one!

Once you’re all done with football for the day, and you’re looking for something new and interesting to browse, try this site:

A List Of Over 250 Women Blogging On Politics

I’m on it now, and the nice person running the page is still taking names, if you have anyone to suggest!

Enjoy! I’m going to go nibble a little more stuffing….

I’m not the insightfulest page in the blogosphere tonight. Had to get up too early because of a little car problem, which has promoted itself to a ‘going to cost actual $$’ medium car problem. However, that’s not political, so let’s have some content, eh?

With 10 days to go in Votes for Coats and Cans Prowers County primary, Hillary is in the lead with 17 points. Richardson is close behind with 14 points, and Obama is a distant third with 5 points.

Thanks to the ‘Mikes sticking together’ vote, Mike Gravel is making a small showing with 3 points. None of the other candidates have yet to break out of the starting gate!

I’ll be pushing this again in my newsletter tomorrow, and we’ll see how things look at the end of the month!

Last weekend, a whole bunch of people got together and proved that it IS possible to do a huge, multi-agency exercise on the public dime, AND do it efficiently, AND do it so the general public gets real-time benefits.

No, I am not being sarcastic.

Colorado had a Full Scale Mass Vaccination Exercise, and I was a volunteer here in Prowers County. The idea was to pretend a flu pandemic, similar to the one in 1918, has hit the US.

Nine million people have the flu now, in the exercise scenario (which means roughly five million of them have no health insurance coverage, by my rough figurings. But that’s a rant for another day), and that’s just the tip of the second wave iceberg.

Prowers and the other 20 counties taking part in this exercise got their shares of flu shots flown in by the National Guard. It seemed to me the various agencies involved were trying to test every step of the plan as realistically as possible. Not in a way that would freak the public out, of course. It was well publicized around here as a practice run, with FREE flu shots as the reward for being a good citizen and helping test out the plan.

Ours was a drive-through set-up. People in cars (and a couple of motorcycles) lined up at the gates of the county fairgrounds, where they were given forms to fill out. (That’s where I was stationed.) Then they were directed to the next station and guided into one of three lanes, depending on how many were in a car and whether there were children to vaccinate.

The last stage was the observation area, where people waited to make sure they didn’t have a reaction to the shot, which is standard medical procedure.

I think it went very smoothly, especially when you consider that the top of the command chain is FEMA. (!) There was a long wait in line for the early birds, but once they got their forms, people were out in 20 minutes or less. Coming in cars DID use up gas, but on the other hand, people were not crowded into buildings to share germs, which would be a big concern in a real pandemic. Also, no one had to stand in line for hours, as happened with the flu shot exercise our county participated in two years ago.

The exercise ran from 8:30 to 12:00, and in that time 582 people, from babies to seniors, got flu shots!

After we shut down at noon and put all the stuff away, we had what is called a “hotwash". You might think this was something fun to help us relax, like a communal shower or soak in a big hot tub. But sadly not. All we did was talk about our observations and make suggestions to improve the exercise. I went home dusty, sore, and with unfulfilled curiosity about the derivation of the term “hotwash". Does it ever come with a hotwax? Is there also a coldwash?

No one ever tells me anything.

I have a neat thing to tell about, but I want to do a really good job, so I’m putting it off one more day.

Here’s a sort of hint. This picture from 1914 is about disease control. So was the public health exercise that I got to help with on Saturday.

You can read more about the bathouse HERE!

This is the overview of my take on the Neighborhood Leader program, which I wrote up for our Prowers Dems e-newsletter yesterday:

The One Year Out House Party we held last weekend was one of many just like it being hosted all over the US this month. This presentation of the Neighborhood Leader program was my third exposure in some form or other, and I have to say, it’s growing on me!

We all know how tough it is to schedule time in our busy lives where we can meet together as a group. That’s one of the pluses of the Neighborhood Leader program – you don’t have to try to do that!

Signing up as a Neighborhood Leader doesn’t mean you are expected to host meetings or work at scheduled events. (Not that you can’t, if you want – it’s just not a requirement.) You are just saying you will try to talk to at least 25 people about Dem stuff at least three times each in the next year.

What makes it easy is that when you sign on, you will be given a list of people in your neighborhood, maybe even in your block or on your street, who are already registered to vote as Democrats. You don’t have to confront hard-core Republicans and argue with them, or go around on what salesmen refer to as “cold calls", hoping to get lucky and find a friendly face at the door.

All you have to do is go to the houses of the people on your list and let them know they are not alone. There are other people who care about the serious problems our country is facing, who want to join together to help fix things. You will ask them about what concerns them most. This info will be added to their entry in the voters’ database, so future contact can be focused to what they really care about.

A lot of people don’t get active and do things simply because they don’t know how to get started. Getting in touch with them, one on one, is the first step. And that’s what the Neighborhood Leader program shows you how to do!

We actually had more than four at our house party (really a Randa’s office party) on Saturday! The full total was a whopping seven! The good part, though, was that we had Tom Florez, Alex Netherton and Robin Van Ausdall, all from other counties. It’s always fun to get a chance to talk with Dems we don’t see often.

I have to say I think the group call with Udall didn’t quite come off as advertised. I thought it was going to be an hour long Q & A. It only lasted about half an hour, and the first 10 minutes of that was canned music and muffled prep noises in the background. The rest was three pretty good personal stories, with responses from Udall. I expect the campaign will improve with practice.

The DNC DVD (say that three times fast!) was pretty good, though. I’m always glad to see Howard Dean, and as a bonus they threw in Parag Mehta, too! This was the third time I’d been exposed to the concept of the new “Neighborhood Leader” program, and I find I’m warming up to it. I think it has potential, if it can find its feet…those feet being at the ends of the legs of people willing to give it a shot.

So that’s one thing off my To Do list and about five added on…. Counts as a win, I say.

According to a story in Wednesday’s Lamar Ledger, we had a 55% turnout in the election. Not bad for an off-year.

The hottest race was for the Ward 2 City Council seat. The unofficial tally has the incumbent, “Skip” Ruedeman, holding his place by ONE vote. Just another anecdote to relate when people try to beg off voting because they say their vote doesn’t matter.

In the school board elections, the President and Vice-P were both replaced by new bees. You’d almost be tempted to take it as a sign the public is in the mood for regime change….

Come on 2008!

Well, our One Year Out House Party will be happening in just a few more days. Right now I am thinking all four of us who come will have a great time…but hey, we power on, right?

I had a few cans to take in for the Votes for Coats and Cans Primary. Mike helped carry stuff, so I gave him some of my stars. I was going to ask if he wanted me to tell him about the various candidates, but he had his mind made up before I could. For a second, I thought he was going for Obama, but then he chose to give his stars to Mike Gravel.

I guess Mikes have to stick together. :)

A BREAKING NEWS email came through last night just after midnight. Because my mail program only shows part of the subject line, this is what I saw:

BREAKING NEWS: Denver calls in SWAT

Yow, right?

Actually, not so much. Here’s the whole text.

“Denver has called in the SWAT team and other city workers to finish counting ballots tonight.

About 20 on-call SWAT officers are arriving at the election offices now. The election volunteers who had counted ballots all day were sent home.

The votes have been counted at a snail’s pace all evening, and election officials weren’t sure whether they would finish.”

Way to psych us out, RMN. Although, I guess it’s good we live in a society where they call the heavy duty guys in to HELP with the counting, not to STOP the counting….

It was the type that is productive, yet kinda boring to tell about in any detail. Basically, I was doing the background work for a project we are kicking off this week. It was inspired by the Coats and Cans Primary from http://democratswork.org/ . Our primary will be a straw poll for the Dem presidential candidates - one vote for a can of food for the local food bank, five votes for a coat for the homeless shelter!

And when people come in to donate, we will have a brochure to give them that explains how they can support their candidate for reals via the precinct caucus system!

So this weekend I was doing the research, writing the brochure, and printing out the pics and things I will need for making the sign and ballot board.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

A friend of mine was sharing an excellent quote around from Making Light, a personal blog that often touches on the political.

Zander, speaking in comments, said in part:

“If good and evil matter to us at all, then we are obliged to be good above all. If that means we lose, then we lose. If that means we die, then we die. If we sacrifice our goodness even for one moment for the sake of winning, the victory is pointless, and we are damned. Especially if we continue then to talk about good and evil as if they mattered to us.

We cannot, we dare not, lay aside our goodness on the grounds that it is “necessary,” because next time it will be “advisable” and the time after that it will be “expedient” and then “convenient” and by that time we are in pitch up to our necks. If we pretend to be on the side of the light, then we can do nothing in shadow, because even if God is not watching us, history is.”

You can read more comments on the topic HERE.

That’s what some people would do if I said it was sometimes hard for me to think of something to say here.

That is seldom a problem for me in Real Life.

But take today, just for example. I was fairly busy with political related stuff for a good chunk of it, but the actual activity was phone calls and research, which aren’t all that interesting to tell about.

Here’s one of the things I looked up today – the number of delegates our southeastern Colorado counties can send to the state convention:

Baca 4
Bent 5
Kiowa 4
Otero 19
Prowers 9

If you want to know the numbers for YOUR county, you can find them here on Dan Slater’s blog:

http://www.demnotes.com/wp-content/DelegateCalcs08dft3.pdf

A weird thing happened today. I was exploring the VAN site (Voter Access Network) because we are going to be using it tomorrow. We have some precincts here in Prowers County where former captains have moved away or whatever, so we need new victims candidates.

I was looking up a friend because I was going to ask if she wanted to be on the mailing list for the Prowers Dems email newsletter. I figured she was registered as a Dem because I really like her, I deeply respect her tremendous contributions to our community, and she is one of a very TINY subset of people I think of as real, genuine Christians living their faith as the Lord intended. But she MIGHT have been an Independent. So I checked.

She’s a registered Republican.

I have to admit it, I was freaked out. And then I felt guilty for feeling that way. Because in theory I believe no one should be judged as a stereotype, but “on the content of their character", etc.

Part of the reason I feel weird is because, well, I think of myself as a tolerant, non-judgmental person. After all, some of my relatives are…you know, elephant-friendly. It’s not so hard to tolerate THEM. Maybe because they are tolerating me right back….

It’s just kind of easy to fall into the Us v. Them mindset, especially when a person spends so much time online keeping up with current events and goings-on in the political arena.

Maybe this discovery will help me do a better job of being open-minded and fair.

I hope so. If it does, it’s yet another fine public service my friend has rendered.

Yes, I realize that sentence makes no logical sense in Latin, or any other language. It’s fun to say, though.

What caused that phrase to spring forth from my brain (other than the slightly twisted brainwaves that apparently came standard with my particular model) is the current push from the DNC for all us good solid citizens to get it in gear for 2008.

First let me say, I DO think that’s a good idea. Today is not too soon to get started. Well, okay, it’s almost 10:30 here. So, tomorrow is not too soon to get started….

Here’s the thing, though. I don’t think I am personally acquainted with any slackers. Everyone I know is busy as blazes with work, family and many very splendid and worthwhile causes.

The DNC and the various progressive groups want us to re-prioritize our lives and find as much time as we can squeeze out to donate to electing folks who will (we hope) end up wearing that good old -D (Somewhere) after their name.

What I want is for those who we help elect with our precious donated time to have the time of day for US once they take office.

Sound fair?

Yeah, to me too. Which means it’s also not too soon to start working on how to make sure that’s how it turns out post the 2008 elections.

It is highly possible I am an idiot.

Our DNC Field Liason Annajo sent me an email invite to a “webinar” tonight. I managed the online RSVP sign-up okay, which got me several more confirming instructive emails. I made a note of the time and got the program downloaded and installed without any exceptional difficulty. Since this my first webinar, I was nervous I would do something wrong. The pics soon started rolling, though, and I relaxed and sat back to enjoy the show.

But after a few minutes, I began to think the timing of the slides was odd. Sometimes screens with only a few words would stay up a long time, and yet complex screens whisked by after just a few seconds. And sometimes I could see a cursor moving around, which felt weird since I wasn’t the one moving it.

I recognized some of the pages from Pat Waak’s recent visit in Las Animas, although a few had new captions. I particularly wish I had done a screen capture of the one that said in big red letters: Remove Hard Core Republicans. (Oh, if only….)

I was also intrigued by the promise: New Activists Get Their Own Universe. Man, they spoil these new kids! *I* certainly wasn’t offered my own universe when I was getting started!

About 40 minutes in, I found a thingie to click which revealed a second chat window! I had made a few remarks on the more obvious one, and gotten a reply, but I hadn’t known there was more to it. I ALSO had not understood that YES, there was an audio component to go with the visual, and I ought to have phoned in as well as logged on. As soon as I found out, I dialed in…just as the webinar was ending.

So, um…house parties next weekend. We are going to be getting people to go out talking to people and getting them to talk to more people. All joking aside, it seems like a good plan.

But I am probably not the number one choice to try to explain it to anyone. Try the website instead Democrats.org/OneYearOut

Woo, my blog is now officially a BLOG – I’ve gotten four spamments this evening!

I took advantage of the lovely fall weather to do some yard work, which means my brain has now copied my body and slowed to a crawl. So how about a jolly trip to my Handy-dandy Link Locker for today’s post?

I like quizzes, even when I’m not very good at them. This one asks you to name as many presidents as you can in ten minutes. You even get a ‘gimme’ for presidents with the same last names!

I hadn’t played it in a while, so from a cold start I got 34 out of 43. I am good with the 1920s to today, but am made of fail re the 19th century.

Are you among the 27.55% of people who can name them all? Click here to find out!

I don’t necessarily dislike them, but they tend to throw me off schedule, and then it’s hard getting back on. Another reason I am not cut out for any political stuff that’s not behind the scenes.

On Thursday our Prowers County Dem board got together to try to get our heads around a timeline for the next year. Lots of stuff on that list now, after only one short meeting!

At this point in time I still have one free weekend (not counting Thanksgiving) in November and a couple in December. :/ I am finishing off October by celebrating Free Dump Weekend. Yeah, I know, woo hoo.

So that this post will have SOME content, I will share an interesting story from our local paper, the Lamar Ledger. (That’s the one that changed to a three-issues-per-week venue, which meant they could not longer be called the Lamar Daily News. Which ruined one of my favorite jokes, where I fondly referred to them as the Daily Snooze.)

ANYWAY, it seems the Corgi company wants to make and market a collectible model of one of our fire trucks, because it has an interesting history. “It was originally owned by the Arlington, Va. Fire Department and used at the scene of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001,” according to the online article.

The full link is here if you want to see more!

(Sorry, I accidentally deleted this post while killing a spamment, and I can’t seem to get it to go back to its proper place in line….)

Why, yes, I DO have a 15 year old who was on my last nerve today. How could you tell?

It’s a good thing that stuff comes along in life to keep us humble, right?

I should have known this was coming when Annajo Sanchez asked me last week about upcoming elections in Lamar, and all I could say was “Durr?” My feeble excuse was that I don’t actually live IN Lamar, and therefore since I am not eligible to vote for city issues, I hadn’t paid too much attention to it. (I KNOW. Bad activist. No biscuit. Or pizza.)

Then the mail-in ballots came to our house. “Huh,” I said, wondering what was up with that. Oh. School board posts. Okay, should be within my capabilities, I thought.

But no. The ballots had candidates listed for four different districts. Do we live in four different districts? No wonder I’m always so tired….

I had to call the courthouse to ask. The very kind and patient clerk explained to me that school districts are not the same as precincts, and we were in fact entitled to cast votes in all four on our ballot.

Told you I am still a New Bee about a lot of this political stuff. But, live and learn!

From Thers, writing at FireDogLake.com, speaking to the Dems currently holding congressional office:

“If you concede on habeas corpus, if you concede on ending the war, if you concede on bringing troops home, if you concede on FISA, if you concede on waterboarding, if you concede on holding this misbegotten failure of an administration accountable for their abuses, if you give one more goddamn inch —

Come 2008, I aim to misbehave.

Maybe that’s just me. But I doubt it.”

Read the whole thing here.

And may I add, speaking for myself…2008 will just be the start of my rumpus upkicking.

It’s a vocabulary quiz, and it’s not easy, either! For every word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice through United Nations World Food Program. (Hmm, maybe that should be the United Nations WORD Food Program!) Ten grains might not seem like much, but if you are a game nut like me, trust me, you’ll be donating a LOT of rice as you play over and over and over and over….

Top level is 50. Can you get there? Can you STAY there more than a question or two? *rubs hands and cackles evilly*

Click here to play!

Democracy For America has a great page here. They asked candidates to submit videos giving their opinions on some of the issues. You can watch them first, and then vote for your top three favorites, or, if you’ve been playing along at home and already know your preferences, just jump in and vote.

Kind of amazing how fast it can change. When I was there earlier this evening, Edwards was in the top spot, but it looks like a BUNCH of write-in votes have placed Gore in first!

Worth a vote and then bookmarking to watch the horse race!

Vote by clicking here!

A friend on LiveJournal found me this pic for my birthday, and I just had to show it off.

It’s not very political, though, so here’s a little something to cover that.

Monday evening some of us from Prowers County attended a meeting in Las Animas, hosted by Alex Netherton and the Bent County Democrats. (Wouldn’t that make a good name for a band?) There had been plans for a representative from Mark Udall’s campaign to visit with everyone beforehand, but that fell through. Since I’d needed to go to Las Animas early for personal reasons, I didn’t get the cancellation call, and wound up wandering around by myself at the Bent’s Fort Inn. I didn’t know they had a birding trail behind there! Next time I will go even earlier, in better shoes!

Luckily for me, Annajo Sanchez, one of our Colorado DNC party promotion worker bees (no, that’s not their real job title. I’m blanking on the actual title) had ALSO left home before she got the call. So we were able to just relax and talk over a plate of the (not-so) famous Bent’s Fort Inn sushi until everyone else arrived.

Pat Waak, our state chair, gave a well-organized talk and slide show, zooming us through it in time for local people to get home to watch the Rockies game! She’s been traveling around to try to contact as many county Dem groups as possible. We had people from five counties in attendance this time, which is pretty good considering how spread out all the towns are down here.

Pat started out with the “state of the State", showing how voting percentages and opinion poll numbers are changing in the Dems’ favor. Rural areas are where a LOT of this change is happening, which is nice for us, as it means candidates and office holders can’t just take us for granted like they used to. Well, not as much, anyway.

This happy overview of good things to come led into a look at the timeline for the 2008 caucuses and how it all works. I know everyone reading CodeNeonBlue knows how to look that data up at coloradodems.org, so I won’t go into details here.

Next up was how to be chosen as a Colorado delegate to the National Convention in 2008. Short answer: It’s hard. Lots and lots and lots of other people are interested.

Slightly longer answer: There are still 55 slots available. Of those, 36 will be elected from the Congressional Districts. Here in CD-4 they need to choose 3 males, 2 females and 1 female alternate. For all the people who don’t make that cut, there will be an open election at the State convention for 12 At Large delegates.

(Disclosure: I’m not angling to be a DNC delegate, so that’s one less person competing, if you’re already planning how to make your move. What I want to do is be there blogging it!)

The final topic of the evening was the Jerome Project. I could tell you about it, but then I’d have to recruit you. Just trust me when I say it’s a good plan for getting out the vote in 2008!

(Rocktober TM Gov. Bill Ritter, in honor of the Colorado Rockies best season ever!)

I thought this bit from the Oct 16 Rocky Mountain News about the post game fun downtown deserved to be preserved:

“By 1 a.m., the crowds are dwindling and the cops are still smiling. No tear gas has been dispersed; skulls have not been cracked.

“The World Series should be nothing,” jokes one of the officers. “But at least it’ll be a good warmup for the DNC.”

That’s going to be a WHOLE NOTHER ballgame.

But the steam must have deleted my mental files. Dang.

I remember the basic stuff, of course. I was taking an opening bang or two on a drum I will probably be pounding quite a lot as I blog along: are we so sucked in by the idea of “winning” to beat our “enemies” in the GOP that we don’t care at all what kind of candidate we end up backing?

Later on, as I was looking through my Firefox bookmarks, I ran across one with a similar theme. What if Gore hadn’t been shafted by the Supreme Court and had taken office in 2000, but then something had happened to him? Do the words “President Lieberman” make your blood run cold? If I’d thought about that while I was still in the bath, the water probably would have iced over!

Obviously we DO have to win elections if we want to have a say in creating a decent future for everyone. But it’s just as obvious to me that if we adopt the “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” mentality too fully, well…we might scor