Those of us who couldn’t afford Austin this year are probably feeling pretty sorry for ourselves right about now, after seeing all the cool people who will be attending.  I’ve been thinking about all the brainiacs I wanted to meet (and all the whacky bloggers from the kiddie pool).  Thanks to Katharine Seelye at NYT, I’m now really glad that I’m not attending this event, because after reading her article, I would be running through Austin right now trying to show her my breasts. That’s right- I would be flashing this lady like a bead-slut at Mardi Gras.  (more after the flip)

It seemed so simple, buying a router to have liberation from the devil ethernet cords. Four hours have passed now, with the evil Linksys router electronically taunting and mocking me, over and over again.

Like many of you, I was at work today while Obama spoke in Philadelphia about race and community, about the genesis of liberty and about moving towards liberation. I read the text of his speech slowly, then I read it again. It feels like he’s talking to me. It feels like he’s talking to generations of my family- slaveowners and slaves to industry.

Maybe I'm still more naive than I thought, but this mess with Eliot Spitzer has hit me pretty hard. Isn't he supposed to be a good guy? Don't we expect a higher level of behavior from the democrats? Did he not get the message about how easy it is to detect utter horndoggery in the modern age? It's not like he carried out criminal investigations or anything...sigh.

Well kids, it's time for the big game in Ohio (and I don't mean the Buckeyes are getting ready to wallop the state up north). Tomorrow's primary day and it looks like it's going to be a horserace to the finish. You've seen the poll data, now this friendly neighborhood election official says- get ready to rumble!!! Some tips and some warnings about participating in the Ohio Primary after the flip...

I was just skimming through diaries to see what happened whilst (I do so love that word) I was off preserving democracy at the polls yesterday. Please know that my thoughts are with you, and Psycho Sally. Hopefully, you will not have to wear the Elizabethan dog-collar during your own treatment. Thanks to your profound diary, my thoughts are also with Nancy Pelosi and the leadership today.

Welcome back to election season, kids! We've got fall color on the trees, so it must be time to head back to the polls. Last year, my original Election Official Confidential diary describing Ohio's election procedures from a pollworker's perspective got a good response, so I thought an update was in order.
To recap- last year Ohio's federal election was saddled with new state voter ID regs and a host of repressive state procedures given to us by former Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (BOO!!! Hiss....) Confusion and long lines ensued, but we still somehow managed to flip the governor's office and get a senate seat and a precious few congressional districts for the dems. So, where are we now?  More under the fold...

Welcome to today's edition of Cheers & Jeers, coming to you from the beeyoootiful state of Ohio. I'm your hostess, histopresto, and I will be pinch-hitting today for the real Cheers & Jeers, since Bill in Portland Maine has abandoned us all to live in Key West with a really buff cabana boy who owns a kennel full of chocolate labs and has his own rum factory...oh wait, was I not supposed to mention that yet? Dammit!

Today's bootleg edition of Cheers and Jeers starts after the jump!

THWOCK!

[Sorry kids, but they took the official C & J gong to Chicago to open Friday's roundtable sessions. I had to smack a butter knife against the monitor instead.]

Well, it's another Friday afternoon with a few more minutes to blow before you head home- wouldn't you reeeeeeally like to do something constructive for the good of the political process?  Take a few minutes and put together a nice, pesky question for Mitt Romney's Town Hall event. You know, he really wants to hear your policy questions, right?  That's why C-Span is soliciting your questions for Mr. Romney's live event, happening just 30 sweet minutes from now.  

UPDATE: Don't miss your chance to phone in and ask your question live! Starting at 6 pm edt on C-Span for live Mitt-on-voter action and at 7 pm edt for reactions from viewers

Well, I've heard just about enough about Libby for today, so let's try an experiment.  I say Libby- you say...pumpkin pie!  Okay, you see where this is going, right?  Fred Hiatt at WAPO says that 30 months is too long, 0 months isn't long enough, but maybe setting the sentence somewhere in between... is like slicing pie!  

So, who's ready for some recipes for the holiday? Make the jump for a traditional democratic favorite from Jimmy's wife Rosalynn...

Once again, my friends get all the fun calls. Some people have all the luck! Last night's call was a poll with one topic only:  should Scooter Libby be pardoned?  I'm curious- how many people out there are getting these calls right now?  And doesn't that tell me that the White House IS actively considering pardoning the family-minded little weasel? More after the jump...

Well, it's been a crazy week at work and yet another crazy week to be a democrat. Between party loyalists jumping ship like plague rats and recreational dems swearing off the party for good, today seemed like a good day for lunch with an old-school democrat. And boy, did she have some tall tales to tell. While we've been busy chasing our blogger-tails about this statement from that politician and that release from another, my friend' s been getting calls. She's not a blogger, but her phone's been ringing off the hook with calls from the front runners and calls from the RNC.  More after the jump...

In tracking votes on key federal legislation, it's important for all of us to take a hard look at party and state and political affiliations. We doublecheck who's been crossing the aisle for key votes, hoping against hope to see signs of early Republican defections from the Bush cabal. Hey, maybe there will be a diary in there somewhere, if you've got the stones to throw your own junior political analysis into the blogosphere.

Me? I've been slow about jumping into the analytical fray, but no longer! According to the Washington Post, it's incredibly super-informative to look at the legislator's astrological sign as a key indicator of their legislative intent. More on WAPO's hardhitting take on the Senate after the jump...

As a pet owner who had some of the recalled foods from MenuFoods sitting innocently on a shelf, I'm throroughly pissed about the lack of oversight over the pet food industry. So, in the tradition of bloggers everywhere I have started to dig- but I need some help interpreting the company's 3rd quarter 2006 stockholders report, still online today.  Do my eyes deceive me, or does that report seem to imply that problems in obtaining raw supplies and packaging materials meant they had to pass substantial price increases on to their private label customers in the US in early 2006 for both cans and pouches? And didn't the contaminated materials enter their manufacturing chain in December, 2006?

In case you haven't noticed already, today's the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and it's a very good day to talk about issues of choice. By sheer serendipity, today was also my annual "ladies health check".  (Yes, that means gynecologist visit, guys.) I was thinking hard about reproductive rights when I walked into the doctor's office after reading redmcclains's diary. I decided that today, I was going to talk to my doctor about reproductive rights.

In what may prove to be one of the more interesting spoils of victory plundered from the November elections, Henry Waxman just handed Dennis Kucinich a prize as the chairman of a revamped subcommittee on domestic policy.

Waxman's announcment on Wednesday listed the democratic members of the House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee. The full committee is expected to confirm these members today.

It's kind of like giving our progressive pal Dennis a shiny new Mr. Microphone and putting soapboxes on every corner for him to stand on. This is going to be fun to watch.

Why is today unlike any other day?
Because it's national championship day, people!
For sweet Woody's sake, haven't you been paying attention?!

Join me in an exploration of the top ten reasons why this day should really be declared a holiday in Ohio and the dkos-nation (or Why we should all be home making pigs in a blanket and mixing vodka drinks in the smoothie machine.)

Jump with me, back into the state that's high in the middle and round on both ends...

Did you ever wonder what else was in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, other than slushy deals for all of Cheney’s oil company pals? Maybe this was the year that you decided to add attic insulation or geothermal heat or solar panels or solar water heaters or something equally earth conscious to your home.  Guess what? If you did, there’s a tax credit in that bill for you, but getting information about the credit is harder than you might think.

Me? I just hit two full hours of wading through the special circle of hell that is the IRS Help Line, eternally stuck listening to Swan Lake.  I was hearing the version with that ugly duckling chasing his much cuter swan siblings through the Warner Brothers pond...