EMILY'S LIST OFFER
The health care reform debate has shown that we must defend every pro-choice Democratic woman facing a challenge and expand their numbers in Congress in 2010. Polling shows the dynamic that could doom Democrats across the country - Tea Party activists, Sarah Palin supporters, and other conservatives are energized and organizing. It's an "enthusiasm" that we must overcome by mobilizing women voters to go to the polls. Just look to Massachusetts to see the Republicans' 2010 strategy. They're building support from outside conservative groups, appealing to the right, and bringing in big guns to raise money hand over fist. GOP darling Scott Brown - a favorite of the Tea Party crowds - is a solid Republican loyalist who recently filed legislation that would allow the elimination of mandated coverage for critical health services for women - including mammograms and maternity care.
By becoming a member today, Emily's List can fully fund WOMEN VOTE! programs that are critical to progressive change.

That's why I urgently ask that you become an EMILY's List member today, so we can continue to turn out women through our WOMEN VOTE! program. And if you join today, they're offering a special membership rate of only $10.

Click here to join EMILY's List for a special $10 membership rate today!

PERSONAL PORTAL
Most people never change their browser to meet their tastes or needs. That seems like such an under-utilization of a powerful tool. Instead of being stuck with the browser page set by your machine's manufacturer, you've always been able to set it to open to something else, like the Google search page, Google News, New York Times, etc. But, there are also quite a few tools now that let you make your own start page.

iGoogle is one of those. This screen shot is the one I set up for my office computer. It has a lot of the sites I visit regularly, like Google News, New York Times, Washington Post, local television stations, etc. And, like the portals that you see on Yahoo, I've put the weather, maps, the tunnel cams, TV Guide, Movies, Facebook, even sticky notes, on there.

THE GOV'NA AND THE BEAR
It is worth remembering that Paul William Bryant Jr. was a public man who lived in a poor and troubled state at a grim time. The year 1958, when Bryant fielded his first Alabama team, was also the year in which George C. Wallace made his first campaign for governor. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, these two men were the dominant figures of public life in Alabama and the state's main representatives to the nation. In that time, they so dominated the consciousness of the state that it is only in relation to Wallace that we can understand the service that Bear Bryant did Alabama and how, like so many lesser men, he also failed that state in the midnight of its humiliation.
(NEW REPUBLIC, suggested by SHARON NICHOLS BLOG THANK YOU MA'AM)

SPLCenter.org: A Decade of Defiance

HARD NUT TO CRACK
His name sounds drab, but John Joe Gray is one colorful character. While tax-dodging, money-laundering "sovereign-citizen" extremists claiming they are subject only to God's laws are imprisoned across the nation, Gray, a right-wing militia religious zealot, has been in a ten-year standoff with the state of Texas.
(SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, suggested by ALTERNET)

According to its ethics code, NPR still has a Fox News problem | Media Matters for America

FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE
National Public Radio operates under a wide-ranging ethics code that leaves little doubt about how its journalists should conduct themselves. This ethics code, written "to protect the credibility of NPR's programming by ensuring high standards of honesty, integrity, impartiality and staff conduct." And yet still, NPR finds itself struggling with the evergreen controversy that surrounds two of its well-known voices who regularly appear as commentators on Fox News, an organization that makes a mockery of ethical standards, a cable outlet whose employees would be summarily fired from NPR for the seemingly countless and chronic journalism transgressions they make.
(MEDIA MATTERS, suggested by ALTERNET)

Best Coquito in New York Is Named - NYTimes.com

TRADITION
Coquito is a very important tradition in the Puerto Rican community. Everyone has their own recipe. And behind every recipe there’s always a grandmother or an aunt or an old town. The drink is usually made with coconut and rum, along with nutmeg, cinnamon and various secret ingredients, sometimes egg yolks, sometimes condensed milk. It can be thick and creamy, light and spicy, boozy, mellow, sweet or tangy.
(NYT)

HERE'S OURS:

1 can coco lopez

1 can condensed milk

2 cans evaporated milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2-3/4 litre white rum

6 egg yolks

cup sugar

RIGHT FACE!
While the John Birch Society was not too long ago considered far too ridiculous for the American mainstream (even Republicans considered them a political pariah), as conservatives have become more extreme, this fringe group has slowly worked itself back into the fold. So much so that this year JBS will co-sponsor the Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C.
(ALTERNET)

Donate SkyMiles with Delta's SkyWish program at delta.com

HOLIDAY IDEA
This seems like an absolutely painless and wonderful way to make a charitable donation. Skywish Charity takes those unused Skymiles of yours and lets you donate them to any of 14 organizations. I just donated mine to the American Cancer Society and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. But you can opt for CARE, Canine Assistants, Habitat for Humanity International, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and more.

DUMB BLOND JOKE
If you want to see a hilarious take down of Fox News and Gretchen Carlson, watch this analysis by Jon Stewart, who tells her not to store her intellect in an off-shore account.

ANOTHER WORLD
I got these Demotix photos showing "Karachi's eunuchs" holding a candlelit vigil on World AIDS. Eunuchs? Really? Now?

Well....

If the Supreme Court of Pakistan's (SCP) decision to give eunuchs seats in the Parliament comes into effect, the eunuchs are all set to draft a resolution against the Sindh police and City District Government Karachi (CDGK) officials for their brutal behaviour against the eunuchs. MORE

I know some people who think that eunuchs are God’s chosen favourites and one should not be rude to them. But while I can understand that some enuchs are born that way and deserve to be pitied, I think most hijras today have either got themselves castrated or have been forcibly castrated to earn money by begging. MORE

Unknown elements have launched a mysterious campaign against eunuchs since the last week, triggering anxiety among non-governmental organisations working for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. MORE

But, see:

For arguments sake, say you were one of the abductors in the aforementioned scenario, and the Madadgar 15 Police catch you with your pants down, along with your bored and ignorant friends, 3 eunuchs and some felonious t-shirts. One would expect you would have a nice, airtight excuse at the ready for just such an emergency. Surely you could'nt even hope to rely on the pathetic excuse for an excuse that is: “Oh Good Evening officer, me and my friends and my eunuchs are all on our way to NADRA”. MORE

Thanksgiving in Afghanistan | Demotix.com

GIVE THANKS
High in the mountains of Wardak Province, Army Officers of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division serve Thanksgiving Day dinner to their troops.
(DEMOTIX)

C215 - A Stencil Artist | Demotix.com

SEE 215
He does stencils on old doors, post boxes, and on concrete. Technically, he is doing something illegal which could be considered vandalism by the city or the law. But he has proven that art & beauty with good intentions can conquer preconceived notions of what is legal and illegal. He also creates all of his artworks during the day and does not feel he should hide it. He has been arrested on three occasions but always set free: Paris street artist C215 and his vibrant work.
(DEMOTIX)

THANKS, NO REALLY!
"It's like comics threw a curve ball, and now your nuts need some frozen peas" is the compliment heaved his way in a great review Zack just got at Comics of the Weak.
(Factual Opinion)

Minneapolis News - Michele Bachmann: Crazy like a fox - page 1

CRAZY LIKE A FOX
Michele Bachmann's modus operandi is a madcap Orwellian playground. That is to say that most everyone, even Republicans, realize that her rhetoric doesn't make sense. But maybe it's not supposed to.

THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW
(CITY PAGES)

What Makes a Young Person Embrace Death and Murder? Former Jihadists Speak Out | | AlterNet

IN THEIR HEADS
In the mosques across London one hears a fringe of young men talk dreamily of flocking to Afghanistan to "resist." Yet this whisper never has an immigrant accent. Beneath the beards and the burqas, there is an English voice. It shares British pronunciations, cultural references, and national anthem. Any attempt to dig into their psychology is always met with a resistant sneer, and opaque recitations from the Koran. Their message is simple: we don't do psychology or sociology. We do Allah. But a fragile new movement of former jihahists is revealing everything they learned on the inside.
(ALTERNET)