You didn’t think we could stop at 12, did you?

After Kim’s top TV moments post, a few of you were kind enough to ask about my list. My babies, you flatter me. It didn’t take long to come up with 12 (and a half) more memorable pieces of television that aired this year. This list is highly subjective and not at all complete – I’m a season behind on Louie, and I haven’t even started Homeland or The Walking Dead. But that’s enough with the excuses. On with the list!

1) The Gabby Giffords “Fix You” Montage – The Newsroom

It’s not that I DON’T realize that Aaron Sorkin is manipulating my emotions, it’s that he’s so good at it that I don’t care. The Newsroom had its moments this year, and the best were usually when the news team kicked into action. This montage also includes some of the best dialogue in the first season of the series: “It’s a person. A doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.” and “You’re a fucking newsman, Don, I ever tell you otherwise, you PUNCH ME IN THE FACE!”

2) Amy Poehler and Julia Louis Dreyfus switch Emmy acceptance speeches.

As much as I worship at the altar of Amy, I’ve got nothing but love for Julia Louis Dreyfus. And apparently, Amy does too. Their bit was cute and clever, and acknowledged that Julia realized (though she’s brilliant) that she was taking home an award for one season of work vs. Amy’s five. The TV funny lady crew has always seemed chummy instead of catty, and you can’t help but cheer on this kind of friendship and support. Love.

2.5) Leslie Knope votes for herself – Parks and Recreation

But seriously, Amy should have won that Emmy.

3) The Battle of Blackwater – Game of Thrones

It seemed like all of the action in the talky second season of GoT was crammed into this episode. Explosions! Fire! Heads chopped off! And meanwhile, Cersei Lannister getting gloriously hammered and bitchy.

4) The Broadway cast of Once performs “Gold” on The Tony Awards

Even without having seen the show, this rousing performance by the cast of Once had me rooting for its eventual Best Musical win.

5) Matthew proposes to Mary – Downton Abbey

Julian Fellowes put poor Mary and Matthew through the wringer before giving them this moment in the Season 2 Christmas Special. They’re dressed to the nines, of course, and standing in an aura of glistening snow when the dashing Mr. Crawley asks Mary to marry him. She apologizes to him for, well, banging a Turkish man to death, and he gives the most swoon-inducing answer possible: “I don’t believe you need my forgiveness.” Matthew Crawley: Anti-Slut Shaming Since 1918.

Also, they’re cousins, so Mary doesn’t even have to change her name. Convenient AND creepy.

6) Hannah and Marnie have a Robyn dance party – Girls

Sometimes, when you find out that your college boyfriend is now gay, all you can do is dance it out with your best friend.

7) Arrested Development starts filming new episodes.

Okay, so this wasn’t on TV. But it will be. And that, kids, is why you always keep that torch burning for the show you lost too soon. It may have taken 7 years, but we finally saved our Bluths.

8) “Yeah, bitch! MAGNETS!” – Breaking Bad

Poor, sweet, (relatively) innocent Jesse. All he wants to do is eat pizza, play video games, and hopefully not be witness to any more child murders. How can you not love a friendly meth cooker who’s this jazzed about magnets? Be kind to him in the final episodes, Vince Gilligan. I beg you.

9) Caskett finally happens – Castle

Castle is the best of what I like to call “The Mom Shows.” This category includes the original programming on TNT, USA, and TBS, as well as every single procedural. Especially those whose main character is a cop who’s got some issue to overcome – like he’s blind or disgraced or a zombie or whatever.

ANYWAY, after the requisite buildup of sexual tension, misunderstandings, and bad timing, Rick Castle and Kate Beckett finally got it in at the conclusion of last year’s season finale. Caskett is now canon.

10) Everybody at Fox News loses it on Election Night.

Fox News’ grip on reality was already tenuous at best. But on Election Night, the entire on-air crew saw its worst fears realized and had a complete meltdown. And it was glorious.

11) There is a TARDIS on a cloud – Doctor Who

If your most fervent wish isn’t to find a TARDIS on a cloud at the top of an invisible spiral staircase, then what kind of monster are you?

12) Liz Lemon gets married – 30 Rock

Liz Lemon’s wedding was, like 30 Rock itself, the perfect mix of weird and sincere. How else could Lemon have tied the knot if not in a Princess Leia dress with her best bud and mentor Jack by her side? My only complaint is that she didn’t end up with Floyd, the Michael Clayton of Cleveland.

There you have it, nerds: my favorite moments of the last twelve months of TV goodness. I’ve no doubt that 2013 will bring us plenty of goodies to include in our inevitable Top 13 lists. Leave your favorites in the comments and keep on watching.

The Empire State building all lit up in blue on election night.

*WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN INTOXIKATIE?! I am completely lost trying to distinguish which bars are worthwhile from those that are complete shit.*

Never fear!  I’m back and roaring….ready for a new year of bar reviews.  In all seriousness, my B for the absence.  Hope this post finds you all well and enjoying some good ole holiday shenanigans.  With all the time off from writing, I have gained some new perspectives and added more stories to my personal collection of ‘How Katie can make a fool of herself.’ All for the entertainment of my readers, of course!

In recent news, I finally decided to get a Twitter account.  @intoxikatie

I encourage you all to follow me if you are craving more than just what I post on here.

For my epic return to the bar blogisphere, I have decided to review Touchdown on U Street.  While Touchdown is a divey sports bar tucked away on U Street, there is a certain charm about this place.

I will admit that I did not actively seek out Touchdown.  It’s the type of bar that I’ve walked past probably about 100 times on my way to other places, but never ventured in….not until election night.  Like many people in the DC, I was excited to watch the election poll returns.  The original plan was to go to Policy.  Upon arrival, we discovered it was too crowded and with three hungry girls, we needed some place for some grub.  Stopped at the corner of 14^th and U, a random guy started talking to us and suggested we head to Touchdown for trivia.  My smart ass response – Who wants to do trivia when there are election returns to watch?  We proceeded to my typical spot for good food on U Street, Desperadoes.  Unfortunately though, this too was packed.  Turning to my two girlfriends, we decided to give Touchdown a shot. Located conveniently between 13^th and 14^th street on U Street and in a cluster of bars, we headed up the flight of stairs to see a fairly vacant bar.  Taking three seats at the bar, we ordered up some drinks and food (Screwdriver – $6, Chicken Quesadilla – $10, Jalapeño Poppers – $9).  The drinks and jalapeño poppers were solid…quesadillas….eh, haha.

Election night proved to be successful.  In no particular order of importance: my trivia team didn’t completely suck for once; I won a dance-off; and Obama won…clearly me winning the dance off was the most important of the three.  Upon finding out that Obama won, we stormed the streets and marched to the White House to celebrate properly!

The next week, trying to recreate some of the awesomeness of election night, I invited some friends out again for trivia.  This time, I got a chance to sample Touchdown’s cider collection of Strongbow and Angry Orchard (about $6 each).  This fall I made it my mission to become a cider snob.  Since I am still not really a large beer fan, cider became a suitable alternative at establishments that do not serve liquor.  Because my sarcasm in this paragraph might not carry, I completely understand and acknowledge that I like cider because it tastes like alcoholic apple juice J

Full disclosure – I have only attended Touchdown on Tuesday evenings for trivia.  It’s a small, quaint bar with a handful of tables.  The food is mediocre.  My trivia teammates RAVE about the goat cheese quesadillas, but other than that I wouldn’t really come here specifically for the food.  The bar staff is friendly and accommodating.  With fairly priced drinks outside of happy hour, Touchdown is really just the type of establishment where you can go to relax and be yourself.  This is not something that can be easily said about every bar in DC and anyone who has been here longer than a month can attest to that.  Because of the size, I wouldn’t recommend Touchdown for very large groups, but it is definitely the type of place that you can go with a good group of friends.  Being a sports bar, I am uncertain of its team loyalties, but it seems like the type of place that would turn on whatever game you request.  The clientele is down-to-earth also, which can be essential for creating the right bar atmosphere.

Having gone to more than a handful of trivia nights now, they kind of feel like the college experiences I never had.  With opportunities to win free shots, beer-offs, and flip cup to play afterward, my Tuesday evenings have become a welcome distraction and relief from busy workweeks.  Now this is not to say that you have to get rip-roaring drunk to enjoy yourself, quite the contrary…but being sober probably wouldn’t have led me to a Tuesday night visit to Camelot (yes, I’ve been here more frequently than most of my guy friends, ha!) or as much dancing (actually…I dance that much completely sober).  Think you can keep up with my friends and me?  Come out to Tuesday Trivia at Touchdown and I’ll be the girl proudly making a fool of myself, haha. #NoShame #TuesdayIsTheNewFriday

As we get closer to 2013, my list of resolutions continues to grow and includes: posting more consistently (once every two weeks) and getting into Harold Black (the new LEGITIMATE speakeasy in Capitol Hill…to improve my street cred).  Mark your calendar, my next deadline is January 6th, 2013!

Nearly two weeks earlier I visited the really awesome Christmas store at Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, where I saw all kinds of ornaments on sale—including hedgehog-shaped ornaments. Some of them were made from glass, which I thought were cute and lovely, but I didn’t buy because they were a bit on the pricey side.

I purchased the two other hedgehog ornaments that were on sale. I felt that it was a great way of celebrating my first Christmas since I brought Spike home from the pet store just 11 months earlier. I bought two hedgehogs because I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. The left hedgehog in the picture below was made in the Phillippines by a company called Brushkins and it’s made out of bristle brush. The right hedgehog looks like it’s made from resin or some similar material and it was made in China and distributed by Kurt S. Adler. Both of them are very cute and they are currently hanging on my tree.

As for Spike, I had an interesting problem. On Election Night I was completely out of his Ultra Bites Fruit & Veggie Treats that I use as part of his regular diet and I was also running low on his Pretty Pets, which is also part of his diet. So I drove 30 miles to the pet store in Columbia that is the one closest to me that has hedgehog food for sale. The store was out of the Ultra Bites so I made the short-lived experiment on buying guinea pig veggie treats as a substitute only to have Spike ignore it. (I ended up making another pet store run a few days later to buy the Ultra Bites for Spike.) The store had the Pretty Pets but I found that the bag was more expensive than usual but it was the only bag of Pretty Pets left in stock so I bought it.

When I got home I discovered that I had purchased the 8 pound bag, when I usually purchase the smaller 3 pound bag. The problem is that Spike only eats 3 tablespoons of food a day so I began to fear that the larger 8 pound bag will go stale before Spike has the chance to eat all of it. So I decided on another experiment. When I ran out of what was left in the 3 pound bag, I opened the 8 pound bag and filled up the 3 pound bag.

Then I took a Hefty gallon freezer bag and filled that up with some more of the 8 pound bag. Afterwards I put a chip clip over the 8 pound bag. Then I took the freezer bag and what’s left in the 8 pound bag and stuck it in the freezer door. I know that bread can freeze pretty well so I’m hoping that it’s the same for pet food. I’ll find out in a few months whether pet food freezes well or not. Only Spike can make that decision. (LOL!)

Speaking of Spike, here’s a recent photo of him sitting pretty under his infrared light (which is why there’s a heavy red overcast in this shot).

They were among approximately 40 students who gathered outside the Minority Student Union at Hampden-Sydney College on the night of Nov. 6 within minutes after Obama won a second term.

Some shouted racial slurs, tossed bottles, set off fireworks and threatened physical violence. No one was injured inside the house, and some left the building to peacefully confront the crowd, as did other students.

The four were found guilty by a student court of violating the college’s student code of conduct, the school said in a statement released to The Associated Press. Hampden-Sydney spokesman Thomas H. Shomo said the students are not being identified, and that college administrators never comment on student court verdicts.

Chris Howard, the all-male school’s first African-American president, condemned the students’ actions as a “harmful, senseless episode” in an email to parents after the incident. “There is no place for bigotry or racism on this campus,” he wrote.

The expelled student was found guilty of disruptive and lewd behavior and harassment. The other three were found guilty of violating the code of student conduct. They included lewd behavior, hazardous acts and fireworks violations. The college did not elaborate on the charges.

Each was put on probation and ordered to do community service ranging from 25 to 100 hours.

The racially tinged uproar after Obama’s re-election was among two on U.S. campuses. A protest at the University of Mississippi in Oxford involved about 400 people, some of whom shouted racial slurs. Two people were arrested.

The night after the Hampden-Sydney problems, nearly 300 members of the campus community gathered to discuss what had happened. Many spoke out against the actions of the students outside the union, Howard said.

Click here to read more.

It’s been a few months since I last updated my blog but I’ve had a couple good reasons: I’ve been busy preparing for and executing Cal Poly TV’s 2012 Election Night Coverage and I have a new job at KSBY-TV as a production technician.

Last school year, myself and fellow CPTV reporter Lindsay Macleod did a get to know the candidates series of stories on all of the politicians running for the 24th Congressional District. We did a story on each candidate during each week’s CPTV show and then did a larger web version interview where we showed all the questions we asked of the candidates.

During the series, Lindsay and I talked about how cool it would be to do comprehensive coverage of election night in the same fashion that professional TV stations work.

So, starting in August, I got to work on planning CPTV’s coverage leading up to election night and then the comprehensive coverage of election night itself with live updates from our studio that were aired ever half hour live on TV, online and on the radio station KCPR.

Leading up to election night, we covered all of the propositions on the California Ballot– especially Proposition 30– and the major local races. The coverage went well and we hit on every major issue the students needed to know about. But that part was easy, the daunting part of live election night coverage still loomed over us.

CPTV Political Reporter Lindsay Macleod anchors election night.

We were set to have several reporters out covering different races or angles around San Luis Obispo and our very first live shot at the election results party for San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx.

With some help from Cal Poly’s on-campus newspaper the Mustang Daily, we coordinated what everyone would be covering and how election night would go.

And then it all came down to ensuring the technology side would work. We had to get a special Election Night graphics package with special music, make sure we could actually do the live shot technically, teach our reporter at the live shot how to set it up and how to do a live shot, enable web streaming for the studio and pre-produce all the graphics we needed for the night.

After all the prep work was done, it all came down to just showing up and hoping it all worked out.

When our first hit rolled around at 7, it was a little rough because we simply did not have enough people in the studio to run everything. When 7:30 hit, it went a little better but was still rough.

But at 8 p.m., everything just clicked. We had our first live shot which went awesome and we started to get results in.

From there on out, it was all just a matter of waiting for the reporters to come back with stories and to keep updating results as we came in.  We updated video and graphics on the fly and kept on getting great interviews at our live shot, including getting one of the first interviews with the mayor after she saw the results that it looked like she was going to win.

After stressful, crazy night was over, we all felt very accomplished and that we pulled off something special.

We had a slick coverage of election night that was competitive to what the professional news stations did in the market.

In the end, I learned several important lessons about covering major events like election night.

• Proper planning is key, it makes the night go much smoother
• Make sure you have enough people working
• Enforce deadlines, no matter how bad you feel for cutting people’s stories
• Dream big, but have realistic dreams
• Have a good team, it makes the night more fun
• Things will change or go wrong. Just roll with the problems and troubleshoot as needed
• Have fun!

Finally, I’d like to end the lengthy blog post by giving a couple shout-outs to the people who made our great election night coverage possible. First, I’d like to thank our professors Patti Piburn and Richard Gearhart for the guidance through all the planning. Thomas Morales did a great job of helping me prep the studio and all the technical aspects of election night. To the Mustang Daily staff for working with us and putting our feed on their website. To everyone from CPTV who helped make the night so good but especially Christina Favuzzi, Brandon Jones and Lindsay Macleod.  Christina did a great job with the very first live shot in Cal Poly TV’s history and was very natural on air. Brandon Jones for doing a great job directing and running the production side of things for me.  And finally Lindsay Macleod who helped me plan everything and did a great job producing the night with me and on top of that, was an awesome anchor.

It was a legendary night for CPTV and I can’t wait to work election night in a professional newsroom in 2 years!

I started laughing as soon as the legal pad was handed to me. In the editorial conference room, with the entire editorial staff present, they asked me to write down my twitter account so I could live-tweet from whichever candidate’s election party I’d be posted to as results trickled in. My twitter handle is “@TroyWB” with the bio-line as “Twenty Something Mutant Ninja Turtle.” That’s a bulldog of a journalist right there, with such insights as: “Hella unforunate a shaving nick and a herpes flare-up look so similar.” Yes, I’m a professional.

At about 5 PM we were all hovering around the office’s TV and watching the CNN guys play with the giant touch-screen TV and wondering which Black Eyed Peas member was going to talk to Wolf Blitzer via hologram. My editor had reaffirmed that I was going to spend the night with Mary Nolan, who was trailing in the most recent polls. We knew, she and her party knew, everybody knew they were most likely going to lose. And I get to prod them for quotes.

I arrived that night and asked questions like “So how are you feeling right now?” and “If you lose tonight, how will you spend your time tomorrow?” It was awkward at first, but I began to make it clear I wasn’t trying to vulture in on their loss, I just wanted their honesty. They booed their eventual loss, said “Hey, the bar’s still open!” then cheered Obama’s win. It was a funny evening.

Then spent the night at the downtown Hilton for the Democratic Party’s Party, which was everything I expected: powerful politicians and business people, as well as fun-loving (maybe naive) politically active young people, more than one draped in an American flag. I got to ask many questions and meet a lot of new people, and realized this is probably something I’d love to do every four years.

Then all the reporters went out for beers and it was excellent.

Troy Brynelson

The appearance was to promote his latest release, The Emperor’s Soul, but he took questions on all of his books. He declined to answer some questions about the Wheel of Time finale, and one woman asked a question on grooming habits that he honestly couldn’t answer. Aside from that he was affable and generous with his time, taking more questions after the reading and soliciting questions from fans as he signed all of the many books put before him (I had him sign my hardcover copy of The Alloy of Law, as it has been awhile since I’ve been able to attend one of his signings). Sanderson is not only a popular author, he’s also a personable author.

Completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series has been a tremendous opportunity for him, but doing so has taken a great deal of his writing time. He was concerned that 2012 would mark the first time he wouldn’t have an original work released since 2005, so he conceived The Emperor’s Soul on a trip back from appearing in Taiwan. He worked on it in the interim while A Memory of Light was in the final stages of editing, and it was released this month in a trade paperback from Tachyon Publications. When I learned of the book’s impending release I contacted Charlene Brusso at Tachyon to request an advance copy, which she sent along with Epic: Legends of Fantasy, an anthology that includes an excerpt from The Way of Kings, and Wonders of the Invisible World by Patricia A. McKillip. I got it signed by the author, and he numbered it #45.

Although he was promoting The Emperor’s Soul, he did not read from it. Instead he read from the first draft of the second book in The Stormlight Archive! Now that AMOL is finished he has resumed work on his own mega-series, and we got to hear a section with a new viewpoint character! That was an exciting extra feature for attending the event; Sanderson really goes out of his way to support the brick-and-mortar stores in return for promoting his work. Customers who bought print copies of the book were invited to e-mail proof to Sanderson’s website to receive a free copy of the e-book; he isn’t shying away from digital editions, but he sees the two forms as complementary.

Leading up to the event I listened to the audiobook version of Legion, a novella Sanderson published with Subterranean Press in August. Because audible.com is a sponsor of the Writing Excuses podcasts that Sanderson produces with three other writers, the site is currently offering free downloads of Legion. I took advantage of the offer, and I enjoyed Oliver Wyman’s narration of the story. Legion is about a character with multiple personalities with whom he interacts, and Wyman performs all the voices distinctly without it being obtrusive. The story itself is brief, which is uncommon for Sanderson’s writing. He explained that he originally pitched the idea to Dan Wells, another member of the Writing Excuses team, before deciding to write it himself. It’s written as a pitch for a tv series, so it should be read not as a finished tale, but as a pilot episode. In that vein it succeeds, and I look forward to the series being created.

I finished listening to Legion while waiting in line to have my books signed, so I switched over to an episode of Writing Excuses. It was slightly surreal to listen to a recording of Sanderson giving advice while waiting in line to speak with him, but I couldn’t get enough! When that was over I began reading The Emperor’s Soul (not much in advance, admittedly). That made it difficult to concentrate on writing while waiting for the train, but, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I compensated. I was able to keep my word count creeping up and still find the odd moment to read, somewhat in the manner that the book was written. Inspired by a visit to a national museum in Taiwan, Sanderson created a system of magic that employs stamps that can rewrite the history of an object. What would happen to a person if their history was rewritten? And what if that person was the Emperor? Shai is a Forger facing execution for her crimes, but an assassination attempt on the Emperor grants her a stay of execution for 90 days while she replicates the Emperor’s soul. Sanderson’s magic systems always impress, but this shorter form forced him to leave out some of his own hallmarks, such as a prologue that showed a conversation between Shai and Hoid, an inimitable character who finds his way into most of Sanderson’s novels. He loved the scene, but it did not fit the story so it had to be cut. At the other end the story has no twist ending, which was hard for me to accept. Only when I listened to his explanation on Writing Excuses did I come to terms with the straightforward ending that satisfies the characters’ arcs.

I rounded out my reading of his short fiction with the e-book Firstborn. Originally released as a Kindle edition in 2008, it was later re-released by Tor in a DRM-free format. I purchased it on my nook color and read it on an iPad. I’m not accustomed to reading on digital devices yet, but it was the simplest way of acquiring this particular story. Firstborn is a different venture for Sanderson as well, as it is short form science fiction. It’s a story about a second son who lives in the shadow of his older brother’s burnished star. The firstborn is a military genius with an unblemished record, while the younger brother has nothing but blemishes and blunders on his record. That won’t cut it for the son of a High Duke; greatness is thrust upon him, only to slip out of his hands and shatter on the floor. He tries to live up to the expectations, but he knows his own limitations. Is it possible he might know the limitations of his unbeatable brother, too? This story does have the twist ending I’ve come to expect from Brandon Sanderson, and he never disappoints.

NGC 6357: Cathedral to Massive Stars
Image Credit: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (IAA, Spain)

Election Night

After a long and drawn out campaign Mitt Romney went into election night with an overwhelming  feeling of competence that they would win the election. Evidence for this can be seen in the website that was put up right after the polls by the Republican Presidential Campaign Staff and in the fact that Romney only wrote an acceptance speech, which of course he planned on delivering to the nation sometime later that night. I hate to gloat, but I would had loved to been a fly on the wall, when Mitt finally sat down and penned a short concession speech. In Mitt’s defense it should be noted that concession speeches are usually very brief, while a victory proclamation necessitates a bit more effort. And furthermore, writing a victory speech is good PR, especially if you are able to get a press release out before the polls close. Still, the overall effect, remains that despite the fact the race was close, Romney and staff missed some key warning signs as to how the election would turn out, especially in the electoral college, where President Obama outpaced the ex-Massachusetts Governor by more than a 100 points.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, from Wikipedia, photo by Alkarex Malin äger

Romney’s Miscalculations

Unseating a sitting president is not so easy, especially when the incumbent enjoys a 50 % approval rating. In this sense presidential politics is a lot like a heavyweight boxing match. And that means you have to soundly beat the champ to get the referee’s decision. I think this is one area, where the Romney camp underestimated the challenge of defeating the president.

And the other would be the swing states. Even though Obama’s lead was statistically slim it was still steady and did not change much during the last few weeks of campaigning. The fact that Obama carried places like Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada by a good five percentage points raises the question whether these places really were toss-ups.

What Romney Did Right

The best thing Romney did for the Republican party was revive the Nixon strategy….and that is…… where you run to the right to get the nomination, then circle back towards the left and the center to win in November. I think that if the Republicans what to revive their hopes in the next presidential contest, they will have to follow this strategy. Also of note is the fact that Romney was the only major Republican candidate to accept the likelihood that “climate change” is affecting us right now in 2012. How it affects us and what we can do about it, is another story, but acknowledging the existence of this recent phenomena does put anybody running for higher office on the right track.

What Gore, Romney and George W. Bush Have In Common

Quite simply, they are all sons of prominent politicians. And they have all been selected by their respective parties to run for the office of the President of the United States. As a group they have not fared well, for only George W. has been able to break the 50% barrier…..and that only occurred once in 2004. Even then, Mr. Bush saw his popularity plummet after the election due to war and a deteriorating economy.

The world is filled with situations that make you hmmm?

And nothing makes me go “hmmm”  faster than listening to Republicans talk.

Mitt Romney had a conference call this week with his fund raisers and donors and he offered an explanation as to why American voters overwhelmingly chose President Obama.  Mr. Romney thinks that my vote was bought with the promise of gifts..  Free stuff that President Obama’s socialist policies will deliver.  Seems that I was wooed by college loan forgiveness, free contraceptives, free healthcare, amnesty for my children, and gay marriage.

Romney says these things because he can’t for the life of him understand why any intelligent, white person would vote for Obama.  It certainly couldn’t be because the economy is improving.  It certainly couldn’t be because our respect and standing in the rest of the world has improved dramatically since he took office.  It certainly couldn’t be because he passed the first real healthcare reform in years.  No it couldn’t be these things.  It had to be for the free stuff.

Of course the question I keep asking is whether I was getting free stuff.  I feel like I paid for my stuff.  I made several donations to the Obama campaign.  Most of my friends made donations to the Obama campaign.  On October 1, 2012 , President Obama tweeted that they’d just gotten their 10,000,000th donation.  So it seems to me that we all paid for our stuff.  Which doesn’t make it free at all.  I mean for the 100 dollars I put into the election, I damn well better get some policies passed in my favor.

You know where this is going.

President Obama wasn’t the only one promising free stuff.  Let’s look at the free stuff that Romney was promising to his supporters.  Less regulation on big oil and coal, and other companies that would like nothing more than to have free reign to do as they please.  Increasing tax benefits for companies shipping jobs overseas.  Repealing Obamacare.  Increasing tax breaks for the wealthy.  Cuts to the arts, public broadcasting.  Defunding Planned Parenthood.  Cuts to Pell grants.  Privatization of Medicare.  Yeah he promised lots and lots of “free” stuff to his supporters as well.

The difference is that most of the Obama donors only contributed a couple of hundred dollars for their promise of policies that would enrich their lives.  The Romney donors contributed millions upon millions each for the promise of policies that would enrich their lives. (Which was a good thing because there weren’t a lot of small donors).  It’s estimated that the Koch Brothers spent upwards of 100 million dollars for their promise of free stuff.

The thing that no one really explained to the Kochs and the Romneys is that when I spend 100 hundred dollars, I get one vote.  They spend 100 million dollars, they get one vote.  See how this works?  Obama gets 10,000,000 million donors he gets 10,000,000 votes.   Romney gets a 1,000 million dollar donors he gets 1,000 votes.  You are getting it now…

Of course I’m over simplifying and making fun of them but the point remains the same.

Obama didn’t promise me any more free stuff than Romney promised his donors.  It’s just that when it was laid out for the country to look at, most of us agreed that healthcare for our families was far more important than David Koch getting another summer home.  Sending our kids to college superseded reversing regulations on big oil.  Knowing our parent’s Medicare was intact was far more important than whether Bane Capital got more tax breaks for sending jobs overseas.

No.  We did not vote for President Obama for promise of free stuff.  We took a good long look at what both sides were offering and we went with the better choice.

Someday the GOP will realize that the average American is much smarter than they think.  We have the ability to look at the issues and make a decision that supports our goals for our own lives as well as our families.  We can read a newspaper and realize there is no way you can deliver what you are promising without raising taxes on the middle class.  We can watch the news and determine that you have no idea what it’s like to get up in the morning and send your kids off to second rate schools, and go to a job that pays substandard wages.  We know that you have no idea what the average American goes through on a daily basis.

We get it.

Until you GET it you are going to continue to hold meetings to discuss why you lost once again.

Like a good ethnographer, I decided to go investigate around my neighborhood.

The first person I encountered was a man who was helping to close up the Whole Foods around the corner. I pressed this picture from my phone up against the glass:

The guy at the Whole Foods had clearly not heard the news yet! This is how he reacted:

Obamanos!

After that, I walked around the neighborhood for a while and snapped photos of happy people, celebrating on the streets!

Workers in the pizza places were celebrating too!

After a while, and inspired by Jennifer Tobin-Gurley’s text message, I decided to walk toward Time Square. It was an amazing site to behold.

People from all over the world were laughing, crying, chanting, and cheering!

These two yelled “The French for Obama!” when I snapped their pic!

Obama Supporter!

Love!

Jesus? Is that really you?

Where the people gathered together.

Hope.

By:  Jami Talbott.

Though I fear divisive comments, I post the below to potentially bring us together. Warning – there is oversimplification involved, though it shouldn’t have to be thought of as such. Anyway, one final set of thoughts: WHY I SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO VOTE FOR EITHER CANDIDATE, WITHOUT WORRY, AND WHY IT DOESN’T END HERE:
1. Because Marriage should be a non-issue. I don’t care who you love so long as you are focusing on love and not hate. Anyone willing to compromise on decades of their life to support one other human being, through absolutely everything that person goes through in life, should have everyone’s full support.
2. Because rape and its outcomes should never be justified or made less of an issue. Period.
3. Because social programs should neither be so broken nor so contested. We all have ups and downs in our lifetime. We should not expect anyone to catch us, but we should also help pick up our fellow man. Ever heard the parable of The Good Samaritan? Think highly of Mother Teresa or Gandhi? Let’s neither unnecessarily praise what we have or fight to get rid of it – instead, why don’t we work together to fix it?
4. Because pro-life should mean caring about the life of a human being “from cradle to grave” (to borrow a Navy term). It should be about social responsibility and adhering to and teaching personal responsibility. See item #3, and teach your children to take care of themselves and earn what they want in life, but that if they need a little help, there’s no shame in letting someone help you back on your feet. Be willing to lend a hand.
5. Because I don’t care who you worship, so long as you adhere to moral principles instead of just religious ones. “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We need to stop just preaching about how Christ loved everyone and start following in his footsteps anywhere and everywhere we can. See item #3 and 4.
6. Because the economy is affected by more than just the President. Want to see job growth in America? Stop shopping at Wal-Mart and start shopping for groceries at the farmer’s market, and for toys at the local craft fair. Online shopping is also easy – buy products made in America. Support new ideas by teaching your kids that education is a priority – care more about your local school board election than the Super Bowl contest.
7. Because everyone should care about solving the problems, not blaming each other. I believe that we all want to be loved, to be safe and sound and without worry. We should be focusing on what brings us together instead of what divides us. Because we are all human beings, and we are in this together. We have different ideas of the best way to get there, but shutting each other out is not the way to solve our issues. What are your ideas to improve our processes? Share them – let’s discuss them – let’s write a letter to our House Representative or our Senator.

*Please note – I wish I could always follow my own beliefs. I know that it is a lot more complicated than what is above – but does it have to be?

With that, happy Election Night – may our dreams for our future not rely on one candidate or one party, but on each of our actions and our work together as Americans.

I have an ever-lengthening mental list of things I feel I should teach my children. It seems to grow by the day, with more and more items appearing: some amorphous (“learn to appreciate nature”), some practical (“learn to wash your hands after going to the bathroom”), some lofty (“leave the world a  better place than when you came”), some motivated by my own self-interests (“learn to not say embarrassing things about your parents in public”). One of these goals is “be an active participant in democratic society,” so last week’s election was a prime time to talk about voting and “the issues.” Mainly this consisted of walking downtown to drop off our ballots and me trying to have philosophical conversations about the importance of participating in a democracy and my four-year-old talking about whether we could stop for ice cream. So I’m not sure how effective that was.

In any case, we tried to make election night a sort of party, eating pizza in the living room (a rare treat) while we watched the results come in on T.V. We had a fun time watching all the maps and fancy diagrams and switching between stations and, most of all, eating pizza.

I love pizza, and have a weakness for anything with barbeque sauce on it in general. These generally don’t tend to be healthy things, so I think this pizza is a pretty good compromise, and if both Ryan and I love it, I don’t know who wouldn’t.  The sauce is tangy and bold, sweet and hot. There’s not much cheese—just enough to add a little creaminess from the mozzarella and the melted salty taste of feta. Thin onion slices add punch, and the chewy roasted tofu or succulent chicken add heft, all on top of a thin, but still moist, whole wheat crust (which you might recognize from the Costa Rican Calzones recipe). It’s fabulous paired with a green salad; I think it would also be great with an onion, basil, and fresh tomato salad in the summer months.

Now, the recipe I chose for our election night party has a symbolic meaning as well. Barbeque is quintessentially American, of course, but I also like the melding of vegetarian and meat options here; the simple and harmonious combination of two opposites. If there’s anything I would hope for in America’s near future, it’s that we could strive for a little more civility, a little more common ground, a little more understanding with those who hold different views. I’m sure we can achieve it. Every time there’s an election, we have a mini party at my house, even though we’re not usually rooting for the same team—or at least not all the same players. That doesn’t keep us from enjoying it, from discussing it, and from spending time together. So, I hope you won’t leave any comments regarding the outcome of the election, but I do hope you’ll try the pizza, whether you opt for chicken, tofu or both, and that you read this article on Civility, which I really enjoyed.

Speed it Up: You can make all the toppings ahead of time and have them ready to go whenever your dough is ready. You can also use store-bought barbeque sauce, of course, although this recipe takes just a few minutes. You can also keep this dough in the fridge for a few hours before punching it down and rolling it out.

Vegetarian Meal with Meat Option: This is pretty self explanatory, but you can easily do one pizza chicken and one tofu, or make each half-and-half. Of course, this also works if you do all chicken or all tofu.

Special Diets and Allergies: Vegetarian, Nut free.

Barbeque Chicken/Tofu Pizza

Makes two 14″ pizzas

This thin-crusted pizza is bursting with flavor. The strong tang of the barbeque sauce and the heat from the onion slices is mellowed by the creaminess of the feta and mozzarella. This recipe is designed to make one tofu pizza and one chicken pizza, but I usually do half-and-half on each pizza, so that everyone can eat as soon as the first one comes out of the oven. I like a lot of sauce on my pizza, but you can certainly use less than the amount this recipe makes if you like.

CRUST

Ingredients:
1 C warm water
2 T yeast
2 T honey
¼ C oil
2 T flaxseed, mixed with 3 T very hot water
3¼-3½ C whole wheat flour
½ t. salt
Directions:

1. Mix flaxseed and water and let sit for 5 minutes, or until gelatinous.
2. Mix water and yeast and beat with a fork until foamy.
3. Mix honey, oil, flaxseed mixture, and salt. Add 2 C flour. Mix.
4. Stir in yeast mixture.
5. Mix in remaining flour, 1/2 C at a time, kneading once it gets too stiff to stir, until dough reaches a nice, elastic consistency. The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
6. While the dough is rising, prepare the toppings.

TOPPINGS

Barbeque Sauce:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C ketchup
1/4 + 2 T brown sugar
3 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T apple cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, smashed in a garlic press
3/4 t mustard powder
3/4 t salt
Directions:

1. Whisk all of the ingredients in a small saucepan.
2. Bring to a low simmer over medium-high heat until mixture thickens, 5-10 minutes.

Tofu Cubes:
Take one 12-oz package of extra-firm tofu, drain and cut into 1/2” cubes. Salt very liberally. Heat 2-3 T of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Fry the tofu cubes in the oil, flipping every five minutes or so, until golden all over, about 15 minutes.

Chicken:
Lightly brush one large bone-in chicken breast with olive oil. Sprinkle with seasoning salt. Bake at 450 F for about 35 minutes, or until no longer pink inside. Allow to cool, remove the meat from the bones, chop, and set aside.

Other Toppings:
1/2 C Feta cheese, crumbled
1 C mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 red or yellow onion, thinly sliced

ASSEMBLY:

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Punch down the dough and roll out into two circles (or, if you don’t have a pizza stone, roll into rectangles to bake on cookie sheets). The dough should be thin, a little less than 1/4” thick. Sprinkle the pizza stones or cookie sheets with cornmeal.
3. Place the dough on the stones or cookie sheets and fold up the edges to create a thicker outside edge.
4. Mix about 1/2 C of the barbeque sauce with the chicken and toss to coat. Do the same with another 1/2 C sauce and the tofu.
5. Spread as much barbeque sauce as you like on the dough, spread one pizza with chicken and the other with tofu. Sprinkle with onion slices and the cheese.
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to turn a golden brown.

With every passing day, the math coming out of St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker’s office becomes more and more fuzzy.

On Sunday the St. Lucie Supervisor of Elections conducted a partial recount of early voting.  As a result of that count, the total number of votes dropped by 799.  Then on Monday the Supervisor of Elections explained the drop by saying 3,650 votes were double counted on Election Night and 1,950 were not counted at all.  Basic math tells us that removing 3,600 double counted votes and adding 1,950 does not add up to a drop of 799 votes, but rather a drop of about 1,700.

Of course, the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections could clear up a lot of this fuzzy math if she would simply release the poll sign-in books so Floridians could see if the number of voters who checked into vote corroborates the number of votes cast.  She refuses to do so.

These facts should be alarming to anyone that cares about fair and accurate elections.  Unfortunately many in the corrupt liberal media don’t seem to care and Allen’s opponent just wants everyone to move on regardless of the clearly flawed results.  He clearly thinks other things are more important—like pretending to be a Congressman and getting to work on Nancy Pelosi’s agenda…

We will not allow this election to be decided without ensuring every vote is counted fairly and accurately.  We need to make sure Florida, and the nation, have a principled leader in Congress like Allen West, not another phony politician who will rubber stamp the disastrous Obama-Pelosi agenda.

Thank you for your prayers, your efforts, your contributions and your continued advocacy for fair and accurate elections.

Sincerely,

Tim Edson
Campaign Manager 

P.S. If you would like to contribute to our recount fund, make checks payable to Allen West for Congress – Recount” and send them to Allen West for Congress, PO Box 1108, Stuart, FL 34995. 

My family loves tea.  Indeed my son has almost become a connoisseur. We steep bags and loose tea, sample black, white, green and oolong and enjoy the rituals around tea almost as much as we enjoy the tea itself.  We’ve learned a few things along the way.  No matter the tea, it gets bitter if steeped too long.  This is a lesson I want to share with conservative Republicans and Tea Party members.  For four long years your focus has been on ‘taking back the country,’ from the black guy.  Yes, from the black guy.  I don’t need to pretend that the ‘take back’ language meant anything else.  You targeted your base and we all watched you move from a handful of conservatives who may have truly believed we were on the wrong track (where were you under Bush?) to a rabid, racist, rancored, retro, movement.  Your white tea stayed in the pot too long.  It got bitter and none of us liked the taste.

Obama won yesterday.  He won the popular vote and he won the electoral college.  Why?  Because a lot of women, minorities, and young people don’t like your brand of tea.  They like variety including all types of color, texture and taste.  Your throw back to the not so great 50s terrified these groups and they showed up to the polls to make sure you didn’t get an opportunity to take us back there.  Let me remind you that the 40s and 50s may have been great for white men but those of us controlled by Jim Crow or confined to domestic work didn’t think it was so hot.  Your need to control of our wombs, sexuality, and livelihoods doesn’t compel us to hearken back to the good ‘ol days.  Crazy statements on abortion, reducing anyone that didn’t agree with you to a socialist,  closing the door on education for immigrants that you believe should work in your restaurants or hotels but shouldn’t sit at desks in your colleges, and treating the poor in ways Jesus would certainly not approve of, were not endearing.

You don’t love America anymore than the rest of us and you don’t corner the market on patriotism.  We all want this country to be better.  If we want the economy to get better call your rich buddies and ask them to pay taxes and stop exporting manufacturing jobs.  If you want to be taken seriously stop believing that we still live in an America that has to be dominated politically by white men.  This doesn’t mean they should not serve, it means that they need to look around and see that there are brilliant women, brown/tan/olive/black leaders, gays, youth and a whole bunch of other folks whose voices only serve to make this country richer, and I don’t just mean financially.  Thank God we have grown into a more diverse nation.

My advice to you is to stop steeping in your own juices.  Come out and look around.  We really are not that scary.  Heck we may even find some common ground.  If however, you choose to remain entrenched in your bitter tea, we will continue to choose a more tasteful brand.

I must be in a state of delirium, or nearly so. Even rightly so.

It’s 8:30 in the morning on Wednesday, Nov. 7.– the day after Election Day in the U.S., nearly one week ago. I have yet to break the continuous stream of consciousness we call being awake with sleep.

Either Americans breathed a sigh of relief before drifting off into a happy slumber or they spent the night rolling in their beds with disgust. Or perhaps there were even a select indifferent few who went to bed before any serious talk of results were discussed and slept soundly, untouched, by the politics attempting to peel back their covers and reveal the long-ignored monster under the bed.

Tuesdays are my usual night working desk at the Massachusetts Daily Collegian anyways, and I had been gearing up for a particularly long Tuesday night the weekend before. An all-nighter seemed likely; now it was reality. But I’m young, I can take it. And it’s not like the elections are a weekly happening (thank goodness).

I was worried this night on many different levels. Not only was this the first national election I had been of-age to cast in a vote– a fragment of anonymous, opinionated voice I was desperate to see materialize into my ideal candidates - but I had to help produce a news section with, well, really big news featured in it. Instead of the opening of basketball season or Halloween, elections are like the special editions for the news section. I’d bet that more readers pick up the paper this day just to read the news section than an average day of lectures and research grants.

The idea of election night in a newsroom sounds more exciting than it really is. I used to romanticize about reporters dashing in and out of haphazard stacks of paper, shoes skidding on checkered tile floors, shouting and hollering as word of the results trickled in, phones ringing. The age of the Internet and broadcast television brings us little suspense, as the aim of the game nowadays is not who reports the results but who reports it first, and all the rest of us little guys have to do is sit and reap the fast talkers.

There was a lot of waiting for results to come in, for interviews of student reactions to be conducted. Personal opinions aside, after the results came in,  it was all up to writing the pieces, editing and laying them out for the next day’s paper.

I could have left around 4:30 or 5 a.m., but I had a couple assignments to finish before my 9 a.m. journalism class. And if you’ve already spent 12 hours in the campus center basement, why not go all the way and top it out at 15?

Around 8:45 a.m., I emerged to ground level once again. I stood at the top of the stairs, blinking at all of the people already walking around, getting coffee, starting their day. To still be in a continuation of the previous day left me out of touch with their reality. I felt satisfied with all of the Collegian’s hard work  surreal about the time of day and state of my weary mind. But it was done– we had done what was expected of us and exceeded what we believed of ourselves capable of.

Election night was an exhausting night, a good night. And to think I got to help cover it as a college journalism student– that’s pretty neat. Here’s to the next three years of mostly election-free reporting.

George (Owner of Exclusively Argentine Tango At George’s) and Marilyn do the Tango on election night.

It has been exactly one week since election night, when America reelected Barack Obama for a second term as President of the United States.  After taking some time to watch all of the pundits on political television weigh in on the election, I now feel like adding my two cents.  Actually, if it weren’t for Harry Reid, I probably wouldn’t be writing this article.

When the Senate Majority Leader appealed to Republicans for cooperation on looming challenges the government faces in the days ahead after the election, like the fiscal cliff, he used a fitting metaphor.  He said, “It is better to dance than to fight.”  And since I spent election night in a dance studio, watching voting results and my dancing partners’ feet, as to not step on them in my awkward attempt to master the art of Tango, I decided it would be appropriate to share my thoughts about this year’s election.

First I would like to say, my pain has been alleviated now that it is all over.  The constant negative political ads that aired on television like a bad reality show in syndication had me reaching for the remote, and depressing the mute button every ten minutes.  When I wasn’t trying to silence the television, I was trying to manage the constant cacophony of telephone rings from pollsters, some with a pulse and some automated.  Yet I answered every single survey with patriotic patience and sincerity, partly because for the first election in my lifetime, this year I chose to volunteer to register voters.

I know what it’s like to ask someone to participate in the electoral process and have them snub you like a debutante would a plebian.  I suffered quarrels with unregistered voters in front of Walmart over the alleged corruptness of the Electoral College and the dubious worth of one’s vote.  And despite the fact that it took Florida nearly a week to declare the state blue, I felt all gold inside, knowing I played a minuscule part in a winning election.

So let us dance.  Now that the election is over, it’s time to choose your partner.  And although Harry Reid was addressing members of the Senate and Congress, I would like to aim my comments at ordinary citizens; like the gentleman I saw driving a red pickup truck the other day on my way to work with a huge Confederate flag hoisted on his bed flapping in the wind.  We are not all going to like each other.  We are not going to agree on all of the issues all of the time.  But we all have to live together and find a way to work through our differences.  Maestro, strike up the band!

© 2012

If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also enjoy watching my spoken word music video titled America Is My Home.

— James Carville (via  thesoapboxschtick)

Here’s a fun video blending retweets from @fart on the night of the election with photos from whitepeoplemourningromney, matched to an excellently chosen soundtrack:

…

Note that instead of accepting the election results, many of these infantile Republican voters now want to secede from the Union.

Mitt Romney advisers described what it was like to be with the former governor as he came to terms with his loss. ”He was shellshocked,” one adviser told WWN.   “He immediately made plans to leave the U.S. for good.”

Sources tell WWN that Romney is afraid that the U.S. will now enter an economic freefall and he wants to protect his family and, more importantly, his money.

Romney has reportedly kept a lot of his vast fortune in the Cayman Islands for the last two decades and that he wants to be closer to his money in case he has to “make a quick run for South America.”

On a separate note, President Obama issued an Executive Order that confiscates all money that is hidden in the Cayman Islands.  ”If Mitt Romney wants to bury his head in the sand on a beach down there, that’s fine.  But if he thinks he’s going to hide his money away, and not give at least 80% of it to the government, then he’s sorely mistaken,” a White House source said.

Romney’s wife, Ann, is reportedly planning on opening a “bead” business on the beach, while her children and grandchildren plan on converting the whole island to Mormonism.   Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has purchased a one million dollar jet-ski and is planning on growing a beard.

“We are after the truth of what votes were cast by voters in St. Lucie County, and the conduct of the canvassing board today casts doubt on their reported numbers.

The St. Lucie Canvassing Board’s abrupt action today was reached entirely without explanation or justification.  The Campaign was informed on Saturday afternoon, while the Board met in an apparently private and unannounced session, that a decision was reached to recount all ballots cast during early voting.  There was absolutely no explanation of what events or evidence before the Board triggered this voluntary recount. The Supervisor’s website still includes its last-minute public notice of a full recount of early votes:  

That is not what happened today.  Again without any warning or notice, the Board announced this morning that it would count only the early votes cast on Nov. 1, 2, and 3.  The explanation given at this point was that the four data cards in use on those three days of early voting did not upload properly on Election Night.  However, the Supervisor and the Board said on Election Night and at Thursday’s canvassing board meeting that the four “compromised” data cards were actually taken from vote counting machines in use during the first three days of early voting.  By the close of today’s meeting, the Board again changed its position to explain that the decision to recount only early vote ballots cast on Nov. 1, 2, and 3 was at the direction of “Tallahassee.”

Adding to this confusion is the Supervisor and Canvassing Board’s continued refusal to produce any means of verifying their count. The records of poll book data for early voting requested of the Supervisor and the Board would allow anyone to match the number of votes and number of voters.  The candidates and the public have no way of knowing that the number of persons who voted in this election is equal to the number of ballots counted.  The critical information contained in early voting poll book records is as necessary to certification of results as it is simple to produce. The Supervisor and the Board continue their attempts to hide the facts and after today’s events, their conduct and inconsistent behavior cast even more doubt on the St. Lucie County’s election returns.”