AddieStan

It came as no surprise to your blogstress when Mel Gibson , in the course of promoting his upcoming cinematic bloodfest, "Apocalypto," expressed sympathy for his fellow bigot, Michael Richards . What did surprise your cybertrix, however, was Gibson's demonstration of denial as to the nature of his own crime. One would have thought that some brilliant public-relations consultant would have drilled into the patron saint of the Catholic right the need to at least appear to take responsibility for whatever venom spews , via one's own brain, from one's own mouth. In an AP report , Gibson says he doesn't expect his celebrated rant to affect box office on the movie: The movie will stand on its own, regardless of any unfortunate experience I may have stumbled upon." Stumbled upon? As in, I was just weaving my inebriated self home when I stumbled upon a torrent of anti-Semitic taunts flowing out of my mouth at a Jewish police officer, upon whom I had also stu...

John Bolton , that most undiplomatic diplomat who has been serving as acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations since his recess appointment last year, stepped down today when it became apparent that there was no way in hell that he could win confirmation in the lame-duck Senate. Two men deserve special thanks for this outcome: Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who lost his re-election bid, and Steve Clemons , author of The Washington Note . It was Clemons who brought turned the attention of denizens of the blogosphere to the perils of an Ambassador Bolton (who famously denied the exsistence of the United Nations)*, and who never dropped that ball. Chafee, whose committee vote made kept the Bolton nomination from reaching the Senate floor, deserves commendation for doing the right thing, even after his defeat by a Democrat. In fact, Chafee went so far to make that point that the outcome of the 2006 mid-term elections, as epitomized by his own loss, signaled the electorate's d...

While your blogstress has always had mixed feelings about the well-versed but not-always-stalwart Jane Harman (Calif.), who has served, lo, these last few years as the ranking Democratic member on the House intelligence committee, you cybertrix hardly knows what to make of the naming of Silvestre Reyes (TX) by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lead the committee. The muckraking Laura Rozen , your Webwench's colleague on TAPPED (the Weblog of The American Prospect Online) details a meeting with Manuchar Ghorbanifar of Iran-Contra fame in which the new committee chairman joined the tainted Republican Curt Weldon (Penn.) for a discussion of God-knows-what. Pelosi's issue with Harman is reportedly that the Speaker's California colleague has not protested loudly enough against the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties. And your ecrivaine agrees, for the most part. On the other hand, Harman is smart and serious, and came across as impeccably credible in her outings...

It's as if the goddesses and their consorts were preventing your blogstress from issuing forth from the blogosphere, but all manner of confusion between the evil big-business domain-hocker Network Solutions, and another outfit which we'll call Hemp-Hed Hosting (not its real name) has led to your cybertrix's Weblog appearing only intermittently, between messages that declare the breakaway republic to be "under construction," or even better, to have an "expired" name. At Network Solutions, customer service comes in the form of condescending young men in an East Asian country whose "help" generally requires about four phone calls to achieve any result. Meanwhile, over at Hemp-Hed, very nice, very mellow American geeks chat you up, knowing exactly what the problem is, but forget to put in the order for the fix. So, it takes about four calls to achieve any result, but at least the calls tend to be amusing. Okay, well there's still the gig at ...

Your blogstress is pleased to announce that the New York Observer has at long last acknowledged the existence of your cybertrix -- something she knew those smart fellas over there would have to do sooner or later. In this week's column , Ron Rosenbaum chronicles the fracas kicked up by your Webwench's manly colleague on TAPPED, Charles Pierce , in his critique of the Michael Richards meltdown, whereupon he said things that pissed off the ladies of that Weblog ( Garance Franke-Ruta and yours truly). Your écrivaine regrets that she does come off as a bit humorless in the whole thing, but that's a small price to pay for having one's name turn up on the peach sheet.

Your blogstress seems to have kicked up a bit of dust with her assertion, on TAPPED (the Weblog of The American Prospect Online ), that nearly all white Americans are racially prejudiced. (No, your cybertrix does not count herself out of this equation.) It all began with a post by the very funny but somewhat sexist Charlie Pierce , who, commenting on the racist meltdown of "Seinfeld" alumn Michael Richards , asserted that the Seinfeld show always spouted prejudices but went on to compare the spouting of prejudice by the misogynist (and often funny) late comic Sam Kinison as preferable to that of the Seinfeld types, who suffered from some form of "maidenly vapors," according to Pierce. Oy vey, to quote a favorite editor of your net-tête 's. This did not amuse Garance Francke-Ruta , one of your Webwench's rare female colleagues at TAPPED, who took Pierce to task for his celebration of the misogynist Kinison, as well as the crappy "vapors" comment...

Maretta J. Short (second from left), the newly elected president of NOW-NJ, is the first African-American to hold the post. She is pictured here at the organization’s March Women Making History event, together with NOW activists Terry Fasano to her left and, to her right, Susan Waldman (holding grandson Joshua), Shirley Henderson and Barbara Foley. photo courtesy NOW-NJ Your blogstress just couldn’t be more tickled to learn that Maretta J. Short , your Webwench’s college friend and nearly lifelong compatriot in la causa , has been elected president of New Jersey’s state-level National Organization for Women (NOW) , which in the most densely populated state in the nation really means something. And she’s the first African-American to hold the post. Maretta, who was nominated from the floor of NOW’s state convention, comes to the organization’s top statewide leadership post from her role as chapter president of the Women of Color & Allies, NOW-NJ’s Essex County chapter. She tell...

Your blogstress would like to make the following announcement: she has never been demeaned by the distribution of family planning to her or anybody else. In fact, if you are giving out free condoms, she will gratefully accept them, as they're getting a bit pricey these days. The impetus for your Webwench's declaration is found in the following lede paragraph from a Washington Post article by the most attractive Christopher Lee : The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women." It's one thing, in an anti-choice administration, to choose a deputy assistant secretary for population affairs who opposes legalized abortion -- pretty awful, but intellectually consistent. But unless you believe affairs of population to be most beneficial in an expansive state,...

Rep. John Murtha sure wasn't my pick for House Majority Leader, especially after Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the ridiculous assertion that she was going to run the squeakiest-clean operation ever. But, crap, ya gotta love Murtha for having brought the word "crap" to public political discourse with the force of something hitting the proverbial fan. In his interview last night with MSNBC's Chris Matthews , Murtha used the scatalogical term some nine times, according to Matthews's count, when explaining the context for his deployment of the word as a description of the ethics rule changes proposed by his champion, the House speaker. While Murtha's loss to Maryland's Steny Hoyer may have deprived your blogstress and her devotees the sort of fodder derived from a veritable font of excrement, the present outcome likely saved the Democrats a whole lotta agita .

Your blogstress received an alarming e-mail yesterday from her foxy friend, Glenn, informing her that a visit to the breakaway republic yielded only a message that AddieStan had expired! With the rise and fall of each breath conveyed by her bustier , your ecrivaine here asserts that she is indeed quite alive, merci beaucoup . It had to do with your Webwench's turncoat friends at Network Solutions, who were once the holders of virtually all the domain names on the Web, and now seem to serve simply as condescending keepers of a waning business -- who do little to protect their subscribers from identity theft, at that. Anyhoo, your cybertrix wil return later today to discuss the meaning of some of the post-election numbers now seeping out of the pollsters' haunts.

The screen crawl last night on CNN quoted the AP reporting that "nearly a third of white evangelical Christians " had voted Democratic in Tuesday's mid-term elections, a fact that had Howard Dean , chairman of the Democratic National Committee, crowing last night on "The Daily Show." Now, your blogstress thinks that's just great but, at the risk of letting the air out of some blue balloons, she takes this opportunity to remind her devotees that that's about the same percentage (68 percent) as voted Democratic in the 2002 mid-term election. According to the New York Times piece linked above, efforts by religious left activists did have some effect though, in the same article, James L. Guth, a professor of political science at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, says that, in the words of reporter Laurie Goodstein, "[t]he religious voters who did switch from Republican to Democrat just mirrored the American electorate as a whole."...

NBC has just called the Virginia Senate race for Democrat-come-lately James Webb , meaning the Democrats will control the Senate -- just barely -- with 51 members. MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann suggested that a concession speech from Sen. Macacawitz (a.k.a., George Allen ) may happen as soon as tomorrow. Apparently, given bad odds of his prevailing in a recount, Macacawitz advisors are arguing against calling a recount.

...visit TAPPED , the Web log of The American Prospect Online, where your blogstress dwells in the company of a group of very smart -- and mostly deliciously young -- men.

In her first press conference since the Democrats won the majority in the House, presumed Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi smacked around Rep. John Conyers of Detroit, who has called for the impeachment of President Bush. Asked whether or not the Democrats would pursue impeachment, Pelosi said unequivocally, "Impeachment is off the table." Making a distinction between the Democrats at large and those who have called for impeachment, the prospective speaker suggested that "such actions" are the priorities of individuals, but "they are not our priorities." Your blogstress is not advocating the immediate convening of impeachment hearings, but to take impeachment -- of a president who never deserved it more -- off the table is to deny the American people the ultimate mechanism of presidential accountability. I mean, who knows what next this clown will pull? (It won't just be your finger.)

When asked why he supports democracy for Iraq, but not for the District of Columbia, the president said "this is the first I'm hearing of" a bill pending before the House that would give statehood to D.C. and another congressional seat to Utah.

Your blogstress could be mistaken, but she's quite sure that she just heard the leader of the free world say, in explaining some error he made in speech, "That's why I shouldn't do the punditry." A quote, no doubt, that devotees may find more accurately stated via a search in the Google.

Your blogstress here confesses that, given the 22 years that have passed since a woman last graced the presidential ticket of a major political party, she truly did not expect to live to see the day when a woman would become speaker of the House of Representatives. Reveling in the news of their landslide win of the House, Democrats are poised to elect Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to a post no Democrat has held for more than decade. But the Dems' newfound grrrl power doesn't end there; as reported in Women's e-News (WeN), four women are poised to lead committees, even the powerful House intelligence committee, on which California's Rep. Jane Harman currently serves as ranking member. The Web site does note, however, Harman's ascension to be in doubt because of "her reportedly sour relationship with Pelosi." Other likely female committee chairmen include Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), in line to lead the Rules Committee, Juanita Millender-McDonald (Calif.) ...

Projected so far: Casey (Penn.) Menendez (N.J.) Cardin (Md.) Whitehouse (R.I.) Not a Dem anymore, but something like one: Lieberman (Conn.) *Projections from MSNBC

It is with sigh of relief that your blogstress notes that one of her least favorite sons of Jersey has triumphed in the race for the Garden State's Senate seat. Yes, Bob Menendez , your Webwench's former congressman, has now won his place in that august body, despite his Hudson County roots and the whiff of corruption that the old money, in the form of scion Tom Kean, Jr. , kept fanning back on him. The source of your net-tête 's distaste for the Hudson County honcho stems not, however, from any accusation of corruption, but rather personal experience. Back in the 1980s, some very bad people known as the contras were being armed by the United States in order to make war upon the Marxist government of Nicaragua -- which, for better or worse, was probably the most socially progressive the Nicaraguans had ever known. The contras ' idea of making war on the Sandinistas, however was to actually rape and torture civilians, leading liberals such as yours truly to call for ...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS VIDEO It's really getting deep in Ol' Virginny, where Kay Steiger, your blogstress's colleague at TAPPED, the Web log of The American Prospect Online, was challenged when she tried to vote in the precinct in which she is registered. Check out Kay's story . The Associated Press is reporting that the FBI is investigating the intimidating calls, like the one mentioned here earlier that was made to a voter by someone purporting to be from the Virginia Election Commission, who promised the voter that he would be arrested if he showed up at his polling place. VideoTheVote.org is encouraging folks to record their experience at the polls, and then upload any video collected of anything shady. CLICK HERE to check out their mini-documentary. (It's just a few minutes long.)