AddieStan

He'll be too busy collecting oodles of dough for a book advance and corporate governance deals -- not to mention answering the calls speed-dialed from the Oval Office. From our long lost correspondent, The Internationalist , your blogstress received this fit of pique: Damn, if I have to hear more about the "genius" of Karl Rove, I am going to hack up a fur ball. The tale of how he saw the potential in the blue-jean-wearing "W" who came to meet him at Union Station -- the "glow" Karl saw was probably W's Jack & coke buzz. I would go on about Rove having "the math," but it just gives me a headache, reminding me of trying to find the square root for imaginary numbers. Watch out for fuzzy projectiles, mes amis .

Few are the pundits who find any virtue in the evolving 2008 schedule for the primaries and caucuses by which the presidential candidates of the two major political parties are chosen. Things were bad enough when, only recently, February 5, 2008, was dubbed "Tsunami Tuesday" or "Super Duper Tuesday," thanks to the scheduling of primaries by nearly all the powerhouse states on that day. Well, maybe not all. Today comes word from the great State of South Carolina that it will move its Republican primary up to January 19, which will likely to push Iowa to conduct its caucuses sometime around Christmas. The most eloquent explanation of this extreme climate change (written before these latest developments) that you will ever read, mes amis , is this April piece, " Pileup ," by The New Yorker 's Hendrik Hertzberg . After noting that the "Pileup" plan, however horrid, was born of a laudable impulse--that of wanting the contest in one's home...

It did not surprise your blogstress -- no, it truly did not -- that all of the Republicans on Capitol Hill, senators and House members alike, would vote to allow the president to wiretap (and otherwise unreasonably search and seize) anyone he damn well pleases. No, for those Republicans, your cybertrix offers her prayers to the Blessed Mother. But it will be a while before she can be quite so magnanimous toward the 57 Democrats who voted to do the same. For the record, here they are: U.S. Senate Evan Bayh (Indiana) Tom Carper (Delaware) Bob Casey (Pennsylvania) Kent Conrad (North Dakota) Dianne Feinstein (California) Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i) Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota) Nancy Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas) Claire McCaskill (Missouri) Barbara Mikulski (Maryland) Bill Nelson (Florida) Ben Nelson (Nebraska) Mark Pryor (Arkansas) Ken Salazar (Colorado) Jim Webb (Virginia) U.S. House of Representatives Jason Altmire (4th Pennsylvania) Melissa Bean (8th Illinois) Dan Bor...

CHICAGO--Your blogstress never meant to neglect her devotees; truly she did not, mes amis . It's just that, this time of year, there are so many conferences and so little time. Consequently, your cybertrix finds herself blogging instead for Real Women, Real Voices , the blog of the National Women's Editorial Forum , which has sent your Webwench to observe the haps at the Yearly Kos convention, the confab that bears the name of the giant, multi-voice blog known as Daily Kos . There, you may find the recent musings of your écrivaine , but clicking the links below. Prez Candidates Too Busy for Women Blogger Convention Make it to Where the Boy Bloggers Are Blogging While Female Feminist Bloggers Poised to Combine Resources and Strength

Your blogstress has a new piece up at The American Prospect Online that examines Elizabeth Edwards unconventional ideas about God. CLICK HERE TO READ "THE ORIGINAL THEOLOGY OF ELIZABETH EDWARDS

Your blogstress, ensconced at the BlogHer conference in Chicago, is not in a position to expound on this, but she urges her devotees to familiarize themselves with this non-scandal . Essentially, The New Republic ran several-first person pieces by a soldier based in Iraq, using a nom de plume composed of the private's first and middle names. The most recent piece by Pvt. Scott Thomas got the scoundrel patriots over at The Weekly Standard howling, as the solider wrote of his own callous behavior toward a wounded soldier, as well as some gruesome practices and animal torture by fellow soldiers. Must've been made up, the righties roared. Made your blogstress think of all the righties who protested as unpatriotic members of the African-American Hemings family who claimed Thomas Jefferson as an ancestor. (Surely, our founding father wouldn't have committed adultery!!! With a Negro woman!!! That he owned!!!) To these people, American soldiers are all good, bearers of ...

Feel-good exercise The last question -- Anderson Cooper asking each of candidates to say something nice about the candidate to his or her left -- was just silly. And John Edwards used his opportunity to say something about Hillary Clinton by calling attention to her gender, playfully saying he didn't like her coral-colored jacket, which he called a "coat." Hillary was superb; looked like a president. Obama continues to impress. Having the two stand next to each other felt like a foreshadowing of things to come. Bon soir, mes amis!

Religion and the Democrats Alas, this debate format does not allow for a substantive exploration of the the religious pressures on the Democrats , thanks to the likes of Rev. Jim Wallis . One young man, bravely stating his beliefs as atheist, asked if he had anything to fear from Democrats who pay lip service to evangelicals. I believe he does, though not nearly as much as he does from Republicans, whose party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the right-wing cabal that goes about cloaked in religious vestments.

Great question on undocumented workers

The new America Never mind the substance of this guy's question on taxes. You gotta love a Persian (at least I think he's a Persian) singing in a Southern accent, strumming a Johnny Cash rhythm. Check out Remy:

Nukes? Puh-leez! Barack Obama uttered his first big no-no, as far as your cybertrix is concerned, when he told this guy that nuclear power should be "part of the mix" of alternative fuel resources designed to reduce global warming. Hmmm...there's one drawback to embracing a presidential candidate too young to remember Three Mile Island.

Greetings from a red state These guys may be red-state shills, but they sure are funny. Great timing.

Being taken seriously Hillary Clinton was just asked by a U.S. serviceman, via video from Okinawa, whether she would be taken seriously by the leaders of Muslim countries where women "are regarded as second-class citizens." Ooooo, that steely gaze left no uncertainty; Clinton said quite rightly that after her meetings with high-level officials in 82 countries, she was sure there was no doubt in her ability to be taken seriously. While she noted a number of women leading countries in today's world, none of those she mentioned lead Muslim countries. Would that she would have mentioned some of the female heroines of Islam.

Splitting the difference Edwards: I don't believe in gay marriage, but my wife does If Edwards ever had a chance at getting the vote de l'ecrivaine , he just lost it.

Gay marriage and the black church We just heard from the Rev. Reggie Longcrier of Hickory, North Carolina, who is destined to be one of those momentary stars made by televised "town hall" candidate fora in presidential campaign years. The good reverend caused the audience to erupt in applause when he challenged John Edwards , the former North Carolina senator, to explain why the candidate's "Baptist upbringing" offers adequate justification for being against gay marriage. Rev. Longcrier reminded the smooth-talking trial lawyer that the Bible was used to justify slavery and deny women the vote. What made that such a big deal? Rev. Longcrier is African-American, and the rap on the black church is always about how homophobic it is. Your blogstress, errant Catholic that she is, has never bought that rap. By that, she doesn't mean that black churches don't have their share of homophobic leaders and followers; it's just no different there than amon...

In case you missed it, mes amis , Pope Benedict XVI last week asserted moral supremecy over the whole planet. That was right after le Saint-Père gave the go-ahead for the schismatic righties who defied the Holy See on the matter of the Latin Mass to resume their use of the Tridentine rite, which Jews remember as having references to their "perfidy." Over at The Reality-Based Community , Mark Kleiman cheers the pope's move as one that could pull a wedgie on the coalition of evangelicals and right-wing Catholics that has brought a great republic to its knees in, lo, these last two decades. More a piece than a post, this one knocks me out. The man can write: For any liberal of my vintage, regardless of denomination, Pope John XXIII is one of the great heroes of the '60s. It is one of the ironies of history that the ecumenical movement associated with the Second Vatican Council was among the preconditions of the movement Andrew Sullivan calls "Christianism...

At The American Prospect Online my colleague Garance Franke-Ruta has quite the brilliant piece about why the John Edwards presidential campaign can't seem to get much traction among low-income groups, despite the candidate's anti-poverty platform. According to Garance, people who earn low wages are savvy enough to know that the real path out of poverty will open only when more people who look like them assume positions of power. Hence the outsized appeal, among these voters, of Hillary Clinton (women are overrepresented in the low-wage cohort) and Barack Obama (poverty having endured as a problem for African Americans). Here's a taste from GFR of how it got that way: As the nobility and controversy of the civil rights era gave way to the controversy without nobility of the identity politics era, politicians learned to shy away from genuine challenges to the social order while simultaneously seeking to claim the moral mantle of historical daring. Today's goal, as E...

The former veep gives the birthplace of the blogstress its due. Click here for the video.

Yes, Toto; we're really not in Kansas anymore -- thank Goddess! From the wildly successful Take Back America conference, which took place late last month, here in Your Nation's Capital...

Ooh, forgot to letchas know, mes amis , that your cybertrix has a new piece up at The American Prospect just in time for your holiday reading -- and it just happens to be about excessive sentences, and all that.