First Post!

So my father told me today that I need to start a political blog. I was giving him a long and drawn out handicapping of various democratic vs. republican candidates, come November. I'm pretty decent at working these things out -- I predicted a long time ago, back when Guliani was considered the Republican frontrunner -- that it was going to come down the Ronmey vs. some dark horse candidate who was going to come out of nowhere at the very last minute. I wouldn't have guessed John McCain, because his campaign was such an awful mess, but I guess he got it together in the end.

Instead of rambling on and on about politics today, though, I think I'll tell you about myself.

I enjoy reading the news online, but I recently switched from CNN to Reuters. I had been spending a couple of weeks making a sport of figuring out how many stories on CNN were actually news stories, rather than recreational outrage, fuzzy feel good stories, or stupid human interest. What I discovered was that most of what was reported wasn't news, and the news was reported only briefly. So out of disgust, I switched. I like Reuters better; I don't have to read 'oddly enough' if I don't want to. (I don't.) The only other place that I get my news is from the Daily Show. I don't actually have cable, but I watch the clips posted online every day. In my opinion, it's the only remotely worthwhile news show on TV right now.

I also follow the Straight Dope message boards, although I don't post there. I've learned a lot about politics, finance, and life from the people who post there, all of them intelligent and coming from very different walks of life. Many of my posts will probably be linking back there, or at least inspired by something that I read over there.

I have two cats, Cordelia the ruler of the house and don't you forget it, and don Francisco, the flirty lover of women. (He once crawled up under a friend's shirt.) I am a crazy cat lady, but I'll try not to assault you with too much about them.

Though I will be talking about the Republican race and the Republican party often in a very even handed tone, know that I'm not a moderate -- I'm a liberal, and damn proud of it. But I believe in knowing thy enemy, and taking a crazy, heavily biased perspective or painting things in good and bad, black and white isn't helpful and has, frankly, been a large part of why our party has been doing so poorly these last few years.

I'm also a feminist, although I prefer to approach feminism by rooting out the symbols and themes about what a woman is and should be that have been integrated into our society since the middle ages that oppress women (in my opinion) more than any misogynist ever can. Like the child pointing out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes, I try to find these symbols wherever they may hide, hold them up, and say 'bullshit'.

So there you go. I'll try and post regularly; I have a lot to say, but I'm also very lazy.