You might be a douchebag if...

You drive a hummer with a personalized license plate that says "HUMMER."

You tell me you oppose gay marriage because of something in the old testament, while eating bacon.

You think women are paid less because they are not as well educated.

You told someone you interviewed to call you the next day and then spent a week dodging their calls.

I live in Florida, and I keep hearing him on the Radio saying how the Democrats just couldn't stop the mean Republicans from moving the primary date.

For a year numbered 007, it had more than its fair share of the clandestine, the Republicans having the sleightest and most illusory of hands, especially Bush-Cheney-World, which operates in unprecedented secrecy. Some of the following were only discovered in '007, although the legerdemain itself occurred earlier. Some became scandals of a sort, but overall, the American public has remained steadfastly teflonized, preferring to be disinformed, cortisol-driven, and inflammatory.

Added: December 31, 2007
We all must die, there is no escape. When viewing those who have made it to the top of the heap, only to pass on, you realize how short our time on this Earth really is. Let's take a quick trip down memory lane and revisit those who have made our lives a bit brighter or perhaps, sadder during their lifetime. These are the ones who will forever have on the other side of their DASH the year 2007. Also visit:
2006 Celebrity Deaths

WCBSTVWebteam@cbs.com

Dean's DNC beats McAuliffe's DNC (in millions):

Remember how much Dean sucks at fundraising, but Terry McAuliffe was the best fundraiser in the history of the world when he headed the DNC in 2003? In reality, Dean's done alright, and the RNC has had trouble. What was a $64 million edge in 2003 is now a $32 million one. And that's just the RNC vs. DNC numbers. The parties' respective House and Senate committees aren't even close, with Democrats vastly outraising their Republican counterparts (will the NRCC finish the year out of debt?). And the Democratic presidential candidates are blowing away their Republican counterparts.

For a GOP that has built its recent historical electoral successes in large part on its dominant fundraising, this recent turn of events bodes ill.

Okay, it's a new year, and we're supposed to be optimistic and positive about what's ahead.  Putting a damper on the festive mood of well-wishers and party goers is being the New Year Grinch, bearing tidings of gloom and doom.  So call me a Grinch....I'm tired of the make believe.

You can usually bet the ranch that past behavior often is the best indicator of future behavior.  If so, looking back at 2007 should make us all very wary of the coming year.  It isn't about to make much of a difference.

A pretty thorough list of what was NOT done to change this country in a year that SHOULD have made things better can be found in a blog at TvNewsLIES.org:

Only a few minutes remain in 2007, so it’s high time to take a look back and give some well-earned recognition to those people without whose foibles the past year would not have been possible.

The It Takes A Village Award to Lynne Spears, who apparently needs an entire village to keep track of the doings of her daughters. Britney and Jamie Lynn have devolved from celebrities into the sort of individuals who make The Jerry Springer show what it is.

RETROSPECTIVE: THE GOP CANDIDATES

There's McCain, who's a maverick no more,
And "Mittney," a flip-flopping whore,
There's Rudy, the fascist,
Dunc Hunter, the racist,
And Thompson, a doddering old bore.

Huckabee's a fat wingnut, now thin,
Newt's out, though he never was "in"
Allen Keyes is a loon
Tancredo's a goon,
And Ron Paul, not likely to win.

Oops! I forgot Brownback of Kansas!
From the endless, vast, corn-filled expanses.
No surprise I forgot:
No one gave him a thought.
And no one gave ** snap ** for his chances.

Now Huckabee's duking it out
With Romney, who's got money clout
If one wins Ioway
The other can say,
"So what? I am far more devout."

From the Drum Major Institute's 2007 Year In Review. A look back at the numbers that paint a picture of our nation in 2007.

Minimum number of hazardous children's toys recalled by Mattel in August 2007: 9,500,000

Number of employees on the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2007: 420

Number of CPSC staff who currently inspect toys, according to the New York Times: 1

Number of CPSC staff eliminated by the Bush administration's 2008 budget: 19

I'm thinking that, being New Year's Eve, it's time to take a look back at some of the things that happened in 2007 and whack ourselves over the head repeatedly in order to avoid some prior mistakes.

So this post is simple: thinks I'm glad about for 2007, things I'm angry about for 2007, things I'm looking forward to in 2008, and things I dread about 2008.

But first, once again, I have done more  light drawings:

As usual, clicking on the images gives you a larger version with details about the photos.

2007 has been quite a year. It started with the fumigation of the House and Senate after too many years of the Republican Culture of Corruption. Our hopes the Democratic Party leadership would go after the Bush administration like bloodhounds after an escaped mass murderer were largely dashed. Bush surged and splurged in Iraq, gave out massive subsidies to fossil fuels companies while refusing to spend money on disadvantaged chilren, ignored laws he didn't like and commanded Congress legalize his actions, and obstructed every investigation into his administration. The year also brought the 2008 presidential campaign into focus, flooded our recommended list with candidate diaries, and sparked a few pissing contests. It was also the year that Markos joined the big media leagues as a political commentator. In this strange and toxic environment, what ideas, issues, and people fired our imagination? One barometer of our political personality are the diaries with the highest impact factor over the course of the past year.

2007 was supposed to be a mellow year.  No political races in Minneapolis, a year to catch my breathe.  Of course, it hasn't been that way.  If 2007 was the quiet before the storm, 2008 is going to be a wild ride.  Here's a look back at my favorite quotes from this last year.  

Sen. Amy Klobuchar's reaction to the collapse of the I-35W bridge across the Mississippi in Minneapolis was the best:

"A bridge in America just shouldn't fall down."
(USAToday)

2007 started with such promise - there would be "big changes" - or so we were told.  And on some levels (mainly personal), it has delivered - I still have my job (and it is better than at the beginning of the year), YKos was great, I have a baby on the way....but in the world of politics and around the world, things don’t look as rosy as we may have thought back when a new Congress took session.  Some of this is the fault of Democratic leadership, a lot of this is the fault of Bush and the republican party, or the corporate media, or the fault of nobody.  But, a lot did go on this past year, and all I can say is that I hope 2008 holds out more in terms of delivery and less in terms of broken promises, frustration, disappointment, bewilderment and lowered expectations.

The 3,000th US military death in Iraq was just before the new year.  There were promises of a "new Congress in town" and a change of direction in Iraq.  Another close to $200 billion was approved during the year for "continuing operations" with absolutely no real change in direction.  The "surge" has been an absolute failure - a reduction in deaths due to sectarian cleansing and voluntary temporary stop in violence by al Sadr’s militia with no political benchmarks met is no success in any way.  

Well, it's another year almost-but-not-quite-completely shot to hell:>)
It's just past noon in the Eastern timezone - means there's just under 1.5 days to make end-of-the year contributions (political, charitable, tax-deductable or not)

Despite yesterday's revelry in AnotherMassachusettsLiberal's secret underground bunker (or perhaps because of all that drinking liberally?) Thestral feels fine today, and is finally getting to that stack of "gimme letters". Being a rather frugal Kossack most of the year, Thestral finds there's still a few hundred USD in discretionary funds available for some good causes.

It's not a 'best of' retrospective.

It's not what you'll find on television.

It's those moments that made me, and others, go 'what the f#@k'

Enjoy

Last year on December 24, I wrote a diary,  Heroes of 2006: Who's on your list?. I'd like to ask the same question a year later--December 25, 2007.

These are a some people who I'd call good folks.  The good folks of 2007.

Without a doubt, I'm going to begin with You. Yes, you--Kossacks. You made history last week. You proved that we have power. You proved that people-power works. You proved that we are a force. This is not hokey. This is not corny. This is reality.

I have no doubt that you will be asked to mobilize again in the days, weeks and months ahead.  A lot of you want to know, what's next?  Yesterday,  many of you contacted the Los Angeles District Attorney to ask for an investigation into the actions of CIGNA in the death of Nataline Sarkisyan.

I came across this full featured movie on Google. I thought this would be the best Holiday gift for sharing. Hope you have the time to watch this film, it's timeless. Happy Holidays from, thinkingblue

Today is Festivus. I hope you've all set up your Festivus pole and are readying your list of grievances for 2007. Here's mine.