happy day before turkey day!...

BOINGGG!!.. i can't wait to have some turkey 'n stuffing in my tummy... ;D

Ann Coulter's jaw wired shut...

Ann Coulter may be completely silenced, at least for a while. If the New York Post's Page Six report is true, Coulter broke her jaw and her mouth is wired shut.


When I saw this headline, I thought of that line in "The Color Purple" when Oprah says, "...and I knew deh was a God... i knew deh was a God..."

This is the face of one of the most outwardly racist people in American politics today... Kind of a blessing for the holidays - although, knowing her she'll find some way to get some putrid line in the papers despite her predicament... But I still kind of wish she'd take the cosmic hint...

award for funniest job ad...

i was doin' some research on the ESL market and noticed this ad...

FREE KIMCHI for an entire year!

In Seoul Ulsan Ilsan Suwon Anyang Incheon and more!
Posted By: Go East Recruiting Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2008.

Yes, it's true! With any order you place in a Korean restaurant, you will get your kimchi side dish refilled, as often as you like, absolutely free! All you have to do is get over there, and that's what we're here to help you do!

umm... i don't think the recruiters realize this isn't such a big draw for foreigners! ;D nice try, but uhhh... no cigar... back to the drawing board... kk...

Don Quixote's sidekick...

Bush appears to be really enjoying his last "field trip" before leaving office...

happy turkey day Palin!... (not!)

i have to hand it to Governor "Gruesome" Palin --she really knows how to keep her name in the headlines! unfortunately, never for a good reason though... yesterday, Palin went through the schmalzy tradition that all American politicians go through each year of "pardoning a turkey" and setting it free right before Thanksgiving when millions will be slaughtered for our dinner... but, just to be DIFFERENT, i guess --Palin did her little interview in front of a guy who was actually busy killing birds and draining their blood... hmm yummy...

thanks governor! way to replace my rockwellian picture of family gathered at a table eating turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy with blood and guts right before thanksgiving!!! arrrrgh! i think i'll go back to making "hand turkeys" now... going to my happy place...

S. Koreans can finally come to US more easily... YAY!

Tourists from South Korea can start arriving in the U.S. under the new visa-waiver program starting Nov. 17, state and federal officials announced Friday. The date is about two months earlier than expected. Wienert predicted the number of tourists that come from South Korea to Hawaii will double to 80,000 in the first year of the program and double again in 2010 to 160,000. The distance between Hawaii and Seoul is about the same as between Hawaii and Atlanta.
At the peak prior to the 1990s Asian economic collapse, South Korea sent up to 122,000 tourists a year to Hawaii. Many Koreans have relatives in Hawaii, along with deep cultural ties to Hawaii's large Korean American communities. All a South Korean traveler will have to do is carry a new e-passport, which is bar-coded for identification, and then register for travel authorization online. A release from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul advised South Korean citizens that all they will have to do to travel to the U.S. beginning Nov. 17 is go online, sign up, receive clearance from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization and then carry an e-passport.
South Korean citizens may be traveling for business or pleasure, but must carry a round-trip ticket or a ticket that takes them on to another country and may not spend more than 90 days in the U.S. People seeking permanent residence or planning to seek student visas may not use the visa-waiver program. Passengers who have been refused a visa in the past or deported from the U.S. still must go through the process of obtaining a visa. President Bush decided two weeks ago to lift visa requirements for South Korean tourists. British, Japanese and citizens from several other countries are already eligible to travel to the U.S. without visas. Bush also lifted visa requirements for citizens of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia...

i know you are, but what am i?...

okay...first of all, it's been a bit of miserable week thus far... my heater broke, during a sudden chill forcing me under the covers... the weather in the Bay Area has been up and down. last week it was hot and sunny and this week it's lookin' overcast and chilly again. brrr... and during one of the few days that it was raining hard a little while ago - i managed to slip and fall on a crooked slab of cement right outside my apartment complex. ever since then, i've been feeling like the universe put out an invisible banana peel for me to break my "coccyx" on... ;D so sue me, i'm a bit grumpy...

but this story did make me laugh a little... (if you know Tucker Carlson, he's a right wingnut who often has trouble making coherent arguments himself, so i thought it was a bit of a pot calling the kettle black...)

Tucker Carlson apparently wasn't impressed with Palin's - um - verbal skills. On Slate's forum, The Conservative Crackup, he wrote:
After the (Republican) party has settled on what it believes, it ought to go shopping for a leader. I recommend someone who speaks fluent English. This matters, it turns out, and not just for aesthetic reasons. In a democracy, eloquence is a basic condition of leadership. A president has a moral as well as a political obligation to explain his program. His constitutional powers are limited to just a few (war, the veto). His real authority comes from persuasion.
It helps if you can talk.

Ouch. Bush set the bar really really low. Put Palin still managed to sail right under it... :P

best quote of the day goes to...

Nicolas Sarkozy...

Evidently --Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged "by the balls" -- a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Elysee Palace.
The Russian Prime Minister had revealed his plans for disposing of Mr Saakashvili when Mr Sarkozy was in Moscow in August to broker a ceasefire in Georgia.
Jean-David Levitte, Mr Sarkozy's chief diplomatic adviser, reported the exchange in a news magazine before an EU-Russia summit today. The meeting will be chaired by the French leader and President Medvedev.
With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia's Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Mr Putin declared.
Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. "Hang him?" -- he asked. "Why not?" Mr Putin replied. "The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein."
Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: "Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?" Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah -- you have scored a point there."

nice to know --our President is still the butt of jokes around the world... :P bushhhh....

happy friday!!!...

gotta love this kitty's face! ;D like --"we did wHAT last night??" kk...

Bush has "senioritus"...

now that Bush will be out in January --he seems to be gettin' a little weepy on tv. (i actually saw him tear-up talking to reporters at a press conference.) it only took him 8 short years to drive our entire country (and half the world) into the ditch. good work, dubya...

recently, he said he had a few "regrets." no -not about starting a never ending war with Iraq, or torturing and spying on random people, or even about violating half the laws in our constitution. just that he put up that stupid banner "mission accomplished" during a speech he gave in 2003, and that he taunted terrorists after 9/11 by saying things like "bring it ON..." (which is something that adolescent cheerleaders usually say at football games, not something you usually hear out of the president's mouth during wartime) he is also reportedly working on a "memoir" --although i've heard publishers say that noone wants to buy it... is it possible that the American people have finally had enough of the ETERNALLY STUPID and INCOMPETENT??... no... i spoke too soon. we still have Palin... pghghgththth... sassafrassal...

beautiful animation...

if the world were made of origami...
makes me dream instantly...
and want to fold shtuff...

cute overload...

...is my source for all things cute. i rest my case. bunnies = awww-DORable...

my theory: if they forced people in the Pentagon to watch bunnies play - we'd have less wars... plus, we'd have a lot of bunnies running around the Pentagon... ;D

the fall season chill has set in...

i know when it's startin' to turn to winter --the sweaters come out. :D some of my american friends don't really understand my "obsession" with bunnies. it really started in korea. a "rabbit man" would come near my house every day and bring out a bunch of bunny babies to sell for $5 each. i pretty much could not walk by without picking one up. they have to be the funniest goofiest animals on the planet. i think people would be surprised how much personality they have... but, anyway, nothing makes me happier faster than watching my bunny bounce across the room...

yesterday was "national veterans' day" and my brothers and i spent it hanging out and going to see the movie "W" which is all about bushhh... mainly it just shows how he went from being a dumb drunk frat boy to becoming a dumb not-so-drunk president. i think the movie was too sympathetic ultimately and not Oliver Stone's best work. but there were a few laughs --just remembering all the stupid things that flew out of his mouth was amusing... (he and Palin seem to be soulmates in that regard.) reportedly, bushhh himself liked the movie. although the official white house line was - "the president is too busy to bother with watchin' ridiculous movies..." uhhh.. yeah... too busy readin' Camus and shtuff... but just in case people have started to forget how brilliant bush was --i'll leave some famous "bushisms" as food for thought...

1. "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on --shame on you. Fool me --you can't get fooled again."

2. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinkin' about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

3. "Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"

4. "They misunderestimated me..."

5. "Too many good doctors are gettin' out of the business. Too many OB-GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women across this country..."

6. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family..."

7. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream..."

britches to nowhere...

Palin "sorts clothes" to see what belongs to the RNC

Associated Press
November 10, 2008

WASILLA, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party after it spent $150,000+ on a wardrobe for the vice presidential nominee, according to Palin's father. . . Republican National Committee lawyers are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for Palin, what was returned and what has become of the rest.

Palin's father, Chuck Heath, said his daughter spent the day Saturday trying to figure out what belongs to the RNC. "She was just frantically ... trying to sort stuff out," Heath said. "That's the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for.

RNC lawyers have been discussing with Palin whether what's left of the clothing and accessories purchased for her on the campaign trail will go to charity, back to stores or be paid for by Palin, a McCain-Palin campaign official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the campaign hadn't authorized comment. . . .

just when you think it can't get any more BIZARRE - okay, what is more embarrassing? that Sarah spent a ton of cash on clothes like "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman-Marcus from coast to coast" or that her dad just went to the media and started talkin' about her losing her underwear??

she also reportedly called mccain's staff and the liberal media - "stinkers and jerks..." so there. i can just see it --pretty soon, somebody is gonna have a dead possum delivered to their front door... daggum it... ohhh.. it is soooo ON, dude!...

today's funniest headline comes from "governator"...

Arnold Schwartzenegger:

"...Since the GOP lost, "I'm allowed back into the bedroom..."

Barack Obama's victory was good for Arnold Schwarzenegger's sex life, the California governor told CNN today. Schwarzenegger, a McCain supporter married to Democrat Maria Shriver, said, "I can get back into the bedroom, so there's one big advantage" to Obama's success on Election Day. Asked about who had bragging rights in the Schwarzenegger household, he also added that his wife has been "gloating now for these last few days" and running around the house with a "life-size cutout of Obama" saying, "We won!!"

;D haha --too funny!

Note: For my Korean friends (the Governator is married to Maria Shriver who is President John F. Kennedy's niece and a prominent Democrat...)

election snark...

here are some jokes to start off the weekend with a snicker... kk... ;D

courtesy of "the onion" (fake newspaper)
Bush: "Can I Stop Being President Now?"
WASHINGTON - In a press conference held yesterday morning on the White House lawn, President Bush formally asked the assembled press corps and members of his own administration, if in light of the recent election, he could stop being president now. "So, it's over right? Can I stop being President now? Bush said, after striding to the podium in a Texas Rangers cap and flannel shirt, carrying a fully packed suitcase. "Let's just say I'm done as of now. Presidency over." When informed by Washington Post reporter David Broder that his presidency would continue through early January, Bush stared at him quizzically, sighed, and shuffled silently back into the White House...

on late night tv...

"At the end of the night, the electoral vote count was 349 for Obama, 148 for McCain. Or as Fox News says: 'too close to call.' " ---David Letterman

"People were worried about the Bradley effect. Apparently, it was not nearly as strong as the Bush effect." ---Jay Leno

"You know who I blame? The Large Hadron Collider. It is the world's largest and highest particle accelerator. You may remember we were warned that it could create a black hole and destroy the Earth. Consider this: it launched in mid-September, when John McCain was leading in the polls. I believe it jolted us into a parallel universe that was exactly like our own, only Barack Obama is president and the Phillies are world champions." ---Stephen Colbert

"Yesterday, first lady Laura Bush called Michelle Obama and invited her and her young daughters to the White House. Laura Bush told Mrs. Obama, 'While I give you a tour, the girls can watch SpongeBob with the president.'" ---Conan O'Brien

"We're all very happy except Sean Hannity, who is too busy in the bathroom crying." ---Fox News's Chris Wallace on The Daily Show

"People all over the world are celebrating Obama’s victory. Sarah Palin watched the Russians celebrating from her house. ... Sen. John McCain’s concession speech was beautiful. It was dignified, and it was classy. And I think the reason for that is he didn’t let Palin say anything." ---Craig Ferguson

"President Bush called Barack Obama to congratulate him. ... Obama thanked Bush for his call and for all he did to help Obama get elected." ---Jimmy Kimmel

morons stand united...

okay, i confess... i am really enjoying all the in-fighting and the complete implosion of the republican party right now. it's like trying to look away from a train wreck! the republicans are coming out in droves to "eat their own" --like rabid dogs. after spending the last 3 months calling Sarah Palin "a mavericky maverick who knows more about energy than ANYONE EVER...", people in her SAME PARTY are calling her a "diva who constantly screamed at her staff and forced her underlings to buy expensive clothes for her on their own personal credit cards, an Alaskan hillbilly who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on her wardrobe (during an economic crisis/running on a ticket of "cutting the fat from Washington"), and a complete ignoramus who doesn't know the difference between a country and a continent... after seeing her in the few interviews that she was allowed to give, i can't say i am really that surprised. the woman does not exactly "light up the screen" with her amazing intellectual prowess. but it still seems utterly ridiculous, even for them, that they could turn on a dime so quickly... i think it took them all of about 10 seconds to go from cheerleaders to mortal enemies.

Karl Rove, the architect behind Bush's "success", even claimed yesterday that the reason Obama won is because he is really a closet Republican and ran on "Republican ideals" whatever the hell THAT means. (Keep in mind that he's been calling Obama a dangerous Socialist/Marxist/friend of terrorists for the last few months with a vengeance.) So, all of this would be kind of hilarious if it wasn't so tragic...

Of course, Palin still has her "fans." In fact, there's a whole group of rich white repressed cowboys who absolutely LOVE the fact that she likes to shoot moose from an airplane and answers the door in just a towel for her "debriefings"... Although about 70% of the American public polled said that "Palin was NOT READY to be President" - evidently the 2012 campaign to get her elected has ALREADY BEGUN. So, although comedians around the country were really mourning the loss of "Bushhhh" as a target for their parodies - they do not have to worry. I'm sure Palin will provide PLENTY of material in the years to come... Actually, I am just praying that she has learned that throwing out random racist and inflammatory comments DOES NOT WORK. Evidently her statements regarding "Obama bein' someone who likes to pal around with terrorists" is what caused millions of Muslim-Americans to come out for him on election day. So, there was a little poetic justice in all of this... Anyway - I'm prayin' for yah, Sarah... You betcha!

our blue nation...

a stunning site. (blue represents people who voted more than 50% democratic, red represents the republicans and conservatives) this is the actual breakdown of how people voted on tuesday. while FOX, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS pundits on EVERY US tv station continue to try to say America is a conservative "center-right" nation - the facts bear out that we are actually moving LEFT, LEFT, LEFT every day... it just never ceases to amaze me how willing the republican party is to IGNORE REALITY and opt for their idea of a puritanical fantasy land...

i don't think i ever realized the extent of how much the US media was distorting the TRUTH until i lived in Korea for a while... i think that should be some sort of requirement of every US Senator and Representative. go travel and live in other countries! get out of podunk county in AlaBAMA and actually TALK to people around the world! who woulda THUNK it? and for the love of God - stop trying to elect people who have NO PERSPECTIVE or GENERAL KNOWLEDGE of the world!!!

yesterday, i read that Sarah Palin's staff did not know where to begin in helping her prepare for her debates and interviews. she evidently does not know ANYTHING about anything! case in point: she thought Africa was a country not a continent. she could not name the countries that make up North America. she thought the 1st amendment should protect HER from being criticized by the media. sorry to say this, gals, but she is POWERFUL stupid. she would've made Bush look like a genius... and that, my friends, would NOT be an easy task! ;D

yer probably wondering what has me all worked up this morning... i think it was just watching the morning news and realizing that although Obama won a DECISIVE victory in an election where the Repubs were running on a campaign of racism, deceit, and a whole host of dirty tricks - the conservative media seem to have taken away the message (not that the country wants a real change) but that they failed because they just didn't get "dirty" enough... that disappoints me deeply... also the news that by some ridiculous twist of fate, there is still a chance that Sarah Palin may come back in some form - either as a nominee for president in 2012 or as a Senator representing Alaska since one of her mentors and colleagues in crime has already been CONVICTED of multiple violations of ethics laws... it's like a bad movie, seriously... anyway, i hope the Repubs study that map carefully... and now that such a large percentage of people have participated in this election, and found that their vote actually DOES make a difference, i really hope the participation in our democracy continues...

more thoughts from 538...

this is a post from one of my favorite websites: www.fivethirtyeight.com where i LIVED during this LONG political campaign, particularly during the tough moments when every single US network was reporting that the election was going to be just like 2004... there were posts where Nate Silver, a now famous blogger, just wrote one word: breathe!!! and i knew there were probably millions of US citizens saying to themselves - "okay... Nate says this is going to be okay... breathe... get a grip!" (as i refreshed my electoral college widget for the billionth time!)... and it just reminded me of ALL the amazing things that were happening around the country simultaneously with volunteers and organizers and ordinary people who waited in line for 8+ hours to vote (which is totally WRONG in a democracy, by the way)... The voter fraud and impossible voting conditions just has to STOP... anyway, i digress... read this... ;D it's pretty entertaining...

I'll be honest, it's a little hard to write today. I suspect a lot of you may be feeling the same complex set of emotions at the end of a political season so seismic that most of us will remember it as long as we live. We will tell our children and grandchildren what we saw and felt. There are a million post-mortems in the data to discuss, and we will love bringing that to you. But it's a day of happy and exhausted stupor, and of personal post-mortems. Brett and I didn't leave Grant Park until past 2 am, and didn't wind up having so much as a single beer (to be remedied tonight in Chicago with one Mr. Nate Silver). Instead we passed out, woke up dazed, and stumbled to a coffee shop. 14,211 miles is a lot of driving, and our bodies crave regular beds.We suspect we're not alone. Right now, organizers, full-time volunteers, campaign staff, and everyone else who gave single-minded effort toward November 4 are waking up and saying to themselves and each other, "what do I do with myself?" Their cars are messes, their rooms disaster zones, and they've been cut off from friends and family for God knows how long.This was by far the longest and biggest election season in US history, and there is so much left to process. The elation that Democrats feel is mixed with the hangover of carrying so much emotional electricity in the body for so long. Its discharge is necessarily going to leave an exhaustion behind.We feel it too. There will be moments in the coming days, randomly standing in line at the grocery store, driving down the street in contemplation, the sight of a door you knocked, catching a certain song, a glimpse of Chuck Todd, hearing someone tell a story... where these emotions will just come bursting through, the enormity of it all. Just think of how much effort went into this. How much sacrifice. How many things had to go right. How many people had to want it so badly, and how the masterpiece of a campaign structure that David Plouffe and cohorts engineered allowed all that effort to be channeled into the right places to maximize efficiency. More than anything else, this experience was shared. I think I can safely speak for Nate and Brett when I say we loved sharing this year with you, our readers. We're determined to continue to provide innovative political analysis in the coming weeks, months, and years. This remains a labor of love. Thanks from us to you.
-- Sean Quinn

UPDATE: amazingly, the MOST accurate statistics of all the thousands of polls that were done did come from Nate Silver at 538. his predictions were accurate almost down to the tenth of a point! (52.4% Obama, 46.3% McCain) while other polls continued to over-sample republican responses and say the race was "neck-and-neck" throughout - Nate helped a lot of people to continue to "keep hope alive" and work to get people to the polls... I'm sure it had a real impact on people - since we "Dem's" are so used to having elections stolen right out of our hands... way to go, Nate!!

the day after...

still in shock. feeling a whole bunch of emotions... people were still celebrating this morning at work. i heard that last night, there were fireworks in Berkeley (on campus) and in San Fran people were literally dancing and crying in the streets... it was probably like world cup times a factor of 10 all over the country... even though we're facing some hard times ahead - it was so amazing to just see that outpouring of love and joy spilling out every where you turned...

my morning coffee, though, was rudely interrupted by the right-wing spin doctors trying to minimize the significance of this event on tv. tucker carlson was literally WHINING like a baby. on CNN, everyone was trying to say that it was all about race - even though exit polls have already shown that Obama dominated in just about every category across backgrounds, age groups, incomes, and ideologies... i think he was just BETTER in so many ways - and ran an incredibly smart campaign. his people mobilized a force of nationwide volunteers to be reckoned with, and they utilized the internet in so many innovative ways. i was proud, just to be a part of it, even in small ways... so goooo-bama! hope we can ride this wave of hope for a while...

today's U.S. presidential election...

here is some thoughts about today's vote that made me realize that this election is REALLY changing the American people... i've never seen this kind of excitement and participation in my lifetime...

How Long Are You Willing To Wait In Line To Vote? by BarbinMD
Tue Nov 04, 2008 at 06:50:03 AM PST
Yesterday, CNN's Jack Cafferty asked viewers how long they'd be willing to wait in line to vote. Here are some of my favorite answers:
-My whole day is devoted to this one moment in history, I never want to look back and regret that I was not involved in one of the most important moments in United States history.
-Considering that there are some that wait ....and sometimes fight a lifetime for the opportunity to vote, I will wait happily for as long as it takes to vote for my chosen candidate. I urge everyone to do the same!
-You take your pick: A few hours, or a few years. I’ll be voting tomorrow. Guaranteed. I’ve already waited 8 years. One day is nothing.
-Even though I’m 9 and 1/2 months pregnant and Obama will win California with or without my vote, I’ll wait in line as long as it takes. This election is too important to miss, and I don’t care how long and uncomfortable the wait is - I’m voting. It would be a lot more uncomfortable for me to sit by for the next four years knowing that I let my voice go unheard. -I think if the veterans can do 3 one year tours of duty in Iraq, I can wait on line 24 hours if it will help get them home.
-I am prepared and willing to wait all day. I have cleared my calendar to make sure I can spend the whole day. And the time I don’t spend waiting or voting, I will spend poll watching and holding signs. This is far too important not to make a personal sacrifice to make sure my vote counts. And, as an Army wife, one day of work loss is meaningless compared to the days my husband has and will spend on deployment. To all within the sound of your voice: Get out and vote!
Those are just a few from hundreds of comments of people who are motivated and then some. What about you? How long are you willing to wait in line to help elect Barack Obama? VOTE PEOPLE!!!

day before the 2008 election...

i'm really on edge today... after 8 years of the WORST American president in history, i'm worried that somehow the repubs might pull some nationwide voter fraud that allows "mc-pain" to get in the door... judging from the "liberal" blogs i've been reading - it seems as though many democrats feel the same way... already 80,000+ complaints have been lodged against the republican party!

i'm just really thankful that Obama worked as a constitutional lawyer and community organizer. it seems as though his campaign is really on top of it this year! i also think it's a major sign that ordinary citizens like me felt compelled to get in the political process this year. this weekend, i went to volunteer at Obama headquarters and was struck by the sight of a truly diverse group of people - everyone from senior citizens to high schoolers spilling out on to the sidewalks and neighboring cafes working to "get out the vote." it was an awesome sight!

it's a really icky cold rainy day today in berkeley... but i know that it's much worse in other parts of the country and world, so i'll try not to complain. just can't wait until the moment when Obama is declared the next US president...