Rayne

When I was a kid I was picked on and bullied nearly every day. I was smaller than most of my classmates, in part because I was put ahead a year and therefore younger, and in part because my folks are shorter than average. While all the rest of my female classmates wore shiny patent [...]

Did you get to the theater this holiday? Do you have plans to see a movie between now and the end of the year? Do tell here in comments.

As we settle into our Turkey Day here in the Great White North, I’m thankful for some comedy relief on the part of Norm “Pot Kettle Black” Coleman giving failed Alaska teabagger Republican Joe Miller some friendly advice.

We know plastic additive Bisphenol A is bad for humans, although we’re still learning more about its effects on humans. But why is the U.S. spending tax dollars on studying Chinese workers’ exposures?

Be on your toes, be conscious of the kinds of propaganda being used against you as you exercise your right to vote today. And don’t hesitate to ask for help if you feel intimidated or discouraged from voting while voting; you can reach Election Protection by phone at 1-866-Our-Vote (1-866-687-8683) — program this number into your cell phone before you leave for the polls.

The real issue isn’t whether President Obama changed some provisions and didn’t change others; it’s whether he changed the system or not. That’s the change we were looking for. If he fought tooth and nail for complete public financing of elections in the next two years, even if he didn’t win, we would all back him 100%. We don’t need 100% success, but we do need you to at least head in the right direction. And we need you to understand what we meant by change.

The most heated policy battle over higher education today concerns the Department of Education’s effort to create rules that protect students and taxpayers from well-documented abuses and shortcomings by for-profit schools. To help lead an army of lobbyists and consultants working to block these rules, key members of the for-profit industry have selected as their general Lanny Davis, who served as a White House lawyer for President Bill Clinton.

Jeff Rosenberg reports that the teabagger wing of the Minnesota Republican Party is attacking efforts by state and local officials to keep them from practicing typical Republican voter-intimidation tricks.

Americans’ support for marijuana legalization is the highest it has ever been, according to the latest Gallup poll. Currently 46 percent of Americans believe the use of marijuana should be legal, while 50 percent think it should stay illegal. The American people are now roughly evenly split on the question. The issue of marijuana legalization has gone from a once fringe position to something solidly mainstream. Most importantly, the trend line shows accelerating movement in the direction of greater acceptance for legalization.

The Scott McAdams campaign decided Wednesday evening to initially feed the results of the Hays Research poll, the first to show Joe Miller in dead last place, to the blogosphere. Influential Alaska media outlets have openly declared for Lisa Murkowski, and the campaign felt it would be better to give initial spin to new media than to outlets who might spin the poll results adversely to McAdams’ campaign, which gained new wind in its sails Thursday as a result of the fresh breeze.