No longer on the fence

I thought about having both Bernie and Hillary stickers on my car all during the primary season. In the end, I opted for neither and sported a Goodwin for Governor sticker.

Keepin' it local.

But last night? And last week? Secretary Clinton is and was on point in her two most recent major speeches. It's time for me to say #ImWithHer.

I hope Bernie says it, and soon. It won't make a difference here in WV. Trump is wildly popular among non-college-educated, low-income white men, which describes much of the population here. But Bernie's support for HRC could go a long way toward healing the rift in the Democratic party.

No candidate is perfect, which is why I wavered and couldn't commit.

But it's game on now, and if there's one thing I'm quite sure of it's #NeverTrump.

When last we met …

I think I was bragging about nailing 100+ miles in January.

It's gonna take some serious walking to hit it in February. With three fewer days and a couple bad-weather days already, I've only managed 19 for the first week. No walking today, either, because I'll be in the car and on my butt in a meeting all day. But my attitude is good, and I've already planned to put in some extra (above my usual and customary four/day) miles in the coming weeks. If I don't hit 100, I'll at least come close.

I've been a busy Democrat since the election. You'd think things would slow down some, but nooooo. When your state legislature flips from blue to red, you suddenly pay a lot more attention to what's going on at the Capitol.

So far they want to allow smoking in public buildings, add a religious exemption to the public school vaccination policy, restrict abortions in a variety of ways (11 bills so far!), allow open carry without a license IF your gun was made in West Virginia, repeal the ACA in WV, repeal lemon laws, repeal regulations on above-ground water-storage tanks, repeal prevailing wage … lots of repealing going on … and more.

Also? There's a couple crazy Delegates who just don't get that whole rape thing.

Voter turnout in November was 37 percent. And it looks like some of those voters who stayed home are waking up to the realization that a GOP majority is not in their best interests.

Note to voters: We tried to tell you that.

At any rate, I'm feeling useful and committed to the cause. Being plugged in to a group actively working to turn this state back to blue is both challenging and rewarding. But I'm in it to win it.

We're off to see …

Natalie!

West Virginia will most definitely be in the national spotlight for the 2014 election cycle with today's announcement by Natalie Tennant (D) that she will be challenging Shelley Moore Capito (R) for Jay Rockefeller's (D) seat in the U.S. Senate.

Rockefeller announced he would not seek re-election earlier this year, and Capito, who has represented WV's 2nd District in Congress for years, almost immediately said she would be running for the seat.

Tennant has been WV's Secretary of State since 2009.

She has a good record as SoS, she has name recognition, she is polling strongly (but not winning. Yet.) against Capito and she has the support of the DSC. She's likable, personable and easy to talk to.

And, oh my goodness, it'll be interesting. This will be the 13th race between women for a spot in the U.S. Senate. I doubt it will be a cat fight, though. My sense is that good southern manners will prevail on both sides.

But I wouldn't mind seeing the claws come out.

Tennant will be touring the state today and tomorrow, kicking off her campaign just an hour's drive from me (everything is an hour's drive from me, by the way). So we're heading out to be good Democrats today.

This is turning out to be a true-blue week!

July 24 - D is for …

Democrat, of course!

A day off for the news folks

What the heck are the news people going to talk about today? Grey Thursday and Black Friday are over (unless you count the large number of retailers who are extending their "Black Friday deals" to the end of the year). Small Business Saturday is in the books, as well. Cyber Monday is tomorrow; I suppose the talking heads could breathlessly predict massive failures of the internets because of the sheer volume of online shoppers.

It. Makes. Me. Tired.

Not as tired as actually going out and braving the crowds, of course. Since I got home on Thanksgiving afternoon, I've stayed tucked in my nice warm house with my knitting and, um, football snacks. So I'm not tired at all.

My knitting is progressing nicely. Instead of a pair of clogs, I decided to start this.


Naturally I'm using some wool I already had in the yarn closet, an unlabeled blue-and-white tweed  which, doubled, is working out nicely.

Five years ago I might have gone out searching for the neutral tweed illustrated in the video. My favorite colors then were black, grey and taupe. And, honestly, I can't say that blue is my favorite color. But if you're going to be an active Democrat, you really need some blue stuff in your wardrobe.

Before the 2008 campaign my go-to winter cover-up was a green fleece half-zip pullover. Now it's a blue fleece zippered cardigan. Of the last four knitting projects I've started, three have been blue. The pink-and-grey slippers won't be for public display, thus they could be, um, not-blue. I've recently added to my wardrobe:

• a blue-and-black top
• a blue-and-white skirt and
• a blue twinset

I'm ready, ready, ready to … rock the blue.

I started the current hat when WVU kicked off Friday afternoon at 3:30. After two days of nearly non-stop football, I have just 23 rounds to go, 10 of which are decreasing to shape the top, and then I'll be searching for the next project.

The felted bag I made for the WVFDW auction last summer was a big hit, and I'm thinking of going in that direction. I might also whip up a pair of mittens to match the Cabled Helmet. None of these projects has a deadline or is targeted for anyone in particular. I'm just knitting because I like to knit.

And I eat far fewer football snacks when my hands are busy.

One-sided political junkie

As political junkies go, I'm right up there with the best of half of them, I suppose.

You see, I can't quite stomach watching the GOP convention. Alison has done a great job of detailing yesterday's events, and I'll thank her publicly for that. Oh, and my husband writes notes and leaves them on the laptop, so I don't miss anything. Last night he wrote that Ryan is pro-Romney and anti-Obama. And Ryan "also went into some detail in describing that he is pro-Ryan." Heh.

(Aside: Back in the old days, knitters got together online in a Yahoo group called the Knitlist. That's how I first "met" Alison. I quit reading the Knitlist a few years ago and lost track of quite a few members who are suddenly popping up as friends of my Democrat Facebook friends. I'm loving this small world, connected by invisible threads.)

When the Washington Post – not exactly a liberal mouthpiece – publishes a fact-checking piece on Ryan's speech, well, that says a lot. More than I can say, especially since I haven't done any research. Because Alison did it for me.

A friend stopped by yesterday who is as left of the salad fork as I am, and between the two of us we've solved all the problems of the world. What we haven't figured out is how any Republican woman can vote for the Republican ticket this year.

Republicans have been taken over by the well-financed Astro-turf Tea Party Rethuglicans. The current batch of GOP candidates are nothing like the moderate Republicans who actually worked with their colleagues to govern. We should have known things wouldn't go well when Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated after President Obama's victory that "Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."

Here's the GOP in a four-minute nutshell, courtesy of Will McAvoy, Alan Sorkin's fictional anchor on the HBO series The Newsroom. There are longer pieces out there in which McAvoy identifies himself as a registered Republican. In this clip he's explaining how his party has changed:



I will work as hard as I know how to re-elect President Obama. I think our country is in grave danger if Republicans win. We need to re-elect President Obama and hand him a Democratic-controlled Congress, and we need to bring back some sanity to the political process.

Countries fail. The GOP seems to be hellbent on making the United States one of them. And those who will lose the most are women. I can't let that happen. My granddaughters deserve more. And so do yours.

Fuh-REAKY weather

Am feeling even worse this morning for you who are drought-stricken and tomato-less. The rain gauge had three-quarters of an inch in it, after a freaky storm that lasted less than half an hour.

The sky got bluer and then greyer and then darker the closer I got to home when I left work yesterday around 2 p.m. By the time I unloaded the car and ran into the house, the rain had started and the wind was whipping up. Within five minutes we were seeing hailstones (tiny, but still ...)! I kept waiting for another pine tree or two to fall.

I also kept waiting for the electricity to go out. It blinked a few times, but came right back on. However approximately 9% of my county's residents are currently in the dark. Or they would be if it were nighttime.

More rain predicted for today. I wish I could send some to you, if you need it.

My husband and I watched most of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. Since my normal hit-the-sack time is about 8:30, staying up until 10 p.m. was a stretch. (I'm a lark, he's an owl, it's how we get along. Heh.) He's not nearly as interested in the games as I am, but tolerated the spectacle just for me. And switched over to CNN as soon as I turned in.

So I missed Sir Paul and the torch lighting, but I certainly applaud the London committee for choosing young athletes to represent the games. And I've watched it on YouTube. Quite spectacular! Honestly, though, I would have loved whoever they picked because I love the Summer Olympics. My great hope is that the track and field events will inspire me to start moving my butt again.

Today I'll be moving it in a car, mostly. I have to go to a three-hour luncheon and it takes three hours to get there. And, naturally, three hours to get home. There are very few places in West Virginia that are easy to get to. Except for the length of the trip, this one actually is interstate all the way. But still. Six hours of driving for lunch?

I'm one dedicated Democrat, that's all I'm sayin'.