Are the dolls THAT scary?
Okay, maybe I'm just not seeing it. Help me out here, folks. My painting of the dolls is the only item in the auction that hasn't gotten a bid. I'm not looking for compliments on its artistic merit - I...
View ArticleThe Scary Dolls are back at the Yearly Kos auction...and here's why!
If you've browsed the listings at the Yearly Kos mega auction, maybe you haven't thought of yourself as an art buyer, since you're really more interested in defeating the crowd that's in Washington...
View ArticleWar Damn Eagle and Katie Bar the Door!
For starters, Auburn just beat LSU in one nerve wracking four hour matchup. So War Eagle, you go Tigers! The commentator said they'll go to number two. We'll see about that. Auburn has had good seasons...
View ArticleWarner to be in Mobile for AlaDems County PAC
I haven't been this excited about a political event since David Brock spoke to the Annual Democratic Party meeting back in the days before the -- well, whatever you call what happened to us in 2000 --...
View ArticleMark Warner fires up downtown Mobile crowd tonight!
Downtown Mobile, Alabama on a very muggy October night - I arrived about five thirty - thinking I'd be one of the first ones there - but I was wrong - Mark Warner was already working the crowd, talking...
View Article(AL-01) Alabama's Vivian Beckerle -A Small Wonder.
Small Wonder she's not doing better, that is. These are the facts, according to today's Mobile Press-Register: Jo Bonner's opponent (AL-District 1) Vivian Beckerle has spent almost $6,200 to his...
View Article(AL-01) Jo Bonner (yawn) vs. Vivan Beckerle (Wow!)
Pizza and Pablum (This is the second of my diaries on Vivian Beckerle, who is running against Jo Bonner for the first congressional district of Alabama) Here's the first diary from a few days ago. He...
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(AL-01) Beckerle vs. Bonner - On the Radar Screen, please.
Being on the radar screen--that's all I want. Getting Vivian Beckerle on the radar screen, I should say. Anyone who gets their party's nomination to run in a congressional race ought to be at least...
View Article(AL-various) Debates edition: Now don't that just beat all?
One of the funniest lines in the debates tonight between the two candidates for Lieutenant Governor of Alabama was the comment made by Jim Folsom to his opponent Luther Strange, who was recommending...
View Article(AL-01) Beckerle still standing strong in District 1
With almost no funding and thus no polls, it's hard to say what might happen on November 7 in this district. If the next week brings out some obvious signs of life from the Bonner camp I'll be...
View Article(AL-01)Beckerle, other Alabama Dems ready to kick butt
If anyone thought a little thing like a blood clot and hospitalization would slow Vivian Beckerle down, don't count on it. She's maybe a bit rested after a few days in a local hospital, but otherwise...
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(AL-01) What a lovely day for a caravan!
Some days are just perfect, and today was one of those. Our mission today was to caravan the Alabama District 1, the district that Vivian Beckerle is hoping to be representing in the next congress....
View Article(AL-01) Beckerle sees through smokescreen
"I think it's the confusion created by the smoke that the Republicans are blowing on this," said Vivian Beckerle, a Mobile Democrat running for southwest Alabama's 1st Congressional District seat....
View Article(AL-01)Oh, what could have been
Bonner 80,791 66% Beckerle 42,024 34% These aren't final numbers, but so far she's holding about half the votes he's getting -
View ArticleWatching Star Wars the week after the election
Is that the first time I've noticed these metaphors and mythological symbols? No, but it's the most amazing coincidence that I watched this rerun of Star Wars a during the second week after the 2006...
View Article1992 - Remembering
I’ve been home with a cold, and have been watching some old VHS tapes I had in a drawer, looking for one I’d had made from old 16mm tapes. While I didn’t find that one, I did find one that wasn’t...
View ArticleChildren of the Code
It has been a very long time since I was active on this site and that's partly because others were doing a great job without me. But now I need you. Progressive Alabamians especially. I'm working on...
View ArticleWe Need a New Flag
As an artist, I respond to color, and as a writer, I respond to the visual conveyed through words. The problem for us in this society, especially right now, is that we have distilled so many of our...
View ArticleI've Been Lonely Too Long
I suspect that I'm not the only ex-hippie baby boomer that has been having songs rise to the edge of consciousness that I'd never thought about before in the way I am thinking about them today. I am...
View ArticleWell, I'm not scared of dying, and I don't really care"
Languishing in the bed reading the wonderful comments from yesterday's celebration of our common experience of being lonely in a loudmouthed angry bellicose world, I have tried to shake the tune that...
View ArticleNe'er do Well: My Father's Missing Middle Name
Ne'er do Well: My Father's Missing Middle NameI am an adopted Mobilian. I chose to come back here after being part of the diaspora that fled in the 70's when the world seemed less violent elsewhere...
View ArticleDigital Literacy and the Debt "crisis"
Why do we have dysfunctional government? I think I know, as I live in a dysfunctional state in a dysfunctional region. I think the current circus is happening because the media has convinced Washington...
View ArticleIntelligence Tests
In the June 6, 2011 issue of the New Yorker in an article titled Why We Have College, Louis Menand said:Society needs a mechanism for sorting out its more intelligent members from its less intelligent...
View ArticleCognitive Dissonance
There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.It has been nearly 20 years since the day I realized that I was a liberal.I was living in Atlanta, GA, a town I'd lived in when I was 20...
View Article"People don't change that fast" he said. "Labels Do."
Remember the last time you shopped for a car? (Well, me either, but hey...) I remember the FIRST time I actually shopped for a car. It was 1970 and I was a newly employed flight attendant in Atlanta,...
View ArticleChattel Mortgages
I'm trying to get ready for a show, people. I don't have time to be digging around on the web, or even digging around in my garden which is what I'd really like to be, what with Azaleas bursting out...
View ArticleWomen as Chattel? Children as Property?
I confess my mind works in crazy ways. My last diary, Chattel Mortgages, was just a prelude to what's going on in my goofy head.See, I remember the day in 1972 when I got married to a man who was in...
View ArticleChattel Mortgages - A different take
While watching The West Point Story, with James Cagney and Doris Day, I was struck by how clearly the early films portrayed the concept of a studio owning the star. The not so subtle subtext was how...
View ArticleWhen I woke up this morning, you were on my mind
You, DK. You. The good friends I have here that give me hope that we can finally learn to talk to one another civilly, that we can learn from one another and that we can "all get along" someday. It...
View ArticleBlogging while traveling -- seriously!
It's 5:15 am in Alabama. I'm on I-65 headed to Montgomery for a day spent with my cousin that I never get to see because she lives in Virginia, and is only in town for one more day. The blessings that...
View ArticleShame is a powerful weapon
Watching Now with Alex Wagner has been thrilling this morning. Her special segment on women couldn't have come at a better time for the campaign, given the "last gasps" of the dying party of fear and...
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Obama Rocked the House Last Night
When I think about this election in the years to come I will remember last night for the remarkable event that no one knew was going to happen. Not that we didn't know Joe and Barack were going to...
View ArticleDana Siegleman - what a brave woman
I'm just going to post a link to this diary, with the following comment: She approached Karl Rove at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte, introduced herself, and tried to ask him if he could do...
View ArticleBreakfast at the Whistle Stop
Down here in Mobile, Alabama, there is such a strange atmosphere - everyone is unsure of the person next to them - and everyone is afraid to "come out" as liberal or conservative so most people I know...
View ArticleRemembering Momma
Yesterday I did something I never imagined I'd have the courage to do. I participated in a ceremony honoring my mother for having been one of the founders of a school in Baldwin County, Alabama in the...
View ArticleGoing from High School to College is Totally Different
In this morning's excellent article on the two brothers who terrorized Boston and the rest of the country, a sentence and a quote jumped out at me. The younger brother was quoted as saying that "Going...
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Something just happened in Birmingham
Alabama Liberal (aka Susan Hales, doublygifted, or simply "Warley" to some) pretending to know all there is to know about my new Galaxy III from CREDO! The earth didn't move and there were no...
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What's in your Wallet?
The press conference I just watched was one more effort to inject a dose of reality into the world that is the United States in 2013. Think about this for a minute: We have everyone focused on one...
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I have this thing about LOGOS
The photo holds more than just a half-thunk thought about Christmas gifts for Matthew, even though that’s why I took it. I sent it to Matt’s older brother, Brandon, to see if he’d go in with me for a...
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A Scrapbook from Mobile's Red Cross Chapter
By way of introduction:My maiden name is Mary Susan Warley. My grandmother for whom I was named was Susie Sledge Douglass. She married Edwin Warley Jr. and they lived on the Warley Farms until my...
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Musings from Alabama...
Okay, maybe it is still too soon for this, but I have been dreaming it for a long time. So here goes…There really are PROGRESSIVES living in Alabama. Trust me on this. But what happened to change...
View ArticleThank you United Steelworkers! Finally, I'm going to Netroots Nation!
Every year since the first Yearly Kos I’ve wanted to attend this event, and every year something prevented me from going. Last year I had to move out of the house I’d been living in for five years, and...
View ArticleTen years is long enough
This painting has been with me for ten years. I painted it the year after I finished my degree in Studio Art, at age 55, and was working on my MA in English which I completed a few years later. The war...
View ArticleMaybe I should have included Tony Blair?
Whenever I look at this painting, the first thing I think about is hearing the news in 1991 that we were going into Iraq. I remember the horrible feeling that shook me, and I remember looking at my two...
View ArticleMaybe two seasons of Frankie and Grace did the trick...
Since I didn’t get to go to St. Louis after all, I signed up for Netflix and watched two full seasons of Frankie and Grace. I loved it. I think maybe I have some material for the writers. And since...
View ArticleCan't take anymore. Ya'll have fun!
After two nights of hearing my senator on the radio and the web, I just can’t take hearing Newt, who was my congresscritter in Marietta after the redistricting shut out Buddy Darden. I am over it for...
View ArticleCan't Donate to the Red Cross? Donate blood instead.
One little noticed side effect of the massive evacuations in the South East stood out to me on the Red Cross website just now. Currently over 1200 blood drives have been cancelled. That’s right —...
View ArticleSinclair Cares! What a great relief! I'm on-board with this...
I know you guys have been busy with other things, but for my money, I’ve been hoping and praying that the tide has truly turned here in Alabama, and I believe it has. My proof? The Sinclair Cares...
View ArticleIt’s a FORD, people
Opinions are like assholesbut all I need is for those who know me to trust that what I am trying to do is for the benefit of the community. The larger community. The Family OfWomanI am trying to...
View ArticleDoes Alabama Matter?
Its a question I’ve asked myself over and over as I once again try to figure out how to change the dynamic on the ground here in Mobile, AL where I live. I’ve been a blogger here since 2005, but the...
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