I don’t know if this blog is really written by an 82 year old woman living in Texas writing to her friend in Maine, who had to have her blog thingy set up by her grandson so they could talk to each other about politics and life in America, but DAMN, it’s funny and brilliant.

These two “Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting…” definitely have thing or two to say about the campaign for president.

I was just watching CNN  and I couldn’t believe what I heard.  Even if McCain loses this election, many in the Republican party will see Governor Moose Meat as the candidate who almost saved McCain.  In other words, it wasn’t her fault - he would have been nothing without her.  The reporter then took that to a horrifying conclusion - Palin in 2012.

Has everybody gone mad?  Dear Lord she is like a cockroach.  We’ll never be rid of her!  I tell you after the scare of that report my hair went from a lovely silver, just like that sweet Anderson Cooper’s, to stark white… completely devoid of color (my hair not Anderson Cooper).

and they don’t apologize for expressing their opinions. At 82, they’ve earned the right, or something.

New rules:

I will stop calling George Bush a jackass when he stops calling me a terrorist: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I will stop calling John McCain an ass when he stops calling Barack Obama a socialist at every dog and pony show on the Straight Talk Express tour.

I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer.  And I will stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops calling the parts of the country where I don’t live more Pro-American than the part of the country where I do live.    And I will definitely stop calling Sarah Palin a bitch when she stops acting like a bitch.

Don’t miss the Cafe Press store. I think Helen is the artist.

John Sutter isn’t letting his recent firing by the Oklahoman keep him down. He’s started a new blog to help educate Oklahomans about their state’s ecology, and the state government’s impact on it.

Just a couple of days before his last day with OPubCo, I did a little review of his blog for the paper, Going Green. I was very impressed by his work there, and glad he will continue in that vein.

Naming Concrete Buffalo after a mural along a barrier wall on Broadway Extension in OKC, Sutter introduces it thusly: (more…)

Well, we can hope, anyway.

One of the blogs on the Oklahoman’s web site is “Go Green” and actually, despite my considerable reservations about it going in, it’s good. The worst thing I can say about it is that there’s not enough promotion of it in the company’s more visible operations, the dead-tree newspaper and main site, NewsOK.com (for the life of me, I can’t find links to any of the blogs on the new version of that site.)

The main writer is John Sutter, “environment reporter” for OPubCo. Did you even know that the Oklahoman had an environment reporter? Me, either.

Also contributing is Micah Gamino, whom I met several years ago when he was a journalism student. He’s a committed environmentalist, but again, doesn’t seem to be well utilized by his employers.

But the real blame for the lack of attention to environmental issues doesn’t really lie with OPubCo, but with the state itself. There is a tragic lack of attention to and leadership on this issue. And Go Green itself addressed this problem on Sept. 23 with OKC and Tulsa Among Least Green Cities.

One of the entries of Go Green that caught my eye was E-Waste in Oklahoma, which talks about a new law going into effect in 2009 to deal with the potential toxicity of discarded electronics.

The Oklahoma Legislature made a move to address the issue by passing a law last session will require computer companies in Oklahoma to take back and recycle worn-out computers. The law, which goes into effect Jan.1, will encourage the development of companies that can recycle e-waste in Oklahoma, said Fenton Rood, of the state Department of Environmental Quality (see video above). The law only applies to household computers, not those in office buildings, and it doesn’t cover other e-waste, like cell phones and televisions.

Before the law goes into effect, people in Oklahoma City can take their old computers and electronics to the city’s hazardous waste center. There’s only one other permanent hazardous waste collection center in the state, in Midwest City. Towns and cities in rural Oklahoma hold recycling events from time to time. Rood said the law is designed so that it hopefully will be more convenient for people to recycle their computers in the future.

About time, but more is needed. I know that the recycling program in my community is a joke. There is a three-hour window on Saturday morning when I can take items to a designated location. I’m actually thrilled to see as many people take advantage of this as do, but I know the vast majority of my neighbors could not be bothered. Most locals think like my brother, that they’ll recycle when they get paid to. What the government needs to do is educate its populace how much they are paying by NOT recycling.

I would encourage anyone interested in sustainability for Oklahoma to read Go Green and let its corporate sponsor know you appreciate the attention to environmentalism and sustainability in our state.

Meta note: the Oklahoman’s blogs use the Wordpress MU platform.

And the winners are …

Congratulations to all, and a big collegial hug to Mike at Okiedoke who does such a great job with the awards each year, in addition to his own great blog.

I have to admit I haven’t read most of the winning blogs, which I plan to remedy soon. I have set a goal for myself: to read, analyze and review each of the Blog Oklahoma member sites over the next year. Of course, in order to have even the remotest chance of reaching this goal, I’m downloading the list as of today. If you aren’t a member yet, your blog will have to wait until next year.

Van Taylor wants you to know
Van is mad at Murtha for something he didn’t actually say. The Miami Sun-Sentinel misquoted him and no one checked the quote (sounds like bloggers have taken over, doesn’t it?) before running with it.

Van Taylor, the Republican candidate for the District 17 House seet, and the only R candidate who is an Iraq vet, is joining the swiftboating of John Murtha for his position on the war.

Of course the whole campaign is politically motivated and fueled by lies and distortion — else it wouldn’t be “swiftboating” but of course we can’t count on the media to clarify things for voters.

Fortunately, there’s a local blogger who takes on this task for the district. Nate Nance publishes the blog Common Sense, and tirelessly covers this race. If you live in this area, you should bookmark Common Sense and check it regularly. If you have local news that Nate might be interested in writing about, he’s got his email posted. And of course, use his comments to get a local dialog started — a civil, respectful one, of course, regardless of your political persuasion..

Meet the New Boss:
Note link to great article on Colbert & the media at start of the post.

• Pam Spaulding at Pam’s House Blend
• Taylor Marsh
• Arianna Huffington
• Watertiger at Dependable Renegade
• Belle Waring at Crooked Timber
• Laura Rozen at War and Piece
• Barbara O’Brien at Mahablog
• Avedon Carol at the Sideshow
• Susie Mandrak at Suburban Guerilla
• Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon
• Sheri Zollinger at World ‘o Crap
• Xan, Leah and Chicago Dyke at Corrente
• Georgia10 and McJoan at Kos
• Emptywheel at The Next Hurrah
• Jeralyn at TalkLeft
• Ellen Nagler at The Broad View
• SusanG at Booman
• MaryScott O’Connor at My Left Wing
• Lindsey Beyerstein at Majikthise
• Athenae at First Draft
• Echide of the Snakes
• Roxanne at Rox Populi
• Elayne Riggs
• Julia at Sisypus Shrugged
• Shakespeare’s Sister

Mike at Okiedoke is a great promoter of Oklahoma and bloggery — he’s even organizing the 2006 Oklahoma Blogger convention — so who better to institute the Okie Blogger Awards? Good thing he’s taken his own out of contention, or the rest of us wouldn’t have much of a chance.

I don’t do nearly enough browsing of the blogs of my fellow Okies, despite the fact that Mike and K at BlogOklahoma make it their mission to keep track of them for us. I have become quite partial to Okiefunk since its debut this year. Kurt’s profiles of radical Okies really are something special, and the one of Woody Guthrie was so good I copied it to OKIMC.

My friend James Branum was kind enough to vote for me in two categories, which only makes me think he hasn’t been doing much blog surfing lately either. The categories were “unusual” and “culture.” Hmmm, I wondering about that! But I do appreciate the thought.

But if there was a category for most blogs created and/or maintained, I could really be the hands-down winner. To wit:

www.gypsyresort.com
www.peacearena.org
www.herlandsisters.org
www.okgreens.org
www.okobjector.org
okcodepink.blogspot.com
ruralgreens.blogspot.com
www.okimc.org/blogs
www.okimc.org/network
www.greencommons.org
www.greenbloggers.org

There are others that are no longer active, and thus not eligible, including okprogressive.blogspot.com and www.gypsyresort.com/shoot66/.

There are probably a couple of other live ones I’m forgetting at the moment, but I think I’ve made my case.

New blog in town:

Here at the UnCJournal, our team of writers will bring you news, commentary, and analysis on topics such as:

• Income disparity
• Privatization versus public ownership
• The corporate erosion of democracy
• Corporate crime
• The IMF/WB/WTO
• Workers’ rights
• Unions and labor organizing
• International solidarity movements
• Free trade vs. fair trade debates
• Anti-globalization perspectives and alternatives
• Sustainable development
• Progressive science and healthcare policy
• The environment

Found another lefty Okie blogger, in this case at Daily Kos (via diary). The Oklahoma Hippy calls his blog Phish Fan in Jeebus Land. I know that Phish is a band, but if I’ve ever heard their music, I’m not aware of it — just not that into music. Anyway, he’s pretty rad politically (outside of seeming to be a big fan of Hillary Clinton), but I can only read half the thing, cuz it’s black with dark blue links. I thought it might just be displaying poorly in Opera, but no, same thing in Firefox. Why? Why do people do that?