After writing my diary about Rep. Nicole LeFavour yesterday and mentioning her blog Notes From The Floor, I got to thinking...what other active legislators are active bloggers?  Are there any?

I don't just mean the occasional diaries that luminary and not so luminary politicians (and their staff) post here on DK or other sites.  And I don't mean national or other local and regional politicians who have blogs on campaign websites or "official" websites that are managed by staff.

I mean honest to goodness bloggers.  Elected officials with blogs that they write and maintain themselves.  Ones in which they share their own thoughts, perspectives and other information with the world.  Ones like Rep. LeFavour...or something that may resemble that.  Are there any other politicians who make the time in their busy schedules to communicate with their constituents in such an open forum?

Help me collect the list of them!

A diary that has nothing to do with the presidential campaign, but everything to do with the future of this country.

First, the disclaimer.  I have never visited Idaho.  I only recently know anyone who lives in Idaho (when a friend moved there to go to school).  I admittedly know very little about Idaho, and most certainly knew and still know very little about politics in Idaho.

Yet, I wish to publicly announce my endorsement of Democrat Nicole LeFavour for the Idaho Senate in District 19.

According to Tom Lantos, he told us he's going to have one of the busiest Congressional schedules he's had in his career this next week.

The question is, busy or not, will it be as productive as we hope?

Oh that, and will I really be able to tell if the Congressman winks?

I saw a couple other folks asking about judge information...and I had been wondering the same.  I've usually voted pretty blind on the various CA judges offered up on the ballot...but decided to do a little more research this time around.  I didn't just look at any "recommended" lists...one way or another...and go with that, but I actually did a little bit of Google research to make a slightly more enlightened decision.  

Am I anywhere near right?  Who knows...reality is they'll all get their positions anyway...but at least I feel I'm paying some attention.

Here's what I decided to do and how I've already voted in my county.  Yup...perm absentee, dontcha know...

UPDATE: I vote in District 1, of which you can see a map on the No on McGuiness blog...h/t Jennifer Poole and Brian from Calitics.

I started to write and ask if anyone has heard from Riverbend, since it's now been 65 days since her last post.  But then I remembered Steven D and many of us all wondered the same thing just a couple of weeks ago.  Not that I know her or had any previous contact, but emailed her just to see if I happened to get any kind of a response...nope.  I still wonder and am concerned.  But as appropo as my title may be to her story, that's not the subject of this diary...just the gateway...

Follow me to see who is...

I am an endangered species...a California native. ;) I was born and raised in SoCal and have lived the last 12+ years in the SF Bay Area, so I've traveled to, seen and lived in a wide variety of places throughout the state. Having enjoyed traveling and visiting a number of other states, I've gotta say that I love my beautiful state...warts and all.  

The reason?

I have not been one to read the Times-Picayune regularly about all things Katrina.  As I'm sure you can understand, there is just so much to read and do and get angry about day to day...not to mention fitting in a little work. ;)   But...sometimes...there are moments that I find snippets of time when I catch up a little, even if I didn't mean to.

Like today. I was doing some lunchtime Google-ing for local webcams to add to my "weather" bookmarks for sailing info.  I saw one listing for Nola.com and decided to take a quick little detour to see what kind of cam action was going on down there these days.

Before I found the cameras, something else caught my eye...

This week I have been dealing with the fallout of the local and very real results of last year's cut by the BuShit administration the CDBG program and the crappy financial situation regarding interest rates as well as learning more about what our nonprofits are up against now and in the future.  So, I've gotta admit that my snark reserve is running rather low on this Friday evening.

But when I saw this I just could NOT believe this:

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday rejected charges by Democrats that the Bush administration was mishandling Iraq and said: "If they are competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on American Idol."

...take action below...

In this time of continued, increasing, exhaustive outrage, I sometimes find it difficult to express my feelings in any form of a composed and articulate manner.  Too often the anger, disgust, and complete frustration...among others feelings...come tumbling out of my mouth as a torrent of spits and sputters mixed in with a wide vocabulary of exclamations Maryscott would be proud of.

I would like to acknowledge that over the years, there have been many distinguished and talented front pagers and diarists whose work I have enjoyed reading.  Thank you very much for your past, current and future contributions.  

However, I find that of late, I have been particularly appreciative of this noted team of front pagers.  Beyond the excellent analysis and information provided, I have found that their posts speak my language.  Often I'll read one of their pieces and feel like they've exactly articulated how I feel.  I love the tone, the words, the rythym, the snark, the conciseness...and wish I could have expressed myself so well.

Wow, taken me a long time to get around to writing my first diary...but here goes.  I've looked around to the best of my ability and didn't see any mention of this particular story, so please forgive me if I'm repeating someone.

So...there I was reading the obituary for Lt. Laurel Hester.  I realized that I hadn't kept up on the story and was pleased and surprised to hear that she won her battle in New Jersey.  I followed the link over to Queer Day and saw this other headline that grabbed my attention...
Colorado gay rights measure gains interesting support.  I couldn't help myself, I had to follow that story.  

Holy crap...was I shocked to see that Focus (your shotgun)on the Family endorsed a bill giving gays rights!