Funny thing about the media concern-trolling about Obama's "overexposure". They also worry about former President Clinton being in the news too much. But I searched and searched and couldn't find any media person worrying about whether George W. Bush was "overexposed" to the American people during his eight years in office, or whether Dick Cheney is spending too much time in front of the cameras now when his opinions should be irrelevant. Apparently the Guardians Of Liberty in the snooze media only think that the American people shouldn't want to hear from Democratic leaders.

No survey of kickass heroines of urban fantasy is complete without Vicki "Victory" Nelson, the private investigator in Tanya Huff's "Blood [Noun]" novels that were the basis for the (sadly shortlived) TV series Blood Ties. The novels were written in the early 90s, long before Buffy, and are still in print. The novels feature a vampire, but they're not the stereotypical "vampire novel".

So, you'll be hanging the photo right in front of the dart board?

(I know, I know, but somebody had to say it.)

Does God really love Democrats that much?

I'd love to have Justice Glenn Greenwald.

I realize it's about as likely as Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald, but a girl can dream.

"Ceiling Cat only knows what those rules actually are -- or how I KNOW them or, more accurately, know when ur doin it wrong."

As someone observed upthread, there are probably linguistics grad students at work on this already.

Some lolspeak is borrowed from text-messaging, some of it is phonetic, some of it just seemed to sound right so that other people repeated it.

Lolcats: either you 'get' them and laugh helplessly at them, or you just don't see the point at all. As support for my assertion, I submit this letters column.

I laugh helplessly at lolcats. (The funny ones, anyway. The lolcat phenomenon is an example of Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of everything is crap.")

I was disappointed that the author didn't mention the importance of the mangled language to the humor. Part of the pleasure that I (a technical writer and editor for more than 20 years, so usually Very Strict about language) get from lolcats is decoding the capshuns, er, captions.

I also enjoy the way the "mangling" follows very definite rules and has its own sound and rhythm, almost as if it were poetry, and the way it creates its own reality. Lolspeak plays into our view of cats as furry little anarchists, refusing to follow rules. It reinforces our feelings toward our pets as our "babies". It's playful. And play is a good thing. We don't get enough of it in our lives.

A friend once observed that the most literate of our friends have "an adversarial relationship with the English language". Making or just appreciating a lolcat, we get to break a few rules and make a few rules and change reality a little bit.

Or maybe the appeal of lolcats is the satisfaction we feel when TEH JOKE, WE GETZ IT.

The last time I saw something John Derbyshire had written, he was calling for Bill, Hillary, and even Chelsea Clinton to be killed to "cleanse" the nation of the taint of Clintonism.

He is not someone whose opinion I respect.

To quote Christine Lavin: "She's not a victim, she's a volunteer."

Sarah Palin made a bad campaign worse with her reckless and inflammatory accusations against Senator Obama. She's been using the campaign to promote her own political fortunes at McCain's expense. As we say back home, she's a nasty piece of work.

The McCain operatives are wrong to blame Palin for the campaign's many failures -- the problems are McCain's own fault, including the decision to put Palin on the ticket -- but that's no reason to feel sorry for her. It's like feeling sorry for George W. Bush because the Iraq War hasn't turned out the way he wanted.

"But would punishing the powerful senator be a smart move?"

If Lieberman is stripped of his committee positions, he'd no longer be a "powerful senator". And that would be a good thing.

I think it's very likely that if the Democrats get a veto-proof majority and visit consequences on Lieberman for his perfidy, Lieberman will resign from the Senate.

Maybe Obama has nothing to do with the stock market's movement.

The stock market surged the day it was announced that Paul Krugman had won the Nobel Prize. Coincidence?

"That imperative is for government to spend, spend, then spend more at home, not in Iraq."

Joan, I just heard you say on Hardball that Sarah Palin is a feminist because "she's tough" and she stands up for herself.

By that standard, Phyllis Schlafly is a feminist.

A feminist stands up for other women, not just for herself. What has Sarah Palin ever done for other women? Nothing that I know of. In fact, she's a zealous opponent of women's right to control their own reproductive organs. She's allowing herself to be used as window dressing for an agenda that's blatantly opposed to women's rights.

If Sarah Palin is a feminist, then Clarence Thomas is leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

The Republicans criticized the Democratic speakers for being "negative", i.e. for saying that change is needed. Now McCain's going to be talking about change. By co-opting Obama's message, McCain is admitting that Obama and the Democrats are right and the best he can do is be a copycat.

Oh yeah, and McCain promising to end the partisan rancor? Well, maybe he didn't listen to Palin's speech.

Add me to the list of people who believe the cops wouldn't have settled for lesser charges against these goons if they'd been raving about John McCain and not about Barack Obama.

Their dismissal of the threat is especially troubling in the context of earlier, verified reports that the Secret Service had ordered local police to reduce the security for admitting people into Obama's campaign events.