say hello to

purblind jism and Republican Fighting Systems Inc.

friday morning reads

Murray Waas - Insulating Bush

Molly Ivins - Immigration 101 for beginners and non-Texans

Will Bunch - Bush in Cancun

friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus

"You Got What You Wanted" - Luther Tucker
"Crooked Frame" - Alejandro Escovedo
"Metal Firecracker" - Lucinda Williams
"Trouble in Mind" - Big Bill Broonzy
"Dark as a Dungeon" - Johnny Cash
"Tuxedo Hat" - The Octopus Project
"Sweet and Dandy" - Jimmy Cliff
"Gun Sale at the Church" - Beat Farmers
"Motorhead" - Hawkwind
"Walk on By" - Isaac Hays

truth in advertising

The Chevy Tahoe

Also check out the Chevy Coulter.

(via Democratic Underground)

Homelss Skaters

New York Press

Roller Derby league has to move from Bronx rink

By Bret Liebendorfer

Wanted: A new home for 64 tattooed, pinup-skating badasses. New York’s Gotham Girls Roller Derby is now homeless after the Bronx’s Skate Key rink shut down. The announcement came only a few weeks before the season opener. NY1 reported that the 24-year-old skating rink had a history of crime and faced harassment chrages from the police and Community Board 1. Stabbings, fights (some fatal) and sale of alcohol to minors all allegedly took place, according to the police, as reported by the TV network.

It’s hard to believe closure is the best course of action. Revitalized roller derby brought excitement to the average 1,200 fans that attended the monthly games last season, while support for the league was continuing to expand (a new team, the Bronx Gridlock, would be added to the league this year). In a city plagued by expensive sporting events, pretentious athletes and hometown teams that don’t even play in New York, the league was refreshing.

While we hope the roller girls will find a new home (possibly even one in a more central location), let’s not forget about who is affected by the closing the most: the children of the community. Idle hands do the devil’s work, and with less opportunities for entertainment, expect the neighborhood violence that supposedly led to the closing to only get worse.

happy birthday elfgirl

R.I.P.

Stanislaw Lem

Connecticut RollerGirls

Daughters of the Derby Revolution

From all parts of the state and most conceivable walks of life, 30-plus women got together earlier this month for the kick-off meeting of the fledgling Connecticut RollerGirls league. The March 4 meeting was organized by the league´s cofounders Jenna Keller and Jessica Reiter, two hyper-organized, take-charge chicas in their mid-20s who embarked just a couple months back on a mission to bring the sport of women´s flat-track skating to Connecticut.

Women heard about the fledgling league via MySpace and by word-of-mouth. Some, like Jenna, were exposed to the sport for the first time when the show called Rollergirls aired on A&E a few months back. Some had dreamt of roller derbydom since watching televised bouts of the sport on Saturday morning in the ´80s. I attended not only as a writer, but also as a thwarted skater whose career as a derby girl ended last November on the night it might have started.

tags: roller derby, rollergirls

monday morning reads

Juan Cole - All hell broke loose in Iraq on Sunday.

A new Downing Street Memo?

Get your Red Burka for a Red America here.

Set our Super Heroes(trademark symbol) free

With names like Malice-n-Wonderland, Queen Dread and Sin Dixxxie, a few women are trying to bring roller derby to Nashville.

the gift that keeps on giving

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

The group's revenue was drawn mostly from clients of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to its records. From an FBI subpoena for the records, it can be inferred that the bureau is exploring whether there were links between the payments and favorable legislative treatment of Abramoff's clients by DeLay's office.

derby briefs

Here's one for your things-to-do-before-I-die list.

Go see roller derby.


At least a couple of thousand fans showed up for the first public event for Lincoln’s No Coast Derby Girls.