It was barely over a week ago on the blog of famous baking expert Dorie Greenspan that I first heard about Operation Baking GALS, a project started by Susan Whetzel of Doughmesstic. I'm not a baker, so I didn't pay much attention to it at first.

On Tuesday, I urged serious attention to Naomi Wolf's warning that if citizens don't act we could be a facing the End of America. Today, I want to highlight the warnings coming from career government servants who left the US government in protest at the beginning of the Iraq war. Several of those servants contributed to a recent anthology, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, edited by Col. (ret.) Ann Wright and Susan Dixon.

My favorite thing about participating in the blogosphere is the opportunity it provides to walk a mile (or two, or twenty) in the shoes of people in very different life experiences from my own.  I have been learning much lately by reading some of the blogs by parents holding down the fort at home while their spouses are deployed overseas in the U.S. Armed Forces.  Many of these families are blogging their journey with great honesty and courage.

Ill-informed Democrats like Barack's other Veep vetter Eric Holder may believe Europe will love us with Barack, but he must have missed the last few elections over there which brought center-right leaders (as best you can expect in socialist Europe) to power--Germany's Angela Merkel, France's Nicholas Sarkozy, and the irrepressible Silvio

Last month, Congress passed a defense budget that will cost American taxpayers over $500 billion dollars...and when you add in the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers get closer to $1 trillion. To put these numbers in context, the United States spends more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined. In our own budget, the defense portion of the budget (again, minus the wars) takes up 54% of the money that Congress has available to spend this year.

Wardrobe of choice. Yeah, right.

Many of us heard about it after Vietnam. Some men, we were told, returned home having flashbacks and exhibiting anti-social behavior. But, like most people back then, I shrugged it off, never realizing that it would come to effect so many that I knew and loved. I didn't know then how deeply it could wound a person, or with what lasting and horrible presence. PTSD can often have a delayed effect. One day a colleague of mine had to be taken from his office, as he was cowering behind his desk, terrified. He was a Vietnam vet who in 25 years had exhibited no negative symptoms.

At first I wasn't gong to do this. I was tired and internally moaning about my work is crap and other people do it better and I need a nap and it is just too much. This is a clear indication that there are other areas in my life that are bothering me. Shooting and editing video are good things that I need to do more of, not less. One of the good things about National Blog/Vlog Posting Month is the constant re-statement, it doesn't have to be good, perfect or life transformative. You just gotta do it.

I am pleased to announce the beginning of BlogHer’s Election 2008 get-out-the-vote campaign! Women who blog are already mobilizing around political issues that engage us -- from KylaKae on mud-slinging and the Supreme Court to Rita Arens on the chipping away of S-CHIP to Dana on GOP Debate highlights, to Jen38 on the hidden motivations of attacking Hillary's Clinton's laugh, to Momocrats in today's New York Times. In the coming year, BlogHer's Politics and News team will work together to showcase the best writing by women on politics, as well as help you find everyone who is writing about the coming election. To help us help this community, today we’re introducing blog bling so you can show your support of getting out women's voices and the vote for Election 2008, and in the next month we’ll be unfolding:

This is really stunning, because they cut away from her- and didn't just bleep her when she said "goddamn." Seems political to me... From the LATimes blog:

Balenciaga, Fall 2007 ready-to-wear collection

Travel to me is like the Twilight Zone, it is both internal and external experience. There are miles between a thought and the surface of the skin. In this last selection of videos before the conference I want to introduce you to fellow travelers who, like Robert Frost, intend to take the road less traveled, sometimes in plain sight.