The news that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her husband have ties to the secessionist  Alaska Independence Party has sparked derision from her critics and provoked tons of questions.

BlogHer DC kicks off bright and early on October 13, 2008. This is the place to find the liveblogs, which will be posted shortly after the sessions end. Check back often as the links go live! * * * * * * * Blogging Basics: I Blog, Therefore I Am…How to find your blogging mojo Online Community building as natural promotional tool

When I moved to the suburbs of Illinois, I did not expect to find so many homes decorated for Halloween. Every time we go out to eat or to run an errand, I turn down a different street, just to see what's down it, and every time we find house after house after house decorated for Halloween.

Race continues to be a factor in the presidential campaign this year and in recent weeks has been raised as an issue in ways that have led observers to analyze the issue through historical lenses. Nicholas Kristof, in an Op-Ed in the New York Times noted that there was a "push to 'otherize' Obama." Kristof describes some of the forms this otherization is taking:

You won't find her on Fortune's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business but Blythe Masters may go down in history as the woman who is responsible for the 2008 collapse of global financial markets. You can't get more powerful than that.

So maybe you're one of those busy people who hasn't fully embraced the idea of crockpot cooking? Maybe you need just a little more information to convince you to use a crockpot. How's this for encouragement: Dinner. Is. Ready. When. You. Get. Home. From. Work. What could be better!

I'm not sure how much you know about pumpkins but I think everyone should know just a few pieces of useless information. I can't think of a better topic than pumpkins, can you? If you're really getting into this Month of Pumpkins thing and would like to come to Illinois and visit the pumpkin capital, I'll go with you. It's not all that far from my home. I know this because I have read every word on this Pumpkin Patch page.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month; you can work to reduce your risk by eating right, exercising regularly, and having a mammogram.  You can also help fund a cure by shopping for products that support breast cancer research.  Here are five picks; some portion of the sale price of each goes to the Susan G. Komen foundation and other parner organizations working to end breast cancer.

So Fair Trade Month coincides with Halloween -- but chocolate's not the only yummy fall fair trade goody! Lots of new tasty fair trade teas came on the market this year -- and here are a few to try this season:

Are you a GRITS Girl, you know, a Girl Raised in the South? If so, you need no primer on how to cook grits. It's in your DNA and there's no changing your mind, it's fixed and fabulous. But for the rest of us, read on ...

Caspian seals, Tasmanian devils, fishing cats, Indri lemurs, black-footed ferrets, Iberian lynxes: endangered mammals all. Mammals like us. Creatures at the top of the food chain. Think of the food chain as a pyramid, with predators at the top; then imagine the widening base of that pyramid that includes smaller creatures, vegetation, water, living space and other natural systems that support the web of life. For something at the top to be endangered, supporting tiers in the base must be malfunctioning, destroyed, or damaged.

Leaves crunching underfoot sound delightful in the day time and sinister at night. The harvest moon seems utterly otherworldly. Shadows are longer and the night falls earlier. There is simply something about this time of year that invites one to be scared and thrilled to the tips of their toes. There is no end of books to scare one as much one desires this time of year.