La Chica Ye Ye

I big squishy heart this song, not this particular version so much, but I do find it awesome that tween/teen pop singers south of the border are far more fun than ours.

OK, I'm gonna go dance now!

So I'm slow to post things this summer...

Sorry but the weather is beautiful, the kids and I are constantly running about having fun and what not, and I've actually been doing more reading than writing.

Anyway, here I am a couple days late writing to say huzzah! The Oregon Legislature finished off another democratically lead session, and despite a ton of obstacles and challenges, I think it was a very successful session. The implementation of Measure 57 was pushed off, a budget with a great deal of cuts was passed, but with 12% unemployment it could have been a lot more painful and a whole lot more difficult to survive. Revenue increases and serious gains for tax fairness were passed - and I have to note that I am so proud of my dear friend Jody and all of the hard work she did in this effort.

Oregon will soon have online voter registration available - can I just say HU-freakin-Zah! That will make my efforts in community organizing even more computer centric - you know how I love my computer as a working organizing tool!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about problems I have with Oregon's rape laws. I am so thankful to report that HB2343, was passed! My state Senator has also taken steps to look in to the practice of asking women to pay for their own rape kit and then get reimbursed by the state later, I will report more on that later, if there is anything to report.

I love my state, and I am truly proud to volunteer and help support the efforts of so many of my favorite people - who just so happen to also be lawmakers, and such.

My Dad is Awesome

Dad is still up in Alaska, but today while I was out at the gym I got a message on my machine, "I just heard on the radio that Al Franken won! Late breaking news, I thought that was kind of cool..."

We're Minnesotans, originally, and dad knows I've had a beer with Al before - so this would be particularly pleasing news for somebody like me. I had, of course, already heard. I'm on Twitter and facebook - with an iPhone - it usually takes about five minutes for me to find out these big news breaks. It was still nice to know that even though I'm old and he's far away, dad still thinks of me. I think of him, too.