2006: The Year That Was

January: Sherrod Brown not running for Senate.
January: Paul Hackett running for Senate. BlogginRyan is torn.
January: Sherrod Brown running for Senate.
January: Ryan loves Paul Hackett and Sherrod Brown, but thinks Sherrod's attitude is a little too cavalier when it's 70 degrees in January.
January-February: Paul Hackett's arm twisted enough to drop out of Senate race. I wonder what's going to happen to that nice bus of his.
January-April: Ken Blackwell and Jim Petro get their anti-gay machines ready and roaring, accuse each other of "loving dem."
February: Strickland-Fisher
February: Ryan goes to Boston and, incredibly, hates Harvard MUN more than he did last year.
March: Love for Dennis.
May: Votes for Ferris.
May: Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown win primaries against wet paper bags by handsome margins. Bigger homophobic bigot Ken Blackwell ekes out a win against Jim Petro. Ohio Democrats titter at the thought of regaining the governor's mansion house. Subodh Chandra gets thumped by Marc Dann.
May-November: Marijuana-laced bananas help bring down Mike DeWine; Ken Blackwell kills the (R) ticket; and what the what - Marc Dann is attorney general?
July: Learn and Earn was poo for more than one reason.
August: Another nail in Learn and Earn's coffin as Ted Strickland and George Voinovich annouce opposition to Learn and Suck.
August: Joementum crashes - but who is the bigger schmuck, kajillionaire Ned Lamont or Joe Schmo?
August: Tim Ryan roxx.
August: Bob Taft - 50th of 50.
September-November: Sherrod opens a widening lead on Mike DeWine.
September: Coup-coup in Thailand. Military calls for you to "eat mor chikin."
September: George Voinovich is not a statesman.
September: Tim Ryan's belly is aflame!
October: Mark Foley... well, what more needs to be said?
October: Revisiting fuddle duddle.
November: Hey now. Wait... is thar Demmycrats in them thar hills?
November: Rummy, it ain't no lie, baby, bye bye bye.
November: Learn and Earn was still poo (redux).
November: Baldwin-Wallace - hiding racism since 1845.
December: Steny Hoyer to Jack Kingston: DROP DEAD
December: 90% divided by 3 (or "The Ineffable Putzery of GWB").
December: DJK in 08.
December: Seriously Dennis, I don't like you.
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It's been quite a year.

I'll throw in more later on today (that is to say, the best of the blogosphere '06, not being blogginryan - I'm not that smug and self-centered). It's time to study some Latin and DECLINE SOME NOUNS! w00t w00t.

-rsl

Happy Holidays

Happy holiday season to all of my readers, so many you are numbered. Things have been quiet at the BlogHouse of late owing to a lengthy visit back home and to my wonderful girlfriend's parents' place in Ridgeley, West Virginia. (For those of you who don't know, "back home" is Rouses Point, New York, not to be confused with "home" in Munroe Falls.) Christmas was wonderful, per usual... lots of celebrating, not much in the form of religionating. I am finally an iPod owner - something I had been avoiding like the plague for the last three years. You may be asking "Ryan, what gives with the menorah? I thought you were Catholic..." Well, I was Catholic until getting confirmed, but it all came apart after that. I will be converting to Reform Judaism at some point once all things have settled down.

Having said "once all things have settled down," I must disclose the following. By settling down, I mean leaving the NE Ohio area to live in Athens, Georgia with my girlfriend. Much of life has been comprised of moving around and never staying in one place for too long, typically something that is not done through my own volition. This time, however, the move is completely voluntary. I am still without employment once I move down there, but I do still have Applebee's to fall back on. I cannot dent that I enjoy the job, but I would much rather do something where a steady check comes at 40-45 hours/week and I'd be doing something constructive with my academic degree.

What will become of BlogginRyan? BlogginRyan will likely remain BlogginRyan... just with a touch of southern hospitality and geared towards the politics of Georgia and rebuilding a Democratic party base in the south. Georgia is one of the fastest growing states in the country and to not see an opportunity there is to be blind.

So that's it for now. I've been out of the news loop for the last week, much of today before work(?) will be spent catching up on the local and state dirt.

-rl

Peter Boyle, 1935-2006

Actor Peter Boyle, television's Frank Barone of the show Everybody Loves Raymond, has died in New York City.

I always enjoyed his role as Frank Barone on the show.

Rest his soul.

More on the Kucinich drama

The warfare going on at BSB has taken a turn. Apparently I'm not the only person who thinks that this is an awful idea.

Openers has the coverage of the announcement and subsequent firefight between Dennis and reporters. For those of you who don't recall, it was only in October that Dennis had stated while running for re-election that he had no plans to make another quixotic run at the windmill.

How one goes from having "no plans" on doing to making the decision and jumping into the icy waters of presidential politics (again) in only two months time, I cannot explain. It certainly appears that Dennis enjoys being the butt of all jokes; I mean, c'mon, Al Sharpton hasn't even gotten into the pool of candidates yet.

AND we're still more than one year out from caucuses and primaries.

I propose a solution: if Dennis wants to crisscross the country, running for this or that, vying for that lofty position in the Department of Peace, he should promise that he will not run for Congress again. His continual absence from the district he is supposed to represent makes him more isolated from his constituents and makes him less efficient in Congress. To this I say: NO MORE! I was your constituent for four years, Mr. Kucinich, and had enough of your spectacles to have the common sense to vote for the OTHER candidate, Barbara Anne Ferris, in the May primary. If I were your constituent now, I'd be mad as hell.

So I say no more of it. The reins must be passed.

Good luck to you, Mr. Kucinich.

May your department be peaceful.

-rsl
(co-signed by the corpse of George Orwell)

DJK in 08? According to the PD, yes.

Openers leads off today with an announcement of an announcement: Dennis Kucinich plans to run for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President.

The announcement appears to be geared for 9AM today, based on his non-Congressional website being down and showing this message:

Best of luck to you, Mr. Kucinich. Don't count on my support this time around, though.