Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you TransGriot readers in the States. You Canadian ones got y'all grub on last month ;).

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. In a few weeks our turkey of a president will be headed back to that pseudo ranch in Crawford and intelligence will reign in the White House once again.

I'm also relatively happy, healthy and gainfully employed.

A shout out to my favorite twins from my high school days Joslyn and Roslyn, who are celebrating the anniversaries of their 29th birthday today.

While I can't be with my family back home today, I do have my chosen family here in Da Ville I'll be breaking bread with and trying to call others as time and the Turkey Day festivities permit.

And, no, I'm not going anywhere near any mall or strip center on the Louisville metro area on Friday. Five years of working retail and getting up at 3 AM for those madhouse sales was enough.

Happy Thanksgiving TransGriot readers! Now go get your grub on and watch some football.

The Hippest Trip In America

Don Cornelius getting busted last Friday in LA triggered memories about my favorite way in my teens to enjoy a Saturday besides watching my favorite cartoons.

The show was Soul Train and to me and every other African-American kid growing up in the 70's, 80's, 90's and part of the 2K's, it was Must See TV.

It was our version of American Bandstand and Don Cornelius was our Dick Clark. I tuned in to KHTV 39 at noon to see the latest dances, the latest fashions and hear the latest music.

And because I was on the wrong side of the gender fence at the time, I was also jealously envious of the sistahs on that show.




You also got to see the Soul Train Dancers forming that world famous Soul Train Line and either coolly or in some cases acrobatically moving and grooving their way down the end of it.







Some of the peeps who danced on Soul Train over the years included Rosie Perez, Carmen Electra, Nick Cannon, MC Hammer, Jermaine Stewart, Fred "Rerun" Berry, Pebbles, and NFL legend Walter Payton. Jody Watley and Jeffery Daniel danced on the show before becoming (along with Howard Hewitt) two-thirds of the group Shalamar.

It was also the place where we tuned in to see our artists (even if some of them were lip-synching to the songs).


The Commodores 1974



Chic 1978



Teena Marie 1980



Morris Day and The Time 1982



Vanity 6 1984



After a 35 year run, 1117 episodes and several guest hosts after Don Cornelius stepped down in 1993, Soul Train ended its historic run in 2006.



Wishing you love. peace and SOUL!

Oh, Deer!

Hey peeps, if you're hitting the roads in preparation for Turkey Day, be careful since deer are out looking for love in the wrong places.

Like the middle of a highway.

There was a front page article in the Courier-Journal yesterday warning folks that October-December is prime time for deer vs. car crashes since they're out looking to get their freak on. The female deer that aren't in heat and don't want to be bothered loiter around the highways to prevent a love connection.

The article brought back memories not only what happened to Polar back in 2002 when he had an up close and personal encounter with a pregnant doe on I-77 in West Virginia, but some close encounters I've had with Bambis inside and outside the Louisville city limits.

In 2005 I was a passenger in a westbound van headed back to Louisville on I-64 from a meeting in Lexington. Near Waddy, KY I spotted the deer up ahead meandering blithely in the left lane and warned my friend Erica, who promptly changed lanes and fortunately passed the deer without incident. The 18 wheeler behind us probably turned it into deer burgers.

Last November I was headed home after I got off from work at 5 AM. I was four blocks from home when something told me to slow my butt down as I approached the curve near the back side of the Southern Baptist Seminary.

All of a sudden a deer jumped out in the road from the seminary twenty yards in front of my car and started running in the wrong lanes away from me. Fortunately for the deer, the TARC bus that's usually headed westbound hadn't approached my street yet otherwise me and the neighbors would have been feasting on deer sausage and venison.

While I'm making humorous cracks about it, deer vs. car crashes are serious business. Polar's encounter totaled his car, and people have been killed or seriously injured as a result of these types of car (and sometimes motorcycle) crashes.

When I drove to Dallas for my cousin's November 2006 wedding, I was concerned because most of the driving I was doing was going to be at night, when deer are most active. I made it a point to have 18 wheelers run interference for me on I-65, I-40 and I-30 while I was motoring through rural Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and northeast Texas enroute there and back to Da Ville. Better they hit Bambi than me.

But be careful, peeps. The car (and life) you save may be your own.

A Transsistah's Secret-Tucking

If you've ever attended or watched video of a transgender pageant or ball, you've probably watched contestants strut their stuff in skimpy bathing suits or wear tight jeans and look good doing it.

You also probably wondered as you watched them strut back and forth across the stage how do pre-op transwomen and female illusionists hide the neoclitoris?

Well, it's a technique that we call tucking. The methods to accomplish 'hiding the candy' as the Lady Chablis called it are as varied as the transpeople who use them.

One which sounds painful is basically pushing the family jewels into the cavity they descended from. The testicles shrink as you keep swallowing estrogen or taking the shots, so it's not as hard as it sounds.

You basically spread your legs and carefully push the the testicles toward the cavity. Once you get them in the cavity the scrotal sac will be empty, and you can wrap that loose skin around the penile shaft and then pull it all back between your legs using either tape or an extra set of panties to hold everything in place. Gravity will get them back into their natural position when you free the penis.

Yes, peeps do shave the area to make sure that they don't give themselves an impromptu Brazilian wax. Most people also use surgical tape these days instead of duct tape since duct tape can pull skin off as you remove it.

Others will use a gaff to tuck the neoclit away while others just simply pull it back as far as it will go and wear a girdle or an extra pair of panties to ensure that everything stays in place.

Sometimes it doesn't always stay in place and the neoclit wiggles free. With the interior testicular method you have to be very careful when you sit down, otherwise you get the sensation of someone kicking you in the groin.

Feminine fashions are designed to accentuate the body. Jeans are designed to be form fitting and tight, and the last thing you want is a frontal bulge while wearing them, especially if you are in certain social situations. Tucking will continue to be a necessary evil for pre-ops until they can get to the point they can afford either SRS or an orchiectomy to remove the family jewels.

Stepping Up To The No On 8 Plate

Lost in the noisily contentious post mortem of why No on 8 lost in 'Ca-lee-for-nia' is the fact that the transgender POC community stepped up to the plate and did their part to help drive the NO vote.

Here's Exhibits A and B:

Jazzmun speaking at Club Cobra on the issue.



Tita Aida



So I don't ever want to hear coming from a gay or lesbian person's mouth ever again that transpeople, and especially transgender people of color didn't have your back on an issue important to the gay and lesbian community.

Leave The TDOR Alone

As TDOR 2008 recedes into the rear view mirror of history I wish to comment on the efforts of some people in the transgender community to turn the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony into a happy-happy joy-joy event.

Leave the TDOR alone.

There are 365 days in a year (366 during leap years), which is probably why our presidential election campaigns seem so endless.

If you wish to have an event that takes a happy-happy joy-joy approach to publicizing transgender issues, by all means organize it and promote the hell out of it. If it's a good one and has no connection whatsoever to the Homosexual Rights Corporation, I'll even post whatever press release you put together for this event on TransGriot.

Just pick some other calendar date to do it.

Just as Memorial Day and Veterans Day are two calendar days specifically set aside to memorialize veterans and anyone who has paid the ultimate price for us to have what freedoms we do enjoy here in the States, we transgender peeps need that same kind of day to memorialize the people we've lost as well.

The TDOR is a memorial service and as such is a serious, contemplative event. The core element of it is the reading of the names and lighting of candles for the dearly departed.

The TDOR in addition to us ensuring the names of our fallen brothers and sisters don't fade from our memories with the passage of time, is also a way for us to initiate teachable moments with our allies, do coalition building, talk to the general public about our issues, and sometimes get the bonus of media coverage as well.

The TDOR is also important to transgender people of color as well. We get precious little media coverage and people of color make up the disproportionate share of the 412 people (and counting) memorialized on the Remembering Our Dead site.

As a matter of fact, since the other thing we African American transgender peeps share with our non-transgender brothers and sisters besides our heritage is a near invisibility in the media, there was a proposal a few years ago by some peeps in the African-American transgender community to have our own event.

It would be centered on the August 7 date of Tyra Hunter's death due to the ignorant negligence of an African-American EMT in Washington DC.

The proposed day's mission would be to publicize the fact that many of the anti-transgender murders of African-American transgender people are committed by our own people. It would also seek to do some 'ejumacation' of our community around those and other issues affecting us and point out that 60% of the ROD list is transpeople of color.

But when it was pointed out that Rita Hester's murder was the impetus that led to the TDOR, and that day was now being celebrated around the world, the chatter about a separate day, even though it's a wonderful idea that probably needs to happen, went dormant.

If my fellow transpeeps of African descent realize the importance of the world pausing to contemplate anti-transgender violence, then what's the problem with the cognitive abilities of those of you trying to mess with the TDOR's simplistic perfection for specious reasons?

I will go Maya Wilkes on you quislings if what I'm hearing about this effort to change the 'morbid and depressing' TDOR's is true and the unstated purpose is to grease the skids for HRC to resume raising funds in our community on the bones of our fallen brothers and sisters.

Congratulations, Rebecca!

With all the various events going on in the last few weeks including the historic presidential election, I forgot to post my congratulations to our honorary transwoman Rebecca Romijn, who is expecting twins sometime this winter with her hubby Jerry McConnell.

As many of you TransGriot readers know, Rebecca plays transwoman Alexis Meade on one of my fave TV shows, Ugly Betty.

The way they've explained Alexis' hiatus on the show writing wise is that she fathered the French child originally thought to be Daniel's pre-transition (y'all are gonna have to get with the program and catch up) and has taken a leave of absence from Meade Communications to jet off to Paris and spend quality time with her son.

Her son's mother was a French model who died and left instructions in the event of her death to find the Meades.

I hope that she reconsiders leaving the show and whatever drama between her and the new writing staff gets squashed. I'd love to see more of our honorary transwoman strutting through the halls of the Mode building running thangs in future seasons.

I love watching her play Alexis almost as much as I enjoy watching Vanessa L. Williams play the deliciously wicked and always scheming Wilhelmina Slater, and Mark Indelicato playing Betty's Broadway loving fashionista nephew Justin Suarez.

Shoot, the entire cast on that show rocks.

And yes, I did say 'honorary transwoman'. She considers herself a friend of the community and backed up her words with her actions.

When a group of us protested last year's Washington DC HRC dinner in the wake of the ENDA backstabbing, Monica Helms passed a 'Transgender Pride' button to one of our allies who was going inside the convention center to attend it. That ally promised they would get the button to Rebecca, who along with Michael Urie was there that evening to accept an award on behalf of the show.

When they appeared onstage to accept it, Rebecca was wearing the button.

Rebecca has also made it clear that she wanted to portray this role as accurately as possible and even consulted her transgender girlfriends on how to do so. It clearly showed in the performances she gave during that first season that she (and the previous writing team) got it.

So congratulations, Rebecca. May you and Jerry's twins be born healthy and may life continue to bring you both much happiness and success.

Don't Hate

An MKR poem


Don't hate
Because the world thinks it's great
That we have a Black president after a 200 year wait
With Michelle as his loving mate
And from the Oval Office he'll administrate

Don't hate
Because Obama can enunciate
His campaign was first-rate
Change was the theme Barack articulates
In January we'll have a prez that can communicate

Don't hate
Because America wants to repudiate
Our race-based tendency to segregate
And racism we need to obliterate
For y'all who wanna trip please emigrate

Don't hate
Because conservatism lies prostrate
You're the fools that chose to concentrate
On GLBT civil rights to eradicate
And the undemocratic agenda you pontificate

Don't hate
Because the world did celebrate
McCain and Palin's losing fate
The DC House Bush soon has to vacate
Our troops from Iraq we can extricate

Don't hate
Because 'We the people' gave them a mandate
It's time to stop bickering and cooperate
Now the Dems will get to legislate
To clean up the eight year mess we didn't create

Don't hate
Because with the planet we'll collaborate
On science and technology we'll innovate
Our children we'll recommit to educate
That's why Barack's the winning candidate

So don't hate

Transgender Day of Remembrance - Africa

TransGriot Note: On November 20 transgender people all over the world remembered the 30 people we lost (and are still losing) due to anti-transgender violence. There were probably far more killed this year that we'll probably never find out their names or the circumstances concerning how they died.

Sokari Ekine and South Africa's Gender DynamiX reminded us that our transgender brothers and sisters on the African continent are still struggling mightily against transphobia.

From The Gender DynamiX press release on November 20.

Due to the fact that most cases of murders related to transphobia are not documented in the majority of African countries, we are not able to list all incidents but would like to reflect on some known incidents.

For over a year one of our trans sisters in Nigeria suffered severe transphobia, as she was continually harassed, beaten, and had to flee for her life. On 2 July 2008, Daisy Dube, a well known drag artist in Johannesburg, was murdered when she asked the perpetrator to not call her istabane anymore (a derogative Zulu slang word, similar to faggot). To mention just two cases reported to us.

TDOR takes place 5 days before the start of 16 days of activism, and we, the Africa Transgender Network and Gender DynamiX want to point out to include the importance of raising awareness about transgender, transsexual and gender non-conforming matters

This press release serves the following purposes;

1. To commemorate those who have died due to Transphobia, across the world

2. To acknowledge our many African brothers and sisters who are silenced about their gender identity and living daily in danger of their lives.

3. To increase public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people and to publicly condemn all those involved in these acts.

4. To call upon governments to protect gender non-conforming people.

5. To encourage and stand together with all those in the fight against Transphobia



The day will be commemorated in different countries at different times. The Trans Africa Network and Gender DynamiX however will commemorate the day in Cape Town on the 12th of December 2008

Way To Go Falcons!

When I was walking the halls of Jesse H. Jones High School in the late 70's, we were competitive in every sport we played.

Future NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green patrolled our secondary. Former Bronco Alfred Williams is an alum. One of the guys taking it to the hoop for the Falcons was 6'10" center and future 1983 NCAA high jump champion Ricky Thompson. Our basketball team in 1979 was ranked as high as No. 2 in the state on the boys side and our girls teams in all sports were competitive as well. The TransGriot even did her part as a member of the 1980 Falcon tennis team.

Jones even won state championships, just not while I was matriculating there as a Vanguard student.

They took Class 4A state basketball titles in 1965 and in 2003-04 with major help from now Cleveland Cavalier Daniel Gibson. There was a memorable 1985 run to the Class 5A football championship which ended on the Astrodome's turf in the Region III-5A finals courtesy of guess who 21-15.

Yates then went on to clobber San Antonio Holmes 34-0 and beat down legendary Texas football powerhouse Odessa Permian 37-0 in Texas Stadium to become the first inner city school in decades to win a Class 5A football title.

But in a UIL competitive era in which only the district champs got to go to the playoffs and playing in a brutally competitive District 20-4A (now 5A), we were always the bridesmaids finishing second to our rivals at Jack Yates in football and Phillis Wheatley in basketball while they made runs at state championships.

Even if we did survive the district wars, we would also have to survive the most challenging region in the state (Region III) just to get to any championship game or take that two hour bus ride to Austin for it.

In my sophomore year (1977) we beat Yates but lost a heartbreaker to Wheatley the next week on a Hail Mary pass. It forced a four way tie for the district title that after all the tie breakers were consulted resulted in Yates still going to the Dome for the playoffs to our chagrin. In 1979 we were nursing a narrow lead over Wheatley and two minutes from winning district outright in a sold out b-ball game at Barnett Fieldhouse only to lose it on a play I would eerily see replicated in the 1983 NCAA championship game as a UH student.

So I was happy and pleased to see that my high school alma mater took the District 22-4A title this year with a perfect 7-0 record and beat Houston Ross Sterling and Houston Worthing in the process. My sis, brother and two cousins graduated from Sterling, while my other sis, my uncle and my parents graduated from Worthing.

I was happy until I checked out the online Houston Chronicle and read the brackets for the 2008 Texas Class 4A playoffs. That's what produced the deja vu moment that inspired me to compose this post.

Even though I'm experiencing finite disappointment again, I still got bragging rights. I can't wait until the reunion next year to remind my relatives their teams got beat down by my mighty Falcons.

Once again Falcon state championship dreams are crushed by our Third Ward rivals. Their season was ended with a 27-6 loss to Jack Yates in the Bi-district round of the Class 4A Division II playoffs. It's even more galling to me that we lost to a JY team that squeaked in with a losing record as a third place qualifier.

But as a proud Falcon alum, had to give the Falcon footballers a shout out for the wonderful 7-3 season. Hope 2009 is a repeat of the same and you have a more extended stay in the playoffs next year.

Beat 'Em Up, Beat 'Em Up, Rah-Rah-Rah!

There hasn't been much for me to cheer about this football season. My Texans are jockeying for advantageous NFL draft positioning in a season in which for the first time since their inaugural season in 2002 they were projected to finally make the playoffs. To add insult to injury, the Tennessee Traitors (yuck) are still unbeaten.

And no, I'm never gonna let it go about the Oilers being moved by Kenneth Stanley Adams for greed is good reasons.

But as a proud Cougar alum I have to give a shout out to first year coach Kevin Sumlin and the now 6-4 Coogs. They beat down No. 24 ranked Tulsa 70-30 last Saturday at Robertson Stadium to avenge last season's 56-7 blowout loss that knocked UH out of contention for the West Division title and a return trip to the C-USA championship game.


It was also the Cougars second win this season against a Top 25 ranked club (the other was East Carolina). The last time the Coogs beat two ranked teams in a season, I was matriculating on the UH campus back in 1984. That year we knocked off No. 6 SMU and beat the hell out of No. 3 Texas.

The best part about last Saturday's game is that my Coogs are now bowl eligible.

The Cougars at 5-1 in the C-USA West Division are tied with Rice and Tulsa for the West Division lead. If they knock off UTEP this weekend at the Rob and win the annual blood feud at Rice Stadium on November 29 with our little brothers the Owls, the Cougars are the West Division champs for the second time in three years and play in the C-USA Championship game.

Three more wins (the C-USA title game) and I get to gleefully make the five hour drive to Memphis to watch the C-USA champions play in the Liberty Bowl. I'll just make sure when I get to the Shelby county line and the Memphis city limits I'm not driving over the speed limit and steer clear of the Memphis PD headquarters.

Coach Sumlin did say when he took the job that the ingredients were there for the Coogs to be a consistent winner and a BCS bowl team.

Shoot, I could've told you that. UH is sitting smack dab in the middle of the largest city in a football crazy state. Texas arguably has the best high school programs in the nation with much of that high school football talent playing on fields and stadiums within a 70-100 mile radius of the UH campus.

Texas knew it, too. That's why they fought so hard to keep us out of the Big 12 when it was formed in 1996.

But that's another topic for another day. I can hate on the Longhorns later. In the meantime I'm raising my right arm and doing the Cougar Paw hand salute.

If things go well for the Cougar footballers over the next couple of weeks, I'll be in Memphis singing the school song and hollering "Eat 'em up."

Isis On Tyra

TransGriot Note: The YouTube video finally has been uploaded, so for those of y'all who didn't get to see Isis' appearance on the Tyra Banks Show Tuesday, here it is.

Part 1



Part 2- Isis' Mom


Part 3- Confronting Clark



Part 4




Part 6

The 2008 Louisville TDOR Ceremony

Just arrived back home a little over an hour ago from the sixth annual local observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

The mood was a little more somber than usual because one of our own was on the list. Nakhia's cousin Yana and twin sister Nicole were also some of the 40 people in attendance here along with our friends, LPTS students and allies.

After a welcome from LPTS Dean David Hester (no joke, peeps) the service began with remarks from Sienna (the local gender group) president Christina.

There was a prayer read before the reading of the names part of the ceremony commenced. As I silently read the list of names, many of them whose stories I've chronicled in this blog, I felt this feeling of sadness washing over me.

But what I was feeling probably paled in comparison to Yana and Nicole's reactions when their late relative's name was read aloud and the candle was lit for her.

We had a wonderful rendition of We Shall Overcome after the reading of the names performed by pianist Harry Pickens, an inspiring speech from Beth Harrison Prado, prayer and an additional song from Carol Kraemer.

Once the TDOR service concluded, we moved to the Winn Center for a reception and the announcement of the 2008 Butterfly Award winner.

It's a new award that the LPTS Women's Center began presenting last year to the person doing outstanding work in the local transgender community. Beth was surprised and pleased to learn that the award would be going home with her.

Beth in her short acceptance speech for the Butterfly Award hit the nail on the head about the purpose for the TDOR's.

While we mourn the people tragically taken away from us, it's also a celebration of the fact we are openly and truthfully living our lives as transgender people.

The ceremony reminds us that in any struggle in which oppressed minorities fight for their full citizenship rights, people will lose their lives along the way before the majority of them reach the promised land of equality.

We must keep fighting and pushing for that day while never forgetting the ones who paid the ultimate price for being their authentic selves.

The best way to encapsulate what I'm thinking and feeling right now is to close this with some words from Maya Angelou that were on the front of our TDOR program.

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Sleep well, my fallen brothers and sisters. You have risen to a better place. We who you left behind will continue the fight to make this a better world for us and future generations to live in.

Ten Years-400 Dead...And Counting

Today is the tenth anniversary of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It's the day transgender people around the world pause and remember our fallen brothers and sisters along with our allies and friends.

It's also a day of mixed emotions for me. One of the people we'll be remembering this year is one of my friends.

Instead of lighting 30 candles on her birthday cake next month, instead we'll be lighting one candle for Nakhia 'Nikki' Williams at our 7 PM EST ceremony in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Caldwell Chapel later tonight. She unfortunately is one of the 27 transpeople killed this year due to the senseless anti-transgender violence directed at us.


Since the night ten years ago that Rita Hester's lifeless body was found in her Boston area apartment and outrage over the disrespectful way the gay and straight news media covered it triggered the first TDOR ceremony in 1999, we have read the names of 412 people over the last ten years of TDOR ceremonies according to the Remembering Our Dead web project site.

The 412 names listed are disproportionately transgender people of color, encompasses 38 states, 130 US cities and several nations. It also includes non-transgender people such as Nashville's Willie Houston and Barry Winchell, who was killed by a fellow soldier because he was dating transwoman Calpernia Addams.

This year's ceremony is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I'm angry about the continued loss of valuable lives. I'm saddened by the fact that one of my friends is on the list this year. I'm shocked but not surprised after reading the stats that we lost so many people this year.

But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with the increased media coverage of transgender people over the last year and a half combined with the upcoming change in presidential administration, we finally have the conditions in place to pass hate crimes and an inclusive ENDA.

They may be just laws to some of you, but for the transgender community they are literally life and death issues. They are symbols that we matter, our lives are respected and valued and when you read the 'We The People' in the Constitution's preamble, that includes transgender Americans as well. .

The TDOR also ensures that how and why our fellow transpeople died never fades from our memories.


crossposted to The Bilerico Project

Once Again HRC-Keep Your Moneygrubbing Mitts Off Our TDOR

I've been advised that the Homosexual Rights Corporation is sponsoring TDOR events in Columbus and Cincinnati, OH.

Those events are supposed to be FUBU productions for us to memorialize our dead with our allies.

While there's some concern in the Dallas-Fort Worth transgender community about HRC's local Federal Club chapter sponsoring an event on the same night and time as the TDOR observances in Dallas and Fort Worth that have been publicized for weeks, let's get real for a minute.

The people who attend that event aren't likely to have compassion for our community, so don't sweat it. Handle your business and honor our people with class and dignity. You'll also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the peeps who do show up for the DFW events are allies and friends who truly care about the community, not backstabbing sellouts.

If you feel they deliberately targeted the TDOR, then protest their next Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area events and their dinner.

HRC cannot, in any spin driven hallucinogenic stretch of the word consider themselves to be an ally to the transgender community. Don't think we forgot about HRC selling transgender people out last year and being the lone holdout in the United ENDA coalition.

Those of us who are paying attention know y'all ain't changed one bit. That's why your dinners are still being protested.

Until HRC becomes a true ally to this community and joins the mainstream of the GLBT community in working together to pass a transgender-inclusive ENDA, y'all need to keep your grubby paws off the TDOR events.

Here's what I said about it last year and it bears repeating and rereading, especially by you transgender peeps who are continually sipping the 'HRC is our friends' Kool-aid.

Two More Seats! Two More Seats!

It took two weeks, but we finally have a winner in the Alaska senate race between Mark Begich and Ted Stevens, and it's not good news for the GOP or Sarah Palin.

With roughly 2,500 overseas ballots yet to be counted, Begich finally overtook and expanded his lead to 3,724 votes over scandal plagued Repugnican octogenarian Ted Stevens.

Stevens has served in the Senate since 1968 and his political history in the state goes back to Alaska's pre-statehood days in 1959

"I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families."

It also put the Democrats two tantalizing seats closer to the 60 seat supermajority they are seeking. The two seats still outstanding are the nasty recount battle royal between Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) in Minnesota and the Georgia runoff race between incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin

If they can get to 60 seats, the Republicans can't do jack to stop any legislation they don't like or block any appointments by President-elect Obama because the Democrats would have a filibuster-proof majority. 60 votes is what it takes to end a filibuster under Senate rules.

Begich becomes the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since Mike Gravel was elected in 1976. Begich's father Nick also served the state as a congressman before dying in a 1972 plane crash.

Begich's win also precludes the embarrassing possibility of the just convicted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, having to be ignominiously tossed out by his GOP colleagues. Rumors were if that scenario came to pass, Gov. Sarah Palin was possibly considering running for the Senate seat in a special election.

It also gives President-elect Obama a stronger hand in terms of passing his agenda through Congress.

All political eyes now turn to Minnesota and Georgia.

Isis' Tyra Banks Show Appearance

Just finished watching an hour ago the Tyra show featuring our sis Isis on it. She's looking fly and it was interesting hearing her thoughts about ANTM, sharing some of her pics from the old days and getting her mother's take on things.

I can also see where she got those good looks from. She's just like her mom, a beautiful and classy lady as well.

The fun part for me was Isis finally getting the opportunity to confront Clark over her hateful statements. Clark tried to use her 'growing up in the South' and her Southern Baptist religion as excuses for her comments on ANTM.

Naw chick, you just got called out on your BS. Let's roll that beautiful YouTube footage shall we?



Clark, did your narrow young little 'c' 'christian' mind consider that the reason you don't see transgender peeps openly living their lives in your South Carolina town is because some of the denizens of that town openly express the same negative attitudes you obviously felt comfortable enough to utter for posterity?

Shoot, that's another post.

But I do have one question to ask Clark. Why aren't you in the Final Three for ANTM's Cycle 11? Seems like Isis is more of a woman than you are. She has the one thing you seem to lack:

Class.

Anyway, back to the show. It was also cool seeing her reaction when Dr. Bowers walked on set as well. I've bumped into Dr. Bowers at SCC and IFGE and she's a class act as well.

So check out the show, and Oxygen usually broadcasts it if you miss the syndicated broadcast of it. You also may wish to head to the Tyra show website and show some love to our girl. The haters are already crawling out of the woodpile.