Change is on

Hey all -- Still working out the bug in my computer, but I couldn't let today pass by without a quick mention:

Today is a huge milestone in American history as our 44th president -- and first Black president -- took office, promising hope and a change in the God awful state of our nation.

Right now, President Obama (wow, weird to say) and the First Lady are on the party scene, hitting up presidential ball after presidential ball. More power to them.

Raise your hand if you're proud to be an American today!

Cos I'm Tripp-ing babies

You guys remember my post about the Palin family baby name generator? (If you didn't try it out, please do - it's quite entertaining). Well, we weren't just being mean by making fun of the ridiculous names the children in the family have: Apparently they're all quite fine with producing offspring with equally as terrible names.

Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, gave birth to a son Sunday. The baby's name? Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston. If you got that output from the Palin family baby name generator, you win!

Tripp weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces.

What makes me laugh is Bristol's fiance, Levi Johnston, apparently had the following on his MySpace page in September before news dropped about his sweetheart's pregnancy: Under status: "in a relationship," but after kids: "I don't want kids."

Either way, it looks like the couple will make out by selling photos of the new baby Palin. Reports Monday night put the number close to $300,000.

Yes, Sarah Palin is now a grandma. I guess now she's gone from MILF, to VPILF, to GILF. Either way, I've got a message for her: Have a nice Tripp, hopefully we don't see you Fall of 2012.

Person of the Year '08

Yup, shockingly enough, Barack Obama has been named Time's Person of the Year for 2008. (I'm sure Sarah Palin was hoping she'd at least win something this year...but praise the Lord she didn't.)

It's no surprise our soon-to-be first Black president is gracing the cover of the annual issue, but I'd still suggest you take a gander. The article is very well-written, and right off-the-bat puts to rest your, 'Gee, Obama as Person of Year - that's original' complaints.

It's unlikely that you were surprised to see Obama's face on the cover. He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago — that even his campaign manager, at the outset, wasn't sure Obama had what it would take to win the election. He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order. Understandably, you may be thinking Obama is on the cover for these big and flashy reasons: for ushering the country across a momentous symbolic line, for infusing our democracy with a new intensity of participation, for showing the world and ourselves that our most cherished myth — the one about boundless opportunity — has plenty of juice left in it.

Read on: 2008 Person of the Year. (Don't you love that they no longer call it 'Man of the Year'?)

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day from The Jerc Store!

Veterans Day was first incorporated by President Woodrow Wilson as Armistice Day in 1919 in honor of the Armistice treaty which ended WWI.

In 1938, Armistice Day was enacted as an official American holiday, but after WWII, citizens felt that the veterans of all wars should be recognized. In 1954, Congress changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

In America, the holiday now celebrates the approximate 2.9 million U.S. veterans with parades and ceremonies among other events.

The voters have spoken...

In what certainly turned out to be a historic election, a record number of voters hit the polls today and voted for what they're hoping will be the change our country needs.

From AP: Barack Obama was elected the nation's first black president Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself.

The 47-year-old Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his victory by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Iowa.

Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.

Congratulations to our new president and congratulations to those of you who voted - you made history!

Baby Mama's got a little one

You might have noticed that "Saturday Night Live" star Amy Poehler was sporting a little more than a baby bump in recent weeks, but bump-be-gone! Poehler is officially a mommy!

The "Baby Mama" star gave birth to her baby, Archie Arnett, on Saturday. The baby, born to Poehler and husband Will Arnett, was 8 lbs, 1 oz.

SNL has been infamously bad the last few yeares, but the election has revitalized a few of the skits. In honor of Poehler, I'm posting a video of the "Palin Rap," which made me laugh incredibly hard. It's gonna be a shame when Poehler leaves this year.


RELATED LINKS
Poehler peacing out
Fierce to the trannieth degree

Baby mama ain't Obama!

I promised to steer clear of the politics during election season, but this isn't too partisan and it's too good not to share...

Do you wish your mom were running for president of the United States? Better yet, do you long for siblings named Trig or Bristol??

Well, now you can find out what your name would be if you were the offspring of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by clicking here, the Sarah Palin Baby Namer!

My name would be Rifle Panzer Palin - I think that's got a nice ring to it. Try it out - let me know what you get!

Grand Old convention

As predicted last week, I am already sick of politics and we're still two months away from the election. But, I did briefly wrote about the Dem National Convention last week, so it's only fair the Republicans get a mention on my very powerful political blog.

The news this week is all about McCain selecting Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska, as his running mate. This woman has been the presumptive vice presidential candidate for approximately four days and we've learned all about her children, her grandchildren (just kidding), her abilities with a power rifle and her love of mooseburgers.

A Google search for 'sarah palin' turns up more than 4 million hits and about 48,500 news hits. I bet last week it would have been about 9,000.

The GOP convention was basically postponed due to Hurricane Gustav's devastation this weekend, but it's well underway now in St. Paul, Minn. Click here for a list of speakers and schedules.

And now I'm pretty sure I'm done talking about this election until November, but I'm certainly not opposed to reading people's thoughts on Sarah Palin...and the fact that someone whose only experience with foreign policy is shipping her son off to Iraq could potentially be the president of our country if McCain croaks in office. Frightening thought. But hey, she's hot, right?

Dems fightin' words

Now that the Olympics are finito, it's time to look forward to the next national event that will be overblown by the media: the November presidential election.

With only about two months left until we elect a new Commander-in-Chief, be prepared for some severe political overload wherever you look--except this Web site!

No one cares what I have to say about the war, oil, health care; if you really did, then I'd be running for president, not writing for a weekly newspaper that no one reads. So if there's something significant going on, then I'll mention it... otherwise, I'm sure you won't be too hard-pressed to find another site to read all about John Hickenlooper or if Cindy McCain's choice of powersuits rules supreme over Michelle Obama's.

That being said, the now-old news is that Barack announced his running mate this weekend: Senator Joe Biden. In more current news, the Democratic National Convention began today out in Denver. Headliners include the Bill and Hill (Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively), Michelle Obama (Monday) and of course, Barack himself (Thursday). For a full list of headliners and a day-to-day schedule, click here.