The more observant among you will notice that this diary was not written by the lovely and talented TiaRachel. Rachel's on vacation. If she's smart, she's indulging in some well-deserved R&R in Tahiti or something.

So I've got good news and I've got bad news...

Join me beyond the flippy doo-dad.

(Note: For context, you might want to check out this diary at MichiganLiberal first.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I come before you today to mourn the passing of a Manistee icon. You've seen it plastered all over MichLib recently, and if you're a resident of the Michigan 2nd as I am, you've probably grown to see it as a beacon of hope, a ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak world. It rides on a smile, and if you stare at it long enough, you might find yourself smiling too.

I'm talking, of course, of Scott Killips' mustache. Scott's mustache suffered an untimely death at the hands of a razor sometime this week, never to be seen again.

Scott's mustache led a happy life, riding Scott's smile all over Manistee for years, never expecting to meet such a grisly end. But last week, things changed.

Hi everybody...

I just got done having a rather interesting conversation with some of Michigan's movers and shakers in the blogosphere, and most of the conversation centered around bits and pieces of inside information that these people have picked up from their contacts on the ground in their district.

Furthermore, last week I attended Camp Wellstone in Lansing, and as far as I know I was the only person there from the western side of Michigan. These events are a lot of fun and are very educational, but being the token Hoekstra constituent is getting old.

Many of our other districts are leagues ahead of us in terms of organization and communication. I am therefore launching a concerted effort to bring the MI 2nd together in some sort of organized fashion.

To that end, I have taken the liberty of creating  a Google group for Democrats in the Michigan 2nd. I'm going to do the best I can to vet the membership list myself, so if you wish to be added to this group please send me an email-- myleftpinkie AT gmail DOT com.

(x-posted at all the usual suspects--MichLib, MLP, BFM)

(Editor's Note: For those of you not following the news out of my home state of Michigan, legislators have failed to agree on a budget proposal for FY2008, which starts in...49 minutes. If no agreement is reached, the vast majority of state services will begin to shut down at midnight. Cross-posted like a villain at MichLib.)

I'm probably in the minority here, and if I get troll-rated out of existence I guess that's my cross to bear. But I'm rooting for a shutdown, and a lengthy one at that.