For the last few years, I’ve been struggling with where I find myself on a political spectrum. Sure, I’m on the left. I call myself a progressive and feminist. I know that I’ve grown more than distasteful of electoral politics (which once interested me fairly significantly), and that Hurricane Katrina was the moment that I threw up my hands in complete frustration and rage at the general state of affairs. I’ve dabbled in arts activism, local community organizing, sociolinguistics education, feminist activism, tech empowerment, you name it. None of it seems to singly suit me anymore, and most of it angers me. I’ll say it: I have anger issues. Hello, my name is Deanna, I have anger issues. (That one was for my therapist, everyone wave at her– she’s back there in the corner, waving back at you all.)

More than anything, I’ve been a bridge-builder for most of my political career. I come from working class, conservative roots, and I have been fueled in the past by a passion to build understanding between worlds that don’t talk to each other. A lot of that has to do with the tight relationship that I have with my folks; I find myself wondering how they would react to things that I’m working on, or how a particular issue is framed. Far more than I do now I often used them as guinea pigs: Pop’s the hard-line conservative, Mom’s our swing voter.

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I’m watching CNN this morning as we gear up for Democratic Decider Day, and there was just a commercial on the absolute unwavering virtues of… coal. In the background, “Celebration” (wah-hoo!) played. America’s power! (wah-hoo!) It’s what runs 70% of our energy systems! (wah-hoo!) Heyyyyyyy… wait a second.

But the “I Like to Watch” column in Salon yesterday had world view that was a little more akin to my own — on the economy:

The talking heads want us to think that it’s all our fault for charging a 52-inch plasma flat-screen TV on our credit cards, but we’re not buying that song and dance anymore. A pound of chicken breast is $7 at my grocery store. I live in a working-class neighborhood. What the hell are people eating out there? The federal minimum wage is $5.85 an hour! Can you imagine working over an hour for a f***ing chicken sandwich? What is this, Zimbabwe?

In troubled times like these, I like to tune in to “The Suze Orman Show” (9 p.m. EST on CNBC) so Suze and her befuddled crowds and I can sigh heavily together over the sorry state of the U.S. economy. I love how Suze talks about good things to do with money I don’t have. I like putting imaginary money into IRAs and then saving some more imaginary money for a 529 college fund. It feels reassuring, somehow, to know that if I stumbled on $10,000 or $15,000, I’d know lots of things to do with it that wouldn’t involve Cabo San Lucas or high-grade cocaine at all.

Amen, sister. I do however, really like the Holiday Inn Express breakfast bar commercials.

I was interviewed for an article about the Internet and the campaign season for LinuxInsider:

“A lot of little folks are being empowered with tools and communications in ways that were previously unavailable,” Zandt told LinuxInsider.

This, she said, is “a huge paradigm shift, from a small number of people controlling communications to everyone having the power to communicate with everyone else.”

I feel so hardcore!

It was such an exciting week! First, I was on CNN for about 5 seconds:

Then, I met Jason Alexander!

And then, he mentioned having my business card in his pocket at the beginning of the speech he gave at the gala we were all attending!

Tee hee. All thanks to Take Back America.