Keith Olbermann says he has no time for pie.  Dirty bastage.  Does he not know the Way of the Pie?

Well, since pie is back on the table (har har), I thought I might clear a few things up for the few people (and the unsuspecting newcomers) who still don't understand what the big deal is.  I posted a short series (two!) of diaries on this a couple of years ago, and I'm going to lump them together and serve them up fresh and hot for you now.

Why now?  Because it will knock at least one hair-pulling, hand-wringing VP choice diary off the list, and that's good enough for me.

See, it's like this...

(Posted Thursday pm/Friday am for the night crew, reposted tonight for the Saturday night folks. Also added a bit more info.)

Yes, yes, I know.  I disappeared for, like, a year.  It's a long, somewhat horrible story.  For those of you newbies who don't know me, um... well... hi!

I'm a Kossack community-building attention whore from way back.  I like all the aspects of this community that are all about building the human bonds between us: the snark, the personal stories, the pop culture threads, and yes, even the pooties.

In that spirit, I've started a Flickr group called Daily Kossacks.

Details below.

Yes, yes, I know.  I disappeared for, like, a year.  It's a long, somewhat horrible story.  For those of you newbies who don't know me, um... well... hi!

I'm a Kossack community-building attention whore from way back.  I like all the aspects of this community that are all about building the human bonds between us: the snark, the personal stories, the pop culture threads, and yes, even the pooties.

In that spirit, I've started a Flickr group called Daily Kossacks.

Details below.

I'm a cheapskate.  Except when it comes to beer.  Life's too short to drink bad beer.  But mostly, I'm a fan of a good bargain.  Also, I'm broke.

The point is, I feel your pain.  A lot of the great stuff offered in the YearlyKos 2007 fundraising auction has been bid (bidden?) up to levels that cause our wallets to quiver in fear.

But guess what?  I'm here to help.  We still have a number of items at under $30, and I've gathered them all here in one place for your convenience.  (And remember, shipping is always free in a YearlyKos auction!)

I'm not accustomed to flat-out begging, but I'm going to do it out of necessity.

EBay's screwup last week cost YearlyKos thousands of dollars.  We have been forced to re-launch the fundraising auction from $0, and do it over the course of only 3 days.  We have until Monday to try to recoup our losses.

We aren't going to be able to do that without the help of some front-pagers (or the mysterious Open Thread).  It's really that simple.

For every person clicking through diaries, there are 100 who only read the front page.  When a front-page link to the auctions occurs, our traffic goes from 4-5 hits/hour to 10+ hits/minute.

So, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, or try to come up with some funny or clever content with which to pad this diary.

I'm just going to beg.

Please: http://www.ykosauctions.com/

UPDATE: This is now a hyperbolic open thread. May your wallets explode (with delight).  Follow over the jump for some enticing photographic previews of the items up for bid. [KX]

UPDATE: So, don't take this as a threat, but whoever pays the most for a book in the auction -- any book -- I will mail a signed copy of that fantasy classic (hey, it was nominated for both the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award), Devil's Tower, written by... some idiot.  I'll even sign it for you, though that will probably lower the value. [DT]

The YearlyKos fundraising auctions are back up, and even bigger and better!

eBay has reinstated our auctions, apologized for cancelling them in error, and wished us luck with our fundraising efforts.  (Sometimes it pays to be persistent when you get questionable customer service!) In addition, there were a few items we had been working on, but had been unable to get into the previous auctions for logistical reasons.  Now they're in there!  Click on the Event Tickets link to check them out!

Here's the deal, though.  We now have only three days to do this whole auction.  That means we have to push on it hard (sorry if we seem repetitive over the next few days).  We were at around $4,000 when we were interrupted just hours before the close of the auctions on Sunday, and now we're starting from $0 again.

I've posted this story before in a slightly different form, but I wanted to share this again for a very special reason.

You see, this is a gift to my Dad.

Surely this isn't another cheap ploy to call attention to the YearlyKos fundraising auction, is it?  Well, yeah, it is, but this will also be chock full of interactive content, and if you stick around, a good deal of fun and games, too.

We're going to have an interactive 80s and 90s music quiz.

I've been noodling around the internet for the past few hours, and I've made a shocking discovery about Bacon.

Follow me after the jump for more...

Bush and Gonzo share a special moment after returning from a shopping trip to the YearlyKos fundraising auctions.

What do Bush & Gonzo know that you don't?  No, it's not the location of the missing WMD.  It's the treasure trove that is this final round of fundraising auctions for YearlyKos 2007!

Whether it's beanies, or buttons, or books, we've got you covered!

Lucky you!

You happen to be reading Daily Kos while I'm testing some stuff out for tomorrow's launch of the next and final round of fundraising auctions for the YearlyKos Convention 2007!

Here they are, folks!  Make a note of what you're interested in, because the bidding will start fast and furious tomorrow evening.

If you click through to any of the individual links to the eBay listings, please note: you will be unable to see the individual eBay listings until the auction start time listed.

PS
We're also working on 2 pair of Live Earth tickets, but we're still fighting with eBay to get permission to list them.

You know it's true!

But, look here: There's more to life than cookies and pie and balls (I know, it came as a shock to me, too).  There's lots of excellent stuff available, a bunch of which are still at under $25.  In fact, those Schumann chargers are worth many, many times their current bid.

So dagnabbit, quit yer gigglin' and start bidding!

And, just for fun, please post your best "alternate" usages for the Commander Codpiece action figure and the Poppy Bush chew toy.

Hey all.  It's me again.

Nobody wants to think about fundraising right now, which is why you're not seeing YearlyKos Auction promo diaries popping up a few times a day, as you'd normally see during the auctions. Perhaps you might start to see more diary reminders later, as the shock wears off, but for now, it's low-key.  It's hard to imagine it being any other way.

But, as I mentioned yesterday (and in some open thread comments here and there), we still have to do this.  The auctions launched Sunday night, and so, well... here we are... in the middle of an incredibly important piece of our fundraising at the worst possible time to have to do it.  We depend on the success of these auctions as a large piece of what makes YearlyKos possible.

So, please, if you have a moment... head on over to http://ykosauctions.com and place a bid on something.  There are many wonderful items available.

And if you'd like to donate an item for the next round of auctions in June, e-mail auctions@yearlykosconvention.org .

Thank you.

Normally, I'd think of some amusing way to get you to go on over to the YearlyKos Auctions page right about now, but given the current events at Virginia Tech, I don't really have anything funny to say.  My thoughts go out to everyone there, and everyone touched by what happened there today.

Nevertheless, this fundraising auction is in progress this week, and these auctions are a very big part of the fundraising that makes YearlyKos possible.

So, please, if you have a moment... head on over to http://ykosauctions.com and place a bid on something.  There are many wonderful items available.

And if you'd like to donate an item for the next round of auctions in June, e-mail auctions@yearlykosconvention.org .

Thank you.

Hey you!

Look here.  It's frickin' COOKIES, already!

Continuation of State of the Union Open Thread

Helpful links:

Embargoed text of speech.

Text of Webb's Democratic response.

Listen to it on CSPAN online.

Previous Open Thread

As you may have noticed, there is a groundswell of righteous anger and determination rolling through the country today.

As you've seen from current diaries, several progressive organizations are encouraging rallies today and tonight all across the country.

Because it's just THAT important, I'm drawing more attention to it in my own little neck of the woods by posting the links and details here for Chicago.

Weekly MetaFunSnark Compendium
Episode 12.28.06

The Weekly MetaFunSnark Compendium is a weekly compendium of the funny, touching, tangential, and querulous.

This list is compiled from searches for the following tags/keywords:
snark, humor, funny, comedy, satire, meta, community, personal, social, daily kos, dailykos... and occasionally, by special dictat from Bob Johnson, Bob Johnson.

Using diary tags means that the list will catch things that don't necessarily fit, and miss things that should be included. If you know of a diary that fits the list, but isn't included here, please share it with us in the comments.

Normally, there'd be a "delicious intermission" here with some sort of food-related trivia, but I just didn't have time to do anything this week.  Sorry folks!  I'm working up something yummy for next week, though!