Hello. My name is Deanie, and I'm a poll-pushing political junkie.

"HI DEANIE."

Okay...um...I have to tell you, I'm not real sure why I'm here tonight. I mean, my FAMILY says I'm addicted, that I have a problem, an obsession, if you will, but I prefer to call it my...

Girl, you had me at the wink.

As soon as ya looked right at me and gave me that cute little wink and nod and that big winner smile, I knew that the Republicans were right after all--this election should not be about issues. Issues are boring and elitist. It...

As an author, one thing I've learned through the years is the power of language and word-choice in driving a narrative. I once spent eight hours on one paragraph, only to have an editor draw a line through it on the manuscript and scrawl, "Is this necessary?"

I erased...

Thanks to the modern miracle of the virtual community, I was able to meet with a feisty, funny, great group of military families via liveblogging, during the Foreign Policy debate between Barack Obama and John McCain that just wound down.

I'm referring to Blue Star (and Gold Star) Families for...

During the foreign policy debate coming up this Friday night, there will be one group of constituents who will be eagerly awaiting the one question I never see asked of the war-mongers.

I'm talking about Blue Star Families for Obama, an energetic group of active-duty military families who,...

When my son was a toddler, and old reruns of the long-running Western series, Gunsmoke, would come on TV, (with James Arness in the starring role), he would scamper into the living room and yell, "The Daddy Show is on! The Daddy Show is on!"

To his two-year old mind,...

In the final week before the Texas Democratic primaries, Bill Clinton made an exhausting, whirlwind tour of the state on behalf of his wife, Hillary. Each and every day, he visited at least five small cities and towns across the state.

I remember when he came to Abilene. My e-mail...

One late night a couple of weeks ago, when my husband was out of town on a lengthy business trip, an alarming bark from one of our ranch dogs led me outside in gown and flip-flops, into the windy West Texas dark.

We live in a remote area of the...

You know who the Slytherins are, don't you?

For the two or three of you out there who honestly don't know anything about J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, let me briefly explain.

The school, located in a...

If you follow the general storyline put forth by a mainstream media star-struck by a war hero, or simply observe the reception John McCain often receives at rallies held at veteran's organizations, it's very easy to accept and believe that all veterans everywhere practically worship John McCain. I've noticed this...

If you follow the general storyline put forth by a mainstream media star-struck by a war hero, or simply observe the reception John McCain often receives at rallies held at veteran's organizations, it's very easy to accept and believe that all veterans everywhere practically worship John McCain. I've noticed this...

In security expert Gavin de Becker's landmark book, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence, he uses several illustrations to demonstrate how our survival instincts often try to protect us even as we try to over-rule them with logic and reasoning, and how we should...

"I don't wanna fly anymore, Doc. I've flown 35 missions, but Cathcart's raised the number to 50 before you can rotate out."

"I can't ground anyone just because they ask me to."

"Can you ground anyone who's crazy?"

"Of course I can. There's a rule that says...

The authority of government...is still an impure one; to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right against my person and property but what I concede to it...Let every man make known what kind of government would command his...

In his New York Times op-ed this week, "Let's Get Serious," Bob Herbert drew attention to a certain madness that is taking hold in this election that is nothing new to politics. The difference between this election, however, and elections past is, quite simply, the stakes. And because the...

Like Pogo said, we have seen the enemy, and it is us.

We boomers never thought we'd become the establishment.

When I was a teenager, back in the '60s, every household I knew was in turmoil between the young people and their parents. They...

Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin: so 'tis to thee; But where the greater malady is fix'd, The lesser is scarce felt... The body's delicate: the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there... O,...

According to the Dallas Morning News, Barack Obama has won the Texas caucus, with 38 convention delegates, and though he lost the popular-vote count to Clinton (65 to 61 delegates), the combined total (including superdelegates) gives Obama 109 to Clinton's 106 delegates and thus, a win in Texas after...

I vote in the middle of a cotton field.

Yeah, I know! It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But it's true.

When you live in a remote rural area like the wilds of West Texas, you have voting centers put up in the weirdest places...

I got another e-mail invitation to see Bill Clinton--again, I was asked to RSVP, and again, I was given only 24 hours' notice. This appearance was to be in Abilene. The invitation read "7:30" but the Abilene evening news broadcasts were saying, "8:15." In fact, the news anchor for the...