No, I'm not so outraged at some horrible, oppressive action by The Admins that I'm leaving the site as an act of protest (they did WHAT?? this time it really IS the end, I SWEAR!!1@) It's just time for me to go. I kinda faded into the aether a coupla months ago, but I realize I should probably let people know I'm not going to be around anymore. So, hi. I'm probably not really going to be around anymore.

I started out writing a diary about my take on the topic of the racial and gender-based implications of Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacies (why would anybody ever set themself up to be torn from limb to limb like that, you ask? Good question. I still don't have the answer.)

It's obviously a question that's going to be rehashed over and over, both in the traditional media and on the blogs. The racial justice / feminist-y / disability rights / "identity politics" blogosphere that I frequent has already been going at it on this particular analysis for a while.

But here at Dkos (and other partisan Democratic blogs,) we're just getting started. And as I started to write aforementioned diary, I was having a hard time figuring out what words and characterizations to use. DKos draws from such a broad swath, and lacks the consistency of background that I expect at other fav sites. And that's good, because it helps us avoid echo-chamberdom. But sometimes I think we have a hard time communicating because we don't have that common background of language and concept to draw from.

Inevitably, every few months, someone posts a heartfelt (if sticky-sweet) diary about how amazing DKos is and how much they've grown and changed because of the community here. I figure that the days following a historic strike for democracy are prime time for these outbursts of gratitude, so forgive me if everybody's overdosed on lovey-dovey feelings already, but I think I owe y'all a thank you. Bear with me.