We’ve been calling the event we held last Friday a fundraiser and party because while the point was to raise funds to help grow Living Liberally, we also wanted it to be mostly about having fun. I think we accomplished both.

We planned and planned, and still had some organizational problems, but if we do it again we’ll try to learn from those mistakes.  Overall though, I’d say the night was no less than awesome.  We saw a lot of people we haven’t seen in a while and met a lot of new people.

Scott McCoy did a great job of emceeing the whole thing, with the help of Bill Frost.  I read Bill Frost’s pieces in City Weekly each week and know how funny he is in writing, but I had forgotten just how funny he is in conversation too.  

Syqnys wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak, but I think a lot of people liked the message of his hip-hop lyrics.  I know Sen. McCoy enjoyed the song “Sexy Time”, which was pro-gay rights in a not so obvious way.

The “Bush in Six Words” contest went really well too, better than we thought it would.  We had a lot of entries, and I think Representative Christine Johnson had a lot of fun judging the entries. We lost some of the entries, but the ones we found are at the bottom of this post.  

I unfortunately missed the 3.2 improv because I got a stupid work call, but I did see them gathering some of the politicians and audience members together and then I heard strange noises coming from inside the warehouse.  It sounded like a lot of fun.  Oh, and the two improv performers were named Heather and Jeremiah.  We didn’t plan that.

Lee Camp, the comedian who flew in from NYC as part of Laughing Liberally, is my new favorite comedian.  He owned the night, in my opinion.  Everyone was in stitches - I wish my camera would have cooperated enough to get the reaction of the audience.  I also really wish I had brought my video camera for that performance.  I highly recommend you check out his site, and if you ever get the chance to see him perform, don’t miss it.  Maybe we can get him back next year.

The night would have been a disaster without the help of our volunteers, so a huge thanks and cheers to Barry, JD, Robert, Evan, Natalie, Jerrad, Judy, and Sarah.  Also a big thanks to John.  They all helped make the night much smoother and kept everyone well hydrated.  And of course a big thanks to Brian for letting us use his warehouse and making us all feel welcome.

To check out some pictures from the event visit our Flicrk pool. We’ll post Mitch’s pictures once we get them too, which I’m sure will be much better than mine.

And now for some “Bush in Six Words” entries:

• Cowboy who fell off the horse - Bob
• Wait a minute, didn’t you lose? - Kate
• Get a real job - Michael Moore - Cindy
• Does the W stand for WTF? - Kate
• Incompetent spineless puppet - our village idiot - Ed
• Heh; heh, heh; heh, heh, heh - John
• Waging war from a golf course - Jeremiah and Cindy
• This guy makes me miss Reagan - Brian
• If the grinch were a human - Jeremiah
• The Washington out-sider should’ve stayed outside - Syqnys
• The decider who never decided - Teashia
• Prudent’s son; torture’s father; tomorrow’s brother - Jasmine
• Bush - Like a rock, only dumber - Mark (stolen, author unknown)
• Dubya D-U-M-B Dubya - Mark
• Married librarian, never read a book - Felix
• The thing is, Bush never exhaled Mark (stolen, author unknown)
• January 21st, 2009… Welcome home troops!! - Carla
• You be either for or against - Daisy
• Thanks for all the new Democrats - Joe
• Bush’s lips move, scooter gets break - Becky and Angela
• Eight years of torture nearly over - unknown
• No Child Left Behind. Except yours. - Becky
• tax shelter salesman appointed President - Donald
• Liar, Liar, Middle East on fire - Joe
• Get your shit and get out - texted in to Kate