We all have them in our lives- those offensive forward senders that can't help but gleefully send off a nasty-gram to us poor progressives.

Offender #1:My Brother-In-Law.  One of those lower-income Republicans; he baffles me with his 5-person family, less than $35K income (with debt more than a year's salary)Bush supporting craziness (seriously, he is a member of that 27%). It's incomprehensible.

Offender #2: My gun-toting Republican friend who, as far as I can tell, only is Republican because she thinks I wanna take her gun away (I don't). Believes Obama is a secret Muslim, yet also thinks his church sucks. Puzzling, she IS a smart gal...

Between these two, I get some truly hilarious and offensive e-mail forwards. I KNOW they think it's funny to get my head to explode with these viral nuggets of xenophobia and factually-incorrect Muslim-pointing.

Since we were sharing bumper stickers earlier, I thought it'd be fun to share some of the more incomprehensible forwards. If you'd rather not post a whole crazy e-mail (or deleted it long ago but remember the general subject content), you can usually find the best ones over at snopes. But please, share some of these so we can laugh, scream and beat our heads against the wall together! It's fun (well, kind of in a sad, depressing way), and a nice way to collect our thoughts so we send some nice quips back to the offenders.

Mondays are usually a drag, so I will open with these funny (Republican) presidential spouse tidbits in Mother Jones:

Mr. T Goes Soft Judith Giuliani gushed, "Rudy's a very, very romantic guy; we love watching Sleepless in Seattle. Can you imagine my big-testosterone-factor husband doing that?"

Last Man Standing Janet Huckabee said of husband Mike, "He is a machine, and I mean that in a good way. No one can outlast, outwork, or be more determined and focused than Mike Huckabee…"

Chasing His Tail Fred Thompson boasted about his years of bachelorhood, "Yep, I chased a lot of women. And a lot of women chased me. And those that chased me tended to catch me."

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon Speaking of his wife Ann, whom he met when he was 18, Mitt Romney told 60 Minutes, "She's a babe. I saw that when she was 15."

BTW, the State of the Union Address is tonight.

Ted Kennedy to Endorse Obama: In case you missed it, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president, wrote a compelling endorsement for Sen. Barack Obama in the New York Times. It looks like her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, will follow suit, according to the Boston Globe.

ATTN: Johnny Depp Fans: He is on the cover of Esquire Magazine. Also, he donated $2 million to a hospital in London for saving his daughter’s life, according to the Daily Mail. Sexy.

What else is in the news?

I am down with democracy and all that, but damn it is scary when guys like this vote.

Ed Hamilton, of Kerr County, Texas, is challenging fellow Republican Mindy Williams in the primary for county treasurer. His platform? He wants to eliminate the position, according to the Associated Press.

Hamilton said if elected, he would hand the duties to someone else and petition state officials for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would allow any county to eliminate the treasurer position if it chooses.

Williams, who was appointed last spring to the $46,000-a-year post, said the job shouldn't be eliminated. It provides accountability on the county's spending, a check and balance that is "essential to county government."

Hamilton says "check and balance" is "a euphemism for duplication of effort."

Please tell me this made news because Hamilton is an oddball -- even in Texas. One of the scariest things to come out of the Bush administration is how “check and balance” is a four-letter f-word whether it’s in regards to war or our justice system. Ugh.  

In related news, two non-profit journalism organizations conducted a study that found that the Bush administration released at least 900 false statements regarding the national security threat in Iraq, according to AP. Hopefully, this will encourage traditional media outlets to once again act as “a check and balance” to our government's powers.

I know this is a little late as the Republican and Democratic debates in Manchester, New Hampshire were last night.

But I missed the Republican debate and half the Democratic one because our satellite was down due to the rainstorms in California and the programs did not record correctly. We caught the second half of the Democratic debate and I relied on New Hampshire's WMUR's website for the best parts of the two debates. Trust me, perusing these clips is worth the time!

For the Republican side, check out the repeated attacks against Mitt Romney -- hilarious! -- and this lively exchange on illegal immigration. Rudy Giuliani actually sounds the most reasonable on this issue in stating the obvious that you can't physically kick out 12 million people in the country and it is inhumane to not give people in this country health care and children access to education. But I can't help but think the Repubs have scared off Latinos for life in arguing amongst themselves on who has the cruelest policy. (Kick them out! No health care for them! Other hysteria!)

The Republican candidates were also asked what they thought of Sen. Barack Obama who crushed all of them in Iowa. First, Giuliani, Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul's reactions to the surging senator from Illinois. Here are Romney, Fred Thompson, and Sen. John McCain's reaction to Obama.

From what I saw, John Edwards was the winner on the Democratic side. He delivered on an emotional level -- continuously stating his candidacy was for the working class and "personal" -- on style and on substance. Gov. Bill Richardson did very well too -- pointing out he is the only candidate on the stage that has executive experience and has balanced budgets -- which made me so proud to be a Latina. My husband and I are thinking he has an anglo enough name to be vice president if he is not the presidential nominee! (Oh please, pretty please.)

Both Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton ran as frontrunners and did not deliver any memorable lines. All four candidates did a good job running a civil discussion and differentiating the Democratic Party from the Republicans. Indeed, I am proud of our field this year. What a tough, tough decision!

Did any of you catch the debate last night? What did you think?