Dems With Balls

h/t Dave Weigel via Huff Po.

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Anyone Watching?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is amazing television. Truly amazing.

Though I have it on the SPAN because I get sick of the MSNBC bastards thinking that their comments on what is going on are more important than what is actually being said.

Dammit. Work phone rang when Slaughter was speaking. Louise Slaughter is my hero...I will have to watch her later.

Use the thread to tell me what you think. Are you pissy? Do you think that Obama is losing this debate?

Or, are you keeping an open mind and listening to what the experts are saying?

Let me know.

I believe that real health care reform will be passed. I believe that it will happen because the Dems know that they will lose their shit in November if it doesn't. I just hope that they heed the words of Dr. Dean and make it go into effect now!

President Obama is looking like the adult and the Pukes, of course, look like the tools that they are. Heh.

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Thank You Mr. President

If you have not seen it (or even if you have) please watch the President take on the GOPpers. He is brilliant and in command. He is calm, cool and collected. He has a patience and a professionalism that is unmatched.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Then, if you have a minute and are so inclined, please send him a thank you note. I think that it is important to reward good behavior and to let him know that we support him and have his back when he takes them on.

(I have certainly been letting him know when I disapprove.)

Thank you, in advance, for your support.

Cross posted at PAS.

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Guess What Tomorrow Is?!?!

It is not just Valentine's Day...



It is the actual dawning of the Age of Aquarius.


When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

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Share Your Story

Share your economic hardship story.

Do it with an email, photos, phone call or upload a video. Obama is asking us to tell him our stories so that the fuckwads in the Congress can be shown that we are not numbers - we are real people with real problems and we are scared.

Sorry guys - I am done with the naysayers and the cranky pups. Fuck 'em.

I know that everyone has a grand idea about how this should be done and every single fucking blogger knows better than our President and our Congress. I also know that it is so much easier to pontificate and theorize than it is to roll up one's sleeves and get to work to make the world a better place. Ya, I get it. And, I am not going to do it, I am not taking the easy way this time.

This President, Our President Barack Obama, needs us to support him more than any other President since FDR. He needs our support and our guidance. We can get involved at the grassroots (not the Netroots) or we have no room to bitch. It is an absolute in my book. I do not have the energy to be a cranky whiner.

I worked too hard for the change from the Pukes to the Dems - we all worked hard to throw those bastards out. We have the Dems now - in both Houses and the Presidency - and our work is just beginning. I am not going to throw up my hands just because some negotiations that I do not like are occurring. Until I sit in the Congress I will not know what it is to actually be a Congress Member and I will not know what has to occur to get shit done.

For now, I support my Country, therefore I support my President. This does not mean that I will turn my back on wrongdoings - it means that I will pick my battles and choose the wrongdoings that are immoral not the ones that I just do not like.

Also, I will tell them what I do not like. We are being offered more opportunity to share our ideas and participate in this process than ever before. That is what I do not get; these bloggers should be sending their posts to Obama - complete with the comments, not just posting to post. Let's get organized and participate. It is easier to bitch outside of the tent than it is to dialogue inside of it. As long as we are invited inside, let's go.

We are fucked. This country is teetering on the edge and to slam my Party and Obama - to be willing to write them off already - because some things are not right in this package seems a little histrionic to me. It seems way over the top and I do not understand. Especially when Obama is calling for us to be involved. How many of those bitching held or attended an economic recovery house party this weekend? (And, no, I did not either - but I am also not flushing them down the toilet.)

Let's pull together and quit ripping everyone apart. Maybe we are all just too used to being angry at our government to stop for a minute and realize that we have an opportunity right now to do it differently. It will take a while - you cannot turn around a ship this large in 3 weeks with one piece of legislation - there is a ton of damage to correct and a ton to repair. Let's get out hammer and nails instead of pitchforks and torches.

UPDATE: And, what this guy said. h/t to p-dip for posting this at TLC.

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Where Were You?

Where were you when Senator Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States? Did you go to any parties? Any balls? Did you get to dress up? Was it enjoyable or do you wish that you would have done something different?

I hope that whatever you did that it was marked with many memories. This will be one of those events that people will ask in the future, "Where were you, what were you doing?"

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This Land is Your Land

Coming home after a long and dreary day, I was listening to the pre-inauguration activities on the radio. Then the announcer said that Pete Seeger, yes, The Pete Seeger, was going to sing next. My mind went back immediately to the days I lived in San Francisco and all those Little Boxes, you know, the green ones, and the pink ones, and the blue ones, and the yellow ones. Those were the days that I believed in America and that I could change the world, as most of us did believe back in the 60s.

Then Seeger began singing with that old familiar one of a kind voice:

"This land is your land, this land is my land

From California, to the New York Island

From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me."

I started to bawl. It was a release for the years of sadness I have felt, for the anger like I have never known before, for disappointment, discouragement, and loss of faith in this Country, this Government and it's people.

On Tuesday, this Country begins anew with the leadership of President Obama, and once again hope returns for those of us who have doubted this land was our land.

UPDATE (by Anjha): I looked for the video this morning and then ran out of time. Voila! Came home and there it was in my inbox via Truthout. Cool.

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Peace, Love and Understanding Part 2

Dammit. I am so blown away by the kindness of the people in this country. Last week I put up a post about the Obama organization, USA Service.org. I talked about all of the events on the website and all of the millions of people who have signed up to attend those events. I talked about the feel good, warm fuzzies that viewing all of that left me with.

There's more.

Yes, there are more warm fuzzies. Kiddo and I noticed that the event that we signed up for had more people signed up than were necessary. We signed up to help serve lunch at Tent City. Tent City is a homeless encampment in our county; there are actually many of them. It is good that they are available for the people who live on the streets to gather together and look out for each other (there is safety in numbers) but it sucks that they are needed at all. I think that they should be called "Bush-Villes" - regardless of what you call them, homeless people live there.

So, we decided that it might be good if we gathered items together to leave with them that will last a lot longer than the lunch that we have volunteered to help to serve.

We typed up the following and gave it to the people in our cul-de-sac.

*********

Thank You In Advance

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the National Day of Service we are going to tent city in xxxxx on Monday, January 19, 2009 to help to pass out food to the homeless. There are numerous volunteers for this event already so Kiddo and I thought that it might make more sense to use our time gathering up items to leave with the people at tent city; things that they will need long after the lunch is over.

Please donate any of the following (and anything else that you can think of that would come in useful for people trying to live in a tent during a long, cold winter.):

• Coats/Sweatshirts/Warm Sweaters
• Blankets
• Shoes
• Sleeping bags
• Baby Items/Diapers
• Tarps
• Toiletries
• Books
• Non-perishable food items
• Socks
• Flashlights & Batteries


If you have any items that you are able to donate, please gather them together and give us a call. (We are just now digging in our closets. We know that money is tight for everyone; used items are gladly and gratefully accepted.) We will pop over and pick them up. Thank you so much.

Husband, Anjha and Kiddo xxx-xxx-xxxx

To find out more about service events in our area go to www.USAService.org

********

We handed it out to the 8 homes in our cul-de-sac and by 11 AM this morning, my car was full of boxes of items. This is so unbelievable. Seriously. I am blown away by the kindness and generosity of the people in our neighborhood, county and this country.

And honestly, I am not really doing a damn thing but passing information along to people, making a couple of phone calls and dropping off the stuff. Even I can handle this kind of involvement.

I hope that this does keep going. That people continue to participate and that Obama uses the bully pulpit that he has to continue to guide people into service and to paying attention to what is going on in their communities. This is truly a bottom up movement. And it is about friggin' time.

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What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

Every so often there is an occurrence that reminds me that there is more good in this world than bad. Something happens that offers hope and helps me to feel like I really do live in a world community of people who want nothing more than Peace and Joy and Love - and Understanding.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes so much easier to find what is wrong in this world; to see the natural disasters and - worse - the man-made ones. It is easy to see only pain and destruction...but every so often there comes that moment that brings tears to my eyes and reminds me that we really are a Loving people; despite the endless crap, People Really are Good.

I had such a moment this morning.

I received "Obama's Call to Service" invitation. When I punched in my zip code to search for events in my area, I thought to myself, "what if no one signed up?"

Instead this is what popped up. Look at all of these events and read their descriptions. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, cleaning up parks...it is endless.

People are searching for direction on what they can do to help. People want to give. Even during this time when so many are suffering and so many do not know where their next rent check or mortgage payment or meal will come from, they are still ready to jump up and give of themselves.

Damn, I love it when my eyes are filled with these kinds of tears...

Find events here.

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Things that Make Me Smile

h/t to Tree Hugger, who sent me the link to the "Seven Darn Cute Baby Animal Photos."

Consider this an Open Thread.

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From the Mouths of Babes

I have often heard that you can tell a lot about people, by observing their children. Seeing how someone's children approach the world tells us a lot about the person, not just their parenting, but that parent's worldview.

At the end of this Barbara Walters interview, a story is told about Malia Obama.

To paraphrase:

Malia, when touring the Whitehouse, saw the Lincoln bedroom and the desk that holds a copy of the Gettysburg Address. Malia told her father, 'daddy, when I have a paper that is hard for me to write, a big paper due at school, I am going to go into that bedroom and sit at that desk where President Lincoln wrote that speech and signed that paper because I think that will inspire big thoughts.' Obama responded to her, 'well, you have really thought this through, haven't you.'

What a nice story, this morning. So much nicer than the other crap on the teevee and in the news.

I believe that the example that the Obama's set as parents and as spouses will be good for this country to see.

ABC won't give me the code, but you can watch the interview section here.

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Taking Bets: How Long Until it is Pulled

(Picture courtesy of Whitehouse.gov via Politico. By now, though, you can probably find it all over the web...it has been out for a few hours already.)

Dubya has never been known as "bright" - he is, contrarily, quite gullible. Not bright plus very gullible, leads to pictures that one will regret for the rest of one's life.

I saw this in Politico.

The comments led me to the definition of "the shocker." Unbelievable. When I read the definition, I too, spit coffee.

If I were in college and had the opportunity to meet the Pres and get my photo taken and the President were Dubya....I imagine that I might have done the same.

Holy Fuck.

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Foresight

One of the things that I have appreciated about Obama is his ability to see things in a big-picture way and to anticipate possible difficulty and develop solutions long before the situation actually presents itself.

Obama is a big picture guy. That is what is impressive about him. He was not a "tactic" obsessed candidate like McCain, Barack Obama was completely strategically focused. The most telling moment in the debates was when McCain accused Obama of not knowing the difference between a tactic and a strategy - I think that everyone watching that debate knew that the opposite was true. I believe that that moment helped to sink McCain.

Josh at TPM points out just how "radical" that Barack Obama is. Radical enough to understand that the Constitution is the boss of them all.

Josh linked to the very thing that I like most about Obama and what I most look forward to in an Obama Administration. Planning, foresight, anticipation and transparency. He also demands involvement from us.

Obama is putting every plan and every idea up front for us to be a part of.

He has a page to share our vision.

He has a page to share our stories.

He is also taking applications!

He also prominently links to the GSA site that explains the presidential transition in detail.

Truthfully - can anyone - even ardent McCain supporters, imagine John McCain being this organized, inclusive and transparent? John McCain may be a number of things - but he is not a man of foresight. He does not see things in a big picture way. He would not include us in his Administration.

I have long believed that Barack Obama's strength as a Community Organizer, his belief that change happens from the bottom up, would lead to a presidency that would make it easy and demand that the people are involved. I have believed that he would demand that we pay attention to our government and stay involved - the opposite of which allows presidents to get away with the crap that GW Bush got away with. I think that this website is a start in that direction.

Damn. I am impressed.

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I Needed This

Seriously too cool.

Especially for a massive Beatles and art fan (as our household is.)

I had to have a nasty test this morning and I am really miserably ill. I have been trying to hold my head above water but it is doubly difficult because I feel tremendously guilty for missing work and for not doing enough to help during this election. I am just ill and inflamed and flared up right now and it sucks. I do not want to be like this - especially not right now. I am trying not to be so lame and to not indulge in self-pity, but things are just icky.

The video made me smile. So does the print. Cool huh?

UPDATE: Duh, I forgot to provide the link to the print. Duh. It is only $20.00 - for a limited edition of 3,000. That is cheap!

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Field Trip for SoS

I am so sick of the culture wars and crap that are swirling around the upcoming election. I was accused of being a Socialist by a man in my neighborhood while doorbelling for Obama yesterday. It did not make me stop, but it was incredibly discouraging. The McCain campaign is purposely fomenting violence and encouraging division in a way that will only lead danger, for all of us.

So, instead of getting discouraged, I thought that I would focus on an article that I ran across by mistake.

"Huge Field of Dinosaur Tracks Found"

More than 1,000 dinosaur footprints along with tail-drag marks have been discovered along the Arizona-Utah border. The incredibly rare concentration of beastly tracks likely belonged to at least four different species of dinosaurs, ranging from youngsters to adults.

The article says that because they found such a wide range of sizes of tracks that mothers were walking around with babies. (Cute.) The article calls the area "a dance floor" for dinosaurs and says that there were many different species who gathered there about 190 million years ago.

After reading this article, I can't help but think that this whole election and all of the crap that I worry about, from losing my home to being unable to walk, is really just that: crap. It just does not mean much when I think about the fact that 190 million years ago there were enormous creatures wandering around the south west of the United States. It makes my current worries and anxieties miniscule in comparison.

It also made me think that this would be a great field trip for SoS. It's practically in your back yard! You could go and fill us all in on the details and post pictures for all to see. Just a thought.

Yes, I have been reduced to living vicariously through the vacations of others. I actually enjoy seeing slide shows of people's summer trips.

Well, I have wasted most of another day, yet again. I now have to get to work. Have a great day everyone. Strange times, strange times.

(Hopefully someone will send this article to Sarah Palin, who believes that dinosaurs lived with humans 5 million years ago. She would only claim that it was a conspiracy of the 'liberal media,' but it would be fun to see her face.)

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Vacation for Seven of Six and Family

Folks, I'll be heading out for a week long vacation in Mexico. It's the family's annual fall trek for sun, fun, sandy beaches, fresh shrimp, margaritas and wrestling with lounge chairs poolside. Not to mention the wife's shopping for nice cheap clothes and Mexican ceramics (nice flower pots are on order). I'm sure you'll be in safe capable hands with all the other fine bloggers at the helm. Hasta la bye-bye!

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What Will It Take to Fix the Economy?

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

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A Lollipop and Some Sunshine

I just need a little feel good Bits and Pieces.

A Non-Fiction Camelot

"Elect Barack Obama. That way, we get the gift of seeing two people having an easeful friendship with each other. We get as a role model two people who communicate with each other as equals and stand beside each other as true partners. If we elect Barack Obama we are electing a new possibility in our relationship lives as a nation: respect, affection and authenticity. Michelle and Barack speak clearly and openly. You know she won't bullshit you or embarrass you by playing the demure little wife. We're ready to see that kind of relationship, and we hope you are, too. The question is: are we as a nation ready to end our national addiction to duplicity, phony adoration and Stepford wifedom in the White House?"

I really do like their relationship and I think that it is high time that America have some of that reality to hang our hats on. Wouldn't it be nice to watch how a self-confident, self-assured man interacts with and Loves a self-confident, self-assured and powerful woman? It is a role-model relationship that I think America would benefit from. It makes me smile.

Debate poll internals.

"The CBS poll of undecideds has more confirmatory detail. Obama went from a +18 on "understanding your needs and problems" before the debate to a +56 (!) afterward. And he went from a -9 on "prepared to be president" to a +21."

Wow. Those are amazing numbers. No wonder the McCain camp is spinning his 'win' so substantially. I actually heard one of their surrogates claim that "McCain was the professor and Obama was the student." Heh. McCain the professor?! (I thought being a professor was a bad thing?) This made me smile too.

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