Who's Out of Touch?

Senator Obama’s comments in response to the Clinton and McCain campaign’s attacks -



TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA – At a town hall meeting in Indiana, U.S. Senator Barack Obama made the following comments in response to the Clinton and McCain campaign’s attacks:

“When I go around and I talk to people there is frustration and there is anger and there is bitterness. And what’s worse is when people are expressing their anger then politicians try to say what are you angry about? This just happened – I want to make a point here today.

“I was in San Francisco talking to a group at a fundraiser and somebody asked how’re you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? What’s going on there? We hear that’s its hard for some working class people to get behind you’re campaign. I said, “Well look, they’re frustrated and for good reason. Because for the last 25 years they’ve seen jobs shipped overseas. They’ve seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their pensions. They have lost their healthcare.

“And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we’re going to make your community better. We’re going to make it right and nothing ever happens. And of course they’re bitter. Of course they’re frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur.

The same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don’t vote on economic issues because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms.

They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement-- so, here’s what rich. Senator Clinton says ‘No, I don’t think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack’s being condescending.’ John McCain says, ‘Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he’s obviously out of touch with people.’

“Out of touch? Out of touch? I mean, John McCain—it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he’s saying I’m out of touch? Senator Clinton voted for a credit card-sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I’m out of touch?

No, I’m in touch. I know exactly what’s going on. I know what’s going on in Pennsylvania. I know what’s going on in Indiana. I know what’s going on in Illinois. People are fed-up. They’re angry and they’re frustrated and they’re bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States of America.”

I've been bitter, pissed off, irritated, angry... You name it... For eight years or more.

Olympic Torch in San Francisco

Olympic Torch Protests Overwhelm San Francisco
By Matt Renner
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 10 April 2008

San Francisco, California - A day-long mass gathering intended to protest the running of the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch ended anticlimactically when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to cancel the downtown closing ceremony and instead hold the ceremony at the airport.

Newsom told The Associated Press he decided to move the closing ceremony because of the protests.

Moving the ceremony away from the downtown area capped off a chaotic day and was seen as a victory by protesters who did not want the torch to pass through the city without resistance. Initially, the torch was supposed to travel along the waterfront and circle back to the downtown area for the closing ceremony. The route was altered because officials feared protesters might clash with police and disrupt the relay. The new route was kept secret until the runners were underway, leaving the protesters disorganized.

Deviating from their announced plans, San Francisco officials put the torch and all 80 torch bearers on buses and drove them up to Van Ness Avenue - about two miles away from the original route - where they proceeded to run through the city toward the Golden Gate Bridge with little interference.

Upon hearing reports the relay course had been changed, the most committed protesters sprinted uphill toward where they thought the torch was headed. A spectacle ensued with hundreds of confused protesters jogging through the streets of the business district, waving flags and asking each other if they knew where to go.

On Wednesday morning, human rights activists gathered outside of a well orchestrated official rally, complete with Chinese drums and colorfully costumed dancers. The tension was palpable, as police escorted people holding Tibetan flags out of the area. "Its not safe for you here," a smiling police officer told a young protester with Tibetan prayer flags wrapped around his body, while escorting him to the designated protest areas.

The ceremonial Olympic torch relay across the globe has drawn heated protests in recent days, with activists flooding relay routes throughout Europe, and attempting to extinguish the Olympic torch. Tibet freedom activists have capitalized on the world attention being paid to the Chinese government in advance of the Beijing Olympics by voicing their opposition to what they see as an occupation of Tibet by China and the human rights abuses China has perpetrated against the people of Tibet.

About half an hour before the torch was scheduled to be set aflame and carried along the San Francisco Bay waterfront, protesters began marching down The Embarcadero - a wide street that borders the eastern edge of the city - toward McCovey Cove where the lighting ceremony was underway.

A blue tour bus escorted by police motorcycles suddenly pulled away from the ceremony location. Apparently thinking the Olympic torch was aboard the bus, protesters began running toward the bus and crowding in front of it. The driver seemed to panic momentarily as protesters began banging on the windshield and shouting "free Tibet, free Tibet, free Tibet." After initially stopping to avoid running over the protesters, the driver began to accelerate, attempting to drive through the crowd at roughly five miles an hour.

Screams and shouts from the protesters and police in front of the bus eventually compelled the driver to stop after traveling about 100 feet. Protesters clung to the windows and windshield wipers of the bus, plastering it with Tibetan flag stickers. As police stepped in to try and disperse the crowd, a large metal object, thrown from a long distance, clanged off the windshield. A bottle was smashed against a side window. A police officer caught in the throng looked terrified as he was swallowed up among the rowdy protesters.

The situation was diffused when fellow protesters decided the bus was empty, a decoy used by police to try and draw the protest away from the ceremony. Police said the bus had just dropped people off at the torch lighting and was not intended to misdirect the crowd.

Early reports stated San Francisco officials decided to change the route of the torch relay in anticipation of violent demonstration. It is unclear whether the tour bus incident prompted the course change, but the incident made clear the level of anger and energy driving the protests.

The successful rope-a-dope maneuver left thousands of protesters and casual observers milling around the waterfront area, unsure if they were going to catch a glimpse of the Olympic torch on its only stop in North America.

Left stranded away from the action, the two protest factions turned on one another.

"The Tibetan protesters are rioters. China is making good progress," Steve Hu, a Chinese immigrant and vocal counterprotester said. Many counterprotesters waving Chinese flags marched through the streets, exchanging insults and fiery rhetoric with those advocating for an independent Tibet. Interactions between the two groups varied. The most common encounters were limited to basic insults and impolite hand gestures.

In more heated confrontations, people yelled at one another, their faces just inches apart. On multiple occasions, the warring groups actually clashed in what can only be described as flag on flag sword fights.

The emotional battles remained peaceful, with calmer individuals stepping in when violence appeared imminent. The majority of protesters on both sides recognized both had the right to demonstrate and to express their deeply held political positions.

"Everyone has a right to protests," Justin Zhang, a Chinese immigrant who was waving the Chinese flag said. "I'm disappointed because I didn't get to see the torch."

Tsering Choedon, an Indian immigrant who was protesting in favor of Tibetan independence, said she was thankful the city of San Francisco could hold such an event where both sides could be heard. "I want the Chinese government to let the reporters into China and Tibet so that the world can know the truth," Choedon said from her seated position on the crowded sidewalk. The small woman held a Tibetan flag and wore a mask over her mouth to represent the silencing of Tibetan voices in China.

While protesters advocating for the freedom of Tibet tend to receive the majority of attention, various other groups were quite prominent.

Muhammad Suleiman, a Sudanese immigrant and a protester with the Save Darfur coalition, said his presence at the protest was intended to "send a message to China that genocide and the Olympic games cannot coexist." Suleiman accused China of supplying weapons to the government of Sudan who, in turn, use them to commit atrocities against their own population. "I want the Chinese government to know that they have a moral obligation to stop this," Suleiman said.

New Game at Left of Centrist

Play Bush x 3 - a new game launched by Robert over at Left of Centrist. I played and feel better already! I'm having kind of a crappy day, but this game is sure to lift your spirits, well if your Left of Centrist that is.

Five Years - A Personal Memoir

Casualty

Fear arrived at my door
with the evening paper
Headlines of winter and war
It will be a long time to peace
And the green rains
by Virginia Adair


Five years ago today I was eight months pregnant with my son and staying with my mom in her home day and night as she tried desperately to recover from surgery to remove a tumor and battled painfully against the cancer which had spread throughout her body. My daughter, still a toddler lie sleeping in an extra room my mom had made just for her. My mom lay in her own bed while I waited for her to call for me, for ice chips, for meds, for anything at all she needed. I sat staring at the TV without recognizing sound or images, a book in my lap, not knowing what to do next, just waiting.

My mom and I had both opposed the beginnings of any kind of invasion of Iraq, but watched day after day as our government fed the world lies and any opposition was crushed and/or faded from the landscape. While sanctions and inspections and non-violent negotiations were thrown aside, my mom and I helplessly glimpsed the loss of our own personal battle. No amount of medication could ease the suffering she endured and no amount of reasoning or resistance could thwart our government from invading Iraq.

When the news broke that evening I sat frozen, more incapable of movement than I had the moment before. I wept quietly so as not to wake the house. I knew at that moment half a world away people were dying; innocent people we were expected to demonize so their deaths would not faze us or we were expected not to acknowledge in light of our country's agenda. I can't tell you how many times I have found myself trying to convince neighbors and yes, even some friends that the people of Iraq are just like you and me. They are mothers and fathers and children and brothers and sisters who seek to be happy and to be able to care for one another just like you and me. It's exasperating that I've ever needed to even address this idea.

I did not know whether to go tell my mom the news. What would this mean to her? She was already dealing with so much. At some point a while later she called to me. I brought her ice chips and water, her medications and straightened her bed clothes. Such small comforts were all it seemed I could give her. I told my mom the news then. She insisted I help her to the living room to see the reports for herself. We all hang onto every thread of hope until it's gone, don't we? We wept together. We hung our heads in grief. We spoke little of what the future would bring for the world, for us. I know we both thought of my children, her descendants. One sleeping peacefully in the next room and one waiting to be born.

The next few weeks are a blur of memories for me. We tried to keep going against fading hope. My mom pretended to regain her strength and sent me home only to call me back to her side almost immediately. By the end of March my mom was in the hospital unable to open her eyes or speak anymore. I caught glimpses of what was going on in Iraq as I passed hospital TV sets. My only contact with the outside world... I could not bear to watch. My mom died at Hospice less than a month after the war began.

Five years later, though I see the truth everyday, it is inconceivable to me that this war still continues, that the war is as old as my son and as old as my own grief. For awhile after my mom died I couldn't grieve her passing. I thought instead of the people of Iraq and how my own grief could not even compare to what so many of them had lost. It took me awhile to understand that my grief was my own and that I needed to feel it and not compare it with others, so that I might move forward. So that I might one day be able to again emulate the things my mom had taught me and shown me through her own great life, her hard fought convictions and her endless strength.

I have watched friends and neighbors leave for Iraq in the last five years, some more than once. It seems each time two or three are coming home, two or three are on their way. A friend of my husband's lost his life in this terrible war and we see the effects on those who came home with their lives, but with their lives irrevocably changed.

I think of my mom and what her thoughts and feelings would've been during the last five years. I know she would've felt compassion, sorrow and worry for everyone involved in this war; the Iraqi citizens, the soldiers, the people who have lost something and sometimes everything due to this war. I know she would've worried about what she loved most in her life, her grandchildren. Just as she and my father had hesitated to have children due to the tremendous turmoil of the the sixties and seventies because they worried what kind of world I would grow up in, I know she would wonder and worry the same for her grandchildren. I know on this day, five years after this terrible war began, my mom if she were alive, would be attending the vigil to be held in our city. I know I would be with her. Tonight, I will be there and my mom will be with me in my heart.

Because of all the ways my mom and I are alike, we both just always hoped and wanted for a better world for our children and for all children.

Women For Women International

Linda at Ramblings of an Ageless Hippie Chick posted about Women For Women International. Read her post! Watch this video! Visit their website!


One woman can change anything. Many women can change everything.

A Little Friday Fun

Gobble! Gobble!

I'll See You There!

Please join Allen County 4 Obama for an informational gathering. Meet local Obama supporters and learn how you can get involved. Change can’t happen without you!

The event will be held at:

Downtown Library Branch

900 Library Plaza

Fort Wayne, IN 46802

February 27, 2008 at 7:15pm

Our Time Is Now!

I double dog dare you to try not to believe...

March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm

Statement of Purpose from March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm
Hosted by March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm blog, "this blogswarm will promote blog postings opposing the war in Iraq and calling for a full withdrawal of foreign occupying forces in Iraq. Five years of an illegal and catastrophic war is five years too many. On the March 19 anniversary of the conquest of Iraq by the Bush Administration, there needs to be a loud volume of voices countering the pro-war propaganda from far too many politicians and corporate media outlets."

If you also have a lot to say and want to make your voice heard sign up and pass the word. For more details on how to participate, click here or on the link on our sidebar.

Other March 19 Actions
Five Years Too Many
Resist In March
ANSWER Protest - Los Angeles

A Hopeful Year for Unions!

From an editorial in The New York Times

By virtually every indicator, 2007 was a dismal year for American workers. Job growth slowed, unemployment jumped and wages lost what little ground they had gained against inflation since 2003. There is one sliver of good news: the percentage of American workers who belong to a union rose for the first time in three decades...

...There is little doubt that American workers need unions. Wages today are almost 10 percent lower than they were in 1973, after accounting for inflation. The share of national income devoted to workers’ wages and benefits is at its lowest since the late-1960s, while the share going to profits has surged. The decline in unionization has been a big part of the reason that workers have lost so much ground...

...the uptick offers hope that the renewed emphasis on organizing workers by some of the nation’s largest unions — like the service employees’ union, the Teamsters and others that split off from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to form the Change to Win coalition — might start paying dividends despite the difficult odds.

A bill that would have made it easier for unions to organize workers died in the Senate last June. Congress should take up this issue again to stop companies from using threats and other aggressive tactics to keep organized labor out, and to help win workers their rightful share of the economic pie.

View full article here.

I constantly wonder where the public and our country's labor force's outrage is when CEOs consistently walk away with such a higher percentage of the profits than do the labor force. I completely agree with analysts when they attribute this to union busting and the decline in union membership. Another contributing factor is how our country's CEOs have been transformed from the bosses into media icons. They are praised rather than criticized for their high incomes and their lavish lifestyles. We have been "convinced" that the outright disparities between the workers and the bosses is okay.

As noted by economist, teacher and author Paul Krugman whose most recent book, The Conscience of a Liberal, "the percentage of workers in unions declined from a high of 35 percent in the mid-1950s to today’s level of 12 percent. As a result, the United States has 'lost something that’s essential to maintain a decent society.' Krugman attributes the nation’s worsening economic inequality in large part to declining unionization and the erosion of legal protection of workers’ freedom to choose unions and bargain...
...Krugman explained that when a high percentage of workers are in unions and workers’ freedom to choose unions is protected, there is an “umbrella” effect in which all workers, union and nonunion, benefit."

Super Tuesday! Come On People! Yes, We Can!

I know this video is "old" news from yesterday to many of you. But my computer at home was jacker-izing me yesterday and I couldn't get it to play past the first 2 seconds. Quick, someone call the computer medics!

Anyway, today I'm at work and I'm finally able to watch this wonderful video. Shhh! Don't tell my boss. Oh, wait I am the boss. Sometimes, I have to remind myself.

So, check this out (if you haven't already). My favorite part is when you hear a crowd chanting, "We want change!" Mmm hhm! That says it!

YouBama.com

That's Right!
Check It Out!
YouBama.com

Hat Tip: Left in Aboite

Freaky Friday! And Groundhog Day!

First off, yes, I know it's not Friday. I'm referring here to the classic movie where daughter and mother "switch" places and get to experience the other's life for a day. I've had this reoccurring fantasy where the same thing happens to George W. (Now keep in mind, I'm trusting you with this information. Let's not disclose it to my therapist please.) Only in my fantasy, the movie Groundhog Day plays a major role as this "Freaky Friday" situation happens to George W. every day he wakes. The big difference is George W. lives a different person's life everyday of someone that is being hurt by one of his administration's policies. As you can imagine, the list is incredibly long!

Well, today I've added to my list a Native American person whose health care spending by our government is 50% less per capita than that of felons in prison! Now there's motivation to break the law!

President Bush’s threat to veto a bill intended to improve health care for the nation’s American Indians is both cruel and grossly unfair. Five years ago, the United States Commission on Civil Rights examined the government’s centuries-old treaty obligations for the welfare of Native Americans and found Washington spending 50 percent less per capita on their health care than is devoted to felons in prison and the poor on Medicaid. Read full article here.

Reeling In Bill

Reeling In Bill? Someone needs to. Bill's rhetoric has been downright annoying since Iowa. On the other hand, I think the Clinton "war machine", as I've heard it referred to many times over the weekend, has perhaps inadvertently proven that Senator O'Bama is "tough enough" to make it in Washington after dealing with President Clinton the last couple of weeks.

Clinton's Camp Seeks Gentler Role for Ex-President

Following are some points that apparently the Clinton camp has absorbed. Read full article by Patrick Healy here.

“I think his harsh style hurt Senator Clinton — it polarized the campaign and polarized the electorate, and it also made it harder for Senator Clinton’s positive message to break through,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster who is not affiliated with any of the candidates.

“Voters don’t like the idea of a co-presidency, and he became so high profile that he made people begin to see this as a possible co-presidency,” Ms. Fowler said. “It’s even more problematic because she’s a woman. It looks like she either needs him to fight the big battles for her, or she can’t keep the big dog on the porch.”

Mr. Clinton’s ability to be a distraction was evident on Sunday as reporters repeatedly asked Mrs. Clinton about her husband’s role in the campaign and his comments about Mr. Jackson, which she characterized as benign.

Clinton advisers said that Mr. Clinton would continue to campaign nearly full time for his wife in the days leading up to the Feb. 5 primaries and caucuses in 22 states, yet they added that he would take a more positive tone.

A President Like My Father

For a girl who grew up with stories of the Kennedys told to me at bedtime, who has boxes and boxes of Kennedy family memorabilia that had been collected for years by my mother and left to me after her death, who witnessed my mom's elation as she met Senator Ted Kennedy on a Boston street when I was five and whose biggest hero is Robert Kennedy... This is significant and moving!

A President Like My Father
By Caroline Kennedy
The New York Times

Sunday 27 January 2008

Over the years, I've been deeply moved by the people who've told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn't that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country - just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates' goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people - known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics - to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents' grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president - not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Hey Hey Nancy!

Here's a new video from Robert Rouse over at Left of Centrist. I think this is his best video to date that I've seen. The interaction between Robert's "personalities" is awesome! Too funny man! And yet, very serious!

In Honor - Peace

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'

Biodiesel - No War Required

Fields of Fuel - Promo

Bush Declares Recession To Be Terrorist Organization

Earlier this morning as advised by key members of his staff George W Bush officially named the impending recession and in fact any economic downturn as a terrorist organization. This declaration allows bush the ability to dispatch crack military teams to infiltrate the Federal Reserve, Unites States Mint, Fort Knox, Wall Street and other bastions of the U.S economy, or as he stated, “We gotta git in ther and fight the econo-tera; ‘cause they hate free money!”

Thinking All The Time

I am in an especially cranky mood today! Could be my lack of sleep as our family is on its third round of sickness since mid-December. My mood could be contributed probably to a number of things and while I usually try not to give in to a mood like this, today, I am embracing it fully!!!!

I came across the following over at Left In Aboite, who in turn found it at Betmo. Betmo seems to have found it on someone else's blog... Gotta love the blogoshpere! Anyway, thanks to all because it made me LAUGH and that isn't likely to happen again today. Additionally, I'm just cranky enough today not to care about offending anyone, so here goes!

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night At her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't
mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and Confused,asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors. They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non- educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step...I joined the Republican Party. . .

Feel the Power!

Bloggers bring big net gain for Obama

By Chris Stephen

Picture: Getty

Barack Obama addresses a rally of his supporters in Clarement, New Hampshire, ahead of today's vote.

BARACK Obama's support is snowballing ahead of today's New Hampshire primary thanks to the "blogosphere", with tens of thousands of internet users scrambling to jump on his bandwagon.

After his shock victory in Iowa last week, Mr Obama has opened a double-digit polls lead over his main rival, Hillary Clinton.

It is the internet that is accelerating his support, with bloggers organising events across the United States. So much for the little guys being not making a difference!

More than 4,000 support groups have registered on the Illinois senator's website, ranging from Diabetics for Obama to Americans in Italy for Obama.

His campaign staff have been forced to post an apology on his campaign site, because they have sold out of T-shirts, badges and other paraphernalia. The number of fundraising events has also exploded: Mr Obama's site lists 115 in the New York area alone, compared with only ten on Mrs Clinton's site.

Meanwhile, bloggers are jamming the Obama site with messages of support. Typical is this from "Pamina" in Florida: "My parents are in their late 70s and have NEVER voted for a democrat in their life. Team Obama not only has their vote but I somehow managed to get $20.00 out of them." This is my favorite part. This is what I'm hearing from all over, but especially right around here in my little red state. Unbelievable!

See full article. Excerpt from The Scotsman

O-BA-MA! Coming Through!

I spent most of yesterday in this quite delirium that I was able to share with my hubby, my good friend Cindy and my friends in the blogosphere as I relished Obama's Iowa Caucus win Thursday night. My husband and I have been debating the Democratic and the Republican candidates for months now; discussing the "electability" of each.

I believe Barack Obama is THE candidate for the Dems right now. I'm not saying that I don't think the other candidates wouldn't do a good job as our next president and there is a huge part of me that would love to see a woman in the White House as much as I would love to see an African American there, but all in good time. If I live to see both in my lifetime, I will have lived in a truly fabulous age! I can't believe this is a thought I'm even considering given the nightmare I feel we've been living through for the last eight years.

I think Obama can ignite a fervor in the voters of this country that we haven't seen in many years and more importantly, I think he is appealing to a wide range of voters. Considering the results of Thursday night, I think perhaps my feelings are correct.

We watched Charlie Rose last night; the "post Iowa" show and the three political analysts on the show could not stop talking about Obama. I think David Brooks himself might cast his vote for Obama given the chance. Brooks has just been waiting to get back to his liberal foundation. Unfortunately, the show is not available online yet, but here's a small excerpt:

Paul Begala on Hillary's Chances in New Hampshire


And from Daily Kos today on the Democrats' dinner in New Hampshire last night :

I thought Hillary speech was incredibly lackluster and unfocused. Bill Richardson was fired up and kept it short and sweet. But Bill was barely off the stage when Obama's supporters started their "Fired Up!" "Ready to go!!" chant and an ocean of his "O" signs went up. This kept up for several minutes with the chants getting louder, when the announcer said that everyone "for safety concerns" should take their seats. (loud, defiant boo's - nobody sat down) Then Obama entered and the crowd went insane. His speech was constantly peppered with "O-Ba-Ma!, O-Ba-Ma!, O-Ba-Ma!" I was really taken aback by this New Hampshire support. I hafta wonder if Hillary might have gotten a bit queasy witnessing that kind of support right off the bat.

I'm telling you, this man is a phenom.

There's also something I predict, because I feel it myself. America is in love with this candidate. And if anyone tries to rough him up too much or slime him (and you know that's going to be attempted - what other choice do his rivals have?), the PEOPLE aren't going to take too kindly to it. I can already see a fierce protectiveness of this man. He's the real deal - genuine, authentic, warm, idealistic, and yes, a hope-monger. (I love that line).

Get ready, America. An Obama tsunami is coming!

Thank You Iowa!

Way to go Iowa! Thank you! Do I dare to believe? Let's go New Hampshire!

Wordy Wednesday New Year's Style

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights. - Hamilton Wright Mabie

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. - Benjamin Franklin

New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. - Mark Twain

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. - T. S. Eliot