Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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!
Monday, January 21, 2008
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?'
Friday, January 18, 2008
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!”
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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. . .
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. . .
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Feel the Power!
Bloggers bring big net gain for Obama
Picture: Getty
Barack Obama addresses a rally of his supporters in Clarement, New Hampshire, ahead of today's vote.
Barack Obama addresses a rally of his supporters in Clarement, New Hampshire, ahead of today's vote.
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
Saturday, January 5, 2008
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!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
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
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