It simply has no end.

This happened Friday and little note has been made. I hope his wife is being very careful or is under protection of some kind.

Mike Connell....may he rest in peace.

The culmination....

January 20th ....

I am looking forward to it. I am so happy that the world is such that all of this last 6 months could be written about and saved online. I have this for my grandchildren and they will always be able to see the struggle,and that the world took notice of a man who is not as liberal as I would have liked but is more concerned with all the people of this country than anyone ever thought he could be. All they had to do was look in his face. a good face.

and this in the Alaska Daily News .....

   It is so strange to me that all of the things that conservatives have publically bashed liberals for over the last 40 years, are things that many conservatives have hidden in their closets. We protested strenuously, openly, and honestly against the Viet Nam war,  while conservatives got deferments while proclaiming that terrible war to be right, just like now, and then,  when they could no longer do that,  they had their doctors fake their medical files. This is Saxby Chambliss....now known as Saxby "Shameless" in Georgia. This is a man who was finally found, after 4 deferments,  to have bad knees. Of course, now he shoots in the 90's. What a horrible person.

This just in from Alaska ..... Sarah and Saxby

      On another note, and I admit it is petty and small but has anyone seen the Thanksgiving ad from his family? Interesting. and what does "Happy Thanksgivin' " mean when it is said so morosely? 

election time is about to end.....

     I will miss the election on Tuesday...the run-off between Saxby Chambliss, who is continually telling lies about Jim Martin and who was a major draft dodger while many of us were in the service during Viet Nam(including Jim martin).  It just amazes me what people will do who say they are christian. In any event ...I already voted,  and Al Franken, it seems,  lost unless a judge decides he wins...so the 60 seats are very iffy right now. We will get them in two years.

      I am leaving for my 2nd annual trip to Disney World with a light heart about the administration and a very heavy heart because of India. Josie has many Indian friends, very close ones and they tend to live such centered lives ...very careful about recycling and how they treat people...they truly believe in karma so they are, i'm sure, as upset as we were during 9/11. Sad. Marty has stayed at The Taj when he flew for Delta...such a shock to see this happen.

Disney will be a lovely break from the rainy cold here and when I get back.....it is work, work, work.....I LOVE watching Jos at Disney!

Thanksgiving was very thankful this year...big family and all at peace.

michelle obama

from the BBC .... so interesting and very telling about her as a mother. She has only been away from her daughters for 3 nights in a row.....once.

Garrison Keillor .......

Two wonderful articles by Garrison Keillor ....always a wonder and always so worth every word....

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
By Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Services,
Keillor, Garrison
Posted 11/11/2008 at 3:00 pm EST

Be happy, dear hearts, and allow yourselves a few more weeks of quiet exultation. It isn't gloating, it's satisfaction at a job well done. He was a superb candidate, serious, professorial but with a flashing grin and a buoyancy that comes from working out in the gym every morning. He spoke in a genuine voice, not senatorial at all. He relished campaigning. He accepted adulation gracefully. He brandished his sword against his opponents without mocking or belittling them. He was elegant, unaffected, utterly American, and now (Wow) suddenly America is cool. Chicago is cool. Chicago!!!

We threw the dice and we won the jackpot and elected a black guy with a Harvard degree, the middle name Hussein and a sense of humor -- he said, "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." The French junior minister for human rights said, "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes." When was the last time you heard someone from France say they wanted to be American and take a bite of something of ours? Ponder that for a moment.

The world expects us to elect pompous yahoos and instead we have us a 47-year-old prince from the prairie who cheerfully ran the race, and when his opponents threw sand at him, he just smiled back. He'll be the first president in history to look really good making a jump shot. He loves his classy wife and his sweet little daughters. He looks good in the kitchen. He can cook Indian or Chinese but for his girls he will do mac and cheese. At the same time, he knows pop music, American lit and constitutional law. I just can't imagine anybody cooler. Look at a photo of the latest pooh-bah conference -- the hausfrau Merkel, the big glum Scotsman, that goofball Berlusconi, Putin with his B-movie bad-boy scowl, and Sarkozy, who looks like a district manager for Avis -- you put Barack in that bunch and he will shine.

It feels good to be cool and all of us can share in that, even sour old right-wingers and embittered blottoheads. Next time you fly to Heathrow and hand your passport to the man with the badge, he's going to see "United States of America" and look up and grin. Even if you worship in the church of Fox, everyone you meet overseas is going to ask you about Obama and you may as well say you voted for him because, my friends, he is your line of credit over there. No need anymore to try to look Canadian.

And the coolest thing about him is the fact that back in the early Nineties, given a book contract after the hoo-ha about his becoming the First Black Editor of The Harvard Law Review (FBEHLR), instead of writing the basic exploitation book he could've written, he put his head down and worked hard for a few years and wrote a good book, an honest one, which, since his rise in politics, has earned the Obamas enough to buy a very nice house and put money in the bank. A successful American entrepreneur.

The last American president to write a book all by his lonesome self, I believe, was Theodore Roosevelt, who, on graduation from Harvard, wrote "The Naval War of 1812," and in my humble opinion, Obama's is the better book for the general reader, but you be the judge.

Our hero who galloped to victory has inherited a gigantic mess. The country is sunk in debt. The Treasury announced it must borrow $550 billion to get the government through the fourth quarter, more than the entire deficit for 2008, so he will have to raise taxes and not only on bankers and lumber barons. His promise never to raise the retirement age is not a good idea. Whatever he promised the Iowa farmers about subsidizing ethanol is best forgotten at this point. We may not be getting our National Health Service cards anytime soon. And so on and so on.

So enjoy the afterglow of the election awhile longer. We all walk taller this fall. People in Copenhagen and Stockholm are sending congratulatory e-mails -- imagine! We are being admired by Danes and Swedes! And Chicago becomes The First City. Step aside, San Francisco. Shut up, New York. The Midwest is cool now. The mind reels. Have a good day.

(Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty" (Viking).)


(c) 2008 by Garrison Keillor. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC.

A FEW WORDS FOR THE HAPPY COUPLE
By Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Services,
Keillor, Garrison
Posted 11/04/2008 at 5:00 pm EST

A golden November day under a blue sky and an air of sweet amiability at the polls and at the end of the day, we elected the right guy, no doubt about it. Yes, we can and we did. A nation spread its wings and achieved altitude.

Bravo, Barack, Mr. Steady, who cheerfully did the rope lines, made the phone calls, answered the same questions fifteen thousand times, bounded up the stairs, delivered his lines with warmth and wit, ran a tight disciplined army, and that, plus $700 million and an 80 mph wind at your back, is all you need to win the prize.

One is electrified by the historic moment, of course, but I will let Great Minds chew on that, and simply wish him and his marvelous lady all the best as they bear up under the tsunami of adoration from Democrats whom he has led out of Egypt. His picture goes up in the kitchen shrine alongside FDR and JFK -- BHO elevated to sainthood and now expected to walk on water and turn it into wine. Meanwhile, everything he said about the national mess is utterly true and a lot more. And now it is Barack's mess. Yikes.

A good shingle for the new administration to hang out, rather than The New Covenant or A Fair Exchange or English Spoken Here, would be Keep Seat Belt Buckled. Happy days are not here and the sky above is not clear.

One bright light in the marquee is Michelle Obama, that witty, jumpy woman with the quicksilver smile who said, "How does Barack prepare for a debate? He just talks to me and he's ready." The good mother who said, "People ask me how I am, and I say, I'm only as good as my most sad child." Come January, we will have a president whose wife calls him Baby. Good for you, Mama. And now she becomes America's No. 2 celebrity, the object of giddy curiosity.

Enjoy the people's house, Michelle, and cruise along gently and do not read anything written about you, and don't watch the news. Enjoy the pageantry (you look good, Baby), bring up the family, and don't take the show too seriously. Don't do too many interviews. Think Laura Bush, a cool First Lady. People like Laura Bush a lot, a Texas Democrat who married a Republican and stuck with him through thin and thinner. She's smart and we know that because she never tried to show how smart she is. Do not let the mister put you in charge of health care legislation. Your great challenge is to make a genuine life in the midst of the heavy surf of publicity. God willing, be happy and live your life. When life gets too unreal, sit down with a good book.

As for President-elect Obama, he can now stop dancing, which he's been doing for twenty months -- in a democracy we want candidates to really, really, really want to be president -- and get down to the business of patient, focused, rational deliberation and calculation, starting with the formulation of a Cabinet and a White House staff. Have them write up a presidential order for January 20 saying that America will not employ torture, and maybe issue a blanket presidential pardon for your predecessor and his vice, and then set about the business of disappointing your followers and astonishing your enemies and doing what is right for our country.

Be good to yourself. Hire smart, stable people who can tell you things you need to know and not copy Bob Woodward. Keep some Republicans around. You're the man. You make us proud. You let us get to know you. You have the gift of speaking clearly and forcefully, whole sentences and paragraphs, while thinking at the same time, a good gift. You don't need a staff of writers to create a persona for you. You need engineers. Problem solvers. You're inheriting a raft of them.

Get on that treadmill every morning. Keep a daily journal. Let us see those darling girls once in awhile. Please don't play golf. Don't get a dog. Enjoy Camp David. Be happy. Don't hire people to tell you how to dress or who to be; you're a grown-up. Don't do crap that someday you'd have to go on TV and make cheesy apologies for. This job is one you were cut out to do and a big part of the job is to keep up the national morale and you are already doing that big-time. And thank you, sir. All those cheap motels, all those flights, all of that chip dip. We are deeply grateful.

(Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty" (Viking).)


(c) 2008 by Garrison Keillor. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC.

in a few short weeks

"This presidency is finally over. We can say goodbye to an administration whose misdeeds have piled so high that the size of the mountain no longer shocks us. In our lifetimes, we will see administrations of varying degrees of competence and integrity, some we'll agree with and some we won't. But we will probably never see another quite like the one finally reaching its end, so mind-boggling a parade of incompetence and malice, dishonesty, and immorality. So at last - at long, long last - we can say goodbye.

    And good riddance."

Paul Waldman from The American Prospect.... the complete article

the kind of man we elected.......

I hope the mainstream media mentions this....it is very telling.....

Lane Evans<<

swiff out the old and add some diversity......

When the political thrust  comes again that befits the ideology that has been forced on all of us for the last 8 years I think the movement will have no where to go. It will be a lonely lonely stance and this election has proved it. You cannot force beliefs on anyone. It isn't right, it won't work and now we know that the majority of Americans will not let it go on forever.

Gary Kamiya's article on Salon .com<<

It's time to wake up. For generations the church has kept people in line with fear,  and lately, the Republican party is doing the same. Live your own life!

Even my small vacation town of Ridgway Colorado and Colorado, itself, went for Barack Obama. I might have to move there since Georgia failed, although my county did the right thing.

race in America.......

While reading the various articles about "the Bradley effect" I was looking over Joan Walsh's column for salon.com. In it she revisits a quote by one Joe Sitiski who told the New York Times that the fact that Barack Obama is an African American made his choice more difficult. He stated that he was "brought up that way, and I don't like his name".  Now, I believe that it is either unbearably sad that someone would know that and not realize it was not only wrong but an abomination of God's basic rule, if you believe in God....or I find it a giant leap that he admitted it. Which it is will be long debated in my mind as I search for some sort of reason.  Also, I have never met a racist who does not believe in God (Isn't that interesting?)  How does anyone who is educated in any way, not see the error in looking down at anyone because of race? What is it that brings someone to the conclusion that they think anyone is less worthy than they? How does that happen? How do parents convey it to their children? I cannot even imagine living in a family like that although I have seen it, I have heard it and I have stood up and denounced it but I've always been able to walk away from that kind of an individual. As so many of these things are discussed more openly,  I think it is making for greater change and understanding on both sides of this issue, some of it good, some of it not. 

smart and quick...............

 Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. Two choices I applaud and, even better,  they are close friends.  Axelrod signed Rahm Emanuel's ketubah when he married ....that is a close abiding friendship and one I think will be great for the White House. I am so hoping for Kennedy at EPA and of course, Howard Dean deserves whatever he would like. He is responsible for much of this victory.                                                                                 

                                                                            my street today         

                                                                                                                    ***and, a republican explains socialism here in America very very well......

Link>>>>From DailyKos 

                                                                 

    another recap from dailykos....

still so relieved and happy...........

The more I think about this miracle the more amazed I am that this wonderful man has managed to become our president. The world seems like a better and much less cynical place. Yet, I know there is so much work to do and so many people will want so much.  It will be an interesting time and i think that being in that White House with his beautiful family will make us realize just a little that he is human and it will take time.

a recap .........

relief.....

Now that it has sunk in and I believe this is true,  I have such a sense of renewal for this world. I also feel sorry for those who are not able to feel this hope  that I feel. What must it be like for those who were so firmly for McCain? I've seen both derision and acceptance but I see them as standing apart and watching what we are feeling with  stunning awe.

 

       and via cajunboyinthecity.com this video of Union Square in the best city in the world...... 

I don't even know where to begin......

My emotions have been everywhere today,  and now, watching John Lewis speak,  I am brought to tears once again as I was two weeks ago when I voted.  I have no right to cry. It wasn't my fight and I did not have to bear the brunt of all the hate. I stood up when I needed to and I treasure the people I know who also have done so.  I think of what it must have been like to be black in this world and I've seen so much of the way it has been here, especially in the south for the last 39 years. I am so relieved for what this world may now become. 

what if.....Olbermann

I'm poll watching today....I don't expect georgia to ever make me happy in their voting. So embarrassing,  but I can hope Chambliss will end up in  a runoff.

Keith Olbermann

This touched me very deeply and I hope you will read it.

Leonce Gaiter<<<<<<<<

closing.......

This is from Joan Walsh, who linked to it over at salon.com .... hysterical.

Family Values..<<<<<

Great article on The Keating Five scandal. John McCain is the antithesis of an honorable man. It has been shown over and over again and I hope he is done.

Emptywheel<<<<

the republican party.....

Remember John Dean? He has written this insightful piece on the party and it speaks of the moral wasteland the Republicans have created with their politics of hate. They pretty much have destroyed themselves, which is what hate usually does.
John Dean >>> on findlaw.com

new ad ...Paul Simon..beautiful.

Sunday night....late

Today Barack had Bruce Springsteen in Cincinnati. It was so great to watch and as annoyed as I get at cnn, I thank them so much for showing part of it live. 

We are getting close to the end and I am very psyched. we may finally get rid of the criminals who have been running this country. The DOJ is looking into the stolen election in 2008. I hope someone goes to jail for that someday. At least it will be in the history books. 

What a beautiful, beautiful family.

Photos from Huffington Post. 

early Sunday morning.....

I can't sleep again. I awake with the feeling that I've been kicked in the stomach and the election is over. I cannot wait for it to be over. I am eating everything in sight, which is not good considering yesterday was Halloween and I have candy left . All the candy that I love, milk duds, junior mints, heath bars, mounds, milky way dark; it's been a busy day but I'm a wreck so I just feel better when I'm eating. Tomorrow is time for me to reread my training for poll watching and get it all set up so what I do while I'm there means something. Monday I will spend at headquarters part of the day and pick up my badge. We are allowed to take large t-shirts for people to throw on in case they wear something that advertises their candidate...We were told to offer to anyone "no matter how ill advised their choice". We Democrats are way too nice. I know a woman who is poll watching for the Republicans. Her attitude, even when speaking to me,  is to keep people from voting if there is a question...ours is to help make sure everyone can vote... big difference in philosophy there. 

I stand back and look at this election, all that has happened, all that may happen and I am so sure I am working for the right cause.  I am struck with disbelief that there are people like John McCain and Karl Rove, and Saxby Chamblis who have done the things they've done, and made the statements they have made here in America. They could only have learned to be the way they are from their families growing up. How damning for that part of our culture.  A culture of racism that I hope is on the way out. I've always believed that racism against anyone is a rotten core that will fester and grow secretly from inside until it spreads out and destroys us all. 

Tuesday cannot come too soon for me.

recap.....

Huff post says it best.........

"THE STENCH RUN " .... brought to you by John McCain

McCain and Palin will do or say anything to win. This just goes to show you what the Christian right means when they say "christian rights". Disgusting!

click here for the link>>>>The Huffington Post

and click here>>>>> Dr Alan Lipman  for Alan Lipman's take on "redistribution".

and....... I just got a McCain robocall....so I had to write emails to every single email address on the RNC site!!

Cheney's endorsement...

Just overall a great speech....

fivethirtyeight.com & Rasmussen polls..........

fivethirtyeight.com  Just glancing occasionally....

I really am not looking at these too much because this election is making me way too nervous. It is too important for me to even think about without being under way too much stress. 

Here is the Rasmussen poll.

Tomorrow I amclearing out....a stress reliever in itself...... no posting until late.

But what about Israel?

My feelings are such that we need to be economically strong to be of any use to our allies. Edgar Bronfman has another side of this story and I think his is even more important.

Edgar Bronfman link....

I see they have given me my neighborhood poll to watch in. It should be an interesting day.

another timely article from the very brilliant  Robert Wexler>>>>link here

story from Vietnam.....McCain as a man.

Enough said....MKSinsa.

Yes!

The Colorado purge of voters has just been overturned. At last it will be written that our government is working for all people on this issue. After two stolen elections it is finally being set right. What incredible nerve to purge registration lists. This is still the United States of America.

Full article   ...dailykos...

...Also, according to The Washington Post, the Department of Justice is sending 800 Federal observers and staff  to monitor the polls in various counties around the country. It's about time.  

...and, this morning in the Washington Post ....." an idiot wind keeps blowing".

the VP pick........my theory

The idiocy of the predicament that John McCain now finds himself in because of his choice of Sarah Palin, is tantamount only to his appeasement of the Christian right in this election. His reasoning behind his pick was flawed from the beginning. 

Although McCain wanted "Joe the Judas" as the  VP candidate on the "hate talk express",   McCain took the old role of a little boy, holding his breath until he gets his way.  John McCain turned to what he has always turned to......a pretty face to ease his woes.  A "pretty face" who he called his "soul mate",  ahem!  If he did any vetting of her he saw the stories about her alleged affair and thought " ahhh, maybe". Well, this pretty face has turned out to be his waterloo and even if they win the election John McCain will always remember that this woman is not like the pliable beauty queens he chose before. I imagine that his first wife is watching this election with awe. She perhaps can see that the pain she felt when he deserted her is similar to the pain he is feeling now over the pretty face that has destroyed forever his name in the history books as an honorable man. Sometimes the world works right and a person really does get back exactly what they gave.

Wednesday evening ....very very nice feeling.

Quote from Karion .....  "He's just different, and for those of us who have followed politics for many years and voted in many elections, sure, we are kind of dazzled. It is just different-the kind of thing you read about in history books."

on a light note......sort of...um, not really.

I love this man.



and a touching video filled with hope......

and so......

Here is why we are so sad about our America, here is why we aren't proud of our America all the time and here is what we fear because there is nothing that we can do to have the America that will be equal for us all. How can it be that here, in the United States of America, one partys only hope to win is a massive turnout that will prevent this election from being stolen?   Here in America.  I know that many do not know about these situations. There have been quite a few books written about it in the last 7 years and it is hard to believe but it is true.  Imagine how you would feel if you cared deeply about a candidate but were not allowed to vote because you were too poor to have a drivers license, and someone decided your ID wasn't good enough,  or you had to move and your address didn't match and you got the wrong person at the polls to help you....and they said no, or one initial was left out of one of your forms and because you were a minority they stopped you?  My heart would be broken.

 I have had two women say to me that the poor and the young should not be allowed to vote. I was so shocked both times and I knew that it was an excuse for their racism on one hand and their fear that the young are too liberal on the other. One of these women has signed up to be a poll watcher. Her attitude is she will keep people from voting...can you even imagine feeling that way? I wonder if she has been told to do that or if she just feels that is best?  I am poll watching also and I was taught I am there to see that ANYONE, for McCain or Obama,  who is having a problem will get some answers.  I know that the young people in my family,and that I know,  are totally versed and invested in this election and every election, more so than either of those women;  but that does not surprise me. The reasons these women gave for their anti American attitudes have nothing to do with the constitutional right to vote. They are like many of our supposed leaders in this country who just make up laws to help themselves. Selfish and greedy and you see the same thing in daily life.  This is happening here and yet I've never heard anyone say that a racist should not vote. That would be an individual who is probably voting just to vote against Obama in this election because he is black. Very likely someone who knows nothing about the candidates either.  It seems to me there is some sort of disconnect here....  everyone should be able to exercise their right to vote no matter their choice or for what reasons. Even the racist....and even the two women I know who know nothing about either candidate, but will vote just the same.

And in conservative Missouri.........

One of the most highly regarded newspapers in the country in one of the most conservative parts of the country. StL POST..LINK HERE...  At the very end of the editorial they say   "Finally, only at this late point, do we note that Barack Obama is an African American. Because of who he is and how he has run his campaign, that fact has become almost incidental to most Americans. Instead, his countrymen are weighing his talents, his values, and his beliefs, judging him not by the color of his skin,  but by the content of his character.

That says something profound and good,  about him as a candidate, and about us as a nation."

It's 3:00 am .....

Joan Walsh LINK HERE. I am way too tired to go through this entirely sordid McCain smear so here is Joan Walsh's article that is clear, concise, and true. I am so sick of these awful people. Where is the truth in anything they say?  So sad for the Republican party. 

Storm clouds......

If you get a chance read Dr Alan Lipman's last 4 or 5 postings. They are so good and so funny. 

Update Tuesday   ...Robert Draper .....LINK HERE.... has started blogging for GQ online. New things and very insightful.

Again: Update Tuesday...  The New Yorker ...LINK HERE... The reasons why and how John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate.  I feel that the facts of the way John mcCain has lived his life is coming back to haunt him. 

We need heavy turnout...Vote!......

In 2000 and in 2004 the elections...yes, our United States of America elections,  were stolen. It will forever be known that it happened and the history books will acknowledge it.   We cannot let this happen again. The only way to stop it is to win by a large enough margin to offset any attempt to divert or electronically change and miscount votes. This will be especially important in Pennsylvania. We are way up in PA. right now but both McCain and Obama have continued to campaign there. McCain has pulled people out of states he is closer, much closer,  to winning to keep pressing in the Keystone state. Why? There are reasons that anything can happen.

Fortunately,  Barack Obama is smarter than anyone who has run for president in years. I think he understands the Rovian sector of the Republican campaign so well that he has several different ways of coping with any illegal methods of vote suppression that they attempt. It will be an interesting week.  Make your plans to vote now. Either vote early or try to give yourself plenty of time to do it on election day. Plan for rain, plan for cold. Vote!!!

Here is an article explaining what COULD happen.........

And here in Georgia we have.....

New ad.......

A piece of satire straight from Alaska...MUDFLATS  

and, below...McSame

fruit flies addendum......

PZ Myers Biologist:University of Minnesota:  LINK HERE  Part of what he says is;   "I am appalled. This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research committee" He also calls her an "ignorant buffoon, who believes in the end times"   It goes on from there and is blunt and honest in a way that our media just cannot seem to dredge up from the hole they have sunk into. Surely, someone must have told her after the first time she said it that it was wrong and stupid......she keeps saying it. Again today. Someone stop this woman!

Here is a toast to the sacrificial bugs of this world. Sometimes it is necessary.

history....

I've never taken my right to vote for granted and I've always had the feeling that I wish I had been there to help change things. My father's grandmother was a suffragette and I find that fascinating and inspiring. This election is another step in the very rich tapestry of change that has made this country great. Whatever the final results of the election, I cannot imagine not being a part of this historic time. I need to be able to tell my grandchildren someday that I voted for a young man who rose from nothing to try to help this country. I believe the history books will be glowing in their praise for Barack Obama if he wins this election.
.....and no, Barack Obama does NOT have an acceptance speech written....and yes, he WILL write it himself. This is a little different than John McCain, who does not write anything himself. Mark Salter writes all his speeches and has written ALL his books. his party calls it "composing". Mark Salter "composes" his books.

A little addition to this post. Although this is a few days old, Alan Lipman, a clinical psychologist and professor has a blog that I just happened to find. This ARTICLE in particular I found so interesting and while you are at his site read everything. It is all very enlightening.

Oh my God....totally lacking in knowledge of any kind...

Keith Olbermann continues to pull all the points together in an amazing way. The end of this clip is about the very important research with fruit flies that is being done for, what?, AUTISM. A disease that afflicts Sarah Palin's nephew.

Bob the Banker......money, money, money...

Comparative tax figures in the following article are from an interview with Gerald Prante, an economist with the nonpartisan 'Tax Foundation'.

  Gary Kamiya's article in salon..   I have known these things for a very long time because I researched both sides of this issue. Evidently many people do not believe it. It's true and I am posting it to show just how silly this entire issue has become. 

the more things change........

Conservatives for Change>>>Video HERE

I am at the point where I just want the stress to be over. I am so tired of hearing McCain and Palin saying the same things, exactly the same way, over and over again. I just hope it doesn't work but now they are going back to being nice and folksy about 80% of the time. That would have worked if they had started it sooner. These people are chameleons. They lie and are phony and are vicious except when they cover it up with fake smiles. The problem in this day and age  is they bombarded everyone with so many lies that were so easy to check out on the internet. The only people who believe any of the bad things said about Barack Obama are those who do not know how to ferret out the real true answers to questions online. I think this may kill Rovian politics....but then there are still Diebold machines almost everywhere. A very large turnout for Obama will help with that. If they had run a positive campaign, on truth, they would be so far ahead now....although for spurious reasons. Ah well, now we will see what happens. 

Zydeco

todays speech.......

In Richmond Virginia on October 22, 2008. Video below...

   The speech both parties should be giving. Tonight is my pollwatchers training for Campaign for a Change. Looking forward to it.

when this is over.....

After the 4th of November, whatever the results, I believe a new force has begun in this country that will diminish all the hate and lead us into becoming a smarter and more inclusive nation.  I do believe it has already spread it's wings and I think we have gone too far to lose.

This from ONE TRUE MEDIA  and I found this photo on **glitteratuer**.

What Obama has actually done.....

This article clearly puts his accomplishments in the senate out there for all to see. HERE

I will write about this tomorrow. I will say now that I do not know how these people sleep at night. I'm so mad...finally. (borrowed photo)

A little video from Wasilla.......

Update at the top. of the hour. Here we have another little article that is all sourced and really stunning. The dirtier they get the more little truths like THIS are appearing. 

Please let this not be all true, especially not the mayor. Who are these people in this video??

Now if you want to see a wonderful small town with a lot of incredibly intelligent people,  many of whom are real cowboys, come to Ridgway Colorado. 850 population and the most beautiful place you could imagine.

A photo of the Ridgway park in the center of the perfect town. 

Again.......problems with voting

This year is a little different.  There was massive voter fraud in both 2000 and 2004 by the Rovians of Bush world.  Now you can read about all of the things that happened and as history is written it will become more and more obvious although a little too late. Now that we've had the bloodbath of the Iraq war and the very disastrous economic situation that the Republicans have wrought with Ronald Reagan leading the way on deregulation and tricle down, enough of the American people will be voting to offset the diversion of votes such as what is occurring in West Virginia. Over and over again the machines in WV are flipping the vote to McCain after a person casts their vote for Obama. For the elderly , especially, it will be difficult for them to see it. The attempt of Ohio to purge voters names has been stopped for now and that is the first step. 

Unfortunately McCain has hired a man, Nathan Sproul, who has been investigated many times for suppressing the Democratic vote. The Republican party loves this man.  He also donated $30,000 to the McCain campaign. He is managing partner of Lincoln Strategy and the RNC  paid his company $175,000 for "registering voters" and has just paid an additional $37,000.  Why does that seem peculiar?   This article on Huffington Post explains it in detail and I think the fact that the internet is so readily available to EVERYONE who thinks, will make the electorate aware this time. Another Keith Olbermann VIDEO.....excellent!

and this...OUR FLAG....

What is wrong with these people?

Yesterday when I voted I looked around at faces. There were a lot of miserable grouchy looking people and then, a lot of smiling happy people talking to each other. I glanced at some registration sheets as they all stood in line and moved into sideways rows where we were fairly close. I have to say that the Republicans, for the most part,  looked unhappy(some were visibly angry) ,  were upset that they had to wait, and just overall had an aura of a dark cloud. Sort of like McCain.

today I voted......

I was more moved by a simple thing like putting an x before Barack Obama's name than i have been by anything in a long time. I felt such joy and then I felt like crying. I have not had this kind of hope for this country in so long I had forgotten what it feels like.

well, well.......

What a surprise....

   The GOP and Freddie Mac

Why does this not surprise me?

The Really Right Stuff.............

This is for all of the people I know who keep pressing me on all the bad things about Barack Obama that are not true.

We have here a man of truth and one who always stands for what is right.  I finally have someone to quote when I hear slurs about any other culture. I sat across from someone at dinner a week or so ago and she said, the "only thing that bothers me is that the "Muslims" paid for his college".  I told her it  wasn't true, and I would send her the snopes page,  and she actually said to me "What about getting all the "poor " people to vote, "they don't know what they are doing"!!  Then, after dealing with that,  which is so unbelievable to me,  I said that I was very glad that the youth of this country are going to have a voice, a very large voice, in this election;  then she said, " Young people; they don't know anything". Well, the young people that I know,  and that my children know,  are very involved in this process  whether it is an election year or not. They know everything and they know both sides of everything.  I would love to know what kind of young people she knows; perhaps not very interested in this country.  Here is the announcement, Thank you Colin Powell,  for your wisdom.    

and,  Another video after the interview.   I know that I live in Georgia but I am so sorry there is still so much prejudice here. Do these people believe that God only made "their own kind"? From where do they think everyone else came?

...and, how did all this happen?  Here you go, very cute.

1) Bill Maher 2) Majestic Wolves

Interview with Martin Short , Sanders and Affleck.

This next piece is hard to watch. I will add that to encourage the act Sarah Palin has offered an award of $150 for the left front paw of any wolf, even those hunted so unfairly from the air.

Wolves.......    a photo from the web.

Voter Fraud? I don't think so, not this year..........

This country has so many wonderful smart people. People who know how to make this world better for everyone. Where did all the hate come from? Are people born with it;  no, they learn it,  and a lot comes from fear and distrust. Much of that is because if you feel hate in your heart for, say, Asians, or Blacks, a transference takes place and you believe they hate you. That person that they hate is coming from their own reality, not yours. They are probably too busy to even think about you and they may like you. I prefer to trust and deal with everyone on a one to one basis. I fear if we don't trust we will all end up like the awful people showing their hatred today on youtube. Not a part of America to be proud of.

Anonymous Liberal, a very excellent and astute blog has made  a statement on voter fraud that explains just why, for people who can't seem to use common sense on this question, voter fraud does not and will never exist. Now hacking into Diebold machines like the Republican operatives did in elections is another story.

Link here, just click.

and another article in Slate

   This was an incredibly depressing evening. We met people we know for dinner...McCain sign in the yard , fine, I knew their politics. What I didn't expect was two people who do not use the internet, have never checked any facts, screaming at me about Acorn and just overall astounded that I was still supporting Obama.  All they listen to is Fox fake news. This man in a lawyer, his wife is beautiful and capable and has had a very successful career, now retired. They actually insisted that the Democrats have made Obama's books unavailable and they were relentless. It was easily one of the most unpleasant dinners of my life, I ate very little, I am sick to my stomach and I could feel the hate radiating from these two people. I held my ground. Tomorrow will be better. I will make it better.

Sarah Palin breaks the budget...........

Another video of the Wasilla Project . VIDEO> What Sarah Palin did to the budget of Wasilla Alaska. The amazing thing is that she does not know ANYTHING. Nothing. 

Americans, that I cannot even believe live in my world.................

It just doesn't seem real that this exists. I have always been shocked at comments about other cultures and races that were derogatory. I can't imagine being friends with anyone who would act like these people and maybe that is why I prefer being alone to associating with large groups that I do not know. Just a downer, an unnecessary stress and a sad commentary on a world that is so beautiful in so many ways. VIDEO> Another group of McCain supporters.   I wonder when I see things like this ...how does this happen? Where do they learn to be so filled with hate and lies;  and such stupidity is stunning.

Sorry, I just can't sleep........

I have to say that McCain is so out of touch with todays world that I wonder how he gets through his day. I suppose it is ok in the senate, when he works.  He has enough senators around him who are also totally in a world that has been gone for at least 7 years. I watched him talk in the debate and those of us who are nearer his age, I am 64, sometimes do not catch it, but he is speaking in terms that are from Ronald Reagan's time. No wonder this is happening to him. I can say he is out of touch but the younger generation who really will own this world with it's glories and it's problems, they have written him off,  because they have no idea what he means or why he sounds so stupid.   and Joan Walsh, an interesting and forward and very fair women....her view.

Garrison Keillor   Now

the saddest lie.....

I watched the debate. As always I thought Obama wasn't tough or mean enough. I am always wrong. 

The biggest lie that I have to hold McCain responsible for because it is a lie that cuts right to the heart of mothers and all families that are close. John McCain said that Sarah Palin is for funding for special needs. !!  What!?  Then why did she cut special needs in Alaska 62% ? Is that because it didn't affect her? These are the most self centered people I have ever seen. 

Yesterday I posted a video on the governor's mansion and the refurbishing that "Todd" did with his contractor friends. The prices were astronomical!  That money could have gone to special needs families.....and, yes, it was that much, ......... and they could have hired real contractors who charged real prices. Here is the video again. At first I thought the prices were a mistake....they are not.

Rolling Stone .... another great article.

Photo No more important reason to make the world safe and to make education the top priority.

Rolling Stone Article

Just what I've been talking about and what is happening to this country. It's supposed to be a very good God loving democracy. On top of everything else; is john McCain crazy or is it just power he wants so badly? 

an amazing organization..........

The photo is the reason we all care, whatever our choice may be.

Now there are published reports from the reporters that the campaign workers led by Jeffrey Frederick,  for McCain, are supposed to tell the people in the neighborhoods they are working that they need to be afraid of Obama. The workers are being told to try to connect the names of Obama and Osama in their talks with the people they are canvassing. In Gainesville Virginia this is happening. They are also being told to emphasize bombing and terrorism. They are told to say to people that Obama will not salute the flag and that no one knows where he was born.  Such lies but even worse..... is this the way to teach a group of people, many young men and women,  who are trying to get involved in politics and possibly love politics? Is this how they should feel our government in this wonderful country is supposed to work? What a bad bad example.

And: then there is the Obama campaign. Organized with care

.....and very amazing.