We need to stop being consumers and resume being citizens.

And our politicians need to see us that way.

Last week it happened two times.   The congressional Democrats voted against what the majority of the party wanted.    Not just what the party grassroots had worked for....but they voted against what would be good for the country.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1711

Could someone please explain to me how to use html to rename the links at this blog?  There are no directions anywhere. 

Howard is first.

Can I get an "amen" ?

Amen

Thank you sister (smile).

Hallelujah!

you must have asked the wrong crowd floridagal

2.  If you're using plain text you can't rename them.  If you're using rich, you can select a word or phrase, then click on the chain link on the tool bar (fifth from left).  That will drop down a window in which you enter the URL you're linking to.  The click "insert" and submit the comment.

On "privatize the profit and socialize the cost"--a phrase I've been using for a couple of years. 

I have a new variant that I thought of today in relation to health care:

SOCIALIZE THE FUNDING--PRIVATIZE THE CARE 

I am very sneakily planning to be very forgetful about the 25th.  Some parcels have arrived from brother-in-law and sister-in-law and I've got a package for a grandson, but everything else is being delivered far away. 

Got a package from Florida today with six walnuts in it and a long piece of brown string.  Each walnut was wrapped in a piece of toilet paper.  At other times this person has sent a twig from a flowering plum tree. Sometimes he sends himself on an airplane and we have to pick him up.  No luggage.  We have some strange friends.

Today is the second anniversary of my liberation.  You can read about it on Hannah. 

A Resume' Can't buy you Love by Frank Rich.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/opinio...

From the same article by Frank Rich. Remember Susan Rice, who was a foreign policy advisor on Howard's campaign? She's the real deal unlike Condi.
=====
The principal foreign-policy Clinton alumni in Mr. Obama’s campaign include Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state, and Tony Lake, the former national security adviser and a prewar skeptic who said publicly in February 2003 that the Bush administration had not made the case that Saddam was an “imminent threat.” Ms. Rice, in an eloquent speech in November 2002, said that the Bush administration was “trying to change the subject to Iraq” from the war against Al Qaeda and warned that if it tried to fight both wars at once, “one, if not both, will suffer.” Her text now reads as a bookend to Mr. Obama’s senatorial campaign speech challenging the wisdom of the war only weeks earlier that same fall.
---------

10. Strange but clever, Monica!

Three cheers for liberation, Monica.

Yep. 

Reincarnation of "self," and deep-six the "stuff."

 ...and the (unwaged)  reproductive labor and hassles which accompany it.

[George Carlin alert above].

I've opted out of Xmas since 2003.  Enough, already. 

I thought of your comment, re: $$ solicitation crap which politicians send (to you, or to "Resident").

My shredder has been working OT the past couple of weeks (I never look @the "stuff"--let alone, send moula). Wasteful.

Great poetry tonight, BTW, folks!

Long past due for a real blog, HQ.

<cough>

28 JudyforDean

12.

Good post.

No gifts for us this year either - just good eats and loving company.

Saving the cash for a new fridge for the cottage.

I did send a couple of things to the little ones in the family, though, but nothing extravagant. And a few things for the Salvation Army Giving Tree in our lobby at work. All bought online - no malls involved.

Well, I'm staying caught up - Phil and Pat great poems - thank you - Mainefem - thanks for Maine pix -- I love that Park - I remember taking the horse wagon through one summer a few years ago - Acadia - Denise your mother's right Barry's had about 3 too many face lifts but I think his job demands it - he's not washed up tho - still best selling albums and selling out arenas all over the US and his show in LV - Barry fans exist on many levels - JudyforDean - yep - same almost area huh? What I remember about the Vienna palace is that the Empress had witnesses for the birth I guess to verify the baby was an heir? Those weird beds. I really enjoyed the Xmas markets I encountered - I stayed out till I was frozen. Bought 2 mugs and a bag of great peppermints -- that's not too consumery is it? There's an article on Yahoo tonight about American 'illegals' in Prague http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071221/wl_... an easy place to want to get lost in. My left nose can't breathe - I took an Allegra this morning and I'm still sneezing/coughing/etc but afraid to take anything on top of it. Back to good ole Benedryl tomorrow. I haven't had a cold in years.

10:49 PM ET

Sisters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D09DCZryG...

and

Brothers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzzqhjlxV...

Monica, thanks, but that fith option is not available to me.  It is greyed out.  I am in rich text I think.  The 5th and 6th are greyed out.

Corbett, thank you so much for this beautiful post.

All have a good night. 

Oh, before I head off, wanted to repost mainefems Santa, it was priceless and forwarded it to my friends.

We are lawyers in the United States of America. As such, we have all taken an oath obligating us to defend the Constitution and the rule of law…. We believe the Bush administration has committed numerous offenses against the Constitution and may have violated federal laws…. Moreover, the administration has blatantly defied congressional subpoenas, obstructing constitutional oversight …. Thus, we call on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to launch hearings into the possibility that crimes have been committed by this administration in violation of the Constitution…. We call for the investigations to go where they must, including into the offices of the President and the Vice President. -- American Lawyers Defending the Constitution http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=262693

Phil, and Pat: Thank you!!!

http://eatapyzch.blogspot.com/

BTW  one of my buddies at work has/had a helper/runner on car with him ...

seems the guy is a cousin of the Dean boys.  Small world, lovely people.

... and from previous thread, Pat, thank you, and thank you for sharing that beautiful poem.  So many talented people here.

...I am really going, but some of those snowy pictures I took from

 this morning.  My pictures are getting better.  

http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?mediaURL=/asc/asc31/sigurros&mediaType=RM

Went to my favorite Sonoran restaurant today (Rosita's Place) and learned that the waitress who served me when I first went there in 1980 is retiring tomorrow.  She's been there for 39 years and has worked no place else since coming to Phoenix from Mexico City as a young woman. Her retirement party is tomorrow at the restaurant; and she's so loved by so many that attendance is RSVP.

I didn't know about it until we got there, so I had my little daughter make a quick card on the back of a blank receipt. She drew a heart with an arrow through it, two girls holding hands, a smiling face, and wrote, "Adios, mi amiga," "Gracias," and, "Feliz Navidad." (the waitress speaks only enough English to know the menu -- and that's about all the Spanish I know.) I then put $20 in it as a makeshift present. I felt like crying as she accepted it graciously and vanished quickly into the kitchen. In 27 years we never had a conversation longer than a sentence or two, but we didn't need to.

Well. That's my Christmas story. 

Wow Linda, and what a difference the sun's light makes.

Well. That's my Christmas story.

>

And a very nice one, as the gift is ours.  Please, give more (here) you old softy.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/2629/signUp.jsp?key=2843

Lawyers and law students: 

Sign this statement to encourage Congress to hold hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush administration

Our goal is to have more than 1,000 lawyers and law students sign this statement before it is presented to Congress.  Please add your name

Please, give more (here) you old softy.

I assume you don't mean "dish it out," more.

28. A very sweet Christmas story, Sitka. Very sweet.

Great pics, Linda. It almost makes me miss all that snow we had in Colorado. I'm keeping my snow shovel as a reminder that I never want to shovel snow again! ;-)

Nitey nite.

new thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23346...