"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -John F. Kennedy

I can hardly wait to hear what threats we face now...

'....3 pimply high school kids in a beat up old canoe threatened an American carrier group today with spitballs and TP off the coast of Iran. The admiral, unable to establish communications, scrambled a squadron of F18's to intercept, but not before the Iranians were able to visciously TP two support craft and spitball several naval personnel. While the response was considered a success, the attackers managed to paddle away and evade capture. We're mounting a full scale invasion in the face of such unchecked hatred of freedom & democracy. Oh and, by the way, the dollar is doing great, oil prices are up to $200/bbl, and we'll be in the middle east for 10,000 years as john mccain has prophesized. And now, the weather...'

10:27 PM EST

Howard is first.

and

30.
sunlight
Mon, 01/28/08

Reply to this

American Nurses Ass'n (Association) endorses Hillary

Ha, you wouldn't believe how many nurses are pissed off about that endorsement !

Backlash.

+++

sunlight -

Indeed.

My wife is a nurse and she never cared much for the ANA anyways (called them out of touch with everyday nurses).

My RN wife is for Obama.

I doubt that there are many people in unions who wait for the leaders to tell them how to vote.

I didn't watch the SOTU - I already know what it is. So, I also didn't watch the Democratic response. I just read over at DKos that Sebelius was on Sominex. Good grief, last time we had Jim Webb who kicked arse.

It feels good to know that I've made through the entire Bush Disaster without watching a single one of his speeches, press follies, or soundbites any longer than it took me to change the channel or turn off the TV. I feel like a prisoner who only has one more year in stir -- I can do it standing on my head.

Sibelius put me to sleep within 15 seconds.  No kidding.  BO sounded good and I'll give him kudos.  Would make a good VP.  :-)

10:56 PM EST Monday 1/28


Sebelius was a little calm and also I don't recall her actually saying anything. Of course how do you rebut zero? Her house (set?) was pretty.

DFA - DFA seems to be very active -- there's a diary on KOS about someone claiming to be DFA national college rep or something and how they confronted Joementum at a speech praising McCain. And we had the Jim Dean call in and ad for stopping the telecom amnesty. And we get posts from local groups on the 'all posts' area. So it's not as if we were moribund. It would be wonderful if they would let us knpw what is happening with the blog -- if they would send us all a big red DONATE button to get a geeks on call or someone to come in and fix it. HQ IS ANYONE READING THIS STUFF?????

My Internet was down for several hours today, and the college internet was down for at least a couple of days. These are unusual situations. I hope a cyberattack of some proportion is not underway.

Guess I will say nitie.

I really enjoyed the Kennedy speeches and found it touching and hope it was true about Obama's father coming to the US b/c of some help from the Kennedy foundation and that's how Obama came to be. I think Caroline's kids are at least teens and prolly college age. Believe she is 50. But that's just my surmise.

Eleven o'clock and 8:30 class. Nitie!

Caroline's kids born in '88, '90, '93 per Wiki.

Sebelius is apparently considered to be a VP candidate.

Very interesting but a bad choice for Obama, no geographic balance. To say nothing of her bad behavior toward Our Howard.

I remain a fan of:

Obama-Boxer '08

Nite all!

-- volney

Annilow - My kids are pretty inspired by Obama. They're also very bright so I wouldn't diminish a teenager's view of a presidential candidate - especially a Kennedy or a VB - LOL. Just kidding on the last part.

Nite

Let's see if I understand this: in his State of the Union speech, His Fraudulency cited Ukraine's presidential election as a sign of people taking democracy back for their country.

And what happened in Ukraine was the people saw that exit polls showed the incumbent losing, but he claimed victory. When they found out their election system had been tampered with, they took to the streets and got their country back. And the real winner got to serve.

So........why was he standing on the podium instead of sitting in a jail cell?

I also liked his line about not allowing the government to make medical decisions for you. Oh yeah, except when it comes to reproduction. Then the state should jump in and overrule your decisions.

A dreadful speech by Bush.  The applause, standing up , cheering made me think of a circus.

Well, because of the download and the fair access policy, things on my computer are slow as cane sugar in winter.  I'll say good night.  

It's time for the generations (I'm 65)  coming up to take a stand, to become active, to feel the same kind of hope and faith in the principles of our country that my generation felt when JFK spoke.  Barack Obama speaks to them, and I'm grateful.  Our time is passing, and we've a wonderful time of it.  

I've always been grateful to be able to work with children.  They are honest, sincere, generous, and dead on when summing up someone's character.  They don't lie, cheat, steal, manipulate, take revenge, or hurt for the sake of hurting with any where near the sophistication of adults.  I'll take a child's point of view over an adult's any day when it comes to character and a sense of what's real and true.

Night folks. 

Volney, you're kidding about Sebelius as VP, aren't you?  Why not some woman who doesn't put us to sleep, like Boxer?  Now I remember...I thought I was dreaming...she wants to reach across the aisle.  OMG....

two minds think alike:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802558.html?wpisrc=rss_politics/elections

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 29, 2008; Page A09

TOPEKA, Kan. -- More than just a trip to his Kansas roots, Sen. Barack Obama's visit to his grandfather's home town Tuesday is part of a broad and unorthodox strategy to build support in Republican-dominated states.

...

this is all too sad, the idiots standing and clapping for bush. there is a place in hell.....

what he has done to this country and to be sitting there smiling....

So........why was he standing on the podium instead of sitting in a jail cell?

Three words.....OFF THE TABLE.

Or, if you prefer......EYES WIDE SHUT. 

Picking the Republicrat guv of Dorothyland would certainy throw a monkey wrench into the GOP's propaganda machine, which is probably already geared up for Evan Bayh or some other bastion of normalcy.

Former Republican (but more Democrat than many) Gov. Janet Napalitano of AZ would be another gear grinding choice for Obama.

TOPEKA, Kan. -- More than just a trip to his Kansas roots, Sen. Barack Obama's visit to his grandfather's home town Tuesday is part of a broad and unorthodox strategy to build support in Republican-dominated states.

Sounds like SOMEBODY has been reading the Howard Dean playbook.

But he'll never get credit, of course.

Would it kill them to acknowledge Dean's prescient genius just once? 

Caroline's kids are 20, 18 and 15.  I simply would like to know why they like BO.  I'm sure there are lots of astute young people their age and even more who aren't or who don't care.  I thought it interesting that her kids influenced her choice and not the other way around.

IMO it's important to like a candidate for the policy decisions you think are right for the country.   Too bad the CMWs didn't give face time to JE tonight on MSNBC.  Maybe CNN was different.

I would like to respectfully suggest that BO supporters who have dissed JE or JE supporters cease ever complaining again about the Corporate Media...since it has been very instrumental in dissing both Howard and JE...and both men expressed their dislike of the media control.

Looks like the corporations are safely in control of our country with BO or HC.  So sad.   I hope one of them proves me an idiot for saying that.

Here are some good diaries summing up the process by which FL and MI delegates might count.   Sounds pretty complicated to me. 

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1789

Wow, after listening to Sibelius tonight, I guess we can all just sing kumbaya and go to bed. Unity, working with Republicans, crossing the divide with Obama and Sibelius.

Where have they been living the last seven years? OZ?

After tonight, thank god it was the LAST SOTU we'll ever hear from this man! Watch this for relief....

seashell-- I don't think Obama cares much for the press. sounds not to different from Howard.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Members of a state Senate committee voted overwhelmingly today to kill a sweeping overhaul of the California health care system that aimed to provide coverage to millions of uninsured residents.

Shortly before the committee hearing, Senate President Don Perata, D-Oakland, said in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that he does not support the measure because it lacks adequate funding and could worsen the state's budget problems.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...

If California can't afford a decent health care system because of $$$, how rough will it be to hammer one out for the whole country?

We all know our taxes are wasted at the Federal level. It's going to be a long while before a Federal plan comes to fruition that will cover everyone. Plans are just that - plans.

I guess we can all just sing kumbaya and go to bed.

It's one thing to repeat the candidates' records as many times as necessary. But running a brain dead joke into the ground is another matter. Please ask the Clintons to provide you with some new material.

Holly, that's a very interesting article. Perhaps he's holding his feelings about the press, and many other things, close to the vest.  That can be an asset, but it doesn't help me get to know who he really is or what he's thinking.

He speaks well, is obviously intelligent, but there's something knawing at me.  Perhaps it's the aloofness cuz I feel Michelle is very aloof.  The rhetoric doesn't quite match the demeanor or something like that.  That might be it.  The soaring oratory from an aloof man...doesn't compute.  I'll keep listening to him.

I'd really like to see him up close and personal.  His speeches don't move me and I'm much more interested when he's speaking off the cuff.  He has some trouble there, but he's much more human IMO.

HC and JE speak well off the cuff. 

OK, personal observations.  When HC hugs Bill and when Michelle hugs Barack, they pat the guys on the back.  Maybe I'm reading way too much into this but when I'm crazy about a guy, I hug,  I don't pat pat pat.

The Edwards', OTOH, look like they're deeply in love even when not sitting together.

FWIW.  Prolly not much but so vapid no one can attack me.  LOL

Indy, I hear ya.  Sibelius would be a horrible choice.  Did she say something about wanting the prez to come to congress?  LOLOLOL

Jeez, with her, the sleeping pill industry would go bankrupt! 

Surely BO is not that naive.  Who is she anyway?  Does she work somewhere?  :-) 

OK, I'm getting closer.  HC and JE look very comfy in their own skins.  BO does not.  He needs to season a bit, get his political footing squared away.  My god, the man went from nowhere to prez cand. in what?  4 1/3 days?  Too much, too soon. 

If I had a very sick pet, I'd go to the vet who had years of experience, not a novice just out of school.  But that's me.

Our country is very ill.  We do need experience, just not more corporate HC type. 

Remember that Pelosi is *reaching across the aisle* which is helping to destroy us further.  Did you see the automatoms standing and clapping and grinning tonight? Do you really think they will reach across the aisle?   They'll savage any incoming dem prez.  In that case, HC would prolly be the best.  

Kumbaya!  Let's all join hands and sing "It's a Small World."

Corporations rule!   Clap clap clap! 

David Gergen on Stewart.  The dems should win the election by 10 points...."that's the way it's been set up." 

I must have mis-heard...?... and will watch the repeat tomorrow night. 

Gore's Media Co. Is Going Public The viewer-created cable TV network, co-founded by Al Gore in 2005, filed an IPO today. Launched in 2005, the channel is available in 51 million households.

This is so very chilling....

For all practical purposes, President Bush is now a lame-duck President. If that’s the case, then why is his administration working so hard to take away even more of America’s constitutional rights and his departmental heads are ramping-up their efforts to increase the spying on Americans? The common logic is that when Bush leaves office, some semblance of sanity will return to the United States and we will continue conducting whatever “war on terror” that needs to be undertaken without violating the constitutional rights of innocent Americans. We are all hoping the 2008 elections will bring back the rule of law to Washington, and these illegal and unconstitutional programs will be dismantled. That’s what we are hoping…

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_william__080128_if_bush_is_leaving_o.htm 

This goes right along with the above article.

Senators say White House plans to eliminate special FOIA office  (1 comments) Less than a month after Bush signed legislation overhauling the Freedom of Information Act,the measure's main Senate backers are accusing the White Ho...

American Liberty Teetering on Edge of Abyss Thanks to a government that has turned its back on the Constitution, Americans now have an unaccountable Department of Homeland Security that is already asserting tyrannical powers over citizens and state governments. Headed by the neocon fanatic Michael Chertoff, the Orwellian-sounding Department of Homeland Security has mandated a national ID card for Americans, without which they may not enter airports or courthouses.

Resegregation of US Schools Deepening At one time, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina was a model of court-ordered integration. Today, nearly a decade after a court struck down its racial-balancing busing program, the school district is moving in the opposite direction. More than half of its elementary schools are either more than 90 percent black or 90 percent white.

'Nuff blog hogging for me.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

HC and JE look very comfy in their own skins.  BO does not.

It's a sickness. Obamaphobia.

29

Barack Obama doesn't look comfy in his own skin?  What the hell kind of nonsense is that?  You just have to spew anything here as long as it is anti-Obama.

What are you a Clinton cheerleader now?

Late night-cap.

BO may not much care for the press, but it loves him...unlike JE or Howard.

***************

Denise, that's very disheartening.  The money will continue to fund arms and wars and the rich.  The corporations rule and JE knows it and wants to do something about it.  He knows we're almost done...HC is gonna fix it all with her vast experience and BO is gonna reach across the aisle and hope.   McC will  keep us at war for generations and Huckleberry will have us on our knees, praying.

Democracy, US style, is great fun, isn't it?  So interesting and amusing.  I can't wait to see what happens in tomorrow's episode  of "As the Stomach Turns."  LOL

Go, Hillary!   LOL

Good monring, everybody

Now the internet is going flakey.  Woke up to no server messages.  Weird.  Last night I had to reboot.

Do you think they know I'm not watching the official programs?  LOL 

TOPEKA, Kan. -- More than just a trip to his Kansas roots, Sen. Barack Obama's visit to his grandfather's home town Tuesday is part of a broad and unorthodox strategy to build support in Republican-dominated states.

Sounds like SOMEBODY has been reading the Howard Dean playbook.

But he'll never get credit, of course.

Would it kill them to acknowledge Dean's prescient genius just once? 

+++

Sitka -

Exactly, Obama is building on the foundation that Dean built (rather than doing that North East coast/West coast/Midwest strategy and ignoring everything in-between).

The CM at one point liked Dean, until they took him seriously. Then it became something else, especially when Dean did not bow down to them in their self-patting importance as the Fourth Estate.

A 50-state strategy and a slight irritation to the CM, are two minds IMO that think alike --

-- Dean and Obama.

35.  So which group feels most threatened?  The ten percent black or the ten percent white?  

Bet the kids have no idea what other schools are like. 

29

Barack Obama doesn't look comfy in his own skin?  What the hell kind of nonsense is that?  You just have to spew anything here as long as it is anti-Obama.

What are you a Clinton cheerleader now?

+++

rae hart -

Actually it's more like the line in the movie Jesus Christ Superstar "what's the buzz, tell me what is happening ?".

It's her way of trying to cope with what is happening in this prez cycle, that's all IMO.

I'd really like to see him up close and personal. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

seashell in that setting he mostly listens, doesn't talk  ... it is what made him such a good state legislator

same reason Edwards was such a good trial lawyer, reads people well because he pays attention to what they say

successful politicians all have to connect at that personal level, what I want to see is what they look like when they are mad, when staff put together a plan that rewards some backers and it violates their principles

yesterday the temp broke 50 and now they are closing school gecaus eof blowing snow and a wind chill to hit 40 below

I'll be lucky if the calves don't get sick, better go give them another layer of bedding. bbl

5:23 CST

the mention of immigration last night was to give tacit approval to McCain as nominee IMHO

6:40 AM EST Tuesday

Phil I worry about kicking out #2 kitty at 35 degrees I will send some warm vibes toward Iowa and your cows.

Seashell I have the teeniest of reservations about Obama -- maybe b/c this is shaping up so much like Bush in 2000 - you just like the guy - he's so different from the previous one, etc. But when I look underneath I always like what I see. I think he does great 'off the cuff' it's just sometimes too brainy for the average reporter and cable news. I don't see him in the pocket of big business -- evidence please - he seems to be very anti lobbyist. There's a KOS diary this morning on his attitude toward immigration which while I don't agree w/ his position, does make some sense. Are he and Michelle aloof. Do they have an itty bitty bit of the armor I've mentioned before that blacks have when dealing with whites? I'm guessing they are more at ease in a black world but the beauty of it is that they both move so graciously in a white world. I've watched her on the rope lines. She's calm. She LISTENS. She's probably a little scared for her family - I sure would be in that situation. Just my take.

I MUST get a pop tart and a 2nd cuppa.

Annilow
Tue, 01/29/08

+++

Inquiry minds want and need to know (the country's business cannot proceed hencewith, unless we ALL know):

Is it strawberry or blueberry --

-- that you're having with that 2nd cuppa ?

7:08 AM EST

I see the blog is still stuck in Back To The Future mode.

7:10 AM EST

My little bit of connection to the state of Kansas ?

Well, of the owners of the house my wife and I bought here in Southeastern MA in 2004, the wife is from Kansas, so that's why they were selling the home (the husband was born and lived in the same town in MA).  They were building a house there.

7:18 AM EST

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080129/cm_usatoday/intwostatesobamawonthesignsofchange

In two states Obama won, the signs of 'change'

Tue Jan 29, 12:15 AM ET

By DeWayne Wickham

Given Barack Obama's big victory Saturday in South Carolina — and the real possibility that he might win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination — I think it's time to put into perspective his talk of change.

In speeches after his victories in South Carolina and in Iowa on Jan. 3, the senator from Illinois held up "change" as the driving force of his White House campaign.

...

But what exactly is Obama talking about when he speaks of change? We got a hint of an answer last year, when during a debate among Democratic presidential candidates he rejected a lingering Cold War orthodoxy.

Asked during a CNN debate whether he'd meet "separately" and "without precondition" with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea during the first year of his presidency, Obama said he would. The idea "that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous," he said.

That response drew a quick rebuke from old Cold Warriors and other observers who called Obama's position naive.

But the long-running war in Iraq and the Bush administration's saber rattling with Iran suggest otherwise. Both seem to be inextricably linked to the strong-arm tactics that have defined this nation's foreign relations with most of its adversaries since the 1950s.

What's clear is that in Iowa and South Carolina, Obama's talk of change connected with voters.

Fifty-two percent of the participants in the Iowa caucuses said bringing change to the nation mattered most to them. And 51% of these people voted for Obama, according to exit polls.

In South Carolina, 54% of those taking part in the Democratic primary said change was their most important issue — and 75% of them voted for the Illinois senator.

What does this mean?

These exit poll findings suggest that the most significant change Obama can bring about might have already occurred. In this time of great partisan divide and racial schism, Obama has connected with voters in ways that few other presidential candidates have.

In Iowa, a state whose population is less than 3% black, Obama won the largest share of the white vote. In South Carolina, where blacks are 29% of the population, the candidate received 78% of their ballots — and won the backing of one of every four white voters, according to exit polling.

In South Carolina, 53% of the college graduates who cast ballots in the Democratic primary and an equal number of those without a college degree voted for Obama.

In Iowa, 40% of caucus-goers who consider themselves very liberal and 21% of those who said they are conservatives backed Obama. In the Palmetto State last week, he received the backing of 59% of voters in the Democratic primary who labeled themselves very liberal and 48% of those who said they are somewhat conservative.

Even without having made it into the White House, Obama already might have brought about a sea change in the attitude of many Americans. His campaign holds out the possibility that he can lift people above the troubling political boundaries of the nation's blue state-red state divide and the Southern strategy.

...

7:34 AM EST

speaking of the economy -- :

http://allafrica.com/stories/200801241156.html

Sierra Leone: On the Verge of Attracting Foreign Investors

Concord Times (Freetown)

OPINION
23 January 2008
Posted to the web 24 January 2008

Olusegun Ogundeji
Freetown

The four major groups that control the commerce industry in Sierra Leone are the Lebanese, Nigerians, Indians and Fullahs. The Minister of Trade, Mr.Alimamy P. Koroma met with them late last year at group levels to know their various needs.

...

*r

forth·with (fôrth-wĭTH', -wĭth', fōrth-)
adv.

At once; immediately.

<

I don't think the word "hensewith," which you used earlier, exists.

__________________

I thought Speaker Pelosi appeared drugged-up, ill, or grief-stricken last night as she sat behind our president at the SOTU.

The Dem respondent was a failure.

Ted Kennedy (i personally like him)'s endorsement of Sen Obama might be analogous to a fellow backpacker surreptitiously stacking small rocks on top of the backpack of her/his buddy as they both venture up a mountain.  Maybe.

*r

forth·with (fôrth-wĭTH', -wĭth', fōrth-)
adv.

At once; immediately.

<

I don't think the word "hensewith," which you used earlier, exists.

...

+++

Imn2Paine -

Drats -- ya caught me (trust a Websterian to get me tumbling on a made-up word [smile]).

Any and all Republicans must answer to the lies our POTUS, his administration, and the RNC

perpetrated on the citizens of these United States in the lead-up and continuation of the war on Iraq.

No free rides!

7:42 AM EST

55.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/hence

+++

yet, on second thought --

http://www.yourdictionary.com/hence

hence (hens)

adverb

1. from this place; away go hence
2. 1. from this time; after now a year hence
   2. thereafter; subsequently
3. from this life
4. for this reason; as a result; therefore: often used as a conjunctive adverb
5. Archaic from this origin or source

Etymology: ME hennes < henne < OE heonan(e), from here + -(e)s, adv. gen. suffix (as in since, thence) < IE base as in he, here

Archaic depart; go away

hence with!

Archaic away with!

 *r

hey bro, I'm not about catching you making mistakes after endless mistake...time and time again.  haha ;-)

shower time / work day to begin

peace