UPDATED Toll Free Capitol Hill numbers (for calling to support Obama on the gun issue):

Hey guys -

I went through all the numbers I saved to get to the Capitol Hill switchboard, TOLL FREE. Two of them are still good.

1 (866) 338 - 1015

and

1 (866) 220 - 0044

There's a recording that comes on and some music because all the lines are busy, but you get in soon enough. I just used the first one to call dana rohrabacher and the second one to call cathy mcmorris rogers. BOTH republi-CONS, both NOT mine, personally, but they still need to know. My kid was in school in rogers' district, and I myself used to be in school in Orange County, part of which is represented by that rohrabacher knuckledragger. I spoke to staffers each time, and they were courteous. I've encountered in-yer-facers before, but neither of these were. They seemed receptive.

THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM US and to be reminded that there are WAY more of us than there are teabaggers, and WE WANT THIS, AND WE WANT THEM TO KNOW WE WANT THIS, and we want them to stand WITH President Obama and VP Biden on this, and NOT OBSTRUCT ON THIS!!! I beseeched them as a mother and a wife and a woman (reminder, reminder, reminder about that key demographic that the GOP sucks with). I reminded them that a vast majority of NRA rank-n-file members agree with US on these restrictions to WANTON ACCESS TO GUNS.
(FRAMING NOTE: if I dare be so bold, please consider perhaps using or adapting that phrase. The word "wanton" is VERY descriptive and loaded with meaning a la - indiscriminate, reckless, WAY overboard in the so-called "freedom" department.)

I also noted that we should all consider going back to muskets and bayonets (BUZZ PHRASE) which was the firearm currency when the Founders were doing their thing, for all those strict Constitutional "originalists" or "traditionalists" or whatever they're calling themselves this hour, as far as supporting a literal interpretation of the Constitution. Because the Founders surely were NOT protecting any Tom, Dick, or Harry's right to have mow-down machines that can pick off half a neighborhood in less than a minute. At least those olden-day weapons only nailed a single victim at a time.

Anyway, if I find more toll free numbers, I'll post 'em, and put 'em in my sig line, since I tend to post a lot.

PLEASE people, don't be afraid to call in. Especially if sentiment is running numerically in OUR favor!

rohrabacher's staffer said they were getting a LOT of calls like mine.

Sheryl Crow.

He sure dumped her unceremoniously. I was never enamored of, or that impressed by lance armstrong. Probably because I'm not a sports nut. I'm not that impressed by somebody's ability to knock a bunch of other people down, or pummel an opponent til he (or she) is a bloody mess. With the obscene amounts of money and TV coverage that's usually involved (all misplaced, in my rather biased and jaundiced non-jock opinion) all you get is a huge push toward cheating (why? To get more money - advertising, endorsements, face-time, salaries, etc). You get cheating, you get steroids and other drug abuse and wife-beating and corner-cutting and dishonesty, you get idiolizing of cheaters and corner-cutters and sneaks who are held up as some sort of hero role models, you get high-paid jerks who throw their first wives over - who supported them and moved all over the country uprooting the family and stayed loyal and loving - because it's time to trade in the old model and get some fancy new bimbo on your arm, and/or you get cover-ups of molestation because for God's Sake you DON'T DARE impinge upon the sanctity of the fucking damn football program or some such total waste of time. TONS of schmuckery on parade - that sports and the obscene and incomprehensible adulation of sports figures makes possible, and indeed, commonplace.

Yeah, okay, Livestrong and all that. When he threw Sheryl Crow over, I decided he was most definitely a schmuck. If I recall correctly, it was just days after he dumped her that she announced she was struggling with cancer. And where was he? Oh, he called her. Wow. Cute. Put himself out for - how long? Two or three minutes? Did he rush to her side, apologize, make it up to her, and stand with her throughout her time of struggle and fear and uncertainty? No. HAH. She sure was there for him. But him return the favor and support her? No.

Louse! That's a good name for him. Louse Armstrong.

I hope NO ONE does.

People roll over and go back to sleep, politically, WAY too often.

I plan to make this a personal crusade. Gonna start hounding congress-critters - mine AND other people's. Dems and the bad guys too. They need to hear from us. Again and again and again!!!!! We can't forget, and we have to make sure THEY can't forget, either.

PLEASE remember, THIS is how they operate on Capitol Hill and in all other elected offices: If they think you don't care, they won't, either!!!

Yeah, and that imperious attitude worked out beautifully for them in the Indiana Senate race

in November, too, didn't it!

That richard mourdock creep stated that straight out, fairly early in his days as a candidate anyone was paying attention to. Remember that? After he primaried Richard Lugar he stated that his idea of bipartisanship was the Democrats coming over to his side and seeing everything HIS way. Uh YEAH, pal. Up Yours, pal!

The thing was, though - that asshole-esque statement had an INDIRECT impact. Unfortunately for all reasonable people in this country, the nutcases and other assorted extremists on the far-wrong, there were enough people in Indiana who got all fired up and exuberant about that statement. They LOVED it! Gonna show them Democrat librul commie fascists but gooood!!! HOWEVER - it was also quite a symptom. A "leading economic indicator" if you will. A whole spread of calamity cards in your Tarot reading. A very large signpost decked out with neon and flashing lights and blazing sparklers and fountains and pinwheels on full-active mode!

It showed, basically, that richard mourdock is a selfish, imperious putz. I wonder how his marriage survives, unless this was all an act for the public and in private he's really a loving softie. That remark shows us all what he thinks of other people with different views. They're not to be worked with, listened to, or compromised with in any way. No room whatsoever for them OR their views, unless they drop everything they believe in and become clones of HIS side and HIS way of thinking. SHEESH - and THAT side complains about tyranny???

Maybe the yowlers and the bullies on the far-wrong resonate with that statement in their usual short-sighted, penny-wise/pound-foolish mentality. But they don't stop to think (Hell, do they EVER???? Just ANYWAY??????) that such a mentality feeds, informs, and buttresses a real asshole attitude on a lot of other issues. It's what gives him the "moral" backing to say what he said about a woman impregnated via rape. TOTALLY tone-deaf to any other view on the thought of a woman impregnated by rape. Gee, it's a terrible thing, but TOUGH SHIT ANYWAY, girlfriend. We don't have to do jack shit about how you feel about it, and relieving you of that pain and emotional turmoil just isn't worth putting on the table. You don't even need to be in the room, honey. WE distort, WE decide.

And if he feels that way toward Democrats, if he CLEARLY feels that way toward rape victims of child-bearing age, it's reasonable to be concerned as to who else also is expected to take delivery of that cavalier, dictatorial arrogance? Who else is on the receiving end of his "my way or the highway" attitude? (Which, by the way, went OUT with bush/cheney.)

That statement was indicative of his whole generalized world view. On EVERY issue. Good to know. The yahoos and ding-dongs and declining numbers of dittoheads may have eaten it up with a soup spoon, but when it filtered down to other issues - like, for example, that asinine comment about a woman impregnated by rape - just brought a critical mass of the public to the point of This-Is-TOO-Much. It finally was able to shine a light on what that attitude means when it's applied to a variety of different issues facing a U.S. Senator.

THANK GOD that enlightened the public, and illuminated the measure of that particular man, such that they decided he should be stopped. It went a LONG way toward giving us another Dem in the Senate, where no one realistically had expected that to happen.

She was reagan's Monica. Dear God she worshipped him. She'd sigh and swoon! It was embarrassing!

You'd think she was trying out for Presidential Love Sonnet Poet. She spoke in near-hushed tones about him, reverentially to the point where you'd think he was the second coming with a submarine-size dick. It was utterly embarrassing to witness this shameless display whenever she was on camera. She did everything BUT crawl under his desk. She IS a loon. A shameless loon. TOTAL. Of the FIRST ORDER. She's worthless. He's GONE, peggy dear. He's DEAD. He's been DEAD for YEARS now. And so are his ideas!!!! They're even deader than he is! ANd he won't rise from the grave anytime soon, even though you saw divine powers and grace in him all the time. Give it up. He's OVER. SOOOOOO OVER!!! And to that I get down on MY knees and thank Dear God!!!

peggy, sweetheart: Take off your damn Vestal Virgins' garb and get with current times, please. That's where most of America is these days, dear. With the exception of all your little friends in the "Take America Backwards" club. And get some eyedrops - your vision seriously needs clearing.

Utterly worthless, simpering, fawning, pearl-clutching reagan groupie. She probably has the smelling-salts market cornered. Or at least her behavior would warrant as much. She's embarrassing.

Giant brain? That's no universe! That's my husband!

PERFECTION!!!

I'm still waiting for ol' wayne baby to explain why all those "good guys with a gun" couldn't stop the massacre at Fort Hood...

The background music just lends more to the images.

Lifts them into a kind of eerie, mysterious transcendency. Which is what we're seeing in this animated demonstration.

Magnificent and unsettling. SO MUCH "gee whiz" in there. The News Editor used to use that at the AP in L.A. upon assigning the reporter and photo guy to go cover the Consumer Electronics Show - "...get the 'gee whiz' stuff..."

Shit, sometimes the news biz was really kinda fun!

It's a non-issue now, anyway. She's about to become the SENIOR Senator from MA.

Now that John Kerry's leaving, whoever fills his slot will be the new Junior Senator. Elizabeth Warren moves up in the pecking order simply because she'll have been there longer. Even if by only a few weeks!

So I'd like to see her mouth off ALL SHE WANTS! She speaks for ME, and I'm not even a Massachusetts voter. I think she speaks for all of us from all 50 states and territories who want to see the banksters carry more of the weight and pay their fair share, and be COMPELLED to work for the 99% for a change. AND I'd like to see their monopolies broken up.

I'd like to see her lead the dismantling of the whole "too big to fail" canard. THAT'S gotta go. NOW. No - YESTERDAY. No - at least a couple of DECADES ago. LONG OVERDUE!!!!

Another one I like is a take on "Freedom Isn't Free!"

Yes, that's absolutely correct - freedom is NOT free.

It costs the blood of patriots - AND TAX MONEY!!!!!