Truly. Who on earth are they trying to kid? Well, I actually know the answer to that.

The gullible little people who willfully and voluntarily live in fear, little because they keep their outlook small and their minds closed, and the fresh air of facts and reality blocked out. As I watch them through the years, I've come to suspect something about their behavior and inner drives and motivations. I suspect that these folks have yearned to be reinforced in their shitty deep-down prejudices that they've had to suppress for generations. By now, they've gotten so damn much validation from so many sources in society, from talk radio to Pox Noise and all the blogs and all the various distribution and delivery systems for poison. I saw a quote tonight attributed to some successful GOP campaign person who said it was talk radio that moved so much public sentiment against immigrants and immigration reform - even while being the same audience that wasn't so aroused when bush 1 made a unilateral move on the issue, going completely around Congress in the process.

They're something to study, alright. No wonder they hate everything FDR stood for. He was the "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" guy. Seems like they'd really rather embrace fear. No wonder they harp about "freedom" all the time. And no wonder they feel like they don't have any, or that it's being threatened or actually taken away from them.

Oh totally. Completely understood, VR! It's a risk.

Seems to be a risk worth taking, though, at least to me. Sometimes if we can't go all the way, we have to take a fallback position that still offers plenty of advantages. The first advantage would be: It Gets This OFF The Ground. This gets STARTED. At least it's a START. You don't build the house fully-formed, in one fell swoop. You build it piece by piece, from digging the foundation onward, and there's a boatload of stuff to do before you even get to the digging part. It becomes increasingly convincing when you look at the benefits. 1) He's fulfilling a campaign promise. You promise something, you really do need to try to live up to it, at least partially. So be mindful of the promises you make, since people come to count on that from you. So the President is keeping a promise. It's a start! Something on which we can build. It's gotta start somewhere. Who else was gonna do it? Some republi-CON? Are you kidding me?

Also - once something starts and proves to be beneficial, where the numbers start racking up and there's tangible and anecdotal evidence to point to, it may become rather difficult to dislodge. Or even to fuck with. If you try to sneak something, it'll either be found out or, as Cha put it, the "Firewall-in-Chief" will stop it with a sustainable veto. They don't have the votes to override, and they know it. That's the biggest fear the CON movement had about the ACA, as many of them have admitted. That it would take hold, and be the success and the help to people in need, and make a positive difference in their lives, and save everybody money. And people would NOT be willing to give it up. Political inertia on display!

"We will always be a nation of immigrants." "We were once strangers too." "You can come out of the shadows." HOLY COW! Sometimes the guy is just eloquent. Period. And, superficially-speaking, he delivered it perfectly. He's actually the very embodiment of that statement (at least the first third). He IS the "American Dream." Don't mean to get sappy-sounding, but in the most towering sense, whatever you may think of him, Barack Obama fits that. Just as - and I grit my teeth as I say this - ronald reagan. He's an historic figure in whatever periodically stunted growth America can claim, as a country and a society and a culture.

And I think we need stirring language like that. Stirs the heart. Something you can wrap your brain and your imagination around. Can help motivate many of us. A real political shot of B12 after how roughed-up we got a couple of weeks ago. It also shows leadership - the word I have seen applied a lot is "bold." Well, haven't we been begging for that? I'm watching Lawrence O'Donnell and noting in one of the video clips of happy crowds outside the White House, the homemade sign being shown off - "No Fear Obama." Isn't that how it's REALLY supposed to be? No fear. Why should we be a fearful people? It may not even be as bold as everyone would like. But dammit, it's something! There he is on TV, sticking his neck out, assertively wading into dangerous waters because he knows there's something worthwhile on the other side. That's to be admired. We've needed that. After all, who, lately, has stood up for him? How many times have you heard the phrase - "he's going it alone." Alone. I swear - I don't know how the man stands up straight all day. Must be one-to-three good women helping to support him, I guess.

These are more intangibles than actual nuts 'n' bolts. Capitol Hill has to do the actual sausage-making here. But sometimes you need the intangibles because of what they can do WITHIN us. From there comes the fire in the belly that we all are gonna need if we're gonna stage a worthy comeback in two years. He hasn't been 100% with me all the time, either. But I am STILL happy he's President (consider the two alternatives, okay?). And I am going to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. He's earned it.

No, he'd actually be a nice Kool-aid pitcher. Orange Kool-aid!

His face should be photoshopped into/onto the Kool-aid pitcher that's been on commercials and ads and wrappers everywhere for years! Heaven knows he's certainly drunk his share...

There's also stocks and pillories.

You know those wooden things that were erected in the Town Square? Where someone would be placed in public shame-display - caught between two pieces of wood with three holes cut in it, each piece of wood with half-holes. Their hands stuck through two small holes on either side of a larger hole. In the larger hole went their heads. And then the two pieces of wood were locked together to imprison the hapless punishee in place for full exposure to public derision and scorn and rotten-tomato-throwing. And they were made to stand there in that bent-over position, for whatever length of time was their sentence for various kinds of schmuckery.

Although I don't think that's a bad enough penalty for some of these assholes. Heck, for MOST of these assholes!

I DO, TOO!!!!!

I LOVE my President! I'm so proud of him! And I wanna see MORE!

Watching MSNBC, steve "I thought sarah palin was a great idea" schmidt, all I could do was shout "FUCK YOU!" repeatedly at the TV. He actually had the gall to say "well now we'll never know" (if the GOP was going to cooperate with the President provided he was doing whatever-the-hell it might be this hour that they want). FUCK YOU, schmidt! Just exactly WHERE have you been for the past six years? On the Planet NEPTUNE?????? WHEN did your team EVER reach out to this man? WHEN HAS your team EVER reached out to this man? WHEN have they EVER attempted to get along with him and find common ground with him? EVER? Answer - FUCK NO!!!! So to even try to pass off the talking point that - "well, we woulda..." AW SHIT. FUCK THAT!!!!! Just FUCK that! And FUCK THE GOP, TOO!!!!

All five of our babies are rescues. I've heard this before - that rescue pets know how fortunate

they are. And they appreciate it more. I could believe it, for sure. Especially looking at our dog and four cats!

Goldie, for example:

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To everybody behind the GOP Big Lie Machine - I say FUCK 'EM.

Just FUCK 'EM. Don't even worry about what they think or how much they gnash their teeth or how much they threaten. Or how much they act out. What? Maybe some of those "second amendment remedies"? Let 'em overreact. Let 'em try to cut the funds or otherwise pee in the pickle barrel. Let's hope OUR side is smart enough to stay the course. The extremist shit is gonna backfire.

I'm with cheapdate. FUCK 'EM.

The GOP is not gonna like anything this President does. They don't like his acting on, or moving forward on, THEIR OWN ideas. (Example: the so-called "romneycare.&quot FUCK 'EM.

Americans like guts. He's showing that here. Anybody remember when george w idiot went around in 2004 campaigning for election, and he kept saying "you may not agree with me, but you know where I stand" ? Anybody remember that? THAT is powerful. And people appreciate it. Sometimes they're even won over by that. It also goes to the problem our side has - of people saying "WHAT do Dems stand for? Why should we vote for you (GOP-Lite) versus the full-on GOP - where we know where they stand. Hell, even if Mary "the Dino" Landrieu loses the run-off and that seat turns red, fuck it. She hasn't been a reliable Dem vote in awhile. At least we'd be rock-solid sure of what we were gonna get pretty much nonstop, rather than someone supposedly on our side who waffles around lots of issues we care about as Dems, and then votes with the bad guys.

Yeah. We stand for something. We certainly stand for THIS. Sometimes you just have to take a stand rather than trying to thread any needles or balance on the head of a pin or whatever metaphor you want. Pick a side, or an argument, AND STAND BY IT. Or reject it and say so. To riff on a slogan from James Carville, "It's the Certitude, Stupid."

Besides, we will have the Latino vote locked up. This will be VERY good for voter totals and may be enough to out-gun any attempts to suppress the vote because there's just too doggone many of them who WILL be able to register to vote and jump all the hurdles that are being put in front of them to vote. And we have to make sure we REMIND AND REMIND AND REMIND AND REMIND everyone about this, ESPECIALLY Latinos. We have to make sure they're fully aware which side stood with them, and actually did something to help them, and which side huffed and puffed and threatened anarchy and other assorted adult-size spoiled five-year-old snot-noses throwing temper tantrums and other acting-out, because they didn't get their way.

VILE woman. That one then, and this one now.

I saw that and said "Oh, boo-hoo. Cry me a river."

OMG! NO MORE FRAT PARTIES!!!! Oh the HUMANITY!!!!!!! Oh sob! No more precious frat parties! I suppose we're now supposed to accept the "sanctity of the frat party" or some such bullshit. (I'm now on a mission to pervert and hijack the word "sanctity." It's been used and convoluted by the GOP for far too long, to justify bullshit and more 13th Century thinking.)

Oh Forcryingoutloud!!!! They worry about not being able to go to a frat party anymore? THAT is the downside???? SHEEEESH!!!!

Priorities. All crooked, upside down, and backwards.

How 'bout the fraternities start worrying about losing their charters and not being accepted on campus anymore - not being able to THROW frat parties anymore? How 'bout "Your DAMN FRAT ENDS. HERE. NOW."