Here is a letter on HP from a European gentleman that, I believe, frames the Obama Presidency and the hope of this country well:

Mr. Obama has already earned the prize in my books here in Europe. I am not sure about how you sensed the fear we had here in Europe under the previous generation. Not so much about Bush and Rummy and Cheney but about our own country’s. We saw, under Bush’s administration the rise of Neo-nazism, about the Black Prisons oland and Latvia. The erection of nuclear missiles on European soil. The separation of the New Europe from the Old.

We were scared of ourselves and we had no way to end the fear and the things that rot and grow from fear. Only America could have ended it. And despite your taboos and your history of civil war and segregation and jim crow and the backlash against affirmative action, you went to the polls and elected an african american who held out a hope for peace. And you brought us peace. I fear war less now.

You have managed to capture the beautiful part of your wonderful country and have made its virtue full again. A Nobel Prize is not enough. This man needs your love. You have a great president and I am filled with envy. I wish we had him as our president. Honest. honest. He has proved more than most. If not to all of the world, then certainly to me here in Switzerland.

This post struck me because it states very clearly the promise that the rest of the world keeps about us. We’ve spent lifetimes ignorant of the impact our country has on the rest of the world - how simply being a place where, seemingly, votes really do count, optimism and freedom are strived for and the best of us is not buried has meaning beyond our borders.

Sure, we’re hardly perfect. Granted, some of our votes haven’t counted and our system is corrupted, but as long as we don’t let assholes like George W. Bush change what we hope to be there’s always a chance to recover. And that’s really it. The Nobel prize is for all of us (well, most of us) recognizing that the hatred, fear and ugliness of the Bush administration and it’s followers is NOT what this country is about. Our voting him out and an unlikely person in says alot about our own hope for the country.

Republicans just don’t get it. Being the nasty bully gets you nowhere. It’s bad foreign policy and a sickness that just grows. As evidence, the bully has become angry, bitter, jealous and is now throwing temper tantrums. It’s unfortunate they do not see how ridiculous and pathetic they look to the rest of us. I’ve never seen the left act in a similar way with the same type of negative energy - ever.

Their loss - and if we’re smart enough to learn from our mistakes this time it will be their loss for a long long time.

Current News, Politics america, Obama novel prize, republican jealously

From CNN:

“What I mean is they have got no plan,” Grayson told Wolf Blitzer. “It’s been 24 hours since I said that. Where is the Republican plan? We’re all waiting to see something that will take care of the pre-existing conditions, to take care of the 40 million Americans who have no coverage at all.

“That’s what I meant when I said that the Republican plan is don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly.”

That was just the beginning of a bold defense Alan Grayson made on CNN yesterday. Blitzer and the same old tired crew did their best to try and define his words as outrageous, but the American people know better - and this particular Congressman doesn’t mince words.

It’s sad that it had to be refreshing to hear the FIRST PERSON in this debate say what others seem afraid to say - the Republicans priority is not the American people. It will ALWAYS be their business interests - and the insurance companies want this discussion shut down.

Unfortunately, there is one man who’s supposed to be on our side but is helping the other side in every possible way he can.

Harry Reid. I’ll be simple in my rhetoric and make what I feel is a truthful claim here. This man - the inneffectual, weak, sorry excuse for a “leader” - has sunk the public option and in-turn any real reform we might have had in healthcare.

Harry Reid is solely responsible for the failure of the democrats in this debate. No one else. Just him.

Think I’m wrong, Mr. Reid?

Why is it then that you can’t rise to the strength of the position you’ve been given? Ever since the democrats gained the majority several years ago, the democrats in the senate have caved AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN to the wants of the republicans.

We VOTED THE REPUBLICANS OUT! Do you understand this, you stupid, lame fuck? This is the time to push through an agenda the people actually WANT.

Why is it that other senate members are constantly making excuses for your inability to rally your side on any democratically-backed proposition, let alone this one? Why is it you are always blaming the republicans for your inability to get YOUR job done? Bill Frist had no problem doing your job. He got the votes he needed and when he didn’t, he’d ram through legislation and get the President’s signature.

What have you done except complain?

Do you understand that there is no excuse for failure or compromise with this job, in this climate, on this subject - right now? I see you in the news looking the way you’ve always looked - a man who simply wants to hide behind the mechanics of the system, never challenge it, never get angry, never scream. You minimize every discussion with your pathetic, tired demeanor.

If this bill fails to have a public option, THAT will be your legacy. Don’t worry about your next election. You’ll be done - and you’ll bring the party down with you.

There is no excuse for being weak. Just none. What did your dad teach you when you were young, to give in all the time? Take a page from the book of Alan Grayson. That’s what it means to be right and know it. Unfortunately, I doubt you’d recognize that kind of truth even if it shoved a two-by-four up your puny ass.

Politics, Verbal Paintball Alan Grayson, harry reid, republican losers

Far right. I know we don’t talk much, primarily because you think you know everything and consider me a fucking douchbag (your words, not mine). Nonetheless, let’s address the root of your credibility as it exists in ANY argument you may have now or in the future:

Sarah Palin, your savior, your standard-bearer, your 2012 candidate, has just quit her position as governor of Alaska because….well, we don’t know what because is. What we do know is that she couldn’t handle random bloggers creating photoshop files of her image. She’s threatening litigation against anyone who looks at her cross-eyed. She couldn’t deal with letting the public know the truth about anything, therefore trying to have operative during the McCain campaign lie about her husband’s secession membership. She just couldn’t handle the heat…so, naturally, she still leaves the impression to 75% of us that she had no business being part of a Presidential campaign or public office of any sort.

Mark Sanford? Well, once again, a Governor who just couldn’t seem to leave his personal preferences about gay marriage and other issues away from the Governor’s desk, a man who decided ON HIS OWN that the stimulus money would NOT go to those who need it in his state but would, instead, go to paying off the state debt…well, this man has cheated on his wife, lied to her and his children, lied to his staff and the state, and disappeared for a week without any ability for followup. It’s nice he’s in love, but his actions leave the impression for 75% of us that he has no business being in high office and would have been a terrible candidate for President.

John Ensign, Mark Foley, Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, Bob Barr, David Vitter, Larry Craig, Tom Delay, Ted Stevens, Scooter Libby, Helen Chenowith, Jack Abramoff…do I REALLY need to go on? I could list in detail the crimes and failures of these scumbags, but will it matter to you?

Yes, I’m talking to you - 25%ers - the people who cannot seem to let go of this idea that George W. Bush was a great President and the republican party of the last 20 years was great and true and honest. Do you REALLY want to have this argument anymore? We outnumber you. Our facts outnumber your innuendos, rumors and lies. Our level of accomplishments outnumber your idiots’ countless fuckups, illegal maneuvers and outright disasters. Our moral authority trumps yours. Our ability to act like functioning, responsible, intelligent adults outnumbers your ability to act like spoiled, nasty, ignorant, self-centered children.

Our President is doing the things that smart adults with a grasp of the weight of their decisions does - and is changing our world for the better (on the back of a disasterous economy YOU helped create and a continued obstruction your leaders (heh!) continue to push). Don’t like it? Don’t care for the change in our government? You think your opinions and strategies are still valid? Well, THEY’RE NOT! And, by the way WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW!? Take a good, hard look at the list about of the people you spent so much time throwing in our faces as the saviors of our political process, the incorrupable Elliot Ness’s to our radical, counter-culture Al Capones.

Let me state this in the clearest terms I can: YOU PEOPLE ARE FUCKING IDIOTS! YOUR CHOSEN REPRESENTATIVES AND POLITICAL IDOLS ARE EITHER FUCKING IDIOTS WHO COULDN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOU OR ME - AND AREN’T SMART ENOUGH TO COUNT TO 2 or they’re MEDIA PUNDITS who play your emotions and push your buttons TO MAKE THEMSELVES RICH! They ALSO couldn’t care about you and, very likely, don’t even take your side of the argument seriously! Unlike us (that is, the 75% of real Americans out there), you are not SMART ENOUGH to understand that when someone bends you over and takes you up the rear without your consent they’re not making love to you. THEY’RE RAPING YOU! These heroes of yours are RAPING YOU and poking the rest of us in the process.

Go back to school. Read some books. PLEASE become something other than ignorant, stubborn lemmings who couldn’t recognize reality from an acid trip. Please. And if you absolutely won’t then go crawl under a rock and STAY THERE!

Current News, Politics Mark Sanford, republican losers, Sarah Palin

This country is fully of wusses: From CNN:

A new national poll suggests that a bare majority of Americans support President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning indicates that most people are worried that their health care costs would go up if the administration’s proposals are passed and only one in five think that their families would be better off under the Obama plan.

Fifty-four percent say their medical insurance costs will increase if the Obama plan becomes law, with 17 percent feeling their costs will decrease. Around one in four say their costs will remain the same. And only one in five say their family will be better off if the president’s plan becomes law, with 35 percent feeling they would be worse off, and 44 percent saying they would be about the same.

It all comes down to taxes and fear, doesn’t it? Imagine if we lived in a country where EVERYONE realized that countries do not run on fumes and the majority’s gut reaction wasn’t based on being an absolute shivering little coward.

When you’re talking about healthcare reform, there is, of course, a million ways to skin a cat. The republicans - over two decades - have had ONE idea - let the insurance companies and the drug companies do their thing. Unfortunately - for anyone but the stupidest in our nation - this is the same as being lazy and not doing anything. Furthermore, it doesn’t work. We’ve had this approach for as long as we can remember and people are suffering because of it.

Clinton tried his best to make the change but got bogged down in a healthcare plan that the republicans could attack easily. Then he backed away from it and that was that.

While I don’t bow down to fear or the creeping psychology of it (I was in Manhattan during 9/11 and saw things no one should have to see), I do worry that this might be the last good chance in my relative youth for universal healthcare to break through. It goes without saying that it’s a necessity. Every advanced country has some form of it. Hell, we do too! (Medicare/Medicaid).

The ONLY thing that stands in the way are the fears of a large minority, the willingness of the republicans to take advantage of that fear and this fantasy some people have that this country that taxes are unnecessary. Hey PEOPLE! Don’t want anymore taxes? Watch your infrastructure crumble. See your parents and grandparents die because there’s no social security check in the mail. Watch millions of children and poor adults homeless on the street, dieing of things no one has died from in 200 years because hospitals won’t take them, and watch the republican’s largest supporters laugh at you as they clink their wine glasses together and pat each other on the back at how great the free market has worked for them.

Taxes won’t hurt you. Fear of the unknown will. Get a backbone and support Obama’s plan and think about what you’d be offered if McCain was president.

Current News, Politics cnn poll, healthcare reform, Obama, republicans

Many years from now, a post like that of the following will be a nice little relic of this era, a time when many fearful people stood behind a President who lied to us for eight years and used the good will after a terrible U.S. tragedy to set in motion an agenda that was morally corrupt before it even began. Many of the true believers will not show their face in daylight - and, like Peter in the story of Christ, will deny they ever believed in George W. Bush and his ilk.

But this is not the future, yet. Here’s a few pathetic points from HughS at Wizbangblog.com:

A US leader should not embrace the language of appeasement while we are at war for many reasons, not least of which is that it sends the wrong message to our enemies.

and another one from a second pathetic loser, Shawn Mallow:

One of the tidbits Obama shared with us yesterday was his assertion that the United States is “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Huh? There are estimated to be between 5 to 7 million muslims in the US, about the same number of Jewish Americans. In contrast, we have about 60 million Christians. But, during his European apology tour, he made it a point to state we are not a Christian nation.

and a few comments by idiots who have no concept of reality:

I’m so tired of the president of this nation going around telling the world we tortured people. He is an embarassment to our nation. - WildWillie

In making that foolish statement Obama has confirmed in the minds of Muslims that the United States did torture and linked it to Guantanamo Bay. - Mac Lorry

Obambi isn’t smartest tool in the shed though he was smart enough to fool the dhimmi masses. When the kool aid wears off, it will be one ugly fall from grace for the King. - Kat

Surprisingly, you don’t see a whole lot of counter-argument on this site by the far right-wing. It may be because they don’t have the education, intelligence or articulation capacity to cross swords with anyone here at Daily Kos. It might also be due to the fact that an actual debate might threaten their tenuous hold on this fantasy world they embrace. I’m caught between wanting to shake them and say, “What the fuck is wrong with you, man! Wake up!” and just simply telling them how pathetic they are. Much like the apprehended terrorists, they consider anything contrary to their reality a deadly threat worthy of a fight. Sad.

Years from now, when all this is history, many of them will agree with us, just as many who favored Vietnam have, somehow, revised their own histories to suggest they were never as adamant about the war as we remember them to be. In their revisionist histories, they will tell us they always had doubts about George Bush, knew the Iraq war was based on fear-bating and never were as stupid as we know they are now.

Sorry, idiots. Your ignorance and fear has cost lives. It’s set us on a course that our current President has to spend his entire term fixing. It’s made our fight alot more difficult when it didn’t need to be. We know you’re hard, tough guys now about this and, in the future, when you finally concede that you’re wrong, we’ll forgive you your ignorance - but let it be known that we won’t forget who you were then.

Current News, Politics George W. Bush, republican ignorance

Some nice thoughts in a Los Angeles Times article by Ann Powers regarding the larger message of this year’s American Idol:

Lambert and Allen might be the most unlikely pair on television this year, but their bond has helped make this singing competition more than just entertainment, no matter which man wins.

“It is fantasy,” said Ross. “Out there in the real world people aren’t getting along so comfortably. The guy who sings musical theater and dresses flamboyantly isn’t necessarily going to be bonding with the jock types in high school.

But sometimes a mirror image has the power of pointing toward a future reality. It’s not sufficient in itself but it adjoins to another bunch of things that seem to be happening in our society, old prejudices falling away.”

As the writer suggests, the wider acceptance between those of “assumed” opposing viewpoints, such as Evangelical Christians and Gay Americans, is the new norm, and thank goodness for that.

It may be me, but I’ve always thought most people in general are accepting of others and the opposition are the exception to the rule, but you’d never know it sometimes by what you see in politics. The Republican party has made a business of promoting the divide between Americans on this issue. The entertainment media, fortunately, has not listened and have spent decades showing us what we already see - it’s life and it’s no big deal. Gay and straight people aren’t standing around defining themselves by their orientation when they’re shopping at the supermarket. Younger people, used to openly gay students in their schools, are probably embarrassed and stupified by the need for government to want to make these definitions at all.

As suggested in Salon, this is an unfortunate turn for people like Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, Marilyn Musgrave and others. If the Republicans don’t have homosexuality as a wedge issue, who do they really represent? We already know it’s a party followed by insecure, homophobic, intellectually-challenged cowards (and those who tolerate them) - but get rid of the homophobic and the gay haters and the few lingering idiots left are hardly worth building a movement around - unless you consider ignorance a virtue.

Nonetheless, this drive away from division and hatefulness is the welcome residue of the new Obama administration. I’ve always equated the Bush administration to the poisonous atmosphere I remember from one of my worst jobs, a place where employees were pitted against each other and the head of the company was bipolar train wreck; when you’re there, immersed in this kind of place for a very long time, you can forget what the world was before it and what the possibilities are beyond it. It was only when I got the will to leave and pulled myself out of that fog that I realized how completely unrepresentative it was of a normal working environment. As a country, those who couldn’t see how horribly divided we’ve been and don’t remember that things were not always like this are finding themselves out of the fog and in a better place for the first time in a long time. Republicans, unless they really change, will try to divide us again. We should make sure they never get the chance.

Current News, Lifestyle, Politics Adam Lambert, American Idol, gay politics, Michelle Bachmann, Republican haters

John McQuaid from Huffington Post makes a few good points about Cheney’s re-emergence and how pathetically self-serving it is:

Besides embellishing a legacy, the current Cheney campaign seems aimed at one thing: setting up Obama for the stab-in-the-back treatment in the event of another terror attack. Please. Terrorism is a serious problem. It requires real strategic thinking. Such posturing may be catnip to the press, but it’s virtually irrelevant to the world we live in, and unhelpful to the hard work of protecting us.

I live next door to a 62 year old man who doesn’t speak to me because I told him not to throw his beer cans on my property. His age is important because it illustrates that even at a point in his life when he should have learned a few things about politeness, the treatment of others and common sense, he’s obviously failed to take anything from these lessons.

Dick Cheney is the same type of person. He’s ALWAYS right. Anyone who disagrees is either naive or not as committed as he is. Anyone who wants to have a real discussion of complex issues doesn’t deserve to be in the same room with him.

This prick spent 8 years acting like a scared child, reacting to difficult circumstances with a concrete mindset and dividing this nation not out of belief but aggressive necessity. It was his way or the highway and, I’m sorry, that’s not acceptable in this country. When you show as much disregard for the people who elected you - and even the one’s who didn’t - you have no invitation to speak to us again. Most of the country HATES you and rightly so.

What Dick Cheney needs is not a soapbox that the media happily gives him but a strong, hard punch in the mouth. Maybe a few. His actions have resulted in countless unecessary deaths and pain for more families than can be counted. What this elderly child needs is to feel a bit of pain himself and a few good punches would do that. It won’t immediately force him to keep his beer cans on his side of the property but, over time, it might deter him from throwing them in the first place.

Current News, Politics Dick Cheney, Obama, terrorism

From CNN:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration’s national security record Thursday, and argued that President Barack Obama is responsible for weakening the country’s ability to combat al Qaeda and other extremists.

Cheney argued that the Bush administration “didn’t invent” the authority exercised in the war against al Qaeda and others. He said it was clearly granted by the Constitution and legislation passed by Congress after the September 11 attacks.

He also said the use of controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” was a success that saved thousands of lives.

At the same time, Cheney argued that Obama’s decision to release Bush-era interrogation memos was a reckless and unfair distraction in the fight against extremists.

Fuck this lousy, arrogant treasonous piece of shit. Dick Cheney is no longer our Vice President and thank God for that. His efforts to insert himself into a conversation he has long since proven unskilled at is nothing more than annoying. Furthermore, this misleading bullshit about the congress giving them the authority to do anything they please is getting tired. You lied to us and them about the nature of this war so their votes are uninformed and your argument false.

Here’s a few things to chew on, Dick: Where were when our country was attacked? Are you not aware that 9/11 happened on YOUR watch? Of course not. This prick wants to sour everything and hobble our current President because he’s a belligerent, angry man.

We don’t care what your opinion is on Obama and the majority of us simply want you to go back to Wyoming or Ohio or wherever it is you claim you represent.

Asshole.

Current News, Politics Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Gitmo

From CNN:

“The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over,” Steele will say in a speech to the RNC’s 2009 State Chairmen’s Meeting, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. “It is done. We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the review mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future.”

Really? So, the lies, manipulations and failures of the past eight years are beneath you to respond to? The neglect and bumbling evident through Hurricane Katrina doesn’t warrant an acknowledgement to some who died, those who suffered at the sports arena or rebuilding, let alone an apology? Destroying the economy, American’s futures and the elderly’s retirement through aggressive trickle down economics and a failure of any kind of gatekeeping is…what…not worthy of your attention?

And how about the thousands of lives lost, from 9/11 through a mishandled Afghanistan and a corrupt Iraq war? The widows, fatherless and motherless children do not deserve even one iota of your attention as you look to future ELECTIONS? Is this REALLY your response? And you expect to set the time when you can change the conversation? No. You won’t stop apologizing until WE decide.

And WHEN we decide is when your party makes some changes within. When there’s a party platorm that caters to more than rich, white men and corporations. A party that feels squandering a generations wealth is a tragedy worth amends. When being a republican means more than simply living in a bubble, knowing little about the outside world and having a huge set of balls about telling US how the world should work.

Maybe it’s time for you and your fellow republican politicians and industry leaders to reflect on what it really means to be an American and then tell us what you’ve come up with? My suspicion is being an American to you means telling your fellow citizens to go fuck themselves if they don’t have the proper connections to succeed in every aspect of society from birth to death. It means patting yourselves on the back for finding loopholes for your company that includes overseas laborers and Bermuda bank accounts that the rest of the citizenry suffers for. It’s telling us it’s all about survival of the fittest when all the chips are stacked on your side behind an electric chain link fence built by your lobbyists.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being too optimistic in expecting change from a party that believes winning is everything and “doing” is a hassle. Maybe I expect people who have fleeced the greater masses for so many years to grow some kind of conscience, or at the very least follow the religious values they’re so intent to force on us (maybe they should actually READ the bible rather than use it when it’s politically expedient).

Maybe believing the party of nasty, arrogant pricks like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich and others are more than the shallow, mean, indifferent, unapologetic bastards they present themselves to be.

Well, in any case, the apologies you’ve offered have been unheard or non-existent - and since actions speak louder than words, you better start acting like a party that gives a shit, because right now none of us give a shit about you.

Current News, Politics apologies, Michael Steele, republicans, RNC State Chairman Meeting

Here are all the Senate representatives who have decided they WANT you to be taken advantage of by the credit card industry by not putting an interest rate cap at 15% :

Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagan (D-NC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)

38 Republicans voted NAY on this bill, meaning 38 Republicans are owned by the Credit Card industry and the banks, just as Dick Durbin suggested:

“…the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”

Some of the usual suspects voting Nay here include the corrupt Richard Shelby, David Vitter, Mitch McConnell, John McCain (just an idea of who he’d favor if he became our President), Sam Brownback, and every Lobbyist’s favorite Senator, Orrin Hatch.

Not a SINGLE Republican voted for this bill.

Now, I’m not going to exclude some of the democrats who make up this list. Nearly half of them voted against it as well, including Joe Lieberman (big surprise), Evan Bayh, Arlen Specter (real prize he’s become), John Tester, and Mary Landrieu.

According to Bernie Sanders, the conduct of the credit card companies and banks would land others in court. 1/3 of card holders have interest rates above 20%. Some are even as high as 40%. But when you have such a powerful lobby in the pocket of the entire Republican party (and some in the Democrats camp as well), this becomes business as usual.

From Sanders (Huffington Post):

“When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available,” said Mr. Sanders, who noted credit unions are limited to 15 percent. “They are engaged in loan-sharking.”

Nice going, pricks. We’ll remember you when election time comes. Thanks for the support.

Politics, Verbal Paintball credit card interest rates, john mccain, mitch mcconnell, republicans who vote against you, Richard Shelby, senators owned by banks, senators owned by lobbyists