WHAT I TOLD CHRIS ABOUT LIBERALS

I know...this is all going out into the universe and dissolving into little tiny pssssts.  But I keep writing because I need to do it.

I thought I'd share a little about what I think is going to happen in November with Hardball.  I love Chris Matthews!  We share almost the identical laugh.  This is the email I sent to him today.  I am pretty certain that you won't see this blog go viral as of tomorrow, but I can't sit still and silent.  So, I'm sharing with the universe what I shared with Chris.

Hi, Chris. I've been listening to you and a whole lot of very intelligent pundits, protagonists and pollsters talking about the lack of enthusiasm on the left.  Will they come out and vote?  The right has the enthusiasm factor.  The left is ANGRY!  Let me just share an observation that comes completely from my experience here in House District 42 in Aurora, Colorado.

I was an avid Romanoff supporter.  I was very angry at all the DNC money that was put into Bennet, a milk-toast, non commital, appointed Senator.  People like myself and my husband who overwhelmingly made Andrew the nominee (I was a Delegate) at the State assembly Iand whose combined income is about $75K / year) were giving $10/ paycheck (as we did for Obama) to Andrew.  I will always believe that the dynamic, true Democrat (who is trying to figure out where he's going to live and for whom we threw a 44th Birthday party in order to help him retire his campaign debt) got the major shaft.

HOWEVER...I believe that the data used to determine our "enthusiasm" comes from the lack of donations to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC.  I hope I can shed some light on this.  People like myself are sending money to Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Joe Sestak, and our own candidates: John Hickenlooper for Governor, HD 42 Congressman Ed Perlmutter (someone you should have on your show - what an incredible congressman and more energy than a bowl of green chile stew!) and other local candidates who desperately need our help. 

When the DNC, DSCC and DCCC call me, I rip off the names that will prohibit me from donating to them.  Ben Nelson.  Max Baucus.  Blanche Lincoln.  Three is a good number so I'll quit there.  I could go on but I'll restrain myself.  It doesn't matter if they're up for re-election.  They are the symbols of what true Democrats abhor.  The phone bankers and I have quite lively discussions that usually end with me asking "do you think that if you argue with me long enough you are going to change my mind?  I will contribute to real Democrats." I understand that they are beginning to make a list of "us."  Kind of like in the 60's when I know damned well I was on Nixon's list.  HAHH!

When I hear you talking about the fact that "THEY" don't get out there and DO SOMETHING and then in the same breath tell Harold Ford how much you agree with the philosophy of the DLC, I can't help but wonder.  Chris, DLC Democrats are precisely why we get nothing done.  Triangulation does not work.  We have to stand for something.  You can't triangulate with nut jobs!

Here's how it works with me and all the rest of the Lefties who are pissed off.  (Less at Obama than at the Senate and Congress..mostly the Senate) I WILL VOTE. I will vote for Bennett.  I will even put up a yard sign.  (I'll hold my nose as I walk past the damned thing but I'll do my duty.) 

I truly think that the pundits are going to be surprised at how many "me's" are out there.  Dedicated Lefties who will still do what we have to do to keep the wingnuts out.  However, small, targeted grassroots donations to real Democrat candidates will be our modus operandi going forward.  We're done contributing to DINO's.  That doesn't mean we won't vote - we are not idiots.  Never confuse lack of enthusiasm with stupidity!!

By the way, you rock (although I think you're a lot smarter when I agree with you.)  HAHH!!  (LOVE the laugh...my family laughs in a baudy loud expletive so every time you laugh, I laugh too!!!)   And way to go on "Let me Finish."  Nice touch!!!!  

I'll let you know if I hear from him.


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THE TREE IN THE FOREST AND MARTIN LUTHER KING

WHAT WE CELEBRATE TODAY

I hope that the people at the below mentioned website have no issue with my sharing this morning.  I have yet to go to sleep because of the importance of this day.  You will have much to learn by logging into this website:
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html

Eventually, when I am not such a blogging neophyte, I will probably have cool links from my blog but now I just want you...probably all two of you...to have access to places that educate and give you an avenue to the truth.  I wish I could give you a Vulcan Mind Meld.  Although that wouldn't be "Oh Holy Night", it would be "Oh, Holy Shit."  I have, as my bio says, been there, bought the T-shirt and threw it away!

I remember watching Dr. King's speech on a black and white television in the living room of my oh, so white parents in oh, so white Kimberly Wisconsin.  But we watched it together.  I was mesmerized.

It precipitated arguments and nose to nose fights across the dinner table with my father.  Another lost phenomenon- the family dinner...my mother would get so upset but Dad and I engaged and argued and I never backed down and neither did he.  But eventually we got to a point where I forced him to shut up and at least listen to my point and I did the same for him...and by God, in 2008 he voted for Obama.  If you don't have discourse how do you make your point?  Even if it takes over 40 years.  Who'da thunk??? 

Back to the subject at hand.  I realize that I'm just re-printing what anyone could get on the internet...and I'm not egotistical enough to think that more than a handful of friends and relatives even check into this blog maybe every week or so.  But I also have a part of my heart that believes that when you put something out into the universe it matters because it's there. 

I believe that the tree that fell in the forest with nobody around did make a sound.  And not only that.  Bugs and burrowing animals and moss and insects began to make use of that silent tree.  And while we, who consider ourselves the smartest and only gauge of what is relevant, to every rodent,critter, bug,moss and algae, and in the soon dying high branches, birds, that fallen tree spoke volumes.  It was a gift of a home. Food. Shelter.  Something that many in this country look upon as only a dream.  But the tree that nobody heard matters. So I write my little tree blog.  Silent tree in the forest that matters.  Who knows who or what it may inspire, help, or shelter?

So, consider me a fallen Colorado Blue Spruce.  I am the fallen tree in the forest.  You have no idea how appropriately that metaphor describes me.  My music and art and creativity are gone.  I have been cut down and I landed with a big fat thud in a big fat forest. My art, my music, my creativity are now an afterthought in my life. 


So I do have a mission. I will continue in my attempts to educate and inspire.  In that interest, here, in its entirety, is the text of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech in its entirety.  In his honor, please do not tune in to any news channel tomorrow.  Read the speech and honor our renewed commitment to make this dream a reality.  I sign off and humbly turn my space over to one of my greatest heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior.

The I Have a Dream Speech
In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color — blacks, Hispanics, Asians — were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.

Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King helped organize a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. His partners in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom included other religious leaders, labor leaders, and black organizers. The assembled masses marched down the Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, heard songs from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and heard speeches by actor Charlton Heston, NAACP president Roy Wilkins, and future U.S. Representative from Georgia John Lewis.

King's appearance was the last of the event; the closing speech was carried live on major television networks. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The following is the exact text of the spoken speech, transcribed from recordings.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
_____________________________

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.



It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. 


From every mountainside, let freedom ring.


And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!".


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THE WRECKONING

You can find a complete video and certainly the text of the historic speech anywhere on the internet.  Honor Dr. King by reading his speech or watching the video.  Do not give any credibility to the bigoted charleton and his Dog and Pony Show.

Sad that the dog and pony are Albert Pujols and Tony LaRussa.  Heartbreaking.

That's all I have to say as the circus clown performing this charade is not worth a name mention.

Do something of value on Saturday, August 28th.  Read the King speech and then plant a tree.

Sunday will come soon enough.

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I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE

I watched a very disturbing video several times today. It was of a protest regarding the jingoistically named 911 Mosque, Ground Zero Mosque, whatever. There was a black man wearing a white cap who, it turns out, wasn't even a Muslim, who found himself in the midst of a protest featuring both pro and con demonstrators. He was denigrated, told to run away, called a coward, and actually had to be escorted from the scene by authorities.

This topic and the resulting incident that I have referenced above, along with the blatant racism now being more and more tolerated each day...the vile spewings from the mouths of most everyone at Fox Noise but most notably Glen Beck and Sara Palin, along with Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Bachman are words that as early as five years ago would have been cause for uprisings and banning of these voices from public discourse. Of course, we didn't have a black commander in chief. We didn't have a black family in the White House. God knows what those two are doing on the counter tops in the White House kitchen.

I said that in the hopes that just one cracker bigot reads this blog. I know they don't but it would be fun to spar with a fourth grader.

Dr. Laura got her two cents in. She went out with a bang, spouting the "N" word 11 times. That must have been a real purging experience for her since she's been dying to use it for so many years. I hope that now she can take a good, healthy shit since she's let go of all that bigotry she's been holding onto for the past several decades. Better take some dulcolax, Laura, because it's going to be a big old turd.

Glenn Beck is going to dishonor the I Have a Dream Speech this coming weekend. Along with many other white people who seem to think they have to take their country back from something. I think it's dark people. They still like orange people, though. Thus, John Boehner. By the way, the correct pronunciation of his name, phonetically is not "Bayner." It's "Boner." Just sayin...

While I am adding a certain amount of levity, this just isn't funny. When Newty whose legacy, both professionally and personally is that of something below a deranged sewer rat can compare the building of this community center to Nazi's putting up a display outside of the Holocaust museum, this country has to really and deeply consider who we put up as experts, pundits and authorities. We have to storm the doors of the media...all of them... and perhaps watch Network so that we all say "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it any more."

But not like some poor, misguided woman who is obviously old enough to collect social security and medicare wearing a sunhat laden with teabags, toting a sign that says keep your government hands off my medicare. The uneducated and frighted older white population of this country have been scared and duped enough. I don't have to continue to wax political on them, it is a futil effort. Let's fix a few things to save the people who can be saved.

Gays and Muslims are the new...I can't bring myself to say it, but the "N" word. It works and it gets uneducated white people who are unemployed, underemployed, scared and mad all worked up. There is only one way to settle them down. We'll never stop them from being bigots. But we can stop the frenzied madness.

We have to pressure our government to quit sitting on the rest of the stimulus money and get all Eisenhower and Roosevelt (both of them) on us. Turn a couple of those assembly plants sitting vacant in Detroit and Ohio and Indiana and Pennsylvania into functioning operations that make the cars for the new light rail that's being built in Denver from Grand Central downtown to the airport. Among other projects. Made in America, you know?

I've digressed but not really. If a baptist minister had bought that piece of shit Burlington Coat Factory building that sits among a Starbucks, a Strip Joint and a lot of barely surviving bottom feeder businesses we wouldn't have heard a peep. These are Americans. These are people who want to spend time with their families and friends in a community center and, gee, just like countless Catholic Youth Centers at which I have volunteered, also have a prayer center.

Before I make my final point, I would like to quote an excerpt from the beautiful Lady Liberty, and the poem connected with her. You see, this country and what we venerate is so much about the downtrodden, the needing, the lost and the hopeful. We are supposed to be the country that reached out to those who just want a little chance. That beautiful piece of writing actually disdains what the right so venerates. Here is it...just a few lines you may not be aware of, that appear just before the familiar statement that is forever connected with the Statue of Liberty:

From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome; Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities framed.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp” cries she with silent lips.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

America has a right to hurt and grieve over 911. But many of the countries upon whom our military presence has been pressed over the past 10 years suffer similar tragedies. Only on a daily basis. One of the reasons 911 is so raw is because it is so rare. Should we not consider ourselves, as a nation, blessed and thank God, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, and every other spiritual entity that grants us solace, hope and peace, that we have never had to live under the threat of constant bombings, abject poverty, torture and subjugation of women, and no hope further than the miracle of surviving another day? Shouldn't we want the religious freedom we so easily enjoy in our own communities with our own traditional and accepted faiths for everyone? Including a basketball court  in a community center if they want one?

Isn't it really as simple as that?

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WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO SAY

The following was written by Frank Schaeffer who is a former Republican, New York Times best selling author and a theologian. Among his books are the following:

"Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)" Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2009

"How Free People Move Mountains: A Male Christian Conservative and a Female Jewish Liberal on a Quest for Common Purpose and Meaning" (with Kathy Roth-Douquet), New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008

"Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the U.S. Marine Corps" (with son John Schaeffer), New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2002

These are three titles among the 19 books, numerous films and other published works. This piece was sent to me in an email from a friend. It states, beautifully, what I have been trying to express in these blogs. His background and conversion from working on the McCain campaign in 2000 to now make him a credible and, in my mind, perfect advocate for the path upon which our current president is attempting to take our country. Here it is, unedited.

____________________

Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds -- including this white, straight, 57-year- old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter -- are sticking with our President. Why?--because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama's steady supporters will be proved right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst.

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any president led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any president faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the right and left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.

The left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy"--snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office--none of which was his fault:

# An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries

# Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral

# The worst economic crisis since the depression

# America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history

# A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war

# A health care system in free fall

# An educational system in free fall

# A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)

# An impasse between culture warriors from the right and left

# A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration.

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!

_________________________

"Help" from the Right?

What did the Republicans and the religious right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists -- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office -- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate, wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was white-hating "racist", was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ,(!) and was
a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!

They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so- subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well financed) "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a president who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"

In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far right,combined with the educated but obtuse neo-conservative war mongers, religious right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

______________________________

"Help" from the Left?

What did the left do to help their newly elected president? Some of them excoriated the President because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!

Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other president's has been. Never mind that he signed a new hate crimes law!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on election night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been transported to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!

And the legion of young, new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond. "Governing"?! What the hell does that word, uh, like mean?"

The President's critics left and right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then of course there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their president. He hadn't consulted them,had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas-say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or to be exact by the American idiot nation that voted Bush into office - twice!

________________________

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community - in just 12 short months -- President Obama:

#Continued to draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Restored America's image around the globe (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Banned torture of American prisoners (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of the American economy (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stood up for educational reform (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Won a Nobel peace prize (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Responded to hatred from the right and left with measured good humor and patience
(But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Stopped the free fall of job losses (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty". (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

#Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments -- IN ONE YEAR -- President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to expectations"!

_________________________

Who actually has failed...

...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the left and right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proved right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!

__________________________

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts -- with a canny and calculating eye to the possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proved not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proved right.
___________________

From Me, the Old Broad: "To this, I simply add 'AMEN.'"

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THINKING OF MUSIC

I was listening to NPR and they were highlighting a new Jazz musician who combines Jazz, Brazilian and several other influences. I am sad to say that I don't remember her name. But I do remember the conversation. She was talking about the way it feels to be in a room filled with talented people, all breathing and listening to one another.

I remember that feeling. Riding on a cloud that lifted me off the stage and into another place, I was in a Heaven that included artists who humbled me with their talent and thrilled me with their gifts. I still can't believe they included me in their circle. To make it even more amazing, they loved me and they were my friends.

I was thinking, especially, about one amazing time when we were in Cincinnati and it was the holidays. All three boats were docked together. I got a bug in my mind about 11 am and asked my friend, a genius bass player named Ed Wise what he thought. He thought it was a fabulous idea.

I made certain that the grand saloon on the Mississippi Queen was free and it was. We started gathering musicians - knocking on doors and awaking layabouts who usually sleep until 2pm. They all said "YES...LET'S DO IT."

What we did was a Christmas present to us. We decided to all get together in the grand saloon and have a jam session. If the passengers wanted to show up and listen, fine, but there were no requests and it was for us. I was the MC and I made it clear to the audience that they were watching all the musicians from the three boats exchanging their Christmas gifts.

Everyone who usually played an instrument but wanted to sing had a chance to do so. I watched musicians who rarely got to sing raise their hands like little kids: "I got one" Called the Key and the Song and we went for it. When there was a lull these incredibly talented musicians would holler "Call it, Patti!" And I called the song.

We switched off drummers, did double bass, had doubles on horns. Three piano players traded off and I got to sing a bunch.

We must have played for an hour and a half before we had to quit to get on with the actual schedule of the boats. By the time we finished, it was standing room only, including a lot of Delta Queen brass.

My buddy Mikey poked me and said "You did a good thing." I said, "I know." My heart was so full of joy, and everyone left the stage as though they were walking on air.

Some of those wonderful musicians are gone now. Brian Ogilve...Vic (who will live in infamy as the man who named the lounge on the American Queen "Carpet World")...gone too soon. All of the others live far from me and we talk now and then or do the Christmas card thing. Most of them still play and I'm so envious.

Soon after that wonderful day, the brass tried to implement a planned jam session as a part of the lounge performances. Yeah...planned jam session. It was awful. How could it be anything but? It wasn't for us, it was for them. It failed miserably. No big surprise.

How do you pretend to have a Christmas party with and for all your friends? How do you pretend to look at everyone around you and realize that you are riding on a river of love and music and joy? You can't fake that.

Oh, how I miss the music. Oh, how I miss them all. But, oh, how lucky I am to have been there.

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I CAN'T RESIST

As I was tearfully watching the news coverage of our exit from Iraq, Jimmy came by and let me know that there is a very important significance to this day. Brett Favre is returning to the Vikings and he believes that this had a tremendous impact in the troop withdrawal. I know. I should have let this go. But I can't. Brett Favre...quarterback...superhero...worldwide conflict negotiator. Amazing.

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OUT OF IRAQ

I was working on spreadsheets this afternoon when breaking news showed on MSNBC, which I usually monitor without sound while I work. So, I saw the moment when it was announced that the last of our combat troops have left Iraq.

A brilliantly planned exit authorized by the Obama administration and coordinated with the Pentagon has been ongoing on while we've slept. As I sit, comfortably in my living room writing these words, Richard Engel, the embedded reporter who was authorized by the pentagon to break the news, is standing in Kuwait watching the last of the American Combat Troops entering Kuwait.

This final exit was planned to take place during Ramadan to assure a safe departure and was described as almost a "taxi caravan." They took the main highways out of the country while dawn was approaching.

While 50,000 consultants remain, they are mostly contractors and not combat troops. Horns are honking, people are in tears. As am I. My heart has been beating out of my chest since about 4:00 this afternoon.

I will save the discussions on the contentious issues of this war. I will have many occasions to discuss this. I'm looking at unabashed joy on the face of Richard Engel. I just watched the gates close as the last vehicle passed through. I'm watching seasoned television analysts with red blotches on their cheeks. Richard smiled and described the tent which is the first stop for our troops as thick with cigar smoke.

I pray for the Iraqi people who have to try to get through their daily lives...a labor and a hardship greater than the poorest of the poor in America. They are as much my brothers and sisters walking on this blue ball circling the universal sky as my next door neighbor. We will not forget them and we will talk about this in days to come.

But for the moment, I want to rejoice with every mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, relative, friend, and citizen of this country who, with heart pounding, is awaiting the return of our precious treasure. While Iraq is not in our past, the war is over. I didn't think I'd ever be able to print those words.

Just at the moment when faith runs its course, a reason to believe begins its life. And so it goes...

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CONVERSATIONS WITH CONSERVATIVES PART TWO

This is more of a sigh than a diatribe. I had a phenomenal musician friend with whom I had a brief dalliance because we had so much in common. Repartee, matching word-play, competitions on who could add the most songs to the repertoire in a week, and sincere admiration for one another's talent and ability. We truly liked one another. He finally met the love of his life, married and is living a happy life but to this day, I never forget his birthday and certainly never forget the amazing years we spend as always friends and sometimes lovers.

He grew up in a family of Republicans. We would go back and forth but it was in vain because I could never get a REAL discussion based upon facts. You know, like bringing up the situation the country was in that led up to Social Security and all of the economic stimulus and government job creations steps that Roosevelt took to get us out of the great depression. Of course, back then we had real democrats who were willing to lose their seats to defend the country and put all of their careers on the line to do something that the public didn't understand but came to know was in their best interest. I'm smiling because I'm having a one way argument with an old friend who can't respond.

As long as my conservative friends get their information from FOX or evangelicals we will never be able to move forward. It's not news. It's ideology.

Chris Matthews often says "I will disagree with all you are saying but I will not presume that I know your heart." That is true of my conservative friends. They believe with all their hearts that they are right.

The part that drives me crazy is that they, somehow, feel compelled to "straighten me out" as though it was a given that they are right and I am wrong.

Believe me, my conservative friends, if you were not my friends, I would put forth a tsunami of both constitutional and biblical reasons why you are deluded and harming all of us. But I will save my diatribes, one entry at a time, for this blog. That's why I write it. And I think maybe 2 people read it sometimes. No matter. I get to say all the things that I want to say to the TV just before I divert myself from throwing my too expensive Z-Coil shoe through that expensive HD flatscreen.

I think this blog is not only more satisfying but, in the long run, more cost efficient.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH CONSERVATIVES PART ONE

I feel like both Lionel Ritchie and John the Baptist. I love that and I'm smiling right now. But it's true. On one hand, I feel like Lionel Ritchie with his "Hello" song - I know that only a handful of people read this and I'm not shaking up the discourse of the country with this blog. I'm sure that a lot of these entries go unread.

To John the Baptist: "A voice in the wilderness..." I do think I have a message. I do think it can affect discourse. But I'm in the desert. Not the dessert, I don't like sugar.

So...I have a dear friend who is a total right wing conservative. Many of my progressive friends ask me why I even bother to talk to "those people." Well, because I've gotten to know them as people and while I vehemently disagree with them, I also love them. And they vehemently disagree with me but they also love me. This can be accomplished. That's why the Washington posturing so disappoints me. I wish I could go up there with a paddle and put everyone in a corner and lecture them on how they they are "bad actors" as the Nuns used to tell us. I reference the Nuns because they scared the crap out of me and all the other kids in my class so maybe a scary nun has to go to congress to straighten them out. Just behavior-wise. Not on policy. Which so segues into what I want to talk about. I really didn't plan this, it's total stream of consciousness that just worked out.

My wonderful friend wanted to respond to my blog but not ON the blog because then I would engage him in argument and we know, from past experience, that doing so winds up with hurt feelings and neither of us want that. So he sent his responses privately and they will remain so.

What I will tell you is that almost all of them had to do with religion. And that is my issue and my problem with right-leaning people. They want to legislate morality, and morality is in the eyes of the individual, depending completely upon what religion or philosophy they have incorporated into their lives. THAT'S THE WHOLE PROBLEM.

If I still wanted to be Catholic I would be. I'm not. I've fallen and I can't get up. If I wanted to be a Jehovah Witness I would. I don't want to. If I wanted to be a Baptist, I would. I don't want to. If I wanted to be a crazy ass Colorado Springs Evangelical, they're right down the road. I don't want to go there!

This does not mean that I want to deny any one of the millions of people out there in this big, wide country the right to be what they want to be. JUST DON'T LAY IT ON ME.

There are sects and religions that believe in polygamy, incest and inter-breeding, complete celibacy, no birth control, pacifism, war, killing black people, vegetarianism, dancing as the work of Satan, snake handling and extra terrestrial birthrights. Just to name a few. And every person who subscribes to any one of those religions believes in it with all of their heart. Believes it is their road to salvation. Who is right? Every one who is a member of a congregation at this moment says "I am right. I believe in the word of God as spoken to me by my faith." Including the extra-terrestrials.

Stop legislating morality. Morality is arbitrary. Morality is, in the end, between me and God. You and God. Individually. While you celebrate your faith in numbers, your relationship with God will forever be personal.

If you don't want to have sex with someone of your gender don't do it. You still don't have the right to legislate it just because your particular religion says it's wrong. If you don't believe in abortion don't do it.

Your religion and its laws have never lived through the horrendous decision that lies in a women who faces an untenable situation in making that life altering decision. I shudder every time a man talks about banning abortion. Especially when, so often, that man has put his weenie where it didn't belong and could, well, have been responsible for an unplanned pregnancy.

In the end, Jesus said it. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's."

If your religion says that a particular act is against God then let God handle it. We have plenty of legislative and political issues to deal with. We don't need to meddle in God's affairs. If you TRULY believe that in the end, people will get their just rewards why can't you just move on? Wouldn't life be simpler if we got religion out of politics, the way our founding fathers meant it to be?

Thomas Jefferson was truly Doubting Thomas. That's why he so strongly wanted religion to be completely separated from our legislation and politics. We are to TOLERATE all religions, not allow them to LEGISLATE.

The arguments of my conservative friends melt away if we apply the true spirit of the constitution. Now, they don't melt away in the avenues of discourse. We can forever discuss and argue whether something is moral, and I love sparring with people who have actually read the bible and want to have a purely theocratic discussion because, generally, that is an intelligent discussion and repartee. It is so because it is devoid of politics. It is the discussion that is meant to be. A philosophical discussion of morality and spirituality.

I will never believe that a segment of the population has the right to vote against the civil rights of another segment of the population, based upon their opinion of morality. The two have nothing to do with one another. Let God handle the morality. Let the rest of us work to make a better society.

I was working on spreadsheets this afternoon when breaking news showed on MSNBC, which I usually monitor without sound while I work. So, I saw the moment when it was announced that the last of our combat troops have left Iraq.

A brilliantly planned exit authorized by the Obama administration and coordinated with the Pentagon has been ongoing on while we've slept. As I sit, comfortably in my living room writing these words, Richard Engel, the embedded reporter who was authorized by the pentagon to break the news, is standing in Kuwait watching the last of the American Combat Troops entering Kuwait.

This final exit was planned to take place during Ramadan to assure a safe departure and was described as almost a "taxi caravan." They took the main highways out of the country while dawn was approaching.

While 50,000 consultants remain, they are mostly contractors and not combat troops. Horns are honking, people are in tears. As am I. My heart has been beating out of my chest since about 4:00 this afternoon.

I will save the discussions on the contentious issues of this war. I will have many occasions to discuss this. I'm looking at unabashed joy on the face of Richard Engel. I just watched the gates close as the last vehicle passed through. I'm watching seasoned television analysts with red blotches on their cheeks. Richard smiled and described the tent which is the first stop for our troops as thick with cigar smoke.

I pray for the Iraqi people who have to try to get through their daily lives...a labor and a hardship greater than the poorest of the poor in America. They are as much my brothers and sisters walking on this blue ball circling the universal sky as my next door neighbor. We will not forget them and we will talk about this in days to come.

But for the moment, I want to rejoice with every mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, relative, friend, and citizen of this country who, with heart pounding, is awaiting the return of our precious treasure. While Iraq is not in our past, the war is over. I didn't think I'd ever be able to print those words.

Just at the moment when faith runs its course, a reason to believe begins its life. And so it goes...

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DICTION

You will always know my insomnia nights which are many. I was exhausted from staying up late watching election results last night so I was certain that I would be in bed by 9. No luck. Too many thoughts and ideas and plans for the candidates I want to support. Also, just one of those random nights.

So, I'm watching Letterman and it's a re-run from June where Jayzee and MNM (I don't think it's M&M but I'm not sure) are promoting the fund raising concerts they did in Detroit and other cities (I have an affinity for Detroit and I must confess that I don't remember where else.)

While I am proud of what they are doing and I know they will raise a lot of money, I opened my mind as my son always encourages me to do (with no little amount of chastisement) and watched the rooftop concert.

I have no hearing difficulties. I can hear the Rockies game at medium volume from two rooms away. I can understand every word of every song that Frank Sinatra ever sang.

I will put one of my all time heroes, Bette Midler, in the park with these two guys. Why can't you pull the microphone away from your mouth and enunciate your consonants so that we can understand what the F*** you are saying???? I can't tell you how many Bette songs I had to listen to again and again in order to make certain I had the words right before I put it in my show. Yeah, I did everything on the fly and by ear. Another story for another day. She used to drive me crazy because I just loved her (and still do) but her diction sucked.

Rapper guys, I would LOVE to hear your message. I just don't want have to listen to your piece, whatever it may be, a dozen times before I decipher the words.

Don't give me the crap line that you have to talk so quickly that the words get blurred. Barbra Streisand once did a hilarious rendition of the "Minute Waltz" and I guarantee that she uttered every word at least as quickly as you guys do. But every word was understood. I laughed my ass off and still wish I could pull that rendition of that song off.

Both of you are good people with good things in your heart and something important to say. How about making your message accessible to everyone? I know that my 35 year old son thinks the world of both of you but I would challenge him that if he and I sat in a room and listened to a new offering from either of you on equal ground...first listen...that he could understand all the words.

You have a message. Why not clearly and concisely communicate that message? Would it take that much more effort to enunciate? Could you not be the kings of hip hop or rap or whatever you call it now, but also the kings of elocution? You're smart enough to be both. Just sayin'...

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GOD AND FOOTBALL

So now, because we have "Underpants Jesus" on the Denver Broncos, "Focus on Other People's Families" is going to do a great big ad buy. Just great.

Well, I have a sincere hope that right before the first crap ad from these hypocrites interrupts my football bliss, Josh McStupid comes out with one of his F-Bomb rants that is caught on national television. It will be a fabulous segue. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

I think we should not only have separation of church and state. We should definitely have separation of church and football. Oh, and by the way for all the athletes and fans who pray for a win...God doesn't give a crap who wins. I think there might be a bigger agenda on God's plate.

However, just for the record, if God did love a team it would be the Green Bay Packers. Vince Lombardi helps Jesus with his picks at the Angel Bar football pool. Just sayin...

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JUST WONDERFUL

I know that not very many people read this thing but I always write it with the hope that an errant traveler might trip on the stones or the snow and find this blog.

Craig Fergusen is the best thing to happen to late night. In fact, he's hazardous to my health because I stay up and watch him when I should be trying to sleep and grind my mouth guard to oblivion. He's so freaking funny. He's also so freaking brilliant.

If you haven't read "Between the Bridge and the River" you are missing the best thing since my beloved Kurt Vonnegut left this plane. Then you watch his show and it's like...what if Kurt Vonnegut had been young enough to do a really funny late night talk show and you have it.

I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Craig Fergusen keeps me sane.

I thank him. I know he'll never see this but who cares. I just watched my candidate lose the primary because he didn't have enough money to compete. Even sold his house and still not enough.

So, I need a little Craig. Even though in my mind, tonight, it's not a great day for America, he will convince me that it is still a great day.

No, I'm not paid by CBS. And now that I look back at this missive, if I give you one gift it's that book. Read "Between the Bridge and the River." It will joyously change your life for the better.

LESSER OF TWO EVILS

Well, my man lost. Andrew Romanoff, the candidate who sold his house in an attempt to win the nomination for U.S. Senate here in Colorado, the man who won the caucus, the county and the state assembly lost the primary because his opponent had big money behind him.

I just attended a local vacancy committee meeting for our house district. Our representative in the state senate gave up her seat a week before the primary and we had to replace her. One of the items brought up in this meeting was whether or not the candidates had the resources to raise the money necessary to win. This is a state representative position...the job pays about $30K per year. We discussed the fact that the person would have to have the wherewithal to raise between $40 and $60K to be a contender. REALLY??? Who has that kind of expendable cash? So then, you have to raise it, which means that if you want to have a place, even within your state, you have to get special interest money which immediately makes you beholding to those interests. Money makes the world go around.

Until we fix the money involved in campaigns...until somebody like me is not barred from running for U.S. Senate simply because I don't have or can't raise the millions of dollars involved in a race like this...I couldn't even raise the honest money to run for a state office. And Andrew tried to do that...raise honest money.

Other than still being an entertainer, if I had one wish, it would be to have the opportunity to be a legislator. When our country was formed, it was with the idea that anyone could represent the people of their district. The fact that our country has been distorted to Corporatism (completely against the wishes of our founding fathers) and that actual PERSONHOOD has been granted to corporations in order to advance their wishes and needs against those of the people is abominable. Yet, I can't get the message across,even to people who I perceive to be intelligent. They're burned out. Which is the plan.

Force people to work so hard, need so much, think and read so little. You can get away with any and everything. Ooooooh...this is a conversation for another post at another time but one that needs to be expressed. Crap, I know nobody reads this but it helps me to just get it out there.

When faced with the choice between a compromised candidate who will sometimes vote in our best interests as opposed to a misogynistic neo-con, I will choose the former and vote for Michael Bennett. The idea of Ken Buck as our Senator is beyond frightening. So I will vote for a guy who will be sort of like the hippocratic oath: "First do no harm." While the future of our state will be represented by someone who will always weigh his vote against the reaction of his big money advocates and his prospects of being re-elected, he is still better than the alternative and he is, hopefully, no Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln or Max Baucus. Only time will tell on that hopeful statement.

I will make that choice with sadness. We could have had a champion. So, I'll send my money to Joe Sestak and Russ Feingold. Perhaps Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will have champions.

We have a great candidate for Governor - Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will have all my support. Money, work, and phone calls. He jokes that if good hair became a premise for winning, he would lose. But as for policy and ideas, he is my kind of guy and my kind of candidate. He did great things for the city and he will do that for the state.

Don't bother to call me, DNC. I choose my candidates independently now. I resign my membership. I'm now a member of the "Old Broad Criterion" party. Live with it.

A NEW WORLD COMING

The Proposition 8 decision in California brings us one step closer to rationality.

The idea that only a marriage between a man and a woman is a “sacred bond” is belied by...just to name a few... Larry King, Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Donald Trump, Mickey Rooney, Billy Bob Thornton, Clark Gable...yes, despite the fact that we adore him he was married 5 times...and I could go on and on.

I’ve been married twice. One of my sisters has been married three times and, yet, upon her third marriage to an astounding and brilliant man, she got it right in more ways than I could ever voice in this missive.

What I am saying is that the “sacred” thing is so bastardized by scum like Kate Gosselin and her ilk. I personally know gay couples who have loved and raised children. They have not transgressed, nor do they feel the need to self aggrandize themselves on television for their mere ability to pro-create (or in their case, I guess it would be to serial adopt.) Not once have they betrayed their partner(s) nor have they abandoned or exploited their children. Not once. They have lived their often difficult lives in dedication to their families.

How nuts is this country in that we still think that “the gay” is some contagious disease that will, in some bizarre way, corrupt the children? How crazy is it that there are people in this country of America, the home of the free, who believe that denying a segment of our population the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is, somehow, honoring the constitution? HAVE YOU READ THIS DOCUMENT? I have a pocket copy and I will be glad to send you one if you need it.

So to the Muslim Community Center and Mosque. First of all, my understanding is that it is a Community Center with a prayer center incorporated inside. That said, even if it is a full blown Mosque, God and Allah love them! What better tribute to the victims of 911 (that included many Muslim victims) than an example of the unique and glorious diversity of both New York City and the United States of America! What a defeat to extremism! A peaceful place, open to anyone who cares to venture inside, just blocks from where hatred and extremism did its horrific damage.

Caribou Barbie and Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich can rally and continue to spread hate but their ultimate goal is to continue to scare you. Oooooh...Muslims. Scary people plotting against the rest of us. Oh, by the way, while you’re scared of Muslims, don’t forget Mexicans who are killing people in the Arizona desert...though nobody can verify that and it's pretty much been discredited...and also you’d better hate people who abuse welfare at a ratio of less than 1%...and don't forget "the gay"...scary scary awful people who aren’t white, straight or not like us...whatever us is...you know...US...uneducated people who don't want to read or pay attention but sure don't like what's going on so it must be the fault of THOSE PEOPLE!!

Hate them! Hate them so that you don’t pay attention to the real agenda of creating a population that contains only wealthy class and serf class who serves the wealthy...I’ll address more of that in another missive. It's not a myth, it has been in plan for a long time and Reagan was the catalyst for a long term economic ideology of control. The easiest society to keep in control is a serf based society.

That's not the focus of this entry, but it will be in entries to come. Just know that this situation we are in is no mistake. It's an established plan. If you want to fear something, fear this plan....fear them!

Friends of equality, friends of true Christianity, friends of liberty, friends of love, together we celebrate tonight. Celebrate, all my friends who agree that we are put here on this earth to take care of one another and love one another.

We are all going to die someday...some sooner, some later...so if I make a mistake, it will be a mistake in the name of love and it will be worth the error. I would so like to go down with a list of people I love as opposed to people I hate.

I will never live among the fearful or the hateful. I will follow Matthew 25 as my one and only edict and care for the least among us. Come what may, I will be counted among those who will be invited into the Kingdom. I will be invited beside my Black, Hispanic, Gay, Asian,Muslim, impaired, fat, goofy, (INSERT YOUR UNACCEPTED STATUS HERE) friends along with every single one of you, my rainbow of loved ones...my current friends and all my friends yet to enter my circle. My Darlings. My world.

Joyous night to you all! "Sleep well but sleep light for there is work to be done come the dawn." Patti Lee-Crawford HAH, I bet you thought that was a famous quote! I can write, why do you think I have a blog you unbelievers.

I like this one better: as my old buddy Rocket used to say: "These booths are uncomfortable as shit...get the Hell outa here."

Talk to you soon.

I was working on spreadsheets this afternoon when breaking news showed on MSNBC, which I usually monitor without sound while I work. So, I saw the moment when it was announced that the last of our combat troops have left Iraq.

A brilliantly planned exit authorized by the Obama administration and coordinated with the Pentagon has been ongoing on while we've slept. As I sit, comfortably in my living room writing these words, Richard Engel, the embedded reporter who was authorized by the pentagon to break the news, is standing in Kuwait watching the last of the American Combat Troops entering Kuwait.

This final exit was planned to take place during Ramadan to assure a safe departure and was described as almost a "taxi caravan." They took the main highways out of the country while dawn was approaching.

While 50,000 consultants remain, they are mostly contractors and not combat troops. Horns are honking, people are in tears. As am I. My heart has been beating out of my chest since about 4:00 this afternoon.

I will save the discussions on the contentious issues of this war. I will have many occasions to discuss this. I'm looking at unabashed joy on the face of Richard Engel. I just watched the gates close as the last vehicle passed through. I'm watching seasoned television analysts with red blotches on their cheeks. Richard smiled and described the tent which is the first stop for our troops as thick with cigar smoke.

I pray for the Iraqi people who have to try to get through their daily lives...a labor and a hardship greater than the poorest of the poor in America. They are as much my brothers and sisters walking on this blue ball circling the universal sky as my next door neighbor. We will not forget them and we will talk about this in days to come.

But for the moment, I want to rejoice with every mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, relative, friend, and citizen of this country who, with heart pounding, is awaiting the return of our precious treasure. While Iraq is not in our past, the war is over. I didn't think I'd ever be able to print those words.

Just at the moment when faith runs its course, a reason to believe begins its life. And so it goes...

To comment on this or any other postings, click on the blog posting title to the right. It will then give you a comments area where you can post your thoughts. Have fun. Don't be dicks or I will annihilate you.

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

I had a buddy a long time ago. We were unlikely friends. I was unabashedly baudy and loud. Stevie was a hot, young bartender at the high end hotel where I just happened to be the piano broad. As Kurt Vonnegut says...and so it goes.

Stevie had an Achilles heel and I found it. Despite his desire to be an aloof God of Gorgeous, he had a sense of humor. I had no more interest in his body than I did in pursuing a degree in quantum physics. I wanted a big laugh at the end of my night. And I found it. He was embarrassed by the fact that I made him laugh out loud and he often tried to "tone me down" all to no avail. Eventually, I won him over to the dark side...which is actually the road to the light.

I wish that those of us who are not pretty people had an easier road to the place I was able to bring my friend. At that time, I was a Diva and doing what I loved in life. It was easy to tell him to forget what others think of you...have a good time.

My fondest memory of Stevie is when I was playing at another club and he was still tending bar at the hotel. It was just before Christmas and I told him that we ought to go to one of the department stores that was open all night. I talked him into riding a Hotwheels up and down the aisles until a manager yelled at us. He was euphoric! We went and had a drink and laughed about how he'd never done anything like that before.

Stevie fell in love with a beautiful young lady and I was ecstatic for him. He asked me to sing at his wedding and I was so honored. They picked out the songs and I labored over them, hoping that they would be perfect. In the months that followed, I saw less and less of my friend. That was to be expected. We touched base on this and that, mostly about the wedding but always with some nonsense and laughter. Soon, it was a week away...Stevie would enter his new life.

I was busy with my engagement at the club and sitting on the hard wood floor of my apartment with my guitar. It was about four days before the wedding. There came a knock on my door. I opened it to find Stevie with a six pack of beer.

"I missed your face." One great big grin from my buddy standing at my door.

So, there to the old couch and me and my pal and stories and laughing like nobody's business. All the stuff of every friend and everything we had and knew in common. All the stuff you can cram into three beers apiece and then we were dry drinking the last can each. Knowing what was coming. Happy for the new life but accepting with each "sshuh" of that empty can that it was done.

We sent Christmas cards for a while. I still think of him on his birthday. I figure he still remembers mine, since he showed up when I turned 30 to make sure I didn't commit suicide.

I guess I'll never entirely figure out why you have to lose friends because they get married. That was not the first time and certainly not the last. I cry sometimes, but I laugh most times. They gave me so much. I miss the nonsense. I miss the laughter. I miss them all. But maybe the ones who are a part of our past are meant to be just that. Perhaps you can't fix perfection.

I am so lonely for the laughter. More than anything. There is no way to replace it. So I will just go on. I could have missed them. I could have walked on by. But I was once blessed with their presence in my life. I was once blessed with friends who made me laugh. I was once blessed with friends who loved me. They will live in my heart forever.

And...as my friend Kurt Vonnegut, now passed, says...and so it goes.

I was working on spreadsheets this afternoon when breaking news showed on MSNBC, which I usually monitor without sound while I work. So, I saw the moment when it was announced that the last of our combat troops have left Iraq.

A brilliantly planned exit authorized by the Obama administration and coordinated with the Pentagon has been ongoing on while we've slept. As I sit, comfortably in my living room writing these words, Richard Engel, the embedded reporter who was authorized by the pentagon to break the news, is standing in Kuwait watching the last of the American Combat Troops entering Kuwait.

This final exit was planned to take place during Ramadan to assure a safe departure and was described as almost a "taxi caravan." They took the main highways out of the country while dawn was approaching.

While 50,000 consultants remain, they are mostly contractors and not combat troops. Horns are honking, people are in tears. As am I. My heart has been beating out of my chest since about 4:00 this afternoon.

I will save the discussions on the contentious issues of this war. I will have many occasions to discuss this. I'm looking at unabashed joy on the face of Richard Engel. I just watched the gates close as the last vehicle passed through. I'm watching seasoned television analysts with red blotches on their cheeks. Richard smiled and described the tent which is the first stop for our troops as thick with cigar smoke.

I pray for the Iraqi people who have to try to get through their daily lives...a labor and a hardship greater than the poorest of the poor in America. They are as much my brothers and sisters walking on this blue ball circling the universal sky as my next door neighbor. We will not forget them and we will talk about this in days to come.

But for the moment, I want to rejoice with every mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, relative, friend, and citizen of this country who, with heart pounding, is awaiting the return of our precious treasure. While Iraq is not in our past, the war is over. I didn't think I'd ever be able to print those words.

Just at the moment when faith runs its course, a reason to believe begins its life. And so it goes...

To comment on this or any other postings, click on the blog posting title to the right. It will then give you a comments area where you can post your thoughts. Have fun. Don't be dicks or I will annihilate you.

MY DAD CALLED ME TODAY

My Dad called me today. My Dad calls me because I got a phone service and got him to sign up with it so that if we have the same service, our "long distance" calls are free. That's a big deal. He remembers phone bills with lots of long distance calls. He does NOT like the cell phone thing. So, I will pay for this land line until I no longer have my parents.

My Dad called to tell me that he was watching "Cheyenne" and he missed his buddy. When I was lucky enough to spend the summer with my parents, I used to watch "Maverick" in the morning with Dad, or Gunsmoke sometime in the evening. When you watch a show with Dad, you also need to do commentary. It's like "Mystery Science Theater" only it's with westerns. My brothers and sisters are missing out on all the fun. You can take "just a flesh wound" to it's extreme and laugh so hard that the episode is damned near over before you finish your repartee. You don't have to just sit there and watch it. But when I'm not there, Dad doesn't have anybody to laugh with, so he just sits there and watches it. All that comedy wasted.

So, he called me and told me that he was having his drink and watching "Cheyenne." I asked him if Mr. Bodie missed me and he retorted that "Mr. Bodie has more important things to think about..he's fighting for truth and justice!" We laughed and I told Dad that I was a fool to think that Cheyenne would miss me.

I also told Dad that I sure missed him. I sure do. And so it goes...

I was working on spreadsheets this afternoon when breaking news showed on MSNBC, which I usually monitor without sound while I work. So, I saw the moment when it was announced that the last of our combat troops have left Iraq.

A brilliantly planned exit authorized by the Obama administration and coordinated with the Pentagon has been ongoing on while we've slept. As I sit, comfortably in my living room writing these words, Richard Engel, the embedded reporter who was authorized by the pentagon to break the news, is standing in Kuwait watching the last of the American Combat Troops entering Kuwait.

This final exit was planned to take place during Ramadan to assure a safe departure and was described as almost a "taxi caravan." They took the main highways out of the country while dawn was approaching.

While 50,000 consultants remain, they are mostly contractors and not combat troops. Horns are honking, people are in tears. As am I. My heart has been beating out of my chest since about 4:00 this afternoon.

I will save the discussions on the contentious issues of this war. I will have many occasions to discuss this. I'm looking at unabashed joy on the face of Richard Engel. I just watched the gates close as the last vehicle passed through. I'm watching seasoned television analysts with red blotches on their cheeks. Richard smiled and described the tent which is the first stop for our troops as thick with cigar smoke.

I pray for the Iraqi people who have to try to get through their daily lives...a labor and a hardship greater than the poorest of the poor in America. They are as much my brothers and sisters walking on this blue ball circling the universal sky as my next door neighbor. We will not forget them and we will talk about this in days to come.

But for the moment, I want to rejoice with every mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, relative, friend, and citizen of this country who, with heart pounding, is awaiting the return of our precious treasure. While Iraq is not in our past, the war is over. I didn't think I'd ever be able to print those words.

Just at the moment when faith runs its course, a reason to believe begins its life. And so it goes...

To comment on this or any other postings, click on the blog posting title to the right. It will then give you a comments area where you can post your thoughts. Have fun. Don't be dicks or I will annihilate you.