So now it starts anew...

[Jae Williams]

I like Glenn Beck's attitude about it all this morning.

He says at the present time, Obama has a 100% approval rating from him. Obama's actions will tell whether that approval rating stays or drops.

We can all be that optimistic and diligent.

I hope we have all learned from this election that ...

(1) we have the greatest process of civil leadership transition in the world. No blood was shed for this shift in leadership.

(2) we have a civic duty to hold our representatives accountable for their promises and actions. Put your representatives in the federal and state houses and senates on your speed dial and in your email contact lists. Spring for a roll of stamps for snail mail. Keep an eye on their voting records and proposals. If anything doesn't sit right with you, speak out - but stay on message and be civil.

(3) we also have the civic duty to hold the fourth estate (the media, mainstream or otherwise) equally accountable for their reporting. Biases must be called out and responded to. Your newspapers and TV stations have websites and email and can be communicated with. Make them respond to you when their reporting is tainted.

Having said all that, here's what is happening...
(a) Your 401(k)'s are in joepardy of being nationalized.
(b) RUMOR (take it for what it's worth) is that Robert Kennedy Jr will be named as the head of the EPA. He's the Global Warming wonk who makes Gore seem like a piker. Kennedy has called us (who don't buy global warming) Facists and Holocaust deniers.

Research what's going on...get both sides of the story... and stay on top of the issues.

Ronna Williams

Senior DBA
DBAdirect,Inc

[klott]

Here it comes, wait for it!

[kpierce]

Hey Jae, Kenneth is referring to the fact that all political threads are being discussed in the "not for everyone" section.

[Jae Williams]

I though maybe a word or two about making sure that your elected representatives know you're watching them could be a good thing for everyone to see.

[John McKenna]

Jay,

The self appointed thought police don't want the Misc forum used for anything they do
not approved of. They would force us to obey if they could.

[Jae Williams]

Well, you know...one must have a bit of duck down on his back if he's going to stand out in the rain.

I don't fear the "thought police"...if they show up, I just won't think.* That'll throw them off.

I survived California politics in the 50's and 60's, so I guess I won't worry about the folks here who are... "in control".

Every hear of Jesse Unruh? Ruthless California politician.

I have remembered one of his quotes for any years...got it posted on my wall...
"If you can't drink a lobbyist's whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women, and still vote against him in the morning, you don't belong in politics."


If I can live around ol' Jesse--I reckon I'm pretty much ready...

* Just for Joey to have some fun with...and you know he will.

[William J. Decker]

This about sums it up:


Americans Embrace Childish Unity
Ben Shapiro
Thursday, November 06, 2008


The Great Election of 2008 is over. Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

Now is the time to ask what this election was about.

Here’s what this election was (set ital) not (end ital) about: Barack Obama. It was not about his record: He didn’t have one. It was not about his views, which are radical in the extreme. It was not about his associations: Americans didn’t care about Wright, Ayers, or Khalidi. The media didn’t want Americans to know about Obama. Obama didn’t want Americans to know about Obama. And Americans didn’t want to know about Obama.

This election was not about John McCain. No one cared about McCain, except the liberal media that nominated him president after one win in New Hampshire.

This election was not about President George W. Bush. Bush was used as a punching bag by both sides -- and by election time, he was completely irrelevant.

And this election was certainly not about the issues. In the general election, Barack Obama campaigned as a centrist, titularly abandoning his more extreme positions to do so. He lied about his policies. And no one cared.

This election was about one thing and one thing only: Americans’ puerile need for unity through self-congratulatory, cathartic membership in a broad, transformative political movement.

For eight years, Americans have been engaged in hostile politics. And after eight years, Americans were sick of it.

That isn’t to America’s credit. Hostile politics -- hard-fought political conflict over the issues that matter -- is not a bad thing. It is precisely the sort of messy republicanism the founders embraced. Early elections were replete with mudslinging, character assassination, brawls and scandals. They were also replete with some of the most substantive debate on policy ever put before mankind.

Apparently, we’re no longer interested in the dirty business of politics. We’d rather feel ourselves part of a high-minded movement. Not the sort of movement that espouses particular policies -- not the antiwar movement, or the pro-life movement -- those movements are too divisive. We want to be part of a movement that is solely about us.
Barack Obama was the vessel for that movement. He was an utter cipher. But he embodied the need of the American public for unity by hearkening back to the ultimate unifying feature of American life: third-grade slogans. He spouted Hope and Change. He told us, “We’re All Americans.” He told us, “Yes, We Can.”

From any other politician, it would be ridiculous drivel. From a black candidate, it was inspiring. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson didn’t talk like that -- they spoke the language of division. Because Obama spoke the language of unity, he had to be a moderate. So went our logic.
Barack Obama had us from the moment he said, “Hope.” In that moment, Obama accomplished two simultaneous transformations. First, he transformed himself into a moderate. Second, he transformed himself into a messianic figure, the object of our longing: the physical embodiment of America’s progression beyond racial conflict. If America wanted to move beyond conflict, what better way than to embrace a candidate who could end all racial conflict?

And the Obama campaign subtly played on this theme. They implied that if we voted against him, we were engaging in racial hatred; some supporters even implied America would undergo a race war if he lost. That’s the last thing we wanted.

We wanted to feel good again. That is what the Great Election of 2008 was about. It was about Americans’ desire to feel a part of Something Larger. To do something together, as Americans. In today’s day and age, that Something Larger cannot be the America Ronald Reagan preached about -- the left has attacked that America as racist, sexist, and selfish. That Something Larger had to be an individual who could provide us with the feeling of unity.

Barack Obama told us that we could do Something Larger simply by voting for him. When he said, “Yes We Can,” and we followed by screaming it, chanting it, shouting his name in unison, we were Doing Something Larger. We were uniting.

America has always recognized that unity for its own sake is useless at best and dangerous at worst. Unifying behind a mysterious charismatic figure promising transformational change may make us feel good, but it is a betrayal of the open and honest governmental debate our Founding Fathers sought and so many Americans have fought and died to preserve. Americans think they grew up during Election 2008. They think they moved beyond the past. In one way they did. In another, more important way, they regressed dramatically -- to a time before politics mattered. In the next four years, there will be plenty of growing up to do.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by jmckenna1

Jay,

The self appointed thought police don't want the Misc forum used for anything they do
not approved of. They would force us to obey if they could.

Hey don't get me wrong, I started out gunz a blazin' but I found that the majority of our members agreed to move to that section, I decided to respect that. Please continue if you wish.......

[wsiegel]

Man, i though once the election was over evryone would get away from these type of posts. As for me, I'm to busy inspecting to read more of this crap right now.

[Dale Duffy]

The ***** posts won't stop for months, better off not even reading this MB any longer, basically worthless in my opinion.

See ya'll at the beach---

[Joseph Burkeson, CMI]

Originally Posted by dduffy

The ***** posts won't stop for months, better off not even reading this MB any longer, basically worthless in my opinion.

See ya'll at the beach---

BUMP! - Hi Dale

[John Onofrey]

Dale,

Glad you're feeling better. Good luck on those tan lines!

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by jonofrey

Dale,

Glad you're feeling better. Good luck on those tan lines!

Soon as I can wear a seatbelt---....big Ouch right now----

[Dale Duffy]

Originally Posted by jburkeson1

BUMP! - Hi Dale

Morning Joe---

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Originally Posted by dduffy

Morning Joe---

Good Morning Dale, nice to see you up and about.

Marcel