Pour baby?

So here's what my righteous daughter wrote to the President the other day as he cowered beneath his desk in the Oval, tail between his legs, smacked down by the King of the Me-Firsters "Crybaby Boehner's" diss of a half-black, rabidly un-partisan (not to say, myopically polite, as in 'yes, massa') President's request to address congress this coming Wednesday night, an unprecedented rejection, according to the Congressional Historian. I'd like to commend her on her free-and-easy use of sports metaphors, a must when addressing politicians. In fact, it's apparently the only language they understand. You must pepper generously with Sportsspeak if you want your message to even get a hearing. And you know where that leaves most of the gals, right? So here's her spiel. Right on, sister.

"Regarding the President's address to Congress which was supposed to happen next Wednesday:

Boy, did you guys blow this play. Congressional Republicans deny the PRESIDENT an invitation to speak on a night when there is a Republican presidential debate and the White House backs off and takes the suggested night that is later offered? The same night the NFL season starts?! What are you all thinking? I am a loyal Democrat, I worked for the Maine Coordinated Campaign in 2008 as a field director and I support the party, but holy mackerel, this is a serious fumble. The Speaker of the House was not elected by the country, President Obama was, and it's about time he started acting like it. Your numbers are tanking because people want to see NOT a president that will bend over to accommodate the Republicans but a president that has the backbone to say, "Well sorry Mr. Speaker, but we're just going to have to address the nation, not Congress, that night. If Congress would like to know what I'm going to say, they can tune in.I'm not interrupting people watching a football game to make things more convenient for you. Frankly, the people who would only tune into the Republican debate wouldn't want to watch my speech anyway." The Republicans are running the table, as they have been for years and people aren't going to support the Democrats if we keep acting like the party that is happy with whatever scraps we can get. The country is NOT leaning to the right, stop letting the last election (which was all about better messaging and people being reactionaries) make you all think that this is a country that wants the Dems to bow and scrape. And that's what the President has done here. He has the bully pulpit, it's the BEST weapon. He needs to learn to USE it. Otherwise, all the people who believed in him in 2008 will abandon him in 2012. Please stop blowing these plays. You're all we have standing between us and the right-wing agenda. The President needs to stand up. It's not about making friends down there. The GOP is going to take no prisoners and we're going to be left holding the bag."

Nice to think I may have done something right along the way. You go, girl.

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning." Gloria Steinem

And then there's this bit of food for thought, from a recent Too Much: "The wider that gaps in income and wealth go, the greater the differences in the things that different classes can afford. In markedly unequal societies, things take on ever greater significance. They signal who has succeeded and who has not.

In London, the developed world’s most unequal city, these signals may dominate daily life as ferociously as anywhere else on Earth. Their incessant repetition drowns out the socially cohesive signals that people see and hear and feel in more equal societies, the sense that “we’re all in this together.” From sam pizzaigati, @ Too Much. (see site link to right)

Yeah, I'm thinkin of ditchin my shiny 99 Volvo (my notion of a NEW car) and getting a working person's car. An old Ford or Volvo 240 perhaps. I think I'm over whatever desire I may have once harbored to be viewed as one of the 'haves'.

I stumbled on this youtube video. Moammar is gone, but he's not so dumb as his flaccid looks might suggest. Especially where the subject of Obama's subservience to the white boys running The Hill is concerned. Read the subtitles carefully, they are accurately translated; MEMRI is a respected organization in international affairs circles. Memri also has a trove of ol' osama's speeches too that might surprise you.