Dear Obama/Biden Supporters:
This is not an easy note for me to write. I have been all over the place with my thoughts on what we should have done differently and where we went wrong in this election. I started reading many of the things you and others wrote about the loss of the House and the mood of the country. I came across this quote from Mort Sahl that I liked a lot , "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen". What more can I say? My heart hurts and my mind is racing about how to fix what went wrong. The GOP/Tea Party not only hijacked the language they stole our spirit and drive and all the independents and young people who believed in our agenda from 08. Karl Rove did it again and we let him by not getting our message out and telling people what we had accomplished in the last two years. We should have been shouting about our preventing a global economic collapse and successfully restructuring two auto companies. Why weren't we talking about our President who raised fuel -efficiency standards, negotiated a nuclear arms treaty with Russia,inspired education reforms and reformed health care. Where were the ads that described these incredible accomplishments and made them clear to the public over and over again. Why didn't we see auto workers stand up and say, "Obama saved my job", one after another. Why weren't we shown that this is the America we are proud of and this is the Presidnet who is working to keep jobs for all of us here at home!
My CA sister Peggy called a few days ago to say she hated Obama's talk at the press conference. I was taken aback and then she explained. " He should have said this was a disappointing election because we were in the midst of accomplishing change and weren't given cooperation or time to finish, education reform,energy cap and trade, health care tweaking, controls on big banks spending and lending, but we were able to make huge inroads. I am disappointed that the GOP chose to say no to all initiatives and to put roadblocks up for all the changes from W's failed policies". I am paraphrasing but she was right. He let them make us look like we hadn't accomplished much when he has passed more legislation than anyone since FDR! Now what is wrong with this picture and how do we change it for 2012? The picture on the front page of the NY Times of Barack Obama, the cool collected President ,grimacing was so uncomfortable and sad to me. This is the man who grabbed a brief window of opportunity and passed a major health care bill. He knew in the long run it was good for the country and that it could be made better by tweaking and revising it. How desperately sad that so many conscientious caring Congresspeople who voted for Obama's bill paid the price for placing the good of the nation over the good of the party.
Several Tea Party people who were know nothing candidates with no experience and had never met payroll were swept in on the ignorance that seemed to prevail among voters. All they needed was lots of money and theatrics from Fox news "reporters" who have a disturbing inadequacy of the basic facts of American history and political development. The Tea Party's simplistic appeals to an imaginary past that has little or no relevance to the present seemed to make sense to the uneducated voter. It is also true that Republicans always follow the party line in lock step fashion. The demand for immediate gratification in the world we live in is scary and they ran with this and fears of the unknown future. It is much easier to call for change than look at what has been accomplished by a President given only two years to fix eight years of W's over spending(where were these people when he took us from a surplus to negative trillions).We saw Liberals disheartened as well as Independents and the moderate arm of the GOP. It was if Americans wanted to go backwards to "Mad Men" times. It is like they are thinking about Leave It To Beaver and that his was a real life and one to aspire to. Rove has set the agenda again and we have to regroup and be ready for him in 2012!
People want Obama to stop being the community organizer and start fighting back and getting our message out. It is true that he has reached across the aisle to seek to placate the right by sacrificing demands of the left electorate. However, it seems to me that it was worth his efforts when he won the few votes needed for the stimulus and health care bills. Time and time again of late he has been rebuffed by the party of NO! Now we need to tell the public every time we do something, pass legislation and if not passed ,why and what the loss means to people. We have to clearly define how bills will influence your life and make them better in specific terms. It seems those middle class voters in Ohio didn't think about the tax deductions put in place by the Obama administration and were more concerned that he hadn't proven he was an American Citizen. Why not put this to rest once and for all? Lets pay for ads to toot our own horn and stop the lies!!! My friend Sharon in MO feels that people are voting to be a part of the American dream, even those middle class workers that may never accomplish it. They still have hope that it will come to them if only they can pull themselves up by their boot straps. This may be why they don't feel badly that there is such a differential between rich and poor since one day that dream could be theirs! We haven't sold anything to middle America, and the GOP/Tea Party people are dangling a carrot; if you stick with them it is way to American dream and they bought it hook line and sinker bought it! Hatred brings more hatred and we should think of Alice( *** see CA Randy's youtube,oldest Holocaust survivor ) when we get down and out ! Alice has embraced a powerful wisdom: Suffering does not rob life of meaning. It can make life all the more beautiful and all the more rich. Maybe, before I complain about the injustices of the universe(or this election) I should remember others have it much worse. I should embrace the pain and let it teach me and make us all stronger and wiser!!!!
In closing I want to point out a little know fact I learned from the NY Times this week. John Adams,200 years ago, predicted the rise of the Tea Party!!! " We may please ourselves with the prospect of free and popular governments. But there is great danger that those governments will mot make us happy. G-d grant they may. But I fear that in every assembly,members will obtain an influence by noise not sense. By meanness, not greatness. By ignorance, not learning. By contracted hearts, not large souls"...(Letter dated April 22,1776, while serving in first Continental Congress). Now why the hell don't we use this as an ad?
Love,Sunny
A Mama 4 Obama
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(Before the election results)
From Jude Upper bucks county PA Organizer:
Hey Sunny--
Tell everybody to keep their heads up, don't get discouraged. The ground game here in PA is kicking butt. In Bucks County alone this weekend we knocked over 100,000 doors and made over 25000 calls to get out the vote.
From Nita in DC/White Plains:
Yes we can! Thank youxxx
From Susan in Rye:
Great sentiments in your blog today! We all need to think positive now.
From Hank in NYC:
This will be in the Times tomorrow – They are giving me a pass on the usual 60-day rule before another letter runs. “Special dispensation for Election Day!”
To the Editor:
“With Time Short, Parties Advance Last Argument” (front page, Nov. 1):
The Republicans will almost surely regain control of the House and make serious inroads in the Senate on Election Day, but when they wake up bleary-eyed on Wednesday morning they will be faced with the same impossible choices that President Obama and the Democrats have been trying to deal with for almost two years now — a high unemployment rate, an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, an education system crumbling as fast as the antiquated buildings our children attend school in and deficits of monumental proportions.
I’ve listened carefully to G.O.P. and Tea Party candidates tell the public what they will do if elected — cut taxes, reduce the deficit and cut spending — but little is said about how they will accomplish this.
It will be very interesting to see Representative John A. Boehner wield the gavel as speaker of the House, and Mitch McConnell pursue his “single most important thing” for the next two years: making Barack Obama a one-term president.
The real losers, no matter the outcome of the midterm elections, will be the American people.
From Fritzie in NYC:
Thanks Sunny! Absolutely I'll be voting! I've been nagging everyone, and even give staff time off to
go vote.
**********From Randy in CA: About Alice I referred to in above note!
I guess some people have hope regardless of what the situation is ... maybe we should all think positively despite the cruel outcome of this past week's election.
Please view and share this wonderful video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlccsLr48Mw
#2
#2(before election results)
I thought this week's Week in Review was one of the best ever! I read
the entire section and each article seemed better than the next. I
too was very impressed with Kristof's opinion.(see Judy's below)
***From Judy in Mamaroneck:
Click here: Give Obama a Break - NYTimes.com
After the Election Results:
From our Lilly Ledbetter in Alabama:
I am sooooo disappointed in the election results from Nov 2--2010!! I am ready to
get to work for 2012!!!!!!!!!! Hope you are well!!
#2
Wanted to share this with you---------------Lilly
Official Business of the Missouri Federation of Women's Democratic Clubs
To: All MFWDC members and Democratic Friends/Allies
(please pass this on to your local clubs, central committees, and candidates/officials)
Tonight, we saw something that many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. This overwhelming sweep of Republican takeover should be a wake up call for us to consider how we shall proceed to make things different in the next election. As president of the MFWDC, I know you all worked very hard to try to get our Democrats elected or reelected, and I want to thank you for all you contributed to this election. I know you gave 110%. I know you believed in our candidates. Well, frankly I am more determined than ever that we shall overcome this great defeat...our Public Education system depends on us, our community service workers depend on us, and even the little innocent puppies who are so abused, are dependent on us to get out the vote and make a difference in the next election.
It is important to for us to know that, although some fights were lost, we still held our ground. I know Missouri took a beating, from county to state to federal elections. But we are, after all, Democrats, who believe in the rights of the ones without a voice, who care about children and whether they get a quality education, and who continue to have the ethical senses that make us get up out of bed every day and go to work so we can feed our families. We must work together these next two years so that we can not only hold our ground, but that we gain back that which we have lost, so we can continue the great fight for what is good, honest, fair, and just for ALL people in this country, not just corporate interests and the rich.
So, my fellow Democrats, do not be in dismay. All is not lost. It is our responsibility to learn from this experience and to look deep within ourselves and to find the strength and the fortitude to plan our next steps, knowing full well in our hearts, that this is just the beginning of something better....because we CAN and WILL make it better. This is our opportunity!
Thank you to all our Democratic friends and volunteers who worked their tails off this election. Thanks to all of our candidates who ran great races and fought for what is good and just. And congratulations to those who won! I am committed to working with all of you over the next two years to do whatever it takes to put Democrats in office and continue to ensure that our government is truly working for the people.
May God richly bless us and be with us as we move through this time of mourning to the day we find peace amidst this small, two year glitch in the political landscape; remember we shall overcome. Let us make our pledge to one another this day to do every thing we can to get Democrats elected two years from now.
With warmest regards,
Charli Seitz, M.A. Ed.
MFWDC President
Kansas City, MO
#3
Election Results from CAWP: Republican Women Follow Winning Trend
Election results compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) for U.S. Senate and House and governors show that Republican women matched winning patterns of Republicans overall, and some notable firsts were achieved. Republican women's gains in the U.S. House were offset by Democratic women's losses; depending on races not yet decided, the number of women in the House could drop or remain level.
Read the complete press release here.
Headlines and anecdotes never tell the whole story!
That's why you turn to CAWP's Election Watch. Your gift of $25 or more will help CAWP collect and share accurate data on women candidates, officeholders and voters.
From Robin New Salem:
Hope you are feeling better!!! We missed you last night. Yippee for Kirsten, Chuck and Andrew. Sad re: John. How did Robin Carnahan do? I have many morning after thoughts to share but my biggest is the lesson learned after 08. There was so much grassroots energy and we let it slip away. When we needed it - it wasn't there. We have to stay united and keep going. 2012 will be here in a heartbeat and I already heard on the news last night that in addition for going after Barack they won't make this mistake again of putting up a bogus candidate to challenge Kirsten. I have been so bummed about what has happened to WLF - we've got to keep the fire going!!! Speak soon - feel better.
From Ohio Joe:
Better days are ahead……America is STUPID and you can’t fix STUPID. This too will pass !!!
PS once again Ohio goes from bad to WORSE!!!
#2
Val is correct, I am afraid the DEMS have been beat down with the economy, jobs that many have given up. I watched Mitch McConnell a few minutes and I made me sick…..he is scary at best – he was so full of aggression and hate…….beating Barack down verbally, how does this create growth…….SICK
The energy wasn’t there……I know there are far more DEMS in numbers than GOP, but due to the population that comprises the DEMS party, many do not find it important to vote until the presidential elections. I do not want to sound dramatic or “gay” but I am physically sick from this…….I thought Ohio was going to see light at the end of the tunnel…….LOL…….not Ohio.
It really makes me think “Does Hillary need to be the running mate in 2012 with Barack so we have a win” from Ohio it may make sense for this type of population. If I hear Tea Party again……….Tea Party = STUPID…….and STUPID voted in 2010, hence our results.
From Randy in Berkeley:
60 seats lost to the Republicans let alone some of the Senate seats
like Illinois! It is deplorable what happened yesterday. I hate to
say this but I hope the economy prevails and jobs aren't restored so
the Dems can gain back some of what was lost last night.
Wait till this idiots who voted for these idiots realize what is
happening. In watching CNN which has fabulous visuals, the entire
country is red except for a few areas so small one would almost need a
magnifying glass!
What is going to happen to this country? Soon, if things don't
change, this country will be intolerble.
From Carla NYC:
Do you have any encouraging words? This country seems to be influenced by the gun toting, religious, narrow minded majority, and New Yorkers seem to come from a different planet than the rest of the country. How sad!
From Val in Ohio:
I did some phone banking Monday night and got more callers threatening me with a vote for the opposition if they got one more call. There were too many calls and not enough 1-1 contact where you can actually make your case. OFA has to go if it's the same team they sent for this election. There was a big blow up between the OFA folks and the party folks on election day. I left the headquarters because the atmosphere was toxic. That's pretty much how it has been during this election cycle. The Dems did take Montgomery County in '08. That didn't happen this election. Time to regroup and come out fighting for 2012.
Heard from my sister that Mass. stayed blue. That brightened my day. Very unhappy about Sestak and Strickland.
From Kathy in MO:
You are echoing my sentiments exactly. We let the repubs get control of the message with their lies. They repeated them enough that they became the truth in people's minds. I think Obama didn't think it was necessary to toot his own horn because they were quietly going about the people's business and were so busy trying to solve dire problems. That is the high road. We can't go that route any more because the repubs always take the low road!
This is how bad it was in this bizarro world. Roy Blunt who is on tape saying Medicare should never have been started and that he intended to privatize Social Security, ran ads along with Karl Rove and the Chamber saying flat out that Robin Carnahan was cutting billions from Medicare. He has a record on Medicare and she does not, yet with their lies, they convinced senior citizens that she was taking their Medicare away! I had more elderly people tell me that in the last few weeks that they wanted to support Robin until they heard what she was going to do to Medicare.
You are right, we have to get the message out and it needs to be short and sweet. We have to control the message for the next two years. Once you let them get control and the lies are out, you cannot get them back.
#2
I think everyone is on the same page that we let the repub's multimillion dollar noise machine drown us out, distort facts, and get their lies entrenched well before the election so there was no reversing it. I think you are right we have to engage people for the next two years with ads, editorials, face to face, whatever to confront them with the facts. It is too late during the election season because there are zillions of ads and everyone starts tuning them out.
One of my lovely volunteers was brainstorming with me during the GOTV weekend. We were lamenting about the ignorant electorate and how they vote against their own best interests. We were concentrating on first time and sporadic voters and undecideds...probably low information folks. She asked why we don't try to keep in touch with them over the next two years instead of inundating them right before the election. Her suggestion was to give each activist several names of these kinds of voters and just touch base with them every few months to see what their concerns are. Not to preach to them but to ask them what their needs and worries are. Then as they air their concerns, we can give them the facts about what Obama has done or what the obstructionist Republicans are blocking. For example, if they say they are worried about loans, I can personally atest to the fact that the rethugs blocked for nearly a year legislation that would have enabled my family to get an SBA loan we desperately need. It is legislation that they helped write and voted against because they thought Obama wanted it.
I think this idea has merit, but I don't know how it would be coordinated. You wouldn't want to drive them crazy like we do in a campaign, but more just stay in touch to keep a dialog going.
I am glad people are engaged and ready to mobilize to go forward. I am determined but right now, I am just tired.
I am just sick, but I am in for 2012!
From Hank in NYC:
“Take The Gloves Off Mr. President” – November 5, 2010
The Republicans were swept into power in the House based upon their promises to reduce the debt, cut the deficit, and slash spending. The only quasi-concrete plans these Republicans have put forward are to extend or make permanent all the Bush era tax cuts, and to cut billions from “discretionary” spending. Extending all the Bush tax cuts would not only fail to reduce the deficit, but would do exactly the opposite. At a time when the middle class is struggling to keep its head above water, small businesses cannot get credit to expand and hire, and more Americans are slipping into poverty than ever before, it would be unconscionable to add even a single dollar to the deficit. Now let’s look at “discretionary” spending. What that term really means is all spending that does not involve defense or entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security which account for about 75-80% of all spending in this country. Slashing $100 billion per year as Eric Cantor has claimed will be all but impossible, especially in a Congress that still is driven by creating earmarks for pet projects in their home districts.
It is time for President Obama to return to being the man I campaigned and voted for. The reason Democrats took such a “shellacking” last Tuesday is mainly because Mr. Obama has allowed himself to become walled into the protective fortress we call the White House, and has surrounded himself with people who keep him from using his greatest strength: connecting directly with the people. I urge the President to take immediate and direct action in the following three areas: End the war in Afghanistan and begin bringing the troops home this Christmas. We are spending $2 billion dollars a month, not to mention the lives and limbs of our bravest young men and women, to support a corrupt government, a country that is no closer to being able to defend itself from the Taliban and Al Qaeda than it was nine years ago, and whose only economic infrastructure is the opium trade. The money saved could be used to pay for health care reform and the development of alternative sources of clean energy, as well as enhanced benefits for all our soldiers who have fought so bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. Second, Mr. Obama needs to come out and say without equivocation, that he will veto any and all legislation that would extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, or reduce and/or attempt to repeal his signature health care reform act. Last, the President needs to rally his party in the Congress, and prepare them for what will surely be an all-out effort by the Republicans to reduce his presidency to an afterthought. Mr. Obama and the Democrats extended the olive branch to the opposition while they controlled both houses of Congress, only to have it thrown back in their faces. If it means becoming the “party of no” in the House, and using the filibuster again and again in the Senate, so be it.
Bi-partisanship is dead in Washington, and it is past time for Obama to realize it. I know that this President can be as tough as nails when he wants to be, but fear that he has been counseled far too often to keep trying to work with the opposition. Mitch McConnell’s now oft repeated single most important challenge for the next two years, to see that Obama is only a one-term President, and Mr. Boehner’s insistence on repeal of the health care reform act, should be all Mr. Obama needs to circle the wagons and prepare for the fight of his life, and the future of our country.
From Barbara in KS:
Subject: FW: Word trivia for word lovers
Did you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spells "race car"?
Did you know that "eat" is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, "ate"?
And if you rearrange the letters in "so-called tea party Republicans," and add just a few more letters, it spells: "Shut up you freeloading, progress-blocking, benefit grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical jerks, and face the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush."
Wow! How weird is that?
From Susan in Rye:
I know we're all pretty down about the Hall election and so many others, but we are forging ahead. I will probably be at Sunny's house for lunch next Friday and look forward to meeting you. Do you want to be put on the Westchester for Change elist? We also are on www.meetup.com/westchester-for-change and facebook. We are having a great event on Nov. 16th called "Better Food for Us All" and one of the panelists is woman who runs NY Coalition for Healthy School Food, Amie Hamlin.
Learn about:
The politics behind our food supply:
How current food policies affect our health
Effective grassroots efforts to improve access at all income levels to fresh, healthy, local food
Date: Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Time: 7:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.
Place: James Harmon Community Center
44 Main St, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706
Featured Panelists:
Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of NY Coalition for Healthy School Food
Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network
Elisa Zazzera, Sustainable Hastings
Contacts: Joyce Tichy: joyce.tichy@gmail.com (914) 953-5807
From Andy T DNC/NY:
This is a tough and sometimes disheartening business. What does it say about the electorate, and the process, that in one state (Florida) all 17 major newspapers, from the most liberal to the most conservative, could have endorsed the Democrat -- unanimously -- and yet, so very narrowly, the voters made a different choice?
I feel terrible for our country that we’ve again lurched in the wrong direction, as we did so dramatically in 2000. But I don’t feel bad for trying.
And I feel ENORMOUSLY grateful for the help you gave.
At least on the human-scale, transparent political money, subject to legal limits, the “enthusiasm gap” went all our way. With your help, the DNC far outraised the RNC, and nearly doubled our 2006 midterm fundraising results. As a result, OFA was funded to make tens of millions of personal phone calls and door knocks to get out the vote, which did do the trick for us in a number of key races. Hats off to Colorado’s Senator Michael Bennet, for example, and to its great new governor, John Hickenlooper. Hats off to California. Hats off to New York. And more.
As bad as it was, it would have been a lot worse without your help.
There is so much to say, but I want to leave it at this: onward and upward . . . and THANK you.
From Fran in Larchmont:
Dear Pro-Choice Friends in Larchmont and Mamaroneck!
In "Women: The New Green Leaders" Vicky Markham, Director of the Center for Environment and Population, propounds that the issues of women's empowerment and environmental preservation are so irrevocably linked that 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner Wangari Maathai is now only one of a burgeoning phalanx of forward-thinking women worldwide building coalitions to save the Earth.
Future Choices is brought to your home either on Channel 75 (Cablevision) or Channel 36 (Verizon). The show airs Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm with repeats 3 am, 9 am, 3 pm and 9 pm the following day. See full schedule:http://www.lmc-tv.org/?q=node/52
N.B. Future Choices shows can usually be viewed anytime online as well — see hotlink at http://futurechoices.net/ .
From Judy in Mamaroneck:
This came from one of my Gilda's Singers.. but it is a nice glimpse into our new lieutenant-governor elect! He sounds like a real mensch!
won on Tuesday--having run with Cuomo on the Democratic ticket.
from an e-mail from Muriel....
...One more note--my next-door neighbor is lieutenant-governor elect!! Bill and I went to vote Tuesday morning and we were next in line behind Bob, his wife and younger daughter. The media were all there--it was a zoo. Bob was happy to see us, shook Bill's hand and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I hoped that would not be considered electioneering!! I think New York State is lucky to have him in office. He is truly interested in others and making the world a better place. When Bill was sick last winter, Bob cleaned our walk and even shoveled off our front steps. On a day with really bad roads he drove me to the hospital to bring Bill home, had us stay in his warm car in his driveway while he cleaned off our walk, got Bill into the house, then went to CVS and had a prescription filled for Bill. Someone with a lot of ego does not do things like that. His wife was interviewed by the local tv station and said they intend to keep their house in Rochester. So, he will be here at least some of the time. (We will have to clear the snow from our walks ourselves, however!)
From John in CT:
Maybe we should send this to Supreme Court idiots who equate free
speech with money and have put the last nail in the coffin.
Honey, I tell you, you can never go wrong underestimating the American
people. I hope you are not beating yourself up over the election.
You do more than your fair share. The American people deserve the
government they get because they are too stupid and too lazy to get
off their asses and vote.
George Carlin on "The American Dream"
Perfect for today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
...More Americans care about Jersey Shore, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, etc. It is UNCOOL in American to pay any attention to politics or history or our socio-political climate. Just buy a cell phone that you can barely afford to pay the bill on, and get an iPod with more gigs, and EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE.......
From Peggy in CA:
This is fabulous!!!
"Dear Red States..." A Letter From The Blue!
Dear Red States...
We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon,Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially
to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot
Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and
anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at
once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their
children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our
resources in Bush's Quagmire.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say
that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved
in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people
with higher morals then we lefties.
By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.
Peace out,
Blue States
From Val in Ohio:
http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/
There was a time not so long ago when Americans, regardless of their political stripes, rallied round their president. Once elected, the man who won the White House was no longer viewed as a Republican or Democrat, but the President of the United States. The oath of office was taken, the wagons were circled around the country’s borders and it was America versus the rest of the world with the president of all the people at the helm. Suddenly President Barack Obama, with the potential to become an exceptional president has become the glaring exception to that unwritten, patriotic rule.
Four days before President Obama’s inauguration, before he officially took charge of the American government, Rush Limbaugh boasted publicly that he hoped the president would fail. Of course, when the president fails the country flounders. Wishing harm upon your country in order to further your own narrow political views is selfish, sinister and a tad treasonous as well.
Subsequently, during his State of the Union address, which is pretty much a pep rally for America, an unknown congressional representative from South Carolina, later identified as Joe Wilson, stopped the show when he called the President of the United States a liar. The president showed great restraint in ignoring this unprecedented insult and carried on with his speech. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was so stunned by the slur, she forgot to jump to her feet while clapping wildly, 30 or 40 times after that.
Last spring, President Obama took his wife Michelle to see a play in New York City and republicans attacked him over the cost of security for the excursion. The president can’t take his wife out to dinner and a show without being scrutinized by the political opposition? As history has proven, a president in a theatre without adequate security is a tragically bad idea...(Read rest on line http://www.ellicottvillenews.com/index.php/2010/06/3808/)
From Kathy in KCMO:
This is an article I sent to Marisa to read when we were feeling crappy about the outcome of the election. It made me feel better. He articulated what I was thinking. Maybe it will make you feel better too.
Read this article from one of the writers at Daily Kos. It is a good summary and makes me feel better. He said what I was thinking. I especially like the last paragraphs about the tea partiers shitting their costume pantaloons! Good stuff. I feel better today!
Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday
The Morning After
First and foremost, we must congratulate some of the Democratic winners, names both old and new: Patrick Leahy and Chris Coons. Chuck Schumer and Dick Blumenthal. Kirsten Gillibrand and Barbara Mikulski. Jim Gray, the new and openly-gay mayor of Lexington Kentucky, Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire, the gay-marriage-into-law-signer who won reelection, and good ol' Barney Frank. Andrew Cuomo defeated the porn-forwarding homophobe with anger issues (I forget his name already) in New York's governor race, and Deval Patrick coasted to his guv win in Massachusetts. I love seeing Lincoln Chafee back in the political saddle as the governor of Rhode Island, and John Hickenlooper in the Colorado statehouse. Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer--woo hoo! And Maine's two Democratic congressmembers, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud went through their challengers like a spoon through a jar of delicious Maine blueberry jam, now on sale at fine supermarkets across America. (Buy some today!)
The Republican Nazi re-enactor in Ohio is crying in his strudel this morning after he literally met his political "D"-Day. (Und vee say Heil! [Thpptt!] Heil! [Thpptt!] Right in Herr Iott's face!) And there will be no stationery printed with the words: "From the Desk of Senator Sharron Angle" on it.
Plus---minor little thing here---we still hold the Senate, which is where destructive Republican bills from the House will go to die. (But, damn, losing Feingold is just crazy.)
And now we'll overturn the stone to see what's underneath and...oh god, that's ugly. The good news is, we didn’t lose 435 seats last night. The bad news is, we seem to have lost 434.
Let's keep this in perspective. This is not a seismic shift to the Republican agenda. This was a protest vote---a message to Democrats that said, "We don’t think you delivered our ponies fast enough, so we're going to make you feel our pain the only way we know how: by reminding you that there's another team out there."
But this does not mean Americans are in love with Republicans, or even that they like them...they don't. Democrats are still more popular than Republicans. Democratic policies are still more popular than Republican policies when we explain them...it's just that the average American doesn’t have the time or inclination to be explained to. So on we search for ways to slap our brand on a bumper sticker. ("We're less worse than Republicans" didn’t cut it this time.)And a special message for the "loose confederation" of "non-affiliated" tea party types:
When you see Republican leaders in the House fucking up and doing the very things you crapped your costume pantaloons over---and they will---you must stay true to your "party-neutral" mission and declare war on them the same way you declared war on those nasty Democrats. Because don't forget: by your own admission you're not Republican...or Democrat...or anything "organized." You say so yourself every five minutes. So when Republicans start pumping out juicy slabs of pork to their districts willy nilly, and add to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling, and ignore your agenda and, yes, when THEY START TREADING ON YOU...you must hold rallies against them and call them what you called Democrats: tyrants and traitors and Hitlers and Maos and Stalins who want to drop-kick your grandma onto an ice floe (if you can find one these days).And if you don't judge the New Improved House by the same standards you judged the Old Tyrannical House, then you wallowers-in-hypocrisy will have two options: either drop the charade and start calling yourselves plain old (and getting older by the day) lockstep Republicans again...or shut the hell up.
As for you, John Boehner: jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. If you and your corporate buddies don’t produce jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs by 2012, it's gonna be one helluva short honeymoon. And we'll remember that you told your right-wing fringe last night that "I'll never let you down."As Lawrence O'Donnell responded, in the understatement of the evening: "Oh...yes...you...will."
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