Dream on, lady.

• Only 18 more days, and counting! - 2009 Is Gonna Be Fine - nm
  • Heard the saying, "Ignorance is bliss"? - GhostMom
    • This is not a question of "depending" on the government. - sm
    • Heck, it'll be music to my ears just to not have to - hear the word "new-cu-lar" anymore!
      • Oh boy, I can't wait til Obama misprounces a word - c'mon
        • It's so much more than just one word..(sm) - Just the big bad
          • I do know that - c'mon
        • Could you be any more shallow? - Me
          • Just as shallow as you I guess - see message - c'mon
  • Dream on, lady. - Get real. nm
    • It does not get more real than - jj
  • Not according to Obama - what?
    • Your dad sounds like a wise man - jj
      • Me too - I agree with you - what?
        • Your dad.... - sm
          • You are so so kind - thank you - what?
        • I agree with you - Backwards typist
          • Your last sentance is right on - what?

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

We have just lived through a commander-in-chief presidency whose oppressive power and overwhelming hubris would undoubtedly have left our first early presidents in shock, if not armed revolt. They would have seen George Bush's world - in which strength was the byword of power and weakness an anathema - as the scion of European autocracy. These were, after all, men wary of armies and military power, who had sacrificed the very idea of executive strength to a tripartite form of government that would, they hoped, have the advantages of resiliency and responsibility. They understood - and embraced - certain limits that Americans may only be waking up to now.

Of course, given these last years of a government gone dark and ominous, it's not surprising that we generally don't. Facing the imperial, never-apologize, don't-listen-to-a-word-you-say, Caesarian, unitary-executive, commander-in-chief years of disarray, we Americans have - despite some online liveliness - largely suffered a failure of the imagination.

Have we ever had a president who told more countries what they "must" do? - I'd like to hear our next president speaking more like one of us and less like the ruler of the universe, more like the president of these imperiled United States and less like the autocrat of the planet.

    Of course, Americans, especially younger ones, have long been alienated from their government - aka "the bureaucracy" - and a national capital that projects the oppressive look of a Green Zone. That's where an eloquent black president, an improbable crosser of all sorts of boundaries, standing before us next Tuesday to express his -- and our - dreams and fears, offers an immediate ray of hope. In his very words that first day, he can potentially begin airing out the most secretive (and inefficient) government in national memory. He can remind us of our better selves and let the sun shine in.

    If we want to have a government we care about, we had better start exercising those imaginative powers fast. After all, if you don't use it, you lose it. Voting isn't faintly enough. Supporting Barack Obama isn't faintly enough. Either we start acting like we, the people, can set a few agendas of our own, write a few speeches of our own, or we might as well forget it.

The more you work, the more they take away.  It will be the middle class people to suffer from this.  The rich will survive.  The low-income and no income people will be the ones to benefit from this.  This just encourages people to not work hard.  The more money you make by working hard.....you will be penalized and that hard earned money of yours will be given to someone who doesn't work.  This will be a huge snow ball that will eventually crush us entirely as more and more people work less and then the middle class and the rich will have even more people to support.  Like I've said before.....it sickens me.

What ever happened to accountability and self-reliance?  What ever happened to hard working Americans who were too proud to receive a hand out.  Now it seems that is all I hear....people screaming about not getting handouts and playing the victim.  Give me give me give me.  Instead of encouraging them to get a good education and work hard.....we are enabling them to remain "victims" while we foot the bill. 

Why should hard working Americans suffer?  Shouldn't they be rewarded for their hard work instead of penalized?  I guess that doesn't matter to Obamanation as he is rich and this won't hurt him....so why should he care.  As long as he is taking care of his low-income homies...I guess it is all good, huh?

I heard something about Obama saying he had a dream of some sorts that lead him to believe he would be a leader or something along those lines?  Or is this just some gossip?

last year when my retirement account was cut in half, and there has not been much work lately for DH or I, so there's no way to offset the loss and no way to put money back into it.

I don't gripe about anyone making money, but...and this is a large but....I believe this was just another piece of campaign propaganda. After all, it came out while he was running for president. What better timing?

Do you think if he wrote the book before running for prez, it would have sold as well?

Did you hear how much he gave to charities? I haven't. If you have a source of that info, please enlighten me.

elected position.  They basically serve as glorified housewife.  Clinton's experience comes from actual work experience with Nixon impeachment, Children's Defense Fund, and on and on and on.

I found like 9 clips of her and my stomach hurts from laughing so hard.

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/fruitcake-lady-p1.php

job to swap baby photos and serve tea to foreign dignitaries - not VP's.

The way I look at it, the Obamas will have more help taking care of the dog (they can be a lot of work!)  and also, IMHO, the girls are old enough now to have one and learn responsibility. 

Off topic, but if I were in White House, I would follow in Calvin Coolidge's footsteps:  He had 6 dogs, a bobcat, a goose, a donkey, a cat, 2 lion cubs, an antelope, a wallaby and a pygmy hippopotamus.

The woman was Eleanor Roosevelt. To say she was nothing to look at was an understatement. Very homely looking but what she accomplished which made me think of her when others are talking about looks. Do looks matter- what about a person's soul and heart- does that not count for anything now?

My stepmom worked in Washington during WWII. She saw Eleanor Roosevelt several times. She told me about how Mrs. Roosevelt would board a pubic bus and say hello to the people sitting there, not pretentious at all. I remember her later when she was working at the United Nations as a delegate. She became one of the greatest women of the 20th Century.  She was an humanitarian and civic leader (among other roles). She worked for the welfare of youth, black Americans, the poor, and women, at home and abroad. She persuaded her husband to create NYA which gave financial aid to students and young people. She worked closely with the NAACP. She visited the troops overseas during WWII.  She was a leader in human right efforts.  What she may have lacked in looks she certainly made up for it in her good deeds.