Of course, Mr. Boehner states that he’s merely sticking to ideas of Republican governance, which is to govern as little as possible. And he’s also sticking to Grover Norquist’s ideology of making government small enough to drown in the bathtub.
But, in general, most people send their representatives to Congress in the hope that they’ll get something done. They may grumble about “big government”, but they want roads fixed, pensions paid, and all the other goodies they get from the evil government.
Tonight, we’re looking at original music and another artist’s take on the song. Tell us your favorites. 😀
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U2 – Love Is Blindness
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Jack White – Love Is Blindness. I prefer Jack White’s version because the rage, pain, and passion in his voice is raw and real. It feels like Bono is gently reminiscing about a past relationship while Jack White is caught up in a turbulent maelstrom and you experience the wonder yet pain of love.
No, no – that’s not Amk, Yardarm, Liberal Librarian or Japa: say hello to Iron Fist.
He will, very kindly, be helping me run the blog for the next 16 days, and he’s vowing to take no nonsense. At all. He’s a fearsome fella too (even if, between ourselves, he looks sort of ridiculous – yellow boots? Sheesh, c’mon), so pay attention to what he regards as nonsense.
You know, stuff like:
* OMG! I just saw a Koch/Norquist Poll that showed Romney leading PBO 82-18 in Hawaii! We’re doooooooomed!
* OMG! My boyfriend’s sister’s boyfriend’s mother’s ex-husband’s daughter’s boyfriend’s father’s girlfriend’s cat’s vet’s neighbor’s shrink says he supported PBO last time, but now he’s not so sure! We’re doooooooomed!
* OMG! Only 30,000 people turned up to see PBO in Wisconsin, it was 30,001 in 2008! We’re doooooooomed!
That kind of thing.
No more hand-wringing, no time for that now. Absolutely friggin’ none.
All that matters now is us using every last opportunity to persuade the (bizarrely) undecideds in our lives, by any means necessary, to support PBO, and GETTING OUT THE VOTE.
And so many of you are doing just amazing work on that front.
For that reason, then, I’ll be – pretty damn ruthlessly – blocking bullshit over the next 16 days from those only intent on trying to demoralize everyone.
That level of freakery-outery was perfectly okay a while back, but not now. Nooooooo ****ing way.
So, if you’re blocked – you’re blocked. And there’ll be no explanations, just move on somewhere else.
We’ll remain ‘happy clappy’ in our ceaseless efforts to re-elect PBO; you can carry on being ‘doomy gloomy’ in your miserable anticipation of a Romney presidency. At least we’re fighting the good fight.
It’s been an incredible week for the blog, over 200,000 views since Tuesday, but a bunch of them have been from trolls trying to post under a string of different names, not realizing these things are a little obvious in the admin section of the blog, and lots have been from newcomers.
Sorry to all those genuine people whose comments haven’t been showing up – between now and election day the only newcomers’ comments allowed through will be by those who sign in with non-private and long-standing Twitter accounts. Everything else will stay in pending (which now, gulp, contains over 80 comments) until after election day. Apologies again, but it’s not easy distinguishing between anti-PBO trolls and the sensible folk.
President Obama hugs a supporter at the Gator’s Dockside restaurant while campaigning in Orlando, Florida, September 8
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by Dudette
My Unconventional Covention Diary
As most of you know, my sister and I were a couple of the unfortunate souls with Community Credentials who had planned to be in the Bank of America stadium for PBO’s acceptance speech on Thursday. When it was moved back to the Convention Center due to forecasts of thunderstorms, we were heartbroken. Although our credentials would not let get us into the convention center, we decided to go to Charlotte anyway to soak up some of the atmosphere. I posted a few comments about our trip on previous posts, but a couple of TODers mentioned that they missed my story.
My comments were not posted in real-time, because, for me, it’s such a pain trying to post on the blog from my phone. Also some of my comments are out of sequence and I left out a few things. So I thought it might be fun to go back and put my comments in order of when the subject described was happening (see the links below) and add a few thoughts that I left out. So Here ya go! Sorry for the long post.
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Dudette & Sister Road Dawg Finally Get to Charlotte – see here
What I left out: Although we arrived at the hotel at 3:30AM on Thursday morning. We were so amped, we stayed up until almost 5:30AM giggling with excitement, watching news reports and online videos of convention speeches from Tuesday and Wednesday. I love my sister very much.
First Lady Michelle Obama hugs Lebron James of the U.S. after the men’s Group A basketball match between the U.S. and France at the London 2012 Olympic Games
No, no: Reagan – in 1983. The right wing media was outraged! Kidding.
Eric Boehlert (Media Matters): The annual summertime ritual of conservatives attacking Obama for going on summer vacation is swinging into high gear, as the president and his family prepare for a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.
…. Context, though, is sometimes helpful in terms of highlighting how silly the cries of protest from the far-right media really are. For instance, at the same juncture of his first term, Ronald Reagan, like Obama, was battling a bad economy. Unemployment stood at 9.5%. Reagan’s response his third August in office? He set off for a nearly month-long vacation.
Not only did Reagan go on a secluded, 25-day California retreat, but his top aides reportedly stopped relaying news events to him so as to not disturb the president’s sojourn.
From the Washington Post, Aug. 22, 1983:
As President Reagan relaxes on his mountaintop ranch northwest of Santa Barbara, tucked away from the workaday cares of Washington, his top advisers have decided to put an end to what one of them calls “unnecessary news stories”. The negative news coverage that the president abhors was a topic of discussion at a White House breakfast the day before Reagan left on his present 25-day trip, the 17th stopover at his ranch since his election.
Chicago Sun Times: Is there ever really a good time for the president to go on vacation? President Barack Obama’s 10-day summer getaway from Washington to Martha’s Vineyard – scheduled to start Thursday – has reignited a seemingly annual debate.
…. Mark Knoller of CBS, the unofficial keeper of presidential work schedules, reported that President George W. Bush had taken more time off than Obama at this point in his first term.
Obama’s upcoming vacation is his ninth vacation since taking office. Obama has spent all or part of 38 days on vacation away from the White House. He has also made 14 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 32 days, for a total of 70 days, Knoller said.
Bush, at this point in his first term, had made 14 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 102 days, Knoller said. He also made 40 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 123 days. His vacation total at this point in his presidency was all or part of 225 days away….
The Obama Diary 
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