Election

[Minimalist]

I see the problem here, Grump. You think Bush is leaving.

Perhaps you need to watch this from the American comic, Chris Rock.

He will explain it to you.

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=IdxDwJjcB ... re=related

[john]

One has to vote on a shitload of judges, propositions and local elections.

Don't complain Min, we get stuck with appointees.
The one thing that bothers me about this election, as reported over here that is, is that many coloured people seem to be turning out to vote simply because their choice is black.
Many people over here voted for the man, rather than the policies, back in 97, and we got Blair and his Scottish mafia!
If voting for the man I'd chose McCain. But then of course I'd get the clothes horse as well!
Over here Min I sense a disbelief that McCain ever chose her in the first place, or was it on advise?

Roy.

Digit -

Rather than the normal, accepted election

In which the honkies turn out en masse

Simply because their choice is white.

Damn!

Pass the Port.


hoka hey

john

[Minimalist]

Over here Min I sense a disbelief that McCain ever chose her in the first place, or was it on advise?

The NY Times ran a story shortly after the choice which indicated that McCain wanted his old pal, Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is a pro-choice former Democrat who was simply unacceptable to the know-nothing wing of the party. To keep those clowns in line they scraped up Palin who was a xtian fanatic but who had not run against McCain in the primaries and thus hadn't said anything nasty about him.

He should probably have picked Lieberman.

[Grumpage]

Wakey, wakey America and congratulations. This is a great day for democracy, for the good ol' US of A, for Europe, for the world, for our planetary system, for the universe, for God...Oh God, there must be more...I haven't finished yet...I can't finish yet...there is so much to say without repeating myself...I want to go on and on and on...Aaagh....

[Ishtar]

I hope you're right, Grumps ... if only because anything is better than Bush.

But I'm a bit more cynical, having gone through so many of these bright new dawns before.

Remember 'Things can only get better' ?

[pattylt]

I hope you're right, Grumps ... if only because anything is better than Bush.

But I'm a bit more cynical, having gone through so many of these bright new dawns before.

Remember 'Things can only get better' ?

I feel hope and joy today like I haven't felt in a long time. At least we now have a president that is pleasant to look at, can speak eloquently and surrounds himself with some very intelligent people that he actually listens to instead of old cronies that tell him exactly what he wants to hear.

Bush will probably leave office thinking he was misunderstood and was a pretty good president after all.

Maybe, just maybe, America won't be the embarrassment to the rest of the world that we have been for the last 8 years.

Things certainly can get worse. They can also get better and at least I now have some hope for that!

[Minimalist]

At least he is someone who won't be looked upon as a bumbling clown by the rest of the world.

Other than that....sober reality is that the country has still been driven deep into the shitter. One can only hope that Obama has a ladder.

[pattylt]

Yet I am still very optomistic. If you surround yourself and listen to advice from multiple experts and devise plans that are sound, even if it takes years to accomplish, I think we will work together to fix, at the least, the major problems. i.e. economy and jobs. Obama promised that we will always know where he stands. I have to give him enough trust to see the whole picture, know the best route and be our guide.

I have had several managers that I have worked under. They seem to fall into 2 categories. One that thinks only they know everything about the job, keeps information to themselves and mandates plans with little explanation. Or type number two that involves us in the decision making process, keeps us in the loop and guides us through plans of action. The first type are a dime a dozen and everyone and every plan seems to fail. No one buys into it and progress is doomed. The second gets everyone on board and everyone understands the painful part of the process but willingly accepts responsibility to achieve the plan. The plans never seem to fail. Obama just comes across as boss type number 2.

If I am wrong, then we are screwed for at least another 4 years. I supported him because he just reeks of type twoness. That is why I have hope and I'll be damned if I am going to have my happy little bubble burst in the first week.

[MichelleH]

Yet I am still very optomistic.

Exactly.

Having been a member of the 'dark side' at one point in my life, I've not felt optimism for our nation like this before.

Now, my husband is looking for a twelve step program or an intervention for political news junkies to have me committed to....

YOU CAN TAKE MY 24HR NEWS CYCLE WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!




I think I'll take a nap now.....

[Minimalist]

Perhaps you need to see this report from the Onion News Network, boss?




http://www.theonion.com/content/video/o ... _obsessive

[MichelleH]

Perhaps you need to see this report from the Onion News Network, boss?




http://www.theonion.com/content/video/o ... _obsessive

Way too funny....unfortunately I've always been this way and the advent of 900 news channels, national and international, has only fed my habit!

My husband changes the channel to History International and hides the remote...

[john]

For those of you who may have forgotten -

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.


-Mr. Zimmerman-



hoka hey

john


And hey, Patti

I am absolute in my support for

The Better.

Not to blow up your first week.

All I'm saying

The man's got his shit cut out for him,

And then some.


hoka hey

john

[MichelleH]

The man's got his shit cut out for him,

And then some.

Oh so true......and yet we hope for the best....

[Ishtar]

Michelle

I used to be like you - but now I won't let the news into my house.

I worked out, a while ago, that 99 per cent of it was just useless information about stuff I could nothing about by people who wanted me to believe in their narrative of reality.

I knew, from working in the media, that good news was no news, as far as the news agenda is concerned. "Here is the news" is a euphenism for "Here's all the bad stuff that happened in the world today". Then they round it off at the end with a saccharine tale about a cute little puppy, or something.

The media is so powerful, it should come with a health warning: "This news broadcast could damage your mental health."

Although the BBC did its best to remain neutral, the reporting after 9/11 and on the War on Terror created a real fear and distrust vortex in the collective consciousness - as it was meant to - from which, I think, it will take a long while for us all to recover.

So now in my house, newspapers are banned, tv news is banned, radio news is banned - all news is banned.

And guess what? I really don't miss it.

[pattylt]

I avoid TV news entirely but I read two papers and scan a few select online news services (Onion being one of them, Min). I often pick and choose which articles I read and ignore what I am not interested in knowing. I may have my head in the sand on some topics but it is because I choose to be ignorant of them.

I can't tolerate TV news. I can't beyond their biases in either direction. I just want the facts, mam! I prefer to draw my own conclusions, not have them spoon fed to me.