Considering the opposition, at least as it now stands:

Michelle Bachmann - a looney tunes who rewrites history

Rick Perry - a W political clone who's also a secessionist

Mitt Romney - corporate shill, flip-flopper

and if Ron Paul gets into the race, we've got the Pretty Boy Floyd of Politics.

So if Obama doesn't win in a landslide, shame on him, shame on us, and shame on vampire policies that suck the lifeblood out of Democratic principles and American values.

(Oh, and watch how the coded racism gets ratcheted up as the season progresses.)

(Not sure if this is on youtube, or how to post it properly. Admins, feel free to correct.)

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011...

Brilliant, as always. (The "other side" is the Democrats, of course.)

Her concluding statement: And the other side is left to figure out not only how to stop them from doing that, how to defeat and marginalize that radical fraction in the Republican Party that is trying to do that, but also how to find enough non-arsonists on that side of the aisle to actually participate in building something that will work for the country -- right now, and fast.

Feudal brutality by the media overlords and robber oil barons.

Camelot was and always is an illusion. The light flickers and the wind is not fanning the flames but blowing it out.

I am NOT posting to start a discussion or a flame war. If you have insight into Obama's speech or, more particularly, the Obama - Netanyahu exchange AND you are uncomfortable with the media portrayal of Obama's position, or the exchange itself, please contact me privately. I have some urgent questions you may help answer.

Thanks in advance. And thanks DU for not making this request a dumping ground.

The Civil War started 150 years ago today. The racists and plantation owners, now calling themselves "tea partiers" and Republicans, are still trying to rule by fear, enslave others and destroy the union.

Lincoln was not much of a success the first two years, learning on the job, making lots of mistakes and barely holding things together. The Emancipation Proclamation had to be held off until a tactical draw/strategic victory (Antietam) made it plausible, and Lincoln still had to delay its implementation three months. Lincoln was beset from all sides. He managed to minimize his weaknesses and play to his strengths.

Who knows? There's precedent - Lincoln, FDR, JFK - even Truman got his act together and won a second term. But principles, man, stand up for principles.

Of course, this was two centuries ago, but still, since we're on the finger count - and since the anointment of 2000, less than a handful - any right decision should be noted.

Mar 9, 1841: The Supreme Court ruled that the Amistad slaves were free.

The Constitution went into effect on March 4, 1789. Its withstood slavery and secession, ignorance, subversion (see elections 2000 and 2004), misinterpretation (see Boehner, Declaration and SCOTUS, "free speech" et. al.)

It's what Presidents swear to protect and defend.

I intend to re-read it today. Maybe a Federalist Paper or two as well.

Care to join me in celebrating?

One of the conservative screeds has been that the liberals/progressives/Democrats have not been protesting the TSA (I've got the real meaning of the acronym) peep & grope show. Y'know, like, if this had happened under bush "they'd" be screaming bloody murder. Or, this is so different than the Patriot Act. Etc. Their proof? Salon, HuffPo, etc. are doing all caps headlines.

Of course, this isn't true. All we have to do is point them to DU.

Still, I think it would be a good idea to point them to liberal commentators who have been loud and long about this. Any quick references/urls? Rachel? Keith? Print guys like Krugman?

thanks

Nov 4, 2008: Democratic senator Barack Obama wins the presidential election against Sen. John McCain, taking 338 electoral votes to McCain's 161. Obama makes history as the first African American U.S. president.

(Some things cannot be reversed.)

Delivered, at random, to my google home page:

The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a big fat white guy who is threatened by change.
- Seth MacFarlane

heckofajob

The Republican House of Representative - the best house money and lies can buy. Normally you take the trash out of the house. Tonight, it was brought in.

Speaker of the House John Boehner to-be held up his pocket copy of the Constitution, pledging to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the pre-amble: 'We hold these truths to be self evident ..." (One year ago, Nov 2009)

Remember, Republicans increase deficits, Democrats reduce them.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/2010_el...

From the article on salon.com, which talks about the backlash to LBJ's civil rights legislation and medicare:

The backlash against the Great Society did not immediately threaten Democratic control of the House and Senate. The Republicans gained 47 seats in the House, and still were down by 60! In the Senate, the GOP only gained three seats, leaving Democrats with 63. But there's little doubt that the pendulum had started to swing. The Voting Rights Act and associated civil rights legislation ended Democratic dominance in the South, contributed to Richard Nixon's victory in 1968 and put into motion the forces that swept Ronald Reagan into power.

(As an aside, those of us who wring our hands at the harsh rhetoric of Tea Party activists would do well to go back and consider the tone of political debate during the peak intensity of the struggle to pass civil rights legislation. Perlstein makes an indisputable case that it was far, far uglier then than it is now.)

It is folly to compare the incredible achievements of the 89th Congress with the record of the past 18 months, but it is worth considering: In both cases the fierce counterreaction from the right does not necessarily represent a failure by the governing party, but its success. The passage of the Voting Rights Act and an awesome slate of progressive legislation turned white Southern Democrats into Republicans. The passage of healthcare reform -- the first major healthcare-related legislation since Medicare -- energized the Tea Party.

(read the whole thing; it's worth it)

Given their willful distortions. This also applies to Fake News and that ilk:

An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.
- Jef Mallett