There is a stark difference between the size of the crowds at President Obama's speeches compared to the crowds at former President Bush's speeches. The polls can show whatever numbers they want but the numbers don't backup the way that people at these events receive President Obama. Remember how small the controlled crowds were at Bush's events? Compare that with the thousands of people that show up to every public speech President Obama gives. I support President Obama. I believe he is capable of doing more great things and so do a lot of other Americans.

These are words that cause extreme emotional reactions. They are the words being used to describe the actions of TSA screeners who are following guidelines set by the government in an attempt to find explosives or banned items that could be used by a terrorist.

They have been used so many times by so many people right wing and left that they are now being hurled daily at the men and women who have the tough job of trying to provide security at hundreds of U.S. airports.

How would you like to try to do your job and be called a molester and pervert dozens of times a day?

How would you like to have to pat down hundreds of people a day? Many of whom are obese. Some who don't utilize proper hygiene.

Here are some recent comments from TSA screeners:

“I was asked by some guy if I got excited touching scrotums at the airport and if it gave me a power thrill. I felt like vomiting when he asked that. This is not a turn on for me to touch me it is in fact a huge turn off. There is a big difference between how I pat passengers down and a molester molesting people.”

“Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”

“Do people know what a Nazi is? One can’t describe me as a Nazi because I am following a security procedure of designed to find prohibited items on a passenger’s body. A Nazi is someone with hatred and ignorance in their hearts, a person who carried out actions of execution and extermination of those based on their religion, origins or sexual preferences. I work to make travel safer, even if I do not agree with the current security procedures. Further more, I am Jewish and a TSA Transportation Security Officer, an American Patriot and to call me a Nazi is an offense beyond all other offenses.”

Before you post something calling what they do a sexual crime, think about how the words you use effect these people. This type of thing is utilized by the right wing echo chamber to dehumanize those with whom they disagree. Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are experts at this. Now it is used by people here. These words are not accurate descriptions of what is going on. If you want to debate the effectiveness of the techniques, do so, but don't use emotionally charged rhetoric to make your point. It is dangerous and will lead to someone physically harming one of the employees of the TSA.

As it turns out the video of the child whose shirt was removed, which was called a strip search by nearly every howling critic, was taken completely out of context. The father of the child removed his son's shirt to the protests of the TSA agents not the other way around. NO children have been strip searched.

This type of emotional ploy is not only creates a cruel lynch mob mentality towards innocent working men and women, it minimizes victims of actual sexual assaults. Being pat down searched by a gloved TSA agent in a public location in noway compares to a child being anally raped or to a person being sexually assaulted and to use the same terminology for both is pathetic, unfair and intentionally cruel.

In Oklahoma City. Seems like a very high turnout. Democrats aren't going to win much in OKC but we still vote.

I posted: Remember Tuesday November 2, 2010 is election day for Democrats. November 3 is republican voting day. Don't forget to vote.


And now a little joke:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost...

She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I ...don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man,

1. You don't know where you are -- or where you are going.
2. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air.
3. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.
4. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault.See More
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike

AUNT How rude, Steve! I am a Republican.
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike

ME I know and I love you and Chris anyway
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike

AUNT You can be offensive at times!
about an hour ago · LikeUnlike

ME No offense intended. I am a proud a proud Democrat and I am going to post Democratically oriented things on my facebook page on election day. You can do the same thing on yours and I won't be offended.
50 minutes ago · LikeUnlike

ME ‎...and have fun on what the press says is doomsday for Democrats.
49 minutes ago · LikeUnlike

AUNT The President of the United State said yesterday that people like me are enemies!
45 minutes ago · LikeUnlike

ME He was actually referring to Latino voters voting for their "friends" over their "enemie"s and he took it back today. He said he should have used the word "opponents." On behalf of the President, I apologize for his mistaken choice of words.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/th... More
41 minutes ago · LikeUnlike

AUNT I thought you always agreed with "your" president. Sorry I am your enemy now.
39 minutes ago · LikeUnlike

ME I don't always agree with anyone. You are not my enemy (but you are pissing me off a little). There is more to life than politics and I don't allow my political beliefs to dictate who I do or don't associate with. It is your right to disagree with me politically and it is my right to post whatever I want on my personal facebook page. If it upsets you, don't read it or block me for a few days. I won't be mad. When the election is over and the republicans or democrats are in power, we can have dinner together and laugh and talk about anything but politics.

She hasn't responded since. Oh well. Why are republicans so pissed off today and most democrats I talk to are upbeat? Oh yeah. Because that's the way republicans and democrats are most of the time anyway.

She is 27 years old and was sitting in her car after backing up a county deputy on a drunk driving stop. She wasn't harassing anyone or beating up anyone. She wasn't violating anyone's civil rights or using excessive force or setting anyone up. She was sitting in her car when a person fired an assault rifle multiple times into her car and her body. She got out of the car, radioed for help and returned fire. We think we got the people involved. It appears they are the family of the suspect who was arrested for being drunk. She is in stable condition tonight with gunshots to her face, torso and legs. Just thought I would share a story about the sacrifice some officers make in the line of duty since there are so many people here, it seems, who revel in bashing all cops because a few do stupid shit.

http://www.newsok.com/three-arrests-made-i...

Get well soon Katie.

"democrats are morons. im glad they won this past election, it reminds the people just how ingnorant the party is. as much as its gonna suck the next 3.5 years, I knew it'd take losing 1 election for the voters to realize their wrongs. 3.5 more years til the Reps are back in charge"

This is a post from a kid I work with on facebook. He is constantly spouting the latest right wing talking points, and when I debate him, he has no knowledge of anything political beyond the surface.

I am really tired of putting up with right wing bullshit comments, especially when most of them are so easily disproven.

I guess the easy thing to do is just un-friend him on facebook. I still have to work with him but he is really so ignorant it is easy to devastate him in debates...he just doesn't realize it.

I went to youtube to watch a video retrospective of Senator Ted Kennedy's life and the comments from right wingers are reprehensible, hateful and vile.

Someone remind me why we should try to get along with these hateful bitter evil people.

Push through health care reform without their help or input. Push a democratic progressive agenda without their wicked money grubbing perversion.

Fuck the right wing politicians. Fuck their ignorant supporters.

They don't want compromise, they want to destroy us and everything we stand for. I will not make concessions to these people anymore. If someone bad mouths my President, I am done with them. If they make threats, I will report them to the Secret Service.

Rest in peace Senator Kennedy, I am sorry you didn't live long enough to see America live up to it's potential and I hope you and your family aren't aware of the truly horrible things people are saying about you on the day of your passing.

I waded into a debate with a peripheral acquaintance on facebook who had posted something about President Obama being a socialist for wanting a single payer health care plan. I was going to leave it alone but I am tired of the constant bullshit comments that go unchallenged.

I started off challenging the veracity of the "professor at a local college" email, which turned out to be a hoax. After some back and forth, I brought Jesus into the argument asking if it wasn't a Christian philosophy to take care of the poor and destitute and quoted the Beatitudes.

This is the verbatim response from a Christian conservative female:


"Yes, Jesus did say blessed are the poor and meek, and what you do for the poorest of my people you do for me. But, why should we become like that? I am sure that Jesus would love it if we took care of ourselves, instead of relying on some other entity doing it for us".

...and Jesus wept.

I know the end of the world is coming and all, but if anyone has some cash in their mattress please consider donating to the Obama campaign. Tonight is the deadline for this months donations and we can push Obama over the top and possibly break another record. This race is close and I don't want to take any chance of McSame/Failin pulling this one out of the shitter the repubs have put us in.

Here is a link if you want the swag: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contri...

My mom, sweet Geegee to the grandkids, ardent Hillary supporter and all around great lady called me today, I hadn't talked to her since the Palin nomination and I asked her what she thought about Palin. She busted that out on me and then proceeded to rant about what a horrible choice she was and asked what kind of woman would vote for her only based on the fact that she was a woman.

My mom is 65 and is struggling to make ends meet while my 70 year old stepfather works a part time job with full time hours to pay the bills. She took my grandmother (another die hard unashamed Democrat) into her home when she became to ill to take care of herself (and could no longer scrape by on the $600 a month social security provided)and nursed her for the last 7 years of her life.

"What can we do, we have to make sure Obama wins this," she asked me. I told her about the Obama website and how we could go together to a voter registration drive this weekend. I also told her about the "Neighbor to Neighbor" program where she could call interested voters.

I love my Mom.

Don't give up. Do whatever you can. Let's win this for Obama and America.

to give my first donation to Barack Obama. That tundra trash talkin shrilla from Wasilla pissed me off enough to open my wallet, get my visa debit card and pull $25 out of my tiny bank account. I donated through DU's drive and I pushed the total to over $37000 towards the goal of $50K. You can donate here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/vi...

She threw down the gauntlet with lies, distortions and spin. Now we need to double our efforts to defeat McCain and Palin. She is firing up the right wing evangelicals in a way McCain could never hope to. Hopefully she is turning off the moderates and undecided people with IQ's higher than the number of months she has been governor.

Anyhoo, hope you donate what you can. I plan on donating at least $25 per check until the election. I will cook at home more and eat out less to make it up. My food usually tastes better anyway and victory will be even more delicious.

Oh, by the way, I can't wait to read the National Enquirer for the next few months. On newstands now!!!

Good luck to us all.

Steve

According to Right Wing Spinners:

She is qualified to be commander of the United States Military because she is CIC of the Alaska National Guard (who have been under her direct control exactly...never...in her lengthy term of 18 months). The Alaska Army National Guard has, wait for it, 1850 members and an annual budget of $20 million (about what is spent in Iraq in an hour and a half).

She has deep international diplomacy experience because her state is near Russia (Steve Doocy Fox News). Using that logic, I am a doctor because I live near a hospital.

She has more "executive" experience (due to her expansive experience as governor of Alaska (population 670,000) for 18 months and Mayor of Wasilla (population 8500) for a couple of years, than Obama and Biden...combined.

This is all the Right Wing delusionals have offered in defense of this amazingly inept woman who would be one 72 year old feeble heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world.

Using their disjointed logic, I would like to offer the republicans some more talking points to defend Mrs. Palin:

Sarah Palin is qualified to manage the Food and Drug Administration because she makes a mean batch of Tollhouse Cookies and has administered Children's Tylenol more times than she can count.

Mrs. Palin can guide the Department of Education with her in Depth PTA experience and skill in coloring in the lines (she was head of a local PTA for several years, more years, in fact than Obama and Biden...combined).

Sarah can greatly improve the efficiency of the Environmental Protection Agency by utilizing skills acquired in "cleaning up" after 5 kids.

She killed a bear when she was only 3.

Governor Palin will be able to balance the bloated federal budget using only coupons and falling prices at local WalMarts for all federal expenditures.

The republicans are lucky to have such a well rounded candidate, Mrs. Palin could easily coach an NBA team with her experience gleaned as Wasilla High School basketball team captain. A position for which Senator Obama has never and could never even qualify.

She will be able to communicate with international leaders, friend or foe, using her BACHELORS DEGREE IN JOURNALISM from the University of Idaho, neither Obama or Biden have a journalism degree from the prestigious U of I.

She will use her knowledge of competition to negotiate complex international trade agreements utilizing wisdom gained in winning Miss Wasilla 1984 and coming in second in the Miss Alaska competition.

Governor Palin will get Bin Laden - In 2007, Palin approved a $150 cash incentive for each Alaskan wolf to be killed by hunters in helicopters. The incentive was called a "bounty" for killing wolves by Alaska Wildlife Alliance Director John Toppenberg. Some people might say: Hey! Is it fair to use aircraft and high powered rifles to shoot defenseless wolves? If she will send people in helicopters with semi-automatic weapons to kill cute furry wolves, imagine what she will do to Bin Laden.

Palin is clearly the most qualified person to ever be nominated for vice president. This bold choice shows that John McCain is not afraid to break from tradition and boldly choose an outsider free from all that disgusting political experience, education and knowledge that the Democrats insist on foisting upon us.

With the choice of Sarah Heath Palin as the republican vice presidential candidate, Americans can rest assured that the second in command will be ready, willing and able to step in and rise to the standard put forth by George W. Bush for the last 8 years.

HECKUVA JOB, JOHNNY!

I loved Bill Clinton and defended him, in sometimes heated discussions, from the right wing zealots who persecuted him during his entire presidency. I believe he was a good president, albeit a flawed man. He served our country well and took an undeserved amount of shit for it.

I loved Hillary Clinton. She too, was doggedly pursued by innuendo and outright lies by the Rush Limbaugh fanatics of this country. She didn't deserve the treatment she was and has been given by the vicious right wing liars whose fervant desire was to destroy her completely. They failed.


Al gore ran for president and I supported him. I promoted him to my friends and family. I encouraged them to vote and fought against the ridiculous slimy allegations and urban myths spewed forth by the republicans and their echo chamber. I couldn't help wondering though, if Bill Clinton had thrown himself behind Al Gore, with all of his charm, intelligence and power, if he couldn't have greatly aided Gore's campaign. If one of the most popular presidents in my lifetime (his ratings were much higher even in the heyday of the ridiculous blow job scandal than Bush's are now), had really gone out and supported his vice president, the outcome may have been different. Many people thought that Gore himself didn't want their tacit support and they were standing in the shadows at his bequest and it kinda made sense but I still couldn't help but wonder: Where are the Clinton's?

During John Kerry's run, I beat the drums for him, donated to his campaign, spent countless hours defending his service on right wing talk shows and blogs (I was banned from almost all of them because right wingers are, above all else, cowards who can't stand heated debates with knowledgeable, strong willed people), I begged my suddenly Fox News watching father to vote for him, I almost got into physical altercations defending him and wore myself out trying to beat down the flash fires of lies that Karl Rove kept igniting like a juvenile delinquent pyro with an unlimited supply of accelerant. I was literally depressed when Kerry lost and I kept wondering, why hadn't Bill and Hillary gone out and fought as hard for John Kerry, a man from their own party, a man who represented the same ideals and political philosophy as theirs, a man who desperately needed their assistance in fighting off the same kinds of attacks they had been so successful in defeating, why hadn't they fought as hard as I had. I couldn't help but wonder: Where are the Clinton's?

Now we have had a spirited and sometimes mean spirited primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Hillary lost. Obama won. Bill Clinton's ego was bruised and his feelings were hurt. Hillary gave a speech after it became clear her campaign was over and she said she would support Barack Obama with all her heart. She encouraged her supporters to do the same...to get behind Obama with all of the passion with which they had supported her. Then...nothing and I can't help wonder: Where are the Clinton's?

Since Obama has become the presumptive nominee, I haven't seen Bill or Hillary out defending and promoting our candidate at all, let alone with as much passion and energy as they pursued their own political careers. They haven't been hitting the talk shows, or writing op-eds. They haven't toured this country giving passionate, one of a kind, from the heart speeches Bill Clinton is famous for. They haven't. Bill has even given some negative toned interviews implying that he hasn't recovered emotionally from losing the race and the bumps and bruises his ego took, for which he blames Obama.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the most powerful, persuasive and successful couple that have ever represented the Democratic Party. They have the ability to insure America doesn't face another term of republican bumbling led by a doddering, disjointed, emotionally retarded old rich white man who has to check with his staff to see how many houses he owns.

I have come to reluctantly believe their apathy and inaction, or worse political aspirations, contributed to the 8 year disaster that has been the Bush presidency

The Clinton's have the power and prestige to back the Democratic nominee and help America by putting power back into the hands of a responsible, thoughtful, charismatic, intelligent leader. If they don't get behind the democratic nominee and help propel this nation toward healing the wounds of the right wing con-men who viciously attacked them and have hijacked our country and destroyed our values, then they will have failed themselves, failed our country and failed all the people who loved and admired them.

I still believe in a place called hope and I hope they support Barack Obama with as much bravado as they did themselves. If they don't, I will wonder once again, for the last time: Where are the Clinton's?

US

Fighter

Classy

Distinguished


Them

The Comb over

Cockeyed

The Undertaker