The Respectfully Republican Conversation

ijl

Sherri,

I am not sure whether the senior Senate Democrats see Obama as their leader. I read there is some resentment they have for his meteoric rise. ANd I think it's always good to not always support your President. If Obama succeeds they will have a better chance at re-elections as Democrats and if he fails they can point out that sometimes they oppose him and try to get extra credit that way. I think we shall see it how it all plays out in a few days.

Anonymous

ilj, don'tcha know that MO can do no wrong.  Well, except for the upholstery dress and the dress she wore at his acceptance speech....with the red blotch that looked like paint had been thrown on it by one of her children!  LOL 

I was looking at a few dresses some of the First Ladies wore at the inaug.  I think it was Hillary that wore a checked suit with hat..UGLY. Laura could have had a better dress too...hers look like she was wearing a coat..maybe she was.  But as time went on the and they showed them at other functions it got better...especially for Laura.  A couple of dresses really showed her curves!  But modest enough not to show her cleavage.  I bet the old prez was hot to trot that night..DID I JUST SAY THAT?  I'm sure they don't do things like that!

I got bored and stopped looking.  I wish I had saved it so I could finish looking at them.  Oh, well.

Anonymous

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." Ben Franklin

Love, love, love it!  Shall I name a few? 

Shirley

Anonymous

ilj, I bet anything that when Prez Bush took office he would have looked much better in those trunks than Obama.  Obama is skinny.

Anonymous

Jackie was always a class act...even until the end.  I think she stayed away from the Kennedy clan as much as possible.

Daffodil

I check around the posts and the late night shows to see if the "meanness" level has abated. Nope.....

I would like the better-informed to tell me what to expect when whoo-hoo change comes? Should we all re-register as Democrats or Independents to be on the safe side?

Wishing everyone well and hoping kindness returns~~~it costs nothing.

Rosemary44

Speaking of the Darwin awards, I remember watching a show about how people manage to kill themselves without thinking.  One guy had a small car and he couldn't secure his surf board on top so he put it in the back of the car, and it hung out the window.  Needless to say, while driving, the board hit a car on one side and decapitated the driver.

Another one was a fellow who had come from a family with much money, so it was unnecessary for him to be putting up christmas lights, which were plugged in and there was an electrical storm going on.  He's no longer around either. He was probably using a metal ladder too. His sister had a good quote, "our family has much, but not one drop of common sense".

vivre

Rosemary. That is the book! It is hilarious! Apparently common sense is not so common! I will post a couple of stories when I read a little more. The problem, is finding just one!

One year, we went to the Smithsonian in DC. While my guys checked out the guns and cannons, I went to the first ladies exhibit. It was great to see all those ball gowns. Dresses look so skinny on manniquins. That, and Dorothy's shoes, were my favorite things to see. Oh, and they had one of Lincoln's top hats. It is all about the clothes and shoes!

Shirley, you are wrong about the black dress and the blotches. I thought all that red and black looked like they were dressing as the commie first family. That is why He will always be ObaMao to me. After all, Mao came to power in tough economic times , promising his people the moon and the stars. Once in, he slowly whittled away at the opposition until he was the lone voice. Pelosi is already setting the stage by changing the house rules so the minority will have no voice. That women is such a witch. Her plastic face just makes me cringe.

Daff, I get what you mean about registering as dems, for safety sake.

Rosemary44

Vivre,

I hope you find some more stories to post.  What people will do. 

To change the subject, I'm getting a laugh over all the commentary about Panetta having no experience to run the CIA, well look who chose him!  Mr. Experience himself.  The CIA is too important for our safety, and it's like the blind leading the blind with these appointments.  I hate cronyism appts.  There is no one outside of Clinton people to choose from?  No one?

Anonymous

I read the Bible comment and I don't agree.  The Bible is God's Word and it's meant to be taken as our lamp to our foot (guide our steps) and a light to our roadway (guide our future).  It's not just a collection of truisms or tales or metaphors. 

However, it is not the guide for the country, though we might wish it were.  The constitution is our guide and it says separate church and state so we have to abide by Caesar's law if we are christian. We may not agree with things personally but I believe everyone has a right to choose the path they are on -- narrow or broad, it's a choice.

moodyk13

So one of my clients and I were discussing the Kennedy's today and I laughed cuz he was telling me how Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger and he is the one that got the gov to make liquor legal because he was tired of killing people in the chicago mob to get his liqour threw! 

Then he said "basically Joe Kennedy sold his soul to the devil b/c after he got liqour legal, Joe Jr killed in WWI, JFK killed, Bobby killed, John Jr killed, Teddy murderer and now brain tumor"  So this was the "kennedy curse"  hmmmmmm.

Anonymous

Rocky, I agree that our government should not be run according to the Bible.  I do believe in separation of church and state.   But I have to believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word.  That's just my believe.  And you know how politics and religion go..LOL  Different opinions.

Anonymous

A New Clock for you. . . . . . .

Click here: My New clock

Harley44

Shirley,

I LOVE it!  I think I'll post it on my computer!!  I had a clock like that when my dh was still active duty, Navy, stationed in DC...  It showed how many days/hours he had left to serve, til he could come down to be with me permanently.  

Harley

Paulette531

Hey all...this is hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWiXy55OHyY

shokk

Shirley.............hahahaha............going to use it as my screen saver........too funny.......Shokk

shokk

Shirley that is based on 4 years right?.........oh crap........quick someone do the math...........Shokk

Anonymous

LOL

vivre

Geez, Paulette and Shirley, that was so funny!! Where do you guys find this stuff? Next time warn me to view on an empty stomach. My dinner is all shook up!

Harley44

shokk

Just multiply by 2, I think that will give you the total for 8 years.... I sure hope we don't have to endure 8 years of BO!!

Anonymous

Obama is losing a battle he doesn't know he's in

by Simon Tisdale

Barack Obama's chances of making a fresh start in US relations with the Muslim world, and the Middle East in particular, appear to diminish with each new wave of Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza. That seems hardly fair, given the president-elect does not take office until January 20. But foreign wars don't wait for Washington inaugurations.

Obama has remained wholly silent during the Gaza crisis. His aides say he is following established protocol that the US has only one president at a time. Hillary Clinton, his designated secretary of state, and Joe Biden, the vice-president-elect and foreign policy expert, have also been uncharacteristically taciturn on the subject.

But evidence is mounting that Obama is already losing ground among key Arab and Muslim audiences that cannot understand why, given his promise of change, he has not spoken out. Arab commentators and editorialists say there is growing disappointment at Obama's detachment - and that his failure to distance himself from George Bush's strongly pro-Israeli stance is encouraging the belief that he either shares Bush's bias or simply does not care.

The Al-Jazeera satellite television station recently broadcast footage of Obama on holiday in Hawaii, wearing shorts and playing golf, juxtaposed with scenes of bloodshed and mayhem in Gaza. Its report criticising "the deafening silence from the Obama team" suggested Obama is losing a battle of perceptions among Muslims that he may not realise has even begun.

"People recall his campaign slogan of change and hoped that it would apply to the Palestinian situation," Jordanian analyst Labib Kamhawi told Liz Sly of the Chicago Tribune. "So they look at his silence as a negative sign. They think he is condoning what happened in Gaza because he's not expressing any opinion."

Regional critics claim Obama is happy to break his pre-inauguration "no comment" rule on international issues when it suits him. They note his swift condemnation of November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Obama has also made frequent policy statements on mitigating the impact of the global credit crunch.

Obama's absence from the fray is also allowing hostile voices to exploit the vacuum. "It would appear that the president-elect has no intention of getting involved in the Gaza crisis," Iran's Resalat newspaper commented sourly. "His stances and viewpoints suggest he will follow the path taken by previous American presidents... Obama, too, will pursue policies that support the Zionist aggressions."

Whether Obama, when he does eventually engage, can successfully elucidate an Israel-Palestine policy that is substantively different from that of Bush-Cheney is wholly uncertain at present.

To maintain the hardline US posture of placing the blame for all current troubles squarely on Hamas, to the extent of repeatedly blocking limited UN security council ceasefire moves, would be to end all realistic hopes of winning back Arab opinion - and could have negative, knock-on consequences for US interests in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf.

Yet if Obama were to take a tougher (some would say more balanced) line with Israel, for example by demanding a permanent end to its blockade of Gaza, or by opening a path to talks with Hamas, he risks provoking a rightwing backlash in Israel, giving encouragement to Israel's enemies, and losing support at home for little political advantage.

A recent Pew Research Centre survey, for example, showed how different are US perspectives to those of Europe and the Middle East. Americans placed "finding a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict" at the bottom of a 12-issue list of foreign policy concerns, the poll found. And foreign policy is in any case of scant consequence to a large majority of US voters primarily worried about the economy, jobs and savings.

On the campaign trail, Obama (like Clinton) was broadly supportive of Israel and specifically condemnatory of Hamas. But at the same time, he held out the prospect of radical change in western relations with Muslims everywhere, promising to make a definitive policy speech in a "major Islamic forum" within 100 days of taking office.

"I will make clear that we are not at war with Islam, that we will stand with those who are willing to stand up for their future, and that we need their effort to defeat the prophets of hate and violence," he said.

As the Gaza casualty headcount goes up and Obama keeps his head down, those sentiments are beginning to sound a little hollow. The danger is that when he finally peers over the parapet on January 21, the battle of perceptions may already be half-lost.

moodyk13

Shirley that clock is a riot.  I love it!!!

But "you scare me"......ROFL

ijl

Rock,

 I think that Obama's policy with the respect to MIddle East conflict makes a lot of sense. I think that Israel did him a favor sort of speak by doing it now and hopefully finishing it by the time he gets into the office. That way he does not have to make his official views known. But the fact that he did not even say anything like that felt sorry for Palestenian civillian casualties says a lot.

Hamas had it coming for some time now, 100 rockets fired at Israel over 6 months of so called cease fire was unacceptable. I am gald that Israel finally decided to take care of it.

My daugther is studying in Israel now, so of course I am scared. But she does not want to come early no matter what

Anonymous

I think that clock is wrong...it needs to be reset...IT'S SLOW!

Paulette, HALARIOUS!

Moody thinks I'm scary!  Hold your stomach, Vivre.

Just a little nip and tuck and Nance is on her way to grab the gavel!

Rosemary44

Paulette,

Good find, that was funny.  I'd use your clock Shirley, but it does seem slow to move.

The reason why Obama isn't talking about the Gaza war is because he's waiting for John McCain to make a statement.  Of course he has to support Israel.  They're our only true friends in the region. It's tough to take the side of people (Hamas) who keep lobbing bombs at another nation.   Could we only imagine living with bombs flying over all the time?  Clinton would tell us to duck, of course.  Bush would have that ended quick enough, now let's see what Obama has to say:

Whenever he's ready. 

Keep in mind,  it took him 4 tries at a statement when Russia invaded Georgia. 

Paulette531

I think Obama is voting "present" on the Gaza war! Present is good and safe for him, he's used to it, after all present has gotten him this far, why change now?

Rosemary44

It's one thing to lob bombs but quite another to fight toe to toe.  I think the Hamas will be on their way back to Iran before they're all gathered up by the Israeli's.  Iran is such a low life cowardly nation, they won't come out to fight, but are very willing to fund and offer arms to any group of terrorists that will.

ijl

Rosemary,

 It's one thing to lob bombs but quite another to fight toe to toe.

Hamas foot soliders are so indocrinated that they don't mind dying at all. That's one of the  biggest challeneges that Israeli soldiers are facing as they are willing to give up their life for their country BUT they are trained how to survive . But Hamas soldiers are taught to die and they are prepared to do  so and  go to haven for thier 72 virgins. It's very different mentality

Israeli army stops the fighting for 3 hours each day to allow humanitarian supplies to go to Palestenians. This mentality is foreign to the other side. So I am a bit worried how it all plays out.

shokk

Hey Harley it is hard to multiply by 2 when you are hyperventilating...........shokk

Anonymous

It doesn't matter what Obama says about the conflict.  He always changes his mind.  He's so quick to speak up on any other matter.....like how he's gonna "redo" our security and, in fact, change it so much that he nominates a person who has no experience at all.  And let's treat the terrorist like visitors to this company...offer them tea and cookies. 

I hope Obama, when he sits behind that big desk, starts realizing just how serious these matters are.  I hope he doesn't dismantle everything this administration has done.  I hope he thinks about keeping HIS family safe even if he's not thinking about our nation.  You CANNOT play nice with terrorist...Iran being one of them (imo).  He has already said he'd do anything he could to stop rockets from his own girls. 

Remember when the CIA and FBI couldn't talk to one another?  Man, did that get us in trouble!

War is not pretty.  Too many innocent lives are lost.  I don't think there ever will be peace in that region of the country.  Unless that's one of the first miracles THE ONE preforms.