I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Happy 3 am all.

Gorgeous Star filled night sky, tho cold only stand outside my cabin to enjoy it for a few minutes as it's about 25 outside.  WIDE AWAKE, so checking in to say hello and ask all to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

WATCH THIS VIDEO OF OUR PRESIDENT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBK2rfZt32g&feature=youtu.be

Yorkiemom - DO NOT UNBLOCK, and eveybody else, stop reading poison, and stop talking about it, PLEASE, please.

Kam: less than 900 sq. ft. Electric bill is about $28 a month, no air conditioning of course in the hilltowns, so a bit higher in winter when I use the clothes dryer ($31.) cuz when ya stand in yer snowshoes to hang laundry on the line, you get more exercise than I want - and it's so weird to try to bring in frozen sheets, towels, and they get this weird kinda damp again when they thaw out...inside is in low 60's, which is comfortable for me, higher & I feel stuffy.

Back to reading....PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE...thank you.

Bren - good to see you

What is wonderful is nt only that Obama was re-elected, but the REpublican ideas were so repudiated.  Morning Joe was talking about how Republicans have to work with Obama now - their tactics, their ideas were rejected in the Presidential race, in the Senate, in state after state.

It is a beautiful morning, and Sun is right.  I vow to stop peeping into the insane asylum. 

Good morning --- Sunflowers, I have seen that tape a number of times and though I didn't cry this time I do have tears in my eyes.  Such a gracious man and strong enough to look past what the Repugs tried so hard to lay at his feet and never made it. 

I do think ( and by the way go ahead and boycott ) that those Repugs who will be successful to some degree now will in fact be the ones SMART enough to learn the lesson they were just taught.  They will back off of the 'conservative double-speak' and get on with taking CARE of the people who elected them to do so.  I along with so many did not see the EXTENT of what was about to happen though I felt fairly positive that someone lying and flip flopping and seemingly not even sure where he himself would end up, could not take the Presidency. 

I sort of think of the line of that movie ( brain, where are you ) We are mad as hell, and were not going to take it anymore.  I don't remember the movie.....but I do know those words ring true for me.  My life was in the crapper for most of the previous Repug Presidential administrations and it is time to re-claim some of what was lost. 

Romney.....at first I wanted to be generous toward him to a degree.   It is hard to be a loser ( ask all of us that had to put up with so many Repuplican years ) but the people who urged him on so ineffectively and that is definitely the Faux Fox crowd --- YOU DID THIS!!!!!  He didn't do it by himself.  He enjoyed your help.....he fell for the whole thing.  That is part and parcel of what a news propaganda machine can do and it did it so well.........that it made a fool of Romney and so many of the other conservative and far right wingers.  When you buy in.....better know what your getting.  TRUTH.....PURE,SIMPLE truth in the end will ALWAYS win. 

So, the road will be steep at times, but in the end, in four years there we should be at a pretty decent spot.  The people have spoken.  They were mad as hell, and they aren't going to put up with the nonsense anymore.

Jackie

Sun - no doubt I could reduce my $58 electric (no gas) bill lower if I stopped using that dryer!  Shouldn't need A/C where I live, never did before, but with climate change, we are getting warmer and warmer here.  A clothesline might be in my future

Unfortuneately, Republicans haven't figured out they need to change their ideology, not their tactics.  The upside of that is the Tealiban will go extinct.  Americans with the voting power are left of center and soon these gerrymandered districts will be redrawn to reflect the American people, rather than the only way these crazies can get elected.

It's useful to recognize that these zealots see themselves as being engaged in a war for their very survival and they attach that to believing that they and only they can save this country and reinvent it in some way like the "good ol days". The good ol days were when reality didn't encroach on their way of life. Sort of like the white ladies in "The Help"

Yes Chickadee - and their characterization of Democrats as just wanting handouts and free stuff just shows their hatred and ignorance.  (Actually, I think this new line of attack is another piece of Rovian propoganda they hear and mindlessly repeat, since these sorts of mantras seem to come in waves....a la "Benghazi Benghazi".)  Still waiting for my "free phone."

Thank you for that video Sunflowers. That is MY President. 

I won't be unblocking. 

Mary

As I'm sure those who post in this thread know, the free phone thing is another case of their media lying to them and they just jump on it.  Of course the Tea Party faction of the Republican party doesn't believe in fact checking but here it is anyway, just on the off chance that some might want to learn something:

Q: Has the Obama administration started a program to use "taxpayer money" to give free cell phones to welfare recipients?

A: No. Low-income households have been eligible for discounted telephone service for more than a decade. But the program is funded by telecom companies, not by taxes, and the president has nothing to do with it.

FULL QUESTION

Is this e-mail true?

I had a former employee call me earlier today inquiring about a job, and at the end of the conversation he gave me his phone number. I asked the former employee if this was a new cell phone number and he told me yes this was his "Obama phone."

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏

FULL ANSWER

Welfare recipients, and others, can receive a free cell phone, but the program is not funded by the government or taxpayer money, as the e-mail alleges. And it’s hardly new.

How It Works

SafeLink Wireless, the program mentioned in the e-mail, does indeed offer a cell phone, about one hour’s worth of calling time per month, and other wireless services like voice mail to eligible low-income households. Applicants have to apply and prove that they are either receiving certain types of government benefits, such as Medicaid, or have household incomes at or below 135 percent of the poverty line. Using 2009 poverty guidelines, that’s $14,620 for an individual and a little under $30,000 for a family of four, with slightly higher amounts for Alaska and Hawaii.

SafeLink is run by a subsidiary of América Móvil, the world’s fourth largest wireless company in terms of subscribers, but it is not paid for directly by the company. Nor is it paid for with "tax payer money," as the e-mail claims. Rather, it is funded through the Universal Service Fund, which is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, an independent, not-for-profit corporation set up by the Federal Communications Commission. The USF is sustained by contributions from telecommunications companies such as "long distance companies, local telephone companies, wireless telephone companies, paging companies, and payphone providers." The companies often charge customers to fund their contributions in the form of a universal service fee you might see on your monthly phone bill. The fund is then parceled out to companies, such as América Móvil, that create programs, such as SafeLink, to provide telecommunications service to rural areas and low-income households.

More at this link:  http://www.factcheck.org/2009/10/the-obama-phone/

I couldn't tell on the youtube, how Obama cried, but just saw that speech to his staffers on big screen - heartfelt.  He is such a good man; simple as that.

I think their only option is the Middle East, except for Israel, which has national health care. They would fit in very well with the repressive mentality against women in Muslim countries, but there is that darned religion thing. Well, looks like there is nowhere in the world but here for them to live and merrily spew their hate.

I was weirded out by all the "free phone" business, too.  It's actually a (wildly distorted) reference to a long-standing "lifeline" program instituted under Ronald Reagan, of all people.  Here's a link to a good Snopes summary:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/cellphone.asp

Key takeaways . . . this is a longstanding program (started by Reagan, expanded by Clinton, and extended to cell phones by GWB), and it isn't for "welfare recipients" but for low-income people generally (including seniors and the working poor).  It's funded through the "universal service" fee on telecommunications providers (which may or may not be passed along to their customers).

There was a really disgusting ad created by some rightwing conservative super PAC that showed a woman talking effusively (to say the least!) and not very clearly about her "Obama-phone."  God knows the context, who shot the footage, how she was prompted to carry on that way, what her mental state was, etc.  But since she happened to be African American, the racial message wasn't exactly subtle.  It went beyond "dog whistles" to an overt racist appeal to white voters.  Like I said, it was really disgusting.  I don't think this particular ad ran very long, but the problem with the bubble is that once stories get out there they just keep circulating.  I'm still seeing generally good-hearted people on FB who believe this crap.

Linda

(edited to add - I'm so pathetically far behind, I see that River_Rat posted on this as well.  sorry!)

Obama has all the leverage regarding the "fiscal cliff." He MUST use it. 

LOLOLOLOL - They listen to Faux News and then think they know all they need to know.  It is so sad that the Republican "party" (I can't blame the entire party, just too much of it) has for years taken the attitude that if they lie loudly enough and consistently enough that the lie will become truth. 

They truly are delusional, partly because they (the followers) no longer have any exposure to reality.  They really believe taxes have gone up in the last four years, because that's what they are told.  They really believe that the ACA is a government takeover of healthcare, because that's what they are told.  They believe our President is a socialist, because that's what they are told.  They don't investigate anything.  They just swallow the most ridiculous statements, because - well, because they want to. 

The man who actually did raise himself by his bootstraps and wants to give others the same option is demonized, and the man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is made into a "job creator" while he does nothing to create jobs for the middle class, only more wealth for the already wealthy.