Hey, so did I! Proud of it! And if I had it to do over, I'd do it all over again.

I think history is going to be as kind to him as it will be increasingly brutal on bush/cheney. President Obama will be remembered for mostly good things. LOTS of remarkable accomplishments. He makes me proud to be an American. On the other hand, the teabaggers and GOP and other political whores make me ashamed.

Meh, you're just fine! The reflection from my HAIR can be seen from space!

Welcome to DU, kacekwl!

Glad you're here! That's exactly what I thought, too. I think a whole boatload of us here in DU think that. Probably just about everybody except for a few assorted trolls.

STOP GIVING HIM A FORUM. WHY are we even listening to him? WHY is anyone still paying attention to him?

Yes, one respects the Vice Presidency. But he has singlehandedly done more to besmirch, demean, compromise, damage, and sicken that institution than any other Vice President I have endured through my lifetime. He tops 'em all. Even spiro agnew. Even dan quayle. Even george bush senior. cheney takes the cake - and the ice cream too. He belongs in jail. Nowhere else but in jail. For the rest of his days. He's a war criminal. And worse, incomprehensibly worse, he's proud of it.

Can we start reevaluating their aid package?

A Two-State Solution is still the best way to go, seems to me. Granted, I don't know all the fine points, but I've gotta tell ya - it sure seems like a good idea for ALL concerned, PARTICULARLY the Israelis, to try to turn DOWN the heat in the Middle East. Seems like all bibi wants to do is turn UP the heat. And where will that get us, besides into another war? And I'm sure they fully expect us to lavish them with materiel support of the most lavish kind. They're gonna want more money and probably OUR boots on the ground. Can't we reevaluate THAT????? Shouldn't we reevaluate that?

From what I've observed, it seems to me that SOMETHING has to be done for the Palestinians. We've gotta do SOMETHING about their issues and needs. As long as they go begging, and don't get even a tiny bit closer to a home of their own, we will all have grief about it. And more grief. And even more grief as the weeks, months, and years drag on and they don't have a homeland. We HAVE TO do something about the Palestinians if there's ever to be even a sliver of hope for peace in that region.

I know this will likely strike some here and elsewhere as way too simplistic, but I keep defaulting on what a mom deals with. I'm a mom. And in the very small sphere of experience in which I've operated AS a mom, all I can think of when I see this shit play out is a bunch of adult-size five-year-olds fighting over the sole exclusive ownership of one toy. Zero-sum - it's gotta be all MINE and that means you can't have ANY!!!! Well, kids, there's only so much toy to go around and dammit, like it or not, EVERYBODY HAS TO SHARE!!! If you ALL want it and you ALL say you have a claim on it, and there's only one of it, then you ALL simply have to share it. There are no other options. And if you don't like it, sorry, but that's just too bad. That's how it IS. That's just life. You ALL have to learn to SHARE. Whether you like it or not.

Welcome to DU, negoldie!

Glad you're here! I read some of her tweets in the story - gee, what a charmer she is.

Sometimes I wonder - who the hell brought these people up? Were their parents all smug, heartless, scheming, conniving meanies, too?

NEVER underestimate the bad guys.

And its corollary - NEVER underestimate the naiveté of our purported good-guys.

They didn't bother to read the sneaky-ass shit the GOP attempted to sneak into that human trafficking bill, either. Probably just assumed everything was somehow "on the level."

DAYUM!!!!!! You do that with opponents like these and you WILL get rolled. EVERY TIME. Just keep on trusting that ol' scorpion that needs you to swim him across the river on your back. And prepare to be stung to death in the middle of the deep water.

I don't know WHY our side hasn't learned this by now!!! The opposition MUST NEVER be trusted. NOT EVER!!!!

He's nothing but a big fat luv-muffin.

A gentle giant, in every sense of the word.

In another riff to the cartoon world, we sometimes refer to them as "Big Shorty and Short Biggie." Barney is Big Shorty. His bossy sister Betty is Short Biggie. She pushes around everybody on four legs. And she does a pretty decent job pushing us bipeds around, too!

Could I vote for two or three?

Mad, Apoplectic, and Scared. I'd take any of 'em or any combination of all three - including all three.

And the children shall lead. Certainly this one will.

Always blows my mind when some kid comes up with a near-genius idea or approach or invention or solution to a big problem - like the kid whose work could help us clean up those trash gyres in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. OUTSTANDING! Gives me hope.

I hope he wins some BIG grant to fund further research. This is a VERY valuable and indeed urgent pursuit as we all age.

"They DON'T want to help you." Followed by "they just wish you'd die and go away...

because they think YOU cost too much money."

Btw - I'd like to know who the gullible, lazy, dim-bulbs are, on our side, who don't even stop to read a republi-CON-initiated bill carefully. Do they really not understand who and what they're up against? Do they really not get how sneaky-ass these people are? Who let that one slip? Or thought it was just okay as is? Sweet God in Heaven - are they THAT naive???????????

Do they not think? SHEESH!!!!!

And if the bad guys do it, WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE??? WHY can't somebody on our side sneak language in to undo the Hyde Amendment, or set up legislation that attempts to stick the government into the scrotum? Hell, they think nothing of trying to stick the government into our vaginas. WHY can't turnabout be fair play here? Or does our side just run along through the pansies thinking there's nothing bad coming, and no snakes hidden in the grass? SHEESH!!!!!!