Obama is ready to fly and so are we

               O is ready to fly and so are we!

Osama Bin Laden is dead!

Osama Bin Laden is dead and it was President Barack Hussein Obama that got him!

One of President Obama’s best speeches

I am not a woman of few words. I usually have a lot to say but for the past few months I’ve been silent uncharacteristically so I know.. well tonight I’m breaking my silence (I’ll reveal more of why I have been so silent in later posts) to say that earlier this evening, in Tucson Arizona President Barack  Obama gave one of the best speeches of his entire presidency.

Obama’s speech didn’t just succeed because it eloquently articulated what most of us have been feeling about the tragedy in Arizona, it succeeded because it reminded us of why we fell in love and voted for him in the first place-it gave us HOPE. HOPE that tomorrow, our collective tomorrow, will be better that any individual yesterday. He made the six individuals that lost their lives whole again in our minds if only for a few minutes. And in that speech he did something that only a president, a great leader, can do he unified our hopes and aspirations and told us what the future can really look like if we gave the best of ourselves, even when we disagree on how to get there,  in celebration of the lives that were so horrifically snatched away from us.

This tragedy doesn’t just  hit close to home for me it comes pretty darn close to breaking  my heart. You see, I live in Arizona. I too can remember going to my first political meeting as a little girl and I too was a member of my student council.  Bushy tailed and bright eyed my love affair with politics has lasted ever since. I can also see members of my own family reflected in all the lives that were lost in Tucson just a few days ago.  The grandmother, the leader, the communicator, the hero, the sweethearts. Leadership, compassion, love, warmth and dedication. The best of who we are as a state, a country, a people, a species was at that meeting last Saturday, January 8th, 2011 I hope that as nation, as we heal and the events of that day grow dim that we never forget that.

*UPDATE*  Here’s a sample of what others are saying about Obama’s Tucson memorial speech.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie thought the speech was ‘excellent’.

According to some even the mighty FOX news was ‘pretty gaga’ over the president’s speech.

And Marc Thiessen over at  The Washington Post’s PostPartisan thought Obama’s memorial speech was brilliant and courageous.

FINALLY!

BP has finally stopped their gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well leak!

Could this 87 day old environmental nightmare finally be over?

Four of a kind? Hannity, Limbaugh, Maddow, Olbermann

 What do Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh all have in common?

They are all contributing and should shoulder some of the blame for the lack of bipartisanship and extreme political polarization in Washington DC and across America according to popular CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer.

Blitzer made the comment during today’s The Situation Room as he was speaking to Donna Brazile and Mary Matalin about President Obama’s rare and extraordinary appearance before the House Republican Issues Retreat in Balitimore, Maryland.

Hmm..Wolf does have a point. These news commentators exacerbate the conflicts and differences that exist between the two parties with their over the top rhetoric but in many ways they are just reflecting how a lot of Americans feel and think on the left and the right.

Where are the independent commentators? And no CNN doesn’t count.

Lou Dobbs is my inspiration

Yes, I know I haven’t written in a minute. But as I often tell my friends and my three or four fans (and yes that includes my mother..lol) I refuse to write just for the sake of writing. No matter how hard I seem to try I just can’t do that. If I’m not feeling an issue or a story or anything for that matter I just can’t seem to blog. To me writing when you don’t have anything to say is almost as bad as talking just to hear your voice and I refuse to do that too.

But over the past few days my inspiration bucket has overfloweth and Lou ‘maybe I’m a birther, maybe I’m not’ Dobbs is the one responsible for getting me to start banging away on the old VAIO again.  Dobbs’ statement, “I am one of your greatest friends,” on Telemundo didn’t just inspire me to start writing it also got me to burst into a fit of laughter and I haven’t done that in a while either.

Maybe Lou Dobbs believes we’ve forgotten or more importantly that we can’t do a YOU TUBE search for his Broken Borders segments on CNN, his insensitive and almost if-not-quite there racist rants or perspectives depending on how you look at it on immigration or his attempts at legitimizing some far, far right opinions and ideas.

But I haven’t forgotten and I’m sure millions more, his fans included, are already gasping with disbelief at his about-face statements on Telemundo but I would be lying if I didn’t at least acknowledge that I expected Dobbs to tone down some of his rhetoric if he was seriously considering running for office. But these statements aren’t simply toned down they are completely opposite to what he’s said before- he’s flip flopped. And flip-flopped really big. It’s probably the biggest one I have ever seen from a possible political candidate and it was completely unexpected.

Over the years that I’ve watched and listened to Dobbs I could never accuse him of being spineless and I honestly respected him for having the audacity and courage to speak his mind to favorable or unfavorable audiences. But this attempt to curry favor with Latinos could only be described as spineless since he’s now attempting to switch sides and appeal to an ethnic group he came pretty close to demonizing for years. That type of double talk might be acceptable on cable news shows but it’s not kosher in real life. In real life those types of people are called hypocrites and everyday folks like me don’t like to vote for hypocrites we like to find out our politicians are hypocrites AFTER we’ve voted for them not before! LOL 

Ironically Lou Dobbs railed against hypocritical politicians and leaders for years now he is seemingly following in their foot steps. Mr.Dobbs has some serious explaining to do if he wants to get even close to a long shot presidential or senatorial candidacy but in the meantime I’m thankful to Mr.Dobbs for being my latest muse.

JP lets blacks use his bathroom but he refuses to marry them to white people

Keith Bardwell a Louisiana Justice of  Peace refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple but he does allow black people to use his bathroom! 

Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay 32,  were denied a license by Bardwell because Bardwell believes the children of such unions suffer and that it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

And if you aren’t already gasping with disbelief and shaking your head in disgust then this bit of information should do it..Bardwell has the audacity, to declare that his actions are justified and that’s he’s not racist at all since he has piles and piles of black friends AND..he even lets them use his bathroom! So that proves it right there! He’s not a raging racist at all because HE LETS BLACK PEOPLE USE HIS BATHROOM if he didn’t then and only then would we know that he’s a racist and a lunatic.

OMG!! WTF!!

You wanna know the real reason Bardwell refuses to marry interracial couples? It’s because he knows that sooner or later one of these interracial marriages, maybe even mine, is bound to spawn the devil’s offspring if we haven’t already with President Barack Obama!

You would never believe  that 2010 is just a few weeks away.

God grant me the serenity…

 

And the award for jackass of the year goes too..Kanye West

 

 

Being candid doesn’t just apply to talk show hosts and average citizens.

The beloved characteristic can also apply to Presidents as well. And yes, I’ll agree it is a bit surprising when politicians are frank with us but I have to admit that some of them are actually capable of telling the truth-at times.

President Obama’s comment about West’s behavior was off the record but when you act like a jackass (include Serena Williams here too) you should be called out swiftly and without regard to race, sex, age, national origin, religion or culture and if a president wants to express his/her outrage with a person’s behavior he/she should be able too as well. 

Thankfully President Obama had the guts to say what we’ve all been collectively expressing for the past few days and although it’s not the politest term in the world describing Kanye West as a  ’jackass’,  is the one word he can get away with calling him out loud!

I could think of quite a few other words to describe the big mouth, artist can’t you?

Senator Edward Kennedy is dead, ‘the Lion’ will roar no more.

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts is dead.

There is so much that has been said, can be said and will be said about Senator Kennedy over the next few days that I wouldn’t even attempt to discuss his legacy in this small, almost insignificant blog post. But I do hope that those who will be asked to speak about his legacy and his political efforts on behalf of all Americans will remember regardless of what side of the aisle they come from that “Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God,” and though the ‘Lion of the Senate’  roars no more, his voice will echo throughout the halls and chambers of the American Senate forever.

 

The health care debate has been hijacked by powerful men and women

 

 

“A little  group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible. ” –Woodrow Wilson, 1917

This quote accurately describes what is taking place in the United States as average Americans respond to lies and ambushes set up by those that are only interested in protecting their own pockets, their jobs (politicians of both parties) and the bottom lines of their share holders.

And these masked and willful men and women preventing health care reform are definitely not robbing from the rich to give more to the poor or the middle class!

So think about the next time you think about who’s really behind stopping the uninsured from becoming insured?