A kick.

[saltpoint]

The subject is still in progress.

It has something to do with the good stuff I find on this site and the general good will it fosters, and something to do with the next two weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration (signalling the end of 8 dreary-ass years of George W. Bush).

And something to do with what's happening along the Gaza Strip, and also Obama's first couple Supreme Court appointments, and how fast the world is shrinking through the wonder of cyberspace.

[babylonsister]

1. A kiss.

:*

[saltpoint]

2. ! thank you!

[saltpoint]

3. (moved to #4)

[saltpoint]

4. And something to do with a dream of bullet trains and of people

moving back into core neighborhoods of U.S. cities.

I never liked "the suburbs." I always trusted cities.

[saltpoint]

5. And something to do with being an agnostic but still thinking AMAHL AND

THE NIGHT VISITORS is a great tale worth the telling.

[saltpoint]

6. It won't be too long now before the Oscar nominations go up.

Some of us will see our instincts redeemed and others will not. I never thought what people actually wore to the Oscar ceremony mattered much.

Until Bjork wore her Leda and the Swan dress. That was quite impressive. Good for Bjork.

[saltpoint]

7. I think of Cynthia McKinney on that boat, and of the bile that FOX News keeps

spewing all over the arena of public discourse.

I wonder if I am more pleased that Franken won or that Coleman lost. I suppose I can feel both equally. I never liked Norm to start with.

[saltpoint]

8. It's my best hunch that modern psychiatry lacks the instruments

necessary to gauge how pathetic an adult George W. Bush really is.

Given whose child he is, the severity of his pathetic core personality is understandable. Poppy and Bar are good examples of people who probably should never have attempted union in the first place, but it's too late for that kind of musing now. How much they mitigate their son's pathetic profile is something to leave for the shrinks and historians.

[saltpoint]

9. I don't see any good reason why more trees can't be planted.

In public spaces, private business landscapes, along highways, and in people's back yards.

[lamp_shade]

10. Bookmarked. n/t

[saltpoint]

12. Hey there. Happy New Year.

[lamp_shade]

14. Same to you Mr. Crusoe. n/t

[saltpoint]

11. Don't tell me it's too early, because I'm now predicting that Barack Obama

will have an extraordinarily difficult but nevertheless successful first term and will appear so formidably impressive and approved of by late fall of 2011 that even an unstable ego-maniac like Mitt Romney will realize it would be pointless to challenge him.

Sarah Palin might win the GOP nomination by default, as Willard and Huck will survey the battleground and conclude that it isn't worth trying to defeat Obama.

Obama rolls to a second term.

Eight years of progressive judicial appointments. I could get used to that.

[salin]

20. Naw... Palin probably won't be reelected in Alaska

let alone get to the senate over Murkowski, let alone get to the GOP convention as anything but a sideshow speaker. Expect some other noname egomaniac to think that now is *their* time to shine - or a bigname egomaniac like Newt.

All the rest I agree with.

[saltpoint]

27. I hope that is what happens. If Palin can be blocked earlier in the political

season rather than later, we're likely all better off.

The farther away she is from actual influence, the better it is.

In a bio-fantasy animation of her life, Alaskan wolves conspire to attack her while she's enroute to deliver an address to yet another secessionist party convention.

[saltpoint]

13. More of Michelle Obama and quite a bit less of Bill O'Reilly would be

an excellent outcome of the next 8 years.

[salin]

21. I still am waiting for ORielly to turn up in a frothing in a bus, train or airport

with fake lettering scribbled on his face claiming to have been attacked ... or some other variant of Morton Downey's famous implosive act.

[saltpoint]

22. I wouldn't put it past him. He's been successful at FOX for sheer

meanness of spirit and for being ornery and dismissive.

[salin]

24. not to mention being prone to spittle-flying outbursts

shut up! shut up! shut up! (repeated one of Bill's outbursts to a guest) - a, fine discourse. Wasn't it delicious to read how everyone at Fox can't stand him - even Murdoch - but business is business and for now he still brings in $$

[saltpoint]

26. True. Bill does seem to have a temper.

The "F-it, we'll do it live" outburst was especially telling.

I love your scenario with Bill burned out and bedraggled in a bus station somewhere.

[salin]

30. Have I missed the explanation as to why his radio show

is going off the air? His choice or a business choice? If it is the latter, than I predict that as his rants get more bizzarre after Obama is president that he will find an ever decreasing audience - and as he is forced to reconcile his egotistical sense of self-importance with public dismissal and irrelevance... then some kind of psychic break/implosion might follow shortly? I really get the sense that he is more convinced of his self-importance than Rush - I sorta think that rush in all his inglorious bluster - knows that it is for show. Or at least to a slightly bigger degree that BillO.

[saltpoint]

33. I bet you're right. With Rush it does seem like he knows he's a blustering

oaf (albeit also a shrewd marketer), where with Billo there seems to be a visible streak of megalomania.

[saltpoint]

15. One of the reasons I don't like Dr. Phil is that he's too bossy.

He's too sure of himself.

IMO healers should engineer context in which there is ample play in the wheel.

I don't get that from Dr. Phil.

I don't dispute that he's helped a lot of folks. But I wouldn't hire him to help someone I wanted help for.

He is competent but un-fluid.

[saltpoint]

16. Regarding the Obamas' new pooch.

I like the idea of their getting a dog. I like dogs.

I feel badly for Barney, the Bush's dog. He likely tried his best to be a good dog but the stress of living with fools in that godawful ugly house was just too much and in the last year or so, he's pretty much gone to pieces. There've been at least 2 incidents in which Barney reportedly snapped at / tried to bite a reporter.

Maybe it was a political statement about the media.

But more likely Barney's losing it. Dubya didn't offer much support for Gulf Coast residents and the suggestion is strong that he ignores his pets as well.

Barney's memoirs would be compelling. I'd buy a first edition, no questions asked.

I predict the Obamas will do better by their pooch.

I want them to go a step or two further and build an animal shelter on the acreage of the White House, hire homeless humans to run it, with housing provided for said humans as well. Rahm can work out the details.

The Republicans will have a cow over it, of course, but it's a good idea, relatively low overhead, imminently affordable, and symbollicaly potent.

[saltpoint]

17. Senator Clinton inherits a world made worse by Dubya's overt negligence

and mismanagement.

But she's infinitely smarter than he is and likely far more resourceful in mobilizing Good versus Dubya's instigation of Bad.

She may be poised for true greatness. I did not support her for the nomination. But her new job, although it comes with peril aplenty, may be one she is ready to undertake.

And who is to say but that she might be very, very good at it.

I'm rooting for her to succeed, not just on behalf of her new boss but for the people of the Middle East whose lives have been so wretchedly upended for so long.

Go, Hillary.

[salin]

23. She infinitely better disposed than Condi

whose entire career has been as a sparkly yes-woman to different powersthatbe. Best of Luck Senator Clinton!

[lamp_shade]

29. Condi "sparkly yes-woman"

:rofl:

[saltpoint]

18. You might say I distrusted Rick Warren long prior to the recent flap

over the invocation at the Inaugural, and you would be right.

Obama's Inaugural Address is going to be heard coast to coast in the U.S., in cantinas in Bolivia, in hospitals in South Africa and Ghana, in universities in Denmark, and in apartments in Kyoto.

More ears will listen to this man than to anyone else in history, ever.

[salin]

25. without a doubt

for example - my norwegian relatives were already paying close attention to him last June. I can't imagine that interest ebbing anytime soon.

[saltpoint]

19. Under a sturdy roof, over eggs, and next to a heating vent, I recommend

this DU post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4754889&mesg_id=4754889

-- and strongly urge others on this site to consider its request.

This is a topic more important that whether retail stores "did well" this holiday season, or whether the Lions suck, or whether Jen is obsessed with Angolina.

[saltpoint]

28. I'm thrilled with Solis and Chu.

A pro-labor and pro-science administration is significant remedy for what has come before under Dubya.

[salin]

32. Eight years later.... adults really are returning

maybe we now will begin to have public policy created and pursued that actually takes concern with the citizens rather than with being primarily concerned with the profit opportunities (and gouging of the public) for cronies and big donors.

[saltpoint]

34. I'd be on board for that, definitely, and with Chu and Solis, it feels as if

Obama is reasserting what's good about civilization after 8 years of Dubya's callous disregard for just about all of civilization.

It's odd, too, that the so-called "moderate" Republicans have been so profoundly silent these last 8 years. It seems to me they just formed a reclusive little cadre in a church basement somewhere while upstairs all around them, Jim Inhofe and Saxby Chambliss burned their villages to the ground.

Shame on 'em.

[salin]

36. I wonder how long it will take the radical DeLayBushRove repubs

to realize that more bluster will not regain them an ounce of power. Early indications are that these so-called leaders of the modern GOP will be wandering around in the wilderness for quite some time.

[saltpoint]

37. I like the way you think. And may that prediction come true, and soon.

Let the fools wander around in that wilderness indefinitely, only to fall victim to the wolves and bears etc. that would have devoured Hansel and Gretel.

Those 2 younguns deserve rescue. I'm not nearly as sympathetic to the Republicans.

[salin]

39. Did I convey sympathy... oops....

call it bemused observing - as long as they are far away from any real power. ;-)

Hansel and Gretel do indeed need rescue - although I fear it will be a long and difficult rescue and resuscitation (sp) - as the damage inflicted has been so complex, complete and multifaceted.

[saltpoint]

43. Salin, you had it exactly right. I just like to add the devoured-by-bears

part, even unprompted, and even if it's a city street and not a wilderness.

Bears and wolves, even mountain lions. In my fantasy the Republicans-in-the-woods is besieged and devoured by any one or all three of those creatures, preferably in uncountable dozens, and long-starved.

Run, Jim Inhofe, Run!

[salin]

46. I watched the King and I over the holidays

and the playlette - almost has a greek chorus with that Run Liza Run chant... Your line made conjoured up a scene with an earlier era Parisian and rural French mobs with pitch forks circling around and indeed it is the wolves and bears in the greek chorus chanting "Run, Inhofe, Run!"

[saltpoint]

49. LOL!

The spectacle! The roar of the crowd! The gnawed chunks of Republicans awhirl in the arena!

[saltpoint]

31. While we admire the resourcefulness of Hansel's white stone strategy and

Gretel's historic timing in slamming the oven door shut on the witch, it seems to me the crux of the tale concerns the ethical liabilities of their parents.

The stepmother p-whips the father and gets him to take the younguns out into the deep wilderness and leave them for the bears and wolves. The precipitant for this is the stepmother's awareness that there'd be more money and food in the household without 2 hungry mouths to feed.

The father consents to this plan. Tell me he isn't a pathetically weak monster. Tell me he wouldn't be the subject of a vigorous CPS investigation.

Abraham agrees to kill Isaac for God; these kids' dad agrees to dump them in the deep woods. What's up with that?

[saltpoint]

35. I think it would be interesting to have a little dinner party and seat

Condoleezza Rice and Geraldine Gerraro next to each other.

[salin]

40. fake smiles and not so vieled barbs flying...

please don't sit between them.

[saltpoint]

44. True. We'd better give them plastic forks too, just to be on the safe side.

[salin]

48. and pablum

so it just sticks and slops off after they get to throwing it at each other.

And here is a question - why is it that the long hidden Ferraro gets so much sudden press rather than calling upon for opinion a similar era former (and longer term) congresswoman Pat Schroeder? I would much rather hear what she has to say than Ferraro. While she wasn't on a ticket - she did briefly make a primary run (or at least an exploration) in 1988. Also penned a really good book - 'Cleaning up the House'.

[saltpoint]

50. Good point. It might have something to do with Schroeder being far

more agile and smart than most of the people in the media who would be interviewing her.

She is an amazing soul. I miss her.

She was on to Reagan's cognitive difficulties long before the official diagnosis, too. She's always been awfully sharp.

[salin]

51. While I knew she didn't have a chance

I was SO inspired by her exploration at running. She was briefly interviewed on NPR on the advent of Pelosi being elected to Speaker of the House. She is sorely missed by me.

I could be wrong, but I believe that she lives in New York - and works in Publishing... Now wouldn't she be a great senator.

[saltpoint]

52. She would be. I didn't even know she was in New York these days.

Long may she wave.

[saltpoint]

38. So let's put the animal shelter run by also-sheltered homeless humans

on the acreage of the White House and let's set aside someplace -- in DC or Amarillo or Helena? -- for an international sculpture garden.

[salin]

41. Camp David, perhaps?

[saltpoint]

42. My take on Ralph Nader is that he's intelligent but unnecessary.

Politically unncessary, I mean.

Here's hoping that the Obama administration obviates the need for another Nader presidential campaign.

I don't want Nader silenced, but I can't understand why he never seems to smile. Voters seem drawn to presidents who smile frequently. They seemed to be lifted by Jimmy Carter's broad smile, by JFK's terrific humor, and even by Ike's kindly smiling.

Nixon scowled a lot. McCain, in the rare moments when he did smile, looked like he was testing his facial muscles after elaborate dental surgery.

Nader is a smart guy but he doesn't seem terribly happy.

[saltpoint]

45. Now on Cuba, it would be uplifting to see President Obama

get on an airplane with key staff and translators, etc., and land in Havana with a view toward making friends.

Castro has made several consecutive U.S. presidents look like fools. The rhetoric we've hurled at Cuba has been nasty and deceitful.

It ain't no way to behave.

I hope Pres. Obama confers dignity to the people of Cuba and establishes respectful diplomatic relationships and other trans-cultural initiatives with Cuba, but without ruining sandlot baseball as it is currently practiced on that island.

Baseball is truly in its pure essence on the island of Cuba. IMO it should remain that way.

[saltpoint]

47. If her health permits, may Elizabeth Taylor do a film this coming year.

And if it so lease the gods and goddesses, may Tom Cruise never do any films again ever.

That's my Hollywood wish for 2009. Deal with it.

[saltpoint]

53. I don't expect my country to be perfect. Even less would I demand that

it be perfect.

Perfect is good to strive for but impossible to reach.

But that said, we could do a whole lot better than we are. Obama tapped into the notion of hope as an ideal, as a value, as a social glue.

McCain never had any over-riding theme to his campaign, other than "Hey, I'm a war hero and you should vote for me." That was about it for the McCain campaign, and this was not a year voters were terribly drawn to war heroes, their having looked around and seeing damned few.

Rumsfeld. Condiliar. Franks. And on down the list of thieves and yahoos and incompetents running things for the Bush administration.

So Obama teased a theme out of History and wove a magnificent garment with its threads. It helped that he could speak beautifully and that his instincts and timing were so good. The right-wing media and the gaggle of right-wing talk show hosts raised Rev. Wright into a media spectacle and Obama responded with a landmark speech on race in Philadelphia. Advantage Obama.

If we cannot be perfect, we can do better.

I think there is a lot to answer for regarding Bush's two terms, and that Obama is charged with the goal of restoring our reputation around the world.

We the People have no quarrel with the citizens of Iraq. Our president lied his way into war there and Obama must try to restore some balance in the way we are perceived.

After 9/11 Bush had the greatest opportunity ever presented to an American president to establish good will in the world, and he sqaundered it almost instantly with the invasion of Iraq.

[saltpoint]

54. Anybody got a problem with Zorro and Robin Hood?

I don't.

I like 'em both.

[MH1]

55. "the general good will it fosters"

:rofl:

okay, some posts and posters do. ;)

[saltpoint]

57. MH1, howdy.

And Happy New Year.

I thought that a certain tall guy we both respect would be the new Secretary of State. I guessed wrong.

Hope all's well your way.

[MH1]

58. Howdy, OC!

And Happy New Year to you!

Yah, I thought that tall guy was the best choice of SoS too. But he's also the best to chair SFRC. So I'm not too concerned about it.

Meanwhile, go Al!!!! (oh and go Eagles! but that's an entirely different topic altogether. :) )

[saltpoint]

59. Yes -- the news from yesterday on the Minnestoa Senate race

was very encouraging.

I love it that Al is looking like our newest U.S. Senator for the blue team.

And equally love the idea that the upper chamber will be rid of Norm Coleman.

Eagles over the Vikes? It could happen.

[saltpoint]

56. What did Jack's mom eat after he traded the cow in for the magic beans?

In the version of Jack and the Beanstalk I remember, Jack's mom was fit to be tied over the swap.

The impression I got was that you can't abide interjecting speculative fantasy onto a landscape of agrarian squalor.

Then the narrative goes on and Jack has his big adventure with the giant up in the clouds, etc.

So what did his mom do for food while all that adventuring was going on?

[saltpoint]

60. Limes. How amazing they are.

[babylonsister]

65. This gets funnier the further I read!

:rofl:

[saltpoint]

61. So what is Dubya going to do in Dallas, anyway?

Shop?

[saltpoint]

62. The slightest alteration changes everything.

Had more people voted for Al Gore in Florida than did, Dubya would never have been in a position to stop the vote count and steal the presidency.

I don't presume to know if the 911 attacks would have occurred under a Gore administration or not, but even if they were inevitable and long-planned, I think Gore would have localized the military response to where bin Laden et al were thought to be hiding.

I don't see Al Gore invading Iraq.

In the Hansel and Gretel narrative, instead of the witch in the woods being a bad person, what if she were a person inclined to rescue and restore? She could have led the younguns to an adoption agency, for example, or whatever the fairy-tale equivlent of an adoption agency might be, and far away from their father (who abandoned them in the wilderness in the first place) and the stepmother, who was much more evil than reviews have suggested.

[babylonsister]

63. OK, here's a rec'd for effort!

Are you lonely? :pals:

[saltpoint]

64. LOL! I grew up blue in a real red state, so no, I'm able to handle it.

But I wanted a careening, wild multi-topic conversation.

I may start dropping more potent names from this point forward -- young blond vacationers on Caribbean islands... Rick Warren... Elian Gonzalez... and so forth.

[babylonsister]

66. Yes, those 'potent' names might inspire interest.

And your lime post really got my attention! :D

I'm trying to help you out here!

[saltpoint]

71. It's appreciated. I think what I may need to do is step on

someone's sacred cow.

Maybe even two or three sacred cows.

[Sugar Smack]

67. I'm adding a cat picture, OK?

Happy New Year!

*bookmarking*

[saltpoint]

69. Thank you! I should never have even considered beginning this

thread without a cat picture.

Excellent cat, by the way.

[malaise]

68. Why not

:D

[saltpoint]

70. Hey there. Happy 2009.

[malaise]

74. Back at you and yours

:toast:

[Samantha]

72. The thrill is back

I started to feel it yesterday with the announcement that Michelle and her two daughters have moved into the Hay Adams until January 15th. As the announcement broke, they awaited the arrival of the next President of the United States.

With the inauguration coming up, plans are daily discussed on our local networks. Streets are starting to be blocked off to insure Obama's security. Plans are discussed as to how millions of visitors coming to the political capital of the world will be accommodated with welcoming smiles. The anticipation of The Event is starting to grow and will continue to do so each day until The Moment is here.

The thrill is back and will continue to swell each passing moment. Here's to kicking the thread of one who deserves the prerogative of saying what he needs to say to pass the time away until the new day.

Nice to hear from you, Old Crusoe, and here's a :toast: to the future we so eagerly anticipate.

Sam

[saltpoint]

73. Wow, Sam, and hi to ya, and

a very happy 2009.

Those two younguns' daddy has a real important job, doesn't he?

How can I count the ways I will NOT miss George W. Bush!

And why doesn't my calendar move any quicker than it does? Let's do the Obama Inaugural tomorrow. I'd even help load the U-Haul for George and Laura if it meant they'd leave town earlier.

I think we're going to like living in Barack Obama's America a hell of a lot better than living in George Bush's.

[Samantha]

76. I think you would get a lot of DU volunteers if you asked

to help load that U-Haul. I estimate 80,000 or so. I personally would be first in line.

Yes, here is to the new day and the joy it will bring. Here's also another kick for your fine thread.

Sam

[saltpoint]

75. And people, NO -- John Travolta is not in the Mafia.

[saltpoint]

77. Is so.

[saltpoint]

78. Is not.

[Dr. Strange]

79. Sorry, but Old Crusoe is right.

Tavolta joined in the 70s. He served under one of the Brooklyn godfathers: a Don "Gabe" Kotter, who was responsible for recruiting high school students into the mafia.

[saltpoint]

80. LOL!

And happy new year to ya, DuStrange.

[Dr. Strange]

81. Thanks! You too!

And stop arguing with Old Crusoe. He never listens, anyway!

:hi: