I voted for Barack Obama. I was excited about voting for him. It felt historic, and based on his campaign rhetoric, it felt right. It felt like I was helping to heal the country after 8 years of the ass-hat, monkey-faced-frat-boy Bush. I didn't actually think he'd roll over the GOP the way they rolled over the Democrats during Bush's reign of horror, but I fully expected that it was understand throughout the Democratic Party hierarchy that voters wanted Guantanamo closed, the Iraq War ended, our troops drawn down, Afghanistan resolved, our freedoms restored, the economic free-fall halted and turned around, the Bush tax cuts revoked, etc. I really, honestly thought that, given that Obama seemed to hit the ground running, that he was going to really get a lot accomplished.

Boy, was I wrong.

No, I'm not saying Obama and the Dems didn't accomplish anything at all -- their accomplishments make an impressive list. But when it counts, when the GOP attempts to block them, they just sort of roll over. It's disgusting. The Senate should have used reconciliation to pass single-payer healthcare. They should be using reconciliation to pass tax cuts for the middle class and poor the same way the GOP used reconciliation to pass tax cuts for the rich. They should be changing the rules to eliminate the filibuster. They should have given the GOP the same beaten-wife treatment they received.

This latest acquiescence is making me absolutely crazy. At this point, I would vote for anyone that challenged Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012. He has failed as a leader. He has failed to show true strength at a truly historical juncture, and I'm not convinced that he couldn't have done a lot better than he did.

I kind of like Hillary for 2012. Just sayin'.

"The trick to bending the election is to remember that there is no election."
-- G. W. Bush, 11/99, speaking before Supreme Court

Poptones, the weed toking idiot that was "ashamed" of us for being down on offshoring, had this reply to my message:
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No hero (Score:2)
by poptones (653660) on Sunday March 21, @09:08AM (#8626777)
(Last Journal: Thursday July 24, @05:07AM)
I understand your reluctance to be a hero about this... but I'm saddened by your enthusiasm about mnaking yourself a victim.

Why did you switch careers to one that pays so poorly? If you are going to switch careers, one would think the logical movement would either be upward or toward greater personal happiness. Anything else is just a personal downward spiral, and (as much as I would also like to) you can't blame George Bush's economy for that.

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Poptones, you're an idiot. I didn't "make the switch" voluntarily; there were NO PROGRAMMING JOBS. What jobs did come available had nearly every one of the million-plus unemployed programmers in the Silicon Valley vying for it. Your dumbass remarks about "personal happiness" and "downward spiral" belong in a wannabe hippy empowerment hugfest support group ("you ARE a good person!"), whereas my position is more in the "f**k you you lame ass, I'm not a moron, and if you try to hug me again I'm going to drop kick you" group. Don't be an idiot *all* of your life -- assume for a moment that people except lower paying jobs because, unlike you (assuming you use that same "love yourself" attitude and a strong aversion to bathing to chase prospective mates away), we have FAMILIES that expect us to bring home a paycheck instead of sitting on our asses waiting for that big paying job so we can avoid a "downward personal spiral."

And yes, I can absolutely blame George W. Bush for leaving our borders wide open, even in the face of 9/11, and for letting our jobs walk away. His job is, in part, to protect me and mine, and as with all else, he fails miserably.

You ass.

On a side note, I recently found another job, making 3 times what my "interim" job was paying, and making 70% of what I was making before the economy took a dump. I'm at least back to where I was 5 years ago. And George Bush can take NONE of the credit for this. George Bush can kiss my big sweet white butt. On the other hand, to do that, he'd have to get behind me, which would be tricky because if he got within range I'd be kicking the mortal sh*t out of him as much as possible before the Secret Service jumped on me. Gee Dub is a crooked, evil bastard.

Bush is a damned liar. And a coward. One of two things happened:

1. He got handed bogus information, used that information in speeches to Congress and the people to pursuade them to OK a war, then didn't call for an investigation when the information came up as bogus.

2. He requested bogus information, etc.

Either it was a mistake and he just didn't double check when the mistake was found, or it wasn't a mistake. Either way he's a complete f***-up.

No, I actually told myself I'd keep my political views to a minimum here, but I just couldn't stop myself...

So you made it past my 2:30am ramble. You deserve some well thought out discourse. Lacking that, I'll turn you to my views page: http://www.tgrigsby.com/views

Good luck!

Random thoughts:

Open source -- it's a beautiful thing.
Bush -- Sr., sketchy. Jr., a complete ass.
Clinton -- darned fine President, just had no control over his zipper.
Microsoft -- the root of all evil.
rm -- the greatest evil when run from root.
Iran -- Bush Jr.'s next target.
Syria -- Bush: "It looks just like Iran from way over here."
Mankind -- will probably blow itself up before 2099. Or starve itself to death. Or blow itself up over the last bran muffin because it's starving to death.
Everything -- nothing.