Yes, Virginia, there is STILL a Santa Clause; and he is legion

Family on a bad luck streak finds out just how loving people can be to strangers.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/25/christmas.giving.blog/index.html

Sorta reaffirms my faith that most people will do good, even become heroes, when they see an opportunity with a clearly defined need. A hero is just a regular person who saw what needed to be done, and instead of looking away, just did it.

These are the people we, as a society, should venerate, idolize, hold up as role models. We need to pay more attention to the good, decent people all around us, and perhaps less to the self-aggrandizing egos we see too often in media. We would feel better ourselves, and be empowered to be part of a solution.

Pogo was right, all those years ago: We have met the enemy and he is us. But there is a corollary: We have met the hero, and he is us.

Merry Christmas to all you heroes.... And may we all find the extra fiver in our wallets when the opportunity to be a hero to some luckless neighbor presents its self. May we all find a wee surge of energy when someone needs a helping hand with a task impossible to do alone. May we all find our hearts grow enough to help another meet a daunting challenge. May we all utilize the renewable resources of power: love and caring. That will assure a better new year, all around.

May your days be Merry and Bright, and your soul rest easy, come night.

Reading a comment on Huffington post re Reagan years, had to respond

Lot of union busting under Reagan too. That was the real beginning of the end for the middle class and working class trying to lift its self (and the economy) up by those oft-mentioned boot straps.

Greed was legitimized and venerated in the Reagan years. Those among us who had the least were vilified and blamed for their own circumstances.

Then there was the funneling of arms, money, drugs.... That whole thing meant that any means were justified so long as the guys in power got the ends they wanted. And America made media stars out of the criminals who did the crimes.

That, indeed, was the beginning of the end of middle class, hope for working class, and morality in America. That is when we turned off the beacon of light this nation had long held on high.

The puppet masters found the formula: Get some pretty face (with a failing mind) and run the face, but do not let that person actually DO anything.

Throw taxpaying workers to the wolves, then arrive in D.C. via private corporate jets to ask for taxpayers to bail them out

With execs like that, is it any wonder American Auto Makers are in need of cash?

"Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds

Auto Industry Close to Bankruptcy But They Get Pricey Perk

By BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE

November 19, 2008—

The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation's capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.

The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough...."

More at the link - click Attila's header on this story, but not if you have dangerously high blood pressure already. Attila does not want you to have a stroke.

No bail out for these clowns. The industry, maybe, but ONLY if the execs are taken out of their jobs, have their perks and pay cut off, and are forced to turn over their own assets to the floundering companies. New management, responsible and answerable to Congress before one dime of worker-paid tax dollers to these weasels. They should not be living large while throwing taxpayers out of work and expecting them to also write big checks.

Fuck 'em. New management or no bailout.

Fleets of private corporate jets indeed! Money junkies. Send them to rehab. NOW

The sound of crackers snapping

Where did that term for brittle white bread come from anyway?

Are you noticing, dealing with, crackers snapping?

If the term were an acronym, what would the letters stand for?

Yes, Attila has had too little sleep and too much time to ponder the fringe. The fringe is cranky. Reality is making threats on their delusions.

Expect crackers behaving badly. Be ready with tactics for dealing. Try to be gracious whenever possible, we are the grownups, but do be firm. Avoid enabling bad behavior. Don't feed the beast; help the beast see the light, or cage the beast.

Cracker crumbs WILL be swept aside. The way WILL be made for cleaning up the socio-political facets of American life. We WILL be a better people than cracker dreams.

God (or who/whatever) Bless America!

Have apples with your cheese. Make crackers irrelevant to your life.

Memo to those who feared Obama would make us a socialist or communist nation:

IF you have ever driven on a road which was built, maintained, patrolled for safety using public monies.... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you helped your elderly parents sign up for Medicare so you would not have to pay for all the healthcare they need... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you have ever eaten ANYTHING you did not grow yourself, anything which was grown with any governmental program to help the producer, shipped over any public roadway, inspected for your safety at any point.... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you sent your kids to a public school... YOU may be a socialist

IF you home-schooled, but asked for any help from any public official along the way, or if you used a public library rather than write, print and use your own books... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you are a proud Libertarian but have EVER ventured off your own property, used anything you did not grow, harvest, manufacture yourself on that property... YOU may be a socialist

IF you are a Libertarian or anti-government voter who ever invested in buying stock, held a bank account, owned or used American currency... YOU may be a socialist.

If you have been anything but a hermit in a loincloth, you may be a socialist. If you define socialism as any form of taking tax money from people to provide people with the services and infrastructure, you are lying to yourself about how ruggedly independent you are. You are dependent on the society and the society takes care of many needs.

If you want help me make a list of groups who may be socialists, leave a comment and add to the list. It is Friday, end of a very long week, we could use an exercise in consciousness raising that could provide us with a bit of humor too.

From the ol Inbox: McCain Lawyer Impeach Obama!...

McCain Lawyer Impeach Obama!
McCain has reached an agreement with the Obama lawyers that makes Obama resignation effective November 11.
Barack Obama can lost President's Chair.
McCain video report 7 November:

And there is a link, of course. LMAO

If there was anything that would make Obama resign on November 11, are there really people silly enough to think it would not have been made public prior to November 4? Hell, with all the lies the GOP and Hate Media was throwing around, something THAT potent would have surely come out BEFORE McCain had to silence Palin so he could make his gracious and admirable concession speech!

But I digress. Back to the spam email.

One hopes all the naive and/or hopeful bigots who clicked that link when it came to their email just got a spam for some silly product.

One hopes the link did not take the naive (or those wanting to overturn the will of a solid majority of American voters) to a porn site that might get them fired if they went to the link from work.

One hopes the link did not take them to a child porn site that could get their asses in legal trouble for simply being naive enough to innocently click a link they might believe would assure them there was a way to keep the resoundingly elected black man from moving into the White House.

One hopes the link did not download some malicious virus onto the computers of anyone naive enough to click it in hopes of taking America back to the days of fire hoses, axe handles, horses, and dogs used on their fellow countrymen who happen to be genetically different at the skin color gene and wanting to go to school, ride a bus, take a drink, or vote.

One hopes a lot of people do not rush into possibly damaging spam emails that try to appeal to baser instincts of some.

One hopes...

Still and all, last Tuesday did offer some hope that dangerously naive people, fools who think color is more important than wisdom and caring, willfully ignorant who don't want to find out about people who are 'different', and the just-plain-bigots out there are declining in numbers.

One hopes that looking for the best in ourselves and voting for the best in our leaders might be the virus that is really going around now.

Lieberman supported McCain which was the same as supporting the bush/cheney agenda

Now he tries to wrap his behavior in the flag and ask that the DEM leadership on the Hill not hit him back for all the punches he threw.

He did it for his country and his state.

Patriotism is indeed the last refuge of scoundrels.

Throw his ass out of committees and caucus. He has shown where his intentions lay and lie.