You're obviously too young to be a senior citizen, or else you'd know.

I'm 53. Most people with spinal stenosis aren't too young. My mother is 77 and she's not on one narcotic painkiller, nor are any of her 6 surviving siblings, all over age 65.

Amazing that they have been able to escape the nefarious doctor/pharmaceutical company Narc-the-Elderly Conspiracy, I guess.

My family was voting Republican by 1868, if not 1864 --

This person is not typical of white Texans or white Southerners, so I wouldn't go extrapolating.

supposedly a real bible-thumping, gun-toting Republican southerner

Whose family has been voting Republican since Lincoln. Lincoln was a Republican and he freed the slaves and is blamed for the Civil War by many southerners. The Democratic Party was the party of small town politics and bigotry in the south all the way up until Nixon. Southern Democrats, disgruntled at LBJ's signing of the Civil Rights Act, defected to the Republican Party when Nixon used the famous "southern strategy."

My feeling is that the letterwriter doesn't know his history or he would know that "a real bible-thumping, gun-toting southerner" would not be from a family that has been voting Republican for more than a century.

You know the message that little tidbit was trying to put forth as well as I do... that Michelle Obama is "n---- rich". That comes straight from the Rovian branch of the GOP.

Its another Reeks of Rove moment.

I should have added in my letter that I do not believe there is any such thing as "n---- rich." It is despicable old racial stereotype. But I heard it said by white people -- particularly older whites -- all my life.

You know whose votes the GOP is aiming for with a trick like that. It's a modification of the Southern Strategy to appeal to old fart racists in the north.

There's another little smear within a smear. If Barak was at a meeting, why was Michelle ordering two whole lobsters? She's too thin to eat them both herself.

The GOP is seeing that Democrats are intimately familiar with web communication and can reach millions of people within seconds, emailing subscriber lists for all kinds of groups - the DNC, the camapigns of various candidates for national and local offices, free speech defense groups, internet-use defense groups, etc - and send them an email containing written descriptions of nasty remarks and containing links to websites where you can see or hear the politican making those remarks. Also included in that email will be an instantaneous link to contribute to the organization/campaign being maligned by the GOP.

Democrats read. They are better informed. Republican conservatives listen to talk radio. They don't read. They let their favorite talk radio hosts/wrestling heroes think for them.

Most Republicans who are on the internet throwing talking points around on messageboards and in chatrooms are retired. They use old school slang. They are not up-to-date.

For now, Democrats are winning the technology communications contest. But the GOP will catch up. They will find new ways to get hot MILFs in sexy clothes to get their message across. They will find new code words. Don't get complacent. These people have Rupert Murdoch behind them. That's a lot of money and a lot of communications. Right now, Murdoch is old and he hasn't hired enough hungry, attractive young people (under 35 - his Faux news crew is all over 35) who will co-opt the language and culture of younger people and use it against liberal Democrats.

But they will, my pretties. They will. Rove will fall, but someone else will take his place. The GOP will never stop playing dirty and co-opting the tactics of their enemies. Don't forget - John McCain is 72 years old and when you close your eyes and listen to his voice, he sounds like a nasty feeble old man. That has a huge effect on young people, who are siding with the more youthful Obama. But a few years after Kennedy won the presidency, the GOP was back in the White House.

Keep your eyes open for the next new trend. Remember that before the internet, talk radio was the big communications winner. The GOP tried to win the internet war - but with companies like Pajamas Media. LOL.