Nobody who spent the last eight years fighting back against Bush's outright war on half of the population of this nation is going to "forget about" choices like this from the man who these same people worked tirelessly for the last two years to elect. Do we expect payback from Obama? Not really. Most of us just expect a rational, caring human being who respects those who got him where he is. Contrary to the specious claims of fence straddling "centrists" - the Johnny come latelys who decided it was ok to vote for him at the end of the game - these were not the people who got him elected. It WAS the dedicated labor activists, the civil rights warriors, the progressives, the "leftists on the coasts", and yes the gays who spent the hours, effort and their own money to push Obama across many electoral lines.

for the record, I'm an uber heterosexual in a 28 year long marriage.

"Extreme left liberal"...???

Do you mean organized labor activists who put in thousands of hours canvassing and phone banking?

Do you mean the army of progressives, sick of eight years of lies, torture, and grotesque incompetence

Do you mean the courageous activism of the homosexual community that opened their wallets?

Or, are you a "centrist" who claims that "centrists" are responsible for electing a man you gave little except your vote in the general election?

Maybe it's because I'm a bass player. Maybe it's because I'm a long time shade tree mechanic. For whatever reason, I've long been in love with old 245 Volvo wagons and currently own both a 30 and 20 year old version of this venerable Swedish tractor. Both of them get 25 mpg on the highway, where I do most of my driving. They offer a FULL six feet of rest stop sleeping room in the back (with the rear seat folded up), AND room for my standup bass and amp. One cost $850, the other $2000.

As for the mini van... well... One of my first cars (and a few subsequent ones) was a VW microbus. I still have it mothballed out back. I view the Windstar I have as a close cousin to it. A actual workable cousin. Like with water cooling, and a heater and defroster, for example. Cool? Who the heck cares? It's my summer touring rig with all the benefits of the Volvo wagons, with the additional plus of being able to sleep me, my beloved, and the aforementioned bass and gear. I call it my mini RV.

I don't care - nor have I ever - what people think of as "cool" in an automobile. Both the dear, dependable, and amateur fixable Volvos, and the remarkably well running Windstar do what I'd like them to do, haul what I need hauled, and get at least decent mileage doing so. All three are completely paid for and have been since I obtained them.

Get what you need. Don't pay attention to status or perceived taunts of "coolness" from bozos, and get on with it.

Trust me... If you've ever tried to cram a full size stand up bass, two very heavy bass speaker cabinets, an extremely heavy rack mount amp and pre amp, and my cranky old ass and personal gear into a sub compact, or a Prius, or a Civic, or whatever your miracle maxi mileage, mini car is, you'd have a mini van or a old Volvo wagon like I do, too... and you'd accept the not so bad 25 mpg (deductible at 50¢ a mile). There's more to "need" than vanity and 40 miles of bad road. As for public transit, or bicycles or whatever you utopian, vegi munchers are advocating to get to Starbucks in some urbanized, transited area, try catching the bus with the above equipment to... oh.... Cooke City, Montana, for instance.

Different strokes, etc...

While I agree that nonsense SUVs of old are useless dinosaurs for the most part, there are an awful lot of us, at least out west, who actually use and need bigger rigs for a whole variety of reasons.

My ultra low tech, ultra soccer mom Ford Windstar (which I still love after 125k miles and runs like new) is allegedly an "American" car. I guess if you drop any trace of "American means USA" jingoism, it is. But... it was actually put together across the river in Windsor, Canada - as many Fords have been for years. Gotta love that "competitive advantage" that single payer health care gives those "other" Americans, eh?

The discussion of what's green, and what's not, is another matter entirely. I'm coming around to the carpe-that-diem way of life, because all the little green shit we do isn't going to matter a fart in a tornado when Ghawar starts running dry.

OMG! Is GWAR in danger of running out of kosmick jism?

How can I go on!!!!!

I wish I'd known!

Excuse me if someone else has mentioned this, but I don't have time to scan the rest of the letters this morning.

BUT.... isn't this the sort of thing that the Family Medical Leave Act is supposed to prevent? There are details of the whole firing process that the story doesn't give, so it's hard to tell exactly what happened. I'd think she would have been eligible for protection of her job under FMLA though. The fact that the unemployment people found in her favor sort of argues that there was at least some problem with the employer's handling of the dismissal.

Both of these supposed "leaders" have been completely discredited by their own acts of both commission and omission. If nothing else, we need actual "leaders" in there, or at least people that understand they won and need to act as though they won. This constant capitulation and Kumbaya crap with people who will and have stabbed them and the people who put them in power in the back repeatedly has to stop. Make the damn Republicans compromise for once. If they won't, let 'em eat dirt.