Sen Obama fooled young, progressive activists into supporting him. When he achieved the delegate strength he needed, he reversed himself on firmly declared positions: FISA, prosecuting telecom criminals, coastal oil-drilling and other issues. He has a staff of imperial policy-thinkers, left-over from the Clinton administration. He wants to intensify US military operations in Afg-stan. He is very much to the right of center.

He promises domestic programs to fix our infrastructure problems, but at the same time he is talking with warriors and militarists. He cannot have both! What he can do is to continue to trash the dollar and take purchasing power out of the savings of people who worked all their lives to accumulate a nest-egg in dollar instruments.

His skin is of no importance to me, but I am afraid he will skin me.

The Republicans talk about values and abortion and church, while your wife loses her job.

John McCain slams the liberal media, the elite snobs; the Republicans say gay marriage is a sin…and you lose your house

They rant about sexism, talk about lipstick, meanwhile your neighbor brings home a paycheck that is less than that of her male counterparts doing the same job.

Listen—America—we will solve these cultural problems together. We’ll find an answer to abortion, in our churches and on Main Street and over the dinner table. We’ll find true equality for women, as we argue about it at the water cooler and on park benches. Like we always do—united, together—we’ll find a way to let that person who owns a gun, who will never, ever use it for evil, keep it, while taking another gun out of the hands of the criminal who threatens our very way of life.

We’ll solve these problems together. We don’t need politicians to come in and tell us how to live our lives. That is no kind of liberty, when politicians start to poke and prod at our bodies and our families, what we read and what we think. Our homes, our families—that is no place for Washington to intrude.

So don’t let John McCain and Sarah Palin distract you. Don’t let them make this election about something else. DON'T ELECT THE POLITICIAN YOU'D MOST LIKE TO HANG OUT WITH. This election is about your way of life. Your job. Your security. Keeping your home. Being able to send your kids to college. Being able to retire, and watch your grandchildren grow to be successful and happy and safe.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our fundamental right as Americans. John McCain doesn’t have a plan to ensure those rights. That’s why John McCain needs to lie, and distort, and distract. That is not leadership. That is not vision.

Barack Obama has a vision for this country. Barack Obama wants to put all the distractions aside and talk about YOUR life. Your rights as Americans. What you can and should expect from this country. A better country than it has been in the last eight years. And he has a plan to take all of us there.

The Thursday night interview with Sarah Palin included a brief discussion of the Republics of Georgia. She made the point that Georgia should be in NATO. That way, the next time Russia crosses the border, we will join the fight. I was stunned, but then I realized that for people Palin's age or less, fear of nuclear war belongs with fear of monsters under the bed. Being from Alaska, she should know that a wounded bear is among the most dangerous animals on Earth. If that wounded bear has nuclear teeth, civilization itself is at risk.

I feel compelled to point out that Truman studied law at a law school for a couple years (though he never got a degree).

That represents a VERY significant "education" beyond high-school, not because of the materials, but because college is the first place most folks actually have to demonstrate some self-discipline.

Anyone of average or above intelligence can earn a HS diploma by just staying awake and out of jail.

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OT:

Given the way the wingnut trolls behave here, I think those of us who would favor some improvements to the functioning of these message boards should go post messages on Joan's blog.

Something like:

YOU Stupid SOLON fucK's neead to give US a FUkcing ignore button for all the DUMBASSEDS TROLL'S youve attracked to this WEBBSIGHT!!1!!

If we each post that ten times in response to every one of Joan's blog entries, do you think she might listen?

Obviously no one is moderating anything here, and the overall quality of discourse has declined precipitously.

First to gala -- there is so much freaking nonsense in your posting I will not bother to address much in it; you Hillary Dead Enders -- the real ones, not the fake, GOP troll ones -- are simply "post rational," as Rachel Maddow says. But, one thing I would like to say -- because FACTS do matter, is that Barack Obama has had MANY jobs that didn't have any thing to do with government work.

One of Barack Obama's earliest jobs was at a Baskin Robbins! I don't think you get much more "White Bread" American than that, do you? He held other typical student jobs and took a job as a researcher on Wall Street before deciding to take another job, working for churches as a Community Organizer. Then Obama went back to school (on loans) and worked as the Editor of Law Review (Non-governmental). Then Obama taught law at a private university and worked at a private law firm.

Obama's only real government jobs were in the IL Senate (not full-time) and in the US Senate -- except for some grants for projects or consulting occasionally.

But, I know I am wasting my typing. Facts mean absolutely nothing to you folks.

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McCain, on the other hand, was in the military, worked a bit for Daddy-in-law and then, with Trophy wife's money and contacts, started working for the government more than 20 years ago and never looked back -- not that he needed to work after dumping his 1st wife for an heiress and getting full military disability.

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Mr. Neubeck: I don't know why people believe they have the right to just repeat hatred and Blood Libel -- over and over -- about Michelle Obama. I'm sure Freud could help explain it, but I wouldn't want to spend, even a second inside your warped psyche. I'll just say what I say to all the folks like you who are completely Batshit Crazy when it comes to the Obamas, "God Bless you." Because something really horrible must have happened to you to make you the way you are.