"cling to distortion in order to avoid the dissonance of reality."
I've spent the morning reflecting on how naive I was 4-5 years ago. You see, back then when poutragers were busy railing about how President Obama dropped the public option from health care reform and his stimulus bill was too small and he had abandoned the effort to end DADT, I thought that the success of this President's pragmatic policies would lead them to take a second look at the assumptions they were making about him.
Now here we are years later and its clear that Obamacare is both reducing the number of people without health insurance while is slows the rise in costs. It turns out that the things President Obama fought for - like Medicaid expansion, the medical loss ratios and competition on the exchanges - have all been at least as important (if not more so) than the public option would have been.
snip
On ending DADT...
Nuff said.
My early expectations were never that these critics would agree with the President. I simply thought that these successes would entitle him to some respect that would be demonstrated by a willingness to give his ideas a second look before jumping into nefarious assumptions about him. Didn't happen.
I know...you're all going to lecture me about how its way past time to have given up on this hope. And it didn't just fall in one fail swoop recently. But when you see things like Michael Moore saying that President Obama's only legacy will be that he is the first African American president and Tavis Smiley says that on every measure blacks are worse off than when Obama was elected, I can't help but scratch my head and wonder what reality these folks are living in. Its certainly not the same one I inhabit.
snip
Read more: http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2014/09/nancy-confronts-her-naivete.html
********************This is a Barack Obama Group post****************
Best President in my lifetime. I am so glad to be alive to see it.
BOG 
I love you all~
= new reply since forum marked as read
And love the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is our President!...
I thank you.
Obama attends Worcester high school commencement
http://www.bostonglobe.com/2014/06/11/obama-attends-worcester-high-school-commencement/QUqlLPbAtqpW5n2AS7il9M/story.html
My state Aristus~
so I went searching. I'd put it together a couple years back in the runup to the 2012 election. On a whim I printed it to fit a nice silver-blue metal frame with gray mat that I'd found at a thrift shop. We were having our annual Dems dinner with silent auction, and I donated the framed pic; danged if it didn't bring $40!
Anyway, thanks for compelling the search. Methinks some post-midterm time will be spent organizing my files. Eek.
"he challenges us to speak up, to be part of the solution."
Exactly madamesilverspurs!
Brava to you~ 
until it was MINE! 
I appreciate your consideration of our groups SOP.
My thanks to you is very sincere.
You lost your electricity? That is always painful. Was it a storm or a fluke?
Glad you are back. Thank you for your post.
To Ricky Watson of Littleton, Colorado~ 
Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
www.hrc.org/resources/entry/the-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell
The discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gay and lesbian service members is officially in the dustbin of history. For 17 years, the law prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces and sent a message that discrimination was acceptable.
A new chapter now begins for the nation's military. Gay and lesbian service members previously discharged under DADT have the opportunity to re-enlist. Gay and lesbian Americans eager to serve the country but not willing to compromise who they are as individuals will, for the first time ever, be able to openly join. And brave men and women currently serving will have the freedom to come out and be honest with their comrades about who they are and who they love.
HRC members and supporters played a critical role in getting us here. You sent over 625,000 e-mails to your members of Congress urging them to support repeal. You helped us gather nearly 50,000 handwritten pro-repeal messages for delivery to Capitol Hill. And you supported our efforts in states across the country, lobbying your elected officials and engaging with the 20,000 veterans HRC mobilized to speak out in favor of repeal.
The discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gay and lesbian service members is officially in the dustbin of history. For 17 years, the law prohibited qualified gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces and sent a message that discrimination was acceptable.
A new chapter now begins for the nation's military. Gay and lesbian service members previously discharged under DADT have the opportunity to re-enlist. Gay and lesbian Americans eager to serve the country but not willing to compromise who they are as individuals will, for the first time ever, be able to openly join. And brave men and women currently serving will have the freedom to come out and be honest with their comrades about who they are and who they love.
HRC members and supporters played a critical role in getting us here. You sent over 625,000 e-mails to your members of Congress urging them to support repeal. You helped us gather nearly 50,000 handwritten pro-repeal messages for delivery to Capitol Hill. And you supported our efforts in states across the country, lobbying your elected officials and engaging with the 20,000 veterans HRC mobilized to speak out in favor of repeal.
I do not like Joe Lieberman. Yet I can not fault him for this statement.
Thank you for the additional history of record, she..
President Obama's Record on Helping Our Poor..
"Things Obama Has Done For The Poor That Never Get Highlighted" Or Acknowledged..
1) A $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps.
2) A $1 billion in funding for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) that is intended to revitalize low-income communities via "Job training and placement assistance", "Financial literacy programs", et al, to helping families become self-sufficient.
3) A $2 billion in new Neighborhood Stabilization Funds that will allow ailing neighborhoods be kept maintained.
4) A $1.5 billion in Homelessness Prevention Funds to keep people in their homes and prevent homelessness.
5) A $5 billion increase for the Weatherization Assistance Program to help low income families save on their residential energy expenditures by making their homes more energy efficient.
6) A $4 Billion program, The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, "authorizes funding for federal school meal and child nutrition programs and increases access to healthy food for low-income children."
7) As part of the HCR bill, subsidies will be available to the uninsured and families with income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level($14,404 for individuals and $29,326 for a family of four).
8) Estabilished Open Doors to end the 640,000 men, women and children who are homeless in America by 2020.
9) Increased the amount of federal Pell Grant awards so that funds are available to those with less access to have opportunity.
10) Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing.
11) Expanded eligibility for Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ($14,400 per year for an individual).
12) Providing assistance to low-income workers through the Earned Income Tax Credit giving millions of working families the break they need.
13) Education being the way out of Poverty, kicked off the "Race to the Top", a $4.3 billion program, that rewards via grants to States that meet a few key benchmarks for reform, and states that outperform the rest.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/01/things-obama-has-done-for-poor-that.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/poverty
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/01/04/932367/-Things-Obama-Has-Done-For-The-Poor-
"Obama's Quiet Campaign to End Poverty"..
This disturbing increase reflects the ongoing fallout of the economic downturn. But the fact is that the statistics would have been worse had it not been for a concerted effort by the Obama administration to ease poverty—an effort that deserves more attention.
http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org//ExclusiveCommentary.aspx?id=bcddfb97-ed90-42d0-ad7b-45661759b788
Ladders of Opportunity
“We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”
– President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, January 21, 2013
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/urban-and-economic-mobility
Ending homelessness.. civilians and veterans..
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/06/ending-veteran-homelessness
On a Path to Ending Homelessness
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/06/23/a-path-ending-homelessness
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110212904#post29
And, he..
"Obama SAVED the US Economy - Running Away From that Record Would be Suicidal in 2016"
1. When the President had a remotely cooperative Congress, we passed a massive stimulus and jobs package that rescued this country from Soviet-style collapse.
2. This administration rescued the US automotive industry, saving hundreds of thousands if not millions of jobs, and restructured it to be competitive in the 21st century.
3. This administration invested so massively in this country's clean energy sector that it made us the world leader in these technologies, and made that sector one of the few consistent bright spots in job growth.
4. The lack of progress since then has been 100% the result of Republican obstruction in Congress since they took the House. There is no ambiguity on this point, it's just a fact.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/19/1217249/-Obama-SAVED-the-US-Economy-Running-Away-From-that-Record-Would-be-Suicidal-in-2016
We have so much further to go.. but, it will take more than Pres Obama and the Dems in Office now to Accomplish what we need for our Poor and Middle Class.. GOTV 2014
Sorry, this is so long if you've gotten to the bottom!
I was doing some research for my post and came across this in my Drafts from 7/30/13 and thought it explained pretty well what it means in the Graphic above by "Still he Succeeds Still he makes American Lives Better".
BOG
P.S.
Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka
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Democrats need to use PBO's playbook. He saved this country from sliding into a Great Depression. He will never be ashamed of that. #60Mins
1:49 PM - 28 Sep 2014 22 Retweets 12 favorites
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/09/28/a-weekend-laugh-or-two/
Thank you Cha.
that.. all day my internet connect was iffy at best! Always with the "This Page Cannot Be Displayed" thing going on. And, when it finally did go off I was working on a project that I hadn't "saved" and thought I would lose it at first.. but, I just left it up when my battery kicked in and I was able to save it.
Now, my internet connection is fast again and spoiling me once more!
So much on the front burner today is depressing. And keeping the ball in play is tiring. But working against the president right now would be a true nightmare for democrats that only a few here seem to notice.
Thanks for being here.
