paul ryan is apparently being seriously vetted as vp.

HMMMM...lets look at a few things here

grover norquhist said that he didn't want a president who will lead, but follow the rightist/bagger faction in the congress. According to him, all the president needs is enough working digits to sign whatever is sent his way. Under george w moron, there was a rubber stamp congress. In groverland, there will be a rubber stamp president. He made it very clear that what he wants is the ryan budget passed and his no taxes pledge only applies to taxes on rich people. If you want to screw the average American, than THAT is ok.

There are numerous billionaires who are contributing their bottomless fortunes to Super PACS designed to smear and defeat President Obama. This is done as they are supporting a man who has spent nearly 20 years demonstrating that he has NO CORE VALUES other that mining companies for every single nickle they can as they ship the jobs of thousands of Americans overseas. Also, the mormon faith that he will not discuss.

romney is so gaffe prone that he makes george w moron sound almost lucid. He is so out of touch that he makes bush senior look like a populist man of the people. He has a disdain for working class Americans and their values that he makes rightist radio hosts look like actual human beings (well, let me not get TOO crazy there!). He mistreats animals to the point that he makes dick cheney look like St. Francis of Assisi.

paul ryan is not only the man who constructed the most draconian budget possible, but he is also the man who makes ayn rand mandatory reading for his staff.

To me, the most scary sum of these parts is this...

...this would be the ryan/romney administration, much like the late and unlamented cheney/bush administration. The biggest differences are that romney's smile is a lot more phony and that ryan is still young enough to do WAY more damage than cheney.

How many ryan appointed SCOTUS justices would there likely be in the next 4 years? Holy shit, I think I'm going to get out my debit card and zing off another $10 bucks to the Obama/Biden campaign. This post is making me way more frightened now that I've written it than it ever did while I was thinking of it for the last couple of days. Sheesh! I'm not a person that scares that easily, either!

PEACE!

I know that every parent has felt, is feeling or will feel what my wife and I are feeling today.

Our son graduated from 6th grade today. Come late August, he will be in Middle School, or, as it was called when I was a kid, Junior High. We are proud of him, amazed at just how fast Elementary School went by, very happy for him and very sad that our son is no longer a little boy.

Actually, he passed "little boy" by a long time ago on the way by "kid" to arrive at "young man".

I will never again feel the joy in my heart of seeing him run into his school, eager to start the new day. Maybe I'll drop him off at school in the future, but he'll be WAY too cool to run in unless he's late. My wife and I said goodbye to the goodbye kiss at school over a year ago. The exchange is that we're going to damn well kiss him when we're at home

When he was about 4 months old, a few weeks after we adopted him, I had a dream of something taking place when he 'll be about 17. In this dream, he's going out on a date and I'm at the door with him while mom is close by in the living room. I'm asking if he has enough money and he says yes but I give him another $20 just in case. I then ask if he has enough gas and he says yes but I give him another $10 just in case.

3 things that I know. First is that, unlike August of 2000 when I had this dream, $10 for gas will go nowhere 5 years from now. The second thing is that the $20 won't go a hell of a long way then either.

The third thing that I know is that his being 17 is just around the corner and will be here in NO time.

it has nothing to do with getting older. It has nothing to do with my wife getting older because she'll still be the most beautiful and wonderful woman on the face of the Earth when she's 199. It has to do with the fact that we LOVE being parents, even when we want to absolutely throttle him (which is frequently). In just a few years, he's going to be out, in college and GONE!

He'll be home for holidays, weekend visits, laundry, refrigerator raiding and hitting mom & dad up for money that we'll bitch about giving him while we're silently happy to do it. He'll always be our son, we'll always be family, but before long, he'll have a family of his own.

Of course, THAT'S when the fun will come in!

My mother-in-law lets him get away with a lot. My mother (God rest her soul & RIP) let him get away with absolute murder! We've always told him that we'll get our revenge when he has OUR grandchildren!

At least we have that to look forward to!

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

The Barber victory vs. the walker victory.

A few quick thoughts before I dash off to work this fine AM.

Let's see. scott walker's campaign outspends us by 8 to 1, wins by about the same margin as he did in 2010 and, according to some polling, got the votes of some who don't like him but disapprove of recalling a governor for political reasons. In the meantime, the same polling shows President Obama with a comfortable lead.

The media response? Democrats are doomed...Doomed I say, DOOMED!

Barber wins a special election for Gabby's seat defeating the teabagger that she beat in 2010 after the rethugs cast the election as a referendum on President Obama and we show that the repubs are as hostile as they are to anything even barely resembling a social program.

The media response? If I listen closely I may be able to hear the crickets.

There goes that damned liberal media again!

Horseshit!

That;s my 2 cents, and quite possibly over priced at that!

PEACE!

Hey, everybody, PLEASE K&R this Great video in the LGBT Forum!

I put my money where my mouth is today (ALERT for Augusta, Maine)!

For those of you who live in Augusta, Maine, This took place in the Tim Horton's on Western Ave. That and the other Tim Horton's on Bangor street are owned by the same people.

Yesterday my wife and I were running a few errands while our son was at home a little under the weather. On the way home we stopped at Tim Horton's to get him a treat because he LOVES their frosted cinnamon buns. There was a woman there with campaign literature, signs and bumper stickers promoting one of the teapublican senate candidates for Tuesday's primary. It appeared that there were volunteers coming and going. Since we live in a free country my wife and I believe that even teabaggers have the right to believe what they want to believe. We also like to ignore the baggers unless we have the opportunity to really piss them off.

Today, the three of us stopped there for a snack while we were out and about. The same table in the same Tim Horton's was regaled with the same literature for the same teabagger candidate. When our order was completed, I asked to see the manager on duty. I asked him if Tim Horton's had made an endorsement of this particular candidate. He said that he didn't know . I stated that if this were the case, than I doubted that my wife or I would be patronizing either of their stores again because we would interpret this as an indication that our Democratic money was not wanted, or at least we didn't want to spend our money at a place where the beliefs held by the ownership were directly contrary to ours.

On both days, there was a car in the parking lot with a very large sign for the teabagger candidate on display and visible to the street traffic. I should also mention that I've seen campaign material from this candidate that promotes him as the teabagger candidate for the US Senate this year. Two years ago when he ran for governor, he embraced the teabagger movement then, too.

After we left, we saw through the window that the manager was speaking with the teabagger woman. I don't know what was said and I don't particularly care. My hope is that the ownership realizes that opinions can frequently be bad for business. If they are not endorsing this teapublican candidate, I hope that they realize that the baggers using their store as a de facto headquarters certainly gives that appearance and is equally bad for business.

I believe in voting with my pocket book and my very big mouth. Whenever I see faux noise on in an establishment, I either make an issue of it, stop patronizing or both. Unfortunately, there are way too many people on our side that still have the post 911 neutered puppy mentality that dictates the silence of our convictions and allows the right to spew it's venom with impunity. They are afraid of rightists calling them traitors. Rightists have been calling me a traitor since the Spring of 1967 when I was just shy of my 12th birthday and expressed my opposition to the Vietnam war.

Horseshit!

When george w moron had his illusory 92% approval rating immediately following 911, we were proud to be in the 8%. We are patriots who will support our country without supporting the unelected fraud who'd been appointed to office before a national tragedy occurred.

My wife and I have NEVER been quiet about our beliefs. We never will be. And we will NEVER willingly or knowingly financially support political views that we find repellent.

That's my 2 cents and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

Gerald Ford, george w bush and willard romney are on a ship.

The ship starts to sink.

Ford says "save all the women and children!"

bush says "SCREW all the women and children!"

romney says "Out of WHAT?"

The reason I picked these 3 is because none of them ever won a presidential election, even though Ford was basically good guy.

PEACE!

Hello! Here's a report from the Maine state Democratic Convention...

...from a very personal perspective.

My very personal report from the convention's first night is here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/113715043

My perspective is very personal because this year, I was not only a delegate but the VERY proud father of a convention page. Not only was my 12 year old son a page, but numerous party officials independently approached me to say that my son was the hardest working and most dependable of all the volunteers at this year's convention. He worked hard putting delegate, volunteer & guest badges together, passing out Obama/Biden signs to the delegates and guests, helping to get pizza for the convention staff and then to serve it and running various errands. He had the time of his life and earned a great deal of respect and regard from party officials and, of course, his parents. He came back on Sunday morning (the ONLY page to do so) to help clean up and the Democratic leader of the state senate spent a few minutes with him complimenting him on his service and involvement.

I actually wondered if he didn't have the better job. He, the Page, got pizza for lunch on Saturday afternoon and I, the delegate, got crappy stale pop tarts & chips from the vending machines.

As far as the convention business went, we heard from our 4 candidates for olympia snowe's seat and I was impressed by their passion to NOT automatically concede this seat to angus king's ego. I hope that the DSSC feels the same passion, also (though I doubt it).

We heard a terrific presentation from the Obama campaign that was preceded with a video of an African American woman from SC who was responsible for getting our future President "Fired up...Ready to GO!" and she got US fired up & ready to go. too!

We re-elected our national committeewoman and selected a new national committeeman. I was disappointed that our current committeeman didn't get re-elected, but it was more my being FOR him, not against the new man, whom I believe will do a great job, too!

I personally became more convinced that we have a MUCH better and deeper bench than the teapublicans for future races. I am especially impressed with Meaghan Maloney, whom I expect to be the next Kennebec/Somerset county DA, current house leader Emily Ann Cain, who will be moving up to the state senate this year, Hannah Pingree, our former House Speaker and Barry Hobbins, our state senate leader who in term limited and is now running for the state house.

Our Keynote Speaker was Gov. O'Malley of Maryland and he BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN!
He inspired us to never say the words "recession", "job losses" or "deficits" without preceding them with "BUSH". Two of my favorite things that he said were "We have a jobs creation President and a jobs constipated house of representatives" & "We see an America that is united in the belief in the dignity of everyone".

If this man runs for President in 2016, I will be SERIOUSLY looking at him!

Overall, it was a great weekend. We had a united and harmonious convention that not only ran on time, but frequently AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! This is after the bloodbath of acrimony that was the teapublican convention several weeks ago.

My family and I are "Fired Up & Ready To Go" to get the Prez re-elected, get the state legislature back and to bring marriage equality to Maine! I spent a few dollars for buttons & bumper stickers, too.

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

I hope that I'm posting this story of my wondeful son in the right forum.

I gave thought to putting this in Politics 2012 or GD, but I feel most comfortable placing it here. I hope that you'll see why and agree.

Tonight was the first night of the Maine State Democratic convention. I am a delegate and my son, 12 years old, handsome as hell (like a young Denzel Washington) and very bright and articulate with a big generous and open heart is a page for the first time.

I couldn't get to the convention until pretty late tonight and we saw NONE of the proceedings due to having to register and not even arriving until almost 7PM. We saw and met some of our State Reps and Senators, candidates and dignitaries and had the opportunity to meet many fellow Democrats. One thing that was clear is that this year's Maine Democratic Convention will be a unified and harmonious affair, as opposed to the paulista vs romney bloodbath that was the republican exhibition of dirty tricks and bitterness that took place here recently. We are eagerly looking forward to the events of tomorrow and Sunday.

The reason that I post here in the LGBT forum is this. We stopped at the Knox county table to pick up some bumper stickers and buttons. My button shows a photo of the President with the caption "GM is alive. osama bin laden is dead". I just LOVE pissing off teabaggers. My wife's button is the Obama symbol as the top of the female symbol because yes, the republicans ARE waging a war on women. My son, whom I've reported earlier here was ROYALLY PISSED OFF when I told him that same sex couples do not (yet) have the right to mary in the state of Maine, selected a button with the slogan "Some People Are Gay. GET OVER IT!"

I am SOOO proud of this wonderful young man that my wife and I are so delighted to call our son.

As I've mentioned before, this is the boy who will suggest that we buy something to eat for any homeless person we may see outside of a restaurant. This is the young man who wants to volunteer at the local churchs' free dinners for the poor & homeless. This is the young man who told his gay friend that he would stick by him when he decided to come out late in their 5th grade year.

I told him that I didn't want him to wear the button unless my wife or I are with him. I say this because, at 12, he doesn't know how to give a bigot or homophobe a verbal smack-down. Yet! He learns fast but we want to make sure he knows what to do before he's on his own.

However...

This is the young man who realizes that the romney/teabagger vision of an Amercia for the white, rich and male ONLY is a nightmare. He believes, as my wife and I do, that for the dream of AMERICA to be true, there has to be freedom, equality and justice for EVERYBODY!

My wife and I will be proud and happy to stand with our LGBT friends, neighbors and allies, as well as our President and Vice-President, 5 months from tomorrow and vote to bring marriage equality to all of Maine. We are doubly proud and happy that our son will be standing there with us. He can't vote yet, but he knows what "family values" truly are!

More after the convention is over.

PEACE!