We are on a roll today, C Hardy………I am hopeful that you will check out Rachel’s show, I suspect you will find it very interesting.  It is on MSNBC (a channel I do not get on my dish) but you can also link to her on the net:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show

I do watch O’Reilly sometimes, he makes some good points from time to time, and he is VERY entertaining.  I even bought his latest book as a gift to one of my very dear Republican pals.  (You may already know that some of the proceeds from his book go to help our military personnel?)  Win/win!

You not only can be critical, Mrs. H, it is our duty as Americans to call ‘em as we see ‘em!!  In my own opinion though, the right and duty to criticize carries the responsibility to do so based on reality, not just the counter-productive fictional snark that some post here and elsewhere.  Call me Pollyanna, but I believe that WE THE PEOPLE are finding our voices again, and beginning to help make a much-needed difference!  

(I wonder how your little flower girl has grown since those early photos, but I do understand why a parent would be reluctant to post a photo of her child these days.  We will all just have to use our imaginations.  :~}

Hey there Georgia

You know that line in my original post where I mention that some of my favorite posters were contributing in this thread?  Did you immediately recognize that I was referring to y’all?  I hope so!!

The girls have been appropriately greeted, and like me, they always appreciate kind thoughts!

:-} Be well

I was so pleased to find your reply and read your kind observations.  Sorry it took me so long to respond.  I am seriously distressed by our political climate, and voices like yours give me hope and comfort.  Earlier I was thinking about how we come here and find such a diversion of "opinion" and respond each in our own way.  I can imagine that I am not alone as I read some of the horrid gratuitous bashing and wonder about the one who deposits such toxic waste for the rest of us to trip over like something the dog left in the yard.  I noted recently that one of the worst offenders wanted us to know that she was having to move from room to room to stay out of the maid’s way.  (Poor dear.  Probably meant a reduction in the 50 or 60 hateful criticisms she has time to post each and every day.)  I have tried to imagine what possesses someone to devote the entire day (sometime from before 6:00 a.m. until after 9:00 at night.) six or seven days per week, to publishing such vile counter-productive negativity.  I recognize that anonymity emboldens some, but I must say I felt much better about my fellow citizens before I got a good look at what some of them are carrying around in their (sad shriveled) hearts.  Ugh.  At least we can speed-scroll, they actually LIVE in that dark place.

The other side of this is the beautiful poetic insightful commentary sandwiched in between the word-piles of (excrement.)  There are women (and a few enlightened men) here who renew my faith in humanity, and make me feel privileged to have the benefit of learning from you.  That is what keeps me coming back.

Thanks, and +~~ to you.

p.s. I’m sure you have noticed that several of the acid voices who were banished have sneaked back in with new names?  (the astrological oxymoron, and the equine posterior, and the flying madwoman, to mention a few.)  I am amused that even as they use the cover of anonymity, their true character surfaces like a wine stain.  Poor Wow…. some days it must feel like a game of whack-a-mole.  :~}

Hi Mrs. Hardy

I wonder how you reached the conclusions about why Faux "reports" what they report, ("scared") because my own view of their agenda is very different from yours.  That said, they have every right to air their opinions, and there should be no argument with that.  My problem with them is that they often spin those opinions as fact, and as real news.  I know that other networks do it too, blurring the line between news and opinion, but nowhere close to the way Fox does it.  (I base this conclusion on my own research, not what others opine.) 

I guess we all gravitate toward the information that best fits our own beliefs?  Which is fine unless we are basing our beliefs on false information.  Would you be surprised to learn that I never fail to watch Fox News Sunday?  Sometimes I even learn something there.  But if that was my only source of unverified information, I shudder to think how dangerously misinformed I would be.  That would comport with MY definition of sad.

Re commercials against Obama and his policies, I can’t know what is broadcast in your corner of the world, but where I live I have seen MANY anti-Obama ads aired on both local and satellite networks.  (Some of them are so loaded with false information that I wonder why the station/network was willing to run them on that basis alone, never mind the politics!)

There is one comment in your post that I especially appreciate…..I note that you have at least credited our President with TRYING TO GET IT RIGHT, even though you obviously take exception to the way he goes about it.  So much of what I read from those who criticize him is just hateful manufactured denigration.  I see Obama as an intelligent, decent, patriotic, family man who has good intentions.  I do not agree with everything he is doing, but I think he is doing his best to make things better for all of us.  And I believe he is making progress in spite of all the efforts to cause him to fail.   

"Deber B"

I am sure most of us understand that you have GREAT faith in cult leader Beck.  Surely YOU understand that others see him as a treacherous egomaniac who has every right to abuse his freedom of speech to foment division and fatten his bank account?

In the past you have responded to my replies to you by requesting that I ignore you, and I have done so.   

My pleasure. 

Now I will ask the same of you.  You have used my comment as a springboard to post more of your bombastic rightwing spin and gratuitous negativity.  In the future, please speed-scroll my comments and leave me out of your loop?   

Hi Mr. Wow

Thanks for the article, and the forum.  I see some of my very favorite voices here…..some of my LEAST favorites too. 

I have been watching Rachael online. (anyone else think it smells funny that Faux is included in the cheap package with Dish, but one must pay bigger bucks for the bundle that includes MSNBC?)  I feel informed, and challenged to learn more after I hear what she has to say.  Did anyone mention that the ratings for MTP were especially high after she appeared with the big Sunday boys?  (The after-show segment was quite endearing too.) Rachael seems to excel at being real, and bright, and completely credible. 

Unlike the Beck lunatic who will say or do ANYTHING to get attention.  I believe Beck and Limbaugh are cult leaders, and those who are enthralled by their putrid rants need to be deprogrammed. 

Seriously. 

I watched a video clip wherein the Beck lunatic was proudly exposing his blatant hypocrisy as he railed against the idea of volunteering, and service to the country.  That evil Obama is encouraging folks to work together and HELP each other.  Why that’s almost as bad as when that evil Obama encouraged the school children to study hard and stay in school!  Or when evil Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize signified a renewed global respect for America. 

You tell ‘em Glenn!  The only volunteering that is worthy is when some radical rightie gins up a pot full of teabaggers who donate their time to carry ignorant hateful signs and regurgitate your dangerous insane conspiracy theories.  Oh that’s right……if folks volunteer to do BECK’S  malicious bidding, that’s DIFFERENT!

Rachael Maddow is a breath of fresh American air.  I am happy when she gets her props.

What a comment, Mary QC!  I might be mistaken, but when you refer to those of us who support and respect this President as "OBAMABOTS," and it appears that you are calling us names to call us out on name-calling.  Now isn’t that special!  (Or is it just the height of hypocrisy?)

p.s.  "defined and added" =  placating the intellectually challenged.

Hey Margo

Thanks for the forum, and while the serial ranting of the closed minds is demoralizing, there is still a rational majority who "get it."  I have some very honorable Republican friends who are repulsed by the failure of their leadership to call "FOUL" on the hatred and bigotry, which does promote a glimmer of hope, for me anyway.  Meanwhile, perhaps chasing their tails down in that little pit of anonymous self-delusion will wear them all out before they do too much more damage?  One can hope.

Hey there elle Libra….wonder if Community Monitor recognizes those who skulk back into Wow with a new name and the same old game?  Would you please get yourself an avatar?  

Thanks in advance from one of those "libs" you so enjoy spitting on.

Hi rocky rocky, always a pleasure to log in here and find some of my favorite posters.  May I invite myself to sit with you and Phyllis too?  I started reading this thread and had to stop in the middle to go outside to clean my henhouse.  That helped to clear some of the foul commentary from my soul.  I am humbly grateful that THE MAJORITY of my fellow citizens are thoughtful and sensible, and can’t be pulled into lynch mobs, and ginned up to act against their own best interests.  One of the most interesting comments I heard over the weekend had to do with the fact that in the past, honorable conservative Americans would have a voice of reason who would step in and lead their fellow citizens away from all this hatred and hyperbolic rhetoric.  (I believe William Buckley is thrashing in his grave!) The Republican Party is a ship without a rudder now (and their moral compass seems to have been misplaced as well) so things just continue to spin out of control.  I wouldn’t be so concerned except for the fact that the uncontrolled ego-driven vitriol is fomenting violence and division, and making our country more dangerous for all of us.

(this link provides a sobering documentation of the phenomena:  http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07242009/watch2.html  )

I do have hope though, when I discuss these issues with family and friends who are REAL Republicans.  They are NOT proud of what is happening, and perhaps they will reclaim their Party from the dangerous element that has hijacked their ideals.

I so agree with your wishes for truth to prevail.  Truth is the path back to peace. 

Frightening indeed, Sherrie.  Have you seen this video:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07242009/watch2.html 

Hey DeBurca…..I just clicked on your avatar and note that you have not posted since you left this message.  I totally understand your decision, but hope you will reconsider.  Either way, please know how much I have appreciated your contributions to truth and sanity.  Later in this thread someone mentions how demoralizing it is to read the non-stop lies, spin, and bashing.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is when one of the serial bashers leaves her nasty deposit and RIGHT BELOW the acid post is a fine feisty factual response from you.  Thank you for speaking for me more times than I could even count. 

Be well