Suprised they can yell and hold up signs…what with all the mouth-breathing and knuckle-dragging.

Great piece, Myrna. I’ve always loved Thanksgiving the best of holidays. So even nicer to know that a woman fought for it and Lincoln proclaimed it. We had a special Thanksgiving tradition that we all loved: The rooms were serene and fastidious. The food like Babette’s Feast. Dad wore a navy blue sports jacket, turtleneck and gray flannel slacks. The pipe clinched between his smiling lips made his dimples deeper. His Schnauzer, Jiggy, trailed him like a four-legged Sancho Panza after his own Don Quixote. The Frank Sinatra records would be playing, eucalyptus logs would snap in the fireplace and give off their clean woodsy scent . My two young brothers dressed like Dad and my two sister’s in their frilly best set would smooth on the pale pink linen table cloth and set the good Limoges on the long table in the dinning room. Mom would stride from the kitchen in something yummy like a chic cut, rose-colored sheath, heels and pearls to check on how they were doing. Cool, blonde and beautiful as Eva Marie Saint in “The Russians are Coming” she’d light candles, dim the chandelier and hand me silver tureens to fill with holly and red pyracantha. Then the drive filled up with cars, the doorbell rang, and the relatives streamed-ed like theatergoers on opening night. “Everything and everyone smells and looks fabulous” they’d exclaim above the din of laughter and champagne corks rocketing-off. Dad and an Uncle passed drinks and mixed Shirley Temples for the kids. Seven-year-old Mimi helped serve canapés. In trim black wool and gold charm bracelets, Smoking Nana would sit in a wingback chair and coo over my brothers. Her smooth forehead wrinkled when they reported dive-bombing a local shopping center in the neighbor’s airplane, which he’d constructed in own his backyard. “One of those remote control toys, dear?” she asked and turned to peer outside. “No, Nana, a real plane, but it was OK because Dad was with us. “Has it started to rain?” “No, Nana, that’s the neighbor’s horse, Goldie, peeing in the ravine.” Nana would wag her empty tumbler towards Dad, and our nun-aunt would play Gershwin on the piano until Dad headed the train of platters heaped with standing rib roast, roast cornish hens and side dishes to the table and we’d take our seats eager for another of our mother’s spectacular meals. Plates were filled, ice clinked into glasses, wine was poured, ‘napkins in your laps, children.’ We’d hold our breath a little waiting for our family’s brand of grace. “Sing ‘Desert Song’ Dad!” Then, the room in California would morph into French-occupied Africa at the turn of the 20th century and before our believing eyes Dad became the romantic rebel leader, El Khobar, and Mom the French coquette who stole his wild heart. Beneath the glittering chandelier and reflected in a mirror and candlelight our tall, dark haired El Khobar swept his pretty wife into his arms and sang as we froze in the scene: “One alone, to be my own. I alone, to know her caresses. One to be, eternally, the one my worshipping soul possesses. At her call, I give my all. All my life and all my love enduring. This would be a magic world to me. If she were mine alone.” Even the dog cocked his furry head as Mother looked into Dad’s eyes and sang her response: “Oh give me that night divine, And let my arms in yours entwine. The desert song, calling, It’s voice enthralling, Will make you mine. ” In those post-Camelot years, and with my parents beautiful trained voices and in our jasmine scented proximity to old Hollywood, we believed in the magic of our little universe. Physically, it swirled off like autumn leaves, but spiritually it’s a snapshot that remains for life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kcrsTdcaAg

Once he relaxes imagine he’s a fun guy. Martha is couragous to express her opinions on her show.

AP—Love the energy. Every aerobics class in the 80s had that blasting. “You Can’t Touch This” No right wing hands touching my body….in every meaning.

The GOP/Radical, Regressive, Religious Right Wing are the American Taliban. They are all for controlling female bodies and ‘saving babies’ [which is BS it’s just a political ploy to stir up the whack jobs] but once those babies are out in the world….bomb them to deaht…who cares…they’re just ‘collateral damage’ that got in the way of smart bombs fired off by idiot leaders for evil war profiteering corporatiions. The jokes on the Jesus-freaks. Jesus was a liberal and they are the ones going to hell for supporting mass murderers like W.

Ro, I would like to see all of the radical mega ‘churches’ that intercede to enflame political matters to lose their tax-exempt status. We taxpayers have a Constitutional right of church-state separation. They have the right to preach to their idiot followers but not to inveigle in matters like Prop 8. With the advent of the regressive, radical Religious-Right—-it’s the Dark Ages. One of the most breathtaking books I’ve ever read was “The Passion of the Western Mind” by Richard Tarnas. http://www.amazon.ca/Passion-Western-Mind-Richard-Tarnas/dp/0345368096 It charts the ideas that brought about great ages from the Ancient Greeks and the ideas that sunk nations….and you see the patterns of progress and regression. Bush is the walking blueprint of everything that has ever destroyed nations. Obama is the composite of everything that has ever lifted and saved them.

‘Nuf said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNUx0-XEfw

Dee, Always nice to see you and your nice hubby. You crack me up…telling it like it is. Maybe Palin and Rosie should have a show together: The Rosie Palin Hour. lol!

Oh they are organized….look at the headline on Huffingtonpost.com……nature abhors a vacuum and there’s a leadership vacuum on the economy when it can’t wait 60-ish days…..he’s picking the super brains and pushing Congress.

Ro- Jackie said she just wished to be called Mrs. Kennedy because “First Lady” sounded like a saddle horse…and undemocratic.

Charles Dance, Oh good! Thank you.

DeB—I posted something on Joan of Arc and book recommendation on 1st page of this thread.

Diana, That’s how I read their intro to the thread too. I like him fine, but do hope he can shave by Jan 20th.

Diana, “I would never make the attempt to join one of those places.” Me either. Been there, done that, yawn. You can check back every decade, same people, same hair, same friends, same table, same topic of conversation. Someone dust ‘em off. That’s not living to me.

“WHY AMERICA FEELS LIKE I HAS BEEN RULED BY FOREIGN OCCUPIERS’ —-BY JOHN HALLMAN “As Obama takes over the wreckage this country is in, one can’t help but feel like something alien to America has been controlling it these past eight years. The wave of emotion that has erupted with the election of Barack Obama reminds me of the Allied victory in France in WWII. After a long foreign occupation in which foreign German interests occupied the agenda of France, French governance would once again be representing the concerns of it’s populace. That hope seems to pervade America after it’s long neocons occupation. Here are a few of the parallels that I see.” - American Public Opinion Has Been Ignored “Polling has consistently shown that the American government pursues an agenda far to the right of American public opinion. For the slight margin of victory that Bush had in both elections he won, the sweeping changes he pursued illuminate his disregard for the sizable chunk of our society that disagree with him. When Dick Cheney was questioned on ABC about whether the fact that two thirds of Americans were opposed to the Iraq War had any influence on decision-making, he basically said that the American people get to make their input every four years and after that they can be ignored. The government is there to represent the people and now that it seems like that is returning; joy is understandable.” - Core American Values Overturned “America fought a revolution to have its opinions represented by it’s government. That has faded in Bush’s term. America set up the UN after World War II to set up international law and put an end to military aggression and imperialism. That went out the window. Habeas Corpus was inherited from England where it originated in the 12th Century. Bush in that sense has embraced the morals of the middle ages. Along that line, America reinstituted the use of torture. England discontinued its use in the 1600’s Frederick the Great ended it in Prussia in 1740, Italy in 1786, France in 1789, and Russia in 1801. Besides moral reasons, the practice was written off as ineffective in terms of yielding useful information. This administrations moral conduct is clearly alien to the values of most Americans.” - Basic Infrastructure Neglected “Bridges, roads, and environmental standards have degraded these past eight years. What could be of more interest to a population than the upkeep of these vital elements of society? Clearly the vital interests of the population did not matter. You would have to be completely foreign to what America is not to see it, as basic infrastructure degraded tremendously in Bush’s tenure.” - National Resources Diverted Overseas “If you study any foreign occupation, one common thread would be that national wealth would be diverted into foreign lands. While American healthcare, education, and infrastructure languished, we dumped billions of dollars into Iraq and pursued an otherwise aggressive and destructive foreign policy across the world at large at tremendous cost. On top of that, national debt doubled the past eight years. It’s like America lost a war, suffered an occupation and had to pay a 5 trillion dollar indemnity. We’re in a similar position to France in 1870 or Germany in 1919 in that our common interests have been ignored, we’ve pursued an aggressive foreign policy to our own detriment and we are now deeply in debt.” - Propaganda Tuned Up “Bush took the stance of a foreign occupier in his governance- rational argument would never win the minds and hearts of the masses so crude propaganda such as Fox News was trotted out to scare and paralyze America into obedience. The same quest for obedience through misinformation and crude scare tactics are the same you see in the totalitarian governments from South America to Asia that have brought nothing but misery to their own people and the world at large.” Laura has a thankless job? I’ll thank her to take the Primate-in-Thief by the hand and removed him from the public stage.