Bonnie, I spent last night trying to gain some understanding of what happened with the Bush administration. I think it would have been completely different if the had received just 100 votes more than the Democrats. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, but I think the unfair charges that the election wasn’t legal caused them to assume a bunker mentality. They had two choices, to reach out to the Democrats or become defensive [hunker down] which they did. Almost everything they did came out of that. No I don’t think they are evil as some do, They really believed in what they were doing. The bunker mentality made it impossible for them to listen to any criticism.

Patty E, He said it at a moment not unlike the one Obama finds himself in. Except he hadn’t been elected, FDR had died and left him in charge of a mess he hadn’t been prepared for. It was about stepping up and being responsible no matter who made the mess. Doing your job! Good for your parents and grandparents

Patty E, It was Truman!

It has been 45 years since I lived in New Orleans. It might well have been the most wonderful and enlightening two years I ever spent. From what I witnessed watching them try to deal with Katrina convinced me not much has changed. I don’t know if the rest of the country can understand their political problems. they don’t trust anyone and justifiably so. The political structure was an amazing thing for me, a young woman from Oregon to witness. It was assumed all politicians were crooks. I watched a Governors election and the one candidate they were all worried about was the only one who hadn’t had a run in with the law. The others they understood. They knew what they wanted, this guy they couldn’t figure out. Of course he lost, they elected a crook. Cronysim was invented there. So when the Feds finally arrived they had to wade through that. That is no excuse but I hope offers some understanding. I feel so bad for the people there, because some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met, I met there.

Brooklyn Gal, I agree! I’ve been trying to remember when this idealogy thing got started. I mean when it was more important than solving the problem. i know that Carter was trying real hard to use his Christian Values to operate the government and everything went to hell. I think it was with Reagan in reaction to what Carter did that idealogy became primary. Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. I just know that is when I was no longer proud to be a republican. I felt like the party had been taken over by aliens.

Belinda, Thank you for sharing. Print that e-mail out and frame it! Bev.

Frannie, It’s not necessary to take a shot at Woodward. He was working hard to get at as much truth as he could. He is basically telling the story they told him. He is just telling us what he learned. I’m surprised they talked to him as long as they did. Because it isn’t all complimentary. It is the only account we have that isn’t written by somebody with an ax to grind. Now as far Petraeus is concerned a lot of time had passed by the time he came along. We’ve only seen him as the General in charge, not the man with a complaint against his Commander. The other Generals did retire. That is what Generals do when they can’t agree with their Commander. It is either do as your told or retire. Frannie, wasn’t the inauguration yesterday great? The thing that bothered me most was all the people who kept saying they didn’t think it would happen in their lifetime. I was a young mother from the west coast living in New Orleans when LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act. What I’ve felt all these years was, what is taking so long. The only schools that were trying to integrate at the time were the Catholic Schools, and somebody was blowing them up in Plaquemine Parrish. For me it was strange because I’d spent the fall of 1962 in Saskatchewan Canada. During the 4 months we were there, a religious group was blowing up the schools because they didn’t want to send their children. The women would also go to the legislature and strip the the waist in protest. Next I find myself in New Orleans and they are blowing up schools there. While we were there Kennedy was assassinated and people at the office where I worked cheered. I guess I thought the world had gone nuts.

Maurine, This was delivered last night on the news without a grin in sight. Everone in the newsroom were quite young. I think its the wisdom of age that makes it possible to see the joke!

Truman passed the law the desegregate the military in 1948, Eisenhower enacted when ;he was in office. But he is the one that made being gay illegal.

I laughed when I heard this one. Give me one reason a girlfriend or spouse of a rich man would say any different? They know which side of the bread their butter is on!

rocky rocky, :You forgot Lincoln and LBJ.

Frannie Em. From what I read in Woodward’s books he was still in the trusting mode. Later according to Woodward being in the military stopped him from going public later. I don’t recall how much time passed before he realized what had happened. My thought ,when I read it was, why didn’t he just loudly resign. Since I have no idea what it is like after a life time in the military I find it hard to judge harshly. I’ve seen him on Charlie Rose and he was very careful about criticizing the President, maybe it about undercutting the military in the middle of war. But what comes to mind are all the Generals who have quietly resigned during the Iraq war, I guess all in protest at the way the war was being waged. periodically one will turn up on Charlie Rose and when He asks direct questions they squirm. I don’t know those military traditions. This was a about a CIA report that came from Germany. It was the words of an unreliable source, that was later thrown into dispute. Oh heck they are still fighting about it. I saw him admit his reputation had been irreparably damaged.

I agree with Rocky Rocky. He is just telling his truth. Sad but true. He has every right to be angry. He has every right to remind he parishioners to not forget and settle for less. He needs to remind the men in his congregation they need to take care of themselves and their families and not wait around for someone else to do it. More power to him. Bill Cosby has been trying to do the same thing. Read his book, “Come on People.” Belinda, he’s was doing this a long time before Obama, the problem is he won’t shut up because of Obama and I don’t think he should, just because a few of my white folks don’t want to be reminded of the truth.

First things first. Obama has a war to end, and an economy to revive. He has time to get to the law breakers. My guess he won’t find as many as we all think. My guess it was as much ineptness as law breaking. For those of you who think Powell did something illegal read Bob Woodward’s books on Bush. According to Woodward who talked to all parties says this is what happened to that speech he gave at the UN. The speech was written with the facts about WMD’s in it. Powell objected and gave it back to be double checked for facts. The speech went through a bunch of hands, supposedly verified thought Powell, but it hadn’t been, it was handed back to Powell, he gave the speech thinking it was on the up and up. He was furious when he later found out it hadn’t been. He’d been had and he didn’t even know by whom. When he raised hell, they just eased him out of the loop and that was that. They had effectively shut him up. Obama will have time to take care of the law breakers when he get the other stuff taken care of.

First things first. Obama has a war to end, and an economy to revive. He has time to get to the law breakers. My guess he won’t find as many as we all think. My guess it was as much ineptness as law breaking. For those of you who think Powell did something illegal read Bob Woodward’s books on Bush. According to Woodward who talked to all parties says this is what happened to that speech he gave at the UN. The speech was written with the facts about WMD’s in it. Powell objected and gave it back to be double checked for facts. The speech went through a bunch of hands, supposedly verified thought Powell, but it hadn’t been, it was handed back to Powell, he gave the speech thinking it was on the up and up. He was furious when he later found out it hadn’t been. He’d been had and he didn’t even know by whom. When he raised hell, they just eased him out of the loop and that was that. They had effectively shut him up. Obama will have time to take care of the law breakers when he get the other stuff taken care of.