From Michelle -

"I've had all I can stand, and I can't stands no more!"  Popeye

Anger is an amazing motivator.  Yes, it might be smarter to move into action before the emotional dial gets to "outrage", but look, everyone is busy.  There's other stuff to do - like, make a living or raise your kid.  Then ultimately you get to a point when the passive victim shit gets old...  and while I can kvetch along with the best of them, after a while, merely complaining becomes part of the problem.

On Sunday, I went to a house party for Barack Obama - literally three houses down on my street and talked to a bunch of my neighbors...for the first time after 5 years of living here.

My neighbor Estee! 

While Obama was a topic of conversation, most of us were talking about what "the point" was for them.   This was no SDS meeting, not your typical activist-types... these were your average neighborhood folks - a teacher, a film producer, an ex-minister, a woman who was 8 months pregnant, etc.  Their reasons were as varied as - the war in Iraq, the 2000 (stolen) election, a job loss, prohibitively expensive health care and equal marriage rights.  By the way, for me, the "point" was getting a $10K bill for having a baby, WITH health insurance.  Hmmph.

So here we are, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, schmoozing about politics and the state of our state (California).  You see - we've got a big primary coming up on February 5th and since CA has so many delegates, the winner could very feasibly become the Democratic nominee.  There's no shoe-in...so there's a real sense that phone banking and canvassing and all those old-school grass-roots ways of getting folks elected...could actually work.  

I've never worked for a candidate before.  As much as I love the whole political theater thing, I'm waaaay too cynical to believe that any one politician is worth working for!  Except now, I'm thinking about it. I guess this is where the anger comes in... and why I'm now personally motivated to not only vote for a guy who is everything opposite of GW Bush, but to try to get others to do the same.

By the way, the other day I heard yet another cringe-y Bush speech strangling as he was talking to a bunch of our troops in the Middle East - "When the pages of history will be written, you were on there as the winners." 

This has to stop, people.

And speaking of stopping... this is from Jill:

"Stop it Bill!"
 
I have stood by you for years. You got a bum rap. And... there was a right-wing conspiracy. Sure you lied, but in comparison to today, it's so so quaint. I once saw a bumper sticker that said, "Come back Bill...all is forgiven". Oh, and here's one of my favorite Jon Stewart quotes: "And I will say this: Hurricane Katrina is George Bush's Monica Lewinsky. The only difference is that tens of thousands of people weren't stranded in Monica Lewinsky's vagina."

So like I said, I have always defended you (except for deregulating the media, making radio a big consolidated bore, and I could go on, however...) But even more so, I have loved the distinguished ex-prez who moved his office to Harlem and has worked for Aids and Africa. I saw you speak last year, and was truly moved, even as I aware of your ability to manipulate when seen live.

And now, here you are all red-faced, fighting dirty with Obama, and telling the press that they should be ashamed. It's not becoming; it's not as the Chinese call you, "sexy President."

Just stop it!  Get off the campaign trail. You are not helping Hillary and not helping your legacy? Don't blow it.

Oh, and another thing - since The Provocateurs theme song has only been up once (on the very first post), I thought I would bring it back. We spent a lot of time on this silly song.