Y'all are probably wondering why I put "joy" in tonight's diary title after yesterday. Well, no matter the election results, no matter the "party in power," no matter which party resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., etc., some things in life CANNOT be taken away from you unless YOU LET THEM be taken away.
So, no, I'm not talking about THIS stuff, you silly gooses!
"Conventional wisdom" will say the people have spoken; I'll withhold comment for a bit concerning exactly what "the people" said and concentrate on what makes me happy down to the core of my soul regardless of the sparked up nature of our political system. This guy has to be at the top of the list. :D
Dear 'ol Hubby - yin to my yang...calm to my...well...not - so calm, etc. His heartbeat is one of the greatest sounds EVER! To all of my friends, both "live" & "virtual," you get me more than my blood family ever has or ever will; I appreciate you more than words can express. :) I am thankful for the opportunity to be a practicing Buddhist in "fly over country."
Now, let's get a little more "material." ;D Yes, my Buddhist practice teaches me that objects & nearly everything else is impermanent, but ya' gotta have some fun sometimes, gosh darn it! Yummy 'za makes me happy. Cheesecake - especially from my favorite deli in Indianapolis - makes me happy. My favorite Italian restaurant & chili cheese etouffe' with crawfish from this YUMMY place make me happy. Anything by Enya, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Mel Brooks, and my "Beat" authors makes me happy. And, finally, the last couple of days, downright silliness has made me happy - silliness like THIS...
and THIS!
I'll "pepper" some "this day in history" items of joy in comments; you all do so as well - even if it's {gulp} Python. ;)
Let's Countdown - something else that makes me happy.
#5 "Split Decision" AKA "House on Ire" AKA "About Last Night" AKA "Houses Divided" - Oh good Gawd, Keith is going to do a "count down" to the 2012 POTUS election? Oye... Well, I guess it kind of sort of does begin today. Brother... Most of my head is still just spinning from what happened yesterday, and I place about 75% of the blame on "he who must not be named" who’s running for mayor of Chicago – Mr. Compromise, Mr. Slam the Sparkin’ Retarded Liberals, Mr. Unions Threw Their Money Away on Bill Halter. He was supposed to be this great enforcer & go between the White House & Congress since he’d been there – like an ultimate insider. And, yesterday, the House of Representatives had the largest party switch to get control since 1948. He also had the loudest voice in the messaging mechanics in the White House over the last 2 years, so the White House REALLY biting the big one on not communicating the positive things that WERE being accomplished to a scared susceptible electorate can mostly be laid at his doorstep, too.
And, at the risk of massive flaming here, some blame must go to President Obama himself for not utilizing the bully pulpit of the Presidency more effectively in this 24/7 media atmosphere and continuing to cow – tow to a minority party that never EVER had any intention or desire to govern & negotiate in good faith. I’ll also toss some blame to SCOTUS for "giving us" Citizens United.
If y’all thought these midterms were bad, just WAIT until the 2012 POTUS campaign because this Congress will not pass any sort of legislation that will undo that $hitacular SCOTUS decision. The GOBP controls the House; the Dem majority in the Senate is smaller, and DISCLOSE couldn’t even get out of the damn Senate when there WERE more Dems there. I also have been hearing people like Keith say, to the effect, "Well, they own half the economy now!" I don’t buy that for a minute. This GOBP has demonstrated admirably that if it’s in their best interest politically to see this country go down in flames economically, socially, financially, etc., they WILL let this country go down in flames economically, socially, financially, etc.
We’re gonna need chutzpah BIG TIME in the Oval Office over the next 2 years. One small bright spot for me, personally, yesterday was that Andre’ Carson retained his seat in Congress! :D My "representation" in the Senate won’t change all that much because I’m going to Mr. Coats from THIS!
AND, this might be considering another run for Governor of my fair state! *&^%$#@! Rachel Maddow! If you ever peek in here, bring that mixology knowledge to the Circle City ‘cause I’m going to need to take up drinking heavily again! Just kidding...really. But, I would love to have Rachel here! :D HA! Look at the weensy teensy spot of blue right in the middle of Indiana; that’s me. Can y’all see me waving?! ;D Well, it looks like this image will get a hell of a workout over the next 2 years unless one of my "usual suspects" creates something more better – HINT HINT!
Small Price to Pay Goldilocks isn’t sobbing anymore; well, that’s good. So, OK, I have a question. Since hateful GOBP tea baggers portrayed Speaker Pelosi in all sorts of nasty horrible ways, can we portray the soon – to – be – Speaker pictorially with the red cheeks & red nose of a raving drunkard on that skin colored not – found – in nature? PLEASE?! NO? We’re better than that? DAMN IT! 56% of voters in exit polls indicated they wanted increased spending to create jobs or cut taxes. In a national election poll, 37% of voters used their vote yesterday to voice their objection to President Obama. 24% still supported him; he was not a factor in 37% of the respondents. A founding tea bagger isn’t ready to play nice. Of the over 140 tea bagger candidates that were on ballots yesterday, only around 40 won. Oh man, I don’t want to see Christine (no relation to Lawrence) O’Donnell anymore! That tea bagger dude had the audacity to say they had no hatred for President Obama?
Did he see the signs at those rallies?! How did his tongue not go screaming out of his pie hole due to the toxic environment??!! Bat$hit Bachmann wants a top leadership spot in the new House. Oh my dear Lord...*&^%$#@! Well, MN district 6, you managed to make yourselves look like morans AGAIN! I’ve got a street sign for your district.
Here’s Nate Silver to crunch numbers. Voter turn – out was actually comparable to previous midterms if not a little better; again, to paraphrase, it was the economy, stupid. Nate mentioned that Senate Majority Leader Reid should no longer be Senate Majority Leader; hell, I’ve felt that way for a long damn time. But, who will replace him in the Dems actually have the gall TO replace him – which I don’t think they will? Tim Kaine should sure as $hit lose his job – so should whatshisname that was the head Dem election dude in the House. The chances of President Obama getting re – elected hasn’t changed because of yesterday. Huh...interesting! Here’s E.J. Dionne again! I’m glad he’s becoming a "regular!" Yep, those who came out to vote yesterday were about as different from who came out to vote in 2008 POTUS as night is to day...as GWB is to Albert Einstein...as $aint $arah from Wasilla is to Mother Teresa. E.J. also thinks a lot of eyes are going to be on Small Price to Pay Goldilocks right quick.
#4 "The President’s Reaction" AKA "The President Reacts" - Yea, I wonder how much fun it was for President Obama to get outta bed this morning? He had a press conference today that was probably about as fun for him as listening to finger nails on an ole – timey chalkboard. He took responsibility for economic recovery not being as quick as he or many would’ve liked. Uh, what about Larry Summers? What about Tim Geithner? AAAaaaaUUUUUuuuGGGGggggHHHHHhhh!! {hee...hee...hee} Richard Wolffe makes me happy! :D :D :D :D
Put him on my "happy list," too!!! Richard thinks the White House will hope for the best and plan for the worst; well, I hope THEY don’t "hope" very long. AND, RICHARD AGREES WITH ME! The White House is going to spend some time trying to look "reasonable & responsible" to independents AND MAKE the GOBP publicize and specify those tough decisions that’ll have to be made – really rub their cotton – pickin’ noses in it! Cool, it sounds like the White House WON’T be "hoping for the best" for very long. It’s a shame it took yesterday for them to get the sparkin’ message. Wow, did y’all hear that Heritage Foundation shtick from Mitchie McConnell? They are going to begin efforts post haste to "repeal Obamacare" and make sure he’s just a one – term President. Yea, Mitchie’s still got teh TurdBlossom math thing going with over – riding vetoes. David Plouffe is back on the scene – GOOD! Speaking of happy & Richard Wolffe, his supremely most classic faboo Countdown moment makes me happy. :D
** Some place in New York State is lousy with sheep! They better be on the lookout for Gene Wilder!! There’s a new little baby octopus in Paul’s tank in Germany. A matador walked into a bull ring in Columbia; the bull won. **
#3 "Investment Returns" AKA "Chamber Jackpot" - Nearly 75% of the candidates who were heavily backed by the Anti – US Chamber of Commerce won last night. THANK YOU, CITIZENS UNITED!
Now, the Anti – US Chamber of Commerce wants their pounds of moolah. The "fine folks" at the Anti – US Chamber of Commerce released a little victory speech of their own yesterday. $2 million was spent in FL for Marco Rubio; $1.2 million was spent in KY for – ugh...I may throw up in my mouth a little on this score – Rand Paul {insert retching noise here}. He wants us all to do the bidding of the rich. O...M...G...I think Ned Beatty’s character in Network took over Doc Paul during some of his little shtick last night! HA! And, I was first in the Network comparison before Keith – HA HA! :D Faiz Shakir is back; I hope Think Progress keeps up their efforts! Mr. Shakir spoke of Small Price to Pay Goldilocks, too! I wonder if he’ll continue his golf & gulping booze schedule now that he’ll be House Speaker? Mr. Shakir wants the DISLOSE Act to be brought up again in the lame duck session; and, it will go down in flames AGAIN.
[HA! And, we get another My Favorite Year reference from the Keithster! :D]
#2 "The Place for Politics 2010" - Some other notable ballot initiatives were addressed across the country yesterday, too. 3 of the Iowa judges who ruled in favor of marriage equality were summarily booted out largely because of the efforts of Rep. Steve King. Y’all remember Rep. King, yes? Prop 23 (the effort by outside oil groups to put the kibosh on CA climate change legislation) was defeated big – time; Prop 19 (the legalization of the wacky tobacky) went down in flames...so to speak. Bummer, man! Ugh...OK, I am really ashamed of myself for thinking this; I’ll have to do something to make up for it later. Now, I’m usually not one for book burning, but can we all get together & buy up a bunch of GWB’s "memoirs" & have a big ‘ol bonfire in the stadium where the Texas Rangers play? PLEASE?! Ugh... He had less – than warm fuzzy comments about Kanye West saying he didn’t care about "black people." BillO had a hell of a prediction for MSNBC last night, too. I have a few choice words for BillO – SENATOR Al Franken...Andrea Mackris. That is all. ;D
#1 "Everlasting GOPstoppers" - We get to relive some of the best of the worst – or worst of the worst – of the midterm campaign. Carl Paladino wielded his bat last night. Is that a bat that managed to escape from his belfry?! O...K...did it sound to anyone else like Mr. Paladino threatened bodily harm to the soon – to – be – New York Governor?! And, there were morans at Bat$hit Bachmann’s little celebration last night – a shocker, I know. Yep, I did catch Marcia Blackburn’s little shtick, too! Thankfully, I missed Bat$hit Bachmann’s appearance. OK, sorry, but I’m bailing on this GOBP $hit.