Thanks sheshe!

The Obama Doctrine

Has transformed the world in six short years. Traveling just a little makes this clear. First there are the airports, which have long since ceased being armed camps terrorizing passengers. Then there are the embassies, which still look like forts but are actually friendly places. Then there are people's feelings about the US, then the war that didn't happen in Iran and ended in Iraq, then the demise of "peak oil," OBL, and assorted other Wall Street-friendly scams. The list goes on. . . .

Sounds like you or someone you know was in the Middle East, or is this in other areas?

I remember that DCA was like an armed camp after 9/11 -- I felt tied to my seat - do not get up under any circumstances - and got off to see a lot of army uniforms and large weapons. Very unnerving.

at the border crossing. Sometime around 2009 the border guards started acting like border guards and not like Green Berets on crack.

I'm going to say it...

Look how handsome something about a nice looking man teaching....

He's aged so much...still good looking though.

Ok, now I will read the article.

because I was thinking the same thing!

If Obama didn't exist, the right wing would have to invent him to have a target for their hate. I'm glad I supported him and I still support him!

So good to see you again.

You have been away, and missed.

Sorry to have been away and have missed my progressive friends. Had some unexpected employment and family issues.

I'm back though, and I'm the same feminist peace-geek I've always been.

Love your avatar. Last time I checked, equality was a wonderful thing!

So now let's kick some ass!

Thanks about the avatar, yes equality is what we strive for. Equality for all!

PS, I sent you a heart for valentines week~

"So now let's kick some ass!" - Damn right!

GOTV 2014!!!

Unattractive great teachers are still great teachers. They just lack the swoon factor.

not about how being a good teacher has anything to do with looks.

...and definitely the sanest of recent history.

is from the inside out.

His commitment to equal rights for all is a beautiful thing!

i could go fishing in my du2 journal right now and show that this was who he was, that i knew how and where and when from whence he came. and why he came here.
he is my homey. that's how we do it here.

sometimes folks from away don't get it. personally, i can wait to have him back.

he's the real deal! Not very many of them, in politics or elsewhere!

i have talked to a lot of people who knew him when. i also read jonathan alters book about the 2012 campaign. i think i have a pretty good idea how the guys mind works, honestly.
i see his flaws, and i have heard about his quirks. and a lot of things that don't make sense to others make perfect sense to me.

good book, btw, if you want to know the man- the center holds- obama and his enemies

to THEIR kids and talk about how they were taught constitutional law by the future President of the United States. Pretty damn cool, I'd say!

Thanks calimary, those kids were taught from one of the best!

the Community Organizing School of Thought. How fortunate for our country he wanted to be President and we all made it happen.

Thank you for his from smartypants, she~

I learned it from my buddies on DU.

Ayn Rand's thing was based on individuals pursuing their own self interests. Alinsky's idea here is that when you are trying to bring people together for your cause, you need to focus on their self interests. Its "me focusing on my self interest" vs "us focusing on helping each other with our respective self interests".

Its always about self interests. Thats just another way of saying "people getting what they need and want". Rand believed in an individualist approach. Alinsky was collectivist.

his big achievement was stopping the crosstown expressway. except that we badly needed one, and we will likely never get it now.
thousands of cars and trucks spew fumes into downtown chicago every day because there is no ring road like most big cities have. people die in accidents and children die of asthma.

i think he also played on fear of integration to get those folks active.

thanks saul
not that different from rand in the end.

Ayn Rand also wore hats, that doesn't mean hats are intrinsically evil.



Although come to think of it, that IS a phenomenally bad hat.

Maybe that's my point- the thing itself is not intrinsically, always bad, but it needs to be used with judiciousness and a modicum of style, plus consideration and compassion for others.

Just like hats.

I can see the point to targeting self interest for getting people organized. It disappoints me that is the case, that we must lowest common denominator to "self-interest" to get people moving. I do not think people are naturally that way. I think our society has socialized us into that state of mind. I would like to see a break from that mode of thought and work towards a higher set of societal goals. I believe we are much better than "self interest."

Obama made Putin see that it was in his and Russia's self interest to call off Syria's gassing her own people.

Excellent point.

your time zone.. mahalo, she~

who was a B actor and sold cigarettes before politics..

That pic of the President is just too darned sweet.
I'm sure The 300 will disapprove but ask me if I care.