Obama is teaching me to be a glass half (or even three quarters) full kind of gal.  So I would like to share with you some reasons for my celebrating.

Positive thinking:

The war:

Micheal Ware reported that the agreement mandated by the UN for the US and other parties of the "willing" expires this year.  And an agreement talks with the Iraqis sought by Bushco have, at the present borken down!!!!  We may be FORCED to withdraw from Iraq!  

The election:

(over the hump)

I was fascinated by the thought that whether Sen. Clinton realizes it or not the race is over and Obama now needs to look toward the ge.  Now, I realize that his cabinet will not need to be set up right now, but I was curious about who might fit into the various slots.  Looking at Bush's cabinet is pretty icky.  He and Reagan picked people that really really didn't want to do their jobs.  Some of Reagan's really wanted to dismantle their jobs and the same is true for Bush - i.e. justice no longer exists in Bush land.

But as I was doing this exercise it dawned on me that I have no way of seeing who might fit into various spots.  But I give you the list anyway and maybe you all have some ideas.

over

The news is stunning.  Rice, Cheney and even Colin Powell (who of all people should have known better) choreographed the torture of "high value" detainees.  And we will no doubt get push back of "well it worked dammit!"  But we do not really have the smoking gun of that statement while we do have the smoking gun of having our nations leaders detailing torture techniques.

Regardless of how "successful" they were, torture is a war crime.  When are these folks going to stand trial?  When is Cheney going to be impeached and then the chimp after him? (xposted at dKos)

We've wanted to know how to derail Bushco, we've wanted to know how to slap Reid and Pelosi aside the head when they kowtow to Bush and we've wanted to know how to break the corporate ownership of OUR representatives.

The Dodd filibuster has given us a clue, by gummit!

It makes a difference when we watch, when they know we are watching.

Crossposted at Dkos:Finally a Fulcrum More:

What we would do to stave off a coup?  I have worried about this more than ever, especially after seeing the repub pres. contenders.  All of them are lightweights.  All of them would stand aside for a Cheney or a Bush.

Firedoglake has an essay A "Presidential Coup," The Continuity Of Government, And Blackwater Watching Midtown Manhattan from which they take a number of sources that are beginning to understand a coup is possible.  Would you be willing to get out of your comfort zone to do something about this?

More on flip:

Wa Po has an article about what stress and a high fat diet can do to mice and probably what it does for us.  I find it very interesting that rather than try to figure out how to deal with the stress a lot of us are feeling they instead, look to blocking the signals to the brain that causes mice (and us) to want to eat badly.  This does indicate that stress is endemic to our specific society (along with high fat food access) but does not address the stress.  Why do that when you can create another pill, eh?

more on flip

One advantage to running for office (at least if yo belong to one of the two major parties) is that you get a  forum for your ideas.

I was watching the dem debate on PBS
Black Community at Howard University listening to dems

The ideas I saw coming out of the debate were interesting

more:

do we get hung out to dry?

So far the media has attacked Edwards at his populist base arguing that his $400 haircut and philanthropy really isn't what the people should want in a presnit.  (Far better we should have Cheney's sock puppet?)

Even though Wa Po's series is fascinating and gives us new glimpses into that subterranean world of Cheney it leaves us even more puzzled at Bush and how much of a non-entity is he and has he been.  Talks of getting Cheney to quit are "quaint" but given this crowd's tenacity doesn't look like a great possibility.  I was and still am, surprised that Rummy left.  That must have been a fluke!
(more:)

Found this jewel on ABC news

$63 Million Plane 0 for 49 in Tests

The plane, designed to take off like a helicopter and then fly at high speed, failed to remain in the air for more than a few seconds in 49 separate tests last year, according to John Kinzer of the Office of Naval Research.

"The good news is that when it crashes, it only crashed from a foot or two off the ground," said subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller, D-N.C..

The Navy doesn't want this dog, but congress gave it another 6 million of our hard earned tax dollars.
Why:

Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has led the effort on behalf of a hometown company, DuPont Aerospace.

In testimony today, Hunter said he considered the investment "prudent from a financial and risk perspective."

"One would be hard pressed to argue that a technology that could deliver greater speed and greater stealth capabilities has no military utility and is not worth some investment," Hunter said.

Hunter has received at least $36,000 in campaign contributions from the owner of the company, Anthony DuPont. Both men deny the contributions are connected to Hunter's continued support for the aircraft project.

But that doesn't explain why the rest of congress went along with this nuttiness.

I put this on the orange cheers and jeers place too.

I began having a great deal of spare time after being laid off at Sprint.  I was over 55, widowed and not really expecting to find gainful employment at  anywhere near my previous salary.  I had already encountered age discrimination much earlier - in my forties.  A head hunter told me point blank that companies didn't want her to present people much over the age of 30!

more below the fold:

Sean Hannity made this point over and over: we are the "Nut Roots".  I thought as an epithet that it really lacked the slicing and dicing these folks normally do.  As a matter of fact, I thought "Nut Roots"  sounded nourishing and comforting, something that is sorely needed these days.

And the admission that we are "roots" was telling, I thought.  We are grounded and we are supporting and we everything that wingnuts are not.  The very name tells you that they are aery fairy, not grounded and not even centered as you can imagine them trying to lift all those nuts and keep them in the air!

continued

the FDA is trying again to restrict alternative therapies and supplements.  Now I don't want to go to a regular doc and get loaded up with at least three or four prescriptions, so I go to an acupuncturist who also may give me some supplements as needed and I go to a pilates instructor trying to undo decades of misuse of my great body.

Those are now at risk.  If you, like me, want to have the freedom to choose your therapies, please comment to FDA and talk to your reps.

Thanks Update [2007-4-30 14:39:12 by glitterscale]: link is now fixed.

My daughter visited China this past week.  Pollution was so bad, one woman told her that a day there took 3 months off of your LIFE!

We assume somehow that things over there do not impact us over here.  And a lot of people don't understand the law of connectedness - i.e.  "In as much as you do it unto the least of these you do it unto me"  or "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or other words to that affect.  The loss of bees, the loss of rain forest, the impact of global warming affect us all, even if we try to avoid looking at those connections.

But we are not immune to what happens over there - see below:

)which will have to be reworked many times before I send it!  (Mostly because of my regrettable tendency to regress, digress, and egress!!)

Look Sen. Bond, you are a repub and I know this is not news to you.  I DO NOT WANT A MONOLITHIC GOVERNMENT!!! Straighten up and put on that integrity thing and put on that "vision" thing.  Put away that rubber stamp and no one will get hurt!  Right now I am looking at a government in such disarray that it can only keep bleating out "talking points" incessantly (Sort of like one of those "tickle me Elmo dolls that my daughter wouldn't take home for her kid!)  Guess what?  Nobody cares any more.  We've heard them all and they were not that creative to begin with!

(Over the flip (flop?)