When I grow up, I want to be a really cool old lady

...and the time is coming sooner than I think. These gals are awesome! Totally cool.

Soon fall will be coming and summer will be replaced by beautiful leaves, cooler temps and Republicans scaring the bejesus out of innocent voters

THE HUFFINGTON POST

THE OCTOBER SURPRISE SHOULDN'T COME AS ONE

By Trey Ellis | Posted August 15, 2008 | 02:32 PM (EST)

Obama supporters have every reason to be feeling sanguine about the upcoming election. Intrade Market Odds has Obama as the 2:1 favorite. Realclearpolitics has his Electoral College count, if the election were held today, at 304, compared to McCain's 234.

However consider this:

We taxpayers already have shelled out $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since 2003. They have 180,000 employees in country now building what they had assumed would be permanent bases for a permanent occupation of an oil-rich land.

Does anyone really believe that Cheney/Halliburton/Blackwater will relinquish the keys to the American treasury without the nastiest of fights?

For six years Cheney has unleashed a gusher of obscene profiteering with little or no oversight of his petro/reconstruction/military contracting cohorts. You don't have to be a conspiracy-addicted fan of Jack Bauer's to understand that they won't just quietly retire to their yachts in the Gulf of Mexico after regime change and their operations in Iraq are forcibly ended. They understand that not only will they be out of business, but that they could also go to jail -- if Democrats hold hearings into war profiteering, just as Truman did as a Senator in 1943.

Remember, when Halliburton et al. first entered Iraq, Republicans had a virtual one-party lock on governance. Democrats acted like frightened little forest animals. The contractors didn't have to cover their tracks because the vice president of the United States, the de facto ruler of the free world, was their capo.

We would all actually be safer if McCain had a better chance of winning. If the odds were more even, then Cheney's people might not feel compelled to risk everything on a fourth quarter Hail Mary pass that will so destabilize the world and petrify undecided voters that they will experience a last-minute conversion to McCain.

What will it be? A nod to Israel to bomb Iran? An American-engineered coup in Pakistan? Whatever it is it is coming and if Obama intends to weather the dirty trick he will have to be prepared.

If the rumors are right and he is picking a VP with a military background that will be a great start. With Jim Webb having withdrawn that leaves Chuck Hagel as the only veteran on the shortlist. He's a very interesting choice and a great McCain neutralizer. Add to that Colin Powell's endorsement sometime after both conventions and Obama should have enough defensive armor to neutralize the dirtiest of the dirty tricks coming down the pike.

** Update **

A lot of you have written in to sing General Clark's praises. I too am a big fan and the last time around, before I'd even laid eyes on him, he and Kerry were my top choices. However we haven't elected a non-elected official to such a high office since Eisenhower. I just think President Obama is already such an outrageous concept that having a non-traditional VP would scare away as many people as it brought in. What Hagel does, is prove that Obama is serious about a new, non-partisan style of governing. Who cares if the VP is more conservative than the P. Obama will be driving the agenda and if he can find common ground with Hagel he can find it with the Republicans left in Congress after we clean their clocks in November.

for source - click here

Peon on GOP Scandals. Your Illustrated/Interactive Guilde to GOP Scandals Since the Year 2000

I was thinking very hard about something to write about. I thought that it would be helpful to write about all the Republican scandals that have taken place since 2000 when President Bush ascended the Presidency. I started doing some research, and my job was made so much easier by this wonderful illustrated/interactive guide from Slate dated May 11, 2007.

When you click on the graphic you will be taken to the article, then click the graphic again:

If anything has happened since then that is not included, I don't think we should even try to think what it might be. Click around and remember and think of all the memories. After that please make a decision to vote for Barack Obama for President, and also consider Democrats in your state who are running for offices.

Well that was easy.

Peace and Love,

PD