Quite frankly, Obama needs to be "hung out to dry." He has decided that swimming with the "sharks" is easier than rescuing their victims. No modern President was given a better chance to expose GOP hypocrisy than Obama with the tax issue. He "stuck his toes in" and tested the waters with financial reform and his "choice" of advisers. He "waded" into the same waters when cutting backroom health care deals with the likes of Ben Nelson and Bart Stupak. Now, he's finally taken the "plunge." The really sad part is that he truly could have become the "Lincoln" of his time and "emancipated" the poor and middle class from the jaws of avarice. In a couple of years he'll be an ex-President with plenty of time on his hands. Maybe he'll take the time to pen a new book: "Hope Doesn't Float"

Pink Blossoms

Fervor and friction oft' share the same bed
Cooing, catting, an ambivalent pair
Adulation, regret, from the same head
Love taps, verbal raps, it never seems fair
On two stairways we've waved as lovers do
Like tigers we circle... tremulous night
As spoons we curl up so, just me and you
There's never victor, whenever we fight
Un-kissed lips pause dry, they need their kiss-mates
I've bought dance tickets to stroll with your soul
Deep down inside we're linked by common fate
Our last fight...last night...too heavy a toll
Pink blossoms lie dormant when we're apart
Then swirl in mine eyes, with you in my heart

The beauty of old rock stars, old movie stars, etc., is that they remain eternally young; as long as someone like us doesn't get too old to remember them, and to love them, and to remember the many memories that seeing or hearing them bring back. Shakespeare has been dead for nearly 400 years. Yet millions around the world are entertained by his words. Our deeds and accomplishments surely outlive the mortal body. And sometimes, when I hear Elvis doing "Shake, Rattle and Roll", or Jimmy Cagney taking out a "copper," or Alvin Lee blazin' away "Going Home," I know I haven't "really" gotten old and that when I do, those guys are going home with me.

Being a Liberal used to a badge of honor until a 2nd rate actor cum 3rd rate politician somehow convinced lost in the woods Americans that wealth and greed equaled happiness and salvation. This whole process hasn't been good for me. My wife of 31 years, who I adore, is showing strains of my constant forays into the debauched politics we're witnessing. I need, we need, to step onto a beach somewhere, or a hilltop, hold hands and look into one another's middle aged eyes and remember there ARE more important things than wading through the sewers of politics. But I can't refrain completely from wanting to somehow contribute something positive in this negatively charged world we live in.