NOT. THIS. TIME. NEVER. AGAIN.

[PylesMalfunction]

My brother sent this to me. It’s a bit long but really worth the look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ti19VwLzkY

Words cannot describe how fucking disgusted and mad and sad and despondent I am right now. Yet, words can't even begin to describe how fucking fired up I am either. Obama will undoubtedly disappoint me - there are so many hopes and cares and dreams that have been attached to him. No man can live up to all that. He's going to make me mad. He's going to piss me off. But for now, I'm banking my HOPE on the fact that for the most part, he's going to make me REALLY PROUD OF MY COUNTRY AGAIN!!!!! I'm a cynic. But I refuse to be bitter - I still have HOPE and screw the asshole who wants to tell me how corny and naive that is. I'd rather be disappointed than resigned.

NOT. THIS. TIME. NEVER. AGAIN. This is my country. This is your country. This is our country. I love the United States, not because of what it is right now but because of what it can be. What it will be!!! I'm getting married soon and we're thinking about having kids. I owe it to them to do something now. I owe it to all of the former Edwards supporters who want to see attention turned to the impoverished in this country. I owe it to all of you Hillary supporters who want to see universal health care passed. I owe it to Hillary because if I do have a little girl, running for the presidency won't seem like such a novel idea to her, unlike me who was thrilled at the age of 11 that a woman might be able to be VP. I owe it to Howard Dean who thinks my state still matters even though it's bleeding red right now. I owe it to all of you here who still care and still have passion and who still hope and dream and refuse to surrender.

THEY. CAN'T. HAVE. HER. They can't have this country back. They can't continue to shit on it. They can’t continue to turn it into their own private kingdom. I got the number for the Obama outreach people in this area tonight. There's a very slim chance my state will go blue but I can't sit here resigned to that. I can't sit here while my brothers and sisters in Iowa and all along the Mississippi watch their towns drown. I can't sit here while my brothers and sisters in New Orleans live in toxic trailers, forgotten by many because they’re no longer a pithy sound bite. I can’t sit here while brothers and sisters who are soldiers in Iraq die while our president bravely gives up golf to make it better. I can’t sit here while millions of our brothers and sisters who are Iraqis die, starve, hurt and learn to hate us for what we’re doing to them. I can’t sit here while the brothers and sister who we knew and loved that that died on 9/11 have their memories shit on by people who think wearing a flag pin is the best way to show your patriotism. I can’t sit here while the brothers and sisters in my state continue to vote on issues like abortion, prayer in school and gay marriage while their elected officials laugh at them for being so easily manipulated. I can’t sit here while people take my faith and turn it into a bludgeon to punish my brothers and sisters who are sick, needy and heartbroken while lining their own pockets. I can’t sit here while my brothers and sisters here at DU continue to fight on, despite our differences.

I’d rather go down fighting and never reach my goal than give up. NOT. THIS. TIME. NEVER. AGAIN. We're taking it back.

[babylonsister]

1. I can't sit here and not recommend this. Thank you. nt

[iris88]

2. Bravo

[calimary]

32. Welcome to DU! Weighing in on a VERY powerful thread!

Glad you're here. Now get to work! We need you!

[The Doctor.]

3. Brilliant.

[Dammit Ann]

4. Yes!

K&R.

[Dammit Ann]

5. Posted the vid for you.

Hope you don't mind, wanted all to see how good it is.

[PylesMalfunction]

7. That's totally cool

There's something about that video that really speaks to me and all my friends and family that I've sent it to.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

6. Amazing!!! K&R

Dems make the fatal mistake of expecting their candidates to be all things to all people. It's the very reason why we continue to lose elections. I hope that we will change out attitude this time around.

[Faygo Kid]

8. Excellent.

Yes we will.

[That Is Quite Enough]

9. This is exactly what I needed to see right now.

Amazing post. Have another rec!

[blondeatlast]

10. "With liberty, and justice, for ALL." Seems to be forgotten a lot of the time...

I was a toddler/child during the civil rights era and I will never, ever forget sitting with my very progressive parents watching the country unite for everything America was supposed to stand for.

We can do this again. Beautiful video, powerful words.

Thank you, k&r.

[me b zola]

11. You wrote so eloquently what I feel so deeply

Brava!

[1Hippiechick]

12. O.U.T.S.T.A.N.D.I.N.G

[rhett o rick]

13. Well I think you might have your chance. But maybe not for a while. The gullibles in this country

will continue to buy the bullshit until it gets much worse.

I believe that currently there is really nothing we can do. Doesn't mean I am not doing all i can, but we are really spinning our wheels. We can't get the DINO's out, they are in for life.

With the Dem's capitulation to the republicants over telecom immunity, we can see they aren't much help. It will have to get much worse before we get enough people that feel like you and me.

"I decided to stay and fight"

[butterfly77]

14. It wasn't too long ...

as I was getting to the end of the post,you were just warming up. I thought it was longer.

My thoughts exactly...

[trickyguy]

15. Got your point. I agree completely. And now exactly what

is your game plan. I've read several of these kind of "patriotic" ramblings here at DU.

But could you furnish some specific ways that you are going to take back your country.

When you get up out of your chair exactly what are you going to to to make any of this better?

I think we need some pro-active ideas here at DU and we need them soon.

[PylesMalfunction]

21. Well....

You want an accounting of exactly what my game plan is? I'll tell you what I've done today and let you judge the worth of my accomplishments.

This morning, I volunteered at our local farmers market. I also purchased the meat, bread and veggies I'll cook over the next few days. By doing so, I kept money in my community and out of the hands of corporate agriculture and companies such as Phillip Morris. I updated my blog which is used to help publicize the farmers markets and local producers in our area. Oh - and all the meat and produce I bought was local and organic. This keeps money out of the hands of companies like Monsanto (the Devil) and lobbying firms like the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (don't even get me started on these assholes). I talked with a couple of the local meat producers about NAIS and we updated each other on what's going on now with that plan and what we've done so far to speak out against it and what we can do in the future. If you're not familiar with this program, please do "a Google" for it.

I called the number I got last night from a friend for the Obama outreach in our area. I'd like to participate in voter registration for our area but I'm willing to do anything as long as it doesn't involve phones (I'm awful on the phone) or public nudity (although this is negotiable if it gets Obama in the WH).

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours mulching and weeding my garden. See the reasons above for why I do this. Then I spent another couple of hours helping my fiance run wires in our old house we're re-wiring. Renovating our older home takes up a lot of time but we bought it because it's close to downtown (which keeps our fuel consumption low and money out of the hands our companies like Exxon) and because we wanted to save it from a local slumlord who has a history of renting to crack dealers). When we bought it five years ago, we also wanted to help preserve our historic neighborhood and recycle a house that already existed rather than buy a new one. I decided with my fiance that we can go another couple of weeks without A/C which should keep a miniscule amount of CO2 out of the air.

This evening, I finally ordered our wedding cake for our wedding this fall. I honestly can't think of any 'Taking Back Our Country" connotations for this. Ummmm, it's a local baker? And it tastes yummy?

Almost forgot this - I sent another tiny donation to Obama. $15 ain't much but I do what I can when I can and it seems to be working well for him.

I just sent out a reply email to the dumbass that decided to send me an email that started with "I've checked this through Snopes and it's true!" and went on to state how Obama was a muslim AND the anti-christ. Luckily, this person forgot to blind copy their email list so I "accidently" replied to all of the people on that list. Oops.

So that's what I've done today to "Take Back Our Country". Of course after pitting ten pounds of sour cherries I've picked from a local farmer, I plan to storm the Bastille. You're welcome to join me. I'll even make you a cobbler afterwards.

[MadrasT]

23. YAY!

YAY!!! If everybody does a few little things that they each are capable of doing, it will make a BIG DIFFERENCE. I'm personally mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't voted since 1992, because in my mind they were "all the same" so "it doesn't matter who is in office".

BOY WAS I WRONG.

Now I'm SO MAD I re-registered to vote last week because I'm NOT (NO WAY, NO HOW) going to sit idly by and watch our Constitution get TRAMPLED, SQUISHED and SPAT upon ANY LONGER. I'm thinking about participating in the Obama outreach voter registration drives in our area, as well.

My great great grandfather did NOT fight the Civil War so that could I sit back and do NOTHING while our country is wrecked.

YES WE CAN!!!

[PylesMalfunction]

30. Hi there!

Welcome to DU!

Small things add up and if we only did the big things, not a lot would change. I'm glad you're voting this year!

[TBF]

28. Fired up, ready to go! Glad you're helping. I hadn't been involved

with politics in a long time, but Obama inspired me to not only care again, but act on it. I figured making phone calls would be easy, but I was hesitant to go door-to-door and talk to people. But when the campaign rolled into Texas I attended the trainings, got all fired up, and decided it couldn't be that bad. The people we were talking to were in our own neighborhoods and many had been called on the phone prior to stopping by. And what do you know, I actually enjoyed walking around and talking to people. Nobody was rude, no doors slammed in my face - everyone was really polite - Hillary and Barack supporters alike.

I'm excited to do more this fall. I don't expect Texas to turn blue either, but you know what it definitely won't if I don't do anything. So I'm going to get out there, call people, and canvass neighborhoods again. At least I'll feel like I'm doing something & wouldn't it be great if we actually did well in some of these states that you'd think we could never win.

[Cha]

16. Thank you for your inspiring post, PylesMalfunction!

At this perfect time in history

[Flying Dream Blues]

17. Great post and video. Not again is RIGHT! Yes, we can! nt

[quantass]

18. WOW! And America needs this! Very big K&R

[quantass]

19. The Video isn't Long Enough -- It's brilliant!

[LaStrega]

20. "THEY. CAN'T. HAVE. HER."

Reminds me of MoveOn's new ad:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/alexad.html?rc=homepage

k/r

[blondeatlast]

27. That's quite an imagination you have there. Congratulations. nt

[DaveJ]

22. K&R

[Highway61]

24. Powerful

Thanks for posting

[Imagevision]

25. WOW! the media are the ones calling the shots on this election, but they always do, do

you really believe everything you read? (poor puppies)

[Rudyabdul]

26. Fox News has such a sick addiction to racism.

[nytemare]

29. They blew her comment so much out of proportion.

In the last 7 years, there hasn't been much reason to be proud, and it has seemed like a lifetime. The manner she said it was unfortunate, but I don't believe that there is nothing she is proud of that has been accomplished in her adult life, and I'm sure if someone really cared to ask her, she would say that. They would rather take her comment and stretch it far beyond its true meaning ever intended.

I'm not sure if anyone in the press has asked her what she truly meant, but, honestly, this last seven years has sucked. Neither house of congress, nor the Judiciary has done jack to stop Bush and his cronies, and it gets exasperating. I imagine her feelings at that moment were of some slight relief after 7 years of bullshit, finally, the tide is changing, and her choice of words could have been slightly better, but hell, they just took that whole thing too far. It seems like that comment will never die.

[fortyfeetunder]

34. Agree tthe MSM took her phrase too far...

Every time I hear her phrase bashed, I recall this story?

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/12...

Maybe Faux News and the rest of the MSM should have read THIS story instead...I don't recall them airing this one...hmmmm....Should Michelle have been super duper patriotic proud of America after her freshman dorm room experience?

[nytemare]

36. I'm sure there are times she was proud...

During the time when she made that speech, I was a Hillary supporter. I cringed at the comment, knowing that the right just loves to latch on to these kinds of statements. I have since seen it in a video that made me want to hurl, trying to give the impression that Obama is muslim and anti-American, and the comment in that speech was used. They made it a point to say "Barack Hussein Obama" 50 times. But, there is a percentage of the population this sort of off-base fear-mongering really works on. It makes me ill.

[barack the house]

31. Democrats for all their flaws are the exit strategy from an 8 year nightmare...

We heave to shake off any disappointments they give us from there to then. Then after november no more mister nice guy.

[nc4bo]

33. Wow @ this video. Thank-you and your bro for sharing. I'm passing it forward asap. nt

[old mark]

35. Thanks for this post.

Yet the right wingers complain that the media is biased toward the left...
CNN has been really sniping at Obama as well. I can't seem to find a Dem-leaning news program anywhere.

We really must win this election.


mark