If you've read of the civil rights struggles in the 60s, then you know all about congressman John Lewis from Georgia.  He was the centerpiece of the Freedom Rides to desegregate the South, and was a national leader in the struggle for civil rights.   He  became nationally known during the Selma to Montgomery marches when, (according to Wikipedia), "police beat the nonviolently marching Lewis mercilessly in public, leaving head wounds that are still visible today."

He's been relected nine times (!) to congress and is "senior chief deputy whip" in the Democratic caucus

We also know him because he was a super-delegate in Clinton's camp but announced - in early February - that he was switching to Obama.

Okay, so that's background.  And here's my little story:

Just when you think that blaming the recession ("liberals brought it on by talking about it too much"), the bad turns in Iraq ("its not like the liberals have any better ideas to end this conflict") and the swelling of hope in this country (McCain 2/14 - "promise of hope is just a platitude") on the liberals, now it turns out that we screwed over Jack Bauer as well.

Oh, you'll want to keep on reading.

Like perhaps some of you, I'm a one-woman propaganda machine when it comes to elections.  Why is Edwards better than Romney? Boom!  Why should I vote for Hillary?  Can I trust the youth of Obama?  I'm known in my work setting and my neighborhood setting as the person to go to for a quick run-down of the facts (both the emotional & the factual ones)

I  would very much like to know what might be contained within a diary that now has 1200 comments appended to it.  

And the temptation is great just to click away & see what all the fuss is about.

But I know my old computer Betsy pretty well and she's not going to react well to a click into that comments well.

So those of you on shiny machines, can you give a summary of the reaction?

While most of my diaries have been pure politics, I received such great ideas from this community when I was deciding on a car purchase last year (see "What Would Jesus Take a Loan Out On?"), that I'd like to reach out again on a prickley moral and logistical situation.

We have one car - a 1993 Jeep Cherokee SUV that's done well for us.  We're shopping for a new car and I'd very much like the opinions of you all because, well, we're just baffled.  It took me a year to settle on a tomato sauce that I liked. it took me 6 months just to find a bathing suit (lands end, btw).  I'll answer your questions in advance:

1. Nope, we can't reliably keep the old car. We had extensive leaking in it (its complicated) and now we have a rust thing going on.

2. Well, we don't drive that much. I walk to work, my husband bikes. We take the kids to school and we grocery shop. Every once in a while, we drive somewhere out of the city & we'd like a reliable car for that. We tend to hike & bike a lot so we need a tough(ish) vehicle. And the kids play hockey so we need a car that hockey sticks can be placed in without having to open the windows.

3. We're big people. Not heavy (we're kind of too skinny) but we're really elongated people....my kids are in the 90% for height.

....but I really do want to know if Daily Kos is Getting Stupid.

This is a thin diary but a fat request: Could we start a new discussion on what's in that diary? Could a person on a powerful machine with a T-1 line  sneak in there & bring back espionage to us on home computers?  Maybe a Readers' Digest, Big-Type edition?  If we are getting stupider, I need to know.  

According to the head of the Forsyth County Commission here in Georgia, evidently not.  As reported in this morning's Atlanta paper, a grant to study tree coverage in that county has been cut because Forsyth County Commissioner Linda Ledbetter "doesn't want to count the forest or the trees."

At her behest, the County Commission has effectively axed a $16,800 state Forestry Commission grant to assess the county's tree canopy.

 Ledbetter says "'It's a no-win situation.'

(more!)

I know there is a vibrant minority of us on this site with small children who have fought the fight as valiantly as any of us.  I'm not sure how to handle my children right now.  If I didn't have to get out of bed this morning to bring them to school, I'm not sure I would have gotten out of bed at all.  My eight=year-old seems okay but my 6-year-old (he's my little man) literally sobbed in bed when I told him this morning of the trends. I"m second-guessing everything right now...did I involve them too much...did I translate too many fears...what can I tell them? I don't want them to feel defeated...this is really really difficult.  

Can we use this thread to talk over ideas?