Yes, the Flying Spaghetti Monster has a reason for EVERYTHING! :)

FSM just fills my spirit up until I jump up in the air with religious ecstasy!

Seriously though, it is good that you spend some time helping others.

Trish, you seem a bit bent out of shape. Maybe you could use to be a bit more "amiable" yourself. Perhaps I can teach you.

A lot of new people have been brought into the conversation recently. All of this talk about post-partisanship and everyone coming together is silly and naive. Obama is going to be mercilessly attacked by the wing-nuts just like every other decent leader has been attacked.

We MUST be critical of Obama when he praises Bush. But, this is very important: In our criticism of Obama, we must not allow ourselves to become aligned with those who are critical of Obama for the wrong reasons.

For example, if Hugo Chavez criticizes Obama, that is very different from when George Bush has criticized Obama. Hugo Chavez says a lot of things which I suspect Obama might like to say himself.

However, if you ask Obama about Chavez, Obama is going to distance himself from Chavez. If you ask Obama about Bush, Obama is going to praise Bush.

That is because Barack Obama has grown accustomed to saying the opposite of what he is expected to say in order to give the impression of being a "maverick". He apparently caught the "maverick" disease from too much exposure to McCain. We need to snap Obama out of the campaign trance.

Helpful criticism of Obama should be coming from that ideological place Obama wishes he could claim, but that which Obama dares not overtly speak from.

Obama wants to be politically safe, and not make any moves which energize his opposition. It's our job to subdue the opposition to give Obama space to operate. It's also our job to tap Barack on the shoulder and say "Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive".

To the overzealous Obama-defenders who fail to discriminate between our critics and their critics, please think about it before you assume that every critic of Obama is hurting the cause. Think about it before you assume Barack needs the kind of "help" you're giving.

Agreeing with Obama emphatically every time he compromises with the opposition is actually weakening his position. Criticizing Obama every time he compromises actually strengthens his position for more favorable compromises.

I'm the one, oh I'm the one

I'm the one, I'm the one

The one they call the seventh son

I can talk these words that will sound so sweet

They will even make your little heart skip a beat

Heal the sick, raise the dead

Make the little girls talk outta their heads

Here are some things for Barack Obama to do:

Free Muntadar al-Zaidi.

Decriminalize prostitution and drugs.

Mandate the use of Free Software for the US government.

Let justice be done to Bush and his cronies.

Get all the way out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Give Dennis Kucinich a cabinet-level position - Czar of Having the Balls to Impeach Bush (and other great things).

Liquidate estates of the most greedy CEOs.

Turn over their assets to me, including yachts, off-shore accounts, mistresses, drug stashes, etc.

*Consider it my personal bail-out. I've suffered multiple, consecutive, quarterly losses. I am "too big to fail" and the economy depends on my high standard of living.

Make Joe Biden to grow a pony-tail and wear tie-dyes as penitence for his vote in favor of Bush's Attack Iraq Resolution.

Afghan pot growers deserve support too.

Global wealth can be assigned an arbitrary number, but what really matters is the natural resources that human life depends on for survival.

Those jobs will go to more agreeable people than myself.

I wrote a scathing response condemning the "Democratic" party for 16 years of Republicanism and suggesting you might be a political professional of some kind. It didn't get published and neither did it get emailed back to me. There goes a chunk of original writing from a legend (in my own mind at least), forever lost into the bowels of bureaucracy. That's 20 minutes I'll never get back. Life is short and I'll have to remember not to waste too much of it here on this board. I wonder if this one will be published...

Ten Times, I don't know why you think Mikimoto meant all of what you just said unless you're both part of some kind of telepathic collective that I'm outside of.

1.a Obama may well have some blind spots in his social awareness. We'll find out eventually. It's not like anyone is omniscient anyway. Finally, how would you know unless you're privy to his innermost thoughts?

1.b The election is over. Now is the time for Obama to lead, not merely to use political calculus, strategic compromise, and cater to the lowest common denominator.

2. How do you know Obama wants this or that? Muntadar al-Zaidi's vengeful gesture against Bush is not for you to judge. The name of the game is not all about "helping O" keep his powder dry. What about Muntadar al-Zaidi? Is he being tortured?

3. Compromise is the engine of progress? Tell that to the uncompromising people who actually make favorable compromises possible. You can't bargain when you have no chips.

Sometimes those who compromise are opportunists who are selling us out just short of accomplishing something bigger.

4. We won't be moving forward if certain "narrow positions and views" are not finally respected.

Freedom, dignity, prosperity, justice have universal appeal. "Narrow positions" such as gay marraige, Marijuana and drug freedom, are based on broad principles.

All we really need to do is to marginalize people who sneak under the banner of change but who really support the status quo.

Hopefully Obama won't allow himself to be persuaded by people who lack passion for real change and who resent those of us who actually have that passion.