Where do you live (figuratively not literally)?

[Horse with no Name]

What's important to you?
Do you feel your needs are being met?
Do you feel government is meeting its obligation to its citizens?
Personally, I am not surprised at how things are playing out.
However, I am totally dismayed at the Gulf situation and the (mis)handling thereof.
When Obama inherited this mess in this country--we were on a one-way Concord trip to hell in a handbasket.
That should have been enough motivation to change directions as fast as we could, but that didn't happen.
Too much business as usual still permeates Washington.
It doesn't matter that our vehicle to hell has changed--end result will be the same when we arrive in the afore mentioned handbasket.

[lunatica]

1. I'm beginning to think you're right

I guess I thought it was obvious to everyone that the cliff was in sight as we gunned the accelerator. I do wish Gore had been our President, just for the hard turn away from the climate cliff.

[frazzled]

2. Typical Gloomy Gus Saturday here at the ranch

Maybe everyone needs to go outside and get a little vitamin D from the sunshine. Every third post is an apocalyptic gloom-and-doom scenario. Maybe you're looking for the second-coming of the Messiah rather than a steadily improving governance of our nation.

[arcadian]

4. Most aren't seeing any improvement because it isn't there

Business as usual.

[countingbluecars]

6. I think to say "most" is a stretch. n/t

[arcadian]

8. It certainly is not

[countingbluecars]

9. See post #3. n/t

[Horse with no Name]

7. Actually I have a sunburn

But thanks for your concern.

[babylonsister]

3. I recommend you watch this if you haven't. Things may not

be playing out as poorly as you portray.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=479383&mesg_id=479383

[Horse with no Name]

10. I know how they are playing out to real people

in real situations.
Things that I am concerned with are in serious jeopardy.
DOMA? DADT? Women's rights? Environmental legislation? Unemployment benefits? Healthcare?
That's where I live!

From an email from Planned Parenthood:
>>>snip
n Utah, lawmakers enacted a law that allows punishment of up to life in prison for an "intentional or knowing act" that leads to a miscarriage — leaving women who suffer miscarriages open to investigation and prosecution. Oklahoma state legislators passed a bill requiring abortion providers to collect personal, intimate details from the women they treat and report that information to the state.

These measures aren't about protecting women's health. They're about intimidation, about politicians forcing their way into doctors' offices, about making it harder for women to make their own medical decisions.

And the anti-choice groups aren't stopping there. In states across the country, anti-choice groups are pushing "fetal personhood" ballot initiatives. They're fighting tooth and nail to maintain the unjust ban on women in the military accessing abortion care in military facilities, even if they pay with their own money. Everywhere we look, our opponents are raising money and organizing support for efforts to undermine women's right to choose.

[treestar]

5. It has to be done by the law, and that's a slow process

Obama's tanker analogy makes sense.

[LWolf]

11. Where I live,

public education is under increasingly relentless attacks. I'm a teacher. It hits where I live. Especially since the attacks almost always focus on me, the teacher, and my union.

Health insurance reform is a joke. I haven't gotten the health care I've needed in 2 years, even though I have supposedly "good" insurance with my employer. Why? Because I can't afford the co-pays and deductibles after paying the premiums. And those premiums are projected to go up 15-26% this fall.

With the 3rd round of budget slashes in the last year, amounting to pay cuts that will total about %6,000 in the next year, I'm not sure how to make my own mortgage payments, let alone get health care.

The war is still going on and people are still dying.

Big-monied corporations have their greedy fingers in the national till, and in Democrats' pockets as well as Republicans.

And while the gulf is smothering, the president is fiddling with EXPANDING off-shore drilling.

While people are still losing their homes, while people still can't find jobs, Congress won't extend jobless benefits.

Meanwhile, it's suddenly fashionable to pass laws legalizing discrimination against brown people.

[gleaner]

12. What is important to me ...

is a life without fear. Having the government be on our side for once and having it meet the needs of people who are poor, helpless and therefore effectively silent. Our government has become a commodity to be bought and sold, and that is not how it started out or how it was meant to be.

The disaster in the Gulf is simply overwhelming. There is no way to know how it will end or what we will lose before we get there. In my case, I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime. I do see that no one is addressing it effectively and that leaves me stunned. The idea that natural resource which belong to all of us are so inconsequential that they can be sold for profit is sickening.

The trip to Hell didn't stop or mitigate with Obama. He just climbed on and joined the others who were propelling it. I think he and his policies have made it go faster. Congress is of very little help. I cannot understand how Obama can abandon the Gulf or any other ecological treasure to corporate pirates as he has done. He has two beautiful children. Doesn't he want a world of beauty and peace for them to live in? If he does, he needs to take charge and try to put a stop to this instead of abetting it with inaction.