Obama needs to exdigitate on several fronts if he really wants his agenda to move forward in the face of the obstructionist Republican tactics. Most prominent is health care of course. With regard to WWLBJD, imagine a Senator pulling the stunt on a piece of legislation that LBJ cared about, that Lieberman has pulled on health care. If it were LBJ, to paraphrase "All The King's Men", that Senator's unborn great-grandchildren would wet their pants if they heard anybody say the word "filibuster". For all his faults, LBJ got historic legislation passed with fewer resources than Obama has right now.

Courage,
WOODY

Zozo

The first was, I got my copy of the SPLC Intelligence Report in the mail.

The second was, I got my periodic fund-raising call from my undergraduate institution (call it Wealthy Southern Alma Mater, or WSAM-U. Disclosure - I could not have afforded to attend WSAM-U without a scholarship that I repaid with five-plus years in the Navy.).

During my undergraduate years WSAM-U, despite being relatively progressive for its location and time, was noted for expelling any students who got excessively uppity to the point of defying authority - most notoriously, some who participated in Martin Luther King's nascent sit-in movement.

Like Deanie, I wince to recollect some of the thoughtless Terrible Things I said during that time - things I really didn't believe, but that were opportune and cheap, which in fact just made them worse.

But back to the WSAM-U fundraiser. She was an earnest undergraduate recruited for the purpose, and maybe some day I will wince to recollect giving her a hard time (but like the late great Mike Royko, I may be wrong but I doubt it). My response was something like this. I do not donate to WSAM-U for several reasons, the main one being that there is no possible contribution that I could afford to make that would make a nickle's worth of difference to the University. Instead I give to causes where I think my modest donations will have an effect, like our local animal shelter, the Southern Poverty Law Center, local libraries and churches, etc.

In my book, Morris Dees and the rest of the SPLC people are heroes - people who have been threatened with death many times by groups that have the means and intentions to do it. The sit-in protestors were also heroes and many paid the price, including my cousin Sam Dodson who was fired from his pastorship of a big Methodist church in WSAM-ville because he saw it as his plain duty to march with the protestors.

Great post, Deanie.