I am too.  So I decided to take a break from it, starting last Friday.  I'll probably come back sometime after the primaries or maybe in 2009.

This isn't a GBCW diary - I don't believe in those.  I wasn't going to write this diary but it occurs to me that maybe someone else might commiserate with my feelings and would be interested in what I've found.

At the risk of being flamed by Obamabots, in honor of much braver folks than me who have written issue diaries, here's why I'm taking a break and where I'll be visiting for a while.

If this has already been diaried, I'll delete this one.

Wow, what a hit.  Probably I shouldn't complain - I have a 401K to even be hit.  Still, it's really disheartening to see your 'savings' for the last couple years go poof! in just one bad day.

So, I'd like to commiserate with anyone else who experienced this.  What happened to you?

So what if there have been diaries on this topic already.  I'm pissed off and I'm going to write about it.

It seems more than obvious to me that Obama's statements praising Reagan are meant to pander to Republicans who might someday be voting for him in the general election.

But I'll tell you, it's pissing off the progressive democratic base!  Man, if I was somewhat in favor of this guy before, I'm NOT NOW.  I'm going to hope every day that he's NOT our candidate.  Let me be clear - I hated Reagan.  An actor for president?  It was a joke before it happened and an ironic complete failure afterward.  The start of our continued downward spiral into economic ruin and amoral foreign policy occured with Reagan, our figurehead president.

I went to bed early last night and didn't see any caucus results as they came in.

So this morning, I watched the YouTube clips of the top 3 Dem finishers.  Here's my observations, as a person somewhat removed from the emotions of the evening.

I literally can't stand it, so here I am writing about it.  Normally, I don't subject myself to it, but I decided to be friendly and join my husband on the couch.  He doesn't have time to keep up online.  What did I see this evening...follow me...

Katie, I'm an intrepid newswoman because I provoked Bob Dole (Mr. Quick), Couric interviews several prominent presidential candidates.  She asks them the same question 'Which country are you afraid of and what will you do about it if elected?'

Obama and Thompson agree on this - Iran.  Ya know, I'm just not afraid of Iran.  Maybe someday I should be afraid of the imaginary Iran?  The imaginary Iran which may in the remote future think about nukular weapons.

Hillary says Pakistan.  I'm with ya, honey.  Here we have a country with nukes and we have no frikkin' idea whose finger is on the trigger and where they are hiding Osama.  Yep, sounds like a problem area to me!

I had suspected so prior to today but now I'm sure.

One day, Dana the press secretary had a hard time answering a question during one of her daily briefings.

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

Then Dana the press secretary was a guest on a radio show this past weekend.  Dana the press secretary told a cute little story about what happened to her one day at the big White House.  Oopsies, Dana the press secretary didn't know what those reporters were talking about!  What a funny little story to tell!  No one should have expected her to know about something, like, in the past!

Paul Krugman has an op-ed column today discussing Obama's health plan.  He describes the plan and compares it (unfavorably) to Edward's and Clinton's plans.  Krugman is arguing whether the candidates' health plans require/mandate the purchase of health insurance.  The difference in the Dem candidates' positions is how to provide health insurance.

This is the wrong question.  The base of the problem we have in the US is about providing access to proper health CARE.

An article on TPM provides us this eyebrow wrinkling irony:

Iraqi Constitution Requires Parliament to Approve Long-Term U.S. Presence

Well, it's sure a darn good thing they have better separation of powers than is currently available in our constitution!  Even if Maliki wants to sign on for permanent colony status, he's going to need some advice and consent from the other branch of Iraqi government, the parliament.  Maybe we could take something from this idea to use here?

In today's Parade magazine, there's a section labeled 'Dictator Watch' which is a feature article about - Iran's elected president Ahmadinejad.  How ironic!  As has been pointed out here and in other places, Iran's president has less power in that country than their Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.  Dictator?  Not even close.

Not a political diary, I just need to rant.

This is an old joke, I think to myself.  Why is Jay telling this one again?  He must be cherry picking these rare incidents because they bother him.  Although, his standard line is always about how common this is - there's an epidemic of this everywhere - and his joke is about some bizarre new twist to the usual story.

What's this rash, this cold virus, this dandelion weed infestation of sick behavior sweeping around the country enough to become a stale punch line?  Let me put it in fark-ese.

Common:  Teacher having sex with student
Not as common:  Teacher is female
Rare:  She teaches at my kids' high school
NIMBY:  She was my son's teacher last year
I'm panting with relief:  He thought she was just weird

It's hard to catch little gems like this one when the story appears over a weekend.

I've got this problem.  My usual habit of perusing humorous and political websites over the weekend has side effects.  My outrage-ometer goes off.  Then I shutdown my computer to go dig weeds or do some cleaning until I feel I have control over some dirty or offensive situation in my life.    Certainly it feels that as a citizen and voter, I have no ability to scour away the stains!  The best I can do is my bit to shine some light on the bug infestations rampant in every corner of the White House.  Today's pestilence:

Here's a bit of good news for your Friday I came across.  It seems another principled Democrat has decided to take a stand alone.  Rep. David Obey, D-WI, has joined Chris Dodd among the ranks of those willing to be seen taking an action, rather than writing sternly worded letters and non-binding resolutions.

Today's WOOHOO moment was reported on NPR last night and online in Time:

The news is up on CNN now:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had asked parliament in Ankara on Monday to authorize a military incursion, and the lawmakers responded with overwhelming approval, 507 to 19.

The voting took place today.

Amid the Larry Craig melodrama last week, this little gem went unrecognized.  I've searched DKos as best I can and didn't find any diaries on it.  Let's pause for a momentary WOOHOO and celebrate a victory.

The MEJA Expansion and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2740) was written by my representative in congress, Rep. David Price.  It was passed on Thursday, Oct. 4, by a vote of 389 to 30.

This is actually better news than it would appear because Sen. Barack Obama introduced a similar amendment which passed the Senate on Sept. 27 by unanimous consent.

Today's head-shaking is caused by eternal optimism. I hear that's a characteristic of us United Statesians. We're charming because we're so upbeat and forward looking. There's always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; there must be a pony in here somewhere if we're shoveling this much muck. But this everlasting Tinkerbell outlook - just clap harder to get what you want - leads straight into the depths of codependency. (Some people hate this word. It's just a term describing symptoms - get over it.)

Who knew that the real reason we all re-elected Chimpy in 2004 was so that we could just be continually amused at the office pranks played by members of his administration!  The report will be written in invisible ink.

This just in from Think Progress:

A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security and stability in Iraq. "There is no report. It is an assessment provided by them by testimony," the officer said.

The only hard copy will be Gen. Petraeus’ opening statement to Congress, scheduled for Monday, along with any charts he will use in explaining the results of the troop surge in Baghdad over the past several months.

I would have posted this in an open thread, but I didn't see one started yet today.  Not sure it's worth a diary, but it's good for a few yuks!

Poor Condi!  It's really tough when you've finally developed a specialty which captures your interests and abilities - and then you are thwarted from following your bliss.

Via Raw Story this morning comes a breath of fresh air from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.  Color me stunned.

I've become absolutely fed up with what I call the MSM.  (Yes, I hear that the new politically correct term is 'traditional media.')  In my shorthand this includes print media, the vast majority of which is owned by Murdoch or some clone of his.  I'm not sure anyone follows my occasional comments and infrequent diaries enough to notice but newspapers are a pet peeve of mine.  So much so that I've stopped reading them, except sometimes on weekends or while waiting in airports.

My main gripes are:  opinions stamped all over 'news' stories, analysis articles which provide no evidence and ignore historical context, gross factual inaccuracies corrected (if ever) in small print at the bottom of the back page, and the worst offense - parroting government propaganda.