Gregorian – Stairway To Heaven

The Queen of the Utoobz, Suzanne, sent me this gem the other night! I just couldn’t pass it up…! Enjoy…! ;-)

What’s on your mind tonight…?

“Let’s conduct a survey” has reached a surreal level within the Pentagon — apparently servicemembers’ spouses’ views also interest the brass, who claim they are attempting to discover how, not whether, to implement a repeal of the antiquated and odious Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell policy.

Now, spouses of servicemembers are being asked how they would react if One of Them moved into base housing nearby, or how they’d counsel their spouse regarding re-enlistment if One of Them were to be revealed in the spouse’s unit, or how they’d counsel a friend or family member considering joining the military if All of Them were permitted to serve openly in America’s military.

Of course, the servicemembers’ gaydar is also evaluated:

8. Has your spouse ever worked on a daily basis with an individual he or she believed to be a homosexual Service member?
Yes
No
Don’t know

Did your spouse share with belief with you? Did your spouse keep this belief from you? How many days did it take for your spouse to reveal this belief? Didn’t you wonder why your spouse kept this belief from you that long? Did you invite the suspected homosexual to your home in order for you to validate your spouse’s new belief? Did the suspected homosexual order a cocktail with an umbrella? Or ask for beer in a glass?

The Democrats are going to lose big this fall, especially in the House. I don’t think anyone is disputing this. What is worth debating is why we’re going to see such a dramatic reversal of the gains that were won in 2006 and 2008.

Recently, the Cook Report downgraded ten incumbent Democrats on their likelihood of retaining their seats. For two of the ten (Loretta Sanchez of California’s 47th and Jim Marshall of Georgia’s 8th), the typical midterm drop in minority turnout is the main culprit. But for the other eight, it was the conservative nature of their district.

For example, Chris Carney is in jeopardy in Pennsylvania’s 10th because of “the district’s strong GOP tilt and Carney’s vote for health care reform.” And Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota is blasting the “Romper Room” antics of Congress as she trumpets her votes against “all the bailouts and the trillion dollar health care plan.”

On the surface, then, it appears that many of the seats that the Democrats will lose were never really theirs in the first place. The easy analysis will be to minimize their significance by calling it a typical correction after a power shift. With the anti-Bush backlash now a thing of the past, these districts will return to their natural home on the Republican side. This swing, therefore, might be seen as largely irrelevant, because these conservative districts, even when they turned blue, were still sending conservative representatives that largely have opposed Obama’s “liberal” agenda.

But perhaps there’s more to the midterm predicament of the Blue Dogs. The traditional categories of liberal and conservative only partially describe the electoral climate this year. The emergence of the Tea Party on the right and the growing criticism of Obama from the progressive left indicate a new brand of dissatisfaction with “business as usual” in Washington.