STUCK

I feel weary, lazy, boxed in. I can't concentrate or do what I ought to be doing.

I suspect many other people feel this way too.

I want to do something incisive, strong, but can't. I can complain -- and have complained -- about all the high level, brainy analyses of what Obama is doing, not doing, needs to do. And right now, again, I'm complaining about the opinions, polls, the babble -- the repetitious sing-song of the Repubs -- the selling techniques they are using to make Obama a failed president, and keep him failing, stuck, immobilized, even though it is immobilizing the country.

What can we do?

Wall street protest-- yay!

Write, call, fax, e-mail our congressmen-- yay!

Listen and watch Obama making his latest speech --yay!

But we can't get out of this stuck state -- can't extricate ourselves from the every day more looming financial crises. And we are heading into the same threat, the threat the Repubs used before -- they're threatening to shut the government down.

People need help desperately. FEMA needs funds. FEMA won't get funds unless the White House renegotiates, and cuts support to Americans in other life and death, major areas.

Whoa! Don't we live in a democracy? Don't we have a government of the people, by the people, for the people?

The books say: "Democracy is a government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives -- equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law."

The Repubs have figured out a new way to control and rule the nation. They've re-defined, and renovated. Legally, more or less constitutionally, they are reconstructing "democracy." They stop Congress from functioning.

They don't want Obama to be able to function as president. They are electioneering -- campaigning to show Americans that the only way they'll get jobs, and other legislation, will be if a Republican is elected.

Right now, President Barack Obama can only try and keep trying -- till the next election -- to rally Dems, and perhaps shame some Repubs, who don't like what the Repubs are doing. Could Obama get enough representatives to support him? Is there any way for the President to stop what's happening in the House of Reps?

I don't know. I don't think we have a House of Representatives right now.

We have a Repub House that is campaigning -- has been have been campaigning -- since they were elected in November 2010. They are working full time to win the presidency in in 2012.

When you are stuck in the snow, you get a shovel. In traffic, you try another route. In water, you swim or grab a boat. In mud, or quicksand you grab anything that might lift you up and out of what's sucking in you down.

Got shovel, rope, pole, boat, another route? -- I'll take anything you offer.

LIKES

What's all this stuff about LIKE? Is it Facebook-itis, a tweeting virus we've caught from reading and writing and responding to comments, little summaries, adages, photos, film clips?

Is LIKE all we need to do, in order to respond to words, ideas, moods, philosophies, projects, products that people are proposing?

Click LIKE what? The candidate, the Author, the seller, the inventor of whatever it is, is rewarded with a LIKE, which in Internet terms, is MONEY?

No.
APPROVAL?
Sort of ...
So LIKES are building a career?

Not specifically. LIKES are primarily a promotion of yourself. If you say something that people like, others notice, and add their LIKE to the other LIKES, and thus, you're accruing a name and with a name you can teach, preach, beseech each and every friend to send you more friends, more followers.

I'm thinking we need LIKES to be in various colors, or degrees..."like" a lot, "like" a tiny little, a ha ha LIKE, thrilled LIKE, scared LIKE. Also, LIKES plus an um, ugh, eek, pooh, yuck --maybe even a LIKE spelled backwards ...an EKIL

I have to admit I'm bored with "like" as a measure of anything these days. It's too easy to "like." It's not even as satisfactory as a hello, or a hi.

Actually, I dislike LIKES. And now we're getting more and more interactive LIKES. Tell your favorite commentator you LIKE his show? LIKE that singer, that dancer performer? LIKE that ad? that movie? It's as if everything is in a beauty contest and you are involved with picking who's got the best legs.

Gee, wouldn't it be wonderful if "likes" could get us out of the political doldrums, and between now and November 2012 we could text in, email, Tweet, Facebook share our "LIKES!" (Hey, Apple or Google would probably develop and sell us some sort of hack-proof security system that knows, recognizes, real LIKES, lying LIKES, and truthful, heartfelt DISLIKES.)

Then, wow! On November 6, 2012, we will go to a booth, and pull or punch a lever based on what we feel -- not like -- what we know is right.

BILL CLINTON ON HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT

When former President Bill Clinton speaks I pay attention. I like him, his politics, and his amazing mind. Despite his playing around with other women and my sense of what this has done to Hillary Clinton as a woman, I like him.

Clinton, a few days ago, laughed off what former Vice President Dick Cheney's said about Hillary running for president again. During recent interviews promoting his new book "In My Time," Cheney suggested that Hillary Clinton should run for president in 2012, against Obama..

Cheney's remarks, Cheney selling his new book that defends the wrong things Cheney has done, are almost unbearable, but Bill's response was the response of a seasoned wise professional. He said:

"Well, you know, I'm very proud of her, so I'm always gratified whenever anyone says anything nice about her. And I very much agree that she's done a good job," Clinton told Bob Schieffer on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"But I also have a high regard for Vice President Cheney's political skills, and I think one of those great skills is sowing discord among the opposition. So I think he's right that she's done a heck of a job. But she is a member of this administration, and committed to doing it. And I think he, by saying something nice about her in the way that he did, knew that it might cause a little trouble," Clinton continued.

"I don't want to help him succeed in his political strategy. But I admire that he's still out there hitting the ball."

Here’s the video:

IDOLS

You build them up, and make them kings, queens, leaders, label them number one -- great, The Greatest, favorite, the best. You follow them on Facebook, on Twitter, and take in their words, their doings, approve, disapprove. applaud, ennoble and adore them.

Hey, by writing this, I'm doing it -- playing what I call the " fame name" game. Ears and eyes absorbing news alerts, headlines, gossip -- digesting all of it like essential vitamins.

It's energizing, like a pep bill. Events in an Idol's life are YOUR life too.

So who's actually in the Idol fame game right now? (Don't bother linking to the links, if you're busy with your own idols -- look at my links when you're bored.)

Justin Bieber? (wrote about him last June.)

And J lo? She's getting oldish, but J lo's HOT again right now.

Is Simon the honest, mean creator of American Idol one of your idols? Amazing guy, is he going marry Paula Abdul?

What about Michael Jackson? He's still a vibrating, powerful musical entity, like Elvis.

Oh sure, other names are wafting about -- Sarah Palin looks more beautiful than ever. (Thank God she's biding her time about running for president.) Lindsay Lohan's always good for an OH NO, NOT AGAIN!. I can't help hoping Paris Hilton's fading.

Having Googled, I know the who's are mostest biggest celebs for the moment.

1 Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) 12,516,236 followers SORT OF LIKE HER
2 Justin Bieber 11,737,023 followers DON'T LOVE HIM
3 Barack Obama 9,602,976 followers LIKE HIM A LOT.
4 Katy Perry 9,054,420 followers --DONT 'KNOW WHO SHE IS
5 Britney Spears 8,924,496 followers DON'T LOVE HER
6 Kim Kardashian 8,913,646 followers WHICH "KARDASH" IS SHE?
7 Shakira 7,551,084 followers DON'T KNOW HER
8 Taylor Swift13 7,435,705 followers DON'T KNOW HER
9 Ashton Kutcher 7,386,783 followers BIG SELF-PROMOTER
10 Ellen DeGeneres 7,270,099 followers LIKE HER A LOT
11 Oprah Winfrey 6,994,849 followers DON'T LOVE HER
12 Rihanna 6,761,923 followers NOT INTERESTED
13 Selena Gomez 6,758,557 followers DULL CUTE BORE
16 Justin Timberlake 5,622,163 followers LIKE HIM A LOT

Where's Madonna? No new lover? No new adoptions? And Brangelina -- her with her not believable maternal smile? Is Brad getting fat? I wish he'd move out and re-marry Jennifer A who's aging, alas, quickly.

What about FALLEN IDOLS -- Roger Clemens, Kobe B? And Tiger Woods. (I want Tiger to win again!) And SLIPPING idols -- Mariah Carey, Halle Berry, or FORMER idol Mickey Rooney, and the FOREVER idol, Princess Diana?

Yes, I'm naming the names that have grabbed, are still grabbing, and getting YOU reading this post, wondering what Em's going to say next..

I think the idol game is like climbing up an unstable vine -- you're breaking branches, knocking off twigs and buds as you're clutching and holding on -- yep, you're climbing up an imaginary vine like Jack and the Beanstalk.

Beware -- fee, fi, fo, fum -- it's going nowhere -- it's dumb.