Happy Week-end to everyone....

How cool is this----I just got one of those recorded political messages....the voice of Rep John Lewis (D-MD), in support of the re-election of Rep Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)!

Yes, We Did and Yes, We Will!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend! Chicago will be busy. Am glad to see that Rahm Emmanuel continues to ignore the Rickett family. I'm definitely ready for the weekend.

Time to head to the DDI for some relaxing. I'm taking some of my world-famous deviled eggs and big, thick Iowa chops for the grill.

I'm taking some of my world-famous deviled eggs and big, thick Iowa chops for the grill.

OMG - my mouth is watering already!

I forgot to mention, I picked up some of that famous cranberry juice you're so fond of! ;o)

I'm taking some of my world-famous deviled eggs and big, thick Iowa chops for the grill.

Mmmm...mmmmm, sounds dee-lish-ous!! Can you beam some to the West Coast.

Oh man, I would miss being at the Dew Drop Inn when a menu like that is prepared! Have a good weekend to everyone, family fun, so won't be around!

Thanks to our hosts for another fun week on First Read!

I have one more week of HELL and then I'll be back to full swing! I was making my award winning baby backs this weekend anyway, so I'll throw a few more slabs on the grill!

My baby girl graduates from 5th grade on Thursday and both my kiddos won academic awards. Not to mention that my Junior Girl Scouts earned their Bronze Award AND bridged to Cadettes this past week.

And I am kicking off a new upgrade at work on the 29th. I really need to plan better in election years, lol.

Miss you all and will be up to date soon!

Congratulations, Clara: give the kids hugs for me! You have to be very proud.

Congrats to the kidlets Clara!

You have every right to be one proud Mama! ☺

I'm late to the party but since it lasts all weekend, I will bring my famous raspberry jello pretzel salad.

What a week in politics. So disheartening to see that the right still plays the "other" card with President Obama.

I have come to believe that as a regular citizen, my most effective protest is with my discretionary spending. So, I'm putting my money where my mouth is to make my views known. I have started the process to move our retirement accounts from TD Ameritrade. They will still be profitable without me I'm sure but I will also know that I am not contributing to their hateful politics.

Oh Steeler - you make that unbelievable pretzel salad? Gotta get the recipe. It's one of my favorites.

Sorry I missed the DDI last night - maybe next week.

Everyone have a great weekend. Can't believe we're going to see 88 degrees today. Hope it keeps the protestors from causing any trouble for the NATO summit. The city looks great and it would be wonderful to see foreign dignitaries see the full beauty of Chicago!

Floyd,

Far to many legends have been lost to us so far this year...

Terrific ending wrap up to the week as always, IR.

Have a good one, everybody.

Yeh Betty but you just got to know that that old Great Beyond is going to be a Rockin' Place.

Everyone on FR have a great weekend , whether left, right or in the middle.

I am running to the DDI, I love devil eggs and grilled Iowa pork chops. :)

Seeing it is 90 degrees right now in MN, I would like a giant G & T, Mr Barkeep!

Independent Redneck Va.

TGIF. Have a nice weekend . That was a nice roundup. We are getting older but the memories of those who gave us happy times and have passed yet the music never leaves us.

I thought of my brother, a Viet Nam vet, when Spec. Leslie H. Sabo Jr's widow received the Medal of Honor. I don't mean to rile any one up; but our soldiers experienced lots. My brother told me the Viet Cong would put signs up saying Black man go home this is not your war. Wow, when I think about the 60s and the turmoil I see the right wing wanting to create this same type of climate again.

Do you want mild or spicy Popeye's?

I like the Spiiiicy Bev. and no you didn't rile anybody up. I remember those days well and I can tell you it wasn't no fun. Seems like we carried a lot of baggage over there with us. Best part was that was generally all forgotten when the shootin' started and most of the Fellows learned enough to not bring it home with us.

Independent Redneck Va.

I like the Spicy Bev

You got it Buddy

Oh Boy, Rev Al is hilarious. He just said Willard has a bridge he wants to sell us. ROFL!

That is what I love about Rev Al he tells it like it is and doesn't back down from right wing criticism either.

Bev, girl, you KNOW I am down with some spicy dark meat!

hugs out!

IR - beautiful acknowledgement of some great lives gone too soon!

Willard says he drives a Mustang and a Truck......Mustang Sally Willard......nah, more Station Wagon Willard!

nah, more Station Wagon Willard!

Nah, more like Woody Willard...

Remember them? With the fake wood on the doors?

To all my friends at the DDI, am a little late to enjoy your company, but have much to talk and laugh about. Jody, I'm weak kneed when deviled eggs are part of the menu and as for Iowa Pork Chops, m-m-m-m, lordy, lordy, you are ringing my bell.

To our hosts, thank you for the work you do, even though I don't always agree...with Chuck, nevertheless, have a great weekend.

To all, especially my friends, have a great weekend. Enjoy and cherish your family and friends, life is very short and very unpredictable. Peace to all.

I forgot to add, to Feisty, Bev, Sanity and anyone else in the Chicago area, best wishes during the NATO Summit. Stay safe.

Gingerbread Mamma - Thank you! Have a terrific weekend! We're gonna try to keep things calm and sane during the summit. We don't need to spoil this beautiful weekend!

Enjoy your weekend, too!

Fake wood on the doors, Feisty.....just like Willard the Fake. Too funny.

Next time the DDI bar-b-que pit is fired up maybe some great fajitas, chicken and beef. Yummy stuff!

I'm on my way to the DDI with the Popeye's chicken ya'll.

Mmm Mmmm Good!

It will never taste better then the night we had it at our 'car picnic'? lol

Feisty, I was thinking maybe you, me and seeking sanity could go to the airport to greet the President Sunday and take a few pictures for our scape books

Call me tomorrow... might just work out for me!

Beverly, well said and wish I could join the group to greet President Obama.

Hey Bev maybe you'll Ladies can slip the President a little of that Popeyes. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. Tell Him Old Uncle Redneck made you do it.

Independent Redneck Va.

Hah!

I wish I could get that close to our President. I don't know maybe we can an autograh. If we do get that close I sure will tell our President Uncle Redneck wanted send him some chicken.

Wow Bev, what a great idea, I'll be there in spirit with you. And that spicy chicken sounds divine, thanks, looking forward to it.

Bev and Feisty - sound like a great idea!

Welcome to the Dew Drop Inn Sandie - where us loony, lefty, libbies come to wind down after a long week of right wing bull@!$%#!

Can we get you something to drink?

It's on the house!

Sandie, I second Feisty's welcome, come stay a while, we have the best barkeep in the country.

I still feel quilty about our car picnic

PUHLEEZE GF!

That will go down as a LRU legend & it always be a fond memory for me!

No one does it better then US! ;o)

Talk to you tomorrow...

hey don't let amy catch you chit chatting. I caught hell yesterday for mentioning the disco queen dying.

There are NO apologies necessary,...Our car picnic ROCKED! And I am with Feisty,...that will go down in the CLASSIC LRU archives!

My only regret was that our get together was too short. And Bev, you missed a GREAT corned beef and cabbage dinner at Feisty's the next night!

lisa s-1749992

You Chicago girls stay safe this weekend.

Thanks Lisa s we will.

You have a happy weekend

AffinityGW - oh the Chinese American idea is a great one. Maybe in 2016??? The little Republican heads would explode!!!

Hey goof, the companies left because they had no workier pool to choose from. It was the "tolerance" of GLBT that made them leave. Couldn't find anyone who would get their hands dirty. EEEWWWWWl

You might as well talk to your hand as you sure don't make sense to the rest of us.

Are you really trying to say that Romney went from 37th to 47th in job creation when he was governor because of gay people in his state?

Typical republicans like Romney wants to take credit for the auto bailout something he was against and then you want to blame gay people in his state for his failure to create jobs?

So when the republicans tank our economy with the Ryan budget, will that be the gays fault also?

I know the republicans voted for and created the deficit on purpose and now they want to blame everyone but themselves.

PS.............The Ryan budget increases the deficit.

So the republicans plans are to tank the economy, starve our people, make our veterans suffer and increase the deficit all so they can give Romney and his rich friends more tax cuts. Is that really the smart thing to do?

Republicans the party with more hate than brains.

VOTE FOR AMERICA....VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT 2012

AF, For your information our economy is already tanked thanks to Obama's mismanagement and lack of leadership. Obama's biggest problem is his ego, have you ever noticed when he talks its always "me", "I" and "mine". Obama is the most divisive President in history and is in so far over his head, it's unbelievable.

BTW, there is no Ryan budget, it was, along with Obama's and 3 others, voted down in the Senate, thereby making it moot.

You know sfcret you act like the economy was not tanked when President Obama was elected. Our country was in free fall losing millions of jobs and the republicans did not have a clue as what to do except give the banks with no strings attached incredible amounts of money to replace that which the banks lost through greed.

You can look at when the stimulus was enacted and when our economy started to recover.

The Ryan budget is not a mute point as that is the direction the republicans would take our country if given the chance. The republicans voted to create a recession on purpose and you think that is a mute point.

Like I said republicans have more hate than brains. It sounds like the problem you have with President Obama is that he is uppity. I know I am from the south and black men are to be more subservient in public. Then you blame the divisiveness on President Obama like the republicans didn't plan this obstruction on the day of his inauguration.

Unbelievable, it is President Obama's fault that the republicans have more hate than brains.

VOTE FOR EDUCATION....VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT 2012

Americans First - sfcret cannot remember back when Obama was not President. She/he swears all problems start and end with him!

You can't reason with stupid!

Obama/Biden 2012

AF, Typical left wing response, play the race card. You can't defend the lousy job Obama is doing so you have to play the race card, how pathetic. The Ryan budget is not a policy but an annual budget that was voted down, so it has no effect on government spending. You on the left always saying, if someone doesn't agree with your position, it is because of hate. Did you ever stop to think that the U.S. is broke, heavily in debt, we need to rein in spending and stop the waste of billions every year. We need to go through every agency and cut waste, and duplication of programs and we need to revise the tax code, then we will know if and how much additional revenue we need to raise.

The government just keeps spending, both parties, that is why we voted the republicans out in 2006 and the democratic controlled house in 2008. Are you aware that there is around 16,000 federal buildings that are vacant or being under utilized at a cost of billions a year to tax payers? Let's sell these buildings which would accomplish two things, bring some money into the treasury and help the states to get property tax, since federal buildings are tax exempt.

SeekingSanity - There you go with the name calling, can't say something that makes sense then you revert to name calling, good left wing tactic. Now if I remember right I have challenged you, on two different occasions, to call my bet, but you never respond because you are nothing but a chicken. Get a life and get out in the fresh air and learn something.

sfcret - I can agree with you about selling the federal buildings not in use. But, the rest of your post is ridiculous. The Ryan budget was moronic - at best. We need to end the tax cuts; raise the taxes on the top earners and cut spending of wasteful programs.

Have a good weekend and don't hate too much!

SeekingSanity - See that was a very good reply, and if you look at a lot of my post you will find that I have been asking others to join me in demanding the cutting of waste, duplication and fraud across all government agencies. We can not just keep raising taxes on the rich or anyone else if we don't rein in spending first. We need to know how much more revenue we need before going to the people to try and justify it and we can't do it until all government agencies are audited. That is the responsibility of the House oversight committee and the heads of all government agencies appointed by the President.

BTW, I don't hate anyone, and never have in my 71 years of life. (not even my ex-wife). Have a good week end.

Odd that Republicans cared NOTHING about the deficit or a balanced budget during Dubyas' 8 years in office.

Why now? Do tell!

chilled, why do you think the voters voted the free spending republicans out of congress in 2006? But, the democrats did no better so they were voted out in 2010. The biggest mistake the people made was giving Obama a democratic controlled House and Senate. Our government rarely functions for the good of the people when one party has control of both the legislative and executive branches of government.

Your question "Why now?" because we have been promised to much and all we have gotten is more spending and waste and more grid lock in the federal government. The federal government is to big, to involved in what should be states rights and once a program is started it is rarely canceled because of federal job security. We need a smaller and cheaper government.

sfcret, Dubya was still President in 2006, narry a word about unfunded/deficit spending. Why?

I get it that you appear to not like President Obama, but the Senate rules require a 60 vote rule to pass anything, remember and Democrats may have had the usual majority of 100 people (51) but that nasty 60 vote thingy is always in play.....and Republicans have used the fillibuster to halt progress.

Don't forget about McConnells' infamous 'Make Obama a one term President' which Republicans have held steadfastly to. ...in other words say NO to any and everything that would be considered a success for the President (republicans do not consider the success of the country or the people who voted for them).

States rights?......To do exactly what especially since people are on the move, from state to state?...

In a country as diverse as ours there should be uniformity..the type of uniformity that only the Federal Government can assure.....like military, education, highways, electric grids, clean water, safe food etc.

Such conveniences/protections aren't free.

This smaller and cheaper government you dream of is only for the rich. The rest of us in the country will suffer greatly.

The first day of an imaginary Romney presidency he is willing to put a large underground water supply in danger to make oil men richer. You see, the oil sludge that comes from fracking has to have a lot of chemicals to make it move through a pipeline and the stuff when the pipeline breaks it doesn't rise to the top it sinks and is unclean-able into a major water supply.

I don't know about you, but the rest of us humans and animals and food plants need clean water to survive.

Oh, I know you think it would never happen and you probably think the unsinkable Titanic didn't sink either.

VOTE FOR EDUCATION.....VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT 2012

Chilled - you are just stupid or what. Of course Bush was still President in 2006, the year the people voted for the democrats to take control of congress. In Jan 2007 congress was taken over by the democrats. Why do you think the Republicans were voted out, it was because of deficit spending. In 2009 we replaced the democrats in the House because they continued to spending spree, and Obama will be replaced in 2013 because he will be voted out in Nov 2012. The democrats think they should get every thing they want, what happened when Obama promised to compromise?

AF - I don't know how old you are, but the more the government tries to do the more problems we encounter. Bigger government is not the answer, a smaller and more honest government is the answer. As for your comment about the the pipe line, there is now thousands of miles of pipe lines running all over the country and we have had no major problems. Maybe in your little mind we should quit using oil, natural gas, & kerosene and all plastic products because something MIGHT happen, We could go back to using candles. (sorry I've been there and done that).

I can not understand why you liberals think that big government is the answer to all of our problems. Learn to think and do things for your self instead of depending on big government. You and your friend Chilled should both get a life.

sfcret....I won't question whether you are 'stupid', or ask your age....

....continue on but do try to chill out!

no jo: this anger you carry really isn't good for you, dear. You must do something to get help with that. I find that getting outside on a lovely spring day will cure what ails you, so I often saddle a horse, or walk my dogs. It makes me a much happier person.

I am sure that it was very hard on you to find out that Romney goes in for gay bashing. I am waiting for you to write your usual angry screed about that. When may we expect it...or are you a bigot too?

NDD,

I'm convinced Snookie Joe is incapable of saying anything positive!

What a miserable existence she lives...

Imagine wallowing in nothing but negativity - really is kind of pathetic!

Very sad indeed, Feisty.

Feisty, NDD, I think nojo just writes to have something to do. Really sad person.

Its Sad , Its also FUNNY as hell . Mostly Its sad .

sides will be in there somewhere and as always the pot will flow up and down the valley , but lol nsome will have permision , some will not . Thats how people get an arrest record and some do not .

Oak ridge LOL is one of the biggest little drug towns in the USA . watch and see about 2 times a year somewhere on I-40 there will be a big bust .

Care to wager they each had a donation plate in hand , last week ? i dont . DO NOT HAVE TOO .