Barack Obama came to my Sunday-evening barbeque with a six pack of Bud Light, and then drank my buddy's microwbrew all night. I still have that crap in my fridge.

Barack Obama called in sick today, and I had to deal with his clients- I know he's not sick, he just didn't want to deal with his 10:00am.

Barack Obama hangs just far enough in the turning lane so that you can't squeeze through and make a right on a red.

Barack Obama drank the last of the coffee in the Senate office and didn't make a fresh pot.

Barack Obama drank the last Code Red and left the empty case in the fridge.

Barack Obama left the Doritos bag sitting out on the counter, wide open.

Barack Obama never fills up the tank when he borrows your car.

Barack Obama had way more than 10 items in the express lane and then he wrote a check.

The Obamas' NEVER have exact change to go thru the toll booths and they hold everyone up in rush hour traffic. (colebiancardi)

Barack Obama doesn't hold the elevator for me when he sees me walking down the hall. I always just miss it. (rfahey22)

Michelle Obama waited at the greenlight fixing her makeup until the light changed, holding up traffic for miles.

Michelle Obama wore white to someone else's wedding.

In the wake of hearing from our good friend, Congressman Dan Boren (D-Okla), we have interesting news from The Hill this morning:

At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator.

Just wait- it gets better.

This was written and posted by the ever awesome Slinkerwink over at Kos... http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/10/ 62840/8533

Here's the thing about Hillary Clinton. When she says she's a fighter, she means it. When she says she'll back Barack Obama, she means it. This story below illustrates that:

I've decided that forums like MyDD are now going to be best used for organization and keeping in touch and exchanging ideas with my fellows, as well as the current news of the race, and such.

In that vein, I'd like to submit this to the community's review to see what you'd think as a letter to the editor, or in a format like that.

UPDATE- Also, please, feel free to use these words or ideas to help express your own feelings as we go forward toward the general election.

Add your own in the thread below! We'll be voting for the best picture/movie later on!

I thought I'd pass along some exciting news for our chances in November; we've got former Republicans who are now gladly donating to the Democratic party- another nail in the coffin for McCain?

Hot off the wire:

Beverly Fanning is among the campaign donors who'll be joining President Bush at a gala at Washington's Ford's Theater Sunday night, but she says that won't dissuade her from her current passion: volunteering for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

She isn't the only convert. A computer analysis, incomplete due to the difficulty matching data from various campaign finance reports, found that hundreds of people who gave at least $200 to Bush's 2004 campaign have donated to Obama.

Among them are Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the daughter of the late GOP President Richard Nixon and wife of late GOP President Dwight Eisenhower's grandson; Connie Ballmer, the wife of Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer; Ritchie Scaife, the estranged wife of conservative tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife and boxing promoter Don King.

When I was just a lad, my most favorite book in the world was a timeless classic some of you may recognize- as my daughter certainly will, before too long, as it was the first book I ever bought her. (Yes, there's a point here- bear with me)

It's called "The Monster at the End of the Book," and it's a delightfully funny romp. The plot revolves around Grover realizing what the title foreshadows- the fact that there's a monster at the end of the book- and begging, pleading, cajoling you not to turn the page to get to the end of the book. He ties the pages together, nails them together, builds a brick wall- all to no avail, as the story goes on.

In the end, it turns out the monster at the end of the book is Grover- silly him for being so afraid the whole time, right?

Well, this strikes a chord with what I just witnessed in a recent blog, except there's no lovable, furry, old Grover at the end of this story.

As I've said recently, and Student Guy pointed out in his recent diary, we're starting to see (and can expect to continue to see) an influx of trolls into our site. We've got a few on the diary list right now, of course. And we can only expect things to get worse and worse.

In the next two weeks, I predict it will reach a fever pitch. We'll have two sets of people stirring up trouble: GOP trolls, and Deadenders.

GOP trolls will be masquerading as Clinton supporters furious with whatever outcome will come from the RBC ruling, primaries in PR, SD, and MT, etc, or as Obama supporters gleefully trying to rub events in Clinton supporters' faces. Deadenders, as in people who are only interested in a Clinton candidacy, and no other facet of the Democratic party or getting progressive Democrats elected this cycle, will certainly join in the fun.

Make no mistake- it's their intent to sew discord and animosity, and if you respond to them, it will only embolden them and make them try ever harder- and it will have the effect of making them succeed at their job.

When you see a diary like that, there are some things to consider- if it's a Clinton-slanted "Obama Sucks/Take it to the Convention/Here's another scandal/Unelectable" motif, wonder aloud to yourself if:

A) You recognize the diarist,
B) The content/title is purposefully inflammatory, or
C) Any of the real, honest to God, reasonable and honorable Clinton supporters we've got around MyDD have responded to it.

For instance, let's pretend there's a diary titled "Obama, an unelectable nightmare". I click on it, obviously miffed, and look through the comments section.

Who's commenting on it? Let's see. Sricki? VAAlex? Canadian Gal? Zclint? Rummarhazzit? Jarhead? SevenStrings? LDFan? Lombard? Slynch? LadyEagle? Bobbank? Emsprater? Kevin22262? Bobswern? searchforsolidarity? et cetera. No?

It's flame bait. Ignore it.

Now, there's some reasonable Clinton supporters I missed in there, and some I did include I personally have had sharp words or ongoing feuds with. One of the aforementioned people, for example, is responsible for the quote in my sig line. But he's just passionate about Senator Clinton, which I can respect- he's not a troll. He doesn't post smear diaries and then flee, never responding to honest criticism. He doesn't resort strictly to ad hominem attacks when it gets too tough to have a conversation. You may disagree with him, and he may get aggressive, but he's not out to destroy our party.

Trolls thrive on attention- so the best thing to do? No matter how tempting it is to respond... ignore them. If it's a diary posted by the one or two diarists who seem to thrive on disunity and a total lack of substance in their- ignore them. There's nothing they hate worse than that, and especially the ones getting rec-shot up the list by people who don't participate in our community, or respond to any of the diaries.

Just. Ignore. Them.

Thanks for listening to this public service announcement!