Open Thread * Tie Your Hands Behind Your Back Before … [Update With The Best News!]

… you view this video. I am afraid what you might do to your computer or your monitor if you view this exchange on Hardball, unless you’ve first secured your hands.

Promise me you’ve restrained your hands in some way. Okay? Now click the arrow.

I know, I know … it’s disgusting and reprehensible.

UPDATE about Secretary of State HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON! This news makes those losers you just saw above nearly irrelevant, sinking in the ash heap of history! Ha! (Oh, how I loved adding that Secretary of State … Category to our blog!) From The Guardian (UK): “Hillary Clinton to accept Barack Obama’s offer of secretary of state job,” via Memeorandum.com — at the end of this post is more, including my EXPRESSION OF HEARTY APPROVAL of Hillary’s decision (and before you judge, please read why I’m so thrilled for her and for the United States and the entire world) …

So, if you can soothe your nerves, and slow down your beating heart, tell me what else is going on in the world.

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UPDATE OPINION COMING … I wanted to be sure to get the UPDATE story link published for you first. Then I’ll reopen the story and write my thoughts – Susan (Okay, I’ve finished writing my thoughts below the screenshot of Memeorandum’s coverage, and I invite you to read what I wrote, below.)

From The Guardian (UK): “Hillary Clinton to accept Barack Obama’s offer of secretary of state job,” via Memeorandum.com -

Here’s my two cents on why Hillary is correct to take this job that carries with it such prominence, such power, such esteem, and such massive opportunities to do so very much good for both the United States and the entire world:

1) Hillary is over 21 and can do whatever she wants;

2) Hillary knows the “operators” in the White House and the Obama team like few others — and she knows the games they play far better than ALL OF US, combined!

3) Given this knowledge and extensive experience with Barack Obama and “crew,” Hillary knows what to expect and has an arsenal of tools that she has picked up over her two-plus decades of intense, non-stop experience in political arenas of all types, including EIGHT years in the White House as a true political partner with her husband.

4) Hillary has not only flown to 80+ countries, she has spent TIME in remote parts of Africa and Asia, in tiny villages, where she was a longtime advocate for impoverished WOMEN.

5) I have no doubt that Hillary will make sexism and misogyny part of her agenda as Secretary of State.

6) For a very long time, Hillary has understood the most COMPLEX international issues. I vividly recall one night — gosh, was it 2001 (something like that) — on PBS’s Charlie Rose show when she demonstrated that she has in-depth knowledge of EVERY international issue and potential crisis that the United States might face. I particularly recall how much she knew about North Korea.

7) I hate admitting this but I used to be one of the throngs who “hated” Hillary Clinton. And I watched that Charlie Rose show while “hating” Hillary Clinton, but noting how brilliant and knowledgeable she is.

Then it dawned on me one day in 2007 that I’d been duped into “hating” Hillary Clinton because of the years and years and years of attacks on her from the rightwing media, including Rush Limbaugh — who will no doubt be VERY entertaining to listen to tomorrow! He’ll be frothing at the mouth, I expect.

So what happened to me and to many “lefties” was this: Without consciously realizing it, we all were taught to “hate” Hillary Clinton by the far right.

That’s why the Daily Kos crowd went nuts every time one of us wrote diaries in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Yet, the Daily Kossacks NEVER conducted any rigorous self-examination of why they “hated” her. If they had, they would have realized that that hatred had its roots in what Rush Limbaugh et al. said about her. And they would have been as embarrassed and horrified as I was when it hit me.

I’d been kind of supporting Bill Richardson (yeah, well …) and then I saw him on TV a couple times, and he sounded like an idiot and he embarrassed me.

Then I listened to Hillary, and I liked what she was saying and I found myself — woah! — liking her too.

But I was afraid to tell anybody.

I finally told my closest female relative. She shocked me by saying that she too had been looking hard at Hillary as the candidate to support.

Then Larry Johnson called me one day, and I somewhat haltingly told him that I was looking at Hillary Clinton. He then told me his story of briefing her in her Senate office and how she’d knocked his socks off.

So we decided to express our support for Hillary on No Quarter.

Well, lord almighty, did we get creamed for that. But we persisted. I was somewhat shy about it because I didn’t like the angry comments. Larry was reserved about expressing his support and took his time to carefully state his reasons for supporting her. Then he wrote a great, great post about meeting her and how much she impressed him.

Slowly but surely, more and more people at No Quarter and new to No Quarter began gathering at No Quarter to talk about Hillary.

One of the attributes that Hillary Clinton has that drew us to her, and which we witnessed throughout the grossly unfair media coverage of her primary run, was her ability to stay on course and to keep fighting and to never give up.

Hillary Clinton has all the requisite moxie to handle her detractors who’ll plot against her in the Obama White House.

Hillary Clinton has all the needed resolve to keep fighting and to never let her detractors or the media get her down.

And, best of all, she’ll NEVER let any detractor keep her from doing a brilliant job as our Secretary of State.

She will be the best damn Secretary of State we could ever hope for.

We will have so much to be proud of as we watch her, from afar, perform her job so brilliantly.

Can you begin to imagine how she will begin to restore our relationships with nations around the world?

Oh, it will be glorious.

For now, if I may suggest how your mind should be focused: Please put a halt to your fretting about what the Obama cohorts might do to her, and IMAGINE ALL THE GOOD SHE WILL DO.

Just IMAGINE those poor women in those remote African villages she visited as First Lady, and how she will now be able to get back to helping them.

Hillary Clinton has NEVER forgotten those impoverished, mistreated African women. They surely have never forgotten her. And now they know she will return to them, and once again help them, as she did before when she set up economic plans to aid them in creating their own businesses with child care and good medical facilities.

IMAGINE the joy in those women’s hearts when they find out that Hillary Clinton will return and do more for them.

IMAGINE.