Well, what else is there to give up?  I have a job in a horribly crippling unemployment crisis, so I’m not giving THAT up.

I could give up cable TV.  I mean, in twenty years since Springsteen's song debuted we’ve gone so far beyond that it’s more like 5,700 channels and nothing on.  But every so often there’s a concert or some long-forgotten movie on that I enjoy.  So I guess I’ll be keeping that sucker.

I could give up the internet.  Nah.  I couldn’t, even just the few seconds it took me to type that out had my palms sweaty and my heart palpitating.

I do need to eat less junk food, but that’s a health issue anyway and if it WASN’T Lent I’d be giving up at least MOST junk food – but not all.  I’m not giving up chocolate for ANYTHING, dammit.

I gave up smoking a long time ago.  Which is a damn good thing because today, having to decide between a tank of gas and a pack of smokes because they cost almost the same would make my head hurt.

I’m NOT giving up sex.   No way, no how.  

I’m not a big drinker so I suppose I COULD give up drinking, but that would feel like cheating to me.  I mean, you’re supposed to give up something you enjoy doing a lot, right?

Ah, I KNOW!  I’ll give up hope.  I mean, what’s left to hope for anyway?

The president can’t get much accomplished thanks to the hostile congress he helped put in place.  While I don’t agree with everything he does, I think he’s done a far sight better than McCain/Palin could have ever done.  Still, I wanted to see more done to restore “a government of the people, by people, and for the people”.

Now, I’m not one to vote party lines because frankly both the Dems and the Repubs make me ill with their party platforms that represent the best that corporate America has to offer.  While there are other candidates from other parties that I COULD vote for, I know just like all of you out there do that voting for one of THEM only tips the balance in favor of one of the two major party candidates because no one outside of the Dems/Repubs can ever get enough votes in this country to actually win.

The Dems won’t dare run a candidate against a sitting president who is running for re-election.  So it’s Obama 2012 for the Dems.  The Repubs?  They have the Clown College Candidates running, and I can’t imagine our situation improving even the slightest amount should any of those misogynists get into office.  Which I suppose means it’s either four more years of Obama’s compromising that isn’t really much of a compromise, or four years of setting the clock back to the 1600s.

I guess, when all is said and done, the only thing left to give up is Hope with a capital H.

Oh, and vote Democrat in 2012 because at least you KNOW what you’re getting (and it ain’t an even bigger screwing).  Remember, the economic collapse of 2008 took nearly thirty years to happen.  But much of those thirty years had a Republican at the helm….