Raise your hand if you don’t know someone like that.  If you’re a Vermont reader, chances are slim that your hand is up.

What do you think?  Should a representative vote the way his constituents want him to, or should he make up his own mind and try to convince those who disagree that they are wrong, or something else?

According to the commercial, it was also available for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, but we had it for the ColecoVision.  I loved that game.  Please note, I was in first grade at the time.

Here’s a video of how to play it.

I heart the internet.

Caroline Kennedy, Sarah Palin, Kathleen Parker, Blagojevich, the Office of the President Elect, Barack Obama’s bare chest, Dick Cheney not being sorry for telling Pat Leahy to bleep off, or even any of the dozens of things I could blog about that actually have some substance to them.

Things that do matter:

Opening up the morning paper and reading the obituary of my next-door-neighbors’ 6-month-old baby, who died in a car accident five days before Christmas.

There are people hurting all around us, yet we act as if this political BS is important.  It really isn’t, in the grand scheme of things.

Sure, our lives are affected by the policies that politicians put into place, but does that really make a difference in the things that matter?

While so many of us pat ourselves on the back for saving the world though blogging, the real heroes are the ones who are quietly and without much fanfare loving their neighbors and being there for those who are hurting.

That’s what really matters.

A few minutes later, I heard him tell his brother, “Wait, I can’t go out there. Mom said she would confiscate my gun. She’s trying to take away my Second Amendment rights, man!”

I have no idea where he gets this stuff.

First, we watched the episode of Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles from Monday. We actually record it on a VHS tape. Can you imagine? We are like relics from the Stone Age or something.

That show totally kicks. I can’t believe it is a series; it’s totally movie quality. And it has taken the Terminator franchise from cheesy sci-fi movie to pure awesomeness. I know the sequels took it beyond the original, but the show just brings it to another level.

So, after that was over, we got drawn into a documentary about Lee Atwater on Frontline on PBS, called Boogie Man:The Lee Atwater Story. It was really good. Atwater was just before my time, so I didn’t know a lot about him or the election of George H. W. Bush. Bob said that he remembered the election of 1988, though, and it was really nasty. (He voted for Dukakis – can you freaking believe it?)

The first presidential election I was old enough to vote in was 1996. Yes, I voted for Dole. I was old enough to vote in 1994, though. That was a good year to be a Republican. 2008, not so much.

So, what’s on your minds today? Consider this an open thread.

I love America. I have always loved America. I will go on loving America, even if Barack Obama is the worst president ever. Even if the most dire predictions by conservative commentators should come to pass, I will go on loving my country.

See, the thing that these people do not get is that America is not defined by her President nor by her Congress. America is defined by her vision, a vision of freedom and liberty. This vision lives on in the hearts of her people and in the pages of her history no matter who is president.

Long after Obama’s presidency is over, America will continue to be the same great country she has always been.

Barack Obama does not make America great. America makes Barack Obama great. America makes us all great.

I will be covering the Vermont GOP live on Channel 17, as part of their election night coverage, beginning at 7:30 PM. For more information, be sure to visit the Channel 17 website.

In other news, I have an audio clip of my appearance on The Blog Bunker last week. (MP3 file) Enjoy!

I looked death in the face. All right, I didn’t. I glimpsed him in a crowd. I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, of a very treatable kind. I’m told I have a 95% chance of survival. Come to think of it — as a drinking, smoking, saturated-fat hound — my chance of survival has been improved by cancer.

I met Mr. O’Rourke at the Vermont Tiger symposium. I hope he recovers quickly. (Of course, I would hope that even if I hadn’t met him at the symposium.)

My prayers go out to him and his family.

Why on earth is it on at 8:00? That’s a little violent for the 8 o’clock hour.

You can catch up with season 1 full episodes at the fox website.