Congratulations to the Republican/Tea Party are in order. You have managed to do what Al Queda couldn't. You shut down the Federal government. And the reason you did it was so in 2012 you could question the leadership abilities of the same President who you doubt is a native born citizen; the same guy you called a liar from the floor of the House of Representatives during a State of the Union address; the same guy your mouthpieces Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh said out loud and in public they hoped a President of the United States would fail. We have had Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton as Presidents and you didn't sink to these depths. You guys are so filled with a blinding sweet hate you would do anything to make this guy look bad and nothing he does will ever be seen as good. Isn't it interesting the way your party commits the offense first and then accuses your opponents of resorting to the tactics you've already gotten away with? (See Bush versus Gore in 2000) How can you accuse me of playing the Race Card when you never took it out of the deck? Oh, I can be an American whenever I entertain you or I'm doing something that makes you feel safe and secure and your team wins, but the moment I question the validity, fairness or decency of anything you try to steamroll through, I go back to being that Black guy somebody better keep an eye on. Truth of the matter is, I never fit that square space you mentally tried to force my well-rounded peg of a life into. Neither I nor the President fit the preconceived notions you and your ilk have so neatly put together. Why won't we stay in that neat little cell you had built for us and our limited potential? Don't we know we're upsetting the prejudgements you took your own sweet time to develop? I learned in college (that's right, I went to and graduated from college - we all haven't been arrested) you don't have to like me, it would be nice, but you don't have to like me, but you should be able to respect my personhood. What the hell happened to respecting the office even if you couldn't respect the man? Espris decorum? Out the window! I thought the "Tea Party" took their name from those folks in Boston that didn't want to be taxed without proper representation. If that is true, why was the first act of the Republican/Tea Party in Congress the disintegration of the speaking voice of the representative for the people of the District of Columbia? This group is more representative of the Supreme Court that rendered the "Dred Scott decision." I was told a long time ago you could always tell when the "Haves" were afraid they were going to lose something because that's when they'll change the rules in the middle of the game. Let's see, unannounced uneccessary interest rate hikes, banks fees, unholy profits for petroleum companies and shutting down the Federal government. The rules have changed and the only resposnse we'll get from the Republican/Tea Party is the same response in the movie "Caddyshack" the judge gave to the caddy who told him he needed a scholarship from the country club to get into college- "Well, the world needs ditch-diggers too!"