This election gives hope that our country can get on the right track again.  We need to get out of the old patterns of solving problems.  We need people with new ideas who can think innovatively.  Going to war only puts off problems for another day.  We need to find ways to eliminate poverty world wide, and learn some semlence of tolerance for other human beings.

I can tell you another factor. We had a do nothing congress on the federal level and the same held in my state of MN. Both gain Democratic majority this year. The people, I believe, have had it. We need to move in a forward direction. We are wages at a 1958 level? Why are we not moving ahead on cars that are more fuel efficent? Why aren’t we taking a VERY serious look at national health care when even big business is begging for it? There are so many problems that need to be addressed and the Republicans kept talking about the downfall of marriage because a few gays want to marry. In MN the Democrats finally had it with the psuedo issue of gay marriage and refused to discuss it. They wanted action on things like education, property tax relief, transportation, and they got voted in.

E S Mitman writes (Comment #37465):

“It’s astonishing to me that people think the Democrats will be less corrupt (and inept) than the Republicans. They’re all politicians; there really isn’t that much difference from one to another.”

It’s astonishing to me that you can think this way, after Iraq and Katrina.

No party is perfect. but there are DEGREES of corruption and ineptitude, you know.

How old are you? Do you even REMEMBER what life was like before the catastrophe of the Bush administration and GOP one-party rule?

If either party adopted Robert M. Thacker’s list of what the country needs as its platform for the next election campaign, its victory would be a tsunami rivaling or even exceeding Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 win.  It is virtually identical to lists I have posted from time to time and distills exactly what observant and rational Americans perceive as what is needed to secure America’s future.  And, yes, campaign financing reform must be added to the list.

The comment by #37470 by Robert M. Thacker says a lot…

but

first and foremost we must include campaign finance reform (politics should not just be for the super rich or corporate backed)..that is too limiting…look at all the rich idiots that installs.

And get rid of all that ideological nonsense in government (religion…specifically one religion)
Our founders fought very hard to keep us from repeating the mistakes of Europe…and now some of our populace wants to go back in time by creating theocracies?

Evergreen

To Bo,
I read a distrubing report in the newspaper that
Governor Jeb Bush made a face at a crowd that
became so incensed that he had to go back in
and hide in the janitors closet until the crowd
disappeared.  That was my laff of the day.
Not all Republicans are like that, maybe it’s just
a family trait. What say?

My Analysis:

The one individual who put them over the top in the Senate was Jon Stewart. Who else has raised awareness of politics in the youth demographic as much? I believe I saw that the voting rate under 30 went up about 20%!

The war is an international crime, but it is only one debacle among many. As costly and evil as it is, it may not even have the worst long term effect on our country.

Of course, the long term effects on the Iraqis will be horrendous, but the US can, and probably will, walk away from it.

We cannot escape the huge burden of debt that this administration has left us with, and there are so many other ways in which this administration has failed.

Bush isn’t really responsible: He’s just an empty suit. The real culprits are Rove and Cheney and Gonzalez and Rumsfeld.

When will Rove and Cheney pay for the crimes they’ve committed?

This election accomplished what I wanted - W got checked and balanced.

Perhaps I wasn’t delusional afterall, specifically, I WAS hearing one thing while seeing a contradictory thing. 

All the time the media megaphoners were shouting that it was the war that lost the Repub’s the election, charts kept popping up as background, or even foreground, showing the war fourth or fifth on the list of voter “reasons.”

So, yet again, the question comes up are the media sloppy, careless, inept, inaccurate…or, is there a method to their madness. In this case, why keep pushing dissatisfaction with the war to explain election outcomes?  Any guesses?

$1000.00 taxes
-$285.00 military
-$187.00 intrest on debt
-$41.00 education
-$37.00 VETERANS BENEFITS
-$3.00   job training

After the first two, dosen´t leave much for the care of a nation of 300,000,000 people, does it?

After a while we have to wonder if we took half of the military budget and spent it on education and job training, and maybe health care. We could be in danger of becoming a decent society again…...we might even get the rats out of the veteran´s hospitals! And maybe get the vets into decent places to live, with the meds they need, good food, someone to help when it is needed.

WE COULD ALSO TAX, HEAVILY ANY CORP WHO DECIDES TO MOVE PRODUCTION TO A SLAVE LABOR COUNTRY AND STOP THE PRACTICE OF SLAVE LABOR IN OUR OWN PRISONS.

IF A JOB IS WORTH DOING IT IS WORTHY OF PROVIDING A LIVING WAGE TO THE DOER. IF THAT MEANS THE CEO DOES NOT GET TO MAKE $30,000,000, WHILE HIS PRODUCERS MAKE $30,000, AND IT DOES, THEN THAT IS RIGHT FOR THE USE OF OUR COUNTRY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HIS OPPORTUNITIES. iF HE IS NOT HAPPY WITH THAT, THEN IT IS A BIG WORLD OUT THERE, GO FIND SOMEWHERE WHERE THE BENEFITS OF WORKING 12 HOUR DAYS FOR LITTLE PAY, LITTLE BENEFITS, AND MINISCULE OR NO FUTURE, SO THAT YOU CAN BE RICH IS MORE ATTRACTIVE TO THE POPULATION.   

      WOW!!!!!WHAT AN IDEA!!!!!DO YOU
    SUPPOSE IT´S TIME HAS COME?????

Everybody I read neglects to mention the voter non turnout.  When reading the election results in the Joplin Globe I notice that the voter turnout in SW Missouri was down by as much as 10% in strong Republican areas.  This contributed to the loss of Talent.

The Republican politicians failed to respond to request from their base to get tough on illegal immigration.  The Republican base responded by ignoring the voter turnout drive by the party leaders.  Their base stayed home rather than vote for leadership that chose to ignore them.

Terrorism, too, is hard to separate from the war….anybody think the administration’s science policy—notably absent from the polling list—affected votes this year?

An Open Letter to President Bush and Speaker Pelosi

Dear Mr. President and Speaker Pelosi,

The people have spoken…

·      We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people

·      Defend our Constitution and Bill of Rights

·      Get the hell out of Iraq and bring our brave soldiers home

·      Keep our jobs at home and stop the outsourcing

·      Find and fund clean energy alternatives that will lead to our energy independence

·      Seal our borders and fine employers who hire illegal aliens

·      Provide affordable healthcare insurance and benefits to all Americans

·      Demand and enforce fair trade policies which protect American workers

·      Hold yourself and congress accountable for their actions

·      Curb corporations and lobbyists influence and control over our legislators

·      Increase the minimum wage

·      Spend our tax dollars judiciously by investing wisely in our future

·      Promote and support a nation of learners and innovators

·      Become a world leader by becoming a world example and participant

·      Curb the influence of the military industrial complex

·      Focus on the common good, rather than splinter issues

I do hope you both have listened and will work together to achieve these goals.

Regards,

Robert M. Thacker

Atlanta, GA

It’s astonishing to me that people think the Democrats will be less corrupt (and inept) than the Republicans. They’re all politicians; there really isn’t that much difference from one to another.

While I opposed going into Iraq from day one, that wasn’t the only issue for me either. I was in computers. So many computer jobs went “off shore”. Bush said that this was good for the country. I disagree. I also disagree on illegals. They don’t do work that Americans won’t, they just do it cheaper. I also oppose using eminent domain to build malls. Bush got the land to build the Texas Rangers’ stadium that way. While Republicans profess to oppose this, the beneficiaries of this are usually republican.

I actually find this heartening.  IMHO, I think Iraq is a symptom of this corruption to the ‘Nth degree.  Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I hope this can be a green light for the Dems to put on their gum-shoes and start rooting out the hogs.

The Republicans did very well in the elections considering their governmental track record for the last 6 years. The Democrats need to win more hearts and minds before 2008.

Maybe more people are realizing that going to
War with Iraq was un-necessary. Bush wanted
revenge on Saddam Hussein. Plus ideas of being
another Eisenhower. In fact I saw an article
whose headline was: Ex-Hussein political adv-
iser claim Iraq accepted Bush’s ultimatum bef-
ore invasion.
Something else much of the trouble in Iraq
during the early eighties was because the
Shiites attempted to Assassinate Saddam. Guess
who the Bush Administration set up to run the
Country. They are judge, jury, and executioner.
If they stretch old Saddam’s neck in a hurry,
and there comes a time investigations come
about. Old Saddam won’t be around to tell tales.

All the various issues and their dysfunction can be said to be symptoms of the same disease… rampant corruption, greed and a cynical disregard for truth and for having an honest dialog.

The country was most definitely on the wrong track and this election did no less than restore hope for the preservation of the Republic and the Constitution we all hold dear.

how about the issue that no poll will touch?  separation of church and state (or lack thereof)-hopefully, there will be restoration of this “fundamental” tenet.

Want to shake things up?

Here’s what you do.

I have no problem getting on C-Span once a week, maybe more. This is a national audience. I always manage to bring the substance of the conversation back to 9/11. After all 9/11 is the “lynch pin” for everything.

If everyone reading this would do the same, I’m estimating 10 to 20% of the calls being broadcast nationally would focus light on the most outrageous crime ever committed upon the American public. In the last CNN poll 84% of those asked said they did NOT believe the “official” version of 9/11.

84% !!!

Call! If enough questions are asked the truth must be told.

“Those who are truthful, nonviolent and brave do not cease to be so because of the stupidity of their leader.” Gandhi.

Trouble is all the ills of the Republicans are magnified out of proportion by the media and similarly the ills of the Democrats are hidden..so that we keep re-electing Mel Reynolds, Gerry Studds, Marion Barry, Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank, William Jefferson, etc etc no matter what they’ve done. So how is anyone to know the truth if that is where they get their information?

For example, recent AP story on robo-calls in NH that ranted about the GOP all over the USA. Those calls were also done by Democrats (I know because I reported it) but no one talked about it at all! My complaint was ignored, but the one against the GOP picked up and sent out nationwide.

Not that the they did it too is an excuse, but at least it brings some balance to the argument.

And your local Senate/House in your state, doesn’t vote on the war in DC. So why punish them for example in NH where they have kept the state the very BEST since 1922? Doesn’t make sense.

I just hope NH has learned its lesson. The avg man on the street has no idea his state reps have nothing to do with the war or anything of that nature.

It is my hope that, sometime soon, the subject of US poverty will be addressed—-not as it was when the government raided the funds formerly used for humanitarian aid (i.e., welfare), but an honest examination of America’s shameful levels of poverty. At least, there was some mention of the working poor durin the recent elections, and that’s a vitally important start: the majority of America’s poor are working. Yet we continue to turn our backs on so many of those who, due to illness, disability or circumstances, are not able to work.
    The US, while crowing (yet complaining) about it’s “high welfare benefits” did, in fact, provide benefits that were far below that of most Western industrialized nations, and the range of welfare programs (especially those related to education and jobs)were almost always grossly substandard, often punitive.
    The government ran an excellent propaganda campaign demonizing the poor, over a period of at least 10 years leading up to the 1996 “reforms”.
It worked, and if the average American thinks of the poor at all, it is often with contempt.  Meanwhile, the life expectancy of America’s poor now equals that of the poor in many Third World nations (hint: This is not an easy way to die, so we might concude that people aren’t poor as a matter of “lifestyle choice”.)
    It would be good if we could stop turning our backs on our own fellow citizens.

I think most Americans were most concerned about American politicians.  The arrogance.  Lack of integrity.  Shrugging their duty to their constituency.  Fighting amongst themselves like children, name-calling, mud-slinging. And raising obscene amounts of campaign money to protect their jobs.  All this when they are “hired” by the American people to make this a better place for people to raise and educate their children.  Sad thing is, things aren’t going to change because, unlike Iraq, there’s a strong police force and military in this country to put down revolt as it did 40 years ago.  America is a happy accident that had a chance to be great and we blew it.  Think of it:  all this land inhabited by a few defenseless natives, a constitution to govern a few million people and only 13 states made up of mostly white Englishmen and a few French to ratify it.  Then came the military and police to keep order.  Iraq should be so lucky.  Might might make right, but this country is a caldron.  Washington had better start to listen.

The corruption is very difficult to seperate from the war because so much corruption went into the invasion in the first place.

“Despite the improvement from the 2002 to the 2004 midterm elections, there is still a way to go before young people exert a force equal to their representation in the population at large. U.S. census statistics suggest that about 16 percent of the population is under age 30, compared with the 11 to 13 percent of the electorate that is under 30.”

Shouldn’t that say “US census statistics suggest that about 16% of the population is between the ages of 18 and 30”?  Naturally people under the age of 18 can’t vote, so the 29 and younger bracket will always be under-represented in the elections.