People

[Harry J.Dean]

Mr. Bush and group, recipients of the theft of the GOP by past

extremists could not fool all the people all of the time as seen

in the outcome of this election {Nov.7,06}.

Finally, the nation has an effective loyal political opposition.

More good news, Rumsfeld another wicked person has just now

resigned!

H.J. Dean, anti-Bush Republican.

[Lee Forman]

Mr. Bush and group, recipients of the theft of the GOP by past

extremists could not fool all the people all of the time as seen

in the outcome of this election {Nov.7,06}.

Finally, the nation has an effective loyal political opposition.

More good news, Rumsfeld another wicked person has just now

resigned!

H.J. Dean, anti-Bush Republican.

Will there be any war crimes trials?

Bush, reaching into the administration of his father, said that former CIA Director Robert Gates would replace Donald Rumsfeld.

I'd like to share your optimism Mr. Dean.

- lee

[Ron Ecker]

Today a lot of Republican candidates are probably singing a new version of an old Merle Haggard song: "The Hackers Let Me Down."

[Myra Bronstein]

Mr. Bush and group, recipients of the theft of the GOP by past

extremists could not fool all the people all of the time as seen

in the outcome of this election {Nov.7,06}.

Finally, the nation has an effective loyal political opposition.

More good news, Rumsfeld another wicked person has just now

resigned!

H.J. Dean, anti-Bush Republican.

I guess the margin of victory was so huge in this election that not even the usual massive vote fraud could bail out the fascists. Sweet.

I think today should be all about celebration, then to WORK.

Lessee,

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

An associate of mine asked a fine question today, and I want to pose it to you:

"Will there be any war crimes trials?"

RSVP.

Thank you Madam Speaker.

Very sincerely,

...

[Myra Bronstein]

Today a lot of Republican candidates are probably singing a new version of an old Merle Haggard song: "The Hackers Let Me Down."

Bingo Ron!

The neo-cons are so loathed that they couldn't steal or suppress enough votes this time.

Oh the ignominy.

[Pat Speer]

Today a lot of Republican candidates are probably singing a new version of an old Merle Haggard song: "The Hackers Let Me Down."

Bingo Ron!

The neo-cons are so loathed that they couldn't steal or suppress enough votes this time.

Oh the ignominy.

I'd wait for the Virginia re-count before counting any chickens. They still have time to steal that one. As Burns has not yet conceded, it seems clear he's trying to cook up a reason to force a Montana recount as well.

[Myra Bronstein]

Today a lot of Republican candidates are probably singing a new version of an old Merle Haggard song: "The Hackers Let Me Down."

Bingo Ron!

The neo-cons are so loathed that they couldn't steal or suppress enough votes this time.

Oh the ignominy.

I'd wait for the Virginia re-count before counting any chickens. They still have time to steal that one. As Burns has not yet conceded, it seems clear he's trying to cook up a reason to force a Montana recount as well.

Montana's a done deal now, but yeah, with the VA loser unwilling to concede it's a dicey scenario. I wouldn't put anything past them with control of the senate at stake.

Still, I didn't expect anything to make it past the cheating machines, so I'm rather pleased. Not satisfied, but pleased.

[Robert Howard]

The very first thing that should and will be done in the aftermath of last night's sweeping fall from grace, is the implementation of a legally binding version of the equivalent of the Fairness Doctrine; much of the damage that has been done to civil liberties and working [and suffering American's] has been fueled by a media that worships at the altar of the Republican Party, and has treated the Democratic Party as practically 'loathsome'

The only reason that the Democrat's enjoyed the success that was achieved last night, was twofold.

1. Independent Media or 'Indymedia' provided real news about what was 'really happening' in America during the last six years, as opposed to the literal disinformation campaign being generated by mainstream media to give the appearance that 'all was well' with regards to a litany of criminal acts, which are well known to members of this Forum.

2. The American people, are not dumb and only acted and reacted to the news that was given to them over the last few years; while the voters who brought about the stunning defeat of the Republican Party and the policies of the Bush Administration, both foreign and domestic, did include a large percentage of "traditional Democratic voter's," it was also in every sense of the word a grass-roots campaign that reflected an enormously large amount of middle class American's who had come to feel as marginalized as lower-income American's, ethnic minorities and military families who firsthand experienced appalling acts of "a military that was being instructed from on high" to keep the true circumstances of their loved ones death's secret; one of the most disgusting events that America has witnessed in quite some time.

America, contrary to the mindset of the Republican Party, and the elitist's who comprise part of the apparatus of government, is profoundly more [thank God] than the privileged 2% of American's who possess the largest amounts of accumulated wealth in this country [and are also the least taxed] and the corporations who are so devoted to the land of the Free that they would outsource American job's to countries at the drop of a hat, to make sure corporate America can say "I've got mine." America is made up of hundred's of millions of families and individuals who get up go to work, toil, sweat for their daily bread, for these millions the post 9-11 world of America has been a nightmare, of Katrina, Abu Ghraib, Orange and Yellow Alert's, replete with the politics of fear. The largely, corporate media has been a witting accessory to the Orwellian media shennanigan's which also fit the definition of a crime, tearing down a Republican controlled disinformation apparatus and rebuilding the media into an unbiased non-agenda serving conduit of information should be among the very highest priorities of the hopefully, new and improved Senate and Congress.

[John Simkin]

Report on the BBC website:

The leading US news agency has called the final undecided Senate seat for the Democrats, which would give them control of the chamber. The Associated Press (AP) news agency declared Democrat Jim Webb the winner in the state of Virginia by 7,236 votes over Republican incumbent George Allen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6131122.stm

[Simon Jenkins]

The ugly American mark two is dead. Overnight six years of glib European identification of "American" with rightwing fantasism is over. The gun-toting, pre-Darwinian Buxxxxe, the tomahawk-wielding, Halliburton-loving, Beltway neocon calling abortion murder and torturing Arabs as "Islamofascists" has been laid to rest, and by a decision of the American people. Another McCarthy raised its head over the western horizon and has been slapped down. It is a good day for level-headed Americans.

Yesterday's result could hardly have been more emphatic. George Bush's election wizard, Karl Rove, said he would make America's midterm elections "a choice, not a referendum". The electorate declined. Certainly the spectacle was not always pleasant. These regular fiestas of participatory democracy make the European visitor's hair stand on end. They are politics as blood sport, all-in wrestling with no quarter given, Eatanswill on speed. The welter of dirty tricks, midnight robocalls, push polls and face-to-face confrontation contrasts with Europe's "new politics", a feelgood quest for the centrist voter.

I have watched many American elections, but still find myself shocked by candidates accusing each other in public and on television of corruption, homosexuality, lying, surrendering to terror, killing babies, favouring torture, associating with hoodlums and consorting with prostitutes. My favourites this time were "Brad Miller pays for sex but not for body armour for our troops" and, most savage of all, "Michael Steele loves George Bush". Achieving office in Britain is a stroll in the country. In America the participant must carry the one true ring to the land of Mordor. The game goes only to the strong.

I find this healthy. The electioneering technique pioneered by Rove eschews consensus. It splits electors into slivers of opinion, profiling them by what they watch on television, where they play golf, what car they drive, what they buy and where they pray. It then directs specific messages and canvassers to win their vote. The strategy has proved successful in the Bush cause in the past. It separates the person from the mass and responds to his or her fears and needs.

As such it purges politics of the accumulated sludge of power. The huge amount of negative advertising is distasteful, but demands that candidates defend themselves on their weaknesses as well as their strengths. An elderly man in the street, a declared Republican, smiled at the camera, shrugged and said simply: "My president lied to me." No wound is left unopened. The scrutineer of American politics is not the voter but the opponent. And internet fundraising has made resources available to any plausible candidate, not just the rich. As for this being the "dirtiest campaign ever", there have been plenty worse. Lyndon Johnson accused his opponent, Barry Goldwater, of wanting to blow up little girls with mushroom clouds.

So what now? Democrats campaigned against Bush and won a mandate to use their congressional power to curb his remaining two years in office. They took the House of Representatives by a safe lead and appear to have deprived the Republicans of a Senate majority. The argument, put forward in this week's Economist, that American government is better constrained when Congress is at odds with the presidency than when they are at one is about to be put the test.

The new congressional majority wishes to press ahead with a higher minimum wage, an end to pork-barrel budgets, an immigrant amnesty, energy conservation, stem cell research and reform to the spiralling drugs bill and welfare generally. Most of these measures may fall by the wayside, but they have behind them the winds of mandate.

A bigger challenge is to reverse the drain of power away from Congress and the courts to the executive under Bush. As the impeccably conservative Grover Norquist said in June: "If you interpret the constitution's saying that the president is commander in chief to mean that the president can do anything he wants and can ignore the laws, you don't have a constitution: you have a king."

Such usurping of power is not confined to the so-called war on terror, used by Bush to justify any and every illiberal act. Congress must find a way of curbing federal spending, which has risen under Bush faster than under any president since Johnson. Otherwise a Democratic president in 2008 will endure agonies of retrenchment. Whether Bush will cooperate with such reform in the hope of rescuing his floundering presidency is up to him. The first sign of compromise is the departure of his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld - announced by a chastened Bush at his press conference yesterday - who has been facing a near-mutinous revolt of his generals against the Iraq war. However, the only Republican of any stature, Senator John McCain, is disinclined to come to Bush's aid.

American politics is suddenly open and interesting. California's Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus third in line to the White House. She has already promised to cooperate with a shattered Republican party to salvage something from Bush's remaining administration. Round her is an array of plausible Democrats with their eye on 2008: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, a reborn Al Gore and a reputed "10% of the Senate" claim to be considering the presidential nomination.

They all have one item of unfinished business. A CNN exit poll of swing issues suggested Iraq, terrorism, the economy and corruption were of equal concern to voters, with the Republicans scoring badly on them all. The politics of fear has lost all its post-9/11 traction. Republicans mouthing dire threats of "Islamicists" under every bed are simply scorned. The most ferocious television ad I saw had a voice incanting that Americans were less popular, terrorism was worse, people were less safe, gasoline was more expensive, soldiers were dying and Osama bin Laden was still free - all because of the Iraq war.

Over 60% of electors want US troops withdrawn from Iraq now or soon. Reports from Baghdad indicate expectation and relief that American policy in that country is about to change. The US army wants to leave. The government ran on a pro-war ticket and suffered a resounding rebuff. At this point the insurgency knows it has won, however long it takes the occupying power to go. Retreat in good order is the best hope. An era of ill-conceived, belligerent interventionism has come to an end - by democratic decision, thank goodness.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/st...1942897,00.html

[John Simkin]

Exit polls showed that the main reason that people voted the way that they did, was over the issue of corruption (42%). Iraq was only in fourth place (37%). Although it could be argued that these two issues are linked. That people (I know I would) are concerned about the corruption involved in the granting of contracts in Iraq.

[David S. Brownlee]

I have always argued with a friend of mine...would we have left Vietnam if the South African diamond mines were there? Nope...not likely. Will we leave the 3rd biggest oil reserves in the known world? Nope, not likely.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Wars are fought over resources...I believe Sir Winston Churchill said something like that.

Edited November 10, 2006 by David S. Brownlee

[Lee Forman]

I have always argued with a friend of mine...would we have left Vietnam if the South African diamond mines were there? Nope...not likely. Will we leave the 3rd biggest oil reserves in the known world? Nope, not likely.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Wars are fought over resources...I believe Sir Winston Churchill said something like that.

A curious remark. I hit something the other day which I found odd. I was curious to know what oil was, or where it came from. Apparently the sale on it being a 'fossil fuel' has about run dry. I saw another one that tried to push the diatom [if I am spelling it correctly] - a one celled animal. I don't know if I buy that one either. With the billions of barrels of oil under Iraq, it's simply not logical that these would be the result of fossils, or one celled animals? I was reading about it online and hit one individual who had a theory which I found interesting. He was under the impression that oil was the by-product of methane gases under pressure and the heat from the core of the planet over time. By removing oil from under the surface, there could be consequences. Interesting.

- lee