The PCTC Blog

Patience, Liberals; Obama is Your Friend

This year, Barack Obama won a huge victory, the GOP's far right is on the verge of being forced back to the fringes, where they belong, and Obama will have two houses of Congress with significant Democratic majorities to deal with.  And part of the reason for his victory was that liberals finally did what they should have done in 2000 and 2004, and supported the best of the candidates who could win.

 

Now is the time for patience, liberal brethren.

 

This is the beginning of a reform movement, folks. But I must stress that the turning away of a large portion of the right wing is the BEGINNING of that process, and is not the process itself. This will be a long haul, that will take at least a quarter century to happen. And that requires patience; a lot of patience.

 

I watch and read a lot of liberal commentary, and I am distressed at the way so many on the left are questioning everything Barack Obama does. I mean, if I hear one more supposed "expert" question Obama's choices of former Clinton staffers as appointees, and ridicule them because they don't see that as "change," I think I may just throw up on them.

 

Here's some history for you to use as background. After the less-disastrous-but-still-messed-up first Bush presidency, the populace elected Bill Clinton president by a huge margin. At the same time, they gave Democrats 57 seats in the Senate, and a significant majority in the House.  In other words, Clinton's election in 1992 was much like this year, albeit less of an absolute disaster than the second Bush.

 

So, basically, there was euphoria, there was talk of a major reform movement, etc, same as we’re hearing now from liberals, including me. And yet, two years later, Republicans took both the House and the Senate, and even though Clinton won a second term in 1996, he still failed to get a majority of the vote, and Democrats lost even more seats in Congress. In fact, it took 12 years to take majority control in the House and 14 years to win back a majority in the Senate.

 

Why did that happen? Because the first two years of the Clinton presidency were just about the greatest ClusterF*** in the history of American politics.  Clinton, in trying to be bold, and new and progressive, screwed himself, by surrounding himself with people who had great ideas, but had no idea how to get anything done.

 

Politics is about the process. Essentially, the core of our government is Congress, which is made up of 535 people, representing 435 distinctly different districts. Each member of Congress has to perform for his or her constituency, or he or she will not be there very long. Because of this, processes have developed, which have to be followed, if a president is going to enact any of his agenda.

 

In other words, you can have the biggest and boldest plan in the history of the country, but if you don't have people in your administration who know how to get the agenda through Congress, chances are, your agenda will remain on paper.

 

That's where Clinton screwed up. Apparently, in 1993, he believed that he was so enormously popular, that he could just mention a program, and Congress would jump to attention or something. And he hired a Cabinet and a staff who had no experience dealing with Congress, and getting things passed through Congress. Clinton and his people eventually learned, but it took three years and a loss of Congress in order to do it.

 

President Obama cannot afford to wait two to three years to move his programs through Congress, and he apparently learned from the Clinton Administration that, in order to get things passed, he needs people around him who can work the system. What you're seeing are not "Clinton retreads," you're seeing experienced people, who know how to get the job done. Obama will pack his Cabinet with experience for the first two years, and surround those people with deputies who reflect his vision, who will spend the first two years or so learning the ropes. Then, as the experienced people peel off and separate, by the second or third year, he will have largely his own team in place, and they'll be ready to take over seamlessly.

 

The President sets the tone, and the president himself decides the policies of his administration. Just because you're seeing a lot of Clinton people in his Cabinet and staff, does not mean we're looking at a third Clinton term. In the last 40 years, we have only had two Democratic presidents, and let's face it; the Carter people who are still around are probably a bit long in the tooth by now.

 

As I said, this is a long process, and Obama is only the first step in this, and we have to learn to have a little patience. Putting experienced people in top government positions, even if they do have ties to Clinton, or even Bush, is a smart move, and it's likely to prevent the same sort of shortsightedness that led to the Republican "Revolution" in 1994.

 

Let's trust Obama, until he gives us reason not to.

If We're Going to Bail Out the Big 3, It Must be Done Right...

The concept of an auto industry bailout is a tough one. My first instinct is to bail the Big Three automakers out, in order to curtail the possible employment ramifications if they're allowed to go under. Somewhere around three million workers depend on the US automakers for jobs, and at this point in the economy, losing all of those jobs could deal a spectacular blow to our economy; one that may take years to recover from.

 

But another part of me says, "let them fail." It's not like they'll actually immediately disappear. They'll have to go into bankruptcy, and a bankruptcy trustee can work with the companies to cut costs and make them solvent again. It's not like the three companies have no value; Americans will still have to buy cars, and a lot of people still want to buy American.

 

Then there is the fact that at least two of the companies, Ford and GM, have actually shown signs of awakening in the last couple of years, and they have been retooling for the future, which is very. very green. The current problems they're experiencing aren't entirely of their making. They've been hurt largely by the economy, high gas prices, the credit crunch, and the rising cost of health care.

 

There's another aspect to this, as well. One of the reasons our auto industry sucks so badly, and has sucked for so many years, is because there are the "Big Three." There has essentially been little or no real domestic competition in the industry for at least 25 years. Look more closely at the market; the foreign companies made mostly cars and a few trucks and SUVs, while the domestic car companies have sold mostly trucks and SUVs, but only a few cars.  When gasoline prices spiked -- which everyone knew would happen, and which will continue to happen repeatedly for the foreseeable future -- foreign automakers were prepared, and domestic automakers weren't, primarily because the foreign companies staked out one part of the market, and domestic companies staked out another. 

Zogby Sacrifices Its Credibility With a Push Poll

I used to be a huge fan of John Zogby and his polls. But for whatever reason, in recent years, the entire Zogby organization seems to have gone off the deep end. Zogby himself seems to have gone out of his way to demonstrate personal bias, which is not good for a pollster, as evidenced by his latest project, for which he is rightfully taking a lot of heat, to the point that the organization has had to issue a plaintive rationalization.

 

Meet John Ziegler. Ziegler, who is/was one of the worst right wing talk show hosts in the country (is he still on KFI?), is doing a documentary called "Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected." Of course, he mostly leaves out the "Media Malpractice…" part on his web site for the film, probably because he knows how popular Obama is, and how unpopular a negative film about Obama's election would be. And after all,  right wingers are about nothing but making money, even if you have to fool people to do it. And let's face it; fooling people is essentially what right wing talk radio IS.

 

In all fairness, however, Ziegler's intentions with this film are pretty much up front, when you actually read the web site. Here is the first paragraph:

 

On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple... the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job.

Darth Cheney, Torquemada Gonzales Indicted; A Pardon Would Save Them...

Here's another reason why we need to impeach. Does anyone doubt that a pardon will come down, and neither of these bastards will ever have to be tried and either convicted ro acquitted?

From the Huffington Post, via the AP:
Cheney, Gonzales Indicted By South Texas Grand Jury.

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

The indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

The seven indictments made public in Willacy County on Tuesday included one naming state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and some targeting public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra's own legal battles.

Regarding the indictments targeting the public officials, Guerra said, "the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me."

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra's tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury.

The only way to have at least some control over who gets pardoned, and for what, is to impeach Bush, and name the principles in his administration as witnesses.
Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra's tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Call your Congressperson NOW. Demand articles of impeachment, just to stop the pardons of key players in the Administration.

Why the Bailout Plan Was Destined to Fail

A couple of months back, it seemed quite obvious that the economy was on the verge of collapse, and something drastic was necessary, immediately, to forestall an absolute disaster akin to the Great Depression. On this  very blog, I recommended the bailout plan be passed, albeit with many restrictions, and a much slower rollout than actually occurred, so that the bulk of it could be handled by the new president.  I had deep concerns with the fact that the Bushies would be running the bailout.  But I felt as though something had to be done, because the economy was falling apart.

 

I was wrong about the need for a bailout, apparently, although I was right about the Bushies. And given that pretty much nothing serious has been done with regard to the bailout, and the economy hasn't completely fallen apart quite yet, you have to wonder about the

 

Seriously, is there anything these people can't screw up?

Congress is Back! Impeach Bush NOW! It's Absolutely Necessary!

Over the weekend, I received the following very naive and shocking e-mail from Democrats.com, which I am re-posting in its entirety:

------------------------------

Dear Milt,

Congratulations on the fabulous and historic election of President Barack Obama!!!

As we celebrate our new President-elect and all the changes he will bring to our nation, we must not turn a blind eye to the final actions of George Bush.

Incredibly, Washington is already buzzing with Bush's plans to block all investigations of his crimes and even to pardon everyone involved - including Cheney and himself. Chris Matthews is even counting down the days .

Does Bush have the power to pardon everyone in his administration? Yes.

Will he abuse that power to stay out of jail? Only if we let him.

We must create a groundswell of opposition to any pardons by George Bush, so he understands that he will be impeached and prosecuted for issuing corrupt pardons.

Please help us launch a massive movement against pardons by signing our petition to Congress and telling your friends: (link removed)

We will announce additional plans to stop Bush's pardons in the coming days. Read more about our efforts and join our discussion here: (link removed)

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

----------------------

Isn't that cute, folks?

Doesn't that just tug at the heartstrings? I mean, if we all make our voices heard, perhaps George W Bush will decide to forego his pending abuse of the executive power of the pardon, because he's afraid we might impeach and prosecute him. They have the right idea, but getting a bunch of signatures on a petition simply won't do.

Look; if there is one thing we know about Bush and Cheney, it's that they don't care what we think about them at all.

Therefore, with Congress coming back to the Capitol from recess today, there is no reason to wait 65 more days; it's time to put forth articles of impeachment TODAY! It's not time to THREATEN impeachment; it's time to IMPEACH! And there is no time to waste.

There are stories all over the press regarding the petitions being sent to Bush regarding pardons for all sorts of criminals, all over the country, and even the world. But the criminals we need to be worried about are sitting in the White House, or have had access to the White House over the last eight years. We have to investigate these people; they have chosen to be secretive about everything they've done for the entire Bush Administration, and we need to get to the bottom of it. It's not just about possible war crimes; it's about everything. Even if we choose not to frog march the lot of them, if we're to get at the information we need, we'll need leverage, and if Bush pardons everyone who has ever worked for his administration, we'll have to wait for the flood of books to come out, because investigators will never be able to get to the bottom of any of it.

Even if we don't hold an impeachment trial, or remove his sorry ass, Congress must pass at least one article of impeachment against George W. Bush. It's time to call your member of Congress, and demand that at least one article of impeachment be passed against George W. Bush, immediately.

Democrats.com has the right idea, but come on; you can't threaten the Bushies; you have to act against them. Congress must impeach Bush TODAY, and prevent the mass of pardons that are absolutely certain, should they fail to act, and act immediately. We don't have 64 days; for all we know, Bush has already signed pardons for all of these people. We need to impeach him, to make sure they can't become valid.

The time to impeach was yesterday. But better late than never.

President Obama's First Orders of Business

What are the first things President Obama should do upon taking office?

 

I’ve had some time to ponder this question since the landslide win last week, and I have some serious suggestions, and the reasons for each.

 

Fix the economic ship, but do so for the average American, and in an intelligent way, that will have long-lasting effect, not just a quick fix. . Sure we need to bail out the economy on some level, but we have to do so in a way that will allow people to keep their homes, and that will create and keep jobs. Bail out the auto industry, but create conditions, and make them use the money to retool their plants to make vehicles people want to buy. You could even take the money we now use to subsidize the oil companies to accomplish that. Earmark billions for public works projects all over the country; it will create jobs, and repair an infrastructure that has been falling apart for decades. You can take money from the defense budget that is now being used for weapons systems we don't need and will never use.

 

Fix the electoral system.  By most reasonable "conservative" estimates, at least 6 million votes were lost this election, and it's a dead cinch that most of those lost votes were Democrats. Does anyone really think that, in a year when the Republican Party was in complete disarray, in which everyone pretty much blamed them for ruining the country, in which the standard bearer for their party has a 75% disapproval rating, the lamest Republican candidate in a generation actually received 46% of the vote?

 

In a democratic system, the vote is the key to absolutely everything, and it should be absolutely impossible to deny anyone their vote, without due process, at the very least. Yet, we hear story after story of state officials (usually Republican) "purging" voter rolls of people with odd names or who live in "certain parts of town," participating in illegal caging exercises, etc., in addition to the constant fiascos involving voting machines.

 

Some states forbid the vote to convicted felons. Some also have strict rules with regard to registration. Fine. But just as you can't convict that felon without advising him of the charges and putting him on trial, because to do so would be a denial of his rights, neither should you be able to simply and effectively take away someone's right to vote, without advising them of that, and offering them a process by which to fight it. Under the Constitution, it's not a citizen's duty to prove that he's eligible to vote; it's the state's duty to prove they he isn't.

 

Now, the federal government is limited with regard to voting; the process is a state issue. But as they did with the Voting Rights Act, the feds should be able to step in, and put forth some minimum standards for voting. First off, there should be no purging of any voter less than 90 days before an election, and never without the registrar or Secretary of State making a good faith effort to advise said voter of their pending removal, and giving them  a reasonable time to respond. Second, the voting process should be more open; it should be impossible for the manufacturer of a voting machine to deny local officials access to software code, in order to certify each machine. If manufacturers don't want to reveal their code, they don't want to be providing public voting machines. Third, and most importantly, all elections must have a mechanism in place for a manual vote recount, should it become necessary.  That probably means paper. There must be a verifiable paper trail for every vote.

McCain and Chambliss: The Devil DID Go Down to Georgia!

You know, I have never cared for John McCain's politics, because he is an unabashed conservative, who would only rarely take a stand against his conservative brethren on anything important.  But I always respected him; even though I disagreed with him, he had principles, and stood by them most of the time.  If he has won the Republican nomination in 2000, and beaten Al Gore, I wouldn't have liked it, but we would have been better off than we ended up.

 

But that John McCain is gone forever, I'm afraid.  When he decided to run for president, he apparently sold his soul to the right wing devils. Instead of rightfully referring to the religious right as "agents of intolerance," he now has his tongue in their ears, and he's promising to bear their children. Instead of laughing his ass off with derision at assholes like Newtie and the Fox News bunch, he's kissing their asses and offering to have their children.

 

In other words, not that he cares what I think, but John McCain has moved gone farther down on my shit list than Ralph Nader, and that's a pretty hefty drop. I have no respect for the man anymore; he's now become 100% political whore, totally lacking in principles, and he's forgotten everything he used to stand for. I don't know about you, but after the personal shit Bush threw at him in the 2000 primaries, no one with principles would ever have carried water for that man again. I mentioned his tongue kissing of the religious right. But the most distressing aspect of John McCain's political sell-out has to be his treatment of veterans and veterans' issues. He's essentially a military hero, who's apparently forgotten what it's like to be a military hero, or even a veteran.

 

I thought for sure that, once McCain lost the election, he would begin to revert back to the old McCain; the conservative McCain, with a principled streak.

 

I was wrong, and it's a damn shame.

Stop Blaming Blacks For Proposition 8!

Look folks, you really have to stop blaming black people for the demise of Proposition 8. There were a lot of reasons why it failed, but it wasn't the perceived "betrayal" of African-Americans, and such a characterization is unfair and untrue.

 

Let's start with the fact that, according to the Census Bureau, as of 2006, about 7.3% of California's population is black. Okay, so perhaps it's distressing on some level that, according to polls, around 70% of blacks voted for Prop. 8, but even if they turned out and voted in high numbers (just because a lot of them voted for Obama, doesn't mean they voted on Prop. 8 at all.  But even if they did, it's not possible to expect that 100% of them would vote against the proposition, so let's assume the percentages were roughly the same as whites or Hispanics. The end result would have been the same.

 

It's not the fault of blacks. The "Yes on 8" groups were fully funded, and had a major plan, and the "No on 8" people trusted too greatly in the goodness and rightness of their cause, and underestimated the underhanded determination of their opponents, and as a result, there seems to have been an underplanned and underfunded opposition.

 

But you know what? It doesn't matter. Naming scapegoats and assigning blame is for losers, and we're not losers. Losing on Proposition 8 could very well be the best thing that ever happened, because this was always going to have to be settled in the courts. (See my last post on this for details…)

 

Whatever happens, we are all in this together, and we are all going to have to win this together. Placing blame does no good, and it tends to put others on defense, at a time when you need their support and their assistance. Blacks can be made to understand this issue, but it will be necessary to reach out, not slap them away, especially when our assumptions are based on poll numbers that may or may not even be correct.

 

Keep your heads; everyone will have the same rights very soon. In the meantime, you enemies are the right wing self-righteous prigs, not the people who have struggled even longer and harder than you have for acceptance. They can be your best friends, but you have to talk to them.

Cutting the Crap! What are Caribou Barbie and the Chimp Faithful TO, Exactly?

Okay, we know she doesn't know anything about the Constitution, because  she demonstrated repeatedly during the campaign that she had no idea what a vice president does.  But isn't it time we started enforcing the separation of church and state that is contained repeatedly in the Constitution?

 

This is from a Monday interview of Caribou Barbie (Sarah Palin, of course) on Fox News:

 

Faith is a very big part of my life. And putting my life in my creator's hands - this is what I always do. I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is. Even if it's cracked up a little bit, maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it, but don't let me miss an open door. And if there is an open door in (20)12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door.

 

Let me start off by saying, I don't really care about anyone's personal religious beliefs, especially those of politicians. I don't have a problem if they pray silently before every Cabinet meeting, or they ask God for guidance on an issue that vexes them.

 

I just want them to keep it to themselves.It's none of my business, no matter what they do for a living.

 

Religion and faith are very personal activities. Even when you go to church, it's still a personal activity; you just happen to be sharing with like-minded people who are in that church of their own free will. That has nothing in common with running the government. No matter how much they pretend it is, this country is not a church, and the president is not my pastor.

It's personal, and you have to understand that most people don't believe the same way you do when it comes to God. I know; for the last 40 years, the neocons have been trying to lump all "Christians" into one group, and tell you you're in "the majority," but the fact of the matter is, there are hundreds of Christian sects, and every one of them believes something different about God and Jesus Christ. For example, you Catholics and Mormons out there; did you know that quite a few of the other Christian sects refer to you as "cultists"? And you evangelicals and fundamentalists; were you aware that most other Christians think you're loons?

Let's Cut The Crap: Civil Rights Can Never Be Decided by Majority Vote

You know, I'm sick of all of the lies, the subterfuge and outright fraud that accompanies the issue of whether or not gays get married. I'm tired of all of the referenda, and the democratic treatment of an issue that is a basic equal rights issue, and has nothing to do with democracy.

 

But most of all, I am sick to death of religion injecting itself into the political arena with impunity, and still being treated like some sort of sacred cow, so to speak.

 

If a man and a woman want to get married, they can get married.

 

If a man and a man, or a woman and a woman want to get married, and they can find someone to perform the ceremony, they can get married. Therefore, the issue is not gay marriage. Got it? Gay people already get married, and there is nothing any law can do to stop that.

 

The only issue -- and I mean the ONLY issue -- is the unequal treatment of different types of married couples, based on the bigotry of others.Why is it that certain segments of our society simply have to have someone to tread on -- someone who is different, and based on that difference, simply can't have the same rights as everyone else?

 

And don't pretend it's not bigotry, because it is. Black people who will read this, and then claim there is a major difference between the gay civil rights movement happening now and the black civil rights movement of 40 years ago simply don't get it. It doesn't matter whether or not you "approve" of a couple possibly being homosexual, anymore than it mattered before 1967, that many people didn't "approve" of mixed-race couples marrying.

David Brooks: Wingnut GOP Has No Belief System? Yeah, they Do, and That's What's Killing Them!

The things that make me laugh…

 

On Sunday's "Face the Nation," conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks said, quite accurately, that the current incarnation of the Republican Party was "in a world of pain," because the party is "just a circular firing squad with everybody attacking each other and no coherent belief system, no leaders. …  you have half the party waiting for Sarah Palin to come rescue them, the other half waiting for Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, to come rescue them. But no set of beliefs, really a decayed conservative infrastructure."

 

He has to be kidding with this.

 

If there is one thing the Republican Party has had over the last 28 years, it's a leadership, and a very strong belief system. The reason the Republican Party is in a "world of pain" is because their leadership and their belief system have been morally reprehensible, and ethically challenged bastardizations of what the United States is supposed to be about, and strangely, the people don't really care for that sort of thing.

 

Let's start with their leadership. It's roughly the same as it has been for a generation; corrupt bastards who hate everyone who isn't rich, and think they're entitled to be in power because it's their turn. It's difficult to name a Republican leader in the last 30 years who hasn't been forced to resign or "retire" because of some sort of scandal, and even those who weren't involved in a specific scandal supported others who were.  I mean, can you even imagine a Democrat outing a CIA agent and other Democrats letting him get away with it? Yeah, me either. And how corrupt must your leadership be to run against the sins of the other party, and then commit the same sins, and even build upon them, when you take power?

Today's First Step: Get Rid of the Assholes!

It's time to change the world…

 

But the only way that can happen is if every single person in this country votes to make that change. Yes, sometimes it's difficult to vote. Sometimes there are long lines, sometimes there are people there to intimidate you. The day itself -- Tuesday -- might have been a great idea 221 years ago, but it truly sucks now. But you have to vote; there are no acceptable excuses.

 

A few things to know;

• Election day is November 4, not the 5th.
• If you are registered to vote where you happen to be at this particular moment, you have the right to vote.  The Supreme Court has ruled that college students can vote where they're going to school.
• The only time police will be called to a polling place is if an actual crime happens at that polling place; police do not show up at precincts to make arrests on outstanding warrants.
• Your employer must allow you enough time to vote on Election Day.
• Polls in most places are open as early as 7 AM, and as late as 8 PM.
• You cannot vote by phone.
• If you know you're registered, and a poll worker denies you the vote, you have the right to see an election judge immediately, and unless there is an absolute, stated legal reason why you have been denied your right to vote, he has to allow you to vote. Take your registration card, and make them tell you why you're not allowed to vote.  If you have any problems beyond that, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE, and report it to get legal help.

 

It has never been more important to vote against the government we've been stuck with for the last eight years or more. Not only is our economy in the dumper, but we're in a very precarious position with regard to foreign policy and our relations around the globe. We need a reform movement, unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes, and we need to be at the forefront of it.

 

But the reform movement doesn't begin and end with Barack Obama, so don't think that, just because he's ahead, you don't need to vote. For one thing, he hasn't won anything yet; all of us who think he may win in a landslide are actually just blowing smoke  until votes are actually cast and counted.

 

Just as important as Obama winning by a very wide margin, and thus creating a mandate for the changes he represents, are the down-ticket races. I don't care if you live in the reddest or bluest state in the union, you have to make it known that you refuse to allow the right wingers to continue to sentence this country to a slow death. If you're not motivated to vote for Obama, then vote for anyone who can help send the right wingers packing.  For example, if you live in Texas, where Obama is something of a longshot, you can still vote for him, and a bunch of Democrats for House and Senate, as well.  If you live in the tenth district of Texas, for example, get excited for Rick Noriega, even though Obama's chance of winning Texas is extremely unlikely. Likewise, in Kentucky, you could get rid of Mitch McConnell, one of the biggest right wing bastards in the Senate, even though Obama is unlikely to win the state.

 

(A note about that one; Bruce Lunsford isn't exactly a progressive, but his election would give Democrats the 60 votes it needs to stop filibusters, and if he wants to get anything done for his constituents and even think about reelection, he'll have to play ball with the majority Democrats on most issues.)

 

In California, I don't give a rat's ass that Obama's probably going to win by 20 points, and you could conceivably find out he won election by dinner time today; you have to vote in droves, in order to pass Proposition 5, a much needed prison reform package, and you really need to vote no on Proposition 8, which would put discrimination into the state constitution, by telling people who they can and cannot marry.

 

Look, this is the beginning of a reform movement, people; not everything will happen all at once. But if we are to make anything happen, we have to get out, en masse, and not let anyone or anything stop us from voting. In fact, we need to reform the voting process, so that the things we now worry about, like caging, purging and all sorts of voter suppression, will never happen again, and the only way to ensure that is to show up in massive numbers and get rid of the assholes.

 

That's the first step in any reform, you know; get rid of the assholes.

Looking Out For Our Future

Forget all of the bull about Rev. Wright, or Ayers or alleged inexperience.

Forget all of the inconsequential stuff, like Keating, age and Senate experience.

This election is about turning a page in political history. The only relevant question to ask this election is, can we afford to continue down the same road for the next four years, or should we make a clean break from the recent past, and position ourselves for a return to what always were American principles?

Barack Obama represents a break from the same old politics we've been treated to for years now; the sort of political climate that has left us where we are today; a battered, bruised old giant, unsure of where we need to be, and becoming more isolated from the rest of the world with every passing day.

America used to have a set of core principles that it adhered to, and with Obama and a group of new Democrats in Congress, we can reclaim those principles, and make this country great once more. But it's not enough to simply reclaim American principles; we have to move the country forward, in a way that ensures our children and grandchildren will inherit a great country, in line with 21st Century realities. As the people who have been running this country in recent years have tried to return us to the 19th Century, the rest of the world has been moving forward into the 21st Century, and leaving us in the dust. It's hard to imagine that in 28 short years, we have gone from being the preeminent economic power in the world to being the world's greatest debtor nation, and which seems incapable of embracing anything new beyond the Internet.

This country needs a new attitude. Here are a few things the new president needs to address, if this country is to have any shot at returning to greatness: