A Giant step toward the center

[ledhed]

The United States after years of fundamentalist and right wing politics took a huge giant step back to wards the center last night.
Although the vast majority of Democrats elected were of the conservative type...in fact recruited to take away the gay marriage / guncontroll / pro life edge the republicans were always given..the same edge that gave us raving conservative lunatics like Rick Santorum...a guy who compared homosexuality with pooch buggering and took advantage of a dying womens dignity and her privacy in the name of " the right to life " .
Also consider all the mistakes this administration has made since the " war " part of the invasion of Iraq ended. Too numerous and enough to explode my head. Bush got re-elected despite the " no WMD " thing because he had a Liberal buffoon , ex radical leftist , lying about his new found ability to be a " tough military national security type" , despite his entire life spent to the contrary...with even his service in Vietnam open for argument . That and the fact the man flipped more than a pancake.
Americans are not ready to be left wing..if they ever will be. Although I hear in Vermont they elected a socialist . Wow...it took forever but we did it . You would think among the three hundred million of us there would be enough to elect one Socialist . Wonder how many Libertarians were elected ?
I don't know about the rest of you but I feel much better today than I did yesterday about the direction the country is headed in .
Back to the center and moderation and away from the radical left and radical right wing politics that have dominated the political scene in the US since 1994 .
Its a great leap forward for stem cell research and getting the ideologues out of our education system...no more talk of "I.D." being taught in schools I imagine .
The President got spanked by the public for his blunders , the public ...when given suitable candidates ..spanked the crap out him by going Democrat , now if that could somehow CURE the eminent domain fiasco and restore some order to the supreme court , that would be a blessing.
But the bottom line is this , we have a congress full of a majority of like minded people ...not so much liberal versus conservative as we had before , this should translate to bipartisan cooperation and moderate and fair lawmaking , and a much better congress than we had before .
The commitment to Iraq still stands . But with this election the current crop of Iraqi leaders were sent a message along with President Bush. The message being " GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER OR WE ARE OUT OF HERE " . They have a choice unite and live or divide and die. we did our part we lead the horse to water ...now lets see if it drinks.
I took a look ( when I wasn't dancing around with a light shade on my head with the interns and other volunteers ). At the rest of the democratic candidates in other states , most Mirrored senator Casey..solid moderate to conservative Americans..who happen to be democrats . Not a wing nut among them for the most part. Hey even JOE LIEBERMAN got elected !
He deserved it , he being not only a good man but a moderate and a strong supporter of this country and its security , just like the huge majority of Democrats that were elected with him .
It will be interesting to see who the Dem's come up with as a candidate in 2008 and to see if they learned from this victory . The Republicans I hope learned a lesson . but human nature being what it is they will more than likely blame BUSH...hey everyone else does..

 

[Swift]

I'm actually pretty scared. Not so much for the nation, but my state of Maryland. We've got an overwhelming liberal democrat legislature and it looks like we're going to have a pretty left governor. So, instead of the lovely 2 billion dollar surplus, we'll probably have 5 billion dollars in debt by 2010.

I don't like a one party government. Or legislature for that matter. If I had my choice, I'd make it 55% Republican and 45% democrat. That way neither side could just do what they wanted to "because". But in Maryland, our current governor was facing a veto proof majority. It didn't matter if he vetoed a bill, they would just overrided it. Sometimes in the same week! Now, we're going to have a democrat governor, I can only imagine the kind of garbage this legislature is going to spew out.

As far as Rick santorum goes, I'm sorry he lost.

Oh, did anyone see reports of Hamas celebrating about our elections? I wonder what THAT could mean?

 

[Pako]

Montana is still undecided, 49% to 49%. Montana tends to vote for the 'best man (person)' regardless of party affiliation. Will it matter either way?

 

[Swift]

Montana is still undecided, 49% to 49%. Montana tends to vote for the 'best man (person)' regardless of party affiliation. Will it matter either way?

Yes!

You're senate race pretty much decides which party has control of the Senate. Believe it or not.

 

[Sage]

Oh chuck e. cheese’s – Prop 90, which would cripple eminent domain, got voted down. Who, other than a die-hard Communist, would vote against that Prop?!

California, I love you, but don’t make me go postal on your ass. Good gravy.

 

[Swift]

Oh chuck e. cheese’s – Prop 90, which would cripple eminent domain, got voted down. Who, other than a die-hard Communist, would vote against that Prop?!

California, I love you, but don’t make me go postal on your ass. Good gravy.

Wow, I'm guessing it was worded strangely on the voting forms. Who WOULDN'T want that?

 

[vladimir]

great summary led. 👍

 

[FoolKiller]

Wow, I'm guessing it was worded strangely on the voting forms. Who WOULDN'T want that?

Most voters probably just read this:

GOVERNMENT ACQUISITION, REGULATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

And then they thought, "I don't want government acquiring and regulating private property." Unfortunately most voters are not attentive and do not research issues ahead of time.

Fortunately in Lexington, Ky eminent domain of the local water company was voted down, and Mayor Teresa Isaacs, who had been fighting for it since she first got into office, has been given the boot.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15957301.htm

 

[Swift]

Most voters probably just read this:

And then they thought, "I don't want government acquiring and regulating private property." Unfortunately most voters are not attentive and do not research issues ahead of time.

Fortunately in Lexington, Ky eminent domain of the local water company was voted down, and Mayor Teresa Isaacs, who had been fighting for it since she first got into office, has been given the boot.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15957301.htm

True and glad to hear it! 👍

 

[exigeracer]

The message being " GET YOUR CRAP TOGETHER OR WE ARE OUT OF HERE " . They have a choice unite and live or divide and die.

Well said.

I, even as a non-American, am anxious to see where this decision will lead the country and what will USA's direction be after they settle what they have done in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

[ledhed]

9 States passed amendments or charter changes to limit OR do away with eminent domain as the supreme idiots see it

SD overwhelmingly defeated a proposal that would ban any type of abortion. SOUTH DAKOTA !!

Rumsfeldt is GONE

The President just stood up like a MAN and accepted the results as a referendum an a call to account by the American people and is doing something about it !

Changes are being made in the leadership to reflect the opinions of the people..the people have spoken and the government is changing as I type this to reflect it.


Accountability in ACTION.


I LOVE IT .👍


God bless America.👍

And ITS ABOUT TIME

This is a great time to be an American regardless what party...its our greatest asset.......... its Democracy in ACTION.

 

[Danoff]

I'm quite happy that the democrats are taking over the house. I'm also hoping that the republicans maintain control of the senate. These last few years taught me something, bad things happen when one party is in control. Spending has gone through the roof, spending on things that the democrats usually make part of THEIR platform.

The only way I can hope for any curb in spending and government growth is if the political landscape is divided. Gridlock is my hope now at every election (unless the libertarians suddenly become popular).

 

[FoolKiller]

Changes are being made in the leadership to reflect the opinions of the people..the people have spoken and the government is changing as I type this to reflect it.


Accountability in ACTION.

I am curious what happens to Rove, since he sat there telling the president that Republicans would maintain control and that the current trend was the will of the people. I think that if he had seen this coming trends would have changed before now and the results would have been different.

I am surprised to see Rumsfeld go so soon. I expected it to not be so obvious. Give it a month or two with Rumsfeld's actions reflecting the changes and then resign. While I imagined this was coming I didn't see it coming today.

(unless the libertarians suddenly become popular).

We gave Paul Ard 14% in Kentucky.

Ben Chandler* (D)...147,591 (86%)
Paul Ard (L)...25,015 (14%)

Of course, there was no Republican running.

The problem is that the average voter doesn't realize what the third parties stand for outside of Green, and that is only because of Nader. There were Constitution and Libertarian candidates locally and a co-worker had to do a Wikipedia search to figure out what I was talking about. Neither of my parents have even heard of them and my sister-in-law thinks Libertarians are just ultra-Republicans. Her definition sounded more like the Constitution party to me.

If you want Libertarians to become popular they need to get their message out, perhaps advertising the party when they can and getting their ideas out. The few people I know that have heard of them think they are the Evil Conservative Industries party. To show how it is in my region, I heard one radio ad from Paul Ard two days before the election and no others. If I hadn't gotten a sample ballot, to research candidates in advance, I wouldn't have even known he was running.

 

[Swift]

Changes are being made in the leadership to reflect the opinions of the people..the people have spoken and the government is changing as I type this to reflect it.

Even when the opinions of most voters are very uninformed?

I'm quite happy that the democrats are taking over the house. I'm also hoping that the republicans maintain control of the senate. These last few years taught me something, bad things happen when one party is in control. Spending has gone through the roof, spending on things that the democrats usually make part of THEIR platform.

The only way I can hope for any curb in spending and government growth is if the political landscape is divided. Gridlock is my hope now at every election (unless the libertarians suddenly become popular).

Yeah, same here. I like it when neither side can do whatever just because they get an itchy finger on a pen.

 

[ledhed]

Even when the opinions of most voters are very uninformed?

I think thats insulting to the voters...from having talked to them on the phone in Pa. I get the complete opposite impression...they are informed as all hell..but at times its bad info...

 

[Zrow]

I think one of the main problems with the Libertarian image is the fact that when people do have an idea of what it is, they think in the most extreme terms. "Libertarians don't want any government regulation on anything period, and no taxes at all! The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!" And then add the Big Evil Corporations™ to the idea, and it sounds extreme.

 

[Swift]

I think thats insulting to the voters...from having talked to them on the phone in Pa. I get the complete opposite impression...they are informed as all hell..but at times its bad info...

Sorry, I meant to say misinformed. But either way it yields the same results. I'm not talking in every case. But black people vote for democrats. Especially in maryland. I'm still trying to figure out this stupidity. Democrats insult the black image and put down people in their own party and black people still vote fro them like Dr Martin Luther King asked them to do it personally.

 

[FoolKiller]

I would like to announce, right here on GTPlanet, my candidacy for president in 2008 under the Evil Corporate party. I will arrange for corporations to have to pay no taxes, I will give them bonuses for outsourcing all employment, and I will make unions illegal. My general tax policy will be what I like to call the Prince John Tax System, where the local sherrifs and magistrates go to all the low income houses and take whatever valuable stuff they can find, and break a few legs while they are at it, and then bring it to me where I will dole it out to my rich corporation buddies and then pocket the rest.

I would appreciate your vote.


I am the foolkiller and I approve this ad

 

[Swift]

I would like to announce, right here on GTPlanet, my candidacy for president in 2008 under the Evil Corporate party. I will arrange for corporations to have to pay no taxes, I will give them bonuses for outsourcing all employment, and I will make unions illegal. My general tax policy will be what I like to call the Prince John Tax System, where the local sherrifs and magistrates go to all the low income houses and take whatever valuable stuff they can find, and break a few legs while they are at it, and then bring it to me where I will dole it out to my rich corporation buddies and then pocket the rest.

I would appreciate your vote.


I am the foolkiller and I approve this ad

Excellent! I can't wait to cast my vote!

 

[Wolfe]

Wisconsin voted "yes" to a same-sex marriage/civil union ban, and "yes" to the death penalty. I'm pissed.

 

[UnoMOTO]

LEDHED FOR PRESIDENT IN 2008!

 

[vladimir]

Wisconsin voted "yes" to a same-sex marriage/civil union ban, and "yes" to the death penalty. I'm pissed.

..and i just thought somethign was wrong with the universe 'cos america had suddenly gone all-liberal.

 

[YSSMAN]

A summation of my feelings post-elections:

1) I'm a bit upset that Dick DeVos lost to Jennifer Granholm for Michigan Governor. If we are praising the losses of the GOP to the Democrats over accountability, it should have been the same actions taken against Granholm. Didn't happen, which is unfortunate, as she has had four years to fix this state's economy, and she hasn't done squat. She missed out on a big Honda deal, and she is missing out on a big Nissan deal too... Lets hope accountability counts later on down the road...

2) Debbie Stabinow didn't get kicked out of office, and that too in unfortunate. A supporter of higher taxes, someone who has been weak on border security, and spends too much time trying to fight President Bush and his policies to "help" the economy doesn't get anything done. Mike Bouschard lost because of his piss-poor effort in this election, but IMO, anyone was better than Stabinow in this case.

3) A Quick summation of our "big" referendums, etc:

- Proposition 2 passed, banning Affirmative Action in jobs paid for by the state, and in admissions to public secondary and private schools. I didn't think it was going to pass, but apparently this side of the state cared enough to get out and fix a problem that needed to be addressed. Now if only it was a blanket ban, which included "regular" jobs...

- Proposition 3 failed, making it so Mourning Dove hunting remained illegal in Michigan.

- Proposition 4 passed, placing huge restrictions on the State for Eminent Domain.

---

On the national change:

I can't say that I'm happy about what all is going on, but I'll look at it this way. We can let the Democrats drive the boat, and attempt to "fix" what is wrong, and then hold them accountable again two years from now. They have plenty of time, and if they are supposed to be the cohesive political party they claim to be, we will see what happens.

...I just don't want to see "Crazy Pelosi" running the house. I mean, sure she can be speaker, but if she lets her personal issues get in the way, I'd be a bit upset. Lets hope she sets up comities the right way, and just takes care of business. I don't want to see any of this "impeachment" crap coming up, or the Democrats sticking their fingers in business they don't need to be in.

As far as the Senate goes, it is still "up in the air," but the Democrats will probably end up with a one-seat advantage, and that isn't a big deal. With Joe Liberman on both sides, that counts for something, as he will play an important role over the next two years. If Charles Shumer was to take the position of head Democrat in the Senate, that wouldn't be too bad, just keep Clinton out of it...

---

Looking ahead to the 2008 elections, I think we may see an emergence of more independent candidates, or atleast a greater sense of "moderation" among the political parties.

On my "dream teams" for President?

- John McCain and Joe Liberman
- John McCain and Barack Obama

...Basically I want John McCain and a "moderate" Democrat on a split-ticket...

 

[niky]

I have some of the same sentiments... I'm not sure whether this is accountability in action or "Let's vote Dem and get those damn Republicans out of the Government!"

I approve accountability in action. I disapprove of voting on sentimentality alone.

I don't know if more independents is a good thing (in terms of Presidentials...) as it seems two good candidates tend to steal votes from each other, not from the guy on the other platform... but it would be nice if the US Government were made up of more parties than just the Asses and the Wooly Mammoths...

I'm quite happy that the democrats are taking over the house. I'm also hoping that the republicans maintain control of the senate. These last few years taught me something, bad things happen when one party is in control. Spending has gone through the roof, spending on things that the democrats usually make part of THEIR platform.

The only way I can hope for any curb in spending and government growth is if the political landscape is divided. Gridlock is my hope now at every election (unless the libertarians suddenly become popular).

I guess that's the one truly good thing about all of this... splitting power... too much "righteousness" on both sides for it to be good if either had complete control...

 

[ledhed]

The Dems had controll for over 40 years until 1994. Looks like the have it again. If they screw up the economy...4 % unemployment etc. or force something stupid in Iraq. They will have it for two years. This time anyway.
And by having controll of both houses it doesn't bode well for their chances of having a Dem president. Having all three is something most Americans wont go for.
Indepentdent voters and Republicans who the current crop are NOT republican or acting like them , are what decided this election. ITS the deomcrats that are suposed to be the big spenders and be for big Government. This crop of REPUBLICANS spent more and drove up the deficit..although this year a little reduction,,,more than expected because of the economy being so strong took place . It was not enough to put a dent in the impression that the current republican regime is out of controll on spending.

Illegal Immigration was the stake that really killed them . The fact that they could ignore the vast majority of Americans on the issue was the straw that broke the party's back .


If your party loses its direction and your opponent is putting up candidates that mirror your candidate's stand on most issues , why would a voter reward the party ?

At any rate the noise level should go down considerably .

 

[///M-Spec]

I would like to announce, right here on GTPlanet, my candidacy for president in 2008 under the Evil Corporate party. I will arrange for corporations to have to pay no taxes, I will give them bonuses for outsourcing all employment, and I will make unions illegal. My general tax policy will be what I like to call the Prince John Tax System, where the local sherrifs and magistrates go to all the low income houses and take whatever valuable stuff they can find, and break a few legs while they are at it, and then bring it to me where I will dole it out to my rich corporation buddies and then pocket the rest.

I would appreciate your vote.


I am the foolkiller and I approve this ad

Bwwahaha! You'll need a running mate. I can be the pretty boy that gets all the ladies votes while we secretly loot the Social Security Trust Fund by "loaning" it all to our East European oil and natural gas companies at zero interest and "forgetting" to pay it back. Then later, you can pass a bill that absolves our companies of the debt and I can kill the only person that knows of our plot in a "hunting accident".

We can take all that money and find cures for cancer, diabetes and being born ugly. Of course, we will patent all that research, then hide the secrets in our Military/Industrial Complex™ and simply make a fortune off the treatment while making sure no one ever finds the cure.

It's fool proof. How about it? I'm a total hoot on the campaign trail, btw. I hire gangs of thugs to intimidate voters, threaten to tear down low income housing to make way for unregulated nuclear treatment facilities and bribe local cops with trips to Vegas and houses in the Bahamas. Plus, I bring my own freebase and Russian prostitutes.


M

 

[FoolKiller]

Bwwahaha! You'll need a running mate. I can be the pretty boy that gets all the ladies votes while we secretly loot the Social Security Trust Fund by "loaning" it all to our East European oil and natural gas companies at zero interest and "forgetting" to pay it back. Then later, you can pass a bill that absolves our companies of the debt and I can kill the only person that knows of our plot in a "hunting accident".

We can take all that money and find cures for cancer, diabetes and being born ugly. Of course, we will patent all that research, then hide the secrets in our Military/Industrial Complex™ and simply make a fortune off the treatment while making sure no one ever finds the cure.

It's fool proof. How about it? I'm a total hoot on the campaign trail, btw. I hire gangs of thugs to intimidate voters, threaten to tear down low income housing to make way for unregulated nuclear treatment facilities and bribe local cops with trips to Vegas and houses in the Bahamas. Plus, I bring my own freebase and Russian prostitutes.

Yes. I believe this just might work.

 

[ledhed]

Yes. I believe this just might work.

Russian prostitutes ?


Count me in .👍

 

[YSSMAN]

I say we found the GTPlanet party right here, right now. I'd be happy to work the PR department, be the press secretary or something.

...Oh, and can I order a woman in a cage from Kazakhstan?

 

[Zrow]

I can see my write-in candidate for 2008 now: "Foolkiller."