Conservatives Crow Now, Eat It Later, Obama's Strategy Works Iran To Talk In Turkey

Paul Krugman
Ross Douthat
John Harwood

"Sarah Palin says she wants limited government. Does she mean fewer elected officials or more officials who resign in the middle of their terms? I think limited government will be perfect for her limited abilities." – David Letterman

"This was the biggest landslide since the '30s. The Republicans picked up 63 seats. I haven't seen the Republicans so happy about taking seats since they made Rosa Parks stand up." – Bill Maher

"Here's how huge their victory was. They actually elected two black people on the Republican side in Congress, and seven gay Republicans. Of course, you won't find out who they are until they get caught in a rest stop somewhere." – Bill Maher

I guess bragging rights come with winning elections, and the Republicans are certainly beginning to crow a lot. Of course, by the end of the next two years, they may be eating more crow and cawing less... Those states that now have Republican governors to match the Republican legislators are now looking forward to laying off state employees, cutting back their salaries and benefits of the workers who remain, and expect them to be loyal and perform well.

“Public employees can’t be haves, while private sector employees are have-nots,”

They also see themselves as cutting back more taxes which lessens incoming revenue, and forseeing that the amount of businesses that will be created, along with the jobs then created, will offset their state's deficits. If the spurt of wild economic growth doesn't happen, and only Republican legislators and tea party people say it will work, and the economy continues to its lethargic recovery, then those states will be s**t out of luck. And our plucky Republican states will have vastly added to the unemployment ranks, driving the rate over 10%. Since this is more of the same twaddle that got us into such a mess in the first place, I wonder how long it takes before these guys will learn. And they are not all freshmen either, but long-term conservatives who should know better. but will follow in lockstep with the alien Mitch McConnell...

Colorado already has learned its lesson. I live in the heart of conservatism, home of the Libertarian Party, and in this election the tea party didn't have much influence, certainly not as much as they are saying they had. None of their candidates got elected, and we elected a Democrat to the Senate and as Governor. Our state legislature now has a Republican majority, but it is a small one, leaving plenty of room for spirited debate. The personhood amendment, giving legal rights to a fetus, lost again by 71% to 29%, which may be a good indicator of how much of our electorate has leanings towards the tea party, less than 30%... The statistic I want to know is, of that 30%, how many have medical marijuana cards...

Worse, I don't see any coherence coming from either the White House or the liberal camp. How do you just say no to someone who is just saying no? As long as the major prescription medicines in America are ones that cause loss of sleep and inattention, along with liver damage and lack of sexual appetite, I don't see the mood turning around anytime soon. Look for more random violence and domestic abuse to keep these good times a'rolling...

But I do appreciate the honesty and candor that came from the tea party candidates, and that you'll never again hear from any elected Republican, even though it still rings true:

"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator." —Sharron Angle, May 14, 2010

While the cat is away, the mice will play... In this case, the mice are planning on turning up some pressure in the Middle East, specifically on Iran: "Before taking off for Asia Saturday, Nov. 6, President Barack Obama ordered the Pentagon not just to beef up American and NATO military pressure on Iran but to do so as conspicuously as possible. At a special White House security consultation last week, Obama said it was time to plant America's military option against the Iranian nuclear threat visibly and tangibly under the noses of Iran's political and military decision-makers. In the last few days, three aircraft carriers, four nuclear submarines and marine assault units have piled up opposite Iranian shores."

Senator Lindsay Graham, who is also a JAG officer in his spare time, and member of the Armed Services and Homeland Defense committees, issued the hawkish statements yesterday: "The US should consider sinking the Iranian navy, destroying its air force and delivering a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guards." In an address to the Halifax International Security forum, he declared "They should neuter the regime, destroy its ability to fight back and hope Iranians will take the chance to take back their government." The carrot was delivered by allied countries who have invited Iran to sit and talk about their nuclear program. Iran has responded that it would love to, beginning next month if the meeting can be held in Turkey...

Iran has been shown just how vulnerable and isolated it is, with the recent ninja attacks in its oilfields, and computer virus attack on the software that controls its nuclear programs; so either they might be playing nice here, or its another stalling tactic, which it has mastered over the last 20 years. To counter this, Iran is thinking of sending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to follow the footsteps where Barack Obama is visiting in Asia, and say some more mean and silly things about him... Meanwhile, sanctions have driven up the price of food items that are normally shipped in from neighboring countries, and there have been a couple of earthquakes in the more rural north. Because the open secret revelation that Iran has been providing the government of Afghanistan with a bribery slush fund, and now members of Parliament are beginning to question that tactic, the US has also revealed who Iran's top link to al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan, the forces he leads, and where he is living now. This info will probably hit the newspapers later this week and I can get more on it. This is taking the embarrassment we felt from the Wikileaks documents, and turning it around to embarrass an enemy, the I'm rubber, you're glue form of diplomacy...

Burma Elections, We Are All Republicans Now...

Dana Milbank
EJ Dionne
John Avlon

"The Law of Infinite Cornucopia: states that there are never a shortage of arguments to support any doctrine one wants to believe in for whatever reasons." - Leszek Kolakowski

“A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” - Mark Twain

"Tuesday was bad for President Obama. Voters threw away the hope and just went for the change." – Jay Leno

WHILE President Obama is in India, making nice and garnering billion dollar business contracts, this weekend is the elections in Myanmar, or Burma. It will be the second time in over 30 years that an attempt at an election will be made. The previous election ended up with Aung San Suu Kyi as President. The military junta found this unacceptable, voided the election results, and put her under house arrest, where she remains today.

This election will be bizarre, as nobody is sure of the ruling General's motives. It is a sham, done boldly in the public's face. Generals have resigned the military and then joined the ruling political party, where they present themselves as political candidates for the election. If they can win 85% of the available seats, then the military will relinquish its hold over the government. To ensure that large percentage of wins, the government has not allowed certain opposition parties, and will not hold elections where there are a majority of ethnic tribes, like the Karin, Kachin, and others.

And yet, people are rooting for smooth elections, because a transition from military rule to even a fake civilian rule is seen as progress. The current rulers say that progress is OK, but only after they have sucked every mineral and jewel out of the forests and sold them to the highest bidders in India and China...


NOW that Afghanistan is calming down and the leaders have been secretly and not-so-secretly talking to one another, the troubles that are expressed in extreme forms of Islam, are taking root in the "stan" countries, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, also known as the Eural Balkans. Because of large natural gas and oil fields near the Caspian Sea, and their strategic spots as supply depots for Afghanistan, and eventual stops for Russia and China, this may likely be the next place that wars will be fought. Forget about Somalia, and Yemen is merely a pesky flea with munitions in its underpants. the old Silk Road will be the next hot spot for all you adventure seeking backpackers out there. So, get there before the Iranians do, and say hello to Osama for me, won't you?

CALL me a dummy, but I haven't been able to figure out how lowering taxes will jump start the economy and create jobs, as the Republicans have been saying for many years. Yes, our government gets lazy, and expects a certain amount of money coming into its coffers every year. One way of shaking up those expectations is to give them less money, and they will have to learn to live with it as a form of punishment. This seems to be the current way of thinking... If I get an extra $1000 or $2000 back at tax time, how does that create a job for me if I am unemployed? The only way it does is if you go off into flights of fantasy and make up stuff that has no basis in reality. I might be able to buy some extra Christmas presents this year, but it's not going to jump start our manufacturing base, bring it back home from overseas...

Our states are going to be worse off, because they have to have a balanced budget, and most have already spent their rainy day funds. Colorado will face a $2 billion deficit, and we will have to lay off more employees, defer more infrastructure projects, and keep moving money around in different accounts like one large shell game, unless we find a way to bring money into the state. California is in even worse shape, facing a $20 billion deficit.

Unless someone comes up with an Andy Hardy moment, or we take over selling cookies and thin mints in front of Safeway and Walmart, the Republicans have not one good idea to solve our economic woes. Unless we can all get jobs working for the man, Michael Steele... because we are all Republicans now...

Mr Cantor's Neighborhood, China Tells European Countries To Boycott Nobel Ceremonies, Farewell Baghdadiya

Paul Krugman
Eugene Robinson
John Boehner

"Mr. Obama’s problem wasn’t lack of focus; it was lack of audacity. At the start of his administration he settled for an economic plan that was far too weak. He compounded this original sin both by pretending that everything was on track and by adopting the rhetoric of his enemies." - Paul Krugman

"Republicans won big on election day. They say their two big priorities are cutting taxes and reducing the debt. Which is sort of like wanting to lose weight and win 'Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.'" –Jimmy Kimmel

"In Washington today volunteers were washing the mud off Democrats and releasing them back into the wild." –David Letterman

One of the problems I have living out here in the boonies, is that I am so far away from the corridors of power, never getting an opportunity to meet or watch our representatives in Congress. Eugene Robinson picks up and amplifies on what I have previously said about Nancy Pelosi, and why the Republicans chose to set her up as a main villain during the midterm campaigns. In contrast, I have included an opinion piece from John Boehner on what he hopes to accomplish as the next speaker of the House. Nothing earth-shaking, each proposal has been brought up before, then put down by the Republicans. The earmarks are ok, but don't go far enough - all money gotten from lobbyists should be turned over to the general fund and made to help pay off the national debt, none should go to a representative or senator... Boehner's other suggestions are a sop to the Democrats, who have brought them up before, in fact, I thought that all impending legislation is already supposed to be posted on each committee's web site a week before it would go to the House floor...

Eric Cantor has just made the suggestion to have all oversight committee meetings filmed and broadcasted, maybe even featuring an "oversight of the week." Of course, CSPAN already does this, what isn't broadcast is archived and open to the public. Perhaps Mr Cantor wants to host his own show, where he comes in, puts on a sweater, sits down and introduces the oversight committee we are about to see. Call it Mr Cantor's Neighborhood... 





And Now that the midterms are over, we get to watch as leading and not so leading Republicans try to position themselves in a favorable public light, to see who will end up running for President in 2012. Even though Mit Romney is considered a frontrunner, he won't be nominated as long as people are prejudiced that he is a member of the Mormon cult. Did Sarah Palin just throw herself into the ring ?

As the not-so-retired Helene Cooper points out in the NY Times, the mid-terms elections have changed the makeup of major policy committees, for example: "The elections on Tuesday gutted the Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, paved the way for a pro-Israel Cuban-American to preside over the House Foreign Affairs Committee and removed the most antiwar Democrat from the leading Senate foreign policy committee." Meaning, the next challenges may be over the President's foreign policy strategies concerning Israel, Iran, and Eastern Europe over nuclear non-proliferation.

“Everyone is looking at what his response will be on domestic policy, but he’s lost his ability to carry out anything domestically. The one place he’s got left is foreign policy. After the midterm elections, foreign policy is where he can make his bones.” - George Friedman, of Stratfor

Barack Obama is on his way to Asia, where he is to visit India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. He is avoiding China, especially since China is being especially sensitive and pissy about its recent Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the boating incidents with Japan, where one of its fishing trawlers rammed a Japanese coast guard cutter. Obama hopes to present a united front towards China, and maybe they will take up a guarded position once again.

 Because China has lately been going into Europe and making large business deals, they think those governments now owe them. Some embassies have received a letter from Chinese diplomats "encouraging" their countries to boycott the Nobel Prize ceremonies. Bullying is second nature, because it works so well with its own population. All artists who wanted to go to the ceremonies have had their visas canceled, their cell phone service cut off, and security cameras set up around their houses to capture all who go in or out... It's China's small peaceful contribution to dealing with the Peace Prize...

The idea and definition of democracy can take some strange twists, especially in Iraq, where the government recently sought to control criticism by shutting down the Baghdad television studios of Baghdadiya. The station: "a satellite channel that broadcasts out of Cairo, is best known outside Iraq for its reporter Muntader al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush at a news conference in 2008.

Here, the channel has earned a reputation for its feisty news programming, including a morning program that provides an open forum for citizens to criticize the government, including Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. On Oct. 31, the security forces arrested two of the station’s employees who were accused of working with terrorists, and during a broadcast the next evening the security officials shut off the power in the Baghdad studio and ordered everyone to leave the building."

"They didn’t allow us to take anything, even our glasses or cigarettes, they want to stop us because Baghdadiya is embarrassing to them.”

The incident the government closed them down over is serious enough. When an al-Qaeda group took over a Christian church, Our Lady of Salvation, holding everyone inside hostage, and killing quite a few in the process, the extremists were able to broadcast their demands live over Bagdadiya. The government claims that this was treason, the station claims they called the station and it was a news story: “It’s all politics,” said Najim al-Rubay, the station’s media adviser. “They were looking for any excuse to close us. The government is targeting us for one thing: to bring the reputation of Baghdadiya down.” He defended the decision to broadcast the terrorists’ demands, saying: “It’s information to us. And before we broadcast it we informed the authorities. They did not ask us not to broadcast the demands. Does that make us terrorists?”

The arrests and the forced closing are emblematic of the changing news environment, in which journalists are less likely than in the past to be kidnapped or killed, and more likely to be harassed, jailed or slapped with lawsuits, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which is based in New York. “It resembles a war zone less, and more an authoritarian government that is engaged in efforts to manipulate news reporting,” he said.

“The Americans left us with a fake democracy,” Mr. Rubay said. “But we’re still broadcasting from Cairo, from Damascus. We will never stop.”

Mail In The Next Two Years...

Bill Clinton
Dana Milbank
Joe Klein

"Welcome to where rumor undergoes a fact-change operation and becomes analysis." – Stephen Colbert

"John Boehner will be the new speaker unless, out of habit, he blocks his own confirmation." –Stephen Colbert

"John Boehner will be the new Speaker of the House. It is the highest elected office ever to be reached by an Orange-American." – Olivia Munn

John Boehner will now replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. He might move his tanning bed into the office, but I don't think he'll share it with anyone. We'll know if Eric Cantor or other young Republicans suddenly turn up looking Orange... The reason that Ms Pelosi was so villified during the last two years is because she was the most effective Speaker of the House the Democrats ever had, and if you contrast her with the bumbling, hard drinking, overly emotional, one trick pony that is Mr Boehner, then the Republicans will be sadly lacking when it comes to inspiring and counting the troops. Which is where the younger men like Eric Cantor come in, to strategize and come up with legislation that will solve all of the problems that the previous batch of Republicans got us into.

Enter Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. I know there's a joke in there somewhere, like these two Republicans walk into a bar... if it was David Vitter I could make it into a prostitute joke and telling how he like to dress up in a diaper and be told what a bad boy he is... but with men like Mr Rubio, you may not get much support for his fellow legislators, as he said in his acceptance speech: We make a grave mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party," And in the next few months we find out if this new freshman class will step up to the plate and make an honest effort at taking a swing at our economy, or if they will fall in line behind Mitch McConnell, who's only stated goal is to make Obama a one term president...

But if the tea party elects can sit down and work with the president, they will find out that he really is a moderate guy, that all of that Marxist and Socialist talk was all scare tactics and bs, and that there are a lot of pragmatic solutions to our current woes. There are areas of our government that could be gotten rid of, including the last couple of agencies created, the National Security Advisor and the Department of Homeland Security. Get rid of the 16 different spy and security agencies, put them under jurisdiction of either the FBI or the CIA. Let the FBI also take over Treasury investigations and busts, DEA, ATF, and others so that we stop redundant bureaucracies and multiple reports on similar subjects. Anyway, get rid of the parts of government that grossly intrude into our lives so that we may have a semblance of a fantasy that we are free and those cameras posted at every traffic light mean nothing... But, nobody has the cojones to really cut back government, they will be too busy lining up at the lobbyist's trough, shoveling in the the bucks like good little piggies, adjust your makeup and lipstick for the cameras...

Now that Obama is taking his much needed trip to Asia, maybe the foreign policy bug will bite him again, and he will try to restart the Palestinian peace talks, which kinda faded a bit and walked away from the table. Next, he'll want to visit Moscow before Putin takes over everything again, maybe even visit Cuba... We could have Obama spend the next couple of years wandering the globe as a goodwill ambassador, since nothing will get accomplished in Congress. If necessary, he could always mail in a veto now and then...

Letter Bombs: It's All Greek To Me, Election Results: Colorado's Shards Of Sanity

Maureen Dowd
Mit Romney
Evan Bayh

"Government is a greater threat to America in 2010 than China was in 1972. Government is smothering the pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit that propelled our economy past those of older, larger nations. Ever higher taxes on small and big business, layers of red tape, onerous labor regulations, and punitive bureaucrats and lawsuits are suffocating U.S. economic vitality." - Mit Romney

"God help the Republic. And, Mr. Speaker, in the immortal words of Sharron Angle, man up!" - Maureen Dowd

So, how did you like the election results? I have mixed emotions, but generally, a sense of relief that the major wackos didn't get elected, which restored my faith in the common sense of the electorate. The carpet-bagging candidates who seemed to buy their way into politics failed miserably, which made me happy. Linda McMahon proved that governing is NOT like pro wrestling, Meg Whitman, who put over $184 million of her own into her campaign, lost to Jerry Brown. I think Jerry has held every office in the state of California, twice over. He's going to need as much luck as he can get, because the California state legislature is the most dysfunctional of all 50 states combined...

The one Senate race that received the most press coverage, even though the Republican fled from the press, was the Harry Reid and Sharron Angle tussle, which proved to be anti-climactic. Nary a gaffe to play with was uttered in defeat by Ms Angle. Not so the case of Ms O'Donnell, who had to conede her race, also. She hopes that her opponent listened to her and will take her beliefs and let them be known in the Senate, just not written on the men's rest room walls...

Living in Colorado, I found our races here very interesting. It was said that the wave of conservatism would wash over the state, leaving a trail of red in its wake, but that didn't really happen. Our new Governor is Democrat John Hickenlooper, who did not run any negative ads, if you can believe it. He beat out the mean and cynical Tom Tancredo, a political opportunist who left his own party and bullied his way into the tiny Constitutional Party so that he could be on the ballot as a third party candidate. There were no ads from the Constitutional Party explaining their platform, just attack ads that Tom approved himself. Besides immigration, which Tom is against, he didn't have much else to say other than if you are a conservative, ditch the Republican candidate and vote for him, maybe he'll switch back...

On the local level, the number of Democrats and Republicans elected, seemed pretty even. People voted more for the person than strictly for the Party, where you have to be more pragmatic over whom you can work with on a daily basis. My favorite district was Ramah, with a total of 18 registered voters... Michael Bennet seems to have won the Senate race by at least 15,000 votes, so there won't be an automatic recount. Buck refuses to concede the race until later on today. Of course, he doesn't have to concede at all, just slink away and drink his bitter tea...

What's up with all of the bombs this week? Yesterday, there were four letter bombs found, including one that made it to the mailroom of Germany's Prime Minister Angela Merkel. Today, five more were found, with one addressed to Nicolas Sarkozy, and the embassies of Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, bulgaria, Chile, Mexico, and Russia... Two students were arrested, officials said their goal was to create some fear and chaos before the Greek elections this Sunday, so there may be more showing up over the next couple of days. Oh, wait, one has just been found addressed to Silvio Berlusconi, time to stop the mail delivery...

In Baghdad, a series of coordinated bomb attacks went off in the most secure parts of the city, killing 63 and wounding over 285 more. Car bombs and roadside blasts were aimed at: "the huge enclave of Sadr City, a Sunni mosque, public squares, a crowded restaurant in the north corner of Baghdad, and middle-class shopping districts." If supporters of al-Alawi wanted to create the sense that al-Maliki's security forces cannot keep the capital safe, they are succeeding. If al-Qaeda just wants to prove that nobody is safe, including using Iranian made bombs to blow up an area identified with the Iranian backed Moktada al-Sadr, it, too, is working. If Syrian and Hizbollah-backed forces want to create an unsafe situation, enough where Iraq will turn to them instead of the US, well, that dove-tails in nicely with all other conspiracy theories, and I have barely scratched the surface... It probably has more to do with how lazy the police have become checking cars at check-points in the 110 degree sunlight...

The Yemenese government has begun dredging the desert sands, looking for their more "sophisticated" cargo bombers, who must be associated with the al-Qaeda menace Anwar al-Awlaki. In fact, they have started a witch hunt and trial in absentia for Mr Awlaki: "As Yemen faced increased pressure to move against Al Qaeda, prosecutors in Sana, the Yemeni capital, on Tuesday charged and immediately began a criminal trial in absentia for Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric now in hiding and operating as a recruiter and propagandist for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.


Mr. Awlaki, 39, has not yet been tied directly to the bomb plot, but American intelligence officials believe he is playing an increasingly important role in the terrorist group’s operations.


The chief prosecutor, Ali Al-Sanea’a, called Mr. Awlaki “yesterday a regular visitor of bars and discothèques in America” but now “the catalyst for shedding the blood of foreigners and security forces,” according to a statement. He said Mr. Awlaki was a leader of Al Qaeda and “a figure prone to evil, devoid of any conscience, religion or law.”


Mr. Awlaki was charged along with his cousin Othman al-Awlaki, who is also at large, and Hesham Mohammed Asem, who was present in court, with “forming an armed group to carry out criminal acts targeting foreigners” as part of Al Qaeda. Mr. Asem, 19, a security guard, is accused of shooting to death a French engineer on Oct. 6 in the Sana headquarters of the Austrian oil company OMV." OK, I know that this guy has been making cd's and tapes against the US, but last time I checked we guaranteed the right to free speech, even if we disagreed with the message. The only reason he became pissed off at the US was after we arrested him and put him a Yemeni jail back in 2003, I think the year was. I have only spent a few days in a Colorado jail, and that experience was enough to sour me on the competence of law officers in my home town. If I was put in a foreign jail for no damned reason, it would make me not trust my own government afterwards... So, in a way, I feel sorry for the guy, who is being blatantly set up by our government as being a bogeyman, poisoning the minds of innocent people and turning them against their country to serve his evil plans.

In the meantime we have companies of mercenaries getting away with murdering Iraqi and Afghans because they can ignore all rules of war, and we have soldiers so addicted to the adrenaline rush of being in danger for 24/7, that they burn themselves out re-enlisting for tours of duty. When they come back home, they are so jacked up that all they can do is think of suicide, when the rainbow is not enuf...

Yemen Bombings In The Time Of Nepali Cholera In Haiti, Or Can Rand Paul Overcome His Kentucky Cargo Cultists...

Dana Milbank
Jonathan Weiler
Mark McKinnon

"But as surely as the Democrats are going to lose badly tomorrow, the Republican Party leadership is going to misread its mandate. It is a party now almost fully in the thrall of extremists, with virtually no position too outrageous to merit full-throated condemnation And the public can't stand the GOP. Poll after poll shows that substantial majorities of Americans disapprove of the party. On the GOP's (and Tea Party's) presumably signature issue, reducing the scope of government, the public disagrees, by large majorities in many cases." - Jonathan Weiler

"So, to recap: Republicans will probably gain 75 seats, or perhaps 58, but their possible pickup range is from 55 to 85 -- except if it's lower than 50, or higher than 85." - Dana Milbank

Tonight's the night if you are a political junkie, otherwise, last night was the pinnacle when the SF Giants won the World Series... The media has tried to drum up as much interest as it could for a midterm election, and voting maybe at an all-time high, if how close so many races will be an indication...

The most covered Senate race is probably Christine O'Donnell, just because the reporters are waiting like vultures to see what mistakes she will make next. Mark McKinnon makes the argument that we should not be making these women out to be nutcases and crazy characters, because our daughters are watching. I agree with him that we do still use sexist descriptions of women and that is ultimately demeaning, but when women like Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Jan Brewer, Christine O'Donnell, and Michele Bachmann make embarrassing gaffes in public that shows a lack of intellectual depth and understanding of a subject, is it better to ignore it or should it be reported? Especially when the gaffes are so funny? And is it a coincidence that all of these women call themselves conservatives?

If you really want to see people get mean and vicious, go to where the votes are being reported tonight in your county. The place will be energetic and hopping, there might even be some name calling and fist-fights breaking out at this late a date, with local, state, and national politicos all mingling together, ready to break away and run over to the best nearby victory party...

Here's my prediction: because the republican Party never attempted to rebuild or redefine itself to include more minorities, the wins they get now will only become nails in the coffin in the next two years. So far the only public policy that John Boehner has stated is to tear down everything that Barack Obama has accomplished, with nothing to replace it or any new ideas to solve our current problems. The economy will not miraculously improve overnight, it will continue to drag on for years, and we will still have a large unemployment rate for several more years. The Democrats will no longer be blamed for this, the Republicans will be blamed and it may sound the GOP death knell.

The tea party will prove to be just as ineffective, in fact, they will be seen as more obstructionist than the Republicans, with even fewer ideas, and they will go offstage to die a quiet death as a political force, until the only thing left is the sound of Rand Paul rambling on incoherently...

The US Center for Disease Control has issued a statement saying that the cholera in Haiti has the same structure as a strain of cholera from Southeast Asia. OOps! The US has quarantined a base that it is using to bring in international peace keeping troops, specifically a group just flown in from Nepal. Not saying that we are the ones responsible for bringing in cholera to Haiti, but maybe we are their best of friends and their worst of enemies... Maybe we can send them some more tents and plastic ponchos to help against the next tropical storm due to hit the island within the next couple of days... Maybe even a Fugees concert to take your mind off of the hundreds who have died already, and the thousands who have come down with it...


One question that may remain unanswered about the cargo bombs from Yemen is, were they supposed to have reached a destination before exploding, or were they designed to cause damage somewhere on the way? That the names and addresses were fictional points towards the desire to cause damage before reaching Chicago. Several more bombs have been delivered in Greece, and one to Angela Merkel in Germany, hinting at several copycat bomb makers plying their trade.

If Yemen is supposed to have been such a hotspot of terrorist activities, why hasn't it been cut off, with everything going in and out of there being inspected? Why hasn't this been done years ago? Why are so many cargo haulers whining about inspecting packages? So what if it takes an extra day for you to get that piece of electronics, and we could make exceptions for items like livers for transplants and nuclear trigger devices for Saudi Arabia and Israel...

To counteract against the rising tides of homophobia, Islamophobia, and the image of the US as an aggressive, war promoting country, today there are more young Americans signing up to join the Peace Corps than ever before. I guess our future will be in good hands if there are so many working to help solve problems all over the world instead of leaving it to the CIA and their drone programs...

Change I Can Relieve Myself In, Yemen and Lebanon, Prop 19 Art

Fareed Zakaria
Paul Krugman
EJ Dionne

"The classic middle-ground voter who will swing this election -- moderate, independent, suburban -- has always been suspicious of dogmatic promises that certain big ideas would give birth to a utopian age. This voter is looking for simpler and more realistic things: a bit more security, a bit more income, and renewed confidence that the future will be better than the past. Such voters still haven't found what they're looking for." - EJ Dionne

It's a good bet that tomorrow's elections won't resolve much, we'll have to wait until all of the recounts to finish before we know who the next Senator from Nevada or Colorado will be. If you have a tea party backed candidate in your area, make a bet with your friends that candidate will demand a recall... Too bad Halloween and the election didn't fall on the same night. The spirit of giving and the cuteness of all of those children in their costumes would help balance the unbridled passions and anger and yelling that comes with election results... Personally, I am going to miss all of the wonderfully wacky candidates, and hope to see even more in the upcoming campaigns, even when it makes you wonder where all of the sober, smart people are in politics. Because we've had our fair share of people disassociated from reality who have already been elected to Congress. Remember, only three or four states ever took Barry Goldwater seriously...

The makeup of Congress will change after Tuesday, that is a given. The results of those changes may not be very much, according to George Friedman of Stratfor Global Intelligence website: "The Democrats will lose their ability to impose cloture in the Senate and thereby shut off debate. Whether they lose the House or not, the Democrats will lose the ability to pass legislation at the will of the House Democratic leadership. The large majority held by the Democrats will be gone, and party discipline will not be strong enough (it never is) to prevent some defections.


Should the Republicans win an overwhelming victory in both houses next week, they will still not have the votes to override presidential vetoes. Therefore they will not be able to legislate unilaterally, and if any legislation is to be passed it will have to be the result of negotiations between the president and the Republican Congressional leadership. Thus, whether the Democrats do better than expected or the Republicans win a massive victory, the practical result will be the same." Whether this develops an impasse for all further legislation, and we end up bickering like five-year-olds for the next two years, remains to be seen. Or commented on by John Stewart and the late night comedians, whom I so dearly love.

I find it amazing how tiny countries like Yemen and Lebanon can cause more trouble and strife to this region than all of the larger countries combined. Lebanon is twice the size of Vermont, yet it is on the brink of a civil war that could drag Israel and every other country surrounding it into war. Any day now, if Hizbollah is to be believed... And now large amounts of oil and natural gas have been found off the coast of Lebanon and Israel, in an area that hasn't really been delineated as a border between the two states, so there is more potential for either war or mutual cooperation, depending on who stays in power in the Lebanese government...

Yemen is supposed to be the largest hotspot for al-Qaeda training, coming up with clever plans to blow up planes, hiding explosives in shoes, printers, and underwear. To be honest, this isn't very high-tech stuff, and the same stash of explosives that went into the underwear also went into the recent cargo packages, meaning that not much money is involved. It may turn out that this stuff was put together in a college dorm room or some similar funky place, under the guidance of one Saudi born munitions expert.

The US wanted to send in some Marine units into Yemen to sweep the desert and launch a few more drones, while the State Dept was busily trying to link the New Mexico born Anwar al-Awlaki to the creation of the cargo bombs, yet more proof that he deserves to be on the CIA assassination list and deserves to die... No matter how far-fetched, it all will be tied to al-Awlaki...

I still haven't gotten my medical marijuana card here in Colorado. If prop 19 passes in California, I wonder how many people will be flocking to the Golden State, it will certainly beef up their tourist rates. So here are some of the images that folks are using to try and legalize marijuana in California. It's all an attempt to make Eric Holder look bad, and put pressure on the tea party politicians, to see if they really will support state's rights over the feds...

Why, it's as patriotic as mother and apple pie...