The Republican Party that my parents belonged to is gone.
At this point, many life-long Republicans are struggling to understand why their party left them. I think it started when the Dixiecrats joined the party 50 years ago over the Civil Rights Act. While welcoming those politicians and their voters seemed like a good idea at the time, those Republicans were actually joining with people who had for generations opposed what the party of Lincoln had been founded on.
Since then, the Republican Party has been a coalition of true conservatives, evangelicals, corporate power, and the crowd that has taken it over now. I'm not really clear on whether Trump has won over a number of Republicans because they are so anti-Hillary/anti-Democrat, or because he appeals to them with his authoritarian macho rhetoric. Or both.
The fact remains that were my parents alive today I don't know what party they would be in, but it isn't the one I see today.

Agenda

Thankfully I was wrong and the anti-Bush wave that swept across America on Nov 7th was bigger than the Rove machine had predicted and any election fraud was overcome by the sheer numbers. Don't count on that happening in 2008 however. My new fear is complancecy.
Now that the Democrats have both houses of Congress, here's the agenda I think they should puruse in the following order (although I won't quibble over the priority order):

* Repeal the Millitary Commissions Act
* Establish a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq
* Open investigations into the corruption of the K-Street project
* Establish a paper trail election system (open to ideas on best system, but eliminate the requirement of user Republican donor Corporate machines e.g. Diebold)
* Open investigations into the Administration's holding of prisoners in Cuba
* Increase the minimum wage
* Follow up on the investigations begun by Conyers on the Ohio voting problems of 2004
* Follow up on the Conyers impeachment process - even if it's "too late" to pursue impeachment, at least open hearings on the corruption of the Administration, especially with regards to the defense contractors and how the country was mislead into war. If this isn't done, history is bound to repeat itself.

There will be no joy in Mudville on Nov 8th

I’m concerned that the Democrats are taking this election for granted. With so much good news in the polls that the Republicans are about to lose the house and possibly the Senate and no apparent overt strategy emanating from the Rove White House, I suspect that we are all overlooking the obvious.
In 2000, the election was obviously rigged in Florida to put Bush in power and they almost didn’t make it, in fact having to fight right up to the Supreme Court to get the guy appointed.
In 2002, not much effort was needed to rig the elections since they had the voters scared that the Democrats would give the country to the terrorists, but there is evidence that the same tactics were employed and in fact were test runs for 2004.
“In 1996, Hagel became the first elected Republican Nebraska senator in 24 years when he did surprisingly well in an election where the votes were verified by the company he served as chairman and maintained a financial investment. In both the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hagel’s ES&S counted an estimated 80% of his winning votes.”
In 2004 there was much controversy over the Bush victory in Ohio, and in all of these elections, although there was investigations and debates, the outcomes remained.
Now in 2006 do we really think that the GOP will roll over and submit to the will of the people? Yeah and the Iraqis are going to welcome American soldiers with flowers to come get their WMDs.
I do hope that my prediction is just as wrong.
--hobbes.

I'm shocked to find out there's gambling going on in this establishment!

Rove needed an October media blitz surprize to counter the buzz over Woodward's book "State of Denial". Little did he realize that would be Foley's resignation.
We now discover that the leadership either ignored the Foley situation out of ignorance or deliberately covered it up.
But maybe as the chair of the house caucus of missing and exploited children he was just doing some research.

Traitorous comments?

Ahhh. I'm back. Yes there was quite a span there where I lay quiet on this front, but musing all the while to myself and others around me occaisionally.
Meanwhile I have been observing the state of the world and noted that Chavez has called Bush the Devil. I have also, but I didn't have much of an audience so it didn't get as much play. Chavez has some balls and I'm glad he's using them. I hope he inspires the rest of the world leaders to not be pushed around any more by the Bush-bully. But then again, he can aford to while some others are dependent on US aid. Chavez seemed to speak mostly off the cuff and recommended reading Chomsky. The assembly appeared to generally be amused by and applauded the insults he flung at the Devil (Bolton excluded).
	So the fact that I liked Chavez's comments will bring some criticism from conservatives that I dare support this guy because he is buddies with Castro and other "notorious" dictators. Well, unlike those conservatives, I don't practice blind ideological loyalty. It's ok to agree with what someone says during one speech and not be a full supporter.
I also liked some of the things that Iran's Ahmadi-Nej ad said in his UN speech, but that doesn't mean I think he's good for Iran. He's not the devil that Bush has made him out to be either though I bet. Here we have two religious fanatics in charge of the two major players in world peace at the moment. One doesn't believe in the Holocaust and the other one doesn't believe in evolution.
I am an atheist, but I am praying that more people both outside and inside this country will continue to speak out against the rodeo clown from Texas...God help us

I'll have the cake...

The administration doesn't need no stinkin' congressional approval to do wiretaps, but on the other hand, since Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald doesn't have congressional approval to do his investigation, he can't prosecute Libby, attorneys for Libby (and thus an extension of the administration) argued Thursday (23 Feb.). Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?

Meanwhile...

Hannity and his girlfriend Coulter have been repeating that Rove mantra of "Democrats are pre-9/11", but I suspect (and hope) this may come back to haunt the Republicants, IF the Democrats can capitalize on this:

I think there is a desire of Americans to get back to that pre-9/11 era: pre-Iraq war, pre-Congressional corruption, pre-huge deficits, pre-fear-mongering. That's when Americans were NOT afraid of what trouble the government might get them into next, when the economy looked promising, when the worst problem we focused on was illicit sex, not illicit torture, illicit domestic-spying and an illicit war that is draining our future, our military and our youth, while filling the bank-accounts of Cheney and his cohorts and sending the tax bill to our children and our grandchildren.

Hobbes

(Still paying attention even I tho I've been quiet)

State of the Onion

My prediction of Fearless Leader's speech tonite, boiled down to it's basics:
"Give me more power. We will keep America afraid because that gives me and my party more power. We will keep the eternal war going because that gives me and my party more power. I need to spy on American citizens to keep you from being against me. I will ask congress to continue giving tax breaks to my rich friends. I will ask congress to spend more money on goverment contracts for my rich friends. When push comes to shove, we will cut benefits for the needy because they don't vote for us anyway, and then give me more power."
Hobbes