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Post by Sue on Nov 5, 2008 13:51:01 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations.
(What? I put away the laundry!)
1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms?
2. If not, I'm am extremely high on Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (http://www.brianschweitzer.com/), who gave a great speech at the convention in Denver. His Lt. Gov. is Repub. Also, he worked hard for Obama in MT and the final outcome had McCain 2 pts under projected polls and Obama 4 pts above (50-47 instead of 52-43)
3. Sarah Palin was interviewed a bit today (it was fairly informal) and the bit I saw had her questioning the fairness (or at least the balance) of the media. Here is my question: if the Repubs think that journalists have been one-sided what can they do to "fix" that? Send more kids to journalism schools? My guess is that a lot of students who enter journalism schools are more likely to come out Dem than Rep for a variety of reasons, but there you are.
4. Change. Change actually happens whether you work for it or not. Lots of change. I"m no suggesting that we don't need to work for positive changes but one reason I"m optimistic is just looking back over my "short" life and seeing where we've come, for example, in our relationships with Japan and Germany in the past 60 years.
5. Have you heard that there is not one single Repub member of the House from New England?
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Post by Matthew on Nov 5, 2008 13:56:41 GMT -5
Maybe they won't. Maybe the Libertarian party will grow in membership and power and eventually nudge the Republicans out of the way. One thing is for sure, we agree that if the Republicans expect to survive they are going to have to make some serious changes. Agreed. I hope the Libertarians will absorb the non-Sarah-Palin Republicans, and reduce the religious right to its own third party. O, please, please let this be the case.
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Post by Sue on Nov 5, 2008 13:59:04 GMT -5
Google News says that all the NC precincts have reported in and Obama narrowly won but the state hasn't been "called" yet. Maybe cause if it's that close they have to do some other magical doohicky thing? McCain's concession speech was classy. He seemed more like the McCain of old than the McCain during the last days of the campaign. Obama's acceptance speech was inspiring; the cadence seemed very reminiscent of MLK's I have a dream speech. It will be very interesting to see where the political parties go from here, particularly the Republican party. And I know I saw some news org call MO for McCain, although it's not showing up everywhere. In other news R Saxby Chambliss of GA is going to have to go thru a runoff on Dec. 2 for his senate seat. Apparently Obama organizers are just itching to flood the state. On of my favorite observations by a pundit last night was the prediction that Washington would be flooded by an influx of the "best and the brightest" wanting to be part of Obama's change admin and leaving (or delaying) private gain for public service. Much like happened with Kennedy.
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Post by Sue on Nov 5, 2008 14:03:59 GMT -5
My thoughts about where we go from here: *In one of the primary debates, when asked what the first thing he would do on day one as president, he said that he would pull out all of Bush's executive orders and have his attorney general review and then reverse any of them that were found to be unconstitutional. If he accomplishes nothing else as president, then I'll be satisfied. I'd also like to see a larger investigation of everything that the Bush did during this terms in office because I have a sneaking suspicion that we don't know the half of it.
Liz, I agree somewhat with what's in red, BUT I am, at the same time, reluctant to get mired in past rather than looking to the future. On the one hand we can't let people who broke the law, no matter how high up in office, get off without being called to account. But on the other hand I don't want to see him start out in office by all sorts of time and energy (and good will and chance for bi-partianship) spent (I'm not saying wasted) on prosecuting the past. I'm just not sure how I feel about this.
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Post by Rachael on Nov 5, 2008 14:09:10 GMT -5
As am I, on both counts. This is extremely depressing news. This isn't good news, granted, and I don't mean to trivialize it in any way, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna get depressed or disapppointed today. Change on issues like this takes time. There are back and forths . . . but today is a day that means that whatever setbacks, there is hope. That's how I feel, too. We'll make that one right in the end. It doesn't happen overnight, but look at what DID happen last night. We'll get there.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 14:09:33 GMT -5
Google News says that all the NC precincts have reported in and Obama narrowly won but the state hasn't been "called" yet. Maybe cause if it's that close they have to do some other magical doohicky thing? McCain's concession speech was classy. He seemed more like the McCain of old than the McCain during the last days of the campaign. Obama's acceptance speech was inspiring; the cadence seemed very reminiscent of MLK's I have a dream speech. It will be very interesting to see where the political parties go from here, particularly the Republican party. And I know I saw some news org call MO for McCain, although it's not showing up everywhere. In other news R Saxby Chambliss of GA is going to have to go thru a runoff on Dec. 2 for his senate seat. Apparently Obama organizers are just itching to flood the state. On of my favorite observations by a pundit last night was the prediction that Washington would be flooded by an influx of the "best and the brightest" wanting to be part of Obama's change admin and leaving (or delaying) private gain for public service. Much like happened with Kennedy.That would be cool. I think one of the great things Obama has done is to make folks like myself and younger excited about politics and government (much like with Kennedy?). I thought I would just be happy with the prospect of Bush being out of office, but now I'm actually looking forward to the next administrtion.
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Post by Jan on Nov 5, 2008 14:14:37 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations. (What? I put away the laundry!) 1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms? 2. If not, I'm am extremely high on Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (http://www.brianschweitzer.com/), who gave a great speech at the convention in Denver. His Lt. Gov. is Repub. Also, he worked hard for Obama in MT and the final outcome had McCain 2 pts under projected polls and Obama 4 pts above (50-47 instead of 52-43) 3. Sarah Palin was interviewed a bit today (it was fairly informal) and the bit I saw had her questioning the fairness (or at least the balance) of the media. Here is my question: if the Repubs think that journalists have been one-sided what can they do to "fix" that? Send more kids to journalism schools? My guess is that a lot of students who enter journalism schools are more likely to come out Dem than Rep for a variety of reasons, but there you are. 4. Change. Change actually happens whether you work for it or not. Lots of change. I"m no suggesting that we don't need to work for positive changes but one reason I"m optimistic is just looking back over my "short" life and seeing where we've come, for example, in our relationships with Japan and Germany in the past 60 years. 5. Have you heard that there is not one single Repub member of the House from New England?Why yes, I had heard that. I did. And I did my very best to help that along. Although I'm not very fond of our Republican governor, who was re-elected mostly because he was running against 2 others who split the opposition, I think we have terrific members of Congress. Especially Bernie Sanders, who turned Burlington around when he was mayor (on the Socialist ticket) and Pat Leahy. How could ya not love a man who was publicly told to go fuck himself by Dick head Cheney? Did y'all know that in the March election, Brattleboro passed a resolution swearing out a warrant for Bush and Cheney, and will arrest them for war crimes should they ever happen to find themselves there? Not that I can imagine either of them ever coming to Vermont.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 14:15:23 GMT -5
My thoughts about where we go from here: *In one of the primary debates, when asked what the first thing he would do on day one as president, he said that he would pull out all of Bush's executive orders and have his attorney general review and then reverse any of them that were found to be unconstitutional. If he accomplishes nothing else as president, then I'll be satisfied. I'd also like to see a larger investigation of everything that the Bush did during this terms in office because I have a sneaking suspicion that we don't know the half of it.
Liz, I agree somewhat with what's in red, BUT I am, at the same time, reluctant to get mired in past rather than looking to the future. On the one hand we can't let people who broke the law, no matter how high up in office, get off without being called to account. But on the other hand I don't want to see him start out in office by all sorts of time and energy (and good will and chance for bi-partianship) spent (I'm not saying wasted) on prosecuting the past. I'm just not sure how I feel about this. Aside from the executives orders, I don't want Obama to get bogged down with an investigation. I was thinking it should be more something a Senate or House committee would investigate. I think there have already been a few stirrings of doing something in that direction. I think it's more important to move forward than get bogged down by the past, and after having listened to the Democratic primaries, I actually am sick of hearing people criticize Bush (and I never thought that would happen). Why I think some kind of comprehensive investigation is important is twofold. First of all, what actually happened in the past 8 years needs to be made clear to the public and Bush and whoever else have to be held accountable for what they have done. Secondly, we have to know what happened before we can figure out how to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
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Post by Rachael on Nov 5, 2008 14:16:56 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations. (What? I put away the laundry!) 1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms? 2. If not, I'm am extremely high on Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (http://www.brianschweitzer.com/), who gave a great speech at the convention in Denver. His Lt. Gov. is Repub. Also, he worked hard for Obama in MT and the final outcome had McCain 2 pts under projected polls and Obama 4 pts above (50-47 instead of 52-43) 3. Sarah Palin was interviewed a bit today (it was fairly informal) and the bit I saw had her questioning the fairness (or at least the balance) of the media. Here is my question: if the Repubs think that journalists have been one-sided what can they do to "fix" that? Send more kids to journalism schools? My guess is that a lot of students who enter journalism schools are more likely to come out Dem than Rep for a variety of reasons, but there you are. Here's the thing: there was very little positive to report about McCain's campaign. I know this, because Fox News and the like could find almost nothing. They had to focus on attacking the opposition, and that makes you look bad in news coverage. Yes, the press was biased. With good reason. (Also, I like this, from Salon.com: "Reality has a liberal bias.") Yup. They're becoming more and more the party of the South.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Nov 5, 2008 14:17:35 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations. (What? I put away the laundry!) 1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms? 2. If not, I'm am extremely high on Montana governor Brian Schweitzer (http://www.brianschweitzer.com/), who gave a great speech at the convention in Denver. His Lt. Gov. is Repub. Also, he worked hard for Obama in MT and the final outcome had McCain 2 pts under projected polls and Obama 4 pts above (50-47 instead of 52-43) 3. Sarah Palin was interviewed a bit today (it was fairly informal) and the bit I saw had her questioning the fairness (or at least the balance) of the media. Here is my question: if the Repubs think that journalists have been one-sided what can they do to "fix" that? Send more kids to journalism schools? My guess is that a lot of students who enter journalism schools are more likely to come out Dem than Rep for a variety of reasons, but there you are. 4. Change. Change actually happens whether you work for it or not. Lots of change. I"m no suggesting that we don't need to work for positive changes but one reason I"m optimistic is just looking back over my "short" life and seeing where we've come, for example, in our relationships with Japan and Germany in the past 60 years. 5. Have you heard that there is not one single Repub member of the House from New England?Why yes, I had heard that. I did. And I did my very best to help that along. Although I'm not very fond of our Republican governor, who was re-elected mostly because he was running against 2 others who split the opposition, I think we have terrific members of Congress. Especially Bernie Sanders, who turned Burlington around when he was mayor (on the Socialist ticket) and Pat Leahy. How could ya not love a man who was publicly told to go fuck himself by Dick head Cheney? Did y'all know that in the March election, Brattleboro passed a resolution swearing out a warrant for Bush and Cheney, and will arrest them for war crimes should they ever happen to find themselves there? Not that I can imagine either of them ever coming to Vermont.Interesting.
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Post by SpringSummers on Nov 5, 2008 14:51:29 GMT -5
A few more random ruminations. (What? I put away the laundry!) 1. So, looking into your crystal ball do we assume that 67 year old Biden is good for 2 terms? No, we can't assume, but it will be a bridge for Obama to cross when he gets there. If Joe is still healthy and has served competently, I assume he'd stay on the ticket. Montana? Well, I guess if Alaska could work . . . wait, it ddin't work. Assuming Biden for some reason wasn't chosen to repeat, I imagine the mood of the country and the nature of the opponents will play a part in decision making. I heard Sarah being very positive, talking about uniting, and saying a lot of nice things about John. She mentioned the economic crisis as being what she thought was the deciding factor. There's not much Republicans can to do "fix" media bias beyond pointing it out, and pointing it out, and pointing it out. It's not fair to call "objectively pointing out facts that happen to favor the other side" bias. But the bias was very real; I'm sure I wasn't imagining things. On Fox, Obama's illegal immigrant aunt was played up as a big story. On NBC, John McCain's brother cussing out the 911 dispatcher was played up. Dear God - these are not headline stories! They are meaningless. And those are just two examples among many, many, many. From my viewpoint: Fox was clearly biased toward McCain; MSNBC toward Obama, and the other mainstreamers leaned Obama, though their slant didn't seem to be as crazy obvious as Fox or MSNBC. Change is inevitable; positive change not so much.
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Post by Queen E on Nov 5, 2008 15:26:25 GMT -5
It's really strange to see the reaction here in England...so many people are saying "We won!" even though they didn't vote and in fact are English....
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Nov 5, 2008 15:44:24 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, the Ferengi.... I never thought of him that way, but it's so perfect!
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Nov 5, 2008 15:45:37 GMT -5
I also worry about the bullet...I've stopped reading the crazy-con threads (as opposed to the sane-cons, like Onjel - them I like) because they're all so very racist this morning. We did piss off the racists. You can tell a sane Republican from an insane Republican today by looking to see what they're saying. If they're trying to figure out why they lost, they're sane. If they already know, and it's because the rest of America is stupid and racist, then they're crazy. I've seen the word "half-breed" on a thread where the person using it was trying to convince people that Obama WON due to racism. Hell, I happened upon a conversation about whether the timing of the death of Obama's grandmother was too convenient to be pure chance. My son, the rampant republican (where oh were did I go WRONG?) tried to insinuate that one to me. I played dumb and kept asking him what he MEANT.
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Nov 5, 2008 16:02:04 GMT -5
I also worry about the bullet...I've stopped reading the crazy-con threads (as opposed to the sane-cons, like Onjel - them I like) because they're all so very racist this morning. We did piss off the racists. You can tell a sane Republican from an insane Republican today by looking to see what they're saying. If they're trying to figure out why they lost, they're sane. If they already know, and it's because the rest of America is stupid and racist, then they're crazy. I've seen the word "half-breed" on a thread where the person using it was trying to convince people that Obama WON due to racism. See, this is what is so aggravating to me. There are whack-jobs on both ends of the spectrum, but advocating murder and calling everyone names? Saddens and angers me at the same time. Time to look forward and not backward for the country as a whole. For the Republicans? Time to look forward to what they can change and improve upon and backward at how far they have strayed from the platform they need to adopt. They do not need to blame anyone else. That is counter-productive to change and re-building, if they can rebuild. I know where the conservatives failed. They failed by letting the Republicans go off task. (Not that I'm giving up my "conspiracy theory" side that the election and campaign were deliberately undersold, mind. ) Until such time as the conservatives can form a party to stick with "smaller government, increased or protected civil liberties, fiscal responsibility, sane immigration policies and strong national security without provoking useless costly wars" and get away from pandering to the (sorry folks) religious right and bigots, the party is destined to lose. W isn't a conservative. He's a spendthrift (among other things) in "Republican" costume. See, Conservatism, as such doesn't bother me. I'm in favor of cautious change. However, let's look at their ideas vs. what they actually did: Fiscal responsibility? A war we can't afford and can't win and can't leave. A Stock Market plunging. Gas prices until recently, out of sight. People's retirement funds decimated. Increased and Protected Civil Liberties? Ask those guys at Guantanamo. Consider that we are watched over more than citizens of the Soviet Union in its heyday. Sane Immigration Policies? I don't have room here for just how insane those policies have become. Or how expensive for people who traditionally are at the bottom of the earning scale. Strong National Security? In the pursuit of strong national security we have lost many of the aforementioned personal civil liberties and we aren't any more secure than we were on September 10, 2001. In point of fact, we are pitifully vulnerable. We just make a lot more noise and suffer a lot more inconvenience. If the Republican party had managed to live up to even a few of their ideals I might have some respect for them. I am not, however, in favor of out of control reactionaryism. I do not like pandering to the nutcase extremes on the far reaches of our society. Nor do I have any admiration for playing on the fears of the one-issue voters.
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