WARNING! - Not for the faint of heart!

Don't ask me how I stumbled upon this website produced by a "Pro-Family" group. It asks for the boycott of Ford because they sponsored a program that contained footage that is indescribably offensive. The link to see this footage is below. So consider yourself warned if you dare to click open the video. Once you see it, you will never forget it. I applaud those at Boycottford.com for fighting to keep these horrible, horrible images from influencing the minds of our youth. I wish I could say more, but after seeing these images, I need to wash my eyes out with soap.


Click to Watch

1986 Mets World Series in RBI

Very cool video created by some diehard Mets fans with too much time on their hands. Too bad they weren't able to truly capture "the play."

Great NY Post Headline

Just to make completely certain he's dead, when they check the casket they should poke him with sticks. But nice sticks, not beat-up ones - you don't want to insult the family.
And who wrote this headline - Ed Rooney from Ferris Bueller's Day Off? - "Dead grandmother? Sure, you just roll her ole bones in here, and I'll release your daughter."

Wimbledon 2006

Now THAT's what I call a ball boy.

This week's "EAT SOMETHING!" category

After filming wraps on the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, Keira Knightley is scheduled to play the role of Skeletor in a new film version of "He-Man, Masters of the Universe." Fortunately for the budget, no makeup or CGI will be required.

17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists - Michael Moore

[Roche note: as some of my friends know, until the past year or so I was a huge anti-Michael Moore person. Wouldn't see any of his movies, thought he was full of crap, made an ass out of himself on the Oscars, etc. I was pretty cemented in my stance against what he had to say. I honestly didn't think anyone could convince me to listen to Moore, but leave it to Bush and his administration to show me the way. I still don't take everything Moore says as gospel, but even if you believe only HALF of the facts he presents, it's some pretty scary stuff]

11/5/04

Dear Friends,

Ok, it sucks. Really sucks. But before you go and cash it all in, let's, in
the words of Monty Python, 'always look on the bright side of life!' There
IS some good news from Tuesday's election.

Here are 17 reasons not to slit your wrists:

1. It is against the law for George W. Bush to run for president again.

2. Bush's victory was the NARROWEST win for a sitting president since
Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. The only age group in which the majority voted for Kerry was young adults
(Kerry: 54%, Bush: 44%), proving once again that your parents are always
wrong and you should never listen to them.

4. In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the
country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don't approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

5. The Republicans will not have a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the
Senate. If the Democrats do their job, Bush won't be able to pack the
Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues. Did I say "if the Democrats do
their job?" Um, maybe better to scratch this one.

6. Michigan voted for Kerry! So did the entire Northeast, the birthplace of
our democracy. So did 6 of the 8 Great Lakes States. And the whole West
Coast! Plus Hawaii. Ok, that's a start. We've got most of the fresh water,
all of Broadway, and Mt. St. Helens. We can dehydrate them or bury them in
lava. And no more show tunes!

7. Once again we are reminded that the buckeye is a nut, and not just any
old nut -- a poisonous nut. A great nation was felled by a poisonous nut.
May Ohio State pay dearly this Saturday when it faces Michigan.

8. 88% of Bush's support came from white voters. In 50 years, America will
no longer have a white majority. Hey, 50 years isn't such a long time! If
you're ten years old and reading this, your golden years will be truly
golden and you will be well cared for in your old age.

9. Gays, thanks to the ballot measures passed on Tuesday, cannot get married
in 11 new states. Thank God. Just think of all those wedding gifts we won't
have to buy now.

10. Five more African Americans were elected as members of Congress,
including the return of Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. It's always good to
have more blacks in there fighting for us and doing the job our candidates
can't.

11. The CEO of Coors was defeated for Senate in Colorado. Drink up!

12. Admit it: We like the Bush twins and we don't want them to go away.

13. At the state legislative level, Democrats picked up a net of at least 3
chambers in Tuesday's elections. Of the 98 partisan-controlled state
legislative chambers (house/assembly and senate), Democrats went into the
2004 elections in control of 44 chambers, Republicans controlled 53
chambers, and 1 chamber was tied. After Tuesday, Democrats now control 47
chambers, Republicans control 49 chambers, 1 chamber is tied and 1 chamber
(Montana House) is still undecided.

14. Bush is now a lame duck president. He will have no greater moment than
the one he's having this week. It's all downhill for him from here on out --
and, more significantly, he's just not going to want to do all the hard work
that will be expected of him. It'll be like everyone's last month in 12th
grade -- you've already made it, so it's party time! Perhaps he'll treat the
next four years like a permanent Friday, spending even more time at the
ranch or in Kennebunkport. And why shouldn't he? He's already proved his
point, avenged his father and kicked our ass.

15. Should Bush decide to show up to work and take this country down a very
dark road, it is also just as likely that either of the following two
scenarios will happen: a) Now that he doesn't ever need to pander to the
Christian conservatives again to get elected, someone may whisper in his ear
that he should spend these last four years building "a legacy" so that
history will render a kinder verdict on him and thus he will not push for
too aggressive a right-wing agenda; or b) He will become so cocky and
arrogant -- and thus, reckless -- that he will commit a blunder of such
major proportions that even his own party will have to remove him from
office.

16. There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting
age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it
means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million. If you had 58 yards
to go before you reached the goal line and then you barreled down 55 of
those yards, would you stop on the three yard line, pick up the ball and go
home crying -- especially when you get to start the next down on the three
yard line? Of course not! Buck up! Have hope! More sports analogies are
coming!!!

17. Finally and most importantly, over 55 million Americans voted for the
candidate dubbed "The #1 Liberal in the Senate." That's more than the total
number of voters who voted for either Reagan, Bush I, Clinton or Gore.
Again, more people voted for Kerry than Reagan. If the media are looking for
a trend it should be this -- that so many Americans were, for the first time
since Kennedy, willing to vote for an out-and-out liberal. The country has
always been filled with evangelicals -- that is not news. What IS news is
that so many people have shifted toward a Massachusetts liberal. In fact,
that's BIG news. Which means, don't expect the mainstream media, the ones
who brought you the Iraq War, to ever report the real truth about November
2, 2004. In fact, it's better that they don't. We'll need the element of
surprise in 2008.

Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, "My
Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a
wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"

But it needs us. Rest up, I'll write you again tomorrow.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

NY Times Op-Ed Contributor: Why They Won

Op-Ed Contributor: Why They Won



November 5, 2004

By THOMAS FRANK



Washington



The first thing Democrats must try to grasp as they cast

their eyes over the smoking ruins of the election is the

continuing power of the culture wars. Thirty-six years ago,

President Richard Nixon championed a noble "silent

majority" while his vice president, Spiro Agnew, accused

liberals of twisting the news. In nearly every election

since, liberalism has been vilified as a flag-burning,

treason-coddling, upper-class affectation. This year voters

claimed to rank "values" as a more important issue than the

economy and even the war in Iraq.



And yet, Democrats still have no coherent framework for

confronting this chronic complaint, much less understanding

it. Instead, they "triangulate," they accommodate, they

declare themselves converts to the Republican religion of

the market, they sign off on Nafta and welfare reform, they

try to be more hawkish than the Republican militarists. And

they lose. And they lose again. Meanwhile, out in Red

America, the right-wing populist revolt continues apace,

its fury at the "liberal elite" undiminished by the

Democrats' conciliatory gestures or the passage of time.



Like many such movements, this long-running conservative

revolt is rife with contradictions. It is an uprising of

the common people whose long-term economic effect has been

to shower riches upon the already wealthy and degrade the

lives of the very people who are rising up. It is a

reaction against mass culture that refuses to call into

question the basic institutions of corporate America that

make mass culture what it is. It is a revolution that plans

to overthrow the aristocrats by cutting their taxes.



Still, the power of the conservative rebellion is

undeniable. It presents a way of talking about life in

which we are all victims of a haughty overclass -

"liberals" - that makes our movies, publishes our

newspapers, teaches our children, and hands down judgments

from the bench. These liberals generally tell us how to go

about our lives, without any consideration for our values

or traditions.



The culture wars, in other words, are a way of framing the

ever-powerful subject of social class. They are a way for

Republicans to speak on behalf of the forgotten man without

causing any problems for their core big-business

constituency.



Against this militant, aggrieved, full-throated philosophy

the Democrats chose to go with ... what? Their usual soft

centrism, creating space for this constituency and that,

taking care to antagonize no one, declining even to

criticize the president, really, at their convention. And

despite huge get-out-the-vote efforts and an enormous

treasury, Democrats lost the battle of voter motivation

before it started.



Worse: While conservatives were sharpening their sense of

class victimization, Democrats had all but abandoned the

field. For some time, the centrist Democratic establishment

in Washington has been enamored of the notion that, since

the industrial age is ending, the party must forget about

blue-collar workers and their issues and embrace the

"professional" class. During the 2004 campaign these new,

business-friendly Democrats received high-profile

assistance from idealistic tycoons and openly embraced

trendy management theory. They imagined themselves the

"metro" party of cool billionaires engaged in some kind of

cosmic combat with the square billionaires of the "retro"

Republican Party.



Yet this would have been a perfect year to give the

Republicans a Trumanesque spanking for the many corporate

scandals that they have countenanced and, in some ways,

enabled. Taking such a stand would also have provided

Democrats with a way to address and maybe even defeat the

angry populism that informs the "values" issues while

simultaneously mobilizing their base.



To short-circuit the Republican appeals to blue-collar

constituents, Democrats must confront the cultural populism

of the wedge issues with genuine economic populism. They

must dust off their own majoritarian militancy instead of

suppressing it; sharpen the distinctions between the

parties instead of minimizing them; emphasize the

contradictions of culture-war populism instead of ignoring

them; and speak forthrightly about who gains and who loses

from conservative economic policy.



What is more likely, of course, is that Democratic

officialdom will simply see this week's disaster as a

reason to redouble their efforts to move to the right. They

will give in on, say, Social Security privatization or

income tax "reform" and will continue to dream their happy

dreams about becoming the party of the enlightened

corporate class. And they will be surprised all over again

two or four years from now when the conservative populists

of the Red America, poorer and angrier than ever, deal the

"party of the people" yet another stunning blow.



Thomas Frank is the author, most recently, of "What's the

Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of

America."



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/opinion/05frank.html?ex=1100660438&ei=1&en=a9e91c7d868412a4

ANATOMY OF A CRUSHING POLITICAL DEFEAT By Arianna Huffington

This election was not stolen. It was lost by the Kerry campaign. The reason it's so important to make this crystal clear — even as Kerry's concession speech is still ringing in our ears — is that to the victors go not only the spoils but the explanations. And the Republicans are framing their victory as the triumph of conservative moral values and the wedge cultural issues they exploited throughout the campaign. But it wasn't gay marriage that did the Democrats in; it was the fatal decision to make the pursuit of undecided voters the overarching strategy of the Kerry campaign. This meant that at every turn the campaign chose caution over boldness so as not to offend the undecideds who, as a group, long to be soothed and reassured rather than challenged and inspired. The fixation on undecided voters turned a campaign that should have been about big ideas, big decisions, and the very, very big differences between the worldviews of John Kerry and George Bush — both on national security and domestic priorities — into a narrow trench war fought over ludicrous non-issues like whether Kerry had bled enough to warrant a Purple Heart. This timid, spineless, walking-on-eggshells strategy — with no central theme or moral vision — played right into the hands of the Bush-Cheney team's portrayal of Kerry as an unprincipled, equivocating flip-flopper who, in a time of war and national unease, stood for nothing other than his desire to become president. The Republicans spent a hundred million dollars selling this image of Kerry to the public. But the public would not have bought it if the Kerry campaign had run a bold, visionary race that at every moment and every corner contradicted the caricature. Kerry's advisors were so obsessed with not upsetting America's fence-sitting voters they ended up driving the Kerry bandwagon straight over the edge of the Grand Canyon, where the candidate proclaimed that even if he knew then what we all know now — that there were no WMD in Iraq — he still would have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq. This equivocation was not an accidental slip. It was the result of a strategic decision — once again geared to undecided voters — not to take a decisive, contrary position on Iraq. In doing so, the Kerry camp failed to recognize that this election was a referendum on the president's leadership on the war on terror. (Jamie Rubin, who had been hired by the campaign as a foreign-policy advisor, went so far as to tell the Washington Post that Kerry, too, would likely have invaded Iraq.) It was only after the polls started going south for Kerry, with the president opening a double-digit lead according to some surveys, that his campaign began to rethink this disastrous approach. The conventional wisdom had it that it was the Swift Boat attacks that were responsible for Kerry's late-summer drop in the polls but, in fact, it was the vacuum left by the lack of a powerful opposing narrative to the president's message on the war on terror — and whether Iraq was central to it — that allowed the attacks on Kerry's leadership and war record to take root. We got a hint of what might have been when Kerry temporarily put aside the obsession with undecideds and gave a bold, unequivocal speech at New York University on Sept. 20 eviscerating the president's position on Iraq. This speech set the scene for Kerry's triumph in the first debate. Once Kerry belatedly began taking on the president on the war on terror and the war on Iraq — "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" — he started to prevail on what the president considered his unassailable turf. You would have thought that keeping up this line of attack day in and day out would have clearly emerged as the winning strategy — especially since the morning papers and the nightly news were filled with stories on the tragic events in Iraq, the CIA's no al-Qaida/Saddam link report, and the Duelfer no-WMD report. Instead, those in charge of the Kerry campaign ignored this giant, blood-red elephant standing in the middle of the room and allowed themselves to be mesmerized by polling and focus group data that convinced them that domestic issues like jobs and health care were the way to win. The Clintonistas who were having a greater and greater sway over the campaign — including Joe Lockhart, James Carville and the former president himself — were convinced it was "the economy, stupid" all over again, which dovetailed perfectly with the beliefs of chief strategist Bob Shrum and campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill. But what worked for Clinton in the '90s completely failed Kerry in 2004, at a time of war, fear and anxiety about more terrorist attacks. And even when it came to domestic issues, the message was tailored to the undecideds. Bolder, more passionate language that Kerry had used during the primary — like calling companies hiding their profits in tax shelters "the Benedict Arnolds of corporate America" — was dropped for fear of scaring off undecideds and Wall Street. Or was it Wall Street undecideds? ("This was very unfortunate language," Roger Altman, Clinton's Deputy Treasury Secretary told me during the campaign. "We've buried it." And indeed, the phrase was quickly and quietly deleted from the Kerry Web site.) Sure, Kerry spoke about Iraq until the end (how could he not?), but the majority of the speeches, press releases and ads coming out of the campaign, including Kerry's radio address to the nation 10 days before the election, were on domestic issues. The fact that Kerry lost in Ohio, which had seen 232,000 jobs evaporate and 114,000 people lose their health insurance during the Bush years, shows how wrong was the polling data the campaign based its decisions on. With Iraq burning, WMD missing, jobs at Herbert Hoover-levels, flu shots nowhere to be found, gas prices through the roof, and Osama bin Laden back on the scene looking tanned, rested, and ready to rumble, this should have been a can't-lose election for the Democrats. Especially since they were more unified than ever before, had raised as much money as the Republicans, and were appealing to a country where 55 percent of voters believed we were headed in the wrong direction. But lose it they did. So the question inevitably becomes: What now? Already there are those in the party convinced that, in the interest of expediency, Democrats need to put forth more "centrist" candidates — i.e. Republican-lite candidates — who can make inroads in the all-red middle of the country. I'm sorry to pour salt on raw wounds, but isn't that what Tom Daschle did? He even ran ads showing himself hugging the president! But South Dakotans refused to embrace this lily-livered tactic. Because, ultimately, copycat candidates fail in the way "me-too" brands do. Unless the Democratic Party wants to become a permanent minority party, there is no alternative but to return to the idealism, boldness and generosity of spirit that marked the presidencies of FDR and JFK and the short-lived presidential campaign of Bobby Kennedy. Otherwise, the Republicans will continue their winning ways, convincing tens of millions of hard working Americans to vote for them even as they cut their services and send their children off to die in an unjust war. Democrats have a winning message. They just have to trust it enough to deliver it. This time they clearly didn't. © 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.

Anon Posting

Personally I have not felt this bad about an election (other than the

last election that was stolen) since Richard Nixon won his second term

by a landslide.  He was dishonest and would do anything to get

reelected.  I thought the nation had collectively lost its mind.  I was

right about Nixon.  But this guy is much worse.  There is nothing as

dangerous as a coward with a big gun and that's what we have as

President.  He is laughed at by our enemies in the world and hated by

our friends.  He wins by bringing together the very wealthy and the

very stupid.  His campaign is a masterpiece of fear and smear and he

has thousands of supporters who help him spread lies.  I must have

received dozens of e-mail messages from republicans that did not have a

single word of truth in them about Kerry or about Bush -- one even

claimed that Bush was an A student at Yale and Kerry a C- student! 

These messages were sent by "smart" executives who actually believed it

or pretended to.  At parties over the past few week, mostly with

wealthy neighbors,  I was told repeatedly that I should vote for Bush

no matter what I thought of him to protect the tax break for the rich. 

When I pointed out Iraq and the mess there to the President of Pulte

Homes here in Phoenix, he told me, "so what, we have only lost a

thousand or so."  Actual words, and when I asked him if his two sons

would join the military his response was "not in a million years." 

That's how these people think.  They would sell their souls (and the

lives of average people's kids) for a few tax dollars.  It is very

scary.  Bush outspent Kerry by 26 million and all of it came from

wealthy backers.



I am really afraid for America.  He will now appoint 2 or 3 Supreme

Court Justices who will be as conservative and corrupt as the ones that

are there now (the ones that gave him the presidency and forever

tarnished that noble branch of our government).  My guess is that he

will also try to change the two term limitation so that he can continue

to screw the country.



Our only hope is that the democrats can come up with a candidate that

electrifies and unifies the country.  Someone who appeals to people of

intelligence and people without.  And someone who can withstand the

brutal slings of Republican lies.  It is the only way to break the

stranglehold the wealthy now have on the country. 

Reactions to Post-Election Mourning

Dude. Chill out. I'm sad too. I've narrowed it down to the fact that mid-westerners are stupid.

that was beautiful, Tom. I'm just as pissed off as you are. Along with CA voting down a lot of the important propositions!

Well said. You are not alone in this feeling. I feel so depressed and dejected. I remembered that cheney is back and got even more depressed. I really don't know what this country is thinking. the middle and south of the country aren't analysts, they're believers. that's what's wrong w/ this country. it's being controlled by nimrods! Ready to move to Mexico/Canada....?

I think what you're missing is that this country is filled with ignoramouses who don't know their faces from their asses.

I am so pissed Bush won. It is the only time I've been truly disheartenedby an election. I wasn't a huge fan of Kerry, but I despise Bush. I hope everything works out for this country. I have thought of your exact words - I'd probably love to party with Bush - he's probably very solid in that regard. He's also the same kinda guy you liked to party with, but didn't trust him to walk your dog, much less run the country. I wonder if there will be a revolution. Not a full blown ordeal, but serious dissention, protests, etc. over the next four years by mainstream folk.

I have two thoughts on the election: 1) It's fitting that W. gets to clean up his own mess, and 2) Hillary in '08!!!

I have been spouting off all day at work on how ridiculous this whole mess is and how dissappointed i am on americans for getting the fucker back in office. I think a lot of people feel like a change isn't good at the moment even though he is the reason why we got attacked in that he did nothing to stop it because he was vacationing at his ranch the first 9 months of his presidency. i am mortified to be an american and to be honest feel more afraid for my life and everyone else's. I think kerry also never really stood by one thing for people to grab onto and wanted to please everyone. My mom said that kids at her high school wanted bush instead of kerry because they were under the assumption that kerry wanted the draft!! unfuckingbelievable! the fucking republicans did a fantastic job is scare tactics as well which as far as i am concerned should be illegal. i would love to find a way to impeach both of the sons-of-bitches because i sure as hell don't want cheney in office either. as far as i am concerned half of america are idiots just like bush and the other half are intelligent and don't fall for his bullshit. But because the bible exists those people will stay sheltered and ignorant and not find a way to think outside the box. for all that I can't enlighten you anymore than you can yourself.

I was really disgusted today, I couldn't watch Bush give his speech he is so pathetic. We have Michael Moore's movie from NetFlix but I think it would just depress us too much if we watch it now.

Election thoughts:

--At the same time when someone votes for Bush, they should be also be obligated to enlist in the Army and shipped to Iraq. We'll see how much they back him then.

--If anywhere in the middle of the country -- or in the south -- there's a terrorist attack, I'm not going to feel sorry for the people there. (p.s. For any government officials reading this e-mail under the Big Brother-esque laws of the Patriot Act, I'm just kidding. I'm just pretending to be callous. It's another one of my "exagerations.")

--Faux News Channel is reporting that this election is a MANDATE for George Bush because no one has won with a majority since Bush the Elder, 16 years ago. You've got to be kidding me! He won 51%/49%! That's almost as close as you can get! But when there's effectively only two candidates, then one WILL have the majority. Technically, it is true that Bush is the first with a majority in 16 years, but that doesn't mean it was a mandate or a blowout. Clinton beat Dole by 8.5 percentage points '96, and he beat Bush by 5.5 percentage points in 1990. The difference is that Ross Perot ran in those years and won a respectable # of votes. Mother fuckin' Fox, always spinning. The "newscaster" had a smile on his face the whole time too, the smug prick.

--In 1972 Nixon SLAUGHTERED McGovern to win his second term. He took almost all of the electoral votes and won by about 18 million popular votes. The point?... We all know what happened after that. Let's hope Bush/Cheney are similarly exposed.

The bus leaves for Canada at noon. Make it if you can.

Speaking from a black arm band point of view, I also don't get it, but I think your guess about the guy-next-door quality is the answer for most people. Though he really got the religious right behind him with his pro-life stance, too. I just don't know. I guess nobody cares about all the lies and hidden agendas so long as the president is someone they could understand over a cup of coffee. I prefer presidents who are actually smarter than I am, but I guess my standards are a little too high for this country. Bush got the country bumpkin vote, so I think they should all secede and leave us the interesting parts of the country to run as we please. All my states elected Kerry- why can't they have Kerry, then?

Sigh.

I just want to hit somebody, preferably a Republican.

I work in the political world now and I think the Dems are angry enough to get energized. They are talking about starting at a local level and in two years taking over the Congress and Senate. That would be helpful, cause at least that would balance the power a little bit.

I'm just so angry, how can people be so closed minded? Do you think that someday we will say, remember back when people actually followed that Bush guy? I can only hope that this is just a step, that people will come around, the middle of the country takes a long time to catch up. Hopefully they'll get there before our country implodes. I do like to see that California is putting things like stem cell research on the ballot and moving forward without the rest of the country, screw em, we can't wait for you to get your head out of your asses. I can only hope that we will be able to move some other stuff forward as well on a local, state level and maybe take the rest of the country with us.

Did I mention I'm angry?

I guess we just don't have our "morals" in the right place. It is okay to send people off to be killed and lie to the general public, but get a blow job in the oval office and it is soooo wrong. EGAD!!!

Unforunately, I have no enlightenment to offer cause we are still dealing with the horror of what occurred last night. The white-bread-eating, no-birth-control-using, church-going individuals in this country outvoted the rest of us. I believe Bush won because the religious zealots (of which there are many in this country) love the fact that Bush talks about his moral and religious beliefs every chance he gets.

We can say a fond farewell to separation of church and state, cause we now got Jesus as our president!

It's beyond words for me right now, except to say that I appreciate your email, & that I strongly believe that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch precisely because Clinton, Kerry, or any sane, humane President would have taken the opportunity to strengthen national & international unity & further the cause of peace. The lovers of destruction know a kindred spirit when they see one.

Randi Rhodes (Liberal Radio Personality on Air America) was suggesting that the Ohio electronic results had been tampered with. Exit polls had shown Kerry leading. The electronic polling machines were created by Diebold, a huge backer of Bush whose CEO had said prior to the election that Bush would win Ohio. She can't believe the people in Ohio, with the huge jobless rate, would have voted the way the results showed.

When I hear stories like that, I start having very evil thoughts about Cheney, Bush, Karl Rove, and the Republicans. Part of me wants America to fail in Iraq and fail in the war on terror. I don't really want there to be another 9/11, but I if there is, right now I'm hoping it's somewhere in the center of the country rather than on the coasts.

"Morality" in the Red states was a very big issue. Ohioans voted for morality against their "pocketbooks".

Gay marriages was the BIG issue for them. I personally feel that the West Coast should join with the East Coast and secede from the South and MidWest. We have such different values! Wishful thinking, I guess..........?

I feel your sentiments exactly, but after listening to Air America Radio today, and listening to John Edwards I'm trying to move forward as they suggest. That so many millions have worked together to BEAT BUSH and have really organized with organizations like Moveon.Org, etc.( and I know that the work we did in Pa. really paid off in going to Kerry) that we have to continue the fight. That we have to continue to be unified, be informed, not become apathetic about voting ever again, and continue to

be involved. I believe America got to this place because we became too complacent in this country and too self-involved. All the liberties that we enjoy(ed?) in this country did not come easy. I believe that this

generation has it's work cut out for it. But it's certainly worth the fight, don't you agree???

While I think your comments are interesting and well-thought-out, and hard as it is to accept, I'm afraid it really does come down to a buch of morons in favor of a bunch of morons. Until this morning (while still holding on to hope) I too entertained your subtle, intelligent and nuanced queries. Sadly, I think it's time to give up and move on.

thanks for the note...it is truly truly an awful day. Here's something I just wrote to a friend but I do believe the FEAR, HATRED AND DIVISIVENESS carried the day....JUST AS ROVE PLANNED IT WOULD. Look at our popular culture....look at reality TV and what really gets people off...humiliation, hatred and fear.

My friend asked "how are you?" She lives in London and is from Australia:

To be entirely honest, me and 95% of all my friends and family are absolutely devastated. Not just because Bush won, but also because we lost several key Senate and House races giving Bush and his gang a "mandate."

What might happen now to our country and to the world is downright terrifying. Here, our environment (already under assault) will be subjected to unprecedented oil, gas and coal exploration. We may even see them tap into the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. If that happens, Mr. Ted will be loading up his vehicle and headed north for some sustained resistance. We may see two Supreme Court appointments giving the fascists the ability to overturn a woman's right to choose an abortion. We will continue to see an assault on gays and lesbians, the poor and those who need health care the most.

The war will become an unqualified quagmire. The CIA will set up shop in the biggest foreign embassy ever built. American and British troops will continue to die for a lie.

I'm not speaking in hyperbole when I postulate that this is truly the beginning of the end of the American Empire. Rome fell too....the only difference is that our strength, arrogance and hubris is so overwhelming that the entire globe will suffer. And it will suffer in unprecedented ways not even yet imagined.

So....that's how I am. I'm trying to deal with a country that I love and hate at the same time. These Republicans campaigned on FEAR and HATRED and it worked. It's despicable, it's disgusting and it's truly worth resisting once we recapture our breath from this extraordinary defeat.

That's exactly how I feel and I too am absolutely dumbfounded as to what half of this country is thinking. One idea that jumps to mind is that there are a bunch of narrow-minded idiots out there who relate to Bush very well. Here are some other interesting ideas my mom sent me. She lives in Florida. I too am in mourning.

She wrote:

Yeah - I'm pretty bummed today; I figure that the one good thing that came out if it was that a lot of people voted; now, maybe, they'll stay informed and actually realize when they're being lied to and manipulated. I feel as if my America has been stolen from me and replaced by this authoritarian atmosphere & fear, where you cannot even question a policy without being accused of not being patriotic or being disloyal to the troops! Freedom of speech and expression will be curtailed next. You will see dissenters jailed on Homeland Security justifications. It's looking like Germany before WWII.

As for the turn-out, there are a lot of 'bible thumpers' in the central part of the country who are one issue voters - abortion. They don't care if we bomb Paris as long as no (read white) fetus is aborted. Of course, these are the same people (yeah right) who line up to take foster children, children of color, and children with handicaps into their loving homes. It doesn't seem to bother them that a large percentage of children don't have health coverage - that's OK. Today should be a day of mourning for thinking Americans. Florida still has fraud problems; remember that the gov is a Bush. Retirees are split; the east coasters where there were problems are dems, and the rest who are affluent with second homes here are republicans. No problems here. Lee Co is solidly Republican.

There are also a lot of people who vote republican because they're social "wanabees". I want to be rich some day, so I'm going to align myself with those well-dressed folks over there and maybe they'll accept

me. I don't want to stand next to a laborer or immigrant or, God forbid, a person of color. It will lower the opinion I have of myself.

It's horrible here at the bank, the bushies are gloating and mumbling that we don't have a "sense of humor"!! What are they smoking?? As far as I'm concerned, America lost today - our moral integrity, our world standing, and our unity. We will be divided for some time to come.

Thankfully, I'm no expert, but here's my theory: religion. Bush mentions God much more than any president I remember in my lifetime. He says that God wants us to win the war on terror, God wanted him to be president in 2000, God this, God that. I don't mean to denigrate religious people at all, but I don't like my leaders to say they're the chosen one. However, I guess a lot of people like to hear that God's involved in the president's day to day actions. I honestly think that's the reason so much of the middle of this country goes "red" every time. I think they must rely on a God fearing man to lead them. It's not for me to say whether that's right or wrong, but it sure seems like a poor way to choose a president, considering the many important facets of the job.

Added to which, you have the constant fear that is placed in the minds of America each day. I refer to the ticker at the bottom of any TV screen you turn on right now. Also, reference the obvious pointlessness of the color code terror warning every day. Let me guess - is it yellow today? And for whatever reason, Americans decide that only Republicans can shepherd us through times of threat, real or imagined. This despite the fact that the 9/11 atrocities happened on their watch. This despite the fact that Bush was on vacation so much that first year that he didn't have the time or the inclination to look into various reports about some concerns about certain flight school students.

Again, personally, I find it amazing that a president that even under the best light can't be seen as successful in the areas of job creation, economy, homeland safety, and increasing our standing in the world can be re-elected. And that's not even mentioning my grave dislike and distrust of Cheney.

However, that brings me to the biggest reason we lost. Here it is: the Democratic National Committee. They just don't have a clue. Given a president who has failed on so many fronts, you can't find a way to inspire people to vote for change? Well, the onus is on you, then. It's a sad fact that even the poorer voters in the South went Republican, and have for a generation. That shouldn't happen, and it didn't for generations, but it has this past generation. It's wrong that we're losing in working class districts. And it's even more disturbing that we can't even get our fair share of Congress. I could deal with Bush winning if at least we had control or close to it, but we actually lose seats every time. We better figure out what we're missing out on, and soon, because what we're doing isn't working, and hasn't since about '94, except for Clinton getting re-elected. In the end, Democrats have to look at themselves. If you can't beat a struggling incumbent, you've got real problems. We beat George Bush's dad in 1992, and even I will admit he was a better president than his son.

In the meantime, I don't want to hear one complaint from the Midwest or South about the struggling economy, the outsourcing of jobs overseas, the continuing bloodshed in Iraq, or how tough it is to get affordable healthcare.

In the words of Homer Simpson, "Don't look at me. I voted for Kang."

Top 10 Things That Are Very, Very Wrong (anon)

What a bullshit day this was. I didn't speak to one person, okay, one person who works for my company in Florida, who was anything other than depressed, frustrated, and frankly, scared.

Here is my top 10 list of things that are very, very wrong...

1. Rehnquist is done
2. Daschle pulls biggest bagel in a century (what a jerk)
3. Older voters trending Republican now that New Dealers are dying and Eisenhower kids are taking their place
4. Youth vote (what there is) is alarmingly conservative--this is a BIG problem
5. That *any* African Americans turned out to vote for Bush is astonishing and pathetic
6. There aren't enough New Yorkers and Californians and Illinoians to make the world go 'round
7. 51% is now viewed as a "mandate." Bush just learned what this word means.
8. Between new judicial appointments, potential 3-4 seat advantage in the Senate, and "mandate" this new regime could set us back an entire generation. I expect to be in my 40s or older by the time the damage can be undone.
9. The internet has provided Osama a county-by-county map of his strongest enemies; I hope he aims accordingly next time (but fear he won't)
10. Liberalism is not only a bad word, it is nearly dead in terms of a plurality in this country

Time for a little revolution, Mr. Jefferson.

True Reflections from the Smartland

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3 - They were feeling the blues here on Wednesday, a city so deep in the blue that President Bush managed just 15 percent of the vote in an election he won nationally by more than 3.5 million votes.

While the American heartland found great comfort in the president's re-election, there was melancholy and stunned disbelief in San Francisco and other cities along the avowedly left West Coast.

"There is a sense of helplessness that we couldn't tip the election in any way," said Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who helped to push gay marriage into the national spotlight. "We couldn't do it rhetorically or in an actual vote. You feel powerless."

---------

If the gay weddings this year in San Francisco and Portland made the rest of the country think the West Coast had gone the way of Sodom and Gomorrah, the victory for Mr. Bush invoked in return another biblical reference, Armageddon.

----------

"Do you know how I described New York to my European friends?" she said. "New York is an island off the coast of Europe."

Like Ms. Camhe, a film producer, three of every four voters in New York City gave Mr. Kerry their vote, a starkly different choice from the rest of the nation. So they awoke yesterday with something of a woozy existential hangover and had to confront once again how much of a 51st State they are, different in their sensibilities, lifestyles and polyglot texture from most of America. The election seemed to reverse the perspective of the famous Saul Steinberg cartoon, with much of the land mass of America now in the foreground and New York a tiny, distant and irrelevant dot.

----------

"I'm saddened by what I feel is the obtuseness and shortsightedness of a good part of the country - the heartland," Dr. Joseph said. "This kind of redneck, shoot-from-the-hip mentality and a very concrete interpretation of religion is prevalent in Bush country - in the heartland."

"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," he said.

---------

"Everybody seems to hate us these days," said Zito Joseph, a 63-year-old retired psychiatrist. "None of the people who are likely to be hit by a terrorist attack voted for Bush. But the heartland people seemed to be saying, 'We're not affected by it if there would be another terrorist attack.' "

----------

And from Thomas Friedman:

But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.

Is it a country that does not intrude into people's sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn't trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us - instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?

Bush Wins!

I'm sure there is a slight depression associated with "W" being our president again, but let me list some of the positives in this vast tumultuous sea of negatives.

1.) Comedians all over the world have more material to make us laugh.

2.) Nothing scares off bomb wielding religious zealots like a bomb wielding religious zealot!

3.) Bush is on vacation so often that we can successfully pretend that he is not even there.

4.) Bushes permanent tax cut will lead to extremely interesting "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" episodes.

5.) The hard times ahead will give us all something to brag about living through when we are old.
(Bonus: A television news anchor might write a book about us called "The Even Greater Generation")

6.) Bush must now reap what he has sowed. (Doesn't the PLANET-WIDE-HATRED crop look magnificent this harvest season?)

7.) There hasn't been a good conquest and occupation of several nations in... When was WWII again?

8.) Christians funded art in the Dark Ages. Chances are - with all their newly charged power - they will do it again. Praise Jesus!

9.) Jesus may well return to attend Bushes inauguration. The Lord is a Bush family friend, and is itching to bitch slap the president for calling 7 times a day.

10.) If 50% of the nation is going to be disgruntled, isn't it better that it's the smarter half. AK47s are legal now and Bush swept in the educationally challenged states.

This one goes to 11!!!

11.) A more unified Supreme Court! WOOOOOOO HOOOOO

Buckle up! The next four years are gonna rock!!!!

(originally from David Kogeas)

Message from Al Franken

MESSAGE FROM AL

Anytime you lose like this, there’s a certain amount of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking and woulda-coulda-shoulda. I have no regrets myself, but as I look back at Kerry’s campaign, there are a couple of points where, if he had it all to do over again, I think he should have done it differently.

For example, in the first debate, Kerry announced that he would put our national security decisions in the hands of France. He said very explicitly that we would have to pass a global test before using force. I think a lot of us watching at the time thought that that was a mistake.

Also, of course, the flip-flops, especially those about Iraq. Voting, as you know, for the war, then against it, for it, then against it-having, as Sean Hannity said, literally 80 different positions. I wish he could have chosen one position and stuck with it.

Kerry’s decision to ban the Bible. That was a huge mistake, especially in very Christian areas. That might have gone over fine in atheist communities, but it cost him big everywhere else.

And then proposing a health care system that would impose an enormous federal bureaucracy and give medical decisions to paper-pushers in Washington, and in France.

And going back to Vietnam, the way he lied about what happened, inflicted those wounds on himself to get those medals, and then threw them out-I think that was a mistake. Of course, that was a mistake that he made back then, decades ago. But he could have been more honest about it now.

A lot of people talk about Bush’s record, and what he might do in the next term, but what this really comes down to is character. And ceding your doctor’s authority to France, and the flip-flops, and shooting himself in the leg to win a medal-I guess those things just overcame the awful, failed presidency of George W. Bush.

***

You know I wouldn’t mind losing an election if it were an honest disagreement, based on facts, over values and policy. But that’s not what happened. A large majority of Bush supporters went to the polls believing things that were false. For example, any of the above. They believed lies about Kerry, and they believed lies about Iraq, and they believed lies about Bush.

We’re not going to heal this country as long as we have a president who won’t be accountable, who won’t tell the truth, who is willing to campaign with a vicious dishonesty that is unprecedented.

After Barry Goldwater was crushed by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the right decided to take a long view. They poured literally billions of dollars into creating the right-wing infrastructure that dominates our politics today. They built up the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Media Research Center, and now Fox News Channel-and many other organizations, above and below the radar. Though they won the White House in 1968, it took them thirty years to reach their ascendancy in 1964.

Our side just started. Air America went on the air seven months ago. Normally, incumbent presidents either win by a landslide or lose by a landslide, and a year or two ago, people thought it would be an overwhelming Bush victory. It wasn’t. For an incumbent wartime president, this was a close race. And we’ve created a movement to take this country back. Even though we didn’t do it this time, I believe that we will still do it.

The other side wants us to get demoralized, but we are going to fight. We are going to fight every step of the way.

Round two starts now.

Al Franken

The Red Zone by Maureen Dowd

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Red Zone
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

With the Democratic Party splattered at his feet in little blue puddles, John Kerry told the crushed crowd at Faneuil Hall in Boston about his concession call to President Bush.

"We had a good conversation," the senator said. "And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing."

Democrat: Heal thyself.

W. doesn't see division as a danger. He sees it as a wingman.

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel.

W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues."

The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"?

While Mr. Bush was making his little speech about reaching out, Republicans said they had "the green light" to pursue their conservative agenda, like drilling in Alaska's wilderness and rewriting the tax code.

"He'll be a lot more aggressive in Iraq now," one Bush insider predicts. "He'll raze Falluja if he has to. He feels that the election results endorsed his version of the war." Never mind that the more insurgents American troops kill, the more they create.

Just listen to Dick (Oh, lordy, is this cuckoo clock still vice president?) Cheney, introducing the Man for his victory speech: "This has been a consequential presidency which has revitalized our economy and reasserted a confident American role in the world." Well, it has revitalized the Halliburton segment of the economy, anyhow. And "confident" is not the first word that comes to mind for the foreign policy of a country that has alienated everyone except Fiji.

Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage."

He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq.

Just as Zell Miller was so over the top at the G.O.P. convention that he made Mr. Cheney seem reasonable, so several new members of Congress will make W. seem moderate.

Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools.

Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children."

John Thune, who toppled Tom Daschle, is an anti-abortion Christian conservative - or "servant leader," as he was hailed in a campaign ad - who supports constitutional amendments banning flag burning and gay marriage.

Seeing the exit polls, the Democrats immediately started talking about values and religion. Their sudden passion for wooing Southern white Christian soldiers may put a crimp in Hillary's 2008 campaign (nothing but a wooden stake would stop it). Meanwhile, the blue puddle is comforting itself with the expectation that this loony bunch will fatally overreach, just as Newt Gingrich did in the 90's.

But with this crowd, it's hard to imagine what would constitute overreaching.

Invading France?

Post-Election Mourning

I'm beginning to think the country does indeed exist in two parallel universes. It's the only explanation I could think of for half the country seeing things as going really well, and the other half having to face issues like the mess in Iraq, the discarding of science and equal rights in the name of religion and "morality", the deterioration of the environment, the unprecedented deficit, and the fact that most of the world hates us because we're arrogant bastards who can invade any country we want under false pretenses. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in that other universe. But for another four years, we're stuck with a bumbling idiot who's gonna piss on our heads and tell us it's raining. God help us.

Remember that time shortly after 9/11, when everyone in the country was nice to one another, and countries from all across the globe supported us? How could any President NOT take advantage of that situation? Instead, Bush has created a situation where the nation is probably the most divided it’s been since the Civil War, and he's managed to piss off half the world to boot. But golly, he sure is a heckfire nicer than that stiff Kerry feller! And he ain't gonna let none of them ho-mo-sexuals try to marry me! Praise Jesus!

In all serious, I am at a loss as to what Bush supporters see that half the country doesn’t. I’ll take no offense if someone wants to educate me on this. Was the threat of terror the main and/or only issue that mattered? Is it that Bush made people feel safer? Was it the idea that he began the mess so he should be the one to finish it? Was it because Bush is more of a next-door kind of guy (heck, I’d rather party with Bush over Kerry any day, especially since Kerry’s a Red Sox fan). Was that reason enough right there? What was the one thing that we’re not seeing, that made supporters overlook all the mistakes, incompetencies and narrow-mindedness of this administration? It sounds like I’m just being sarcastic, but obviously there are big differences between what people on the coasts value as important and what a lot of people in the middle value – what are we missing? Please enlighten!