One thing to keep your eye on is emerging tensions inside the Democratic Party which find their locus in the persons of Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emmannuel. Essentially, the way the centrist side of the argument is trying to set things up, insofar as the election returns are in some sense disappointing, this will be blamed on Pelosi, Leader of the House Democrats. But insofar as the election returns are encouraging, credit belongs to Emmannuel, Architect of the Great Victory. Damned if she does and damned if she doesn't, in other words. This Bull Moose post gives you a good example of the genre. He's expecting big things for the Democrats, and hails the wisdom of the House Democratic leadership, with said leadership comprised apparently of Emmannuel and Steny Hoyer. Pelosi, a liberal who thought invading Iraq was a bad idea before it was cool, who also happens to be the actual leader of the caucus, doesn't come into play.
As I say, keep your eyes peeled. Also check out Zach Roth's excellent profile of Steny Hoyer in The Washington Monthly. Hoyer, clearly, would be a big step forward from his GOP predecessors as Majority Leader, but he's no great shakes and not the sort of dude who's going to, say, spearhead an exciting era of progressive reform. Meanwhile, many liberals have complaints of their own with Pelosi, some warranted others much less so. Folks should be aware, however, of the objective contours of this debate . . . the alternative to Pelosi is weak tea of the sort served by Hoyer and Emmannuel (who, I'll happily grant, is a pretty canny electoral tactitian) and not the leader of your dreams.
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Heads in the Sand
FACTS FOR AMERICAN VOTERS:
Since Bush/Cheney stole the 2000 election, Unemployment went up from 4% to over 6%. During President Clinton's term, unemployment went down from 7% to 4%. Americans living under the Federal Poverty Level went up by almost 7 million from 2000 to 2006, while during President Clinton's term the number of impoverished Americans went down by 7.7 million.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the election in 2000, the share of income going to our poorest has gone down to all-time record levels and the percentage of income going to the richest 15% of Americans rose to all-time record levels. The average amount by which Americans fell below the poverty level also hit a record of $2,707. Experts don’t expect the trend to change unless Republican policys are reversed.
Over 1.5 million jobs were lost from early 2001 to late 2002. During President Clinton's term, more than 22 million jobs were gained. More than 2 million people were laid off in 2001 by Republican-owned companies such as Enron and Worldcom, and another 2 million layoffs occured in 2002, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
The percentage of MBA graduates in the top 30 U.S. business schools finding a job within 3 months of graduation went down from 97% in 2000 to 80% percent in 2002, according to Business Week.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the election in 2000, our American Budget Deficit has topped 6 Trillion dollars, after a Surplus of over 400 Billion dollars was generated by President Clinton.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the election in 2000, their disregard for international diplomacy and their go-it-alone invasion of Iraq has caused Iran and North Korea to develop nuclear wepons, yet Bush has repeatedly and entirely failed to link Hussein with the WTC attack on 911. Bush, Cheney, and dozens of other Republican leaders were willing to sacrifice 655,000 American, Iraqi, and many other nationals lives for their own personal business and political gain.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the election in 2000, Bush, Cheney and the Republicans created ill-will among many of our former allies overseas by breaking nuclear treaties and refusing to sign environmental pacts like the Kyoto Accords. How can we expect other countries to support us when we don’t support important global issues our international neighbors care about?
Since Bush/Cheney stole the elections in 2000, the Federal Government has desecrated our treasured National Parks for all time by putting oil wells in such places as Utah’s Arches Park.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the elections in 2000, the total number of Americans without health care increased to over 46 million, the largest increase in over 10 years, according to groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. Bush/Cheney have done nothing to address the increase in the uninsured except to continually suggest that private faith-based groups should pick up their slack, and that the government should invest American's Social Security funds in the roller-coaster stock market.
Crimes besides those of the twice-unelected Bush/Cheney Republicans increased by 2% in 2001, according to the FBI, the first increase in more than a decade. Republicans care more about school children saying the Pledge of Allegiance than significantly increasing funding for education, especially lowering tuition and fees for Higher Education, which will do more to further our pledge "Liberty And Justice For All" than simply saying that pledge.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the elections in 2000, Republicans have cut and run from several dozen critical domestic programs to pay for an endless war against a concept to support their friends who own the oil and weapons corporations, causing the number of homeless Americans to continue to rise, and since Bush/Cheney stole the elections in 2000, our American Constitution, Civil Liberties, and the Great Writ of Habeus Corpus; the foundation of civilized Law itself, has been shredded as sheepishly intimidated Republican legislators push to create an American Police State in order to appease their criminal unelected GOP leaders.
Since Bush/Cheney stole the 2000 election in our Supreme Court itself, even more radical far-right wing judges who will stop our elections to tell us who won and make other undemocratic and unamerican decisions have been appointed to our Federal Courts. Dozens of Republican officials embroiled in scandal after scandal, many involving despicable sexual crimes against children, continue to blame President Clinton for everything that has gone wrong under this despotic GOP tyranny, making a total mockery of Republican claims to their exclusive notions of "morality" and "responsibility." Most government Republicans are liars or worse.
Nothing has been done to fix the "problems", fraud, and outright theft perpetrated by Diebold and other electronic machines instituted by Bush, Cheney, and the Republicans in 2000. Bush has taken more days of vacation than any American president in history, including the entire month of August 2001, when he had early warning of an impending terrorist attack. Bush then remained on vacation for the entire month, doing nothing about the warning he had.
Posted by We The People | October 21, 2006 7:11 PM