Replies

Thtat list is all well and fine, Johnnie, but how many people do you know (besides Freepers) that could not only enumerate all those accomplishments, but comprehend what they mean to the country in the long term?

Discounting us, you could probably count that number on one and half hands, if you were lucky.

Last night's disaster was a long time in the making, and it is marked by easily-identified events (in no particular order):

1. Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, and Tom DeLay representing a "culture of corruption", and a lack of morals. Add in Trent Lott's arrogance ("the public has no right to know what goes into a spending bill"), Bill Frist's medocrity, Dennis Hastert's mental retardation, John McCain's self-inflating ego, and the general sense that most House/Senate repbublicans could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, safe behind the "but the terrorists will get you if you don't keep me" shield.

2. Poor Federal response to Hurricane Katrina. It's all well and fine to blame Blanco and Nagin (and they deserve the majority of the blame), but a Federal government that cannot responde to a disaster is a Federal Government that needs to be fixed. DHS is not an effective agency; it is the result of a reshuffling of the Org Chart.

3. Apparent stand-off in Iraq. Victory in this war will not be measured by elections of third-world sh*tholes where such elections are held sans the required democratic institutions that should be established before said votes ever take place. Victory will be measured in the televised execution of Usama Bin Hidin' and every other identified terrorist scumbag, because THIS is the ONLY thing 8.5 out of 10 Americans can understand. After all, this is the country that believes "American Idol" is awesome entertainment.

4. Failure to pass entitlement reform, with a Majority, and eventually caving in(see the Infamous Gang of 14 compromise, i.e. John McCain's initial "f*ck you, Rich Boy!" shot across GWB's bow. He's till smarting from the primaries of '99). We will now go bankrupt as a nation that much quicker whilke the two richest generations of retirees in the history of the planet will get free drugs to cure a whole host of "serious" problems like "Chronic dry eye", "erectile dysfunction", male-pattern baldness, growing prostates and weak bladders, so that they can continue to relive their youth (for the Baby Boomers, youth is measured in sexual potency) in their old age, complete with government-supplied aphrodesiacs and herpes-suppression drugs.

5. Lack of restraint with regards to Federal budgets (Earmark Reform. See Porkbusters.com for more details).

6. Lack of border security - voting for a fence, but leaving it unfunded, caving to the various industries who require cheap labor, courting the hispanic vote by pandering.

These outweigh all the good economic news and the "we haven't been attacked since 9/11" or "Republicans will keep you safe" mantras. Sans another terrorist attack, most Americans with an IQ above room-temperature have already forgotten about September 11th (and unless you were really there, you could never be expected to fully comprehend the true nature of that horror). Those with below-room-temperature IQ's were going to vote democrat in any case.

They have been worn out with the repeated hammering of this one theme for five years (even though it's something they need to be reminded about constantly), and sans something else to talk about, they figured us for a one-trick pony. Even worse, a hypocritical one-trick pony; don't pay any attention to our libertine spending, forget that we're getting bribed by Indian casino interests, never mind that we allow open homosexuals to prey upon your children (Foley), we're still keeping you relatively safe.

Given this background, we're fortunate the outcome wasn't worse.

Time to clean house for 2008 and beyond. New blood and new ideas are required.