election results
 

i was looking at the propositions for laws in various states and found a curious mix of liberalism and conservatism.

every initiative to allow same sex marriages failed.

every proposal to raise minimum wage passed

every proposal to legalize marajuana in some form passed.

it looks like the senate will be tied if you count lieberman as a dem. (?). allen of virginia's race (maccacca man) is ahead by 7000 votes out of 2.2mil. with 98% of the vote in. (that is really close). if he loses the dems have control of the senate, it appears, if all go as cnn is reporting at this time.

oh yeah, the dems need 51 to control since the vice pres can break ties.

it looks like the dems take control of the house.

it seems to me that the most key issue was the war.

tom w

And it looks like the Dumbo's worst nightmare will come to pass - Nancy Pelosi, the Wicked Witch of the Left, as Speaker of the House. But from what I've seen of her, it'll probably be the Jackasses (and the country's) worst nightmare as well!:eek:

What's that proverbial curse, "May you live in interesting times"?

Looks like the next couple of years are sure gonna be interesting.

oh well, she might not be that bad.

i will sleep easier knowing that there will be a little more balance out there for the next two years.

one party rule results in too much change and disruption.

tom w

allen just dropped back to second place with 99% reporting, but it looks like the repubs will still have 50 and control of the senate.

tom w

Excellent synopsis.

To me it this election is the 2nd-best outcome.

The best outcome would be for close elections to go to neither Repo nor Demo but to go to 3rd party candidates. Second best is a divided gov with at least one house in the opposition to the Executive.

I was just watching Charlie Rose and one of the talking heads made an excellent point, IMO. The Democrats need to restrain themselves from over-reaching in their newly-acquired oversight capacity. Look for legitimate grievances but for goodness sakes at least appear to avoid using the power for crass political purposes (this is the Repo transgression vs Clinton--Repos went too far).

Conversely, the Repos should remember that they gained power by being the reform party, a central point they have suppressed in the past 3-6 years in power. In the 1990's they were the cure for the problem and they stupidly became that which they sought to reform.

Bot

Gridlock can be a beautiful thing

They pointed out on CNN that if the House goes Jackass, but the Senate stays Dumbo, it will be the first time since they started electing Senators by popular vote (100 years or better?) that the Senate and House will be divided like this.

looks like the Dems are going to take the Senate also.

Looks like Allen/Webb might go into recount, by law if less than 1/2 a percentage point difference.

No preference either way on this one, but Webb did make a decent SecNav. Former Marine LT, had enough balls to stand up to the SecDef when he thought he was wrong, and resigned rather than pass on what he felt was a bunch of BS policies from the SecDef to the people under him.

how do you post on this site?
 

:book: I need help

Looks like you did something right, that post came thru.:)

97 E420 186,000 Help Rough
 

I been runnig smooth for a while....After a coil pack was put on about a month ago. Two day's ago engine light came on and it started to run rough. So I pluged in for the codes. miss fire on all pluges.....So I changed them all tonight.......Same...messeage miss fire on pluges. While I was looking or a problem I tested each pack to see if there was a problem. One seemed as though it wasn't affected if I unplugged iot or not. Dash says Electric something. Any thoughts? Has a lot of power

Well put. I think Pelosi is more solid than people give her credit for. Her father was mayor of Balitmore, I believe. Some neat pictures of her as a pretty young girl in the car at various innagural parades.

She's saying she wants no retribution and an honest and above board operation. I think she was smart to say impeachment is off the table. It'd be a GDed circus. Leave that crap to the Repos.

But if the Dems actually take the senate, looks like they might (?!??!), could be the impeachment brew ha-ha will pick up momentum. I think it'd be a mistake. I'll be happy with Dubbers have checks and balances for a change.

Can you say Quack, Quack!! while limping, Mr. Bush?

I like Webb much better than Allen. Seems like more of a genuine man's man.

These legacy, silver spoon babies -- Allen, Kerry, Gore, Bush (41,43), Kennedy -- they're a pain. Don't really impress me too much. We need some self made men, women too, just not Hillary.

I'm sure you could get a lot of good help over on the tech section. Up top, click on ShopForum at the left. Then click on Tech help or diesel help. Cut and paste this post and you'll have access to some of the better mechanical minds in the Western Hemisphere. :cool:

Over here, we're just trying to sound like our opinion is really vital to the world.

so there are two undecided senate races. at this time 554 am the dems are ahead in both.

if they win, i agree moderate behaviour is in order. definately no impeachment. operate from the center. forget going radical with a slim majority. (even if they won big operating from the center is the proper way to go).

i guess maybe the repubs don't own diebold after all. (it would be just as bad for the country if the dems did).

thank God.

tom w

Now that the Dems control the dog and pony show, it will be interesting to see what they do with it. I'm thinking they will take aim at Rumsfeld first and foremost. They can and probably will hold lots of hearings to highlight every single misstep he and the administration have made concerning the war. Anyone hear John Murtha talking last night? He's running for Majority Leader and would seem to have a good chance. It doesn't sound like he is in a very forgiving mood toward the administration.

I won't be surprised if Bush finally does get rid of Rummy before The inauguration. He will be an even bigger political liability after January than he is now.

Nancy Pelosi, aka the bogeywoman, talked about bringing lots of legislation up for votes in the first 100 hours they are in power. I can't wait to see if it happens.

I also wonder if Republican moderates are going to be able to make a comeback anytime in the near future.

Although I was pleased to see the Dems do so well, I was not happy to see Linc Chafee lose in Rhode Island. I used to see him quite frequently in my former line of work and he is definitely a good man, very far removed from your typical politician.

Oh yeah, I thought the best line I hear during the election coverage came from an NPR reporter in Ohio, who said "The only bad news for Democrats in Ohio tonight is the Britney Spears-Kevin Federline breakup."

Yep

I hate having to start this thread with, "I did not vote for Bush", but given the misunderstanding concerning Med, apparently this is important: I did not vote for Bush!!!!!!

That said, I hope all you high fivers like gridlock better than you liked a Republican house, because that is about to happen. If there were a moderate speaker rather than Pelosi, my prediction wouldn't be so dire, but that ***** is going to polarize worse than Karl Rove ever dared attempt. So congratulations, you die hard Democrats, because you won last night, but don't expect anything to change.

PS: To further define my party (not) affiliations, yesterday I voted for a Libertarian candidate for Senate, an Independant for the House and for three "liberal" judges (you can't affiliate party in judicial elections here.)

I'll happily take the bogeywoman over the current state of affairs.

Not if she's smart. We'll see.

As for nothing changing, Conyers and Waxman are probably printing up subpoenas as we speak. So, we've gone from no oversight to some oversight. That's a change right there. For the better, I hope.

And I'm OK with gridlock.

BTW, I didn't vote for Bush, either.:D :D :D :D

You assume then, that things can't get worse. This would be a tough position for me, because I would rather have bad than worse. To each his own, I guess:rolleyes:

She called him the worst leader ever yesterday and "the emperor with no clothes." If she can restrain herself no more than that, she isn't smart.

He's going to veto everything that ***** puts up. Maybe Webb and that guy from Montana will be able to help with that......'course there's Joe L........

And the GOP has been blasting Nancy pretty good, too. They're all big boys and girls. They need to get over it.Is that any way to play nice? :D

I fear that you are right about Pelosi, but she has an opportunity to show people how the House should be run. After the series of clowns that preceded her in the Speaker's chair, it shouldn't be too hard to draw a contrast. I'm allowed to be optimistic, right?

This season on C-span should be riveting.

I only hope your assessment of Pelosi and the dems leadership will prove to be correct. Who wants the country to destroy itself over partisan bickering. Impeachment hearings would be a big mistake.
The problem the dems face is that now they must govern; not merely whine and criticize what others do. It is far more difficult to act positiviely than tp snipe. You know, losing seems to bring the dem's kook fringe to the fore; perhaps winning will put them back on the back bench
For the good of the country, i wish them well.

My sentiments exactly. Maybe it is optimistic, but I think the House will do a better job over the next two years than they have over the past two.

And I don't see any sense in blasting Pelosi's leadership abilities before she's had a chance to lead.

Prognosticate away then.

He didn't say it doesn't go on here everyday. He just said there isn't any sense in it. I can relate to that point of view.

Impeach Bush.

People shouldn't take biased, narrow, uncharitable potshots at politicians, right?

But that's one of my favorite things to do.

Standby to repel boarders.

Not exactly correct...

Actually, every STATE-wide referendum on legalizing medical marijuana (or small amounts of marijuana for any reason, as in Nevada) failed this time around.

But every LOCALLY-based referendum concerning marijuana decriminalization passed.
______________________________________________

Marijuana Policy Project Alert November 8, 2006

3 out of 3 state marijuana initiatives fail; 10 out of 10 local initiatives pass

The Marijuana Policy Project's initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada was defeated last night by a 44% to 56% margin.

While this is a huge disappointment to all of us, more than four in 10 Nevada voters actually voted to end marijuana prohibition entirely. This is huge progress since the 39% to 61% defeat of a similar ballot measure in Nevada four years ago.

This year's attempt in Nevada was only the sixth time that anyone has attempted to pass a statewide ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition in a state; the other attempts were in California in the early 1970s, Oregon in 1986, Alaska in 2000 and 2004, and Nevada in 2002.

Although we didn't win yesterday, the results demonstrate the voters' increasing willingness to reconsider our nation's marijuana laws. And we achieved this strong finish despite intense campaigning by the White House drug czar's office and the entire law enforcement establishment in Nevada.

The fact that we came close to victory while up against such powerful opposition is remarkable. And we're not giving up: We'll be back in Nevada to try again with another marijuana initiative in November 2008 or, more likely, in November 2010. The drug czar will keep trying to frighten people with lies, and we'll keep telling the truth, and eventually the truth will win.


In other election news, voters in 10 out of 10 communities in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, and Montana passed a series of local marijuana ballot initiatives by wide majorities.

Unfortunately, voters in South Dakota narrowly defeated an initiative to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest and jail by a 48% to 52% margin.

In addition, Colorado voters defeated by a 40% to 60% margin a statewide initiative that sought to remove all penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults aged 21 and older.

Notably, last night's change in leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives means that House leaders who have consistently opposed medical marijuana legislation will lose their committee chairmanships in January, and a strong supporter of protecting medical marijuana patients — Nancy Pelosi — will soon be House Speaker and choose the new slate of Democratic committee chairs. This will provide the most favorable conditions in Congress to pass federal medical marijuana legislation since I co-founded MPP in January 1995 (which was immediately after the "Republican Revolution" of November 1994).

The momentum is with us, but major social change never comes easily. We know we won't win every battle, but we win most of our battles.



Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

____________________________________



Mike

Agree 100%

She has already tapped a moron from my state to head a major committee that is too stupid to tie his shoes so he wears zip up boots, so I am not real confident.

Looks like William Jefferson will get back into Congress. Anybody know how much seniority he has?

B

it doesnt help anything to call names and just be plain nasty.

lets give them a chance to do something good. bush wont veto everything. there will be plenty of things he wants to get through and will just have to play ball to do it.

things will happen but not too big and not too fast.

a little grid lock is exactly what the forefathers envisioned when they set up our elaborate system of checks and balances.

i will lean back a bit now and see what happens.

tom w

Wisdom.

I just started paying attention to the lady today on the tv.

That is interesting reading about the lowly weed Mike. My opinion is that the current laws are antiquated.

Dude, dude, Pelosi does not own the house. Bush'll veto a few things... oh well. At least he won't be the kid with his daddy's army and credit card surrounded by a bunch of yes men any more.

Considering the ultra-partisanry of Tom DeLay and the K-street project boosters, I don't see things getting any worse than that.

How's that go again, "It's morning in America..." -- an end to this "mourning in America" crap (one hopes).

On the bright side for everyone, a lot of the newly minted Dems this time around strike me as pretty centrist. Look at Webb, Reagan's Sec. of Navy, formerly a Repub, the guy does not look at all like an ultra liberal. Course, he hasn't won irrevocably yet; it's hard to imagine anyone to the left of him winning in Virginia, when you look at how narrowly he appears to be winning now.

And Tester doesn't strike me as a liberal screamer neither. Some of the Repubs in Mt. were running him down with something like, "sure he's a farmer but he's an ORGANIC farmer!" :P Oh no, not that!

I'm hoping the Dem party in general will try hard to hang onto their new emergence from the sidelines by avoiding the sort of wild flamboyance and arrogance that'll end their celebration sooner than they want.

1. My impression is that the newly elected are moderate Democrats, not ideologues.

2. Demos were elected as a repudiation of Bush's war strategy (essentially, "Vote for me, I'm not a Republican"), not because of a cohesive policy agenda that they put before the voters.

3. Most of the newly elected entered power from a seat that is not very secure for either party.

4. Lacking a coherent plan and gaining power over both houses of Congress will result in an awful lot of midnight oil burning by both parties as they reconfigure themselves.

5. It takes a super majority vote to override a presidential veto.

Taken together, I think the above observations indicate that the country as a whole did not take a big leftward shift. What happened was that Demo leadership selected people who could get elected, given the district they were in. The positive side of that strategy is that the Democrats have gained an awful lot of power. The downside is that the old-guard Democrat pols are decidedly to the left of many of the freshmen class of Democrats. Forget gun control, forget socialized medicine, and other dreams that the far left Demos have dreamed of for decades. Before the committee chairs negotiate compromises with Congressional Repos and way, way before they take something for Bush to veto, they will have to negotiate with their own newbies. This will provide 24 months of entertainment.

That thought crossed my mind too. It's just as well, IMO. The old guard, specially Kerry and Kennedy, need a little shaking up. I'd like to see Mass. replace either or both with another demo in their next primaries. Not likely a Repo would win in the Senate there, though they have had a number of repo governors.

Gun control is likely to never fly in a big way in this country and even if it did, the black market in guns would erase most any gains in crime reduction anyway.

Socialized medicine is something we need to look at IMO. Don't get in a fix where you might need an emergency room is SoCal cause there's a good chance the ambulance will have to drive you around for a few hours until they can find an ER that isn't completely jammed and overwhelmed with indigents who use ERs as their health care provider of first and last resort. What's worse, many ERs are at the point of having to shut down because they just can't afford the current setup. Something is very wrong with that picture.

Add to that the way multi-nationals are bypassing the US in favor of countries such as Canada who make life a lot easier for them by removing the expense of providing health care to their employees, and we've got a problem Houston. Corporate welfare? Maybe, but they're gonna go where life is friendly to them.

Dude, it totally has to do with committee assignments.

Oh man, even if the dreaded Pombo had gotten re-elected he would have been de-powered by the Nancy.

The guy who knocked him off is the only Rep. I've ever met in person. Jerry McNerny, he was at one of Dean's Democracy for America meetings I went to back in '04 after Dean had gotten bumped off.

Seems like a good dude -- he was responsible in large part for one of the first wind farms in the US, the one near Altamont pass, of Rolling Stones fame.

The fame part should really be credited to the Hell's Angels, shouldn't it?;)

i agree mr. b. 100%. this election result will not result in big fast change. it is an adjustment. it is more than anything else a referendum on the war. the only trouble is that now that it is clear that folks want us out of iraq, the question is still how to get out? it isn't going to be easy.

tom w

mike, thanks for the carification on grass. it is clear that you read it all a lot more closely than i did.

tom w

Agreed; pelosi = disaster, we're all screwed :behead: Nothing will get done, the economy will suffer, taxes will rise.