A Post Mid-Term Cram Session

As many of you either know last night was mid-term election night south of the border. The American people got to exercise their democratic rights, as all of the seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the Senate were all up for grabs. Both the House and the Senate have been under Republican control since 1994, and since there has been a Republican President since that infamous night in 2000, then the US government has been under total Republican control for a while.

Darth Bushdar and his Evil Empire have been running the show for a long time. That was until last night, when the Democrats blew up the Death Star.

As of this writing the Democrats have won 228 of the 435 seats with 11 of the seats still being counted. While this is a great victory the real interesting things are happening in the Senate. Of the 32 confirmed seats (Virginia is still pending) the Democrats won an astonishing 23 of them. They knocked off Republican incumbents in Montana, Rhode Island, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. The Virginia seat that is still being counted is leaning towards the Democrats. If they get that one then the Democrats will end up with 51 of the 100 seats, enough for a majority. This is simply astonishing since they started 13 seats behind the Republicans, of the 67 seats that were not contested, 40 are Republican and 27 are Democrats.

Since I do not have any form of television here I kept checking cnn.com last night for results. While this was going on I kept msning super political nerd Ryan McNutt (Who has FAR more in depth coverage of the issues right HERE) and we went through every possible emotion rooting for the Democrats. First we were hopeful, then scared, then felt defeated and then finally elated. If felt like we were watching the nerdy playoffs.

I am simply amazed by all of this. It gives me a bit of hope in the American people, and subsequently the world. We have been living under the Bush tyranny for far too long, and now just maybe with a Democratic House and Senate things will change. Like I mentioned in my last issue, the biggest swing state was in fact, Iraq. The American people have spoken, they are sick of this war, they are sick of the lies, they are sick of the corruption, and it is time for a change.

That being said, this could all be wishful thinking due to that pesky state of Virginia. As I type, they have 99% of the voting precincts in and the Democrat is leading by less than 7000 votes. That's mighty tight. If the Republicans somehow take that state then it will be back to Republic rule, since a 50-50 split gives the tie breaking vote to the Vice-President, and I don't see Trigger Happy Cheney switching sides any time soon. According to the constitution of Virginia, if the difference is less than 1% then there will be a recount. Right now the difference is less than 0.3%, so expect this to take a couple of days. I guess this is the time for Luke to use the force to guide himself into the Death Star to deliver that one shot.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the breaking news going on down there. Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary is stepping down. Rumsfeld has been criticized very heavily for just about everything to do with the Iraq War. I am not all that shocked at the timing really. The American people just showed how little they approve the war and all of a sudden the figure head for the invasion steps down. Can we say scapegoating?

As a little retirement present for big D, here's a great picture of him from 1983 giving props to an old friend.

Well at least ol' Rummy now has something more in common with his best buddy Saddam. They are both taking the fall for Bush. It's a tough job, but someone has got to do it!!!

Until next time,


G