I have read many things about the progressive agenda and this was very clearly stated and certainly gives one a greater hope of these important house bills will get to the floor for a vote.

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This is the sweetest and most wonderful news to come out of this election. All these progressive voices in the new Congress must unite in the dissection of all the vote tampering and machine errors that have occured 00,02,04,06 and make sure that beginning in 08 the USA has a completely accurate and reliable voting system with only trivial errors instead of the massive frauds and abuses that became epidemic.

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It would be nice to feel good about the outcome of the election but....is there any chance for universal health care or a living minimum wage or an immediate end to US occupation of Iraq with this new congress? No. Even though a clear majority of US voters want those things. But, alas, I am always reminded that we live in a Republic, not a Democracy and as Peace Prize winner and mass murderer, Henry Kissenger said upon the US/CIA inspired murder of Salvador Allende (and Democracy in Chile) "when one must choose between the economy and democracy, you go with the economy". I think that we will find that the "liberal" ("Chavez is a thug" and no go to a Bush impeachment) Nancy Pelosi will go with the Republic and the economy over progressive Demoracy.Indeed, she always has.

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It would be nice to feel good about the outcome of the election but....is there any chance for universal health care or a living minimum wage or an immediate end to US occupation of Iraq with this new congress? No. Even though a clear majority of US voters want those things. But, alas, I am always reminded that we live in a Republic, not a Democracy and as Peace Prize winner and mass murderer, Henry Kissenger said upon the US/CIA inspired murder of Salvador Allende (and Democracy in Chile) "when one must choose between the economy and democracy, you go with the economy". I think that we will find that the "liberal" ("Chavez is a thug" and no go to a Bush impeachment) Nancy Pelosi will go with the Republic and the economy over progressive Democracy. Indeed she always has. With rare exceptions like Kucinich (who is not a millionaire) these "liberal" democrats will support their class interests...not the interests of vulgar "Democracy"...after all, they will remind you, we live in a Republic...not a Democracy.

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"Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) -- the new chair of the Judiciary Committee -- will welcome such questions."

Alright! Maybe now Conyers won't be sent to the basement and he and his hearings won't be marginalized. He's one of the few politicians I like. He asks questions I want answered. Maybe now we'll get some answers. At least he will be harder to ignore.

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...we need to slow down a bit. Many of these races were squeakers (i.e. Jim Webb's over George Allen). There still is a major conservative element out there and they're probably resentful. They will be looking to rally their base, the way WE did in the last few years. Let's not make the same mistake Bush made in the last election. He thought that because he won, he had some "political captital", when in reality, half the nation voted AGAINST him. He jumped the gun and was punished for it on Tuesday. If we jump the gun, there WILL be a Republican President in 2008.

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ITT editor Joel Bleifuss has repeatedly demonstrated in the past that he does not know the difference between "centrists" and "progressives." Back in 2000 he actually thought Gore was more "progressive" than Nader and he denounced in the harshest terms anyone who supported Nader. Now he claims that the mostly Democratic "centrists" who were elected on Tuesday are "progressives." When Pelosi and the congressional Democrats call for a single-payer health proposal and for the repeal of NAFTA, GATT and WTO as well as the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act and Military Commissions Act, I will know that they are on the level about being "progressives." As long as they decline to call for these measures they can make all the statements they want about being "pro-choice" and "pro gay rights" (without doing anything to advance these causes, of course) and I will continue to recognize them for the "centrists" (and closet Republicans) they are. I hate to rain on anyone's picnic but that is the way it is.

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Not to mention that only 40-some percent of registered voters actually voted which is only half of those eligible making it something like 20% "deciders." Seems to me to solidilfy any "progressive" wave, more and more folk need to get involved and stay involved. Just a thought.

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a campaign to impeach Dumya and No-neck Cheney, tomorrow in Philadelphia. The speakers list looks suspiciously like the cast of characters from the 70's Watergate era.

I agree these two miscreants not only need to be impeached, they need to be hauled before an international tribunal to account for their crimes against humanity, I question if now is the time to start this. The last thing this country needs is an endless Clinton-type investigation/impeachment circus.

Maybe I'm in the Democratic minority, but I think the voters elected us to get something done on such "minor" matters as Iraq, healthcare, corruption, inequitable tax cuts, and all of the Republican excesses that have piled up over the past 12 years.

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I here print an article to express my tatke on this "victory" :


America Plays Into The
'Two Party' Sham Yet Again
By Kathy Fisher
11-7-6


We missed the boat when voters insisted on playing the two party system scam again.

The citizens say they want to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets, they want health care reform, they want their jobs to stop pouring out of the country. But that can't and won't happen until we settle the Israel/Palestinian problem. 14 in one family were killed today by the Israeli army. It won't happen until we stop the tens of billions of dollars going into the Bush fraud 'war on terror.' We need complete electorial reform and there needs to be a criminal investigation for fraud and treason while the Bush junta is still in power.

Remember how Pelosi said she would have supoena power...and then did a complete turn around and said: "there will be no impeachment under her rule"? Remember?

So, what makes you think it will be easy and honest now with the Democrats in control of the House? Did you forget how they have voted FOR the Bush/Cheney illegal, outrageous, treasonous anti-Constitution, anti-Bill Of Rights 'Patriot Act' legislation...and how they support Bush's butcherous, hideous Iraq war? And how most of them continue to give the most racist, dangerous nation on Earth billions and billions of our tax dollars to continue building its thermonuclear arsenal while carrying out the genocide of the Palestinian people...not to mention paying for the recent slaughter in Southern Lebanon?

What tiny piece of the pie of change will you be satisfied to eat...at the expense of the meat and potatoes we'll all starve for?

Labor law reform? Unions leaders need to get busy getting their act together, too. Remember the last time we had 'Democratic control' in power and how we were promised labor reform? They didn't deliver that either.

Insiders and power brokers, blackmailers, AIPAC, JINSA, ADL and mega corporate money and incfluence run BOTH parties. When will Americans get a grip on that reality? Pelosi is a LIAR. End of story. She will continue to sit down with the village idiot at luncheons and dinners and decide whether she'll have chicken or poached salmon.

She said in her election day speech that the Democrats must get the PAC money and the corporate interest out of politics. Same old rhetoric. Same old BS. And don't forget how she has virtually pledged her soul as an Israeli First Lady. So, you can count on our tax dollars continuing to pour into that festering pocket of deceit and anguish-causing country non-stop. The 'Democrats' will vote to continue to kill for Israel directly and indirectly every step of the way. Nothing will change.

Next, the dumb Dems will begin to push the Hillary ticket for 2008, claiming it will make all the difference in the world when the Democrats take complete control of Washington. Hillary is not a labor friendly candidate, either. Her prodigiuos, egregious record of gross hypocrisy and opportunism speaks for itself. And yet she may well end up being the next democrat Presidential choice.

And one more time: the Pro Patriot Act/Pro War Dems are supported by their own group of corrupt corporate lords and masters, and scores of special interest groups?

If you rejoice in this insignificant amount of change in Washington, then you, my friends, are very easy to please (read: deceive), indeed.

What a frigging joke.

Is there hope? Gee...three independents were voted in.

Good luck.

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As I said in a previous post, time doesn't stand still. The political and economic conditions as they stand now are points on a trendline, all of which are going against the established order. The so-called "progressives" beat the alleged "conservatives" because the economic foundations of the country are crumbling.

Forget the rest of the BS from the "experts". The country is turning hard left for better or for worse. The three Gs from the right wing mavins-- God, Guns and Gays-- will be looked on by future historians with mild amusement, that anyone with a brain would base their future on this kind of ideology.

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Us revolutionaries can not tell you progressives from the conservatives or any one else for that matter. You all keep singing the same old songs and playing the same broken records. Maybe the real problem with America is that it is full of Americans. Did you ever hear the old saying actions speak louder than words? So stop with a your value bullshit because you have none. You ramble on about universal healthcare and jobs. Here is how you kill two birds with one stone. Make your government put all the money collected from the people for social security and Medicare into the social security administration. Instant universal healthcare and you take healthcare costs off the backs of employers. There is plenty of money collected. Just stop the people you elected from stealing it. Start tomorrow and those worthless IOU’s (treasury bonds) that Bush and Chaney talk about could be burned up. You have until 2012 to be progressive or the real New World Order is going to shove that right down your throats, along with many other solutions to problems that you are not able to get a handle. You can not maintain the status quo and live in the future.

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This piece of prevaricator-blather by Joel & Nick was the biggest waste of space, thankfully it was short.

Thankfully some posters checked their records and called ITT on the carpet about their definitions of "centrist" and "progressive." Thankfully, several posters expressed a sense of moral clarity despite this "victory" of hot air and backed up their hard-earned cynicism with experiential evidence.

Maybe at age 40 I'm just still too young--hell the Boomers keep saying they can't trust GenX (because we were 20-something, then 30-something, ad nauseum)--but from where I sit in the middle of a red-enclave in California (where my very small genuinely progressive minority didn't win against the junta), this is a veritable crisis. The Constitution has been violated then annulled (Iraq then MCA 2006), human rights and the legal treaties allegedly advocating our alleged belief in human rights are still openly being violated and the "victors" are publicly declaring the pursuit of justice off the table in favor of the pursuit of a "progressive" agenda? And our vaunted intellectuals are lining up behind this agenda and calling us measly voters unsophisticated and misrepresenting our concerns as "revenge"? Now Joel and Nick try to call those same victors "progressive"? Isn't that kinda like a certain C-student silver-spooner brat calling an illegal occupation and more than a half-million dead "freedom" and "liberation"?

This is madness, not a victory.

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Call me a cockeyed pessimist, but isn’t anyone else alarmed that approximately 47 percent of the electorate is still lame enough to vote Republican? Just who are these imbeciles and how did they get that way? Even Wiley Coyote knows there’s trouble when he looks down and sees he’s run off the cliff. How bad does it have to get before they agree it’s bad?

The way I look at it, the glass is 47 percent empty because how can anyone feel comfortable with all these cuckoo birds stumbling around and wandering into voting stations? NPR asked a congressional candidate in Georgia to identify the most important issue in the campaign and he answered gay marriage. He sounded sincere.

The Republicans have no energy policy, think it’s A-OK that we’re the only industrialized nation in the free world without national health insurance, and provide only slogans to fix their failed hobby war in Iraq. For the Supreme Court they’ve been approving lying inept-ocrats whose eyes twirl around inside their skulls. They even voided our signature on the Geneva Convention and treated the Bill of Rights like it was a fatwa from Bin Laden. They borrow like there’s no tomorrow, and if they were to continue getting their way on global warming and the poisoning of air and water, there won’t be a tomorrow.

And nearly half the voters voted to keep these corrupt-oramusses in office. Some of them have an excuse. They want to reach the End of Times and are savvy enough to see that Bush, Cheney, Hastert, etc. are the shortest, quickest route. But what about the rest?

These people Lincoln was talking about when he said you can fool some of the people all of the time seem so much more numerous in the de-brained culture of MTV, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Britney Spears. Recent high school graduates who can find Afghanistan on a map are as small a fraction of the whole as the number of Americans who are even aware that Bush’s handlers were caught inserting a fake journalist-gay prostitute into White House press conferences to lob powder-puff questions at their answer-challenged leader.

Yes, this election gave us grounds for cautious celebration. But as the next Congress seeks to undo some of the criminally corrupt practices of the last one – particularly in regard to the job of making an aquarium out of the fish soup they call Iraq -- it ought to pay serious attention to providing a decent education to our citizens so perhaps someday down the road Americans will be able to field our 1-800 calls as capably as native Hindi speakers.
By Ivan G. Goldman, Digging Deeper
http://ivangoldman.blogspot.com/

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here is an analysis of the election by Media Matters which shows a progressive victory. Don't believe the hype, DDDDon't believe the hype. The MSMedia is a conservative pupet.

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I am not surprised, but rather deeply dismayed to learn that John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi have declared that Impeachment is "off the table" . Congress would impeach Clinton for a lie about his personal life, but not Bush for lying repeatedly about the war, using 800 signing statements to evade the law, and has proved to be the most secretive and dishonest president in history. Cheney is not any better. We are going to just let these guys finish their term??? That is NUTS! We need to repeal every law passed under the rubber stamp congress, including the patriot act, and the REALID act and all the rest. We need an independent investigation of 9/11, so the truth will not be hidden like the JFK and RFK assassinations. Otherwise we will still be in a fascist system and the DEMS can go on with the plan for a NEW AMERICAN CENTURY. fOR THE RICH TO STAY RICH AND the rest of us can starve as their slaves.

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See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/10/65657/830

"Jim Webb smacks down NPR"

NPR has gone off the deep end with praise for Bush's 'new bipartisan approach' while he also urges the lame-duck Congress to confirm Bolton as UN ambassador as soon as possible.

If the Democrats allow this to happen, then we'll know that they'll do nothing whatsoever to challenge Bush & Co.

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The Bleifuss/Burt/Bowers comments promise a renewed assault upon independent-minded leftists. Given the bullying tone and abusive terminology, it looks to be nasty. It will have to be, for hard core Democrat leftists will have their work cut out over the next 2 years covering the left flank of the Democratic Party as it betrays the hopes placed in it by grassroots progressive left activists. Signally, these will be the failure to impeach Bush/Cheney - necessary for Iraq withdrawal - failure to repeal the Military Commissions Act and failure to repeal the Patriot Acts.

After 6 years of Roves' lying spinmanship, are we now to be subject to a "Pwog" version of dissembling spin?

Example: The article headline claims "The big winners from the '06 midterms were members of the House Progressive Caucus", misleading one into a sense that the Caucus received some sort of popular mandate in the 2006 elections. But as one reads a bit further, it is revealed that all this amounts to is that certain select progressive Democrats now occupy key House committee chairmanships due, not to popular election, but to the extremely undemocratic anachronism of House seniority rules! These invariably benefit Congresspeople in "safe" districts who are automatically relected term after term, which means for the Democrats, districts where Republicans are very weak, often weaker than the independent Left. This is not "democracy", but bureaucracy, in action.

Example: "In an unprecedented move this fall, CPC members -- coming together under the newly formed Progressive Majority Project -- pooled their money, time and staff to lend support to progressives running in 12 House races. Eight of those CPC-backed candidates won, which makes all this talk about conservative Democrats in the ascendancy a bunch of bunk." We are not told if these presumably "progressive" Democrats replaced Republicans or even conservative Democrats in "swing" districts - an event that, if it were true, would indicate a fairly dramatic and unprecedented (in recent times) shift to the left by formerly conservative voters. But no evidence of this is given at all. For all anybody knows, these are either liberal to progressive replacements for a previous liberal occupant. No change there.

Finally, no concrete analysis is presented of the politics of Democrats elected in Republican "swing" districts - the races that actually gave the Democrats the House majority.

The rest is largely hopeful happy talk. The day we have universal health care in the USA will be, under present conditions, the day Corporate America realizes how it is shooting itself in the foot with the present idiotic system. No doubt "pwogs" of the Bleifuss/Burt/Bowers stripe will be there to claim "credit" for Corporate America's actions.

But what enables this sort of spin is a deliberately confounding abuse of the term "progressive". In particular it is combined with "liberal", the latter a different political species. In this way Pelosi is represented as a "progressive" simply because she is a member of the CPC. But Pelosi pledged 100% support for the murdurous, US sponsored apartheid state of Israel before AIPAC, now under criminal investigation: With Pelosi Admits Israel Comes First

Since when is this stance - hardly a minor issue today - become "progressive"? It would be hardly be the only issue that would define Pelosi as something other than progressive.

Conversely, it is assumed that a correct stance on, say, abortion rights signifies "progressivism". That would be news to Giuliani, McCain and may other genuine conservatives!

So dance, spinmeisters, dance! We on the independant Left are also pleased that the election results have placed such ripe and juicy targets in our sights!

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More vacuous spin!
Media Matters for America states:

"Following the November 7 midterm elections, Media Matters for America examined the policy positions of those Democratic House candidates who, as of the morning of November 8, had defeated Republican incumbents or been elected to open seats previously held by Republicans. This survey of the Democrats' campaign websites, candidate questionnaires, and statements in news reports found that these incoming lawmakers agree on a set of issues central to the Democratic platform, including raising the minimum wage, changing course in Iraq, and protecting Social Security:

* All 27 candidates support raising the minimum wage.
* All 27 candidates advocate changing course in Iraq.
* All 27 candidates oppose efforts to privatize Social Security.
* Only two of the 27 candidates do not support embryonic stem cell research.
* Only five of the 27 candidates describe themselves as "pro-life.""

MMfA has the integrity and decency to not claim that the stances on this set of issue constitiutes "progressivism". Indeed, there is nothing inherently progressive in not being "pro-life", support for embryonic stem cell research, opposing Social Security privitization - these first 3 being radical Right extremist, and not conservative, positions - as well support for raising the minimum wage - but do you support raising it back up to 1968-72 levels? Now that would be the beginning of progress! - and certainly nothing progressive in a vagarity such as support for "changing course" in Iraq. An attack on Iran, now that would be a "change in course". Pelosi would support it.

Plenty of real conservatives, Democrat or Republican, support many of these issues.

The only real MEASURABLE mass support for potentially progressive issues would be the complete sweep of state ballot initiatives for raising the minimum wage. But we are still a long way from recovering the wage level of 1970!

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Look, not to rain on the parade but remember the Dems must now work to set-up a Presidential bid in 2008. And, presumably, but not quite 100% yet, it will be Hillary. Hillary is going to push hard for what she would call a Centrist position (but we call it Dems acting as Repubs) and she will depend a lot on Pelosi to reign in Dems seen as "too radical" in the House. Already, Pelosi reportedly has told Conyers to back off on impeachment proceedings for GW Bush. On "National Security" and the Patriot Act, we will have to see. Remember, Dems have been running scared thinking they have to be Repubs to survive. With GW Bush in the White House they will continue to be scared that he might re-surface this bug-a-boo for them, especially as 2008 comes around. As for GW Bush, he will go along with some kind of token increase in the minimum wage, no doubt. Social Security privatization was already a dead issue even with the Repubs in charge. I also don't think Universal Health care is going anywhere. On "free trade" we could hope for some kind of action via the large deficit with China. But, again Dems might be afraid and GW Bush will tell them to back off because of Chinese help with N Korea. So, you see, it's one thing to talk about a big progressive agenda and it will be another thing to actually see it start to actualize.

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Recently, someone asked a sociopath if he believed he was insane: "that's relative," he said, "depends on what the meaning of insanity is." That would be Charles Manson. Some may think that's a stretch but then Manson's crimes were limited to so very few --in the context of the millions of deaths by a hand, well-manicured, releasing missles from many miles away. The NAFTA Wars was released on a much kinder, safer world in the 90s. Regarding "kiss-up" (fake) democrats accommodating republicans, the NAFTA Wars, did more than any single thing to make the *Universe an unsafe place. And the NAFTA Wars, the biggest!, best gift republicans ever got (from *US, the Democrats) continues to date. So much for joining the right.

Fascists rock. They're tough-- equal to the fight. Bullies With Billion-Buck Entitlements. . They're not afraid--of censorship, regulations world-wide violence if necessary, when it suits their purpose, they know how...to control! "It's The Profits Stupid!" Y--e-e-a-a-a-h-h-h! they definitely can WIN. Especially if we allow them to dismiss and block all the public's alternatives. You can call them Neo-Cons, the New Democrats, Centrists--some even have the ba**s to call themselves liberals. But when THEIR! power is entrenched, what've we, THE PUBLIC got? You got that right--- Dictators, Autocrats, Plutocrats, Arrogant Fascists to rule America. .

Strangely enough, looks like when push comes to shove they WILL! combat republicans-- after all they're already!! working on their new agenda: protracted, time-eating "investigations," of the Bush administration. Investigation, Investigation, Investigation-- sure beats legislation. The people gave them a mandate: Act!!!!!! Like Democrats. But as they've illustrated time & time again, --Anything! But That. The message from the "democratic-"leadership --the same guys who made our real! 2nd! (alternative) party a nullity in the 90s has been coming through loud & clear for almost 15 years: "It's The Profits!!, Stupid" and they mean *STUPID. "C'mon guys, trust them-- it's not about lobbyists, it's just so impractical to be the PEOPLE's ADVOCATE".
Winning??? --What's In It For US

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”Don't buy all the crap coming from GOP talking-point memos or the blather from mainstream pundits… Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) -- the new chair of the Judiciary Committee -- will welcome such questions” [on civil rights, etc].

More LIMITED HANGOUT garbage from an MSM hack pretending to be an outsider.

For a whorehouse circus from DC thru its MSM the labels described here have no meaning. From “left” to “right” and “center” the show is a wholly owned farce under the thumb of essentially one corporate vampire class.

Democrats and Republicans are both responsible for 911 cover-up along with its equally criminal and falsified Iraq War. And that is no theory. The intelligence was not skewed or “cherry picked” – It was cooked and pumped by sellouts from all sides of DC-MSM brothel. Facts on the ground are not negotiable.

John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi have already taken White House impeachment “off the table” as among the first policy moves of their supposed new chapter at Washington.

“Off the table” means no accountability for an entire government run on serial corporate monopoly crime thru cover-up with full complicity of the MSM.

The simple truth is that if impeachment were not “off the table” then the truth in all its grotesque squalor could potentially come out thru real investigation.

Reality is that 911 cover-up to a sham “war on terror” that brought the American loss of habeas corpus are part of an ongoing corporate crime atrocity. One with no end in sight.

This truth could bring down the entire government, as it should in a real democratic republic.

So you can take your “left” your “right” and your “center” and put them in the same place you once had your principles. Because they don’t exist anymore than democracy does in America.

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