Originally Posted By ecdc Impeachment hearings? Nah, won't and shouldn't happen. Halliburton and its connection to Cheney? Abso-frickin'-utely should be investigated. Watch the documentary Iraq for Sale and any American who supports the troops would be disgusted, regardless of feelings about the actual war.
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger >>Didn't get to the toilet museum, have to subscribe. What city is it in? I need to go.<< If you need to go that bad, there's probably a bathroom right down the hall from you, jonvn. No need to go to another state.
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger I went to bed last night, wondering how the vote would affect our lives. I wake up this morning and I can't believe what I'm hearing - Britney Spears has filed for divorce!!! What happened???
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom << wake up this morning and I can't believe what I'm hearing - Britney Spears has filed for divorce!!!>> And no surprise there was a prenuptial.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Nope. No one here made a bet they have to pay off over this election.> You know, I was tempted to make that bet with Beau, but I was thinking that as tightly as races are gerrymandered these days (much moreso than even 12 years ago), that a large swing was going to be very difficult. The public mood would have to be VERY anti-Bush, and the inevitable Rove-inspired attacks would have to fall on mostly deaf ears this time. But that's what happened. The districts have NEVER been as tightly (and scientifically) gerrmandered as they are now, which makes comparisons to earlier years misleading. This was a big show of dissatisfaction for Bush and Co., make no mistake. The exit polls confirmed it; indeed, without the gerrymandering, or if we were closer to a Brit-style parlimentary system, this would have been a huge blowout, with something like 2/3 of the voters saying we were on the wrong track. To pick up roughly 30 seats these days is huge. I'm also encouraged by the fact that both sides SEEM (operative word: seem) at this point to recognize the necessity of appealing to the middle. Many of the newly elected Democrats are moderates, many of the Republicans have been distancing themselves from Bush and neoconservatism in general; there's hope there if they can do more than pay lip service to the idea of responding to the concerns of the great American middle.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I also agree that impeachment would be a useless chimera (unless independent investigation uncovers something truly impeachable), but investigation into things like Halliburton ripping us off and shortchanging the troops in the process is absolutely legit. Not to mention just basic oversight on things coming out of the White House from this point forward; a necessary function of the Congress that the previous GOP House by and large never bothered to perform.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 One more election result: 7 states passed anti-gay-marriage referenda, but Arizona rejected it; the first time such a referendum has failed state-wide. Things take time, but they do change.
Originally Posted By hopemax A note about the AZ election. This particular version eliminated all civil nions/ domestic partnerships. Including those for elderly heterosexual couples who registered for those instead of marrying. The campaigning was about the poor old people who would have to choose between losing benefits and getting married, or losing the rights to be the decision makers for their partners. And there are a lot of elderly people in AZ.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 If that's true, it's sad that people will recognize the needs of elderly straight people, but not the equivalent needs of gay people of all ages.
Originally Posted By alexbook I still don't see what's wrong with Congress approving money for the World Toilet Summit. ;-P ----- I'm surprised. I'll admit it. I thought there was a good chance the Dems might win the House, but I never expected the Senate to be this close. Also, I just wanted to point out that Tan Nguyen (of immigrants-can't-vote fame) lost his race 62% to 38% to Loretta Sanchez.
Originally Posted By cmpaley CNN and MSNBC are reporting that AP and NBC are calling that Webb has defeated Senator Macacowitz in Virginia.
Originally Posted By alexbook I just checked the official web site for the Virginia Senate race, and the percentage of precincts reporting has dropped from over 99% to just under 95%, with Webb still holding a 49.55% to 49.24% lead. I don't really know what to make of this: >>Important Note about Percentage of Precincts Reporting: The percentage of precincts reporting has changed due to the start of the canvas and the counting of provisional ballots. For reporting purposes, the day immediately following the election, each locality creates one conditional vote (CV) precinct, per congressional district, in which to report their provisional votes. Localities with no provisional votes will show total votes of zero in the CV precinct for each candidate/ballot issue.<< Anybody want to try translating that into English? <a href="http://sbe.virginiainteractive.org/index.htm" target="_blank">http://sbe.virginiainteractive .org/index.htm</a>
Originally Posted By cmpaley They're in the midst of the recount and canvassing the vote. There are no significant changes from yesterday's count.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "Develop a sense of humor. You'll enjoy life more." A sense of humor I got. Tolerance for childish remarks a la the crap you spew about Schwarzenegger and now this, not so much.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer I got a chuckle when I realized this morning that the two GOP candidates in the close races were Burns and Allen.
