Republicans Take Over House Gaining 60 Seats

The Republicans took over at least 59 house seats and now the Democrats are in the one hundreds with only 194 or less while the Republicans are well in excess of two hundred. The Republican gains will probably exceed sixty seats. In the Senate Harry Reid hung on to his majority seat and defeated Angler by 50% to 45% beating out the latest polls there. In late news Michael Bennet just won for Senate in Colorado. So the West is putting up resistance to the Republican tide. Marco Rubio won in Florida handily by more than his two opponents combined, including former governor Charlie Crist. The democrats hung on to the West Virginia senate race but lost in Illinois, Michigan and in Pennsylvania, so Joe Sestak lost. Joe Miller appears headed for defeat in Alaska as Lisa Marcoski with her write in campaign appears to be winning but they’re going to hold that one up for days. In the senate they say it’s 49 democrats to 46 republicans and two independents. The math doesn’t quite add up there. John Boehner began to cry as he gave his speech this morning on the Today show. In the thing I saw on the internet he was straightforward. Meanwhile in state races Jerry Brown won 52% to 43% to Meg Whitman and Barbra Boxer defeated Carley Feurina 50% to 45% or something though Feurina hasn’t conceded yet. Cooley gave a victory speech for Attorney General even though the San Francisco Chronicle yanked it’s victory call a half hour after it was given and Harris appears to be the next Attorney General. In the propositions proposition 19 lost, and there were all these allusions to “going up in smoke” but even if just 44% of the people voted for it that’s still a sizable minority. Proposition 20 passed and so we will take redistricting away from the legislature. The state parks initiative lost as did proposition 24 so say Hello to a giveaway to the rich taking money from school teachers and others. Proposition 25 won so the legislature is on notice now for no late budgets or they get the axe. Proposition 22 won to preserve local funds. And the dirty air initiate lost- - as Californians rejected this scheme by oil billionaires. Proposition 27 lost.

I wasn’t pleased with the coverage on seven last night because they didn’t keep us updated on key senate races enough. They kept talking about how tea baggers feel about taking over the House but in hard numbers the last figure I heard was 19 out of a needed 39. I switched to channel nine at eight. I stayed up relatively late by my current standards but I decided not to wait till after ten for victory speeches because they might have delays in those. KNBC in the morning was more obsessed with traffic and weather than they were the election results. Stephanie Miller wasn’t much better as far as giving anybody hard numbers. I had to go to the internet before breakfast for that.

President Obama is having a press conference at ten. I believe he will have to make a dramatic break with his usual pattern if people are going to care what he says. Just the usual lines about “Putting politics aside and working together” won’t cut it this year. Not if people don’t really feel the President has “gotten the message”. Senator Mitch Mc Conell has said his job is to massively obstruct everything and make Obama a one term President. Rand Paul won the senate seat in Kentucky, and that was hardly any surprise. People have been pronouncing him the winner for months already. As I say, this country now is going to slip back down into the depths of recession, which tea baggers like Judy appear to want. Facts are tricky things and the fact is our nation was more in debt after W W II after twelve years of Roosevelt spending than we are now, and we came out of that crisis just fine. As far as I know federal spending was not even a campaign issue back in that era. The “War” we are facing now is the war on massive recession and we have to continually be vigilant in that area.

Ten Things Republicans Think They Know

I'm typing on the back of that J Edger Hooveresque list of things Terry gave me to search out in terms of dark truths of the gay population. Thom Hartman tried to cheer us a little by saying democratic turnout has been higher than expected and democrats are feeling a sense of hope. What a change from the Judy barroge. But today we are doing reasons to be a Democrat and not a Republican. I ended voting just about as planned but at the last minute I decided to vote to re elect Ed Royce despite that "town hall" phone call. After all he's sent a lot of Christmas Cards and things over the years and I'm sure he'll be reelected. I tend to give "points" to long term incumbants. That's why I voted for Brown and Boxer. I voted for the Republican liutennant governor both to keep Brown on his toes and because I'd heard that Willy Brown hand picked that Mayor of San Francisco. It's a vestegial remnent of my conservatism and John and Key regarding Willy Brown as "evil incarnate" defending a bunch of pimps, gang members and murderors in his younger years getting them off. I voted Republican for Attorney General but Democratic for most other state offices. OK I guess we're ready to go, with a new paragraph. I reentered blogger and they told me my cookies were functionally disabeled. "Hey, keep my sex life out of this, will you?" But seariously, this new testosterone medication they're advertizing now sounds just the ticket for a lot of us older folk who feel the need to be revitalized.

The first things Republicans think they know is that President Obama trippled the national deficet. Instead it was fiscle 2009 that was Bush's last year and that's when the deficet exploded and Obama in his deficet actually reduced the figure. Item number two the Republicans don't know was that President Obama cut their taxes. They're a bunch of ungrateful jerks. The third thing they think they know is that the Stimulus failed when actually it succeeded. The fourth thing they don't know is that Business will hire if we give them more tax cuts. In actuality these business will just pocket the tax refund money. Actually jobs come about from demand created by the comon wage earner who has money to spend on product and create demand. The fifth thing republicans think they know is Health Care exploded the budget by a trillion dollars. By democrat accounting we will actually save money by implementing Health Care. Personally this one I have doubts about. The sixth thing republicans think they know is Government spending pulls money out of the economy that would otherwise be there. The Seventh thing they think they know is that Social Security is going bankrupt. It will be solvent till the year 2039 and people aren't living that much longer because according to Hartman most of the increase has been due to a reduction of infant mortality. This is another I have personal doubts about. To me there are a lot more really old people now and people age more slowly. The eighth thing Republicans think they know is that Obama bailed out the banks with TARP money, when of course that distinction goes to Bush. The nineth thing they think they know is that the US Dollar is doomed. This isn't true. Chinese wouldn't be trying to keep their currency so cheap if they thought we could make ours much cheaper and blow them out of the water. They are not afraid of a cheap US dollar becomming worthless. They are so glad to take our money they are willing to run a big economic surplus to do it. The Chinese would rather have our money than our goods. Think about it. Also as per the past posting "If you think the US dollar is doomed, how much gold have you purchassed over the years". Put your money where your mouth is. The tenth and final thing republicans think they know is that President Obama is too leftist, when in reality people with he would be more strident and show leadership. When Howard Dean was head of the democratic party they had a lot more respect. And they could have it again if they got Howard Dean back, or someone like him.

OK we’re going to jump to the second part of the day here. [name withheld] told us all in this hall “don’t close your doors. There will be people working in your rooms”. I was a little bit puzzled. It seems that they were installing new light switches even though the old ones worked fine. These have some “automatic” capabilities. Apparently if there is no movement in a room for over a half an hour then the light goes off. I’ll try and not read a book too quietly. The light goes on now automatically when you venture into the bathroom. Accronis has started its weekly run. I watched Days of our Lives and went out for afternoon coffee in the courtyard. I came back here hoping to catch Randy Rhodes and Nora came by and shewed us out to change the linins. I decided to wait downstairs in the courtyard still worried that my check didn’t arrive. It was a lengthly wait. Finally at 3:15 [name withheld] called my name. My name was the last of a list and a lot of names appeared to have been skipped. I’m glad I wasn’t one of them. I talked to Loretta Hill a little. I thought of telling Brenda Hess about “Night Skin” and saying “It would work wonders for your complexion. You don’t want to get old before your time, do you?” But I didn’t do that. But the line stalled. Richard Moore and I had been sitting in the courtyard waiting there before the first set of names were even called. Gayno went in front of us at the last minute and then some “H” guy stepped to the front of the line. After this a guy named John came in the office (?) and was a little eccentric but [name withheld] spent a lot of time with him. Then Sarah brought another lady in who spoke only Spanish and [name withheld] spent even more time with her. A lot of the M’s in line were getting restless, particularly Owen Martin. (“Isn’t that your grandfather?”) Not unless age and some other things are reversible. Finally she got to me. Mario Hernandez popped in at the last moment and I was pulling my hair out but [name withheld] shewed him off. [name] gave me the twenty I asked for and I went out the other door. I went right to the liquor store and bought two packs of John Blacks. The guy said “You didn’t want menthols did you?” I said “No”. I was waiting to pick them up till I got my change. We had an “enchilada casserole” for dinner that was more like Lazagna than the usual dish. There were baked beans and spinach. We had tapioca pudding for desert. I went to the bakery for a large coffee. I paid Gloria the $3.50 I owed her. I was thinking maybe I could Jap her out of the change by saying I’d get it to her later and then bum quarters or sell cigarettes. But she had the 50 cents so I was trapped. I’m thinking of posting tonight before I know the election results. Christie Mc Donald already lost, and that's an encouraging sign.

Today we are talking about paternity. We contrasted two people in a soap opera a few weeks ago, Melanie, who wanted the truth out, what she knew of it, and Kayla, who butted into her daughter (Stephanie's) private affairs. People thought Carley Manning was the one who changed the paternity results saying Daniel was the father of Clowie's baby. But now we know that Carley turned friendly twords Clowie and decided not to mention her affair to Daniel was exactly as she told us, "If the paternity tests show Daniel as the father I'll keep my mouth shut forever". Carlie is thus an innocent to this test tampering. The dark horse culperet if the Grandmother, the one you least suspected, Caroline Brady. She told daughter Kayla and now Kayla is in the process of telling her daughter, Stephanie, who has been endeavoring to learn the truth and probably wouldn't have stopped till she found it. Even so this will be a secret poorly kept. Neither the mother, Clowie, nor biological father, Philip, know the truth about the child to be. I know Dr. Laura is in favor of women keeping secrets. I'm not "down" with secret keeping of this nature. In like manner I am against "withholding evidence" in court trials. Were I to find out "the truth" about a defendant as a juror, I would disregard the Court's instructions and vote to convict because I believe the Truth trumps legal machinations. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Secrets are time bombs. Why not defuse them as soon as you discover them?

Alarming Indicators at the Buzzer

Well we in blue California have won the battle against the tea partiers. Jerry Brown and Barbra Boxer are remaining comfortably ahead in the recent polls. That LA Times poll a week ago Sunday was not a flook. However on the national scene things don't look good. They say Republicans are winning generically over Democrats by 49% to 43%. They say this translates to picking up over fifty members in the House. Somebody said they would be more surprised if the Democrats held on to the house at under forty, then if the Republicans picked over seventy house members. Isn't that getting pretty close to a record? There are a lot of senate races where the statistics are a little alarming. The Republicans hold narrow but persistent margins in such sates as Nevada where Reid is trailing Angler by a few points. The Republicans are leading narrowly in Colorado and in Obama's home state of Illinois, and in Wisconsin where Russ Feingold appears to be going down to defeat. This is the loss of a valuable liberal. Rand Paul is pulling ahead in Kentucky, as was expected, and Joe Sestak, the Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania, seems to be on the losing end of a tea bagger assault. This is the loss of another valuable liberal. As Stephanie Miller is saying, historians will not look back kindly on this "historic" election of 2010. They will view it as a final last gasp of the reactionary right before this country finally moved on to bigger and better things. Ancient Chinese saying go, "He who routinely plays the obstruction card, one day will run out of cards". (Selah) This is how it will be with the tea party crowd when viewed by history fifty years from now.

Judy says her favorite president is Ronald Reagan. Need I remind you that Reagan didn't get this nation into any wars, but actually worked with the Soviets and Gorbechov to bring about a meaningful peace. I was not against "Star Wars". It was a bargaining card that worked. But I voted for Mondale the second time around because I basically thought Reagan had "served his purpose" in restoring the confidence of America, but now we needed a Democrat like Mondale to guide the economic ship of state and restore the tax cuts made for the rich. Ronald Reagan redistributed income from the poor to the rich. He cut their taxes but doubled FICA taxes on the working man for the first time making him fund his own retirement as well as that of his parents. Also Reagan in 1986 raised tax shelters for the working man such as eliminating cradit card interest as being deductable. But Ronald Reagan did not turn stem cell research into a political football and his wife, Nancy, and son Ron, are all for stem cell research if it can ease the ravages of certain diseases such as Parkinsons, Eplipsey, and Alsheimers.

One thing, one charge, these conservatives make is that it eliminates the incentive of people go go out and taken economic risks to earn money. I would strenuously disagree with this. These rich billionaires are for the most part born rich, and they'll die rich. They make their money not from honist "capital venture" as Judy suggests, but rather from feeding at the government troff of special prevelege and the ability to pay no taxes on billions earned. People impute such moral purity to these rich people as though they can do no wrong. Chuck Smith, in a hint of how he might "break" on this issue, once said "I've found that it's the poor people who love money and are avericious for more. Whereas I find the rich people to a large extent have transcended their need for money and they discover that it doesn't bring them happiness. Dr. Levy sings the same basic song. However there are ways of putting these assertions to the test. Are these rich campaigning to give their money away and help the poor, or are they fighting for every cent they make and trying to make the tax laws so it is even MORE adventagious to them and more averse fo the poor? Pete Richards may say that the dollar is doomed. But does Pete own any Gold in his portfolio? I don't think so. Were you to ask him he would say "Well, that is too risky and after all it might go down". Exactamundo. Of course it might go down. In that famous family argument at the Red Robin on Mothers Day 1994 I was alone in defending a Pastor whom Pete Richards had once worked for. And the issue was his propensity to take sensible risks. Of course one fact most likely left out of the story when Pete tells it is, the Pastor was RIGHT. But these right wingers are so risk averse they will say things like "The US dollar is finished" not because they actually believe it, but rather they don't want to spend one red cent on the poor but cut any programs they can in this State. Meg Whitman speaks of "taking back California" and I'm wondering from whom? Swartzenegger? Are they attacking him for being too Liberal? That's what it sounds like. Dr. Levy thinks our current governor is too liberal. So if this is any indication where Whitman is headed when she takes over, I'm going to do anything I can to prevent it, as a poor person. I'm going to keep quiet and vote Democratic, except for Cooley for attorney general. I still believe in law and order and the death penalty for the worse murderers.

You know someone might remark after watching me this week "You've been talking with that guy doing all the Christian witnessing around the place and you sound like a Christian yourself, quoting from the Bible. How come you aren't opposing his efforts?" Opposition is their game, not mine. I've been on the other side of the fence trying to witness to people and I know how hard it is. He has enough problems trying to get his message accross without adding my opposition into the mix. I still believe in the golden rule. In some of my blogs I come off as anti Christian, and I guess I am. I am anti institution, not anti people. My proclamations are based on my own experiance but I realize other people have other experiances with the Faith, and it's not my business to take away from another's experiance with God. But when these Christians say things like "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life" if given the chance to go back and relive 35 years ago, I would not make the same mistake. Because once you accept their gospel, nothing in your life changes. And I'm not speaking about money now. As some of you may know, I had a rather large bank account in the mid seventies. Money wasn't a problem. I could splurge and buy lobster if I wanted to, or take a trip to Hawaiiai and hardly notice the dent. But these Christians would not be happy if they learned how I Got all that money. And it wasn't by following the rules they make for the rest of us. But I'm talking about how the right wing and perhaps Christians are utterly devoid of Love for their fellow man and woman. When I speak of my life not "changing" it's basically getting over certain hangups that have plagued me and improving my own self image. That didn't occur. And to the extent it seemed to occurr in the early years it was undone by later involvements, such as with the Asshole from El Paso, or "screwy Louie". We won't even talk about the immense amount of damage Gene Scott did to the Faith. I don't like to play the "Love" card all that often because "they" do that so well, when you never know what their definition of "Love" is to begin with. Dr. Levy can talk about having a good self image and a healthy respect for yourself, but that's not how these Christians see you. I don't know to what extent Christians are intertwined with the tea baggers. I have seen hints of the connection, sometimes strong hints. But as I told that guy witnessing around here "I don't think the sort of politics the tea party set preaches belongs at all in Christianity. " What do you think?