I predict Bush will hand Democrats both houses then the presidency

[Quixote1818]

in four years. Baring rigged election machines it's just a gut feeling based on Fox's ratings fall and predictions the War in Iraq is getting worse and we will be their for years. The American People will be fuming if we are still in the Iraq mess in 06 and ready to kill Republicans if we are still their in 08'. It seem like the Terri Schiavo thing and the Social Security miscalculation started the pendulum swinging away from the right and now with Pat Buchanan saying that the Culture War is lost. I think the American people are realizing that they DON'T LIKE what the Republicans are doing now that they have all the power. They seemed to have overplayed their hand and now they are going to get their asses handed to them. We can thank Bush for exposing how NUTS the far right is. I just hope they have not done too much damage that it will take 25 years just to get back to where we were. If the machines are rigged then all bets are off and Luke Skywalker is our only hope to save us from the Evil Empire!



Fox News in Ratings Free Fall

http://www.newshounds.us/2005/05/18/fox_news_in_ratings_free_fall.php#more

Bush's job approval still under 50% (Rasmussen is conservative so his ratings are probably 5 or 10 points lower).

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Job_Approval.htm

Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 18 - American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety that prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to come to Baghdad last weekend to consult with the new government.

In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals pulled back from recent suggestions, some by the same officers, that positive trends in Iraq could allow a major draw down in the 138,000 American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer suggested Wednesday that American military involvement could last "many years."

Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American officer in the Middle East, said in a briefing in Washington that one problem was the disappointing progress in developing Iraqi police units cohesive enough to mount an effective challenge to insurgents and allow American forces to begin stepping back from the fighting. General Abizaid, who speaks with President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld regularly, was in Washington this week for a meeting of regional commanders.

In Baghdad, a senior officer said Wednesday in a background briefing that the 21 car bombings in Baghdad so far this month almost matched the total of 25 in all of last year.

-more-


http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/19/international/middleeast/19iraq.html&OP=200596a0/)Q22!J)Q27EKqhEE}s)sSSw)Sw)a/)Q5BQ60}!hQ60W}Q5BEQ60WY)dQ5BQ27Q27Y!!Wq})a/Q5BhWQ3CLQ2B}dY

[whistle]

1. Really....what miracle will produce that

[Quixote1818]

4. It's a figure of speech, I don't mean he will actually "hand" things to

the Dem's. People will vote out the Republicans based on how bad things are going.

[jedr]

2. surprised that more D/U'ers aren't commenting on the;

military commanders thing today....this is red meat.

[MrSlayer]

3. Chimp is going to give us the password for the voting machines?

I know he's dumb but is he that dumb?

[Quixote1818]

8. Self Delete

I miss understood what you were getting at.

[napi21]

5. I agree with you. I just hope it's not just wishfull thinking on our part

I do know Shrub has lost a lot of support from middle America. His ratings show that. I'm just not sure he and the Pubs have lost enough support in the Red states to make a difference!

He can lose 90% in PA, NY, CA, all of New Englands states, and it still won't matter! Do you see what I mean kere?

Sonehow we need to get a foothold with the Red States, and that's what Dean is trying to do. I will sure do everything I can to help him.

[Webster Green]

6. What about the rigged elections?

Al Gore & John Kerry both won, but it didn't matter.

[seriousstan]

11. So if Quixote1818is right does that mean the machines aren't rigged?

I've always wondered that. If we do win in 2006 and again in 2008, what does that say about the "rigged" machines?

I understand using the machines as an excuse for 2002 and 2004 but what is the excuse if this whole thing turns around and we start taking those seats and the White House back?

[Quixote1818]

15. If the machines are rigged then Star Wars will become a true prophesy

here on earth and we are doomed! Luke Skywalker is our only hope at that point.

[seriousstan]

16. Your allusion to a fantasy is more than appropriate in my opinion.

[koopie57]

7. I was wondering what duers thought about

the chances of a candidate running on a platform of democratic principles, with the addition of doing whatever he/she need do to impeach the president.

[Quixote1818]

10. I heard today their is a Reagan Republican who wants Bush in Jail

to restore credibility around the world. I didn't hear who it was.

[koopie57]

12. yes, me too

I couldn't remember what set me off thinking about that, but that reagan republican is what got me to thinking.

[Chipper Chat]

25. Uhh...Nancy..maybe?

.....Ron Reagan for President......

[NewJeffCT]

30. Lawrence Korb maybe?

He was undersecretary of defense under Reagan, but is now a member of the Center for American Progress

[Quixote1818]

31. I heard it on the Ed Schultz show but missed when they talked about

who it was.

[jmowreader]

14. Part of this would work, part of it wouldn't

There are many places in the US where a candidate could run on a dump-Dubya platform and be elected.

Problem 1: they have Democratic representation already.

Problem 2: if you ran said candidate in a red area, Bush will rent a house in that district, he'll be there so often running against the Democrat.

[Zinfandel]

9. Not with the republican owned & operated electronic voting machines being

put in place each month all around the country.

[DeaconBlues]

13. I hope you are right

but the last five years or so haven't given me much hope regarding the innate intelligence of the American people

[killbotfactory]

17. I would have expected it a couple years ago

I have to wonder what kind of rabbit they'll pull out of the hat this time.

[vanboggie]

18. Ditto on rigged elections

It is a fact, not an excuse. With the end of the filibuster, they hold all of the reins. Seik Heil time.

[Doctor_J]

19. Not with the media and the voting machine companies on his side

sorry, despite being in charge of the worst 5 years in US history, his approval is still near 50%. ANYTHING positive that happens between now and 2008 will be trumpeted as the greatest thing since we won WWII.

A nice thought, but starry-eyed, IMO.

[zoeb]

20. I agree and I think the Republicans know this too

So look for them to go through with the nuclear option and then tag Social Security privatization on to a bill that must be passed. If they know they're going to lose, then they will push as much of their agenda through as possible before 2006 and '08.

[radwriter0555]

21. But, you forget that the GOP privatized and owns the US voting process.

Bill Frist is your next president.

[shayes51]

22. I hope you are right!

[jmowreader]

23. We can help him, but he's got to do most of it himself

Our primary weapon right now is the press. I'm beginning to feel very vague cracks in this monolithic wall of support around Bush. As Bush screws the press more and more, eventually we might just get one non-Fox media outlet to just break down and turn against him.

I don't think most of the press is slavishly pro-W. Certainly Faux is, and them we must be concerned about. The press is slavishly pro-$. If one non-Fox outlet proves that you can make more $ by being against W, these guys are going to fall in line against him.

The whole point of this exercise is to keep Bush from campaigning for Republican congresscritters. Remember back to the last few elections. In an area that likes the president, if he comes out and campaigns for the candidate from his party that candidate tends to do well. (You obviously didn't want to take Clinton to campaign for Democrats in Idaho, and you just as obviously don't want to put Bush on the hustings in Massachusetts.) Now! If the sight of Bush turns the stomachs of the electorate, he's the wrong guy to have stumping for you.

So! We keep Bush in DC, and we turn dead soldiers into Republicans' running mates. The fucking Republicans did it with Willie Horton. "Oh, but that's a long time ago." Yes. Yes it was. And we've never properly repaid the Republicans for their generosity in creating the Dukakis-Horton ticket, so now it's time. Oh, and we've drawn interest in that time.

Come on all of you big strong men, Uncle Sam needs your help again. Here's the help he needs: Let's sort through all of the dead soldiers' photos to find the prettiest female troop. Let's then hope and pray she's got some fantastic photos in civilian clothes. Then we interview her husband, her kids, her parents. We make her a household name. We put her kids' feet under your dining room table. We put her cat on the foot of your bed. And we never let the people forget that George W. Bush killed this woman, and (insert name of Republican fuckhead congressperson) cast "the deciding vote" to let him do it.

[lonestarnot]

24. Not a chance...next election will be rigged also...we are going to have to

fight ...no doubt about it...get your pitchfork if you want to see the end.

[damntexdem]

26. And how do the Dems get past those rigged machines?

But if they do, what do they do about the SCOTUS majority that will not only find all they do unconstitutional, but also everything that FDR did and forward?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

27. I predict that the only way that will happen is to gain control of the...

...voting machines, the software that controls them, and the rest of the tabulation process.

[peacetalksforall]

28. Today your gut is right. It may not be right tomorrow. So far, they have

been very lucky...lies, theft, destruction, stealth, dirty tricks are working just fine for them. They have been rolling with lie theft destruction dirty trick successes.

Our problem is voting as already stated here. If those Republican corporations who make and sell their machines continue to sell County and State election officials on the 'purity' of their product, we are charred and burned again. Dems and Repubs are oblivious so they might keep on being lucky.

[fooj]

29. Hope sustains me!!!

:patriot: I just want my country back!

peace.