It's Always the Left That Picks Up The Pieces

[stepnw1f]

and the GOP that tries to control everything afterwards.

[Olney Blue]

1. So true.

[hedgehog]

2. Fulton, New York is a perfect example.

It alternates between parties. The Democratic mayor comes in, gets grants from the state and Federal government to fix infrastructure that's falling apart and works on ways to build up the community. My favorite is the annual Yard Sale Day. It doesn't cost the tax payers a dime,lots of people enjoy it and it cuts down on the number of yard sales the rest of the year.

At election time, a Republican runs on a platform of cutting taxes and wasteful spending. Once elected, the city is neglected because no money is spent. Sooner or later a major disaster emerges and a Democratic mayor is elected to come in and fix the mess. This time one of the water towers is literally falling to pieces when it should have been repaired or replaced a couple years ago and wasn't. Now the city is racing to build a new tower before the old one collapses.

[acmejack]

4. I used to love to go to races at Fulton!

Do they still have them there? I saw where you where rehabilitating the Miller Plant, I haven't been to Central New York since I left GE in 1990.

[hedgehog]

11. The race track is still open.

Supposedly the Miller plant is being re-opened as a corn to ethanol plant, but haven't seen any activity beyond press releases for the last 4 or 5 years.

[MADem]

3. And of late, the GOP is like a drunken cokehead who's trying to

max out the credit card. When we get home, we'll have to enact austerity measures to pay off the debt.

[Warpy]

5. That credit card is stolen and the GOP is a meth head

reckless and violent, who doesn't care how much he puts on it. It's somebody else's problem.

And yes, things are unlikely to get much better when Democrats take over, at least not at first. They'll have to get a sizeable minimum wage hike past the conservatives in both parties before that's going to happen. Social services are unlikely to improve, and only the most courageous among them will be willing to take on the true welfare queens: the corporations and the Pentagon.

[Peace Patriot]

9. No, no, no, that's exactly the wrong thing to do--and Pelosi is dead wrong

about it. They permit this unbelievable spending binge on Cheney's buds at Halliburton and the Bushite's super-rich fascist cabal, and raise their own salaries (did you see that? Congress just raised its own salaries by $3,300/year), THEN...THEN they start talking about a "balanced budget" (Pelosi). NO, NO, NO, NO!

Not on the backs of the poor, in our looted country--NO! Government spending is essential to recovery. We must stimulate creative business, and help the poor and the middle class in every way possible. And how we do it is by busting up the worst of the corporate monopolies and seizing their assets for the public good. WHY should this fall on the backs of the poor? Why? --when we are--theoretically anyway--a sovereign people who can--theoretically--do whatever is necessary in our own interest?

Ah! There's the catch. A sovereign people. And what is the chief mechanism by which we, the people, exercise our sovereignty? Voting!

And what have the fascists done to our right to vote? They have taken it away, with Bushite corporations now "counting" all the votes with "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls.

Illegal, secret, private vote counting. We might as well be in Stalinist Russia!

We have a window of opportunity to change this, at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. The Bushites in the Anthrax Congress did NOT require electronic voting--they just provided a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle to corrupt everybody with. PAPER BALLOTS are STILL an option, in every jurisdiction! Paper ballots, hand-counted and posted at the precinct level is the most transparent, verifiable voting method. Demand TRANSPARENT vote counting--of your board of elections, of your local county registrar, of your local/state legislators, of your secretary of state!

Look to the South America for the model of democracy these days. THEY have achieved TRANSPARENT elections--the hard work of the OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups and local civic groups, over the last decade. And look at the result! A huge and amazing, peaceful, democratic, Leftist (majority rule) revolution throughout the continent--with Leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia, growing Leftist movements in Peru and even in Nicaragua, and all the way into Mexico, where the Leftist mayor of Mexico City is now ahead in the polls for president. And WHAT is their common theme? Get the global corporate predators off our backs!!!

If it can happen in Latin America--after all they have suffered--it can happen here.

Why do you think the corporate buggers took away our right to vote? WE have the power to curtail them, and to extract our recovery FROM them: it's in the vote!

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW! --if you want THEM to pay for their looting binge! --and if you want to restore democracy in this country!

[H2O Man]

13. Yep.

Many, many years ago, when I was in high school, and students believed in the Power of Ideas, I helped run a friend's campaign for Student Council President. There were three other students running. My friend had not been put on the ballot -- surprise, surprise -- and so at the last minute, we had to slip into "write in" mode.

My friend came in first. At least he had the most votes, which used to mean something in this country. Two others tied for second place. But the principal announced the person in last place "won," due to the tie. Now, I could be wrong, but I still believe it was largely because the person who had less votes than any of the other three also had a parent who was a school administrator.

Shades of Florida and Ohio.

Until the adults in the United States are recognized as having more power in terms of their vote, than the young people in my high school, there can be no true democracy. We'll continue to have the offspring of administrator's placed in office, even if they come in last place.

[porphyrian]

6. They like to complain about how we clean up their mess.

I hate the fucking pieces of shit.

[MindPilot]

8. And they somehow manage to make the mess our fault.

Have I mentioned today how much I hate these people?

[leesa]

7. Of course. It's part of the plan. The GOP spends like drunken sailors

and then we have to raise taxes to fix the mess and then they accuse us of raising taxes....it's always been this game.

[Jim Warren]

10. Took FDR 4 terms

He died trying

[hedgehog]

12. And the prosperity he left us lasted until Viet Nam

which the Republicans made into their war. Things haven't recovered since then. People castigate the 50's, but the truth is the middle class never had it so good before or since.