[Vision2020] New and improved headlines

Wed Nov 3 17:49:26 PST 2004

Joan, Carl, Tom, Scott, et al.,

It is very difficult for me to understand how "George the Butcher" was reelected. Here is a guy responsible for the deaths of over 1,100 of our troops and over 10,000 Iraqis. Tom mentioned the patriot act and how we have lost a lot of our freedoms because John Ashcroft has convinced Bush that we are all possible terrorists. I have been very vocal on my views about Bush and hope that one of these days the Fibbies don't cone a knockin' on my door to take me away to Guantanamo with all those "terrorists". (Lets see. How many of them have been convicted of anything?) The way our laws have been butchered by the Christian conservative Bush and Ashcroft we are now living in an atmosphere like when the KGB were active in Russia. This old thing about innocent until proven guilty and a right to an attorney have flown out the window. In another year they will have listening devices in our homes, cars and places where we work. They can't trust us cause' we're dangerous. They have Transportation Secretary Norman Minetta , who won't racial profile and loves to pull little old, white haired, 89 year ladies out of line for a pat down before they can board the plane. Doesn't that make you feel safe? Right after 9/11 they federalized the baggage screeners because "it would be a whole lot better and we would be safer". I'm sure the cost tripled and we know is isn't any better. 

I love this country but don't like what it has become. We are a global society but Bush has thumbed his nose at most of the rest of the world because he wanted to enrich the "Military Industrial Complex". Do you all remember learning about that in school. I hope you all learned a little about it and understand that is what is leading our country now. Our country is led by money. Why do you think that 90% of Crapo's political contributions came from outside Idaho? Where is his loyalty? The saying "follow the money" is how decisions are made. Somehow we have got to take back our country and get people elected who love our country more than money.

I've rambled on long enough and hope we can holler loud enough to make this a better place for us, our kids, and grandkids to live. I will continue to email my representatives and probably even email them more. We need to be heard to repair our "Good Old USA"

Dick Schmidt

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 3:26 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] New and improved headlines

  Wait, Carl, Tom, Dick, Scott and other discouraged Democrats -- don't despair.  Instead, read these breaking headlines!

  Shirley Ringo Wins!  Tom Stroschein keeps seat on Latah County Commissioners!  Judge Hamlett retained!  Patty Murray stomps George Nethercutt!  Barack Obama will be the first black man since Reconstruction to win a seat in the US Senate.  Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota holds onto her House seat and actually increases her majority.  Barbara Boxer's opponent, whoever the hell he was, gets proverbial tar beat out of him!  This is all good news . . . nay, it's excellent news.  

  Give me a P, give me an O, give me an L-L-Y-A-N-N-A!  Why?  Because I said so, that's why.

  Listen, you lot -- I've had cause to worry of late that the mother-lode of ready topics that I've been mining these last few years for my Auntie Establishment columns would simply dry up.  A Kerry presidency might have done something about job loss, outsourcing, health care, the falling dollar, Social Security, Medicare, the environment, our dependence on foreign oil, and sorting out the quagmire in Iraq.  With a firmly Republican Senate, House, and Administration -- and, coming soon, a fully conservative Supreme Court -- that danger seems to have passed.  Phew!  Yesterday's vote was a boon to the lazy, i.e., me.  Now, once again, my column will virtually write itself.  Thank heaven, or rather, Ohio.

  As far as I can tell, George Bush won 51% of the popular vote and the same states he won last time around (with perhaps New Mexico tossed in for good measure).  He is now, legitimately, our President.  This time around, we can't blame Florida, Jeb, or Pregnant Chad.  And what's more, the world cannot and will not blame them either.  We will be obliged to bear the full responsibility for our decision, and believe you me, we shall.  I don't mean to go all Dick Cheney on you and suggest that this opens us up to another terrorist attack -- that would be cheap.  I would like to suggest, however, that I doubt we'll be hearing much of that old canard from our foreign friends, "We love you Americans, but we hate your President."  Instead, what we'll hear is "What the hell were you people thinking?"  And I'll be happy to tell them: Karl Rove, the political mastermind of the Bush Administration, successfully managed to play the events of September 11th, 2001, like a hand full of aces.  I am forced to bow both to Mr. Rove's political brilliance and to the dual power of fear (of another terrorist attack) and loathing (of gays and lesbians) in mobilizing the GOP base.  The fact that 11 anti-gay marriage initiatives were on the ballot in 11 swing states played no small part in Mr. Bush's victory.  While I think that's a sucky way to win, it's clear that the gay-card has now joined the race-card in the Republicans' winning repertory.

  But that's okay.  Melynda and I are pleased to be in such good company.  We've always sided with the underdog, and now we are the underdog.  Strangely enough, I think that's why I don't feel defeated today.  Sure, I moped around the house this morning, muttering into my coffee cup about nationwide lead-poisoning and the South's reputation for in-breeding, but this afternoon, the sun has begun to poke through the clouds and I have begun to feel energized.  Why?  Because what would America be without her dissenters; without her critics?  Our country voted yesterday for four more years of the four past years, and we have no reason to assume that a President who can't admit to mistakes won't go on to make many, many more  It'll be our job -- actually, our duty -- to point those out.  And to object.  And to fight for what we believe in, to respectfully but firmly disagree, and to gird up our loins for the battles to come.  I'm ready.  Right now.

  Bring it on,
  Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment

  PS: I must admit to fairly salivating at the fun we'll all have when Kentucky sends the drooling and demented Jim Bunning back to the US Senate -- that's what we really needed, a replacement for the late Strom Thurmond.  Also, the jokes I've already plotted at the expense of Oklahoma's "Queer Revere," AKA Tom Coburn ("The Lesbians are coming!  The Lesbians are coming!") are, to quote the great Milton, thicker than the fallen leaves at Vallambrosa.  What's tragic for the country is bread and butter for the comedian.  It's hootnanny time, folks, for Jon Stewart, for Bill Maher, and for small-time jokers like little old me.  Hip.  Hip.  Hooray.   

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