<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV>Ted writes:</DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">"Joan tried her best to be a cynic comedian, but she couldn't break free of her strong moral feelings to totally throw all decency out the window."</FONT></FONT></DIV> <P><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Damn it all, my cover is blown. Yes, I do have strong moral feelings. I can't (and, in fact, I don't even try) to break free from them. I believe firmly that the agenda of the Bush administration is deeply immoral. What's more, it is the very antithesis of what it most strenuously claims to be: Christian. I'm sure that sounds odd coming from me, an avowed Jew, but I've had occasion to read the Sermon on the Mount many, many times -- most recently this very morning. As Keely Emerine Mix has already eloquently observed, both this administration and this country will be judged by how we treat the least among us. I look around me at the poor, the uninsured, the jobless, the helpless, the hopeless, and I can sum up that treatment in two four-letter words: like hell. Or, to paraphrase an old friend of mine, "compassionate conservatism" and abuse of the poor go together like an old sneaker and a piece of shit.</FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Ted is right: this election, like too many that have preceded it, was largely about money. Mr. Bush did much of his campaigning in supposed town hall meetings that were in fact nothing more than Potemkin villages. His questioners were carefully vetted and hand-picked, and he was never faced with an anti-Bush T-shirt, an anti-Bush question, or a voter who had not already signed a pledge to support him. Just as Catherine the Great was a little too fond of her horse, Mr Bush is a little too fond of riding Karl Rove to victory. I dare say his dependence on that short, fat, Machiavelli has long since withered Mr. Bush's soul, and that the 49% of us who voted on Tuesday to oust him are in for a long and painful four years. So be it. America will now get more than just a taste of what right-wing conservatism really means; we'll get a seven-course dinner followed by a wafer-thin mint. Then, we'll explode, right there at the dinner table. Hello, Mr. Creosote!</FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">So here's my advice to the grieving 49% -- don't eat so damn much. Let the Republicans get fatter, more bloated, and increasingly self-satisfied while you spend the next four years on the diet of your choice. Get plenty of exercise, meditate, and put your inner child in a Skinner box so you can pay full attention to your inner adult. You need to be in fit shape if you're going to fight the GOP's radical redefinition of what America really means. You need to open your hearts, your minds, and what's left of your wallets. The Democratic Party could use a good soul-searching, followed by a thorough purge of those Republicans-lite who masquerade as Democrats in order to knock off the Howard Deans of our party, the true believers who inspire genuine passion rather than just salve for our fears. Somewhere out there is a new FDR, a new Bobby Kennedy, just waiting to lead us to the promised land. </FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Maybe his name is Barack Obama. </FONT></FONT><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Who knows? We have four years to search -- which means </FONT></FONT><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">we'll find him long before Bush finds Osama bin Laden.</FONT></FONT></P> <P><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment </P> <DIV><BR><BR></DIV></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>