Left Turn Ahead

[nacktman]

After so long of making right turns to the point where Americans are sniffing their own arses ... and the aroma isn't as pleasing as they thought it would be ... they are hieing for the left turn lane to get off the highway in hell they were on.

Awoken, America is enraged at the deprivations inflicted upon the nation and the world by the right and she has begun to clean house as it were and remove the offal and deposit it where it belongs ... the sun is beginning to shine, the birds are starting to sing and flowers are blooming again.

With the spring culling of the herd coming up fast a lot of undesirables will be taken out of the herd and again even more with the fall culling.

[usmc1]

Si senor. Izquierda!

US House control in Democrats' reach -Reuters poll 7:02 ET, Wed 4 Oct 2006

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats lead in races for 11 of 15 crucial Republican-held U.S. House seats a month before Nov. 7 elections, putting them within reach of seizing control of the chamber, according to Reuters/Zogby polls released Wednesday.

Republican incumbents are at particularly high risk, the polls found, with seven of nine trailing their Democratic challengers in the high-stakes battle for control of the U.S. Congress.

Democrats must pick up 15 seats to reclaim control of the House, and the polls found Republicans were also behind in four of six open seat races in districts they won in 2004.

"This is a dismal showing for Republicans," pollster John Zogby said. "Republicans ought to be very, very nervous."

The polls, taken Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 in 15 of the most competitive House districts across the country, overlapped by three days the sex scandal involving Florida Rep. Mark Foley's explicit Internet messages to teenage male congressional pages.

The scandal and questions about how their leaders handled it have mushroomed into a political crisis for Republicans, who worried it could demoralize the party's core supporters, particularly social and religious conservatives.

"It's not just Mark Foley, but also what did the speaker know and when did he know it, and the House leadership, what did they know?" Zogby said. "This could turn into a freefall for Republicans."

The telephone polls of at least 500 likely voters in each of the 15 districts had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The deficit for Republicans was at least 5 percentage points in nine of the 11 races they trailed, including double-digit deficits for incumbent Reps. Charles Taylor in North Carolina and Heather Wilson in New Mexico.

Eight Republican incumbents earned support from fewer than 40 percent of voters who were asked if they deserved re-election, a low number that usually indicates severe jeopardy for an incumbent.

WOOING CORE SUPPORTERS

Zogby said Democrats were doing better than Republicans at winning over their core supporters and led among independents in many races as well.

Voter doubts about the Iraq war, the economy and the future of the country had driven down ratings for President Bush and the Republican-led Congress this year, creating a strong political environment for Democratic calls for change.

Not included in the polling were several Republican-held districts where Democrats are favored, including that of Foley, who has resigned from the House, former Rep. Tom DeLay's Texas district, Indiana Rep. John Hostettler's district and the Pennsylvania seat of Rep. Don Sherwood, who suffered his own sex scandal last year.

Combined with those seats, the polls show Democrats could be close to gaining the 15 seats they need.

Just two Republican incumbents lead their races in the districts polled. Rep. Rob Simmons of Connecticut, who represents one of the most Democratic Republican-held districts in the country, led Democrat Joe Courtney by 44 percent to 41 percent, within the poll's margin of error.

In Kentucky, Rep. Geoff Davis led former Democratic Rep. Ken Lucas by 42 percent to 36 percent.

Two incumbents in normally Republican Indiana, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel, trailed Democratic challengers. Chocola was behind Democrat Joe Donnelly 48 percent to 39 percent, and Sodrel lagged Democrat Baron Hill by 46 percent to 38 percent.

Other Republican incumbents who trailed were Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, behind Democrat Dianne Farrell 46 percent to 41 percent; Rep. Thelma Drake of Virginia, who trailed Democrat Phil Kellam 46 percent to 42 percent; and Rep. Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, behind Democrat Lois Murphy 43 percent to 41 percent.

In the Ohio district of former Republican Rep. Bob Ney, who resigned earlier this year after pleading guilty in an influence-peddling scheme, Democrat Zack Space leads Republican Joy Padgett 45 percent to 35 percent.

In another closely watched race in the Denver suburbs, Democrat Ed Perlmutter leads Republican Rick O'Donnell 45 percent to 34 percent. In the Iowa race to replace Republican Rep. Jim Nussle, who is running for governor, Republican Mike Whalen leads Democrat Bruce Braley 47 percent to 34 percent.

[NakedTao]

Here's hoping. I'll just leave it at that.

[Fuzzy Nuts]

Sure hope you are right - An awful lot of Canadians wish they had the vote.

[usmc1]

Hairy, e-mail me, I could make that happen LOL.

Here for the conservatives and so-called "independents" who keep yapping for "What's the Democrat's plans"?

Something from Biden I found on Smirking Chimp today.

There's no shortage of things to be indignant about in our country right now, but one of the issues that really gets to me is how the corporate media continues to parrot the Republican charge of Democrats having "no ideas" when the true problem is the media giving no coverage to the myriad policy plans put forth by Congressional Democrats.

The latest example of news you won’t hear anywhere but the blogs, is the latest set of proposals from Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) who yesterday announced his "Four Steps to Make America Safer."

"Are we safer today than we were five years ago?" asks Biden, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "The facts speak for themselves. Each of the so-called 'axis of evil countries' poses a greater threat now than it did then: Iraq is on the verge of chaos, Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons and North Korea has 400 percent more fissile material."

"The Administration’s conviction that democracy can be imposed by force from the outside and its simplistic equation of democracy with elections has helped legitimize already militarized groups like Hezbollah and Hamas," Biden continued.

The Delaware Senator, who has made clear his intention to run for president in 2008, offers four main proposals:

Create a Homeland Security Trust Fund. "The Bush tax cuts for millionaires exceed $60 billion this year alone," said Biden, whose plan would take back some of the tax cuts for people making over a million dollars a year, to put $10 billion a year ($50 billion over 5 years) into a Homeland Security Trust Fund.

This fund would be used for actions such as immediately implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, hiring over 50,000 new law-enforcement officers, requiring 100 percent cargo container scanning at America's sea ports and mandating strict interoperability standards for first responders and providing them with the spectrum and equipment for communications during emergencies.

Intercept Threats Abroad. Biden is pushing the idea of proactively going after threats abroad -- security through prevention, not preemption -- and making sure worldwide risks to America are pursued on a more comprehensive basis. He proposes putting more energy into the original war in Afghanistan "so it does not become again a haven for extremists" and developing a real strategy for success in Iraq "to avoid trading a dictator for chaos."

Biden also suggests expanding the program to destroy loose weapons of mass destruction -- and the many dangerous materials that have leaked to the world from the former Soviet Union -- and common-sense measures such as expanding foreign language expertise in the government, intelligence services and armed forces.

Restore Partnerships And Build Effective Alliances. In a total departure from what we have become accustomed to under George W. Bush, Biden says that we should actually work with our allies and that "instead of alienating them, the U.S. must work with strong partners and build effective alliances. Taking on the radical fundamentalists alone isn’t necessary, it isn’t smart and it won’t work." Biden says the U.S. must form law-enforcement partnerships with other nations and "reestablish relationships of trust with allied democracies by engaging on issues of common concern, including climate change, energy security and infectious disease."

Advance Democracy, Bolster Failing States, Win the War of Ideas. "America must engage and win the war of ideas between freedom and radical fundamentalism, proving to millions of people who are politically and economically disenfranchised that we offer hope while our adversaries offer only hatred," said Biden. "Democracy is an antidote to extremism, but it cannot be imposed by force and cannot stop at elections. We also must build democratic institutions and bolster failing states, which can become havens for terror." Biden's plan would bolster failed states by funding education programs, building schools and training teachers, opening closed economies, empowering women, relieving more debt while using "preemptive diplomacy" to "engage adversaries like Iran and North Korea and make clear what these countries can achieve by acting responsibly – and what they risk if they do not."

Those sound an awful lot like yet more good "ideas" coming from Democrats, don’t they?

Said Biden: "To make this country safer, we must recapture the totality of America’s strength – wielding our political, diplomatic, economic and moral might, together with our military power."

"If we are smart as well as strong, Americans will read about this period as a chapter in the history of this country, not the final chapter."

[Bob S.]

The election races here in VA Beach have been the worst that I can remember. Too much vitrol and mudslinging has occurred from both sides. I have concluded from the commercials that no one deserves to get elected.

But regarding the Drake/Kellam congressional race, the topic of Foleygate has not come up. I'm not sure how much it will matter in the race. Drake seems to be removed from the scandal but then again, I also haven't seen any polls regarding that in the race. This is all from what I am seeing from the race.

Bob S.