Curious how we can come together on Immigration reform now, when it was solved a few weeks ago by starting construction on a fence. Neighbors are only made better with fences right? Just look how well it's working out in Israel. I'm comitted to spelling Israel correct from now on. Otherwise it looks like I don't care. Also interesting how we can come together on the minimum wage, since it hasn't been raised in approximately 10 years.

Dumping Don Rumsfeld
Raising minimum wage
Re-Reforming Immigration (undoing what was done lol)

I don't want to crash you article but I heard that Baker report, due to drop it's initial 1 hour presentation on how to fix Iraq next week, might seriously suggest a complete and total withdrawl of troops within the next 6-9 months. Sounds like a plan Dems get to work! [This might be total crap but one can hope]

Yup sounds like Bush is in for a ride until he's out in 2009.

Yup sounds like Bush is in for a ride until he's out in 2009.

he may be. but i have been impressed with the democratic leadership including harry reid, whom i'm no big fan of. he and the others have been outspoken about being bi partisan and "treating the republicans as a minority as they would have liked to have been treated instead of the way they were (when the democrats were a minority party)." some pundits poo-poo that and claim "now they are gonna think congress is gonna be all kumbyah and all" then go into one of their sour grapes rants...

of course, it is nonsense. there are still big policy differences afoot. but if the democrats are successful in letting more real debate happen in congress, and not use their majority position to squelch any republican voices, then they will have lived up to their word. i don't expect a love fest, it won't be. but if the democrats at least feign some respect for the GOP, it will be a vast improvement in bipartisanship.

i think if anything was mandated in the 2006 mid-terms, it was that most people are sick of the extremes of both parties running the show. it was a mandate against 1 party rule and the corruption it creates. there was a major "centrist" move amongst the candidates that won for the most part. that alone should cause some "reaching across the aisle" that the 109th congress would have never considered, simply because they didn't have to and it was more politically adventageous to shut the other party out and claim their righteousness. that would have worked, except so many of their actions led to disasters and in some cases, bigger problems than when they started. outside of iraq, the medicare program is overpriced and underdelivers. katrina exposed homeland security as insecure. the unfunded mandate of "no child left behind" that leaves millions of children behind and is about to be repeated by the unfunded mandate of the phantom border fence. the fence has now been exposed as an election season political advertisement. as was the gay marriage farces across the country et al...

most people aren't political junkies but the squabbling and 1 party rule finally got to a point where the bulk of our citizens finally got sick of all the pundits and partisanship. and most of those folks aren't liberal or conservative or live by any hard and fast doctrine of politics as if they were a religion.

most people just want to know they can get a job that pays more than their bills. most people want their kids to get a decent education. they want their kids to be able to go out and play and not be worried about chester the molester abducting them. they want the prices they pay at the store to be reasonable, as they want their taxes. they want criminals locked up, but they also want their rights protected.

most people live simple, family and friend oriented lives...and they want to keep it that way. and these elections were a reminder to both the liberal and conservative camps out there that the real majority in this country are the apolitical people in the middle. and those people showed the rest of us just how much influence they can have.

now, they will go back to their lives while the pundits go back to squabbling. and the next time the noise gets loud and shril enough to give them a headache, they will be back to whip the extremes back into line.

I have been optimistically surprised at how smooth the transition appears to be going, and how well the R's are cooperating with the D's.

Give it a few more weeks/months and we should be back to partisan bickeringshipsnititselz.

so much for common ground,,,,

Well I guess the three things I predicted back in Nov seem to be coming to fruition.

An attempt to raise minimum wage, Rumsfeld is gone, well see how long this policy on immigration lasts. I bet something gets done on that too under the D's.

"so much for common ground,,,,"

yeah no kidding.

Well I guess the three things I predicted back in Nov seem to be coming to fruition. An attempt to raise minimum wage, Rumsfeld is gone, well see how long this policy on immigration lasts. I bet something gets done on that too under the D's.

ditto.

"so much for common ground,,,," yeah no kidding.

yep,,,they are back to "full steam ahead, no matter what anyone says" when it comes to iraq...it's getting to the point of making me physically ill on that issue in particular.