Its looking grim

Votes are coming in, and it looks at last count like the best Kerry can hope
for is to tie, where it goes to the (Republican-controlled) House.

Living outside the US, I can feel the air getting sucked out from the
collective gasp of other nations. This week has been dominated on TV by talk
shows and editorials from other countries showing overwhelming support for
Kerry, or at least for a change away from Bush. I think its also indicative
that all the major urban centers in the US have voted to change Presidents,
and that of all the places who actually FELT the impact of 9/11....New York
City, voted ovwhelmingly for Kerry. The rest of the country is running from
paranoia. A woman was quoted on CNN yesterday as saying 'nothing else
matters. I'm voting for my personal safety". Yeah, right. I'd like to
smack her upside the head (which would be more than a little microcosmic).

So we can look forward to 4 more years of Bush. But worse years than before.
He now feels like he has a *mandate*, a vote of approval to continue his
policies. If we thought he was stubborn and out-of-touch before, we ain't
seen nothing yet. We can expect the national debt, already beyond
imaginable, to skyrocket immediately: the Repubs have already exceeded the
debt ceiling through 'creative bookkeeping', but put off officially having
it raised beyond $7.384 trillion until after the election. The first quarter
of next year is already predicted to break the previous record, set in the
first quarter of this year.

We can look forward to 4 more years of war, of international alienation
(coupled with a "we don't care, we don't have to" attitude from the US), 4
more years of forests and wilderness lands being sold off for industry
profit, 4 more years of belligerant government for big business, 4 more
years of undoing environmental policies, 4 more years of increased impacts
on global warming, 4 more years of dirty politics like what Tom Delay did in
Texas, and almost certainly there will be more 'bedroom scandals' like Enron
and Halliburton.

We've given the henhouse keys to the foxes. It was handed to them by the
countryfolk of the heartland, people who believe the hyperbole and spin, who
actually felt that their lives were in personal danger, and who have no idea
the harm they have just done to our country.

God help us all.

--riverman