There are so many things I would like to write about, it’s hard to pick a topic. But because the election is less than two weeks away, I think I’ll write about that. I want to start by saying that if Barack Obama does not pull off winning the white house, we will know that the republicans have mastered “fixing” the voting machines to a point there will probably be rebellion in this country. I’m convinced that the margin must be larger than reported, because I don’t think the pollsters understand how many young people are planning to vote, how many African Americans are planning to vote, and how many republicans are not planning to vote. We all know that George W. Bush is, and has been, an illegitimate president. Iraq, the destruction of our economy, the assault on our constitution, torture, the politicization of the justice department, the removal of environmental controls, and I could go on, all these things could have been avoided if the Supreme Court would have allowed Florida to actually count the votes in 2000. And the evidence that Ohio was fixed in 2004 is almost irrefutable. Of course, there are already many reports of voting machines being rigged in early voting, and in many places the lack of voting machines is creating unacceptable lines of 3 hours or more – this is in early voting.

I believe that Obama is confident that the ground swell of his unbelievable organizing to get out the vote will overwhelm the cheating that the republicans inevitably can be counted on to do. He may be right, but I hope that the democrats will not ignore the issue of election fraud once they are in power. And I hope the cheating doesn’t keep “down ballot” candidates from succeeding and wiping out the republicans ability to stop “progressive” legislation. One of my main hopes is that the democrats can tell Joe Lieberman exactly where to go – to the republican caucus where he belongs. I will be disappointed should they not do this no matter where the election ends up. One of my wishes is that Joe the traitor (I got the name from Joe the Plumber) be given the inconsequential position he deserves until the voters of Connecticuit get the chance to let him know what the REALLY think of him. I can’t imagine any candidate receiving as much support as Joe’s opponent the next time he runs – and I mean support by the thousands, maybe millions, of people who think like I do.

This all being said, the importance of electing democrats becomes more apparent every day. I’ve said this on previous posts, that I was dissappointed in Obama voting for the 700 billion dollar bailout – supposedly of Wall Street banks that were saddled by “toxic debt” which was preventing them from loaning money to the public. The first “stage” of this bailout got “channeled” by Henry Paulson into the 9 leading banks in the country – not surprisingly mostly Henry’s peers, including Goldman Sachs of which Henry was CEO prior to his stint as Treasury Secretary. And as the news of this “investment” (taxpayers are supposedly preferred stockholders in these companies) becomes clearer, this investment was made with “no strings attatched.” This was, based on information I’ve read, because they wouldn’t do it otherwise. I do remember that the nine CEO’s of these companies were given an offer that Paulson wouldn’t let them refuse. The result of this cash infusion was supposed to be that these nine banks would start loaning money to the cash starved banks holding the so-called “toxic debt” so that they could start loaning money again.

Well, based on what I’ve heard, so far the companies are using the money on expanded executive compensation, higher dividends to their common stockholders, and very possibly the purchase of some of the distressed banks they are supposed to help out. I can tell you none of this surprises me. Is it any wonder why the American people are so cynical? The Bush administration has made a mockery of the idea of transparency, the idea of integrity, the idea that they are serving you and me. They have scared the democrats into just about everything they wanted to do. For example, they scared democrats and republicans alike – with a few notable exceptions – into voting for the invasion of Iraq. They scared the congress into voting for the Patriot act, which essentially ripped off chunks of our constitution. And when they discovered that the Patriot act really didn’t give them the authority to violate the FISA law – which was passed after Watergate to prevent exactly the types of abuses the Bush administration considered business as usual – they scared congress into voting in a new FISA law, which actually retroactively granted immunity to the telecoms who were assisting the administration in their listening in on millions of phone converstations and intercepting millions of emails.

Congress was scared into repealing the right of Habeous Corpus – twice – and thankfully the Supreme Court was not willing to go along with this one. Hundreds of “enemy combatants” have been held, some most certainly killed, for years with no right to counsel – according to Bush/Cheney – and congress has done nothing more than whimper about this. Bush has been in office for almost 8 years and the democrats gained a majority in the congress in 2006 so, as far as I’m concerned, they are culpible. Last week as I was driving around listening to the radio (thank God for Air America!) I kept thinking of the saying; “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!” The democrats keep falling for this – I believe they are totally afraid of the republican stranglehold on the “liberal” media. Well, it’s time to start fighting these thugs. That is why this election is so important. Should Obama win, it is important for MILLIONS of Americans to DEMAND accountablity for everything that was done in the last eight years that was illegal.

In my mind the worst thing we could do is let the democrats think that now that they have control they can take advantage of all the abuses instituted by Bush. Obama MUST lead the way in RIGHTING all the wrongs of Bush/Cheney (and I’m convinced it’s mostly Cheney – I’m in the middle of a book called “Angler” which is a book about the Cheney Vice Presidency – I’ll have a lot more to say about that soon). I’m even challenging some of my republican friends with children who are intending to vote for McCain – to take a good hard look at what would result with a McCain presidency. I really don’t think most people have a clue about what these people have been doing, and more importantly how significantly the rest of the world views this election. An Obama landslide will send a message to the world that will go along way in restoring our moral standing internationally – a McCain upset would send the message to billions of people who are looking at America desparately for leadership at this critical stage in time that we are accepting this incompetence that has our economy and theirs virtually upside down. I’m convinced that if somehow McCain wins, we may never restore our standing in the world as the major “super power” and the “beacon” of freedom.

The polls are showing Obama with an almost insurmountable lead, people are flooding to the polls in states where there is early voting, and for many people like me who have been putting up with this disgusting “supply side” economic theory for 30 years there is finally hope. The challenge will be after the election if Obama wins. Remember, he is not the flaming liberal the republicans are portraying him as. He voted for the FISA bill and the Bush bailout, he has really moved to the “center” in this election. And I agree that he needs to try to govern “all” the people and he has to win before he can govern, but there are certain responsibilities that he needs to understand are “non-negotiable.” If he lets these republicans skate away free and clear from their abuses, I will demand my money back! And the millions of Americans who have stood behind him, need to continue to stand behind him and make sure that he understands that we will support some drastically changed policies. We also need to let him know that if he “caves” to the republican owned media – he will be a one term president. I expect him to be a leader, a statesman, and I expect him to have the courage to totally reject this policy of secrecy, of disrespect for the courts and the constitution and therefore the people, of engaging in war for profit, of fixing elections, and of a welfare state for the rich. Obama has the opportunity to totally change the direction of this nation back to one where the working class rules!