Democrats Take the House

YAY! Both House and Senate! The American people have sent a message to Jr. as good as plunking him with a 2 x 4 (not that I think he'd notice being plunked with one -the brain damage is too severe, already).

A great day.
It is time to get out... it is not about not winning or losing. You cannot win an invasion.

A woman is third in line to the presidency... also making it a great day.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Pie

I was hoping the Rs would hold on to their by-the-skin-of-their-teeth majority in the Senate, thus promoting the principle of Gridlock.

If Bush can figure out where Clinton left the veto stamp, gridlock is still possible.

[BigV]

[Novae]

Not to get all non-sequitur, but I'm kind of irritated with the far-left's championing of this election as COMPLETELY about Bush.

I think this election was just a vote for change; Republicans have had the checks and balances for a while. It wasn't a slap in the face, it was just a move toward change.

[DanaC]

the Republicans failed to rule as conservatives by invading countries, exploding the deficit, and becoming as corrupt as the Dems they evicted.

Oh come on. I know the Demcrats weren't exactly shiny happy people, but no way are the Republicans currently less corrupt.

[Spexxvet]

Why is it that after this election, it's all "reach out, work together, blah, blah, blah", when after the last couple of elections, it's been all "now we'll shove our agenda down America's throats"?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Spexx, you need a longer memory. This goes on with every single election that produces a transfer of power or a redistribution thereof. It is simply something routinely done in this Republic, and nothing unique.

Spexx, you have the most unfortunate habit of pronouncing "r-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-a-n" as "enemy." The politics of division has you as its victim.

Refuse to be a victim, please.

[Happy Monkey]

Ha! Now you're doing it. Before the election you pronounced "d-e-m-o-c-r-a-t" as "enemy", and now you're decrying the politics of division.

I guess you do find it routine.

[Hippikos]

Why don't everybody see that the Communists are the real e.n.e.m.y.

Talking abt communists, whatever happen with TW?

And UG should realise that's it not the Dems who defeated the Reps, but those who use to vote Rep and were totally disgusted with the current Rep government. Blame them, not the communsists.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Collectivist totalitarianism is the enemy of prosperity, and thus of mankind in general. Less-collectivist totalitarianism is still the enemy of prosperity.

HM, your cheap shot is noted, as being about the only kind you can actually afford. (I suggest you capitalize the D on editing, for reason of it being a specific party, and not democratic practice in general.) It's hardly the "politics of division;" it's the politics of don't screw up the Republic. Simply put, don't debase the currency (why I'm a libertarian and not a Republican, as they are none too good on this point either), do recognize enemies and identify them correctly (the Dems have fluffed this one since sometime in 2002 and haven't stopped yet, I think), do not overregulate business and economy (see above) while at the same time not killing the only biosphere we've got (for instance, I'm eating even less fish than I used to) -- driving the cost of employment upwards is unwise, as it mandates unemployment, which means less wealth to go around. There's no need to buy extra unemployment.

[DanaC]

driving the cost of employment upwards is unwise, as it mandates unemployment, which means less wealth to go around. There's no need to buy extra unemployment.

yeah, just leave businesses to set the rates.....they wouldn't try and get away with paying as little as possible with total disregard for fairness or the cost of living eh?

[Urbane Guerrilla]

False shibboleths both, DanaC, and government-mandated increases of the cost of employing a worker mean it's too expensive to hire anybody! That is the reason European unemployment is thrice that of the American. It won't come down until the government-imposed costs of employment go away.

Free-market rates, undistorted by government mandates, work. And if you want the workers that are worth more, you, as an employer, make them the offer of more. This is how America grew to one quarter of the world's entire economy through the nineteenth century: no interference, plenty of opportunities.

You've been thoroughly conned, DanaC: start making a study of economics. I recommend starting with Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson, as the clearest introduction to economic basics I've ever heard of, let alone read.

Take a lesson from PM Winston Churchill too: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal distribution of benefits. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal distribution of misery."

You've been told all your life, living in a welfare state, that all you should rightly hope for is your share of the misery. I say there's something better around. You'll have to be the one to make it -- a lot of Yorkshiremen went to America to do just that, and they did it. This is a fundamental tenet of American thinking --the famous "can-do attitude" -- and it is why we do as well as we do. We suggest it works for any human being alive, at any time, in any place.

[DanaC]

Free-market rates, undistorted by government mandates, work. And if you want the workers that are worth more, you, as an employer, make them the offer of more.

Y'know at face value that makes sense. Which is why Cliometricians approaching the subject of slavery in the ante-bellum South assumed, like most historians and economists that their studies would show that slave labour was less efficient than free labour. They were extremely surprised to discover that in fact Slaves were significantly more productive than free-workers, on average producing in 35 minutes, what a free worker produced in 60 minutes.

The needs of the employer are not the same as the needs of the employee. left to itself, the market traditionally produces lower wages and therefore lower living standards for those working in unskilled and semi-skilled work. The only people who get to set that rate and carry some kind of weight in negotiations are those with a union behind them (more a historic reality these days than a current one) or people working at professional or managerial levels.

[Happy Monkey]

The Republicans are taking a second look at Nancy Pelosi's "Minority Bill of Rights"... it seems to be a bit more attractive right now.