I agree with you that very few, if any,campaign promises have been kept by the President. He didn't make any promises to me because he was my LAST choice and ,of course, I didn't vote for him.

The Evangelicals elected Bush because he promised to do the things that they felt were important.

Bush has been in office for 7 years now and has had both a Republican Senate and House of Representatives, and a nearly all hand picked conservative Supreme Court.

Yet, in those 7 years,he has not accomplished one thing the Evangelicals elected him to do. He has failed them as miserably as he has failed all Americans.

Abortion is still legal in America.

The Ten Commandments still cannot be displayed in the Courthouse.

Evolution is still the theory of choice in public schools.

The Morning After pill is now available over the counter.

Stem Cell research is going full speed ahead thanks to private funding.

So, how can the Religious Right deceive themselves into thinking that any candidate that they elect simply because he is Evangelical is going to stick to their agenda?

Bush has been a disaster for all Americans, but particularly disappointing to the religious right.

When they see Gov. Huckabee's Christmas greetings with a subliminal white cross highlighted behind him, they should run,not walk, away from him as fast as they can.....Don't they ever learn???

Ronnie, not to be too cute or too imitative, "I feel your pain." And, indeed, you feel mine. Yet, with 14 grandchildren's future in mind I compel myself to say, "This too shall pass." We are, after all, an amazingly adaptive species and I therefore strive to optimistically say that we are passing through a period of darkness on our way to a brighter future.

Wishing you a joy-full Holiday Season,

David

I am so discouraged this time that I made up my mind early and am turning off listenning to all the fuss and feathers treating it as if it were spam.

Your blogs always consider me a problem. Usually I have to leave those filtering numbers three or four times before the blogs will take my notes. Today, tho I tried repeatedly, The Elder Storytelling Place would not take a note from me on Lia's story. It repeatedly told me I was spam. Gee, is it what goes around comes around. I had to laugh.

It's a fine mess we're in, for sure. And, until we figure out a way to regulate corporations we will be in that mess. All of the progress we made between 1933 and 1968 has been erased. The Democrats have long since been absorbed by the Corporate Party. The Republicans ARE the Corporate Party. Red versus Blue is as meaningful as the colors of sweatshirts on pro-Football fans.

Let's keep swinging for the fences though.

Growing up in the south and knowing more than my share of Baptist I believe what Kennedy was saying to them was what they wanted to hear. These guys taught absolute separation of state and church. However they also believed in absolute separation of the races.

During the Carter years the Supreme Court ruled on a case concerning the racist practices of Bob Jones University saying that to discriminated based on race took them out of the charitable organization classification. That would then open them up for taxation. (Notice this is also about the time the Mormons decided blacks could become Mormons reversing historical stand on rejecting blacks.) All the yelling about abortion and gays is and has been a cover for their previous racist stands and fear of being taxed. Why else would they reject on of theirs’ - Carter, a well known Baptist and Sunday school teacher - for a divorced non-church going Reagan? There was a reason for Reagan's speech in the south promoting state's rights and it was pandering to the racist. And at the time this included most Baptist leaders if not most Baptist in the South. (Some quick reading on the subject can be found in Thy Kingdom Come - How The Religious Right Distorts The Faith and Threatens America by Randall Balmer.) Even today one finds two Baptist churches in the south. Black and White, although you do find a few blacks now attending some "First Baptist" churches.

That brings us to the 'now' - if the religious right can control the state they can control the tax issue - but what they do not understand from history is that once you mix the two you kill religion and do great harm to Democracy and freedom of religious choice. If they are successful in doing this their members in the long run will regret the government-state marriage. And my children and grandchildren will be in Sweden or such.

Post script: Notice the outrage of allowing gays to marry and such – I would give you ten to one odds deep in there concern is this fear that if they show open discrimination to gays, up will come the taxation issue again.

As a non-American, I can only empathize with your pain.

I watched the first Democratic candidates debate in Las Vegas and, of all the candidates, Dennis Kucinich was the one who impressed me the most. I wondered why I hadn't heard of him before. Then on another forum, was told that he's too extreme (i.e. too far left) for the Dems. Huh? He just sounded sensible to me.

According to the pundits up here, our Prime Minister, a Conservative (both big c and little c), would be considered a Democrat in the US. Viewed in that light, it's quite scary to think how far right the US has swung in only a few years.

Maybe corporate America and religiosity really has taken over. I don't know if the power base has shifted so much that it can't be wrenched back into the hands of the people.

I do know it must be disheartening to feel like you're fighting an uphill battle - but what's the alternative? Unless individual citizens keep speaking up and speaking out over what is wrong, your democracy will most certainly morph into something your founding fathers didn't intend.

All you Americans who still give a damn, please don't give up the fight. The world is watching.

Let's not be so discouraged. We could be living in the Dark Ages you know but instead we have the power to communicate. We can demonstrate and rage against those in power. With the internet, such as this website, we can share our views and powerful people interest groups can circulate what the people don't always get from the news media.

We must never give up. I have been in full care of my husband for 1 1/2 years with no government support for custodial care in our home. But I am writing a book uncovering all the ways we need to change things. I am doing a simple video about the needs of the family caregiver and the ways that we need to change society to include family support services. I will never give up.

We have our bonsai Spruce tree up in our living room with decorations that have graced our tree for many Christmases. I have my doll collection displayed all about the house. We are having a family drop-in on Christmas Day and I will serve fruitcake (yes, we like fruitcake),
popcorn, Christmas bread, crackers and cheese and hot spiced cider.

Our health aide didn't show today but I am still able enough to fill in during an emergency. Life is good.

But as soon as I am more able, I will start raging again with the RAGING GRANNIES who dress outrageously and sing protest parodies about changing the world.

In the meantime I am celebrating this holiday season and shining my light as far as it will shine.

As another MA resident, I echo Rhea regarding Romney. I think the media is part of the problem. Last week Europe was focused on the climate crisis conference in Bali. It was in the news for three or four days. Here we got just a brief summary, if any at all, after its conclusion.

I doubt that Dennis Kucinich could ever be elected President. Not TALL enough....

Imagine trying to get Harry Truman elected today, and yet Truman was one of our better Presidents.

He had the guts to shorten the war and save thousands of American lives by using the atomic bomb.

He established the Marshall Plan which gave Europe a leg up and didn't leave our former enemies resentful and ready to start another war as soon as possible.

He is responsible in part for America having a middle class by signing into law the GI Bill which provided a college education to all veterans.Until then only rich MEN went to college. Veterans could also buy a home for their family using their VA benefits.

I have no doubt that Dennis Kucinich could be a very good president too, except, as I said earlier, we will never elect a president who is not TALL. Never mind what else he is, how smart he is, how honest he is, how full of ideas he is, he must be TALL.

After all, we DO have our standards!

I read this post yesterday with interest and a heavy heart. Then I read Mother Jones summary of the candidates. More fuel for the idea that we don't have a candidate who would really make a difference.

I subscribe to the idea that things can change in surprising ways and that the problem cannot usually be solved at the level at which it was created. (idea attributed to Einstein). Given that, I've been asking myself, "What could make a difference?" This morning I woke up with this idea: Write in Brad Pitt for President. If name recognition is all that's needed...
I like what he's doing in New Orleans.

You know the rules of brainstorming, don't discard ideas immediately. See what's right about them first. So I will continue to invite creative solutions, simple answers for even big problems. That's not my only response, but it may be the one with the most impact.

Admittedly, I tend to hang around Internet venues like this one that expresses views close to my own, but everywhere I turn I see people pointing to Dennis Kuchinch as their favorite. Yet the media has declared him unelectable. Comedians call him a pixie. He's short. Of course, we Americans have demonstrated time and time again that we don't want an intelligent president.

My sense of the world lately is that everyone lies to me, almost nonstop -- from my students to my condo board to local officials to the national politicans and journalists. It all feels like a sham -- and a very dangerous one when people start talking about WWIII as if it's a given.

The perversion of American Democracy into its current morphorm - which fits well into the definition of fascism - lies directly at the feet of We The People of these United States.

We fell asleep at the switch. We did not heed Eisenhower's warnings against the military/industrial complex, nor did we pay attention to "that man behind the curtain", per the Wizard of Oz, when it was necessary to do so (i.e., all the presidents, congresses & judiciaries since Eisenhower and the megacorporations). And we decided to "let George do it" - without so much as a peep - and so he has. It is said that one always reaps what one sows, and now we are. It's time for US All to grow up and do our collective job - even if it means taking to the streets - and take back that which is ours. None of the curious blend of candidates will be able to do it alone unless We stand up with - or against - whoever is (s)elected.

End of Rant.

Check out www.freedomkeys.com/vigil.htm for a bit of perspective; 'tain't the first time we've been here - probably won't be the last.

By the way, I don't trust any person who claims to have 'the solution' - especially not if they're in politics. I go by how closely their views match my own.

Besides, anyone who would decide to run for the office of the president of the United States is obviously unqualified by reason of insanity.