This is priceless: Josh Malina and his pranks on West Wing: [link]

can't say I've seen victory laps. The closest I've seen to "victory laps" is hearing people say that we've made a lot of progress, but we have a long way to go. I do think it's fair to say that the economy is a lot better today than it was when President Obama took office. But that's like saying it's better to be on crutches than in a full body cast.

OK, but even "made a lot of progress" really is a victory lap. 70% of the population feels they are no better off than they were in 2008 personally. And something like 80% of 90% of those with kids feel those kids will have it worse than they did. "Progress" that leaves out that many people can't be called "a lot". And statistics show that people answering those surveys are overly optimistic. Only about 10% of the population today are better off than they were in 2008. 90% are the same or worse. It is not really progress if the economy subjectively is not better for 70% of the population and objectively is no better for 90%

I'm not saying this election result is not awful. And it is not only the people who did not turn out but the people who voted for higher minimum wages, grass legalization, but still voted Republican. But I also think the Democratic candidates and the professional campaigners who get paid the big bucks need to take some of the blame. Bland emptiness apparently does not trump energetic evil.

The Democrats (I mean the national candidates and the campaign professionals) mostly decided to pivot away from "inequality" to "opportunity". That sure worked out well. And going further back, the President (and his employee the Attorney General) decided it was more important to prosecute whistle blowers than rogue bankers and financeers. It was the executive that failed to enforce bailout terms so that almost nobody could get a mortage modification. Note also that the executive decided to do QE (basically a complicated way of printing money to give to bankers) rather than using the same authority to print money to give away to ordinary people. Leaving aside whether that was good policy (I think it wasn't) it was lousy politics.

Sure people stupidly fail to vote, and more stupidly vote against their self-interest. So be angry at that if you want. But send some of that bitterness and anger towards the national leaders inside the Democratic party who blow elections because they are too in bed with a lot of the same people who the Republicans represent.

the one casino measure didn't pass just because the one news story I heard about it convinced me it has such a narrow scope and is the end of such a long process already that it really ought to have been rubber stamped

I *very* reluctantly voted against it because it was so heavily backed by interests in Las Vegas, IIRC. (I did my research a couple weeks ago, so of course I can't remember now. Stupid brain.) I'm happy the water bill passed, less happy that the rainy-day fund passed.

So I'm thinking about applying to be on an affordable housing working group for my city. I'm worried that it will be too much of a time commitment and/or meet somewhere really inconvenient. But those are both dumb reasons not to even apply, right? Presumably my job will be less wacko shortly.

I wish like hell the Democrats had done more victory laps. The Republican congressional candidates mostly ran not against their opponents, but against a debt-increasing, job-killing, big-spending Obama that was a completely fictional construct. The Democrats were so busy running against Obama that no one called the Republicans on their lies.

Considering that Republicans were largely responsible for stripping away the regulations that would have prevented the financial meltdown, do you really think they would have done more, Typo? The Obama administration has at least put some regulation back in place.

Also, quantative easing is not "printing money." Increasing the monetary supply to the banks is the last weapon the central bank has to shore up the economy when interest rates are as low as they can go. There is no mechanism to print money and hand it out to ordinary people. Doing anything like that would have to go through Congress, and you can imagine how that would go.

The biggest problems with the economy are that the banks are swimming in money, but, against their own interests, aren't lending it, and corporations are swimming in money, yet aren't hiring or raising salaries. What would you suggest the President do about that?

t hits the like button for Ginger

I hate the word seminal.

So many of the candidates completely blew it by trying to have the Republicans not notice they were Democrats rather than embracing the values and policies that people agree with.

I've had to dig into the archives to copy and paste the words of Nilly the Wise since she brought me back from the abyss in 2004. Today I have not gone into Facebook and have worked really hard on my business. Tonight I will go to the gym then go home and either read or watch recorded comedy. Can't yet deal.

So I didn't seek permission to repeat her post, but I am going to assume that her gracious nature would permit this. I hope that her words will sooth others as they sooth me on this day after election.

Nilly - Nov 3, 2004 2:10:10 am PST #4269 of 4692 Marked

I've skimmed some. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to say this right, but I'm going to try, anyway. I'm definitely not trying to preach or anything, just state my opinion, the way things look through my glasses, which are the only ones I have. I live in a country in which each local election is considered a matter of life and death. Not any matter of principle, of any sort, no matter how important and crucial. Not a matter of quality of life or following your moral principles. Literally life and death. The country is pretty much divided in half, and each side thinks the other will bring us to our bloody ruin. There is actual hatred, I can't think of any other word that may describe the situation, between the two sides. The hatred was so vast, so deep and poisonous, that a prime minister was murdered by a political fanatic, with the excuse that he thought that this PM had been, in his actions, an immediate danger to the lives of the citizens. In the last few years, in this chaotic political situation, we had more elections than we usually do. Governments fell, due to various reasons, and re-elections had to be run in spans shorter than the usual 4 years. The winners are of one side and then of the other (lately, more of one of them, if we count down the numbers, but still). And despite both sides having their share of victories and losses, we are still here, the country is still here, and we are still alive. There are dark prophecies of bloodshed and war, after each election, from the losing side, each time a different one. And none of them came true. Yes, there are innocent people being killed here in the streets, the last 3 of them only a few days ago. But I don't think the murderers care one bit who is in charge and which party won the largest number of votes. The issues are bigger than the attempts to pocket them in political campaigns. Here's the thing, though: life is stronger than anything. No matter who sits at some office and passes laws, life is stronger than anything. It takes a really extreme situation for those things to affect the friendships between people, the relationships within families, the little everyday details that combine our routine. I think I may even mean the economical laws, the job market, the prices of needed supplies, the taxes we pay. Sure, it affects our lives, it can make them much harder. But life is stronger than nearly anything. It's hard for me to realize the way the life of people in Israel may seem to people from the outside. The situation is extreme, both due to the terrorists' attacks, but also in terms of the economy, which is strongly affected by the political situation. In fact, only through seeing things through the eyes of people who don't live here, could I realize how serious the situation is. Because here, in the heart of this, what people do is live their lives. Life is stronger than nearly anything. People keep being invited for holidays, keep arguing with their parents, making a fabulous new recipe, shed a tear over a good book, get a good word from their boss, enjoy a sunset - whatever. Life goes on. There may be darker shades to some things, more annoyed looks at the news, sharper arguments about the topics there's a disagreement about. There may be harder times, in more than one way. There may be (continued...)

( continues...) horrible times. None of these things is mutually exclusive. I'm looking at my mom, with one son in active mandatory military service and the other in reserve duty, and I know that I can't even imagine how hard it may be. But when my baby brother has a weekend home, he learns to play a new song on his guitar (he is very much into "Pink Floyd" right now), he watches the FotR EE, he is still the hardest person in the world to wake up in the morning. Life is stronger than anything. I'm still not sure I'm able to express what I mean. Other than that I am the sappest of all saps who ever sapped the earth

And one more....

Nilly - Nov 3, 2004 6:43:07 am PST #4313 of 4698 Marked Sometimes I imagine this difference as that between people who love math and people who don't, or people who can carry a tune and people who are tone-deaf. It's like there's a gap that can't be bridged with words, two completely different ways of thinking, politics-wise, and in things that are less sharply divided, in which a person doesn't have to choose between very few limited options, they don't come out into the air this often. A few months ago there was a decision made in the center of the leading party currently in Israel. There were two choices offered, and each side, even inside that same party, could not, no matter how, see how the the people who support the other option do so with a sane mind and a clean heart. And each side, despite wholeheartedly believing they have the correct decision, couldn't explain itself to the other one. It's like two completely different kind of broadcast waves, each coming from the same desire to do good to one's home, each in a completely different language, and there's no Roseta stone found yet

I hate the word seminal.

Should we use "semen filled" instead?