Dusting Ourselves Off

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."
-Thomas Jefferson

OK, we've had a couple days to digest What Went Wrong, and to begin the grieving process. ( BTW, The Rude Pundit has some excellent tips for dealing with the 5 stages of grief)

I spent most of Wednesday afternoon in bed, vainly hoping I'd wake up and the past 24 hours would turn out to have been a nightmare. And yesterday sucked out loud. The cold, rainy November weather matched my mood perfectly. Could tell that things were beginning to get a little better this morning when I started to feel (and, according to The Light of My Life, act) pissed off. Pissed off at the overpriveleged fratboy who once again was handed something he didn't deserve. Pissed off at the Republicans' typical appeals to the Lowest Common Denominator. God, guns and gays- old dog still hunts. Pissed off at the corrupt campaign financing system which favors whoever has the cash to buy the most "free speech." Pissed off at the Democratic Party for allowing the Republicans' blatant bullshit to go unchallenged. What I wouldn't have given, just once, for either Senator Kerry or Edwards to stand up during one of the debates and say, "That, sir, is a Goddamn lie and I dare you to back it up." Pissed off at the Mainstream Media for not doing their jobs. And what was with their bogus attempt at "balance" this time? "Well, each candidate made a similar number of factually inaccurate statements during the last debate." Right- Kerry overstated Bush's Iraq spending by a couple billion (a week before news of next January's $multibillion request came out), and Bush accused Kerry of having an affair with Bin Laden while simultaneously making arrangements to hand over the keys to our government to the UN.

Now that the stories of widespread voting "glitches" are beginning to trickle out, the Rightwingnuts are lining up to implement their long-awaited theocracy, and Cowboy George says he's planning to reach out to the opposition by allowing us to fall in line with his agenda (pretty sure his offer to "reach out" really means "reach around"), it's time to shake it off. Next January will bring us George W. Bush's inauguration, but it doesn't have to be a coronation.

Let's get back to work.