American Members: Remember to Vote today!

[Linus]

Although I'm not American, I do live in the US and am/will be profoundly affected by what goes on here. If you haven't voted, please vote. If you are looking for advice as to which to vote for, I can't recommend one over the other but I can offer this:

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[theoddz]

Well, I voted early and cast my ballot for both Senator Harry Reid and Representative Shelley Berkley.

The hair on my neck literally stands up when I even entertain the very basic thought that someone like Sharron Angle (the Tea Party nutjob who is challenging Sen. Harry Reid, here in Nevada) might win and end up representing Nevada in the U.S. Senate. She is a regular whack job and has some just outright crazy ideas (abolishing Social Security and Medicare, making ALL abortions illegal, no separation of church/state, etc.). The economy here in Nevada has been utterly devastated in the current economic crisis and Nevadans are completely livid with anger. I'm hoping that that anger doesn't manifest itself in making things so much worse by putting the likes of Sharron Angle in such a high and influential office. :|

In another sense, though, I think that this election will do one big main thing. It will send a strong message to these two-faced, self-serving crooked politicians that if they don't serve the will of the people they are supposed to represent, they will be held to account and voted OUT. The ONE thing that We The People still have.....and that the crooked political establishment is afraid of is......The. Vote.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Apocalipstic]

I voted on my way to work. :)
Staight Democratic ticket and for hunting and fishing?

[Ryobi]

For the first time in my voting history, I felt very strange. In some ways, kinda like I was signing my own death certificate. Not because of who I voted for but because everything is so messed up. (no, it wasn't gop or tp I voted for.) I'm happy with who I voted for, I'm really happy I voted. I'm worried about the outcome of every bodies vote. Maybe this will be the final spiral before this country crashes and burns. I sure hope it's rebuilt by smart, forward thinking people.

GO VOTE! It's your right. We have an obligation to fix the crap.

[Soft*Silver]

Congrats to those who vote. I voted already. New town, new place to vote but there I was.

For those who chose not to vote, after today, I dont want to hear a single complaint about anything political.

[LipstickLola]

Get out to vote!! Thus the right to gloat!! or........

(I'm sooooooo skeered there will be no gloating this time)

[AtLast]

I did! Thanks for the thread.................

We will not be stopped by Tea Bag zealouts and bigots! They might gain some seats, but in 2012, they will be leaving!! Hopefully then, a real Democratic majority will take over and all the insane deadlock will stop and what needs to be done, gets done!

This economy is slowly recovering. It sux that it is so slow, but, what it endured was never experienced before in the US and is a global situation. Let the GOP and tea baggers gloat if they take over the House or even the Senate because then people will get the gravity of what happened. They won't be able to make much of a difference in the recovery. Let them take the blame, AGAIN!!

Moderate Republicans with brains are quite OK by me, too! Don't have a problem with them, really.


Such short memories in this country .......

[Apocalipstic]

I am a nervous WRECK waiting for the returns, I can't focus.

[Nat]

I voted early. It was disheartening how many repubs ran unopposed or against only a libertarian. The number of unopposed repub judges was especially high. People know here - dems don't win. Resistance is futile in small town tx.

Ps. I hope Sharon angle doesn't beat Reid.

[theoddz]

Okay, here's a little political levity for a little lighthearted chuckle.

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Courtesy of the Harry Reid/Sharron Angle campaign race, here in Nevada. :)

~Theo~ :bouquet:....the giftie guy. :hangloose:

[katsarecool]

I voted two weeks ago, straight Dem ticket!!!! I am also anxious for tonight. I hope all the Tea Party candidates crash and burn tonight. I feel for you folks in Nevada, California, Delaware, etc, for the nutjobs on your ballots.

In a way, the Tea Partiers will divide the Republican votes; pulling the extreme fanaticals away from the mainstream Republican party. I hope anyway!

[AtLast]

I am a nervous WRECK waiting for the returns, I can't focus.

Me too! One hopeful thing about Angle is that she really is a loon. If elected, maybe she will be booted on mental health issues!

That race in Nevada is the one that bothers me the most. I don't think Reid is effective as Senate majority Leader and it is time for someone else, but I don't want to see him out of the Senate completely.

[SmoothButch]

I voted this afternoon in Virginia. Democrat all the way.



(2 years is not enough time to repair 8 years of inherited damage.)

[Nat]

ydyOTADrCFc

[Apocalipstic]

ydyOTADrCFc

You want to push me over the edge don't you? OMG OMG OMG

I know, I should not have looked. :)

They creep me out! I watched Beck's rally and about hyperventilated....though yes, I watched the entire thing. I must be a political masochist. :seeingstars:

Here in Nashville we did not have any repugs running un-opposed and no judgeships. Just Governor which had a repug, a Democrat and like 30 independents? a Senator with one of each and a state Senator Democrat running against write in votes.

Tennessee used to always go Democrat until all the corruption in the State Democratic party came to light in the 70's. UGH.

Things would be so different if people would just act right!

[theoddz]

Me too! One hopeful thing about Angle is that she really is a loon. If elected, maybe she will be booted on mental health issues!

That race in Nevada is the one that bothers me the most. I don't think Reid is effective as Senate majority Leader and it is time for someone else, but I don't want to see him out of the Senate completely.

Well, here in Nevada, Senator Reid has done a pretty decent job for us. As most everyone here knows, I work for the VA, and without the big push from Sen. Reid and my other favorite Congressional representatives, Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and Dina Titus (D-NV), we wouldn't be getting this new VA Medical Center and nursing home complex that is slated to open, here in Las Vegas, in 2012. Senator Reid and Ms. Berkley, in particular, have always been staunch supporters of both Veterans and federal employees. Nevada has gotten a *lot* of good things because our "Man from Searchlight" has been the Senate Majority Leader. Harry Reid stood up against the mob here in Vegas and made them clean up the gaming industry, making Las Vegas a world class entertainment and gambling mecca. He also worked very hard to keep Nevadans safe from the hazards of having a national nuclear waste dump made of Yucca Mountain. That would have been only a few miles up the road from my house and I didn't want that in my back yard.

Oh, and I guess I should mention, as a side note, that Senator Reid happens to be a Mormon, but what I respect the most about this man and his faith is that he has never allowed his faith to interfere with his support of just causes, including equal rights for the GLBTQ community and especially the repeal of DADT. Here's an excerpt from an article published by the Las Vegas Sun:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/20/repeal-unfair-law/

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an advocate of repealing the law, deserves credit for attaching that proposal to the defense bill. He could have taken the easy road during an election year and ducked the issue. But we send senators to Washington to make tough decisions and Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has shown repeatedly that he is more than up to that task."

I, for one Nevadan, am very much a supporter of our "Man from Searchlight", Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and I was very happy and proud to cast my vote for him. :winky::thumbsup:

I am going to be extremely disappointed and surprised if that nut job, Sharron Angle, pulls out a win against him. Nevada would lose, in a HUGE way, if she were to be elected, not to mention the loss to the nation of such a good and just man. :|

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Jess]

Being on the NC border, our "local" news is broadcast out of Winston-Salem or Greensboro. We don't have a local VA station. That said, I am curious to see who will be voting for this guy.

http://www.acetj.com/features/stupidnews.php?feature_id=17602

[dreadgeek]

Oregon is a vote-by-mail state so my wife and I filled out our ballots a few days ago. She dropped them off this morning.

The optimist in me hopes that enough liberals and progressives did the math and decided that a spineless Democratic congress that had a near-death experience is better than a rabid Tea Party/Republican congress but I doubt it. Here's the thing, what we might end up with is the next-worst of all worlds--a divided government that can't get anything done. The GOP will probably take the House but not the Senate. That means two years of effectively nothing getting done OR Obama having to tack so far to the right that he loses his base and then gets a primary challenge from his left. If that happens, it's over for him, I can't think of a single time in living memory that a President has had a primary challenge and gone on to win the general election.

Now, starting tomorrow you're going to start hearing some narratives. The first--and most pernicious of them--will be that the Democrats lost so many seats because they were too liberal. That's a load of bull. The Democratic losses are going to be due to them not being liberal *enough*. Imagine, if you will, if Gitmo went back to just being a Marine base in Cuba, if the warrantless wiretap program had gone away, if investigations into the malfeasance of the Bush administration were underway or had wrapped up, if Medicare-for-all were the law of the land and if a *real* WPA-style jobs program had been created. Does anyone believe that the GOP would even be competitive except in locales so safe that they could run Osama bin Laden and win?

Much of what one needs to know about the difference between the parties can be summed up here: Mr. Obama has done nothing violating the Constitution and one of the *first* orders of business for a GOP-controlled House will be to start impeachment proceedings against him. ALL the evidence points to Mr. Bush having lied to get us into a war and the Democrats wouldn't even consider pursuing an investigation. Why? In the name of 'bipartisanship' and because--and here I quote directly from both Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid; "if we did that then the Republicans will just do tit-for-tat". I want to shake both of them and ask "so, how'd that 'if we let things slide, they'll let things slide' work out for you?" It was stupid and craven. And yet, the Democratic party is all we have standing between us and full-blown theocratic fascism in this nation.

Make no mistake, the Tea Party has most of the elements of a full-blown fascist movement and the Republican party has *long* been moving toward theocracy.

I hope that everyone here will vote because the stakes are really, really high.

[betenoire]

Dear Americans;

Please vote and vote well. We Canadians have to share a gigantic island with your country so we care.

Love,

Brandy

[DomnNC]

I voted this afternoon. Thanks all for getting out the vote!

[Softly]

Voted after work today!! :D

[SimpleAlaskanBoy]

daisy and I voted early this morning.
9 minutes after the polls close in Ohio and MSNBC is reporting that our Gov. race is too close to call.
I'm keeping an eye on many states tonight...kind of curious to see how Alaska goes with Miller vs Murkowski.
~SAB

[Kobi]

I knew I would be out of town this week, so I did an absentee ballot a few weeks ago. This seems to me to be a huge election even for a midterm.

Of course my brother called tonight to tell me he voed a straight Republican ballot. :seeingstars: The boy has a very very short memory.

[betenoire]

Guys, I know it's early...but it doesn't look good.

I'm pretty upset.

[MsTinkerbelly]

I voted after work and the grocery store. I have to vote just to cancel out my Republican Sister's vote; how we came from the same parents....:hamactor:

[TickledPink]

Voted! :byebye:

[Miss Scarlett]

Stood in line for over an hour - amazing for my apathetic precinct.

[AtLast]

Well, here in Nevada, Senator Reid has done a pretty decent job for us. As most everyone here knows, I work for the VA, and without the big push from Sen. Reid and my other favorite Congressional representatives, Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and Dina Titus (D-NV), we wouldn't be getting this new VA Medical Center and nursing home complex that is slated to open, here in Las Vegas, in 2012. Senator Reid and Ms. Berkley, in particular, have always been staunch supporters of both Veterans and federal employees. Nevada has gotten a *lot* of good things because our "Man from Searchlight" has been the Senate Majority Leader. Harry Reid stood up against the mob here in Vegas and made them clean up the gaming industry, making Las Vegas a world class entertainment and gambling mecca. He also worked very hard to keep Nevadans safe from the hazards of having a national nuclear waste dump made of Yucca Mountain. That would have been only a few miles up the road from my house and I didn't want that in my back yard.

Oh, and I guess I should mention, as a side note, that Senator Reid happens to be a Mormon, but what I respect the most about this man and his faith is that he has never allowed his faith to interfere with his support of just causes, including equal rights for the GLBTQ community and especially the repeal of DADT. Here's an excerpt from an article published by the Las Vegas Sun:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/20/repeal-unfair-law/

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, an advocate of repealing the law, deserves credit for attaching that proposal to the defense bill. He could have taken the easy road during an election year and ducked the issue. But we send senators to Washington to make tough decisions and Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has shown repeatedly that he is more than up to that task."

I, for one Nevadan, am very much a supporter of our "Man from Searchlight", Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and I was very happy and proud to cast my vote for him. :winky::thumbsup:

I am going to be extremely disappointed and surprised if that nut job, Sharron Angle, pulls out a win against him. Nevada would lose, in a HUGE way, if she were to be elected, not to mention the loss to the nation of such a good and just man. :|

~Theo~ :bouquet:

OK, now that someone with first hand info has spoken... I take it back! I am totally behind the things you are talking about here for our vets and troops. I stand corrected!

Please... please ... no Angle! I guess it went into today really close, but, I am going to keep the faith!

[Andrea]

I voted Democrat by mail over a week ago.

Walked over to the precinct this afternoon with Rene while he cast his votes.

We only disagreed on one local race. :)

Andrea

[AtLast]

UGH.. looks like the GOP will take the majority in the House. Not in the US Senate, however. Hummm... does look a bit like what Clinton had to9 deal with in the 90's and he won re-election.

Also, the Senate has to pass legislation passed by the house and Obama has veto power. Unless the GOP were to take both Houses, they really are not gaining in terms of real legislative power.

Then, again.... will it just be continued deadlock with everything in Congress? I want Congress to work! Sure, I want what I believe in, but that isn't the point- we have such a broken legislative process right now when the US is in such a mess! Frankly, some real bi-partisanship wouldn't bother me at all.

[rlin]

UGH..
...
Frankly, some real bi-partisanship wouldn't bother me at all.

can you imagine john boner even being able to pronounce the word bipartisanship???

[katsarecool]

can you imagine john boner even being able to pronounce the word bipartisanship??? No I cannot! What a creepy guy!!!!

[SimpleAlaskanBoy]

No I cannot! What a creepy guy!!!!

Imagine if you will how *pleased* I was to find out that he's the Representative for this state...I've lived here a year plus now and I have never heard of him other than national coverage. At least MSNBC was able to note that he's been quite emotional in speeches before and noted that he's a Washington insider, he's been there for years...
Still bummed about the Gov.
~SAB

[AtLast]

can you imagine john boner even being able to pronounce the word bipartisanship???

OMG, you are soooooo right about this! And this is what makes me so nuts with what is going on in Congress.

Been thinking a lot tonight about what will happen if the deadlock continues. There are so many people hurting in the US that just need these bozos to root out solutions to economic problems and deal with them. Compromise- what a concept! Get people back to work!!!

"Boner" actually showed some emotion on TV tonight... but it was all about the GOP's wins, not what the hell he is willing to do to get the economy moving again.

[Nat]

At least Angle didn't win.

QqQDR84UEOg

[Sabine Gallais]

It was an historic night surpassing the trouncing of 1994. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 seats.

:drool:

:cigar2:

[MsTinkerbelly]

can you imagine john boner even being able to pronounce the word bipartisanship???

No, but he cried (kind of) in front of the cameras...does that count?.:violin:

[MsTinkerbelly]

At least Angle didn't win.

QqQDR84UEOg

Amen:rrose:

[Nat]

Per the victory campaign -

More openly LGBT candidates were elected to office in 2010 than in any year in America’s history.

[katsarecool]

I am allowing myself to be disappointed, pissed off, frustrated, bitter, disillusioned, horrifed and wondering how it could happen for 24 hours. Then tomorrow morning dust myself off and get back to work to help this country recover through my liberal, compassionate, motivated being. 2012 here I come!!!! And I still and always will love our President!!! even if he is a man!!!!!

[AtLast]

Per the victory campaign -

More openly LGBT candidates were elected to office in 2010 than in any year in America’s history.

Yup, some victories! All is not lost! What I want to see are the numbers of voters under 30 get back in the equation. In so many races yesterday, a difference could have been made if this population was as involved as they were in 2008.

Change requires long-term commitment. The Democratic process does, too!

The younger generations have a huge stake in our political equation- they are the ones that need to enter the work force in an era of high unemployment and when our educational systems are in shambles.

In my heart, I want manufacturing to come back to the Heartland, but know that will not happen. There is a big shift in what the US produces and needs as a work force. We have to accept this. But, we also need to see that those hurt by these losses are cared for, re-trained and able to get back on their feet. We have abondoned these workers in countless ways and they were such a big part of the post-WWII prosperity in the US.

Fact- the US has 19 out of 20 of the worlds best universities. But, most of these are out of reach for most US students (I sure as hell wasn't going to get into yale or Harvard). But we have terrible trade school options and numbers available. We are not producing math and science people and they are needed in the kind of economy we have created. And how in the hell are young people going to pay for job training/school? The published unemployment numbers don't tell the whole story.

The under 30 population has got to get back to the level of involvement that they had in 2008!

[MsDemeanor]

Now we get to look forward to H.R. 1 - Extend tax cuts to the wealthy folks in this country who bought the repugs in to office.

[Nat]

a friend posted this to his facebook, and it made me smile a bit despite the circumstances:

To the newly elected, this is for you! Take notes, now. Don't want any questions later.


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