Do you remember the “Thelma & Louise?” At the end of the movie they are sitting, stopped in their convertible which is pointing toward a great precipice. They are surrounded by the gendarmes ready to arrest them for murder and robbery. Thelma turns to Louise and says, “Go.”

Louise knows there is no way out of this mess. She says, “What are you takin’ about?”

Thelma answers, “Go.” They exchange a knowing glance. Louise floors it. We see the car fly off the cliff into a slow motion dive into the abyss hundreds of feet below.

Thus we arrive at where we find the United States now—hurling head long into the unfathomable chasm of Iraq. After the election my Republican friends are saying sardonically to the Democrats, “O.K., you drive. But you better not crash.”

There are no viable options in Iraq, in my opinion. McCain wants to add 100,000 more troops. That won’t begin to turn things around in Iraq. After the Tet offensive there were more than 550,000 soldiers in Vietnam. We got our butt kicked anyway. Joe Bidden wants to divide Iraq into Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite sections. This is what is now underway anyway. But it results in a destroyed Iraq. Carl Levin wants a pretty quick pull out which will result in even more death and civil war. George Bush wants to stay until victory is achieved, but that won’t happen, in my view, regardless of what plan is now being considered and certainly will result in many more deaths, destruction and continuation of a failed policy and an unnecessary war.

Maybe Louise should have thought twice about shooting that guy in the parking lot?

The war to end all wars ended today in 1918. Forty million casualties resulted.
“The philosopher Bertrand Russell said, ‘All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride.”(MPR,”Writers Almanac” for today)

World War I lasted four years. The war in Iraq will have lasted four years in March. There have been, by one estimate, over 650,000 deaths so far, a rate more than double the 2,000,000 estimated deaths attributed to Saddam Hussein between 1979 and 2003.

President Bush says that we need to fight the terrorists over there rather than at home. How do we keep them over there? A wall? TSA? Is it like putting a dead rat on the highway and all the flies will be attracted to it, and the rest of the world will be fly free? How did the 1600 suspected terrorists in 200 cells that the British are tracking get to the British Isle? Weren’t the British fighting them over there also? Does the war only protect the US from terrorists coming here?

Or are Bush and Cheney”… living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart…”?

The election was emotionally exhausting. Yesterday I was in a daze. Up too late Tuesday night. I had not realized the psychic energy I had invested in the election.

The MPR election party was interesting and it was fun being able to share it with my wife and son and his girl friend. But I was anxious. I wanted to follow the national election, hear the pundits, keep tabs on the national scene. The big 12 ft. screen alternating between CNN and the MPR computer had no sound. The only electronic sound was the live show in front of us being broadcast on 89.3, The Current.

The food and drink held out till after we left around 10:30 P.M. It was supposed to be nonpartisan, but applause broke out when the Democrats captured its 15th seat and control of the house.. I would have loved to have bumped into all my fellow bloggers.

It was pretty much a given that the House would change, but I was almost shocked when I awoke yesterday. The phone rang and my sister in law said the Democrats had picked up four senate seats and two were still in play. Later Montana fell to the opposition party and that left only George (Macaca) Allen left, trailing by 6,000 votes to Democrat James Webb. Later today Allen conceded thereby sparing the country a lengthy two or three weeks recount and an expensive bill on his part.

The poetry, the irony in all this is that the tipping point of power in America indeed the world hinged on an off handed comment Allen made in August, "Macaca" said to 20 year old S.R. Siddharth a South Asian-American whom he saw as different because of his dark skin. There are more than 75,000 Desi in Virginia. They are from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

George Allen was a darling of the Religious Right who was preparing to run for president in 2008 in the party of family values, the party of higher-than-thou morals. In front of a rally of supporters and TV cameras, Allen's long history of racial bigotry was glimpsed and magnified like Kerry's joke about being stuck in Iraq. Only this time the Republican got caught, drawn-and-quartered.

I would like to say thank you to MPR and The Current for hosting a great party last night. I attended the party, but could not find any of my fellow bloggers. I was looking for Sandy and Jim, as I would have liked to have met him and his family. The party and the atmosphere were impressive. I left earlier than I had intended because I was distracted and deeply concerned about one race in particular...for very personal reasons...but it turned out well in the end!

Though I am disappointed about the results from the governor's race, it seems that the results from last night's election, overall, seem to have made a difference already. I think the voters have spoken and our elected leaders, at both the state and national levels, have discovered that we have effectively put them in check.

I was very surprised (yet, very pleased) at the unexpected resignation of Rumsfeld.

Some very interesting results today as I wake up, hours after turning off the TV to having no governor, I find that we have the same one. Pawlenty took a lead late last night and held onto it very slimly. I was hoping maybe Hutchinson could have rallied some form of support, but I would rather have Pawlenty than Hatch.

No surprise that Patty Wetterling was tossed to the curb for using her son's tragedy as a campaign, and nothing else.

The most interesting point of the night was that Pawlenty picked up so much of the vote and a large number of people crossed over their ballot to vote out other state officers. This either shows that Pawlenty is supported by a number of Democrats, or that Republicans were fed up with everyone but Pawlenty. Much more likely to be the former rather than the latter.

On a side note the party last night was quite interesting. I met a fellow blogger I worked with a few years ago, he was a live blogger there. I also got to meet Jim and his wife. Now folks, I can't tell you too much about Jim because he hardly said a thing to me, but Mrs. Stattmiller is quite proud of her children and very emotional about the blog, it appears.

I was looking around for any of the other bloggers last night but I didn't see anyone. Kudos to you all for a well brought together blog and another election year.

I just heard the new Speaker of the House of Representatives who is a woman (Nancy Pelosi). I am frankly excited. She says that she promises to create an atomosphere of bipartisanship. I'm for it!

I'm also revved up by the whole political excitement, optimism, and change. I plan to return to some (no doubt healthy) cynicism next week, or next month at the latest.

Still, I'm excited to see our country's democratic process in action. I'd love to stay up all night and watch returns, but I have work tomorrow. Still, I'm pleased that Nancy is pushing for less division. It could be a good sign.

Maybe that's the best thing about our system. Maybe it's our endless optimism that this time, this group of people will do it right, or at least better.

Somewhere there is a ray of hope, as of current Minnesota is rejecting the MVST amendment but barely. Patty Wetterling is being punished for breaking her "No new campaigns" promise. Pawlenty is being taught a hard lesson of running as a Republican and governing as a Democrat.

Surprising to me, though, is that the baby is being thrown out with the bath water. Good candidates for other state offices are being rejected, and amazingly so. Jeff Johnson needs to replace Mr. Hatch and yet we have someone of poor qualifications winning.

I can't say that I am shocked that Keith Ellison is winning, I spent many years in the district and the people there are too stupid to be bothered with basic research on their candidates. At least Tammy Lee was semi-acceptable candidate.

The surprise (or hardly that because I expected it) is that Amy Klobuchar, with 20 percent of the vote in, is called the winner. Assuming Minnesota's historical trends for voting, there is still a good million votes to be counted, yet she is being hailed as the winner. Again Republicans typically bring up in large numbers when outstate Minnesota is counted, and as of yet we are still told she is the winner. I think it is a little premature to be putting your drapes in yet Amy.

Aside from that, my previous prediction of Republicans holding control in the House and Senate still appears to be holding true. I am very glad that a lot of people like Chafee and Santorum. Now if only the same could be done in Arizona...

I think, if the blog is still up tomorrow morning I will post a post-election wrap up and we will see everything as the dust settles, and maybe a final thought.

Until then, good night.

As the night progresses I will surely vent right here for all to see. I am live at MPR talking to everyone and even Jim, although not on quite as heatedly as we have here.

A few views for the night...

As I predicted, Joe Lieberman is winning his race, and it is a shame for the Democratic Party.

Jim Ramstad is winning, which is a non-surpise to say the least.

Hutchinson is losing, much like the Independence Party did last go around for the governorship.

Amy Klobuchar won the metro, now let's see how she fares in outstate Minnesota.

Huzzah!

I mentioned previously that I was going to write in for a school board member. Now I kept forgetting his name, then couldn't remember how to spell it (we can go into my memory problems in another blog, okay?). Finally I was reasonably sure of the spelling, and wrote in the name. Then I realized that I had put him in under the general seat, not the district one seat. Sheesh! In my town, we fill in little ovals with pen, and so erasing was out of the question. I had to sheepishly go up and admit I had made a mistake and needed another ballot.

I almost didn't do it.

Then the official wrote (I'm not kidding here) SPOILED across both sides of my ballot (I admit to being indulged, but spoiled?) before she carefully put it away. As I did my ballot the second time, I changed my mind on a couple of people! Who knew that would happen? I admit that I was wobbly on a couple of people, but the second time around, I felt more sassy and argumentative. How close a couple of people came on my vote!

I think it's time find a better way to write in candidates. If they had enough time to make yard signs, I think there could have been some sort of sheet that could give me the place and spelling of his name. Just a thought.

Today, the Democratic Party faces a tough challenge. They have to choose between a candidate who is against the war in Iraq, and the candidate who is. Joe Lieberman is the "reject" of his party (their words, not mine folks) and is running as an independent against Ned Lamont, who is the party-approved candidate.

So why is this a tough choice?

Well, if the elected official is Ned Lamont, it means they have the right message and have spent four years trying to express it and failing; the more likely option is that the U.S. public is for the war and supports it, despite the Democratic message.

If you go line by line, the two candidates are almost cloned except this one issue, thus the people are choosing between the war and not. What happens when Joe wins? The Democrats are holding onto an issue that their base can rally around simply because it is ABB (anyone but Bush), but as shown in the previous election people prefer Bush to the "anyone" candidate.

So here we are, with Joe Lieberman massively leading the polls, what does this mean to the Democratic Party...What does it mean to those of you who don't support the war?