Beginning to Realize Kerry's Defeat was a Good Thing

Harper:
As much as Dubya's election leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I have to agree with you. For once in his life he's going to have to clean up the mess he's made, and without the help of daddy or daddy's business cronies...............Let's only hope he doesn't make it worse.

I'm gradually coming around to this idea, too.

The only thing I'm still struggling with is that the courts, foreign relations, debt, health care etc. can be fixed eventually.

The environment and dead people cannot.

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=986530#986530

:wink:

I do not wish to eat dog food on the street and have to set my sons arm if he breaks it myself and stand in a f*#king que for toilet paper just for the satisfaction of seeing bush exposed as a failure....I already knew that...so you'll excuse me if I don't share your enthusiasm folks........

I think that Bush realizes how polarized the country is. Not only does he want to leave a legacy, IMO, he wants to make sure that the Republicans are in a position to win the White House in 2008.

I think that he will start to moderate some of his more contentious views. The resignation of Ashcroft to me, is a good thing. I believe that he was the embodiment of many of the things that liberals (and many moderates) hated.

I am taking a "wait and see" attitude. We might just be pleasantly surprised!

waiting and seeing in a burning house is a good way to become a crispy critter.....

And then there's the economy, the working poor, and corporate "survival" to deal with such as this:

Sick days dwindle, disappear for many

Fri Nov 12, 6:30 AM ET
By Stephanie Armour, USA

The flu vaccine shortage couldn't come at a worse time for employees, with cost-cutting employers reducing the number of paid sick days given to workers and curbing other benefits such as emergency back-up child care.


In addition, about half the full-time American workforce gets no paid sick days, according to the Department of Labor. Part-time employees and those in lower-wage service and blue-collar jobs are the least likely to have paid sick days. The peak flu season is late December and January.

"They're in low-wage jobs and living paycheck to paycheck," says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. "They have to go to work sick or lose a day's pay or, in some cases, lose their jobs."


Recent trends:

•Employees have fewer sick days. Paid sick days have been one of several benefits curtailed by employers in recent years. The number of employers providing paid sick leave dropped from 82% in 2002 to 76% last year, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).


Sherry Allen, 35, of Indianapolis was a waitress in a restaurant and had no access to paid sick leave. She worked with strep throat and bronchitis. She says she was fired for taking too much time off to care for her son; she is currently unemployed.


"It's hard to have that fear of losing your job," says Allen, a mother of four boys, ages 18, 16, 12 and 9.


•Employees are less able to save up unused sick days. Cost-cutting employers are increasingly moving away from benefit programs that allow employees to accrue sick days. Instead, they are turning to a use-it-or-lose-it approach.


•Fewer employees have access to back-up care. The number of employers offering emergency back-up child care or child care when employees have sick family members has dropped from 14% in 2001 to 9% this year, according to SHRM.


Some employees say they feel pressured not to take time off.


Tanya Frazier says she was fired from her job as an executive assistant after taking time off to care for her 9-year-old daughter, who had the flu. She says she had used all the nine sick days allowed by her employer.


"My boss said, 'You're too dedicated a mother and not dedicated to your job,' " says Frazier, 39, a single mother in Topanga, Calif., who now is a temp.


Some human resource agencies are urging companies to revise their policies to give workers more sick days.


"If the flu really spreads, there will be a strong effort to get people not to come to work," says Lori Rosen, at human resources information provider CCH. "But people want to maintain their jobs, so they work even when they feel lousy."

I too would like to think this is some kind of silver lining but the fact that Bush can't think of any mistakes he's made, I doubt that he thinks there is any kind of mess to clean up.

The fact that he doesn't have to worry about his own reelection anymore and that Dick Cheney will not be seeking office really gives them a great way to force whatever agenda they want. Then, next election, a moderate republican can step in and the country can breathe a sigh of relief.

BBB
BM

I can't go along with the premise that Dubya's election was a good thing since he will now be forced to clean up the mess he made. Did you ever consider that based upon his record rather than clean up his mess he will make things worse.

daily, practically hourly.

Well, of course, he will make things worse. But Kerry would have had a hard time cleaning up his messes too.

It is resignation not enthusiasm. at least we can look at it a silver lining.

BTW my quote that Just Wonders decided to distort by taking out of context was:

The way I see it, there is a very good chance that the mid-terms, which have always been tough for a second term President, we will see a Democratic sweep. Of course, I never thought Bush would win the election but I failed to listen to PT Barnum: You will never lose money underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

What makes you think a man who has never been able to 'clean up his mess', will do so now? I think he's incapable. History doesn't just repeat, it predicts.........

The only thing that gives me hope is not Bush and his top crew, but that the remaining Republicans (House / Senate/Governors/etc) will have grown to like the taste of power so much that they temper some activities and policies in order to not lose control in 2006 and 2008. To me, they are the ones we have to rely on being reasonable, since Bush and his cabinet will not.

When he got "elected" back in 2000 I thought that way. I figured, how bad could it be? I'm not holding that hope out this time. I predict that he will go even further down the path of crazy extremism this time.

But my dream is that he and Cheney will be dragged out of the whitehouse in handcuffs one day. Okay, I know, bigshots like that are never handcuffed, but you get the idea.

Well, I've searched and searched...just can't seem to find where that education or prescription drug bill was passed by Congress during the whopping 8 year reign of Clinton. Wait...Clinton just talked a lot about it

Talk is cheap. George Bush got the job done

Kick, that is my dream too.