'06 is the key to reestablishing a progressive presidency in '08.

Given the turmoil that this country is and will be going through, the midterm elections present the Democratic Party a huge opportunity to win back one or both houses of Congress.This is a chance we dare not squander. We should take a page from the Republicans in'94 and create our own Contract for America. We should do this to paint broad appealing themes to identify what Democrats stand for rather than throwing out an accumulation of programs that wonks love but leave most non political types cold.The promulgation of a Democratic Contract could also crystallize the generalized opinion that the Democrats can handle significant issues into support for particular candidates.
The touchstone of the Democrats vision for America should be a pledge to make America more secure. This need not be a call to more repressive policies at home and more military adventures overseas.Rather it would outline several, but not a lot, of measures to make us safer here at home and abroad.
The major points could include:
A larger all volunteer army
A commitment to only use military force when necessary, but a parallel promise to use it effectively when it is necessary
A recognition that we do face an implacable enemy from AlQuaida and similar forces, coupled with the belief that a renunciation of the sins of Gitmo and Abu Graib are essential to winning over moderates in the Muslim world
A resounding restatement of our obligation to the security of our citizens in retirement and in matters of health
A proud non hedged belief that women should be secure in their right to make their own decisions concerning their health, and
A promise to secure our environment from the despoilers who support the Republican party.
I believe that the American people are ready to abandon the RW in droves, but we need to provide them an alternative that is responsive to the fears and concerns that are surging through the electorate.
With one or both houses,we will be able to mount the kind of investigations that will brand the Republicans as corrupt, incompetent jingoists who have weakened our country to a criminal degree.
That should be the springboard we need to regain the presidency in '08, so that we can begin to clean up the mess that these fools and miscreants will have left us.

Please believe me when I tell you that the programmer writes to code to tell the machine exactly what it want it to do and it will do.
Code can be written that will execute the criminal code instructions and then erase itself making detection impossible. It can easily cover it's tracks.

Count the damn votes by hand. We can wait a couple of weeks to find out who Americans wish to have has their President and Congressmen.
What's the hurry?

Feeney to write just that code to flip the votes?

Clint Curtis I think his name is.

...we did that in Nevada and it keeps it honest. Cost an extra $100 bucks a machine but is well worth the money to salvage our Democracy.
:dem:

get them down to where a 14 y/o can read them and stay interested.
(14 is the level of most TV commercials)

...something national that we can get the entire Democratic Party onboard with.

Your piece has a excellent beginning, but we need to more sharply define the differences between Democrats and Republican before we start sounding like "Republican Lite" again.

:headbang:

WITHOUT THE VAPOR VOTE MACHINES

to have fair & transparent elections.

and the Nazi's will declare Marshall law and suspend the elections. They have come too far to just give up because of some Democratic process. Freedom is on the march!, right outta this country.

You read it here first!

with the cabal, and for sure the CIA and lots of FBI are not with the
cabal.....

It all depends on what the Army , which side the commanders are on.

We'll see. They don;t like their boys being killed. They dont like
Rummy having taken over the Pentagon...and they dont like being made to look like fools by Cheney I would think....

It'll be touchy - and touch and go....but there's no way to see which way the Army and the powers will go....

AND NOW FINALLY the press has woken up.....

it's not up to the people. Republicans have a solid base of delusionals, and they can bamboozle some more and mess with the voting machines to get over the top.

It's up to the institutions of government and the media. They aren't willing to be sacrificed for bushcos plan for world domination. Each of them is happy to sit by and watch it happen to the others, but one by one they are being thrown to the wolves.

Latest example: Tim Russert, the man who hid a Bush button under his lapel, now knows that Libby is a liar. Will Russert continue to serve his corporate God, or will he "welch"?

Russert sold his soul to Jack Welch.

If the military "rebels" then we have it made. They can't gun down protesters, etc., and may very well get gunned down themselves.

If not, we're dead. Literally. We'll be executed en masse, Auschwitz style, on the grounds of political differences.

out their ideals for this to work. I don't know if I can see Sheila Jackson Lee and Joe Lieberman working from the same set of principles.

is that it would allow a Jackson and a Lieberman to run on the same general platform. Security sounds like a conservative value but if you go back to what FDR was trying to do was to devise a series of governmental programs which by setting up a safety net would provide security for large segments of the population who were otherwise at risk.It is a concept all Democrats could rally around while standing in stark counterpoint to these thugs who have endangered our safety, military, economy, retirements, environment, civil liberties and maybe most importantly what America stands for in the rest of the world.

And that ain't all.

It is the key to impeaching this bastard in the WH.

It is the key to voting reforms such as paper ballots.

It is the key to restoring worldwide honor and dignity to this country.

Mid-terms 06 are crucial.

we will be relegated to being bystanders as this cabal of thugs destroys our country.

The fact is that the military operations are a disaster. The military at large may or may not have an opinion on this (odds are it's something between indifference and resentment).

The military competence card is huge and nonpartisan. And by "nonpartisan" I of course mean that the Rethug armchair warrior wannabes will also follow the argument.

Immoral or not, just or not, Iraq and Afghanistan are an issue. Regardless of whether the intent is a pullout or aggression against Iran, competency is required, and competency is one thing the current Commander in Chief has not only failed to demonstrate, but repeatedly demonstrated quite the opposite of.

Get a general and the right wing warhawks will also follow. Furthermore, at this point the catastrophic consequences of screwing up even further are becoming so severe that effective military leadership (and when I say "military," I mean the civilian command thereof) is crucial to surviving the crises already incurred by these gross judgmental errors.

The promises we can make with Clark on our side are: "if we sweep the majority we will impeach the bejesus out of the Repuke ``leadership'' until we can install someone with the faintest clue of how to manage the damage control for Bush's mismanaged military misadventures" and "the economic crisis Bush caused will be patched up as best as is possible instead of aggravated on ideological grounds or for the sake of covering up past errors." Granted, those are nothing like talking points or "effective propaganda," but when properly packaged, the corporate sponsors will rally to Democrats like never before.

The sheeple are too blind to understand the details. Direct appeals to geopolitics, on the other hand, are rather obvious, and require neither transparent pandering (which discredits candidates anyway) nor religious reich -oriented posturing to obtain a broad appeal. The fact is that geopolitics is what's happening and geopolitical blunders are killing us. An effective military and civilian leader to rally behind creates a "focus point" upon which it's possible to spread a broad impression of virtue.

And most of all, everyone is all for "support our troops." Clark *IS* one of our troops. There is no rally-round-the-flag effect that could be stronger.

voters that the Democrats are up to the task of keeping America safe.
I honestly think we will be out of Iraq by '08, but I think we will have to fight our way out.Fighting an insurrection in the middle of a civil war is going to put our troops in incredible jeopardy. We will have to have a ticket that can credibly speak about rebuilding our military. There will be others but Clark would be very strong in this regard.