A HEAVY HEART

Ned takes up his pen today with a heavy heart, crushed by the weight of "polls" that foretell a terror so fearsome no one dare say it's name, but it's signature would be Republican control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate. When Ned recalls the optimism with which many of his associates faced the new day of the Obama administration, he is deeply saddened by such news. However, it is an ill wind indeed that blows nobody any good. So, perhaps it is time to concede defeat. Because if Obama really had the intention to change the direction of this country he would have done these things differently:
* Have the Attorney General investigate whether any members of the Bush Regime should have been tried for War Crimes against Humanity.
This he didn't do, giving the clear message to any such group of felons in the future that they can get away with anything as long as it involves foreign wars without a draft.
* Pass a Single Payer Health Plan Plan immediately including all Americans, and issue all Americans a Health Card similar to a Medicare card. As it is now, we have the worst of all worlds. We have the semblance of a plan, run basically by "health insurance" companies for their profit and to enrich their arrogant plutocrat officials with filthy lucre at the public expense. We have a plan that no one understands, and that still leaves millions of Americans without health care. We have a plan that Senators, including Ned's own Ron Wyden, are calling for their states to be exempted from the requirement that all persons buy health care, which if agreed to will destroy the plan. What has happened is that the Obama crew has energized the Republicans and stirred up the know-nothings, who have come slithering out from under their rocks spitting venom, hatred, and thinly-concealed racial animosity. And they have accomplished nothing for it.
* Get this country out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. If 7 years is not enough time to secure "Iraqi Freedom" then let the Iraqis deal with it. Let the Kurds form their own homeland and let the Sunni and Shia fight out their mindless feuds from the 7th century about which of the Prophet's descendants should have succeeded Him. Use the money saved to help Americans get work.
* Reduce military (war) spending by 1/2 and use the funds to help the states save the hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs lost when state tax revenues tanked as a result of the Bush mini-Depression. Study after study has shown that war spending creates fewer jobs for more money than any other kind of government spending, and it inevitably results in death and destruction.
* End this country's blind attachment to Israel At Any Cost in blood and treasure. It just encourages the extreme right in that country to increase settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank, which results in round after round of senseless killings like the recent murder of 4 Israeli "settlers."
Require the Israelis to pull back to the 1967 border, and leave the settlements intact for the Palestinians. Then, issue a guarantee of the sanctity of Israel's border and deal ruthlessly and quickly with any future terrorist attacks aimed against that country.
* Initiate talks with the Iranians to settle the long-standing grievances that that proud people have against the U.S. for meddling in their internal affairs for 50 years, beginning with the CIA-inspired murder of their Prime Minister in 1955.
Now, since the Obama people did none of these things, perhaps they deserve to be tossed out and a group of people take over who are characterized by breathtaking ignorance coupled with astonishing arrogance. Let them ignore climate change, and the views and wishes of 6 billion people. Let them "put God back in the U.S." Let them eviscerate the power of the federal government in every thing except the military. Let them install Queen Sarah as our new monarch. Let them eliminate taxes on the rich and turn the country over to the plutocrats. Perhaps they then can go to the back entrance of the gated communities every Sunday, after Cult worship sessions, where they can get free food handouts from the security guards, then return to a Sunday of free television--bread and circuses returns.
Then Ned can safely steal away to some safe haven and join the resistance...