Free kibbles

Hezbollah is rearming, Israeli jets are flying overhead, and now French troops almost shot at an Israeli jet. Any bets on how soon the peace deal on the Israel/Lebanon border will fall apart?

It's about time the story of Pat Tillman's death came out. Confusing as it is, it's better the story be told. I hope the family of every soldier killed gets closure.

Democrats win both houses. It's a sad commentary on the two party system that in order to kick out liberal Republicans for their big spending, taxing ways, we have to suffer through liberal Democrats. The good news is that now there's hope for 2008. If Republicans had won, we would have had liberal and more liberal business as usual. As George Will points out, now we have a chance that Republicans will come back to their limited government roots by '08. The problem is, how can all of these representatives vote to abolish the Dept. of Education, necessary for our education system to stop freefalling, after they voted for the No Child Left Behind boondoggle? How do they vote for Medicare reform after they voted for the $1 trillion prescription drug benefit? Republicans will have to admit their mistakes before they can fix them.

Democrats are up to their old partisan tricks. Pelosi won't allow the best people for committee chairs to lead - she's going to give chairs to the most liberal, most partisan Democrats. The good news is this should anger conservative Democrats and strengthen gridlock.

Some analysts think we'll see strong gridlock. Some, like Steve Chapman, are happy about it.

Turnout was high for a midterm election, with more Democrats coming out than Republicans. I guess Democrats were really upset Republicans stole all their big spending, big government ideas. Everybody else was upset about that too. It was a thumpin'.

Get ready for all Billary, all the time.

China and Russia are planning joint space projects. That's another reason, along with China attacking our satellites, Bush changed our space policy. The Cold War of Terror being waged against us by China and Russia is far more dangerous than the last Cold War. China and Russia together are more powerful than the Soviet Union, and their proxies, Iran and South Korea, are far more dangerous than the Soviet's old proxies. Worst of all, the U.S. doesn't even realize we're in this new Cold War yet.

Democrats sense their position is fragile, but they don't understand why. The change America wants in Iraq is to win, not retreat. Americans want government off their backs, not more of it. Americans can hardly afford health care because of current government intervention; they certainly can't afford to pay for a titanic government health care bureaucracy. If either party realizes this, it will win a landslide in 2008. Democrats won't learn it. I hope Republicans do.

If you want health care costs to fall, let people pay for their own health care. If you want people to care about their health and be healthier, let them pay for their own health care. How hard is that to figure out?

Dick Armey points out that these Republicans are the norm, and Reagan and Newt Republicans are the exception. Americans want the exception that supports small government, and transfers power back to the people. Republicans need a leader like Reagan or Newt to reinstill libertarian ideals.

For years Democrats have attacked Republicans for politicizing the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, and 9/11, as if differentiating themselves on these important issues was some kind of dirty trick. Adam Nagourney points out how Democrats politicized the War on Iraq to their favor. In fact, Democrats made the War in Iraq the single biggest issue of the campaign. I guess it's OK when Democrats do it.

Jeff Taylor has some observations from Arizona - illegal immigration country. His conclusion about illegal immgration is wrong. One of the reasons Republicans were punished in this nationalized election was for failing to stop the southern invasion and their amnesty plan. The more Republicans talked about illegal immigration, the more they drove home the point they had failed to stop it.

Bush and Pelosi are seeking common ground. Maybe I'm an idiot, but it just struck me that since Bush is a liberal, and Congress is liberal, we won't have gridlock at all. Bush is already saying he can get his guest worker program now. I hope they chose gridlock instead of working together.