On the national front, no surprises here; the election was about George Bush and him lame domestic and international policies.

So, now we have Dems running the House, and maybe the Senate (although at this hour - 9:49PM, PST - the latter is doubtful).

Let' see how much spine the Dems can muster, as well as how much real negotiation toward the midle takes place. Many Republican losers were *moderate* Republicans; that's worrisome to me, because Washington is becoming more and more populated by members of both houses who are on either political extreme.

The next two years will be interesting.

I'm mostly relieved because this will probably keep Bush from stacking the Supreme Court, will cripple his retro policy making, and open up investigations into his many abuses of power.

I was thrilled to wake up this morning and hear that Measure A went down to defeat.
This was another attempt by self-serving so-called environmentalists, like Drekmeier, to limit people's private property rights. unfortunatley Drekmeier will probably be back again with another cynical land grab attempt--there is no such thing as private property when it comes to these "protectors of our environment". Witness the constant attempts to dictate to Stanford how they should use their private property.

I was disappointed that both prop. 86 and 87 failed. I think that
we still have a long way to go to win the battle against the big
tobacco and big oil companies.

I too am saddened that we Californians didn't pass either 86 & 87.

I am disappointed that California's did not realize the actual damage they have done in passing props 1A through 1E. They have pretty much condemned our children to pay for all the things we want. In the long run you can not finance the present by constantly borrowing against the future. If the people of California really wanted these things then they should have been happy with a tax increase to get these things.

On the other hand, we in the SF Bay area supported them, especially in SF county itself. At least we as a state passed 1B.
Fewer cars sitting on freeway parking lots, better public transit, and cleaner running school buses are another step in the right direction.

I agree, Jeff. As much as I support the projects in 1B, I would rather face more present day monies spent to get them done, even if it means raising taxes.

One sad loss in the divisive Menlo Park campaign was Measure K -- a utility tax to supplement the city's flagging coffers. Although the measure appeared to be universally supported as a minor necessary evil, all the political energy in the city was devoted to either the council campaigns or the (ultimately defeated and, frankly, far less important) measure demanding a study of playing fields at Baylands. Lacking any firm effort behind it, Measure K failed by 100 votes. (The only campaign literature I remember receiving arrived at my doorstep at 5:30 p.m. election night -- 90 minutes after I'd voted. In the voter information booklet, only a PRO argument was put forth, the Measure had so little opposition. But complacency clearly threw the baby out with the bathwater.) I guess the incumbent slate (now ex-) can rejoice that they're leaving their successors a financial mess, but I don't think anyone else in Menlo Park can.

I was actually stunned, although I probably shouldn't have been, that so many people across the country still voted for Bush enablers. In any other western democratic country, a party affiliated with an awful leader like Bush would've lose at least half of its electoral base. In the US, the South is still solidly red with a few conservative Democrats winning locally and the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate are slim. In Red America, tens of millions of people still believe that we are in Iraq to fight terrorism and because Saddam was behind 9/11. Many regions in this country are still incredibly uninformed, insulated from modernity and the outside world, backward, xenophobic and ignorant. This might enable a future undemocratic, emperial leader ala George Bush to make another attempt to subvert the Constitution and move this republic toward the dark ages.

I was surprised Carol Brouillet didn't win.

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