The media does not have a political agenda. It is not liberal, it is not conservative. It is simply to make money.

All of the networks are like that, even FOX. Now, Fox "News" does in fact, deliver the "news" with a right-wing slant. But the point of that isn't nearly as much to further Rupert Murdoch's right-wing agenda as it is about making him extreme amounts of money. Murdoch is making a killing on a market where he is the only product - the market for the nightly news to be delivered exactly as the Dumb People wanted it to be, just so it made all of the pieces of the story they had been sold by FNC to the audience.

The Nightly News didn't make sense. I thought America was a place where nobody was above the law and we aren't supposed to be the people locking other people up without seeing a lawer or torturing, and yet here we are on the News doing it. FNC said, "Don't worry. We ARE the greatest country in the world. You see, the truth is, it doesn't matter if you lock people up without a warrant and torture them, because that's not really important. What's really important is that YOU are safe." That made the DP feel safe. That made their mental picture of the world fit the information coming into them. They report, and you decide...exactly what they want you to decide, and exactly what you wanted to decide the whole time.

But what they really wanted was they wanted their market to want to watch it. And all they have done is made the product that would be a monopoly in a huge market. How nobody else has stepped in to fill the void in the liberal end of that audience is beyond me. The possibility for an audience is tremendous. First of all, you have all of the pissed off liberals who have been forced to choose between FNC and a load of other news stations that were, in the glorious tradition of major corporations everywhere, trying to make a carbon copy of the product which was the most successful, rather than making the connection that, oh yeah, there is a mirror market which is currently UN-FUCKING-TAPPED. And it's not like there isn't proof the goddam thing would be a cash cow: for chrissake, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are only the two hottest goddam shows on TV right now. If you are under 40, you watch TDS and The Colbert Report, regardless of your political ideaology. And if you're a liberal, you don't miss an episode - you'll DL it if you have to.Comedy Central claims The Daily Show has a nightly audience of 1.7 million voters, whereas Bill O'Reilly has over 2 million. That seems like a win for O'Reilly, but when you factor in the fact that TDS originally airs at 11:00, which is too late for many people, who usually watch the show's rerun the next night at 8 or download the show off the internet, it's plain that TDS's audience is much bigger than O'Reilly's audience (and, it turns out, are more knowledgeable than O'Reilly's and better educated, too). Imagine a whole news network devoted to this the way FNC is devoted to the right.

The Conservative claim that the other networks are liberally bent is ludicrous, and especially now, that all the other networks are doing their FOX impressions. Watch the Daily Show - that is the news with a liberal bent. CNN is NOTHING like the Daily Show. Wolf Blitzer has been neutered a long time ago. The media has found a picture that sells well, and it does its best to sell that picture. And it sells whatever it thinks will sell best. Sometimes that means it delivers the liberal bent, but more often than not, it means the conservative view point, since it's the conservative viewpoint that is doing so well on FOX. A liberally bent news network would be better run, receive more favorable reviews, be more influential, and make more money than FNC. Imagine TDS and The Colbert Report times 24 hours. Why George Soros isn't all over this is beyond me. And don't give me "Air America". I don't know a single liberal who listens to political talk radio DURING THE DAY. Most of the time they're busy at their, ummmm, jobs. I can't think of an idea any worse than to try and counter the Repub's dominance of talk-radio. Most of us have advanced to more modern methods of communication, like TV or the internet.

CNN.com is reporting that Conrad Burns has conceded and that George Allen is going to concede. So, if anyone was still waiting for everything to become official, there it is. Both Houses are ours.

That said, let's look at what we have won.

The House:

DK has the Dems taking 234 House seats, which is almost 54% of the Chamber. Nancy Pelosi will be the Speaker of the House. Winning the House was crucial. It was imperative to break the Republican Rubber Stamp machine, and the Democrats could claim somewhat of a mandate, since the House (unlike the Senate) was having elections in every part of the country.

The Senate:

The Democrats (or sympathetic Independants) have 51 seats in the Senate, which makes Harry Reid Majority Leader. This one wasn't as important for the Democrats as it was for the Republicans not to lose. The Democrats already had the House, which is enough to disrupt the proceedings in Washington. Also, factoring in which seats were up for grabs, the prospects of Democratic victory in that chamber were slim. That being said, the Democrats did win, and now they have put themselves in exceptional position, both for the next two years (bicameral cooperation will mean more effective investigations, the opportunity to pass identical legislation, etc - and the fact that they control all of Congress, rather than just one chamber, means that they have what W. referred to as "political capital" in '04), and for 2008. The 2008 Senate seats which are up for grabs are much more favorable for the Democrats to make pick-ups than this one. There could be on the upwards of 60 Democratic Senators after '08. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The Republicans, of course, still have the Big Prize - the White House. But the White House has had its support network cut out from under it. For the first time in his Presidency, George W. Bush is going to have to make good on his promises to reach out to members of both parties.

CBSnews.com is calling the Montana Senate race for Tester. Webb leads Allen in Virginia, but that is technically too close to call and a recount is almost certain. The Democrats neeeeeeeeed this last seat if they are to control the Senate.

In other news, Donald Rumsfeld is resigning. Rummy was, perhaps, the worst Secretary of Defense we have ever had, certainly the worst in my lifetime. I would imagine Bush will try to push his latest guy through the Republican Senate that still exists.

Right now, I'm so happy, I can't believe it. I'll update this post throughout the afternoon/evening.

EDIT: It's all over. The Democrats have taken the Senate. Hey, Senator Allen: Welcome to Loserville, Population: You, Asshole!

The victory is now complete. We have the House, the Senate, the majority of Governorships, and in 23 states we have the majority in both houses of the state legislatures. The Democrats are a one-party government (i.e., they control both houses of the legislature & the Governorship) in 15 states, the most either party has controlled sicne 1994, the year of the Republican Revolution.

No more stressing, no more counting votes, no more worrying about recounts (well - not for the whole party - although there are still a few House races that need to be finalized). The battle is over. We have met the enemy, and they are ours.

Well, well, well.

What a beautiful sight to come home to. Now I know how the Red Sox fans felt when they beat the Yankees in the ALCS in '04. We never beat these fuckers, not in an election anyway (as I mentioned previously, we always get our way eventually, of course). But this - this was as close to complete dominance as you can get. Let's go to the Senate first.

The Senate is tied 98-98, with two races still too close to call (those races, as I predicted in my personal blog, are Virginia and Montana). The Democrats came into tonight needing to win 12 of 13 "key races" - races that were expected to be close that would decide Senate control. 7 were Republican-held seats, or potential pick-ups: Montana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, Tennessee, and Missouri. 6 were Democratic-held seats, or potential losses: Maryland, New York (although I have no idea how they thought Hillary Clinton could possibly lose), New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington. If the Democrats held their own down and stole 6 Repub seats, the Senate is theirs.

The Democrats did hold all six seats. Cardin (Maryland), Clinton, Menendez (New Jersey), Stabenow (Michigan), Klobaucher (Minnesota), and Cantwell (Washington) all won re-election (except in Cardin's case, where he won the race to replace retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes - a finer Senator there has never been; quietly, Maryland had my favorite delegation in the Senate - and not just because they were mine...Sarbanes and Mikulski are/were two of the Senate's most likeable AND most liberal Democrats. The party should/should have showcase/d them more).

Of the 7 Republican seats, the Republicans have won, as I write this, one seat. Harold Ford, Jr. has lost the Tennessee race, which is disturbing, becuase his opponent (some asshole named Corker) ran the most overtly racist ad I have ever seen. It made Willie Horton look damn tame by comparison. But that's Tennessee, for you. Fucking assholes.

Rhode Island went to Whitehouse (if that's not the name ofd a potential Presidential Candidate then I don't know what is! - ok, ok, so I'm sure that joke has been made 1,000 times, I don't care). Pennsylvania went to Casey (hey, Rick Santorum: Welcome to Loserville, Population: You, Asshole!), Ohio to Brown (who will now be one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate - and he's from fucking Ohio! And they can't get rid of him for 6 whole years!), and Missouri to McCaskill.

In Virginia, with over 99% of precints reporting, Jim Webb leads George "Macasshole" Allen by 8,000 votes with over two million, three hundred-thousand votes counted (John Kerry, I want to punch you in the balls, right now). In Montana, with over 84% of precints reporting, Conrad Tester leads Charles Montgomery Burns (ok, so his first name isn't Charles Montgomery, but it should be!) by 4,000 votes with about three hundred-thousand votes counted (some guy named Jones is the Libertarian Candidate with over seventy-five hundred votes! I could kiss that guy! You gotta love the Libertarians...with all the talk about how the Greens screw the Democrats come election time, no one ver talks about how the Libertarians are almost guaranteed to cost the Republicans at least one state-wide election every cycle). So both races are leeeeeeeeeeaning our way, but not by very much. We would be extremely lucky to win both, IMHO.

But then on the other side - amazing things happened for the Democrats all night. Maybe it will again. Maybe it will, maybe it won't...we'll see soon enough. But in the meantime, I REALLY want to punch John Kerry in the balls.

As for the House - well, I can't wait for the 2007 State of the Union, when we get to hear, "Madam Speaker, the President of the United States!) for the first time. Who could possibly be a better Speaker than Nancy Pelosi? I can not wait.

227 Democrats, possibly as many as 244 (or, more realistically, in the 235-240 range). Not a single Democrat incumbent went down yet, although there are still some in races too close to call. Fortunately, we don't need to wait to see who has this House - 218 is majority.

Shit is going to be different, now. I hope you're ready for 2 years of investigations into every corrupt thing the Republicans have been doing the last 6 years. Enron, Jack Abramhoff, the page scandal - it's on like Donkey King. It's all coming out, baby - and motherfuckers are going to be taken out of Capital Hill in goddam handcuffs before this shit is done. You know that war President Bush has been planning for Iran? Not gonna happen now. Those ridiculous tax cuts he wants to give out to his buddies? Not anymore. No-bid contracts for Haliburton? The jig is up. It doesn't even matter, really, who controlls the Senate - although taking control would be nice, especially for when 2008 rolls around. The Democrats control just enough of Congress so that the President's rubber stamp machine has been broken.

What a great night for the minimum wage! 6 states had "raise the minimum wage" initiatives, propositions, or potential ammendmants, and those props are 6-0.

Ok, as soon as I hear anything about the 2 remaining Senate races I'll fill you in immediately. Till then...

I voted for Ted Kennedy today.

It was a weird feeling, voting for the first time for a Democratic icon, someone who had been a political hero of mine since I was a kid. Someone, indeed, my mother had voted for many years ago. True, Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski are also political heroes of mine, but they aren't icons the same way Kennedy is.

I also voted for Governor-elect Deval Patrick, the first African-American Governor in Massachusetts history. Congrats, Gov!

In other news, as I write this the Democrats control Ohio - albeit two years too late. We have taken both the Senate seat up for grabs as well as the Governor's mansion. Also, New Jersey Senator Menendez was re-elected, and Bob Casey has defeated Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania. CNN.com is reporting victories for Whitehouse in Rhode Island and Cardin in Maryland. Debbie Stabenow in Michigan, Amy Klobuchar in Minnesota, Hillary Clinton in New York - winner, winner, winner. So, so far, we're 8 for 8 in the Senate races we really wanted to win. We'll see how that shapes up as the night goes on.

CNN.com is now giving the win to Governor-elect Martin O'Malley. Way to go Maryland! Also projected winners: Governor's Jennifer Granholm in Michigan, Edward Rendell in Pennsylvania, and Bill Richardson in New Mexico, along with Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer in New York.

First dissapointment of the night: Lieberman retains his Senate seat. It sucks, but he still counts as a Democrat.

As I leave for work, CNN.com projects the Democrats to pick have picked up 4 seats of the needed 15, with many, many competitive races remaining. The Dems have 3 of the 6 needed Senatorial pick-ups, with close races still to go in Missouri, Montana, Virginia, and Tennessee. We'll see how it all shakes up in a few hours.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is my morning rant. That's usually on the main blog, but I don't want to tell people who to vote for on that blog - that's for this blog! And, please, Repubs, if you don't read a single other post on my blog, just read this one and ask yourselves the following questions:

Why are you a Republican? Because whatever your reason is, the people you elect don't believe in it, unless you are extraordinarily wealthy. Whatever other reason you may believe in it, you either believe because they told you to believe it, or because of some deep-seated passion that you have which I promise you they don't care about. Are you religious? Well, they're not. Not a single one of them is. Didn't you see the guy on the Colbert Report who was DEMANDING that the 10 Commandments be put up in the legislature, but then was unable to name the Commandments himself? I can name all 10 Commandments, and I don't subscribe to any of the faiths they cover! You have to be somebody who cares about "Christian" values less than I do (I happen to follow Christian - not "Christian" - values very closely, however, because Kant's Categorical Imperative is basically just an extension of Christianity's Golden Rule, which is rarely followed by anyone who wraps themselves in the cloak of "Christianity" these days...sorry kids, that's the fact), as an unbeliever. And yet they sell themselves as pious.

Do you like them because they hate gays? Hey - some of these people ARE gay. In fact, it's the ones who are themselves the most outwardly homophobic who turn out to be the ones who are inviting male prostitutes to dinner and playing grabass with the cute fella interning. Once again, how can you buy anything any of these people say? And for that matter, where are Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell, condemming Rep. Foley for his behavior? These are supposed to be people who believe that gays and lesbians caused God to let 9/11 happen, but a Republican Representative spends his idle time hitting on a 16 year old page over IM (Imagine how pathetic that is; what's that conversation like? "I want your big hard-on in my mouth" "OMG! LOL!!! ;* ;)" ...and you are beating off to that? Fuuuuuuuucked up...) and Republican House Leadership covers it up for years, and these guys don't have anything to say on the subject? If a Democrat did this, they would be all over your TV 24-hours a day. Hell, they castigated Clinton non-stop when his relationship was with a consenting adult of the opposite sex. Isn't this supposed to be enough for God to, like, turn them into a pillar of salt, or something? Hypocrites, the whole lot of them. They don't believe as you do - they pretend to. They beat their chests and they sponser legislation that will never pass and that would be struck down immediately even if they did...but when push comes to shove, what have they done to promote the anti-Gay or "Christian" agenda? Prayer in schools? Nope. Banning gay marriage? For now they have most of the country still, but not for long, and you all know it. Private school vouchers (if you don't think that's a big item on the "Christian" Right agenda, you're off your meds)? No way. The Republicans that beat their chests for the "Christians" are doing so only because they know they are fighting battles that they will never, ever, be able or allowed to win.

Do you hate affirmative action? Let me ask you a question - have you ever seen an organization that caters to its black employees as the Republican Party? Any black person in the Republicans gets skyrocketed through the ranks regardless of qualifications. Lynn Swann? He's running for Governor of Pennsylvania, even though he isn't remotely qualified to hold that kind of a post. Colin Powell was given a high-profile job he clearly wasn't prepared for, and then they gave it to Condalezza Rice, who clearly wasn't qualified for the last, lower-profile job she had, let alone Secretary of Goddam State! They flew motherfucking lunatic Alan Keys out to Illinois to run for Senate against Barak Obama - ignoring all kinds of locally grown, young, white politicians - just because he was black. And you think they actually hate affirmative action as much as you do? And I'll give you another clue. The Repubs have been in uninterrupted, continuous power for 4 solid years. During not a single session were they not able to get anything through they didn't actually believe in. And affirmative action is still there. Do you think, if the Republicans you elect REALLY wanted it gone, it would still be there? Really?

What HAVE the Republicans been able to force through? Well, they have shortsightedly given over extreme amounts of power to the executive, because they believe the executive is going to be prepetually a Republican, apparently. So, they believe in that - that they should have absolute power for all-time. And they have drastically lowered income taxes on the obscenely wealthy while throwing tablescraps at the rest of us, so clearly they believe in that - that extremely wealthy people ( i.e., them) should be allowed to sit around all day and count their money, even though they have vast hordes of it, there is a finite amount out there, and some people really, really need the money they are wiping their ass with.

Those are the core values of the Republican Party. All the rest of it is just mumbo-jumbo. And you know that is the case because in 4 years, that is all the Republicans have accomplished: terrorizing us into giving up all our rights and eliminating taxes on themselves.

The Republicans only REAL constituency is the Super Rich. Not the moderately wealthy, not the middle class. Just the Super Rich. Only themselves. If you are not one of them (and you are not - believe me you are not. Unless Paris Hilton is on her computer reading random blogs right now, you are not the Super Rich; you are NOT the people who the pundits are talking about when they say, "the top one percent". And you will never be in the top 1 percent. Do you realize how insanely hard it is to be in the top 1% of anything? I got a 1420 on my SATs and that got me in the top 5%. The odds are twice as good that you'll be as smart you'll need to be to join Mensa - top 2% - as they are that you'll land among the richest of the rich) they don't care about you. In fact, they hold you in contempt. If you saw a beautiful heiress in a bar and tried to get her number, she would sick her bodyguards on you so fast you wouldn't know where they all came from.

And you don't like the Super Rich. I know this, because you told me. You hated how Paris Hilton got her first pay check on the Simple Life and wondered aloud what it was or what she did with it. You hated her for that. And yet, here you are, doing the dirty work so that you can cut her taxes. Allow her to inhereit the entire kingdom so that one day she, too, can file her nails all day with a golden nail file, feeding her dog $5000 a can imported dogfood from France, while American children go hungry on the streets. And her kids, who will be as obnoxious as she is, if not worse, because they were raised by her, as opposed to her father, who at least did something with his life, will get the same privilege, and their kids, and their kids, and theirs.... Meanwhile, the rest of us, we'll be trying to get what little they let out of their hands. That is the Party you support. That is what you enable.

There are many Republicans - people just like yourselves, who have come to this conclusion themselves, and have jumped the ranks. People like Jim Jeffords, David Brock, Ariana Huffington, etc. Ask them and they will tell you: "I was once like you. I thought as you thought and believed as you believed. But I have since seen what the Republican Party is all about and seen the glorious contrast the liberals offer. And they are accepting. As soon as you admit that you were wrong, they won't rub it in your face or cast upon you with suspiscion. They will gladly accept you into their ranks." We're like St. Louis Cardinal fans - once you come over to our side, you'll never want to go back.

So, before you go to the voting machine and pull the lever for whoever is sporting an R next to their name, ask yourself, "Why am I doing this? What good has this ever done me? Why does it seem none of the people I elect go and do the things they promise me they'll do? Why are the same religious leaders that are telling me to vote for Jesus's Candidate also telling me, or other voters like me, that Jesus's Candidate had working knowledge of the Foley scandal years ago, and, rather than acting on the behalf of the kids working as Congressional Pages, or in the name of the Lord, didn't blow the whistle but, in fact, actively attempted to cover the matter up? Isn't it possible I need to rexamine really why I am a Republican at all?

I promise you, when you see the world in a whole new way, and the possibilities the future holds to make life better, not worse, you'll understand why you are here - both in this Party and on this Earth.

Bill Mahr told the Democrats how to run Friday Night. He did such a brilliant job that I'm just gonna type the transcript here:

1. When they say "Democrats will raise taxes", you say, "We have to, because someone spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton's taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden. In just 6 years the National Debt has doubled. You can't keep spending money you don't take in. That's not even elemenatry economics, that's just called 'don't be Michael Jackson.'"

2. When they say "The terrorists want the Democrats to win", you say, "Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorist's wet dream. He inflames radical hatred against America and then runs on offering to protect us from it. It's like a guy throwing shit on you and selling you relief from the flies."

3. When they say "Cut-and-run" or "Defeat-o-crats", you say "Bush lost the war, period. All this nonsense, this nonsense about the violence is getting worse over there because they're trying to influence the election; no, it's getting worse because you drew up the post-war plans on the back of a cocktail napkin at AppleBees. And of course Democrats WANT to win, but that's impossible now that you've ethnically cleansed the place by making it unliveable. Just like you did with New Orleans."

4. When they say that actual combat veterans like John Kerry are denigrating the troops, you say, "you're completely full of shit." Remember when Al Gore caught all that flack for sighing and moaning during that debate? Yeah, don't do that. Just say, "you're full of shit." If I was a troop, the support I would want back home would mainly come in the form of people pressuring Washington to get me out of this pointless nightmare. That's how I would feel supported. So, when they say, "Democrats are obstructionists", you say, "You're welcome." Sometimes good people have to intercede to prevent dire consequences. You wouldn't like to think of me as an obstructionist, but what if Roseanne had offered to sing? So I would be happy to frame this debate as a fight between the obstructionists and the enablers. There's your talking point: "Vote Republican, and you vote to enable George Bush to keep ruling as an Emporer. A retarded-child Emporer, but an Emporer."

So Democrats, you've got four days to get out there and close. And it's not about slogans this time. Although, when it comes to slogans, the only one I'm prepared to accept from the opposition is, "The Republican Party: We're sorry."

Brilliant! I'll see you folks Tuesday with the Election Day coverage.

The John Kerry business swarmed the allegedly "liberal" media today, so much so that Senator Kerry finally conceeded and apologized for saying something he never said.

This is just another example of the Republicans brow-beating the Democrats over some fucking thing or another, until the Dems conceede defeat and try to move on. Kerry should have either apologized for the misinterpretation as soon as the story broke out and quelled it then, or he should have held his ground and made the point, in a concise manner, that this was the Repubs throwing feces until something stuck...again. Instead, what he has done is allowed this story to play out for an entire news cycle, and now he looks like an asshole for riding the high horse for all the time he did it. In politics, either you are right, or you are wrong, and by apologizing, Kerry is conceeding that he was wrong, when he did nothing wrong. Handing out political victories to Republicans on the eve of elections is another reason the Democrats rarely win.

Fortunately, though, this year is different. The twisting of Senator Kerry's words isn't going to help Chafee or Santorum or Burns. And the House races are so locked up it's not funny. The Democrats are at least taking the House, and could very well be grabbing the Senate, and not a goddam thing the Repubs can do now, short of outright voter fraud, is going to change that.

But at some point, the faces of this party are going to have to change. Not Kerry, not Hillary, not Gore or Lieberman - not any of those people who have been failing us for years. It's time for the Democrats to bring some new star power to the forefront, and be the party of innovation once again.