The Karl Rove Machine began leaking "Iraq" as raw meat to the predatory press -- who will fall for anything if it means ratings, by the way. Bush, vacationing at the Crawford Ranch while pretending he wasn't thinking about Saddam Hussein, let the media become the peoples' mouthpiece. [The GOP wanted war. The Democrats who didn't were too timid to dissent. By late October, the only Democrat to practice his conscience was Sen. Paul Wellstone.]

In September, when Andrew Card was asked why Iraq hadn't been put on the table sooner said, "Because you don't introduce new products in August. You introduce them in September."

I can only conclude, based on Card's remark, that an Iraq war is Bush's remedy for correction of his wreckless mismanagement of the U.S. economy (the tech bubble burst at the end of Clinton's two terms cannot be blamed solely on the Democrats) rather than a defense of the people against terrorism. Bush has spent the U.S.'s surplus and now has us in debt. This took less than two years. Again, September 11th cannot be blamed. Bush simply took the money and allotted it to the upper strata of American society. The $300 "rebate" single people such as myself received went to the light bill and the gas bill. Or, as Al Gore said during Campaign 2000, you get one extra Diet Pepsi every week and a half.

After August 2002, issues that matter to the American people disappeared off the human radar:

• An affordable prescription drug plan for seniors;

• Affordable health care and medical insurance for the 41.5 million Americans who have nothing. Most of them are employed.

• The economy (not that Bush's wreckless tax cut for the upper 1% of the population helped drain the surplus, right?);

• Women's rights -- Bush is hellbent on appointing right wing activist judges who will assist him in finding a case that will eventuate in an overtuning of Roe v. Wade;

• Real corporate Reform -- Harvey Pitt, head of the SEC is "the fox guarding the hen house";
  11-2-02

  "SEC chief losing White House favor Sources: Pitt may be forced out as new search begins"

  "White House support for SEC Chairman Harvey L. Pitt was deteriorating, Republican sources said."

  "WHITE HOUSE officials were said to be exasperated that Pitt’s handling of the appointments had created a political crisis for President Bush days before midterm elections that could determine which party controls Congress. These sources said the White House is considering asking Pitt to step down, or allowing him to resign, after the elections." MSNBC

  [We can thank Harvey Pitt for something, anyway.]

• Jobs! The unemployment rate has risen to 5.7% according to today's Washington Post. September 11th is not the sole cause of this. Layoffs are continuing in the thousands. Some are because of Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, and now, perhaps, Martha Stewart. “FOR EIGHT YEARS, we had jobs. Now we get a tax-cut check, but the economy is sinking," . . . “It seems like the Republicans get back in office, and out come the limousines" MSNBC;

  U.S. economic growth is close to stalling

  "Earlier this week, consumer confidence plunged to its lowest level in nine years..."

  "The Labor Department said the nation's unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent last month while the total number of payroll jobs fell by 5,000. That follows a 13,000 drop in September. The total number of hours worked also fell, and the number of people looking for work but unable to find it rose by more than 100,000, to 8.1 million." Wash Post

• Raising the minimum wage. Bush still thinks that paying the poor slightly more for hauling his trash will destroy the U.S.'s economy. [Bad for bidness when bidness has to behave humanely];

• The environment -- global warming, which Bush thinks is "fuzzy science" is fuzzily revealing extinction of species and the break-up of the ice shelf in Antarctica;

• Toxic spills and the ruination of Americas streams and lakes by renigade, deregulated corporations. This is one of Bush's favorites. His environmental philosophy is akin to that of James Watts': "Might as well use it all up now. We'll be dead someday anyway;" and

• The lower income levels in America will pay higher taxes to clean up the toxic waste dumped by corporations such as Monsanto, et al., into our streams and lakes.

The Race for the Senate CNN

Arkansas: Close race for Tim Hutchinson
Colorado: Same Old Crap
Georgia: GOP Hopes to Win
Iowa: Harkin in Close Race
Minnesota: Mondale in for Wellstone
Missouri: Tight for Jean Carnahan. One of the tightest in USA
New Hampshire: Sununu (R) v. Shaheen (D). If Shaheen loses, it may mean Dems lose control of Senate!
North Carolina: Liddy Dole vs. Bowles
South Carolina: Strom Thurmond gets embalmed Lindsey Graham and Alex Sanders contend for the seat
South Dakota: Daschle's home state Bush v. Daschle? Who wins the Senate seat -- Thune (R) vs. Johnson (D)?

Conventional wisdom has it that the Republicans will maintain the house, the Democrats will keep the Senate by a very slim margin, and JEB Bush will beat Bill McBride in Florida's hotly contested governor's race.