Illinois - 14

The Republican congressional district of IL-14, former Speaker of the House Denny Hasterts seat of power for 21 years and a comfortable 56% supporter of Bush in '04 falls into Democratic hands. Nice job Mr. Foster!

The major issues for the constituents of IL-14, the war in Iraq - they hate it - SCHIP - they are appalled at Republican intransigence and BubbleBoys repeated vetos - the economy - what the hell is going on? And, Obama - they like him and they liked that he showed his support for Mr. Foster.

Basically, old school republicans are rejecting the fallacies of neocon Bush rule. It was bound to happen, if we look at the last seven turgid years of Bush rule and the, almost, 14 years of uninterrupted republican control of congress as a petry dish for conservative 'values' we see the markers for an administration and deliberative body consumed by power, corruption, ineptitude, denial and idiocy.

From the disgrace of the Clinton witch-hunt of the nineties, the failures of this administration leading up to 9/11, the deregulation and cowtowing to corporate America, the implementation and ultimate corruption of the K-Street project, the 'I'm a uniter not a divider' obfuscation, the 'Compassionate Conservative' mendacity, the 'Faith Based Initiatives' attack on the separation of church and state, tax cuts for the rich, the stacking of the Supreme Court with right wing ideologues, the Terry Schiavo debacle, the war in Iraq and the bungling of the embarrasingly simplified notion of a global war on terror, the Katrina aftermath of indifference, tacit rascism and federal thumbsucking, the unconstitutional expansion of the unitary executive, the gutting of the Bill of Rights, the illegal spying upon Americans, the crushing of Habeas Corpus, the torture of prisoners some of whom have been released without charges, the institutional rascism and mysogeny of Trent Lott and his merry band of Islam/Asian/Gay/Anyone who doesn't agree with them haters, the disgusting attacks on Americans who oppose(d) the war as the unpatriotic, unAmerican, hate America first crowd, I believe there's more but I'm getting depressed thinking about it, these themes and policies have been perpetuated by a party of idealogues hell bent on repudiating and trashing the last 200 years of American history and progress and to what end?

We have an economy limping along and probably skidding into recession, we have had six years of war in Iraq with no end in sight and with their new candidate happily expecting 100 more years, (this is a war that we may end up spending $3 trillion on but what price security?) Apparently if we withdraw from Iraq we will end up paying more, I'd like to see the numbers associated with that spectacular piece of propaganda. We have $100+ a barrell oil with $4 a gallon gas predicted for the spring and Exxon breaking all records for corporate profits and ethanol, what the heck is with ethanol, it is perhaps the biggest pile of dung ever thrust upon an unsuspecting and obviously gullible nation. We have lost our moral and intellectual lead over the world, the dollar is in the tank, we have record trade deficits, record national debt, homeowners foreclosing at record numbers, an equity loss of perhaps $600 billion and counting, the creeping spectre of unemployment and a healthcare system that is draining not only the pocket books of ordinary Americans (if they can afford it) but is bleeding corporate America.

America... welcome to the sixteenth century republican world where the men eat meat and the women are barefoot and pregnant. A place where superstition, fear and greed drive, normally rational, people to acts of incredible stupidity.

Viva Mr. Foster, the normally rational people may have finally awoken from this collective, republican inspired, nightmare.