You know, I'm just as excited about the Democratic turn-over in the House and Senate as the next guy.  It's an historic turning point in our nation's history and it isn't a fluke.  The ranks of the disaffected will only grow larger between now and 2008 as more and more of the consequences of the Republicans' failed policy affect the lives of more and more people.

But, in the words of Mr. Wolf, "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks quite yet."

In spite of whatever gains we are going to see in Congress come January, there is still the urgent matter of Iraq.   

Much of Baquba, a provincial capital of 400,000, is now dusty and lifeless, with boarded-up stores and charred wrecks of cars and trucks strewn about.

“Baquba is a dead city, controlled by Al Qaeda,” said Sameerah Shibli, a Diyala journalist. “They stop all life.”

Security has sharply deteriorated in this province of 1.4 million people in the past year, for reasons that go well beyond the sphere of General Shakir. The sectarian violence that exploded in Baghdad, after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, has spread like a contagion to other regions.

Shiite death squads in Baghdad have forced many Sunnis to flee to Baquba, 35 miles to the north, where some have joined the insurgency and have begun attacking Shiites.

(snip)

The growing militia presence combined with the sectarian turn by Iraqi commanders will increasingly leave the Sunnis with only one source of protection, Colonel Jones (commander of US troops in Diala province) said: terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Ansar al-Sunna.

“We are really painting them into a box here,” he said. “If you want to have a fight for the next 20 years, it’s here. I can’t imagine anybody who has seen war who wants that to happen. It’s the innocents, it’s these farmers out here, it’s these kids who pay the price. But these interests are colliding and they don’t care about that. Power is what they’re going after, consolidated and uncontested political power.”

“I think the sectarian war is coming this way,” he added.

Gosh.   Did he just say, "Power is what they’re going after, consolidated and uncontested political power.”?  Does that remind you of any discredited former Boy Geniuses we know?  At least over here the "permanent majority" has been indefinitely postponed.  But, I suppose if one-party rule is good enough for Josef Stalin and Tom DeLay, it's good enough for Anbar Province.

Yeah, there are some huge, glaring elephants in the room around here that need to be addressed as quickly as possible.  I'm excited about the election too but while we've been giddily celebrating all week, more men and women in our nation's service are dying or coming home wounded to no medical care, no jobs, no place to live.

It's Veterans' Day and we need to understand that we're making more veterans every day.  We need to continue to pressure the media and our elected officials to see to it that our enlisted men and women have the protections and support they deserve, both in and out of combat.  The GOP has been using our military as a prop, a backdrop for speeches, while inadequately supplying them for war and neglecting them and their families as soon as the cameras stop rolling.  Our troops deserve better than that.  

So as we are savoring our recent victories, I believe that our jubilation should be tempered with the knowledge that a great deal of work and struggle lie ahead.  There will be hard decisions and the evil bastards who created this mess are going to be more than willing to lay any missteps and catastrophes at our feet going forward.

Still, it is good to know that we have at least started down the road to reparation.

(I didn't realize that Pach and I were both using Blondie songs tonight, but hey, why not run with it?)