What will America look like in eight years.  Here are my predictions.

After eight years under Hillary Rodham Clinton, America will look much like it did at the end of eight years of Bill Clinton: a prosperous economy with full employment, a decent level of environmental protection where it does not have potential to hurt the economy, no national health care, and no Clean Money, leaving lobbyists with enormous power.  No action will have been taken to erase the precedents set by an imperial presidency.

After eight years under Barack Obama, America will have a prosperous economy with full employment; under-represented minorities will be replaced by empowered minorities; the environment will be well protected; we will have seen some real steps towards worldwide nuclear disarmament; we will have mediocre national health care still dominated by for-profit insurance companies; we won't have national Clean Money, but lobbyists will have significantly reduced power; some steps will have been taken to erase the precedents set by an imperial presidency.

Continue reading to see my prediction for John McCain.

Rasmussen and Fox TV released a poll that says that 38% of Americans believe a depression (not just recession) is somewhat likely.

More interesting to me, they asked whether private companies, Congress, or the president has the most to do with creating new jobs. I find it amusing when pollsters ask for opinions on something that is purely factual. Only 5% got the right answer and said it is the president.

For the evidence that Democratic presidents create jobs, read on...

A common question is whether Rodham Clinton or Obama is more electable.

We commonly see nationwide general-election polls, but what really matters is the electoral vote.

Based on data from Survey USA that has been noted elsewhere, I provide a new way to analyze it and conclude
  Clinton currently would get 280 +/- 40 electoral votes
  Obama currently would get 299 +/- 51 electoral votes
Equivalently, there is an 87% chance that Obama currently leads McCain in electoral votes, and a 70% chance that Rodham Clinton leads McCain.

Read on for the analysis...

With the recent debate over the possibility of bringing back the Fairness Doctrine and Republican attempts to outlaw such a doctrine, it is important to look at what the Fairness Doctrine really is.

In the extended post, I discuss what the Fairness Doctrine is, what it would really mean for existing programs, its constitutional basis, and why we need it.

Is Governor Freudenthal (D-WY) actually required to pick a Republican to replace Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY)?

State law says so, but it may violate the U.S. Constitution.

Update: The opinions expressed in this diary have been backed up independently by University of California law professor Vikram David Amar writing for findlaw.com.  Professor Amar is also a former clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun.

The Seventeenth Amendment states, "the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct."

The U.S. Constitution thus gives the power to appoint exclusively to the "executive" of the state.  It is unconstitutional for state law to restrict the governor's choice.  The legislature cannot do the appointing itself, nor can it designate another party to make the choice for the governor.  The legislature can only choose to grant this power or not; they cannot restrict the power to appoint.

Continue reading to see a suggested letter to Governor Freudenthal.

Here are two action items on impeachment for Los Angeles residents.  Pass this on to anyone you know in Los Angeles.

This petition asks the Los Angeles City Council to consider a resolution to impeach Bush comparable to the one recently passed by Detroit:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/...

This form allows you to send a message to your Los Angeles City Council member to ask for support of an impeachment resolution:
http://www.usalone.com/...

Richard M. Mathews

I believe the U.S. Attorney scandal could get really, really big.

I will start with where I see this ending: Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson resign.  Co-conspirators are indicted.  Top administration officials resign or are impeached.

Why?  Continue reading to see more.

The media finally took a little bit of notice of the Republican practice of insulting the Democratic Party by refusing to use the correct name of the party.  To make a very tiny point that they don't think we are democratic, they instead incorrectly use Democrat as an adjective.

Media Matters has cited several media outlets that underplayed how often Bush has used Democrat as an adjective.  They praised a few for indicating this was not the first time.  The Washington Post said Bush did it "a lot," and the Los Angeles Times said that Bush did it 22 times in the past year.

Even that, though, is vastly underreporting what has been happening.

I have recorded 356 times that Bush has done this in 190 appearances as president.  That only counts times it has come from his own mouth -- I am not counting documents written by staff that appear on whitehouse.gov.

In 2006, Bush did this 170 times in 54 appearances.

Read below the fold for the list of all the cases I have documented.

My fellow Americans: The state of the union is awful.  Drastic measures are needed to take corrective action.

Read more below the fold on the measures we need to investigate wrongdoing by the Unitary Executive, to withdraw from Iraq, to counter global warming, and to enact Clean Money and the Fairness Doctrine.

Richard M. Mathews
RescueOurDemocracy.org

We must act as quickly as possible to start investigations that could lead to the impeachment of George W. Bush.

This is not about revenge. This is not to get Speaker Hastert or Speaker Pelosi elevated to President (in fact, I recommend only impeaching Bush, not Cheney). This is not a coup.

This is about setting a precedent that there is no such thing as a Unitary Executive.

... continue over the fold for the rest of the letter.

Democrats need only 15 seats to take control of the House.  By my calculations, the election will be a complete rout. I could be off by quite a bit, and Democrats still come out ahead.

Continue onward to see the calculations.

Once again, Scheer has shown why he is such a critical voice.  In today's column, Lying with Intelligence, we writes of DITSUM No. 044-02.  Here we have yet another smoking gun demonstrating impeachable offenses.

Read below the fold to save Scheer's job...

Robert Scheer is one of the most read proponents of our ideals.  He is one of the few voices in the mainstream media who has supported the impeachment of Bush.  Losing his liberal viewpoint from the Los Angeles Times would be a great setback for all liberals and for balanced media.

His most recent column (Nov. 1) was on how Judy Miller gave Bush the election by protecting those who were interfering with freedom of speech.

Visit his web page at the L. A. Times.  Let them see how many visitors he gets.  Use the "E-mail story" link to send his columns to friends.  See his latest column at
http://www.latimes.com/...
and see the archive of his older columns at
http://www.workingforchange.com/...

Then tell the Times to keep Scheer.  Tell them you like his columns and that you pass them to your friends.

Read below the fold to find out how to contact the Times...

Many have suggested that they should instead be named as unindicted coconspirators.  A careful examination of the issues shows that this is not necessary.

Bush and Cheney CAN be indicted.

Much more below the fold...