Wampum

I say you'll be proven wrong on at least 2 items, but almost all have executive branch requirements for implementation. So we'll need a new Prez to do much of this w/o a Bush veto. Cheers, 'VJ'

Oh Yeah, both Tester AND Webb are more progressive than imagined by 'Mark'. I could make predictions on what the course will be, but we're going to be surprised. Pelosi is no Dick Gephardt. Harry Reid is no Tom Daschle. This is a very good thing, and a solid improvement. I'm sick and tired of all this 'woe is me' BS. Poverty sucks. It's a very tough problem, and an issue almost no one talks about anymore. Jim Webb is. John Tester is. If you're not part of the damn solution, you're part of the problem. Whining from the grandstands is no longer acceptable. Put your shoulder to the wheel and try and move something forward. Not to destroy in order to 'build' your perfect utopia, but to better things here and now, given the conditions we have or can change quickly. Small changes Can be significant over time, we've just got to start somewhere and keep with it. But enough of the whining! Decades of this crap is enough. You want change? Work for it? Sick of working for it? Immigrate or contribute your talents to a realistic plan for action and progressive change. Try and implement it some place first too. That would be useful in providing some real time test of your ideas.

But whining that an hours old hard fought majority cobbled together from a diverse coalition has not done 'x' or 'y', and has no specific plans for your numbered agenda items has got to be among the silliest and yet depressing things I've read all day. Really people, get a grip. This is not 1977. It's not even 1987, 1967 or 1957. This is the bottom of the well looking up. We need to rebuild, retool, and reeducate a generation. That's what needs to be done before much of anything 'big' moves. Oh yeah, we've got to stop an Imperial war too. Cheers, 'VJ'

Immigrants will still be shit on and labeled a "threat."

I was unaware this was going on now. I know a number of immigrants and they seem to be treated pretty well. In fact, we just celebrated at work because two of them became citizens.

Or are you conflating "immigrants" with illegal aliens?

VJ,

I agree that Mark erred on Tester. I'm willing to look at the current views of the former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, though he did vote for Bush in the '00 cycle, not Gore.

RonF,

The entry-to-citizen trajectories of IT workers and non-IT workers, are not identical, in the US, or Canada, or just about anywhere else for that matter.

I think there is a chance that a farm bill that's better than usual might come out of this. I'm going to be focusing on ag policy a lot in the coming year and I know other progressives will be, as well. We'll probably have a good ally in Tester and decent chances at pushing for ag sustainability if it can be tied successfully into energy independence issues, which are very popular with many freshmen and higher powered incumbents.

Hi Natasha,

Both parties have candidates who have the Iowa pledge problem. When I was doing farm policy research in Iowa and Michigan last summer the working farmers I spoke with gave me to understand that padding the corn market is one thing, and "good" for them, and farm policy is something much more layered, and with a vastly greater scope in many more dimentions than simply a few cents per at the elevator price.

I expect an ethanol bill, what I don't expect is a farm bill.

Things I've written elsewhere:
Editorial: Farm policy needs a new, green direction

Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels

I look forward to reading your work.