Isn't it obvious by now that some of the people advanced by political parties to be our leaders are either stupid or ignorant, or, like Ms. Palin, BOTH!

The neocon arm of the Republican Party has gone crazy with "reforming" our educational system by imposing "high stakes testing" on elementary and secondary school students, removing much of the joy of discovery and experimentation from curriculum as teachers relentlessly cram students' heads full of factoids.

It's time the tables were turned on the politicians. Each candidate for President or Vice-President should be required to take comprehensive tests on history, economics, geography, and science and their scores and responses should be made public. That way we would know which candidate didn't know where Uruguay is, how the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment, or what happens at the atomic level in the detonation of a nuclear weapon and what the ecological consequences of such a detonation would be. This is information we as voters need.

It appears the nation came very close to again placing an ignorant nitwit in high office. This is a risk we cannot afford to take.

Barak Obama won this election because despite McCain's strenuous protestations, most Americans could see that a McCain Administration would be in effect, Bush's Third Term (with a department store dummy replacing Darth Cheney in the VP slot). Americans see the world produced by the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration as trapping themselves, the nation, and the planet in a perpetually worsening cycle of poverty, fear, and violence. The votes for Obama were largely motivated by a desire to be rescued from the looming threats of unemployment, bankruptcy, war, and environmental degradation, to name a few.

1) We want our Constitution rescued from the shredder. We want our rights of privacy, habeas corpus, etc. restored and respected. We want our political leaders to follow the procedures specified in the Constitution: no more "signing statements", "unitary executive", or executive orders or legislation that contravenes or nullifies the Constitution.

2) We want our economy rescued from manipulative, overpaid CEOs and the corporate culture whose only creed is greed.

3) We want our health and domestic security rescued from health insurance companies that charge more and cover less every year.

4) We want our environment protected against ravenous exploitation and pollution. We want the conclusions of expert scientists respected and their recommendations taken seriously on environmental issues.

5) We want our educational system rescued and protected against the vicious high stakes testing program of the NCLB Act. We want colleges to be affordable again.

6) We want our nation to be rescued from the ongoing violence in the Middle East, where 100s of billion of dollars and thousands of lives have disappeared down the rat hole of Iraq, with no tangible benefit.

7) We want our national reputation rescued and the world to see us as a beneficial influence instead of a blustering bully that threatens and intimidates.

I think it is quite interesting that the New York Times has now come around to reporting this incident objectively. Does it have anything to do with the decline of the neocons in America?

The first few reports of the Georgian invasion told how units of the Georgian army had moved into disputed territory and commenced military operations. Within a few hours, as the Russian army responded in kind, the U.S. government sent out a howl of protest and framed the incident as an unprovoked invasion of Georgia by Russia. This view had major play in the media for several weeks. Time and time again, our editorial writers and politicians deplored the Russian aggression against a smaller, weaker, and U.S.-friendly nation. Those of us who had managed to read the first reports saw the hypocrisy in these complaints. Do doubt the United States would have responded to an attack on our soil by Guatemalan forces with equal severity.

The incident is instructive in the degree to which the U.S. mainstream media has largely ceased to offer criticism of the actions of our government or of its allies and has become instead a propaganda tool to assist in the imposition of an "official" view of things on the public, one of the prerequisites of totalitarian rule.

Jefferson was concerned throughout his life to actually keep the federal government small and solvent and to protect the rights of citizens. Reagan and both Bushes, but especially this last, have expanded the powers of the federal government to an unprecedented degree, plunged it deep into debt, and infringed upon and violated nearly every protection we are guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

The fact is that this country has not been run on Jeffersonian principles at since at least the 1920's.

I live in a highly Democratic state, so I had the "luxury" of voting for a third party candidate, secure in the knowledge that I was not jeopardizing my state's electoral votes which would otherwise have gone to McCain.

Senator Obama's omission of criticizing the methods of the Bush Administration made it impossible for me to support him. Should he repeat the pattern of the Bush Administration, using extra-Constitutional means like signing statements and executive orders to impose his will on the American people, I will have to oppose him and work for his removal from office as strenuously as I supported impeachment of Bush and Cheney over the last 5 years. A lot of people I know are starry-eyed over the President-elect, mesmerized by his charisma, investing in him their hope for a restoration of Constitutional government with legislative and judicial due processes that have lapsed in the Bush years. I see no evidence that he is committed to this goal. In fact, the announcement yesterday of his plan to continue using executive orders to accomplish what should rightfully be legislative ends shows a lack of understanding of this critical issue or a willful determination to proceed as the Democratic version of the "unitary executive".