With a great amount of schadenfreude, I watched the "Great Republican Gasbag Airship" crash and burn last Tuesday, taking its captain and crew down with it. A few of their passengers, however, escaped to fly another day. The only question is what kind of craft will they board for future flights?

Will that craft have only a right wing, therefore causing it to corkscrew in for yet another crash? Or, will some sane Republican architect realize that the Republican party needs balance, i.e., two wings, to fly forward? That is the most interesting question.

For an answer, watch the Republican Party's efforts over the next few months closely; listen to the competing philosophies to get a clue, as well. Should the Southern base of the party win out, expect an even harder turn to the right with a dwindling number of Republicans aboard; should sane Republicans prevail (I know; "sane republicans" is oxymoronic!), then, the party has a chance to re-grow.

However, given the enormous grasp the Religious Right, et al, have on the Republican Party, expect them to, a la Charlton Heston at the N.R.A. convention, give control over to moderates "when they pry it from their cold, dead hands."

That day is fast approaching, imho, and my sense of schadenfreude waxes anew.

Bottom line: a reinvented Republican is still a Republican at heart...assuming they even have hearts. Even assuming they want to change, their core values are still suspect and their instincts are still vile and divisive. The tendency is to enjoy the schadenfreude as they twist slowly in the wind.

The Republican Party has a choice: drop the preachy and moralistic, Religious Right-based approach to politics and embrace the pragmatic middle-of-the-road way..or, remain ideologically isolated and continue to lose voters, influence and elections.

When Ronald Reagan embraced in 1980, for cold and calculated political reasons, the Moral Majority of Jerry Falwell, he made a deal with the Devil. The party lurched hard right because of it. That deal, imho, is the proximate and root cause of the defeat and debacle we all witnessed on Election Day.

So...whither the direction of the Republican Party? Will they opt to go back to being the Party of Lincoln or will they continue to be the Party of George Lincoln Rockwell instead? It's choice time, baby, and, given their history, I'm betting they lurch even farther to the right. Right down the toilet...

As a former Hillary supporter, I was won over to Obama's side and positions by his thoughtful and superbly nuanced ideas, hopes and plans for America. In this troubled time, his choices of various players from the Clinton Administration, along with newer choices, makes me even more confident that a President Obama will be an activist President, albeit a restrained one. That seems to be a good thing, imho.

Universal healthcare, the end to don't-ask-don't tell, freedom to mention ALL aspects of family planning in our worldwide outreach, stemcell research, no drilling in ANWR and many more are within the realm of possibilities/probabilities. However, governing from the center is smart, reasonable and will certainly bring more voters into the Democratic camp.

I'm willing to give the man...who was not my 1st choice for the job, but, was the man for whom I voted...the time and the backing he needs to accomplish the Herculean tasks confronting him. I have faith in him to have an agenda and a timeline that will make us Progressives happy...even if it takes his entire first term to accomplish.

Think about it: the "piously religious" among us continue to have an eerie and unsettling compulsion to zero in on anything sexual...ANYTHING!: Homosexuality, masturbation, pre-marital sexual relations, abortion, pornography, et al.

What a sad life they must lead looking down their collective noses at the rest of us. Their obsession with s-e-x is the reason I call 'em "Crotch Christians"; their motto is "If its between the navel and the knee, its bad for you and me." And, that uber-snide anti-anything-sexual group "Focus On The Family"? They should be renamed "Focus On The Fanny".

Remember that right-wing groups have always needed a scapegoat upon whom to lay blame and to further their own power: Hitler used the Jews, the Republicans used Communists and skinheads used and continue to use blacks. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the general recognition that anti-Semitism and racism are wrong, the pogroms against gays are the only "acceptable" group upon whom to heap hate without fear of retribution.

However, the times are a-changin', boys and girls. The scumbags who hide behind religion to mask their base and vile discrimination are being outed and castigated. Other measures of a stronger nature may stop it once and for all. Hey...look what happened when the Black Panthers, Weather Underground and others stopped taking crap from "the man"; the general populace took them seriously. Sometimes outrageous problems require outrageous solutions.

I'm just sayin'...

Is anyone really surprised at the treatment/mistreatment of Charles Graner? He's obviously being kept incommunicado by his detainers until Dubya and his coterie and clique of war criminals is out of the building. All one has to do is to remember that old adage about sh*t running downhill to understand why he is the designated fall-guy.

Under a just resolution of the horrors of Abu Ghraib, et al, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the conspiritors would be before a military tribunal or a civilian court at The Hague being tried on war crimes. THAT ain't gonna happen, however, so look for Charles Graner to remain right where he is...until after Bush's term expires. (Bush may commute his sentence as he's going out the door, but, he probably will not exonerate him.)

I'm sure that in the future, Charles Graner, and others, will write tell-all books enumerating the number and names of their superiors who not only encouraged their incivility but required it. Hopefully, justice will prevail...eventually.