The Election of 06

Today has been a huge day in Politics. The results of Tuesday’s elections are being finalized and changes are being made.
For starters the Democratic Party has gained a majority in the house with 229 members, a large gain of 25 for them. In the Senate, the Democrats gained five new members, and are currently awaiting the results of Virginia- a very close race with a tiny .3% lead for the Democratic challenger. But with that said, the .3% equates to approximately 7,200 votes, so it may be highly likely that the Democrats will also take the Senate. This means a shift in power, and hopefully a change in policies for the final two years of Bush's office. It also brings more of a balance in power, having a republican president and a democratic senate and house seems pretty fair and balanced.
In other political news, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld retired from his position today. I think this might have risen out of the fact that Bush and Rumsfeld have noted that with a shift of American votes to the left, we all want to see changes implemented, and perhaps many of us don't agree with what's happening abroad. All of this is extremely interesting and hopefully bring some changes to our countries politics.
On a smaller scale I have to say I'm pleased with the failure of measure 43 in Oregon, but am somewhat disheartened that so many bans on same sex marriages passed. Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Tennessee and South Carolina had a staggering 81% and 78% in favor, respectively, while most others were closer to the 50% mark. Either way, I disagree, and that is that. Marijuana is still illegal, and parental notification (the measure I spoke of above) didn't pass anywhere else. Also, stem cell research is allowed in Missouri, in part I'm sure, because of Michael J. Fox and his campaign with Claire McCaskill who also won a spot in Senate.

Some interesting visuals I came across in the NY Times displayed the differences from this election season and past. A few large differences were.


and so on...but pretty interesting how dramatic the differences are over six years.
So that's what I think people should be reading about, the elections, what's going on, and how changes are going to affect us.