DCR, I think most Dems feel that you can only fight the battles you have control over, and that starts right at home. As for fighting to save the world, hopefully most Dems are realistic enough to know that the world is a dangerous and chaotic place, and I know I for one do not want to lay my life on the line in some internally violent country. It's sad, but at some point, you have to choose the battles you can win. We have to start by fighting for the battles that effect our national security. As for the comment about raising taxes to pay for welfare, I think you have to look at the numbers. Welfare and foreign aid make up only about 3% of our federal budget. Defense spending (mostly in the form of fat contracts to giant corporations like Boeing and Cheney's Halliburton) makes up 1/3 or our entire budget! It's not about tax and spending - it's about government going back to protecting the individual and society against the gross abuses of powerful interests. These companies are only doing what's in their best interest, but the consequences for us all often are bad. I hope things won't be too bad over the next few years, but let's face it: our national parks will be turned once again into timber factories, our budget deficit will mushroom under these tax breaks for millionaires and corporations, and conservative judicial appointments will scale back our rights. This is not just a fantasy. This is exactly what happend in the 1980s.

And Tiki: Gray Davis is a loser, and his handling of the energy "crisis" was a joke. But let's get the origins straight - the power scam was not Davis's, but rather the energy companies that cooked their books and scammed us all. Does Enron ring a bell? This is exactly what happens when the federal government looks the other way. Don't worry, they'll be much more of this type of thing to come.