But I digress..... the challenges faced by this We The People's Congress are huge. The obvious immediate problem is Iraq. Clearly we need to disengage from that entire region as quickly as possible -- but because of the disastrous policies of the Bush administration there are clearly no good or even OK solutions. Regardless of how bad that whole situation ends, hopefully the American people will understand that We The People did the best we could, given the mess that we where handed by Bush et al.

And right after that, and closely related as well, is this double-headed monster of our economic dependence on oil along with the problems of global warming which are a direct result of that dependence. After all, the war in Iraq has always been about oil -- even Bush Himself has begun admitting as much over the last several weeks. Leaving the MidEast to the people of the MidEast, as we must surely do, will leave us undoubtedly vulnerable to oil shortages and high prices. But is that really so bad? We know that in the long-term we must do without oil anyway -- heck, there won't be any of it left in the world in the not too distant future -- so why not start cutting back now while there's still some oil left? And given the added benefit of what converting to other energy sources will do to help with global warming, this seems like the ultimate no-brainer. A "twofer" if you will.

And then we have all these other little "minor" problems -- like a sky-rocketing national deficit, a looming health care crisis, potential nuclear crises with Iran and North Korea and Lord knows who else, and of course the real "war on terrorism" which has now been virtually totally neglected for six years. And oh yes -- there's the issue of restoring the right of habeas corpus, and also once again making torture illegal. And how about doing something with these insane "signing statements" that Bush uses to basically declare himself a dictator who can do whatever he wants regardless of what We The People say? The more you think about all the damage wrought on this country and it's Constitution over the last six years, the more it boggles the mind.

Finally, let's not forget that in just two short years we go through this whole process again, but this time the White House itself will be up for grabs. Don't think for a moment that this ugly beast that calls itself the Republican Party is going to go quietly in to the night. Elections are still very much determined by money, and corporate America is likely not going to be too pleased with what this next Congress does in the way of taking power from them and returning it to We The People, the rightful owner. Plus corporate America still controls the national media, and let's not forget everything the media did to undermine the campaigns of Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. Indeed, the disgraceful coverage of Kerry's blown joke right before this election should be a grim reminder of just how corrupt the media still are.

So let's not forget that while we go about fixing everything that has been ruined over the last six years, we still need to keep an eye on these scum bags. It's going to be require an incredible amount of work -- let's all hope that this Congress is up to it.