I've been back in the U.S. close to 3 1/2 years. There is a lot that I could have commented on since I started this blog, but laziness, work, school and many other things have gotten in the way. We returned to the U.S. to find a Country digging itself full speed ahead into an economic mess and a political division because of an executive and legislative branch at extreme odds with each other. An electorate at a deep divide over the direction the country should take. Not to mention an incredibly ideologically divided media that increasingly relied on outrageous and grandstanding punditry to shrilly insult and demean the other side in order to acquire ratings and proclaim that they were the only ones that told the truth.

Wait. Am I talking about then or now? After the result of this year's mid-term elections, it really doesn't make a difference. This country is still in deep doo-doo.
I wonder if the Executive Branch and the incoming Republican dominated Congress will get the hint that what the people want is an attempt at good and sound governance, not the ideologically driven policies and legislation of the last few years (especially the last two). Well, it remains to be seen.

When we arrived summer of 2007 we found ourselves at the beginning of what would be a contentious presidential election. Both Obama and McCain were considered long shots back then. Still I don't think anyone could ever for see how it would turn out. Seriously, if somebody came up to you and said that the next president of the United States would be the most junior senator with only two years experience who had the most liberal voting record of all the senate; who spoke openly about redistribution of wealth and who was a member of a church for twenty years whose spiritual leader was at the least controversial and at the most was anti-American, racist and anti-Semitic, would you have believed me? And Sarah Palin, what an unbelievable miscalculation and mistake that was for McCain. After so many years of public service, she is going to be his legacy. That is pretty sad.

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. Weirdness abounds in elections. It's just gone more mainstream. Last election I voted for in Israel, a party called the Pensioners party whose only platform is to improve pensions for seniors won six seats in the Knesset—the Israeli parliament. It seems that this weirdness crossed over to the U.S. in the last presidential election and certainly to this year's mid-term election which was a smorgasbord of fear mongering, misdirection, untruths and plane bizarro candidates and comments. Christine O'Donnell notwithstanding, one of my favorites was Ran Paul's Democratic opponent's "aqua budha" accusation. I mean. You actually thought that was going to win you some votes? Or the Ohio Republican Congressional candidate who was part of a Waffen SS reenactment group. That's what I like to see in my potential democratically elected leaders—that on the weekends you like to dress up in the uniform of one of the most vicious autocratic regimes in history, pretend to invade Russia and commit genocide.

The fear mongering coming from the DNC and the White House was also a real treat. I mean. Really! Foreign elements infiltrating and taking over the Chamber of Commerce—a conspiracy theory –that's the best you could come up with? Well, dear Executive "let's triple the deficit in my first year in office and have the United States, in order to continue to fiscally function be beholden to a certain very large and up and coming Pacific Rim country" Branch, your attempt at misdirection really didn't work with this voter. Better luck next time President Obama.

There are a lot more examples on both sides I could write about, but the picture has been painted. I suppose we could always hope ala Jon Stewart of the Daily Show for just plain good governance and an end to the idiotic rancor that exists. Hope is always good.