I can't wait to see what happens over the next 8 years. Since things are getting all ad hominem up in here, I wanna add my two cents in this thread as well. My wife was up until almost midnight crying on Tuesday, too. And then she woke up about every hour and fifteen minutes after that to cry some more. Yesterday, (I'm on the Army's Honor Guard out here) before I traveled to a funeral for a soldier, she called me on the phone to ask me to see if I can swing an early retirement in my skill set so we can leave the country. See, it's not about black or white. It's about she was born in Chile in 1962. In 1970, Chile held free elections (as has been their wont since the 1800's) and the first freely elected socialist president in the western hemisphere won. Three years later, due to the economic ruin and the vain ambitions of evil men (with U.S. backing, training and influence, of course...) that democratically elected government was violently overthrown and a 17-year reign of murder was introduced. She lived through all that, and I lived through some of it. Pinochet had his "civilian security force", just as Obama has mentioned. It was called the DINA. Feel free to check with Amnesty International to see just how civil they were. If any of you live in Sheffield, England, and know a Raul Contreras Lastra, please tell him his niece and nephew-in-law say hello, and she misses him. He was an officer in the Chilean Air Force. When he was ordered, on 11 SEP 73, to release his weapons to his troops for a final assault on the presidential palace, he refused. The military police arrested him on the spot. He was "disappeared" for two months and then, thank God, exiled to England instead of shot and buried in a mass grave. He won't return to Chile. My wife's family was, one fine Chilean sunny summer day, forced out of their house at gunpoint with nothing but the clothes on their backs by the army. See, my father-in-law had helped repair a tractor on a commune during Allende's socialist presidency, and when the dictatorship heard about it, they decided that he was too communist to have a house anymore. I remember the elections in 1990 when Pinochet was finally ousted. It was like a breath of fresh air after 17 years of being under water. The country went crazy after the new president was sworn in, and it was wonderful. Two days later, they started excavating the mass graves. I guess what I'm saying is twofold: If you think it can't happen here, you're wrong. It's already happened here before. AND, NO ONE has cornered the market on oppression or being downtrodden. These gentlemanly flame wars back and forth, coming from people who really haven't lived on either side of the line are beginning to look quite childish. Had I not been burying a guy yesterday and able to sit at the computer and see all of icedog's baiting and amushing, recognizing it for what it was, I would most likely have not replied at all to the thread that got shut down. FWIW, most of my friends aren't black. Most of my friends aren't white. Most of my friends aren't even in the U.S. But EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY FRIENDS AND MY ENEMIES ARE HUMAN BEINGS.

(vent vent vent. good LORD!)