I can't believe the news today

I can't close my eyes and make it go away. There's many lost, but tell me who has won. The trench is dug within our hearts. And mothers, children, brothers, sisters—torn apart. Wipe the tears from your eyes. Wipe your tears away. Oh, wipe your tears away. The real battle just begun.

I felt scared. I cried. I almost vomited. Then I became angry.
I'm going to paraphrase a few other people here:

How any damn fool could vote for the stupidest goddamn US President since WW2 is beyond me. He's fucked our economy, he's fucking our environment, he's doing nothing to catch terrorist number 1 ("not a priority') and lots to create an entire generation of America haters, he wants to interfere in yours and your neighbours lives, he's no kind of conservative, the defence budget is out of control, there's stinky corruption throughout the land, his tax cuts went overwhelmingly to the rich. But he's 'strong', he's 'resolute', he 'doesn't waver'. That's 'cause he's an UTTER MORON! And frankly, if you swallowed it, well, I'm speechless.
The US economy will soon go down the shitter, due to record deficits, the price of oil and irresponsible tax cuts. This will have a very serious knock-on effect around the world. I suspect the sharemarket will do alright for a while, those interests will be immune to the early warning signals and will be buffered by the tax cuts for the rich.

The US will continue to deny science and reason and refuse any sort of reform towards reducing greenhouse emissions. This will ensure that India and China (and Australia) do little or nothing either. Global climate change will hurt the poorest people the most - hope you like brown-skinned immigrants, there are plenty more about to arrive.
Unilateralism will rule in international relations. While the US can afford to maintain its standing army and technological gap (which will be a long time) they and their deputies will operate as they like. This will foster fear and resentment, promoting asynchronous warfare (aka terrorism) together with conventional arming up and delay much needed reform in many countries.
The increasing influence of the religious right in US politics will spur on movements both for and against this way of thinking around the world. The clash of civilisations, reason against faith, and faith against faith, will grow between Europe and the US, within the US and Australia, between Israel and Palestine, within Indonesia, etc.
I think the re-eelction of Bush has proved that he wasn't an aberration, he's the chosen path for a majority of the world's most powerful and dangerous civilisation, and this marks a sharp downturn in the progress of the humanist ideal. Everything can be recovered from, there are always steps forward, but it seems that the world just took a serious lurch towards an ugly, brutal, impoverished, conflicted world.

Everything *can* be recovered from. Maybe I've taken the step from anger to delusion. But I have to hang on to that. It is time for me (and I suspect others) to re-evaluate my life. Where I'm going, what I'm doing, what is important to me, what contributions I've been making to society & what I've been getting back.
I have given (and am still giving) serious thought about leaving this country. I am ashamed. The values expressed by most people in this country are the values of bigotry, violence, greed... I don't want any part of that.
There are a lot of skeletons in the US's closet. The country (whether is was the gov't without the knowledge of the people, corrupt business, or sleezy individuals) has done a lot of bad things. And the good things, well quite a few were done with alterior motives, rarely through genuine altruism. When I felt pride & respect for the US it was for those people who tried to stop the country from doing the bad things & worked for good things just because they were good. I had hope that there were enough of us to move the country toward something really positive.
And then there was Dubya, the PNAC, and the religious-right. As it turns out, many people in this country are OK with all the shit these fucks are doing to us. They embrace it. They ignore it. All they want to know is that Dubya will protect them from the f*gs and sandn*ggers. That is what I'm ashamed of. I'm connected to them because they are my fellow citizens.
I was thinking about all this on my drive to and from school today. I became angry because they made my country a disgrace. And then I shouted: Fuck them!
Gawddammit. This may be the home of George W. Bush, Jerry Falwell, the KKK... But this is also the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Alice Paul, Jimmy Carter, and ME. Gawddammit.
This is my home. This is my land. This land is your land. And we have got to do something to save it from itself. I feel it is my duty as a citizen, a citizen of Earth, to do something. To fix this. To stay and work so that everything real American heroes like Rev. King, Ms. Paul, and President Carter worked for is not in vain.
Sadly, the United States of America is *not* a sweet land of liberty. But I want to do something to make that change. I don't know what yet. I will need my friends to help with my courage. But I *have* to do something.
I. Can't. Let. Those. Mother. Fuckers. Win.
Unlike Senator Kerry, I. Will. Not. Concede.