It's been a long road, but we have miles yet to go.

As November approaches, it is important to keep past and approaching events in mind. It may be difficult with the flood of outrageous actions over the last year or two, and a probable storm of smoke and mirrors in the coming weeks. Here are a few items to recall; readers will think of many more.

First, recall that Progressive Democrats (including Senator Obama) controlled the House and Senate since 2006, when they pushed through reckless Frank/Dodd mortgage rules under Bush. They gained a super-majority (unable to be blocked or vetoed) in 2008. With halfhearted Republican opposition, TARP was passed and hundreds of billions of dollars were “misplaced”, plus those still being hoarded by cronies and financial institutions. Credit and banking did not significantly recover.

President Obama was elected to limit special interests, improve transparency in government and eliminate corruption.

Despite clear opposition by the people, a massive takeover of health care (directed by Obama) was forced through, as Speaker Pelosi put it, by “going over or under the wall [will of the people and growing GOP resistance], pole vaulting or parachuting over it”. They “deemed” votes as passed, pressured and bribed legislators and abused budget-resolution rules for a non-budget bill. She said we had to “wait to see what’s in it”, though a few news outlets did accurately reveal most of the bloated, incomprehensible 2,000 pages in advance. Every day confirms more bad surprises, topped by an avowed “redistribution of wealth” Socialist administrator, withheld by Obama until recess to avoid public examination.

A “shovel ready job stimulus” bill was also forced through, with more billions sent to foreign countries and Democratic cronies, lost in non-existent zip codes or Congressional districts, or wasted on amenities than was spent on permanent job creation. Most of it is not even scheduled for “use” for years to come. Employment never did recover and are once again falling, as is the stock market, despite claims of victory over the recession. In fact, Obama’s appointees to his own debt commission declared today that the reckless spending we have seen is “unsustainable” and “will make the country go broke”. They cautioned that only reduced spending, not increasing taxes, would avert collapse and aid in recovery.

Obama was swift in condemning the correct actions of a Cambridge Police Officer though, “I don’t know the facts”, and dismissing the guilty plea of Khalid Sheik Mohammad in favor of a civilian show trial where (as he and his appointee, A.G. Holder said), “he’ll get a fair trial and be convicted and executed”. However, it took Obama four months to give his hand-picked general only part of the urgently needed reinforcements for Afghanistan. His E.P.A. and Labor appointees were (and still are) delaying and denying oil skimming, disbursing and removing efforts, before he even acknowledged the Gulf disaster. FEMA is M.I.A. But he quickly shut down (twice, against court order) all other oil rigs, without intent to inspect them, throwing American production and employment under the bus. He immediately pronounced Arizona’s law (mirroring federal law to protect citizens from $2 billion in annual waste, gangs, drugs, kidnapping and murder) as “racial profiling” and had Holder file suit against it, though they denied for months that they had even read it and it specifically prohibits any profiling. Holder also ordered dismissal, after conviction, of the case of two armed Black Panther thugs that threatened and prevented white voters (and a conservative, black poll watcher) from entering a polling place. Their calls to “kill crackers” and “kill their babies” have not even been denounced, though non-existent “Tea Party violence” remains a topic of DOJ investigation.

But wait, there’s more. Progressive Democrats quadrupled Bush’s debt in just over a year and now threaten to cap and tax all energy production, trade and consumption, a second “stimulus” bill, a federal VAT (applied at every stage of production) sales tax in addition to income taxes, amnesty for illegal aliens and restrictions on media and internet freedom. The latest is the “DISCLOSE” (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) act, a cynically named plan to limit campaign spending to favor incumbents and lock-out new candidates. Democrats admit they will lose many house and senate seats, despite planned giveaways, promises, political tricks and maybe a crisis or two. Many have threatened to use their “lame duck” session (with nothing left to lose) to ram through every reckless, extremist measure they can deem, pole-vault, arm-twist, bribe, or hide before new Representatives are seated in January.

These are some of the things we should remember in November.