coppertop_kerry M.W. So, it’s Kerry, is it? Ol’ coppertop Kerry. *Sigh* Well, I’d like to thank the registered Democrats out there for casting their votes such that we’ll now have a presidential race between someone who will vote along dictated party lines and turn away from any law allowing full recognition of gay marriages……and George Bush. A candidate who refuses to release his wartime service records….and George Bush. Hey, all the “Anyone but Bush” proponents out there? Congratulations. You got “anyone.” I have a prediction. If George Bush wins the next election it will be because of his actions concerning the Iraqi war. A lot of people, after a lot of thought, may decide to hold their noses on other issues and cast their vote according to that one. If George Bush looses the next election, it will be because of a handful of actual legitimate issues and problems. And a truckload of batshit insane conspiracy theories that would make PETA proud. Notice how the actual identity of the Democratic contender doesn’t enter into it? *Sigh* I really don’t know how I want this election to go. Forget myself, I don’t know how I want _other_ people to vote. There’s so much going on here, I’m not even sure where the top of the pile is. Gay marriage. On the one hand we’ve got Bush. I think the defense of marriage amendment is idiotic. Policy itself aside, I see no reason for such a thing to go into the constitution. Policy in the way, I hate the policy, though it’s not quite as severe as people seem to think (basically it seems to be a reiteration of the Clinton-era “Defense of Marriage Act” that says states don’t have to recognize marriages which don’t follow the laws of their own state). However, I also don’t think the amendment has a chance in hell of actually getting into the Constitution. Then again, I didn’t think the related bill had a chance in the Georgia legislature, so it shows you what I know. On the other side we’ve got Kerry. Who hasn’t been able to give a straight answer as to whether or not he’d vote against a ban on gay marriage, despite being directly asked several times. Which, in and of itself, is answer enough. At best he’d abstain. Why? Because the Democratic party is split down the middle on the issue, and he can’t come down on one side or the other without loosing votes….to Bush on one side, or the independents on the other. At least Bush makes no bones about what he believes and which way he’ll vote. Kerry doesn’t give us that much. Iraq. There’s a faction who feels that a second term is deserved Bush for the work done in Iraq and Afganistan. Two genocidal despotic regimes ground into the dust with stunning speed, and the countries well on the way back to independent governments. Shockwaves throughout the region have severely damped down terroristic activity throughout the world (ya’ know, Israel and Palestine weren’t the only sites of weekly suicide bombings before the Iraqi war) and cowed several neighboring countries into line. The similar despotism in Iran is now monthly trying to stave off a public uprising to toss out the old guard. But, of course, that’s not a legitimate reason to give a president a second term. The presidency is never something that’s “earned.” The presidency is granted based on estimation of plans for the future, not actions of the past, so we have to judge based on the long term plans of each candidate for Iraq. Which are, effectively, identical. That is some source of cheer for me, now that we’ve a hard-set date for turnover of the country to the newly-constructed Iraqi government. Economics. I don’t understand them. You don’t either, really, do you? Any everyday joe who says they do understand them and uses the convoluted policies of either party as a ten-foot-pole with which to poke the opposition, can safely be filed away in the “batshit insane” category. Science. I hate Bush’s luddite-ism. I know its motivation, and I’ll acknowledge that some of the factors are difficult topics, but I disagree on most of the points. The bioethics committee is rapidly becoming a joke, and I hate the ban on stem cell research. Does anyone know Kerry’s stance on science? Anyone? Bueller? Come to think of it, what do we actually know about Kerry? Well, we know he’s enough of an aggrandizing self-promoter that he was ridiculed about it thirty years ago in Doonesbury. We know that he is vociferously criticizing a long list of policies that he voted for. We know that, since the beginning of the year, yesterday marked the first time he’s actually voted on a bill. Oh yes, and he was in Vietnam. Then came home and viciously abused the men he’d fought alongside. Hey! Mr. John “DoyouknowwhoIam,howdareyouIfoughtinVietnam” Kerry! My father was in Vietnam too. And he’s not voting for you. What does that tell you? I look at Kerry, and I have no idea what sort of a president he would be if voted into office. He’s talked his way around any controversial topics, latched onto as many of the batshit insane conspiracy theories as is convenient, and generally said whatever it was he thought the crowd wanted to hear. Which is to take the opposite stance from Bush. This is literally coming down to a battle between the devil we know or the devil we don’t. So I should vote independent? Ha. Why? Green party? To get more antithetical to my own ideals you’d have to travel over to Pat Buchannan. (Kyoto? Please. Anyone who supports that hasn’t actually read it.) They’re practically RUN by the batshit insane conspiracy theorists. Libertarian? Yeah they’re idealists, but they happen to share a lot of my ideals. Unfortunately they have all the practicality of a fursuited lobbyist. And this is from someone who voted Libertarian last election. Besides, the US has this whole built-in checks and balances system. A Libertarian president would be the biggest failure the US has seen since Grant. He’d be blocked at every turn, and would in turn only block a handful of minor issues from either party. The presidency would be rendered into a lame duck. So why’d I vote Libertarian last time? Why, to send a message. That if the Libertarian party started polling a dozen percent or so, one or the other of the major parties would have to start pandering to the “keep the fuck out of our lives” faction to maintain an edge over the other. But you know what? This time around, the issues at hand don’t really allow for “sending a message” when an actual choice stands to be made. Really, it wasn’t a choice when it was Gore vs. Bush, and there was room to send a message. Now there really isn’t. So, we vote for Bush. Hold our noses over the issues we hate, and return him to office over the couple we like. Except the Republican party takes it as vindication and reaffirmation on all of the issues. Iraq proceeds apace in reconstruction and return to independence under an elected body. But Bush redoubles his efforts at adding the amendment to the constitution on an idiotic hot-point-of-the-moment issue. Religious justification for luddite policies get written down. And reversed the next time there’s a flip of parties in the White House. And the Republicans and conservatives get a repealed amendment albatross hung around their neck the like of which hasn’t been seen since that whole thing with Democrats fighting to maintain slavery. And we endure another four years of having batshit insane conspiracy theories decry everything done by the president as…..oh God, you pick. So we vote for Kerry. Set aside our doubts about what we haven’t been told, and hope that nothing will be screwed up too badly by this individual with a history of going back on his commitments. And the batshit insane conspiracy theorists all rejoice once he’s won, as “Bush was the worst leader in history,” and “whatever might be wrong with Kerry, Bush was worse”. And he sits on his hands for the gay marriage issue. And Iraq might or might not continue apace. And the remains of Al Queda and every other two-bit fanatical Muslim faction in the world all have an election-night blowout you wouldn’t _believe_, and start redoubling their plans and efforts to drive the western devil from their lands, now that the Americans have shown themselves to be the cowards they are in the face of Muslim commitment. And the UN graciously accepts the US delegates back after a humbling piece of “kneepad service” to return to the business of doing not a fucking thing and getting all the Security Council members paid off with black market oil. And every action Kerry attempts is justified in its opposition to “the worst president ever,” regardless whether it fucking works…..or even makes sense….or not. God. Damned every which way from Sunday. I seriously don’t know who I’m going to vote for at this point. I don’t blindly hate Bush like so many others seem to. Hell, I don’t hate Bush at all. I can appreciate his conviction but disagree with his conclusions, and I approve of some of his actions, but not all of them. I fuckin’ HATE the plethora of idiotic conspiracy theories that don’t even stand up when taken to their logical ends. They’ve been tossed rapid fire for the last year and a half at rate that ensures your inability to keep track when each is bald-facedly disproven. I don’t hate Kerry, but I’ve serious doubts about him and his apparent willingness to flip-flop wildly on any number of severely important issues depending on which way the political wind is blowing. The guy is criticizing bills that HE voted into law. He seems to treat the audience as a toddler with ADD, certain he can get away with reversing himself whenever he wants, so long as there’s some completely unrelated hullabaloo for a commercial break in between. He just lets misapprehensions stand without correction whenever they’re in his favor. I mean, of course he’s against unilateralism of the US! We should never have gone into war in Iraq without a signed note from all the UN delegate’s mommies! Ohhhh! Loook! Shiny! Now, as I was saying, Bush is being totally irresponsible with Haiti! Why, even without UN support, the US should be sending troops in there! http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/169039p-147637c.html Gnnnnnnngh. 040304 ... kx21 Oops... The Goodness of John_Kerry? Happy exploring & have fun... 040421 ... silentbob kerry supported civil unions, was against calling it marriage, and was against changing the constitution. 041105 ... Tostada al Sadr less terroristic activity? check this out: http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/ Yeah, Iraq's a model of stability. Sinai bombings a few weeks ago, anyone? mm-hmm. Bonus question: Which party's elected and appointed officials in the US government funded one of those genocidal regimes for 8 years at the height of their atrocity? 2nd Bonus question: what US Vice President, sitting or otherwise was, while CEO of a major defense and recontruction contractor, engaged in business dealings through foreign subsidiaries with that regime,working around the same laws whose violations he claimed were justification for invading that country. 041105 ... Tostada al Sadr Flip flops? "We will win the war on terrro" / "I don't think we can win" / "We will Win the war on terror" Against nation building / For nation building? tell the military that "help is on the way"/ then cut their benefits "When we talk about war, what we're really talking about is peace" "I'm a war president, i make decisions with war on my mind" / "I wanna be known as the Peace President" Gay Marriage-civil unions should be left for the States to decide / America needs a constitutional amendment to define marriage He's against campaign finance reform / then he's for it He's against the creation fo the department_of_homeland_clusterfuckery (security?) / then he's for it He's against the creation of the 9-11 commission / then he's for it (but refuses to show up without Dick Cheney to pull his talking strings, refuses to testify before the commission under oath and does not allow for any transcription of the proceedings) Post 9-11 pledges increased federal funding to emergency service personnel / never delivers No child left behind / unless you are a child in a poor district (unfunded mandates are such a bitch, just ask the emergency services agencies around the country) "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden" / "I truly am not that concerned about Osama bin Laden, I know he's on the run, I know he's been Marginalized, I just don't spend that much time on him" I'm george w bush and i approve these flip flops 041105 what's it to you? who go blather from