You know what time it is. It's time for Guess the Quote Source Game!!! What a name I know, but hey what do you want? Ok ready?

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned many."

Ok if you guessed John Kerry, you would be wrong!

If you guessed Bill Maher, SORRY! Wrong!

If you guessed Al Sharpton, NOOOOOPE!

If you guessed Dick Cheney, the current Vice President of the United States of America you would be RIGHT!!!!!

Bush-Cheney flip-flops cost America in blood

The rest of the quote(that would have given it away):

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

Cheney gave this speech in August of 1992 when he was Secretary of Defense under the first bush. He was talking about why at the end of the first Gulf War we did not continue on to Baghdad and take out Saddam.

So ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you, another Hypocrisy Moment from the Dick!

Man! This guy is loaded with hypocrisy! It amazes me. First he supports the prez's RIDICULOUS anti-gay, anti-human rights Constitutional Amendment (yeah I am looking at you Rep Bud!), even though he has a lesbian daughter, and now this. Oh and I am sure he has many more hypocritical moments, I don't have time to remember them ALL.

Get these bastards out of office on November 2nd!

Wake up folks!! The media is asleep at the wheel. I promise you, they WILL be dealt with. Now knock off your defeatism and read!

t r u t h o u t - Al Gore | How to Debate George Bush

"The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: 'The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined.'

Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh."

He WILL be held accountable! Remember that, voters will not forget that. Why do you think there are so many new voter registrations this year? This flop of a president is going DOWN!

Well the first debate is in 2 days. From what I have heard about the terms of the debate it seems like this debate will be VERY controlled. Some are calling the debates a joint press conference.

Replace Bi-Partisan Shows With Real Debates

Exacting Detail Behind Presidential Debate

Apparently the agreement signed by both Kerry and shrub forbids direct exchanges between the candidates. The moderator is limited on asking follow-up questions, and nearly everything is regulated. Anyways rant over.

We went to see the Terminal on Friday night, it was ok, I didn't really care for it much. Too much fluff, and WAY too long. I cannot recommend it.


Then on Sunday we went and saw Shaun of the Dead. That was a REALLY funny movie! We both really enjoyed this movie so much. It is a spoof on the old zombie movies. It was made in the UK so expect the deadpan British humour, but in this movie it is perfect. I laughed through the entire thing. Only at a certain point does the movie attempt to take itself too seriously and it becomes a little less funny, but it rights itself.


We rented the Punisher last night. That movie was ok. I mean standard revenge movie. Some angst, but the acting wasn't great, and the story was so so. It was ok, its worth a look I think.

t r u t h o u t - FOCUS: Jimmy Carter | Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote

"After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair."

I know I have been telling you all this, but look, Jimmy Carter is saying sh*t is going to go down, we need to take a look at this and prevent our democracy from becoming a laughing stock of the world.

Well the blog has a new look! Let me know what you think. I am still going to tweak it a bit.

He's at it again folks! Rummy has said some ridiculous things before(think 'free people are free to do what they want[loot]'), but this one is pretty good.

Yahoo! News - Rumsfeld Suggests Limited Iraq Election

The gem in question?

"If there were to be an area[in Iraq] where the extremists focused during the election period, and an election was not possible in that area at that time, so be it. You have the rest of the election and you go on. Life's not perfect."

So good old Rummy is suggesting that we disenfranchise a certain segment of the population because we can't provide security for a certain area, INSTEAD of postponing the election until such a time where full representative elections can be held.

Man! Why is this man still in power?! Seriously?! He has said some ridiculous things.

Well its Wednesday, only two more days to go. It's been an interesting week. Keep your eyes open for something new in the next few days.

Anyways what is happening? Well Iraq is in the news. As you all know yesterday shrub addressed the U.N.. How did he do? Well, by most accounts I have heard, not too well.

t r u t h o u t - The New York Times | President Bush's Lead Balloon

Short editorial, give it a read. Here are a few select quotes.

"Mr. Bush delivered an inexplicably defiant campaign speech in which he glossed over the current dire situation in Iraq for an audience acutely aware of the true state of affairs, and scolded them for refusing to endorse the American invasion in the first place."
.....
"Mr. Bush has never exhibited much respect for the United Nations at the best of times. But the United States now desperately needs the partnership of other nations on Iraq."

And to sum up:

"Mr. Bush might have done better at wooing broader international support if he had spent less time on self-justification and scolding and more on praising the importance of international cooperation and a strengthened United Nations. Instead, his tone-deaf speechwriters achieved a perverse kind of alchemy, transforming a golden opportunity into a lead balloon."

How about in the UK, our staunchest ally?

Bush fails to impress British press

Here's a good one:

"The Financial Times said Bush – in a speech full of 'upbeat but generic nostrums about democracy, peace and human dignity' – had 'systematically refused to engage with what actually has happened in Iraq'."

Ok I know what I said yesterday about the election being 6 weeks away, but really today it is 6 weeks away, but where are we in the discussion of the issues during this campaign? Well I can tell you, with much regret, that a majority of us, thanks to our wonderful corporate media, are still rolling in the CBS document-gate scandal, and the swift boat vets lies, and whether the new reduced sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal is really as good as the original(A: No!!).

Now lets jump into some relevant discussion. Today shrub went to the UN to discuss the Iraq war and terrorism. Quite unusual for this president to be doing diplomacy, but then when you read what he had to say, you realize that he was making no apologies to the international community, no concessions, no trying to appeal to them to help us out, but rather the same old challenge to the international community to suck it up and do your duty and come and do something. Not the way to win over these peoples' views.

Anyways. So since most of the mainstream media refuses to cover John Kerry's speeches on the matter of the Iraq war, or any other pressing election issues, than I shall.

AlterNet: Election 2004: Kerry's Plan on Iraq

"The following is excerpted from a speech John Kerry delivered in New York on Sept. 20.

...National security is a central issue in this campaign. We owe it to the American people to have a real debate about the choices President Bush has made… and the choices I would make… to fight and win the war on terror.

That means we must have a great honest national debate on Iraq. The President claims it is the centerpiece of his war on terror. In fact, Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists."

This is exactly my point. We MUST return the discourse of this election to the issues that are REALLY important to our nation. And we must do this NOW! The media are doing us a great disservice and they will be dealt with soon(Yes that is a threat). I realize I risk looking like an extremist, but I assure you I have much reason to be disgusted with our media, often called the fourth branch of our government(chew on that for awhile).

"In June, the President declared, “The Iraqi people have their country back.” Just last week, he told us: “This country is headed toward democracy… Freedom is on the march.”

But the administration’s own official intelligence estimate, given to the President last July, tells a very different story.

According to press reports, the intelligence estimate totally contradicts what the President is saying to the American people.

So do the facts on the ground.

Security is deteriorating, for us and for the Iraqis.

42 Americans died in Iraq in June - the month before the handover. But 54 died in July... 66 in August... and already 54 halfway through September."

You know what I could just quote this entire speech right here, but I ask that you read the full speech, and I will limit the quotes I put here to what I really want to highlight.

"Residents of Baghdad are suffering electricity blackouts lasting up to 14 hours a day.

Raw sewage fills the streets, rising above the hubcaps of our Humvees. Children wade through garbage on their way to school.

Unemployment is over 50 percent. Insurgents are able to find plenty of people willing to take $150 for tossing grenades at passing U.S. convoys."

Just a couple more.

"The President also failed to level with the American people about what it would take to prevail in Iraq.

He didn't tell us that well over 100,000 troops would be needed, for years, not months. He didn't tell us that he wouldn't take the time to assemble a broad and strong coalition of allies. He didn't tell us that the cost would exceed $200 billion."

..."This President’s failure to tell the truth to us before the war has been exceeded by fundamental errors of judgment during and after the war."

I really have to add this long quote too, sorry.

"This President was in denial. He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences.

The administration told us we’d be greeted as liberators. They were wrong.

They told us not to worry about looting or the sorry state of Iraq’s infrastructure. They were wrong.

They told us we had enough troops to provide security and stability, defeat the insurgents, guard the borders and secure the arms depots. They were wrong.

They told us we could rely on exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to build political legitimacy. They were wrong.

They told us we would quickly restore an Iraqi civil service to run the country and a police force and army to secure it. They were wrong.

In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and under-performed. This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence. And the President has held no one accountable, including himself."

Well where does this leave us?

"Can anyone seriously say this President has handled Iraq in a way that makes us stronger in the war on terrorism?

By any measure, the answer is no. Nuclear dangers have mounted across the globe. The international terrorist club has expanded. Radicalism in the Middle East is on the rise. We have divided our friends and united our enemies. And our standing in the world is at an all time low...

...Let me put it plainly: The President’s policy in Iraq has not strengthened our national security. It has weakened it."

And what do we do now?

"First, the President has to get the promised international support so our men and women in uniform don’t have to go it alone. It is late; the President must respond by moving this week to gain and regain international support."
....
"The President should convene a summit meeting of the world’s major powers and Iraq’s neighbors, this week, in New York, where many leaders will attend the U.N. General Assembly. He should insist that they make good on that U.N. resolution. He should offer potential troop contributors specific, but critical roles, in training Iraqi security personnel and securing Iraq’s borders. He should give other countries a stake in Iraq’s future by encouraging them to help develop Iraq’s oil resources and by letting them bid on contracts instead of locking them out of the reconstruction process."
....
"Second, the President must get serious about training Iraqi security forces.

Last February, Secretary Rumsfeld claimed that more than 210,000 Iraqis were in uniform. Two weeks ago, he admitted that claim was exaggerated by more than 50 percent. Iraq, he said, now has 95,000 trained security forces.

But guess what? Neither number bears any relationship to the truth. For example, just 5,000 Iraqi soldiers have been fully trained, by the administration’s own minimal standards. And of the 35,000 police now in uniform, not one has completed a 24-week field-training program. Is it any wonder that Iraqi security forces can’t stop the insurgency or provide basic law and order?"
....
"Third, the President must carry out a reconstruction plan that finally brings tangible benefits to the Iraqi people."
....
"One year ago, the administration asked for and received $18 billion to help the Iraqis and relieve the conditions that contribute to the insurgency. Today, less than a $1 billion of those funds have actually been spent."
....
"Fourth, the President must take immediate, urgent, essential steps to guarantee the promised elections can be held next year."
....
"This is what has to be done. This is what I would do as President today. But we cannot afford to wait until January. President Bush owes it to the American people to tell the truth and put Iraq on the right track. Even more, he owes it to our troops and their families, whose sacrifice is a testament to the best of America."

And FINALLY I promise.

"George Bush has no strategy for Iraq. I do.

George Bush has not told the truth to the American people about why we went to war and how the war is going. I have and I will continue to do so."

Ok now if only the media would cover this as well.

Well its Monday again. This weekend was ok, I didn't get much done. We did go see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It was a fun movie, I enjoyed it. It was highly stylized, great visuals. There was such a film noir feel to it, really good stuff. Check it out.

Well there is 6 more weeks until election day. I really hope we can discuss the issues already, and get people motivated to go out and vote. I heard that both sides have finally agreed to the debate times and formats after some feet dragging by the ole shrub. But alas we will have 3 Presidential debates, the first being September 30th and one Vice Presidential debate. I look forward to the debates, and I hope we can get some real answers out of both candidates.

...high profile Republican senators come out to slam your handling of the current war.

USATODAY.com - Senators slam administration on Iraq

As I mentioned in an earlier post, which linked to the following article:
AlterNet: War on Iraq: The Thief of Baghdad, reconstruction funds have been seriously mishandled.

From this article from late August:

"In over a year, the CPA had managed to spend just 2 percent of the $18.4 billion earmarked for the immediate reconstruction of Iraq. And not a penny was spent on the two areas where the Iraqi people were suffering the most: healthcare or water and sanitation."

Now this just irks me. shrub asked for this money to help reconstruct Iraq and supply the troops, and he refused to go along with Democrats, INCLUDING John Kerry when they asked that some of these funds be a loan, or that we roll back the tax cuts on people making more than $200,000 a year to pay for this money. But yet now that they have it, it is not being spent on reconstruction hardly at all. Meanwhile Halliburton is making out like a THIEF!

So now fast forward to today.

"Among those harshly criticizing the White House at a hearing were the two top Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska."

WOW, those are two popular Republican senators! What did they say?!

"Of the $18.4 billion Congress approved last year for Iraqi reconstruction, only $1.1 billion has been spent because of violence and other problems. Hagel called that record 'beyond pitiful and embarrassing; it is now in the zone of dangerous.'

Even Lugar, who is not usually given to strong rhetoric, said the failure to inject funds into the Iraqi economy quickly was 'exasperating for anybody looking at this from any vantage point.'"

Well I agree with the senators completely it is "beyond pitiful".

"Hagel told two State Department officials they had 'inherited a mess' from a year of Pentagon-supervised government in Iraq and expressed doubt that the United States was winning the war. 'It's not a pretty picture,' he said."

No no it isn't. This ladies and gentlemen is incompetence at the highest level.

Vote him out in November!

Well some people have been complaining, "why don't they talk about the issues?" Well ladies and gents John Kerry is, the mainstream media just isn't covering it. So it is very refreshing to read John Kerry's economic plan, one that actually makes sense in the Wall Street Journal. Give it a read.

t r u t h o u t - John Kerry | My Economic Policy

"Today, taxpayers spend $12 billion a year to subsidize the export of jobs."...

..."My plan would take the entire $12 billion we save from closing these loopholes each year and use it to cut corporate tax rates by 5%. This will provide a tax cut for 99% of taxpaying corporations. This would be the most sweeping reform and simplification of international taxation in over 40 years."

Here's another taste:

"Under my plan, the tax cuts would be extended and made permanent for 98% of Americans. In addition, I support new tax cuts for college, child care and health care - in total, more than twice as large as the new tax cuts President Bush is proposing."

How about the deficit?

"I will restore fiscal discipline and cut the deficit in half in four years. First, by imposing caps, so that discretionary spending - outside of security and education - does not grow faster than inflation. If Congress cannot control spending, it will automatically be cut across the board. Second, I will reinstitute the "pay as you go" rule, which requires that no one propose or pass a new program without a way to pay for it."

Anyways you should really read the full plan.


Also tonight Leah and I went to the John Kerry rally. It was good, we got there late so we were way in the back, but after the speech we got to the front and were able to shake hands with Kerry. Wes Clark was there too, he gave a short speech. Overall a good time.

Ok have a good night everybody.

Well folks it has been nearly three years since we "liberated" Afghanistan. While georgie shrub likes to tout how free and wonderful Afghanistan is, the mainstream media seems to be showing us the same thing. But further investigation seems to tell a different story, a story that needs to be told. Because to me it shows the cost of our change of focus from Afghanistan to Iraq.

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Whither Afghanistan?

"The peril of the situation is abundantly clear from observations and conversations with Afghans about post-Taliban life, where guns and money substitute for the rule of law; upcoming elections, rather than being celebrated as a sign of progress, are dreaded for the violence and fraud that is already accompanying them (see guns and money substitute for the rule of law); the United States has provided a $25 million loan to rebuild a five-star hotel, and warlords are using money from opium poppies and CIA payoffs for fighting the Taliban to build palatial private residences on stolen land, while teachers and government workers in Kabul can not afford the $100 per month rent for three rooms without water or electricity on their $30-a-month salaries.

It is a country teetering dangerously on the edge of a steep precipice."

But more disturbing is the amount of troops we now have over there.

"While 18,000 American and allied soldiers spend their time unsuccessfully searching for Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar – the missing weapons of mass destruction from the Afghan conflict – only 6,500 NATO peacekeepers are on the ground to protect a population estimated to be 25 million to 28 million. This ratio of one peacekeeper per 4,000 Afghans is nothing like the 1:50 ratio that was maintained in Bosnia and Kosovo, and is laughable to a warlord and, until recently, provincial governor like Ismail Khan, whose personal army of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers dwarfs the peacekeepers. President Karzai's attempt to control him by removing him as governor and promoting him to Min[i]ster of Mines and Industry last week was rejected by Khan and sparked deadly attacks on U.N., U.S. and Afghan interests in Herat."

Also the first step in a new democracy should be elections, well this is where there is a huge problem as well.

"The election preparations, financed predominately by the United States and Britain at a cost of $100 million, are based on 24-year-old census data because, without disarmament, the country was not secure enough to take a new census. This calls into question the celebratory mood surrounding the United Nation's announcement that over 90 percent of 'eligible' voters had been registered in advance of the thrice-postponed, October 9 presidential election (parliamentary elections are off until at least April).

That 90 percent figure is also questionable when one considers that nearly half of the country has been deemed at elevated risk by the United Nations, and much of these risky areas are entirely off limits to U.N. workers. Even more astonishing is the recent upward revision of these registration figures. Now the U.N. figures show that over 107 percent of eligible voters have been registered to vote. In response, President Karzai, a leading candidate, responded: 'This does not bother me. This is an exercise in democracy. Let them exercise it twice.'"

The end of this article sums my concerns up rather well.

"By playing leapfrog with Afghanistan, the Bush Administration jeopardizes the safety and health of poor Afghans who will suffer if their country once again becomes hostage to narco-terrorists, warlords and unlawful rulers. Humanitarian concerns aside, the policies also threaten to destabilize the country in ways that, as we've seen, lead to tragic consequences for the rest of the world, too. When your playmate is a country teetering on the edge of a chasm, leapfrog is the most dangerous game of all."

Is our president waging an effective war on terrorism? That is a valid question to ask, and I submit that NO he is not. I don't understand why my friends on the right can't see that. At least see that it may not be going the way we would like it, and accept the possibility that georgie shrub may not be doing the correct things. Showing strength but the inability to adjust to the reality on the ground is not true strength but rather stubbornness. Which I believe is NOT an effective way to protect this country from an ever changing threat.

No its not what you think. We have a serious problem. We need to fix this. The integrity of our Democracy is at stake, so I think BOTH Republicans and Democrats should be concerned about this.


Black Box Voting |

"By entering a 2-digit code in a hidden location, a second set of votes is created in the Diebold central tabulator, a program installed in 1,000 locations, which controls both paper ballots and touch-screens, each system handling up to a million votes at a time.

After invoking the 2-digit trigger, this second set of votes can be changed so that it no longer matches the correct set of votes. The voting system will then read the totals from the bogus vote set.

It takes only seconds to change the votes, and to date not a single location in the U.S. has implemented security measures to fully mitigate the risks."...

Not to mention all the other machines throughout the country that keep no physical record of your vote, and therefore have no way to audit the machines to prevent problems or provide for recounts. The worst part is that these machines can have printers attached in time for November 2nd, but no one seems to concerned to do it.

Anyways I am too tired to write any more, take a look at the site linked above, there are many issues with the voting machines in this country, and many instances of possible vote manipulation in one form or another. We cannot allow there to be any questions about this election, either side. We the people need to have confidence in our elections and, by extension, our democracy.

Ok enough. Sorry, I am just too spent to get serious.

I don't have time to post I'm busy trying to get dog urine out of a carpet. Any ideas anyone?


Seriously though, the assault weapons ban expired today, anyone have any thoughts on that? It seems to be a partisan issue, but I don't think it should be. I know alot of Democrats who were against the ban and glad it is dying, and I know some(although fewer) Republicans who are for the ban.

I myself am for the ban of automatic weapons, I don't know the specifics of the bill that became the ban, but I heard that there were many flaws in it that would still allow slightly modified automatics and such to be legal, so I don't know. Although I have read statistics that say that violent crime with automatic assault weapons went down in the last 10 years, so I think we should seriously look into redoing this ban.

I don't know if any of you remember the rampages of the 80s and early 90s, such as the one in McDonald's, but it seems to me there hasn't been that many since in the last 10 years. At least not at the rate that they were. But ok, I digress.

Caption(Reuters): State and city workers stand ready to form a ring around two memorial sites at the World Trade Center, as families and loved ones pay their respects during ceremonies marking the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, September 11, 2004. REUTERS/Bebeto Matthews/POOL

Finally, its the end of the week. Tomorrow is the 3rd Anniversary of the attack on our country of September 11th 2001. That is a tough reminder for me. There is not a day that goes by that I am not reminded in some way of that horrible day in September of 2001. Not a DAY goes by. But tomorrow will be especially hard. I will have more to say about this tomorrow.

Back to politics, this week was a crazy week. It started with Cheney saying that if we vote wrong in November we are going to be attacked again. And it ended with the mainstream media buying the charges that the Killian documents may be faked. Really what a week.

Also people, don't fall into believing what the media is hyping about the polls and how Kerry is behind. The polls are a very variable thing, they fluctuate much over time. And we just don't know how accurate they are in this unprecedented election. I suspect that we will have an incredibly high voter turnout, so all these normal formulas for figuring out who is a likely voter, etc. may not really be as accurate as they like. And if Kerry is ahead in the polls by 2-4 points soon I will still say the same thing, don't believe them.

The important thing is to not lose hope and think that anything is a lost cause. Keep fighting! We WILL take this country back!

I saw this on truthout.org and I thought I should link to it. This article includes the names and faces of the fallen in this war in Iraq.

This war is a terrible, terrible thing. I was against it from the beginning, and I still am, I am so sorry that we have lost so many in these last 18 months.

t r u t h o u t - FOCUS: The Faces of 1,000 Soldiers

My god these are OUR people! Take some time, look at the faces, I sit here and think that I am looking at a high school yearbook, but I am not, there is a big difference. All of these people are dead.

They died for a mistake.

Their deaths could have been prevented. These are 1,000 of OUR people 1,000 PEOPLE!!!!!!! 1,000 people that could still be here, if our president hadn't decided, for some reason, to go attack Iraq and move the war on terror from Afghanistan. Oh I don't know why. I don't know why. They had no PLAN for after the takeover, no plan, and that has costed us 1,000 of our own. This can NOT stand!

We must remove this man who has made such a grave MISTAKE.

Please take some time to see this article.

Thank you.

Ok time to get this thing going! I am really pissed at this administration, and we need to get America to listen to what this bastard has done to us! Please read this full article (yes it is long, but worth it) or at least read the items I have pulled out.

Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards

Here are the highlights, or rather lowlights:

"1 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security issued between 20 January 2001 and 10 September 2001 that mentioned al-Qa'ida.

104 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.

101 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned missile defence."

It gets BETTER(WORSE)!!!!

"$3m Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 11 September attacks.

$0 Amount approved by George Bush to hire more INS special agents.

$10m Amount Bush cut from the INS's existing terrorism budget.

$50m Amount granted to the commission that looked into the Columbia space shuttle crash.

$5m Amount a 1996 federal commission was given to study legalised gambling.

7 Number of Arabic linguists fired by the US army between mid-August and mid-October 2002 for being gay."

And more!

"0 Number of minutes that President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the assistant Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the former chairman of the Defence Policy Board, Richard Perle, and the White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove ­ the main proponents of the war in Iraq ­served in combat (combined).

0 Number of principal civilian or Pentagon staff members who planned the war who have immediate family members serving in uniform in Iraq."

Iraq, ok lets get to Iraq!

"$2bn Estimated monthly cost of US military presence in Iraq projected by the White House in April 2003.

$4bn Actual monthly cost of the US military presence in Iraq according to Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld in 2004.

$15m Amount of a contract awarded to an American firm to build a cement factory in Iraq.

$80,000 Amount an Iraqi firm spent (using Saddam's confiscated funds) to build the same factory, after delays prevented the American firm from starting it."

Terrible!

"92 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2002.

60 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2003.

55 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who were unemployed before the war.

80 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who are unemployed a Year after the war."

"40,000 Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47."

"87 Percentage of Humvees in Iraq not equipped with armour capable of stopping AK-47 rounds and protecting against roadside bombs and landmines at the end of 2003."

Let's Keep it going!

"$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.

75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).

79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration."

Our money, where did that go?!

"$5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.

$7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004."

TAX CUTS??!????!!?!?!?????

"39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.

49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office."

The poor! Who cares right shrub?!?!?!

"35m Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.

$300m Amount cut from the federal programme that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes.

40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.

18 Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1e per cent of the population."

ENRON, absolutely maddening!

"$60bn Loss to Enron stockholders, following the largest bankruptcy in US history.

$205m Amount Enron CEO Kenneth Lay earned from stock option profits over a four-year period.

$101m Amount Lay made from selling his Enron shares just before the company went bankrupt."

Health Insurance? Yeah for the people who deserve it!

"43.6m Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).

2.4m Number of Americans who lost their health insurance during Bush's first year in office."

OH the environment! Absolutely amazing what this administration has done.

"200 Number of regulation rollbacks downgrading or weakening environmental laws in Bush's first three years in office.

31 Number of Bush administration appointees who are alumni of the energy industry (includes four cabinet secretaries, the six most powerful White House officials, and more than 20 other high-level appointees).

50 Approximate number of policy changes and regulation rollbacks injurious to the environment that have been announced by the Bush administration on Fridays after 5pm, a time that makes it all but impossible for news organisations to relay the information to the widest possible audience.

50 Percentage decline in Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions against polluters under Bush's watch.

34 Percentage decline in criminal penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.

50 Percentage decline in civil penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.

$6.1m Amount the EPA historically valued each human life when conducting economic analyses of proposed regulations.

$3.7m Amount the EPA valued each human life when conducting analyses of proposed regulations during the Bush administration.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned global warming, clean air, clean water, pollution or environment in his 2004 State of the Union speech. His father was the last president to go through an entire State of the Union address without mentioning the environment.

1 Number of paragraphs devoted to global warming in the EPA's 600-page "Draft Report on the Environment" presented in 2003.

68 Number of days after taking office that Bush decided Not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases by roughly 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States was to cut its level by 7 per cent.

1 The rank of the United States worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions."

Oh keep 'em coming!

"62 Number of members of Cheney's 63-person Energy Task Force with ties to corporate energy interests.

0 Number of environmentalists asked to attend Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings.

6 Number of months before 11 September that Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil reserves.

2 Percentage of the world's population that is British.

2 Percentage of the world's oil used by Britain.

5 Percentage of the world's population that is American.

25 Percentage of the world's oil used by America.

63 Percentage of oil the United States imported in 2003, a record high."

Uh huh, there's more!

"68.4 Average Number of species added to the Endangered and Threatened Species list each year between 1991 and 2000.

0 Number of endangered species voluntarily added by the Bush administration since taking office."

Need more?! How about vacation?

"13 Number of vacation days the average American receives each Year.

28 Number of vacation days Bush took in August 2001, the month he received a 6 August Presidential Daily Briefing headed "Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike US Targets."

500 Number of days Bush has spent all or part of his time away from the White House at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, his parents' retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, or Camp David as of 1 April 2004."

Well there you have it ladies and gents, this administration has failed us. They have been an utter, and disgusting failure!

We have to stop this administration, we have to take our country back, we have to make our country safer, and no matter what the rhetoric from the Republicans are; they are NOT making us safer! Look at the evidence I have just presented you!

That is all, I am spent.

Well I was unable to post to my blog for at least a couple days, so please forgive me for the lack of posts for a bit. Anyways I will post later today about the wonderful news of the day. Stay tuned.

Well, we had a nice long weekend. We saw two movies and went to the state fair. First movie was Open Water. I didn't care much for it. I don't know, the ending was not what I would have liked it to be, but it is "based" on a true story. Anyways the second movie was What the #$*! Do We Know?

That was a good movie. If you know what Waking Life is and you liked it, then I am sure you will like this movie as well. This movie is a look at quantum physics and philosophy. You have to really pay attention and be in the mood for this type of movie, but the reward, I think, is that you will leave the theatre with things to think about, that is for sure.

Ok yeah the state fair was fun, I ate LOTS of food, and we got to pet some animals, that was fun. I made a friend with my pet goat, I fed him food pellets and an ice cream cone. I hope to go back again before it is over.

Oh we also went to a little get together on Sunday night. Some of the people from the New Voters Project were there, and we had a good time drinking beers and talking politics, and movies, and pop culture from the 80s (think slap bracelets, and Mili Vanili).

But now BACK to REALITY!

Russia in crisis, more than 1,000 soldiers now killed in Iraq, Cheney telling Americans that if we chose John Kerry for President that we will be at risk of another "devastating" attack!

Man the world is really depressing. And I am here to record it all for you. Until tomorrow folks, stay positive.


P.S. President Clinton had his surgery yesterday and he seems to be doing well, off of the ventilator. He will be down for 6 weeks or so. We all wish him well.

This is terrible. So terrible. I hate this world right now. This makes me want to cry. Why Why?

BBC NEWS | Europe | High death toll in Russia siege

Well georgie shrub himself gave his speech last night.



Where to begin?
CNN: Bush convention speech transcript

The unfortunate part is that shrub had nearly 4 years in his presidency to do the things he promised in his 2000 campaign, but he hasn't. And yet he is now making nearly all of the same promises tonight, and pretending like they are brand new.

Back to the Future - What Bush would do if he were president. By William Saletan

"This was a speech all about what Bush will do, and what will happen, if he becomes president.

Except he already is president. He already ran this campaign. He promised great things. They haven't happened. So, he's trying to go back in time. He wants you to see in him the potential you saw four years ago. He can't show you the things he promised, so he asks you to envision them. He asks you to be 'optimistic.' He asks you to have faith."

You know, I was going to go point over point on this speech and hit back with the facts, but after seeing the news today in Russia, I just don't have the heart to do it right now, so I will let Kerry do it:

Kerry's response

Well, well, well... What a nasty, disgusting convention night it was last night. I don't know if any of you saw the travesty that they put on last night, but lets recap.

First in prime time was Zell Miller



Zell is a Democratic Senator from Georgia. But apparently he has had a change of heart, and instead of changing parties he seems to think he can do more damage by staying in the Democrat party and slamming our candidate in prime time at the Republican convention.

CNN: Zell Miller convention transcript

Well let me just say, that this man gave a speech that should make everyone scared. He was so negative, and gave no positive message at all. He was over the top and his rage showed through above all else.

He talked about how Kerry voted against certain military weapons, completely ignoring the fact that many of these votes were against omnibus appropriations bills, not individual weapons or planes, etc. This also ignores the fact that Cheney, as Defense Secretary killed many of these weapons programs himself.

.: Albany Democrat-Herald :. News: "Miller, D-Ga., said Kerry had voted to cut key weapon systems. 'This is a man who wants to be the commander in chief of our U.S. armed forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?' Miller said.

In those remarks, Miller ignored the cuts in military spending that Vice President Dick Cheney pushed as defense secretary under the first President Bush. Cheney canceled the Navy F-14D Tomcat fighter and sent Congress a budget that proposed curtailing production of the B-2."

I will try to get the Senate Armed Services Committee testimony that Cheney gave about the programs he recommended for cut.

Then Miller went on CNN and got lambasted by the people covering the convention for them. Then he went on Hardball:
ABCNEWS.com : Miller Suggests Duel Between Him, TV Host

Check out the actual transcript of this here: Zell's Meltdown: ... [Media Matters for America]

Next up was ole Cheney himself.



Well what can I say?

CNN: Cheney convention transcript

"Opportunity also depends on a vibrant, growing economy. As President Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into recession, and American workers were overburdened with federal taxes. Then came the events of September 11th, which hit our economy very hard. So President Bush delivered the greatest tax reduction in a generation, and the results are clear to see."

Well let me start by saying that most would agree that the recession didn't begin until approximately March of 2001. That doesn't seem to indicate that the nation was sliding into recession when these idiots took over. And furthermore, we can see the results of these tax cuts.

A record deficit. Surplus turned into deficit. "Increase in the annual federal deficit since Bush took office: $658 billion(Johnkerry.com)" Yeah and all the other effects that trickle down from that.

"Our nation has the best health care in the world and President Bush is making it more affordable and accessible to all Americans."

Oh boy.... Wow, he really just did say that, and people believe the sh*t he was spewing. Shrub is NOT making health care more affordable at ALL! That is a disgusting lie, that people may just believe.

From www.johnkerry.com :

"Increase in family health care premiums since Bush took office: 50 percent

How much faster health insurance premiums are growing than workers’ earnings last year: 4 times

Number of Americans who have lost health insurance since Bush took office: 5.2 million

Total number of Americans without health insurance: 45 million"

Then Cheney has the guts to say the following:

"Senator Kerry also takes a different view when it comes to supporting our military. Although he voted to authorize force against Saddam Hussein, he then decided he was opposed to the war, and voted against funding for our men and women in the field.

He voted against body armor, ammunition, fuel, spare parts, armored vehicles, extra pay for hardship duty and support for military families."

Hmmm as I mentioned before (see above), Cheney killed so many defense programs while he was defense secretary, how the HELL can he say these things against Kerry?! What a damn hypocrite!! AMAZING! The facts:

AlterNet: Election 2004: Kerry Was Framed: "Let's examine the most ridiculed Kerry quote about the $87 billion appropriations bill for the Iraq war, 'I voted for it before I voted against it.'

Bush's bill contained a $20 billion blank check to provide no-bid contracts to Halliburton and other firms for Iraq reconstruction, and none of the $87 billion price tag would be paid using Bush's tax cuts. As the Washington Post has reported, Kerry voted for a different version of the bill that would have funded some of the spending by raising taxes on incomes greater than $312,000, while Bush vowed to veto a version that would have converted half of the Iraq rebuilding plan into a loan. Kerry's alternate version was defeated and Bush's original bill came up for a vote. Most Democrats decided to support it, as it would be sure to pass. Knowing this, Kerry on principle voted 'against' it - that is, he voted against the $20 billion blank check and the no-repealing-the-tax-cut provisions."

I think that says what I am trying to say well enough!

Well anyways. Tonight the old shrub talks. Should be fun!

Well what can I say. Last night's Republican convention was hardly as memorable as the first night.



the governator was up first in prime time, and the only thing I can say about his speech is that he seems to think that democrats want this country to be a communist state. Well I can tell you arnie that that just isn't true. We just see the inherent problems that unchecked capitalism has. And we want to make sure that the good people of this fine country have a chance to not be eaten alive by that very capitalism machine that you blindly believe in.

CNN.com - Schwarzenegger: speech transcript

Next up were the Bush twins.



Yeah they are hotties! But you know, they are the spawn of georgie shrub, so I am torn. But seriously they even admitted that they are not political, they just want to support their dad, SOOO there still is a chance that I could be with one of them, because they very well might be democrats and not even know it. Anyways they said nothing of importance.


Finally the first lady spoke.



Yeah, I'm sorry but she has been such a model Stepford wife that I just don't understand how any women could support this woman. I applaud her for being able to go up there and speak, but the times that she has actually spoken up are few and far between. I guess this speech served to make the ole' prez look like a human being. So I really didn't find anything in it very interesting. Although she did say one thing that I feel I should address.

CNN.com - First lady: speech transcript

"I could talk about the fact that my husband is the first president to provide federal funding for stem cell research."

Well you fine folks keep mentioning that like georgie shrub is the first president to have the courage to fund stem cell research, when the fact is that stem cell research was so new that he happened to be the first president in office when funding was recognized to be needed. Big Deal, the fact is that he is seriously slowing the progress of this new science.