Time for George to "wag the dog"?...

With the devastating news this week against the Bush empire (Criminal investigation into Halliburton no-bid contracts, missing explosives, his Flip-Flop over civil unions, death toll of over 100,000 Iraqis, infiltration of insurgents into Iraqi police force, etc...) I think over the weekend we will see a major U.S. assault on insurgency strongholds to get attention off the bad news for Bush. I've been hearing reporters saying they don't remember many elections where the incumbent has been dogged with such a bad lead-up to an election. I really pray that if this happens, it's for the right reasons. I want to see our troops safe above all else, election or not. I just do not trust the administration and feel they are capable of anything to win another four years. I'd like to comment on "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani. What an incredible thing to say. That the troops are at fault if tons of explosives got away? This is how a lot of people on that side of the aisle think I believe. That no fault can ever be layed at the feet of this President. The President says that Kerry is "demeaning" our troops before knowing all the facts. I didn't once hear him say "Well, it looks like Private First Class Johnson didn't secure the tons of explosives over there and he's to blame." No, he said it's another example of this administrations incompetence in handling this war. I don't expect that things go right in war, on the contrary I expect they go pretty frickin' bad most of the time. But what the American people should not tolerate is a incredibly bad plan for invading and occupying a country. I find it absurd that close to half this country thinks Bush deserves four more years. A great friend of mine recently emailed me a conservative mailer saying that 39 nine combat related deaths in one month of Iraq were nothing because the city of Detroit had 35 killings. Guess what though? THAT'S 39 KILLINGS THAT DID NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN! Thirty nine families have been torn apart. In one month. I choose to honor these people with respect for their loss rather than comparing it to murders in Detroit. I guess my point in bringing this up is that I hear a lot of talk about how liberals are denigrating the troops and want us to be unsuccessful in Iraq. I think that this is a very misguided idea. I think there's probably the same amount of people in both parties who want this to be success (now that we're there), but have polar opposite ideas on how to... in Larry The Cable Guys words... Git-R-Done. Saying that, I think it's time for more Democrats to be more vocal in their support of the troops. Support for them should mean more than slapping a yellow ribbon on the back of your car. I think you can support them by questioning how they're being used, why they're in a certain place, talking to people and trying to explain why you think they're being misused.

Political Addiction...

Is it possible to develop a political addiction? During this campaign I'm afraid my addictive personality has reared it's ugly head. I can't get enough. I'm a junkie. I check Slate.com's electoral scorecard no fewer than five times a day. I watch Hardball, O'Reilly Factor, Paula Zahn Now, it's gotten so bad I'm not watching the Daily Show for fear I'm missing some "late breaking story on the CBC". (For you Hip fans out there). I need this election to end so I can get my life back. My wife has threatened to leave me if she has to see Chris Matthews on our TV one more time. (Not really, but she is sick of him). Another thing, why has MSNBC not realized that Tim Russert could compete in a primetime weeknight slot with a show like O'Reillys? He would be fabulous at it. They wonder why they're last in the ratings when their talent is right in front of their nose...
At any rate, I hope everyone votes on Tuesday and that America will be a better place because of the outcome.

Terrorism...

I've been going back and forth recently with a couple people on what kind of approach the US is taking towards terrorism. A couple of interesting points have been made from these people, and I do understand where a lot of the Bush backers come from and why they are supporting him. Saying that, I have a very different view than these people on what needs to be done to keep my family safe in this post 9/11 world. Before writing this blog, I need to say one thing. I am NOT a liberal who believes war is never the answer. It is (I regret to say) always a necessary evil to protect America and what it stands for. One of the biggest errors of the Clinton presidency (and Bush I) was after the cold war, assuming that we could do a great amount of our intelligence work through less people and more technology. In retrospect both Presidents should have increased agents and funding for the CIA and the FBI after the cold war. We should have seen that for example, upon the fall of the Soviet Union that their arsenal of weapons would end up somewhere besides the Soviet Union. I see a correlation in Iraq. By not having a plan to secure or target from the air one the largest stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, we allowed someone to disappear with it. In the short term, we are probably safer by attacking Afghanistan and arresting as many Al-Qaida as possible. In the long term, by attacking Iraq, we have created a situation where in the worlds eyes we are now seen as an aggressive occupier. This is not the way to fight a long term terror war. This leads to recruitment for Al-Qaida. For example, when we overtook Iraq, we disbanded the Iraqi military. Looking back at this, I think we made a horrible mistake. What we ended up accomplishing with this was creating a group of Iraqis with no money, no job and nothing to do. I understand that there were concerns on whether or not we could trust this group who may or may not have been loyal to Saddam, but we now have insurgents infiltrating the police force and sabotaging our efforts. This helped recruiting for the insurgency. We would have fewer soldiers dead today if the Bush administration had not made this fateful decision. I agree with many of the Bush backers that America has to be seen as strong, but I feel we need to be smarter about the way we are going about it. This is obviously something I feel in my gut, I'm certainly not a foreign policy expert. Just someone who feels that Bush has made us vulnerable to more anti American sentiment. We have created a great amount of anti US sentiment in many countries around the world, deserved or not.

Debates Wrap Up...

I had a couple minutes to jot a thought down on my lunch break and here it is. After watching all four Presidential debates, I came to many conclusions. I really feel that both candidates accomplished what they needed to by the last debate. After a dreadful first debate, Bush came back and did make his case for re-election. Agree or not, he did make his point why he thinks he deserves another four years. I obviously don't agree with his conclusion, but thought he had better performances the last two debates. Kerry was able to shatter the caricature the Bush campaign had tried hard to stick to him (Flip-flopper, tax and spend liberal, etc..). The people saw a man who was nothing like the way Bush had portrayed him. As a result, we have a tied race. ..
Some people (the "liberal" press, right wingers) are having issue with the fact that Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter's name in the debate. I really am having a hard time understanding what he did that was so out of bounds. Cheney brought up his daughter in the Vice debate and even thanked Edwards for his kind words about his family. Now Cheney comes out and says he's mad that Kerry brought her name in to the campaign? Kerry was respectful with his remarks and people (again the "liberal" media) are treating this like it's some disease that shouldn't have been brought up. Can someone explain this to me? Yet again, the press has chosen to cover a non issue extensively, while real issues like the fact the deficit hit it's credit limit today and will cause the govt. to borrow even more money to pay it's bills take a back seat in the headlines. The media in this country is a joke!

Notes...

The Twins lost last night to the Yanks. Tough loss. We had our boot on the neck of the dynasty, and somehow kicked it off and made this a series again. This series will go five now, I don't expect the Twins to take the next two at home. The best we can hope for is a split. ..

The next debate is tomorrow night between President Bush and Senator Kerry. This is the last opportunity for both candidates to lay out their domestic policies in front of this large an audience. The ratings go way down for the last debate I believe. ..

I rented "Dogville" starring Nicole Kidman the other night. What a piece of garbage. It was one of those movies that look like plays. Hey, if I wanted to go see a play I'd pay 250$ for a bad seat at one. ..

Vice President Cheney lied (more than once, but anyway) the other night on national TV. He stated he's never said that there was a link between Iraq and 9/11. I saw the show he said it on a while back. Chris Matthews went after one of his spokespeople pretty hard with this tidbit. I like Matthews, he said that Cheney destroyed Edwards in the debate. I don't agree with him but I think he's credible with his takes...

My MP3 player is my new best friend. I've downloaded 2500 songs and I'm only at about 35% capacity. These are the coolest invention since... mmmm.... well, I don't know, a lot of things I guess.

There was a new bill introduced in congress that would make downloading copyrighted material punishable with prison time. This is absurd. It's a definite overreaction by the government to throw downloading in with crimes like rape and murder. I know judges would probably have some discretion on how it's applied, but my God. I wonder how much of this is being driven by campaign donations by the RIAA? I'll investigate and let y'all know...

I've been watching some Fox news lately. Before my liberal credentials are taken away, let me explain. They do lean to the right, there's no doubt in my mind. But, sometimes it is important to at least try to see things from a different point of view. I will definitely get most of my news from CNN or MSNBC, but it's important to watch them all and then formulate your opinion. Saying this, they do seem to want to defend Bush at every turn...

Polls...

I think that media polls during the election cycle have gotten way out of hand. As much as I pay attention to them, (I'm a hypocrite), they're so volatile this year that's it's hard to get an accurate read on where this election is headed. They have caused us who are interested to treat these campaigns more like a sporting event, rather that what they should be, a free exchange of ideas and policies. It's always about who's winning week to week. After the Republican convention Bush got an 11 point lead in a Newsweek poll. After the first debate (in the same poll, Newsweek) Kerry had taken a 3 point lead. After further consideration of these two polls, I'm inclined to believe neither result. I think this race is dead even. Record numbers of people are registering to vote to the point officials can't keep up. There should be a record turnout for this election. I think this may favor the Democrats.

Sports Week...

What a week for sports in Minnesota. Last night the Minnesota Twins took a 1-0 series lead over the New York Yankees. The Gophers football team is ranked 13th in the nation and is set to face the Michigan Wolverines Saturday. A team they should have beat last year. It's hard to play football though with both hands placed firmly around your neck. That won't happen this year. The Vikings play the Texans on Sunday. My two teams squaring off. I'm hoping for an entertaining game. I would like to see the Texans beat a quality team like the Vikings, they're on a two game win streak. We'll see. Don't forget that the Wolves have started camp. This is the year! The title will be ours! Why is the press so up in arms that KG punched that punk kid Rickert? I hope he does it a few more times during camp. Never have cared for Rickert. He thinks he's more talented than he is.

Debate Wrap Up...

The debate last night between the two candidates for President was supposed to be the Presidents chance to wrap this election up in the minds of the undecided voters. He failed miserably. This was Kerry's chance to show the American people that he can be a better Commander-In-Chief than we currently have. He hit that ball out of the park. This is again a race for President. Kerry avoided the trap that Al Gore fell into in 2000 by sighing and rolling his eyes, etc... Instead it was Bush who looked frazzled, tired, angry, and quite simply not a strong leader. Kerry, for the first time in this campaign, let the voters picture him as President. He was clear and to the point with his messages and themes. Bush seemed to be pleading for my vote. He actually said that my family will be safer with him in power. I don't know about anyone else, but I am sick to death of this administration using fear to try and win this election. It will not work on me and I hope people won't fall for this kind of tactic. There is a lot of work to be done to make this country safer, and John Kerry showed last night that he is the man to do it. The next debate between these two will focus on domestic issues in a town hall format. This one will really be interesting, the town hall format favors Bush with his simple speak, man of the people type thing, but domestic policy is not his strong suit. I can't see him holding his own with Kerry when talking about specifics of issues. Kerry needs to avoid over-talking to people with long lists of policies and specifics that will make people tune out. He needs to do just what he did tonight and come across as a likeable guy. Then I really think he will overtake Bush in the small leads in swing states. I've said for the last two months that the debates will decide this election. I hope I'm right.