Category: politics

The Bush Administration has failed the country on so many levels, they don’t deserve to win. They just don’t. Unless you’re a one issue voter, how can you support an Administration who lied to you, not about a blowjob, but about going to war? The NY Times (I know, I know, but read it) has the best Rumsfeld declares there was no link between Saddam and al Qaeda, then backpedals. This statement’s not based on new evidence that’s come out since the invasion, but finally stating the truth of what they knew beforehand.

Bremer admits we didn’t have enough troops.

It’s unbelievable to me that these aren’t impeachable offenses. Compounded with Abu Ghraib, why hasn’t Rumsfeld been hauled in front of Congress and charged? Why are Wolfowitz, Bolton and Feith still employed? Why does Condi still have a job that she’s apparently not willing to do?

A vote for President isn’t just for one man, especially an incumbent. It’s a vote for the entire Administration. This one’s a disaster, and it’s time for them to go.

I have no idea what percentage this is of the American Electorate, but

62.5 million people tuned into the debate, and apparently a lot of them paid attention, if you look at the most recent polls. You say one thing for W, he sure got people interested in politics again.

Melissa asked for facts. Well, I’ve got facts. They’re all the things that Bush has done in office that should disqualify him from being our President. Here goes… (the sources aren’t the only ones, just the first ones I found in my frantic scurrying over the web)

George W. Bush’s (and his Administration’s) Record:

• George W. Bush has presided over the largest deficits in this country’s history by any measure, after coming into office with the largest budget surplus in history.

• While I can understand why the Bush administration doesn’t bear all the blame for not stopping 9/11 from happening, they let Abu Ghraib happen. Abu Ghraib is the largest stain ever on our ever-decreasing reputation. It’s an international crime the scale of which our country has never committed. That people far up the chain of command (ie: political appointees) were not held responsible by the President is unbelievable.

• George W. Bush lied to the American people about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. The evidence bears no other conclusion.
  • There was no working relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.

  • Both Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice lied about Iraq’s nuclear threat, yet another case of them abusing and twisting available intelligence to fit their desired conclusion.

  • The meeting between Mohammed Atta and the Iraqi Secret Service never took place, because Atta was in the US at the time.

  • Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction (see upcoming US Inspection team report.).

  • Iraq had no programs for creating them past the theoretical phase (there were a couple dozen countries closer to having both nuclear and biological weapons than Iraq).

  • Iraq was far less of a threat to our national security than North Korea or Iran.

  • The “intelligence” used by the White House was taken from unreliable sources, and most of it had been thoroughly debunked by our own intelligence agencies. (lots and lots of information here and here)

• Dick Cheney is still being paid by Halliburton, the largest recipient of no-bid contracts in Iraq. Sources: CNN and CBS News

• Tom Ridge hold sizable amount of stock in companies with contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. Source: Congressional Quarterly

• The Bush Administration resisted the formation of the 9/11 Commission and fought their requests for information at every turn. Only when the commission members went public with the stonewalling did they relent. Source: BBC News, here and here

• George W. Bush has spent 27% of his first time on vacation. Source: Yahoo

• The Administration refused to listen to the advice of experts at the Pentagon about the aftermath of the war, and failed to plan for the contingencies those experts thought most likely to happen (and have been proven correct). This is backed by General Tommy Franks’ memoir about the war, and the statements of both Pentagon personel and Administration officials. See timelines linked above.

There is, of course, more.

John Kerry is the only other viable option. George W. Bush and his Administration have proven they are unfit to lead this country. They have proven to be incompetant, inflexible and seemingly prejudge every situation, deciding a course of action before reviewing available facts, and then refusing to change course, even when their present course proves unsustainable.

I’ll work on getting facts on why you should vote for John Kerry instead of just voting against George W. Bush, but I wanted to get these out.

This \[Iraq\] is a central part on the war on terror. They’re fighting us because they’re fighting freedom. — George W. Bush

Mr. President, Iraq would not be part of the war on terror if you hadn’t made it so. Your decision to invade was the best present anyone has ever given to Osama bin Laden. You turned Iraq into the center of the war on terror. If you hadn’t invaded, we would have the troops to use as leverage against Iran and North Korea. We would have the troops to find and nullify (ie: kill or capture) Osama bin Laden. We wouldn’t have lost over a thousand troops and turned the world against us. Saddam wasn’t a threat. Rice and Powell said so in 2001. Your own State Department and Intelligence agencies told you so.

You don’t deserve to be President. You don’t deserve to get 10% of the vote, much less have the support you have today. I hope you lose in a spectacular fashion.

I got If You Had Five Minutes With The President in the mail, and have been reading it this week. The premise of the book is that you’ve got five minutes with the President, not neccessarily Bush, but the “next” President, whoever that might be. Good premise, right? It’s too bad that the book is packed with celebrities who talk in vague terms about the same things over and over again. There are some really interesting, and entertaining pieces, especially Stephen Collins’ and Richard Belzer’s (so far, I’m about halfway through). Where the book shines is when it gets off the vague and inept Bush-bashing, the premise shines through and offers some really funny and interesting pieces.

I’m thinking about my five minutes… There’s so much I want to cover and address, yet I know that it means nothing to anyone but me. I realize that to those in power, I am nothing. You are also nothing (unless you give six digit contributions to the right people). Maybe that’s what I write about… but really, the President is the President of 280,000,000 people, and I’m just one of them, an average one at that. My salary is average. I have a wife, two kids, two cars, a mortgage, and am overweight. Yep, I’m pretty average. What politician cares about the average American? It surely isn’t anyone in power today, that’s for sure.

I’m worried about the future of our country. After getting halfway through the book, I took a good long look at how I perceive the political process and the environment today, and I’m sick of all of it. The political landscape is beset by a complete and utter lack of ethics. From Ohio’s plan to refuse registrations not printed on exactly the right paper, to the Pentagon’s blocking access to the foreign voter’s information site, to the steady stream of minority voter intimidation in the South, to the continuing abuse of campaign finance loopholes, to the continued twisting of the truth and outright lies told by the Presidential campaigns. There are no more “gentlemen politicians” in Washington.

It’s no wonder the American people are cynical. You’ve given them plenty to be cynical about. From an energy policy written by the companies it’s supposed to regulate to a presciption drug plan written by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, we have no reason to believe that anyone in the Government has our best interest at heart. Nothing the government does anymore seems to be done for the “common good”. It’s all done for money, influence or to maintain power.

Mr. President, whoever you end up being, Bush or Kerry, please restore my faith in the promise of Democracy. Do the ‘right’ thing for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do. Don’t lie to us. Listen to those who oppose your positions. Work with the “other side”. Enforce the law justly, not selectively. Don’t think you’re above the law. Please don’t think that because you’re President, or because we’re the United States of America, that the rules don’t apply to us. They do. More so, because we’re supposedly that shining city on the hill. If we’re going to be that city, and we’re going to shine, we’ve got a lot of amends to make, a lot of tarnish to remove and a lot of explaining to do to those who used to look up to us.

Please, don’t just promise to restore “honor and dignity” to the White House. Do it.

I’m sure this is just a coincedence. Right?

Well, it’s all a hoax apparently. Thanks, Leia, for the debunkery.

I just wrote mine…

Dear Senator Warner,
\
I read this story today and was\
shocked that an agency of this Government would attempt to withhold voting\
information from Americans living abroad. The explanation provided by the\
Pentagon is completely\
unreasonable, as U.S. Government sites that deal with much more sensitive\
information, and would be at much higher risk for hacking (such as\
whitehouse.gov) are available without incident through the affected ISP’s.\
This can only be a politically motivated decision, and it troubles me greatly.

This is an attempt by someone to disenfranchise thousands, if not millions,\
of American citizens, many in our Armed Forces, and it needs to be stopped\
immediately. This is an affront to one of our basic rights as citizens of this\
country, and that the Pentagon would take this step without Congressional\
approval or proper notification of the public is unacceptable.

I hope, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, you can put a stop to\
this and get answers as to why this decision was made, who made it, and see\
to it that the responsible party is properly reprimanded. Personally, I think\
the appropriate action is that whoever approved this action be removed from\
their position.

Sincerely,
\
Kevin Lawver
\
Sterling, VA

(I e-mailed McCain too)

Pentagon blocks site for voters outside U.S.

Unbelievable. Their explanation is hackers? I call B.S.. Apparently no other U.S. Government sites are blocked, just the one for Americans living overseas to register to vote, and close to the deadline for registration as well. What are you afraid of, W?

I can’t believe that our government would sink so low. How do you justify cutting off millions of Americans living abroad, including several thousand members of our armed forces, many of whom are serving in war zones created by this President, from information they need in order to cast their votes?

This goes way over the line. Whoever approved this needs to be fired today, and charged under any applicable law. This is insane. How dare they. Have they no shame?

No matter who you support, trying to take away the right to vote from any American citizen who has that right should be seen as gross misconduct and treason. We’re not talking about a floor vote on the Senate. We’re not talking about buying influence. We’re talking about trying to take away a basic right guaranteed by the Constitution. You try to take that away from any citizen who has it, you’re not fit to work for my Government.

OK, if McCain, Luger and Graham are on the President’s side, and they’re being this rough on him, how bad is it really?

It’s time for something different. This Administration will obviously never admit a mistake, much less try to correct the ones staring them in the face, even when pointed out by the most experience generals, and politicians from their own party. Without new leadership, we have no hope of getting Iraq right, or escaping it before it explodes.

I go to meetings at Church most Wednesday nights. It’s one of the many joys of being the Executive Secretary. I take notes in meetings… lots and lots of notes. I didn’t have time to change after work, so went to my meetings in my Mozilla t-shirt, which got lots of funny looks and people asking me what a “Moe-zilla” was. I gave them funny looks, and wondered to myself, “What rock do you live under that you haven’t heard of Mozilla?”

It came to me very quickly that it’s me who lives under the rock. I’m a geek. I use a Wiki. I write a blog (you’re reading it now), and have since before 90% of the blogs in existance came to be (aaaall the way back in 2000). I’ve been online for ten years, and am online, on average, for ten hours a day. I’ve installed Linux more times than I wish to count, and know why I’m supposed to hate Microsoft. I don’t live in the regular world, where computers are used for homework, and a terminal is at the airport.

I’ve been doing this so long that I don’t remember not doing it. Some days, it doesn’t feel like I speak English anymore. When confronted with the fact that 99% of the people I know outside of work don’t know anything about my world, I get confused (I was asked Sunday morning what a blog was… I almost cried).

I accept it, and am moving on, learning to cope. I’m not normal. As someone said last night, “Kevin, you’re proof that the church has some diversity in it.” I thought that was kind of a weird thing to say, until I thought about it. Yeah, I’m diverse alright. I’m a progressive Mormon geek who’s never going to come down on the side of the Religious Right or be much of a social conservative. I support the idea of gay marriage. I don’t think it’s the government’s place to define morality, no matter how the majority of the country feels about it. The majority of the country was in favor of segregation and Jim Crow laws, and look how well that worked out. I don’t like Utah. I don’t like LDS Bookstores. I don’t like those sappy stories that people tell in church because they think they’re spiritual (they’re really just emotionally manipulative). But, with all of those things that make me a “weird” Mormon, I also believe the Church is true, and I support my local leaders. I do a lot of what I’m supposed to (really, who does everything they’re supposed to?), and I’m trying to be the best person I can be… how well I’m doing at that I can’t say.

So, instead of being freaked out by the fact that I’m obviously a “minority” member of the LDS Church, I’m going to embrace it. Vive Les Weirdos, man… vive les weirdos.