Today's post is going to be slightly random and full of links of all kinds. Tom returned towards Iraq today. I'd like to thank everyone who, genuinely and without slogan-tossing, were nice enough to give my brother some kind words and encouragement while he was home.
Remember how Florida was going to clean up it's act and electronic voting machines would fix the mess of punch cards and hanging chads? Well, according to Jimmy Carter and others, Florida is STILL not addressing the problem. According to FOXNews (there, I linked from them...now get off my back) and via Slashdot, even a chimpanzee can hack a voting machine. And one hack blames recent hurricane patterns for the way the state voted last time. Which is not to say his information - if true - isn't still creepy.
Bonus quote from the Father Knows Best Department:
"To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero ... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability."
- George H.W. Bush
1998
Oops.
That's not all Junior forgot about. There's also the pre-war assessment that warned of the current violence (use wallenfeldt and guest for access - and keep it handy, I have more Times stories following), which, like all actual intelligence was probably just ignored. As for the Arab issue, MSNBC tackles that here. And despite the lack of WMDs, despite any ties between Iraq and the people we actually should be fighting, Bush says he'd do it all over again. Unbelievable, coming from a man who swears he values life and personal dignity.
It's a sham people. Wake up.
Florida is asking where their National Guardmen are in their time of need. Women are asking why this administration threatens their social status (the site has more general info as well). Scientists oppose the administration for their Dark Ages approach to progress, especially as the government forces EPA employees to shut up as other agencies trade needed legislation for votes or just plain silence. Meanwhile the Bush administration attempts to take health care away from even more children even while they break federal laws in trying to reform Medicare. Tony Blair admits some fault in the run-up to war and even Colin Powell confesses to a bad situation as the lies about Iraq grow from the Oval Office and our troops do the best they can in an untenable situation. They even want to jack up the price of milk to get Wisconsin dairy farmers to vote for Bush (use wallenfeldt1 and visitor to login). You call this honest government? I call it BS and it has to stop.
Look, the guy can't even get an endorsement from his adopted hometown's newspaper (with saved PDF version in case the site goes down again). In the interest of fairness (find THAT on FOXNews, HA!) many residents are die-hard Bush supporters. Being mostly white ranchers and farmers with little to fear from the guy, I suppose I could see that. Almost. In an "I don't know anyone different nor want to" type mentality.
In all this, Bush supporters falsely claim that liberals are out to ban the Bible as they dragoon interested voters into working their phone banks. With all this screening, it appears George is just plain scared of hearing what real Americans have to say (use wallenfeldt and visitor). Pity, he could learn a lot from us, especially those who have lost family in his vendetta war. Plus, despite Bill O'Reilly's fantasyland claims that the Daily Show viewers are stoners, they are (disclaimer: WE watch it and are not pot smokers) more intelligent than the hate-filled Neanderthals that listen to his raving drivel. The Tulsa police did the honorable and legal thing and stood down when the Secret Service told them to arrest law-abiding Bush protesters. Of course, there's the whole thing where conservatives think they are the only patriots in this country, even as they cheer on a pack of tools tearing up our Constitution. Lovely.
Lies, coercion, avoidance, threats, anger, misrepresentation. This is neither moral nor ethical behavior. Some of you may still think I am making this up. But I'm not, and the weight of proof of this administration's disrespect for life, truth, and democracy is out their in droves. You just have to open your eyes.
And, apparently this month's Reader's Digest has an article letting people know their vote doesn't count. I can't find it online yet, but peruse a copy in your supermarket checkout aisle. You'll find it between fine publications like National Enquirer and Soap Opera Digest.
One last note. I heard a lot of people thank my brother for protecting their freedom with his service in Iraq. He never said anything about it - mostly because he can't given military orders - but I could tell the phrase commonly threw him off. I imagine it is the same for a lot of our armed forces members. So, I'll ask the question they can't - and probably wouldn't ask anyway. If we, by some awful measure, end up considering Iraq as a lost war, do we actually lose our freedom? It is a ludicrous statement, but bears inspection given the propaganda fueling the debate.
Or is that what is done merely by voting for Bush? Please, honor our troops service, but don't put the burden of one man's mania on their shoulders. They have enough concerns to deal with without any extra being placed on them.
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