Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Pussy is Just Another Word For Bush
Now I'm a registered Independent, but I admit a real lack of liking for George W. I just simply think he's not a good president. I'm not swayed by his leadership after 9/11, though I think he did a good job bringing us all together in the days following. The problem being that since then he's managed to be one of the most divisive Presidents in recent history. He and his party do a magnificent job of framing all the debates and if you are naive (like most of the country seems to be) you're going to hear what he has to say and like it.
From Clean Air Act to Healthy Forest Initiatives to "protecting marriage" and ensuring the rights of the unborn child I find him to be free with the rhetoric and exclusionary and destructive with the actions.
All this said the issue of Bush's time in the National Guard is being brought up again. It appears now, despite the release of all the documents, that he skipped out on his time. So Bush is a wimp. Big deal. This is not only not shocking it seems to be a dead-end story.
Unlike Kerry's time in Vietnam, the American public doesn't seem all the interested in what seems to be the obvious end to the story. It's not surprising seeing how the recent trend in the far-right is that wrong is wrong, unless it's one of us and then it's forgivable and admirable that whomever suffered through the issue came out the other side.
Whether that be Cheney's five deferments, Bush ducking service, the dichotomy of Hollywood and Republicans versus those liberal hollywoodians who have no place having an opinion or Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction and scam to score the drugs, it's all water of a blue duck's back.
In the end I don't have too many problems with most of this. I'm too young for the Vietnam fights and find that I don't care who served and who didn't. Not only that, I'm a coward, if a war started today I'd either go back to school or head to Canada or maybe I'd go to school in Canada. Either way I don't begrudge anyone for having served. I do admire Kerry for going and then for having the courage to come out and speak his mind about his time there. Many who have been critical of him haven't read the transcripts. He did talk about atrocities, but he didn't blame the soldiers, but rather the pencil pushers and people in the Pentagon for putting the soldiers in the position in the first place and for keeping score of the way with body bags.
As far as actors having opinions... more power to them, just so long as the lemmings out there remember that the stars opinions are no more valid than your own and shouldn't be regarded as tablets handed down from the mount.
Drug addiction strikes all sorts of people and they all deserve some semblance of sympathy if only because it's sad to see lives wasted. I will say this though, it would be nice if everyone who had the problems could also go to the exclusive rehab clinics and make $20 million a year.
All of these things are interesting, but ultimately are unimportant. We see a lot of time wasted on all of them detracting from time spent on more important things like, oh I don't know....oh yes I do...the issues.
You know them. The ones that actually impact us. I wish the general public was more interested as a whole in what was going on, but the truth is that most people have one issue that sways them one way or another. It's not really their fault, the real issues are obfuscated and we've heard enough of the politicians talking about how they all lie that we now believe them so why bother listening or even voting for people who are just out to make a buck for themselves in the first place.
Ultimately something has to change. People are calling this the most important election in a generation. I don't know that is true. If Bush wins, not much changes, our influence outside the country continues to decline, our social issues slide more to the fundamental side, but I think this also invigorates the left to greater action and you'd see a mid-term change in the house and Senate.
This would probably be more important than a simple Kerry victory anyway. We could finally get some fight amongst the house and presidency. As of now, Bush has yet to veto a single bill, that's not exactly balance.
Kerry winning the White House just wouldn't provide the same kind of fight I think the Democrats really need. I think a Kerry win would provide a chance for complacency which is the last thing the left needs these days.
All this said I still say vote for Kerry. At the very least, don't be a dumbass, vote.
From Clean Air Act to Healthy Forest Initiatives to "protecting marriage" and ensuring the rights of the unborn child I find him to be free with the rhetoric and exclusionary and destructive with the actions.
All this said the issue of Bush's time in the National Guard is being brought up again. It appears now, despite the release of all the documents, that he skipped out on his time. So Bush is a wimp. Big deal. This is not only not shocking it seems to be a dead-end story.
Unlike Kerry's time in Vietnam, the American public doesn't seem all the interested in what seems to be the obvious end to the story. It's not surprising seeing how the recent trend in the far-right is that wrong is wrong, unless it's one of us and then it's forgivable and admirable that whomever suffered through the issue came out the other side.
Whether that be Cheney's five deferments, Bush ducking service, the dichotomy of Hollywood and Republicans versus those liberal hollywoodians who have no place having an opinion or Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction and scam to score the drugs, it's all water of a blue duck's back.
In the end I don't have too many problems with most of this. I'm too young for the Vietnam fights and find that I don't care who served and who didn't. Not only that, I'm a coward, if a war started today I'd either go back to school or head to Canada or maybe I'd go to school in Canada. Either way I don't begrudge anyone for having served. I do admire Kerry for going and then for having the courage to come out and speak his mind about his time there. Many who have been critical of him haven't read the transcripts. He did talk about atrocities, but he didn't blame the soldiers, but rather the pencil pushers and people in the Pentagon for putting the soldiers in the position in the first place and for keeping score of the way with body bags.
As far as actors having opinions... more power to them, just so long as the lemmings out there remember that the stars opinions are no more valid than your own and shouldn't be regarded as tablets handed down from the mount.
Drug addiction strikes all sorts of people and they all deserve some semblance of sympathy if only because it's sad to see lives wasted. I will say this though, it would be nice if everyone who had the problems could also go to the exclusive rehab clinics and make $20 million a year.
All of these things are interesting, but ultimately are unimportant. We see a lot of time wasted on all of them detracting from time spent on more important things like, oh I don't know....oh yes I do...the issues.
You know them. The ones that actually impact us. I wish the general public was more interested as a whole in what was going on, but the truth is that most people have one issue that sways them one way or another. It's not really their fault, the real issues are obfuscated and we've heard enough of the politicians talking about how they all lie that we now believe them so why bother listening or even voting for people who are just out to make a buck for themselves in the first place.
Ultimately something has to change. People are calling this the most important election in a generation. I don't know that is true. If Bush wins, not much changes, our influence outside the country continues to decline, our social issues slide more to the fundamental side, but I think this also invigorates the left to greater action and you'd see a mid-term change in the house and Senate.
This would probably be more important than a simple Kerry victory anyway. We could finally get some fight amongst the house and presidency. As of now, Bush has yet to veto a single bill, that's not exactly balance.
Kerry winning the White House just wouldn't provide the same kind of fight I think the Democrats really need. I think a Kerry win would provide a chance for complacency which is the last thing the left needs these days.
All this said I still say vote for Kerry. At the very least, don't be a dumbass, vote.
