Tuesday, 07 September 2004, 22:20:34 EDT

I think I will listen to Use Your Illusion I as I write this post. It seems strangely fitting.

If you live in the state of Georgia you have until October 4 to register to vote. If you don't live in Georgia, or you just want to read the rule for yourself, you can check out the State Registration Deadline document. If you want to save yourself some time and fill out the form ahead of time just browse through the PDF directory for your state, Georgia in my case, and print it out. If you are truly lazy here is the document that works for every state except for the following: Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, and Ohio. Voter registration in Georgia is a county affair; to find out where your local registration office is you can browse the Secretary of State's home page. In particular, you are looking for this page.

A number of you must be wondering about my political awakening. I suppose it started on the morning of 11 September 2001. Just as every other morning my television turned on at about 8:50AM to awaken me. I expected to hear the insanely annoying Today Show; I heard something that woke me up much quicker than Katie Couric's annoying drivel. I heard people talking about a plane crashing into a buliding. That event has been a significant turning point for this country. In my opinion it has been used for ill means. Legislation such as the Patriot Act has been passed as a result of it. Please, understand that I am all for empowering the authorities to do their job but I am not all for writing away the Fifth Amendment (among others). If you think I am kidding then you can re-read my rant about this very subject.

Of the two candidates that I know anything about right now I don't believe either is worth my vote. If it were not for at least one proposed amendment to the Constitution I would probably abstain and say that is my vote because as far as I know there isn't a "these people are all morons" option on the ballot. The BBC has a decent overview of the three main candidate's stances on key issues.

Concerning Bush, the only thing I think he has done a good job of is stepping up and kicking ass when it needs to be kicked. I do not, however, agree with redefining "hostile aggression" as "pre-emptive strike". I do not agree with putting on a front of supposed intelligence as a reason to go to war and then changing tunes when the intelligence proves less than accurate. Tell me the real reason for the war at the beginning; if it is a good one I might agree with it.

That is basically the only thing that makes him worthy of the position in my opinion. Throwing people in a navy brig without trial or right to attorney, allowing the Bill of Rights to be eroded, and actively seeking amendments to further erode civil rights do not make him worthy of the position. It doesn't help that the man is none too bright either (the link is a funny video).

Bush's strongest opponent? What can I say other than I can not bring myself to support a man who refuses to talk about current issues at all but instead prefers to talk about a completely irrelevant period between 1968 and 1969. He either needs to put up or shut up and go home.

I am looking for someone who supports things such as the Fair Tax Act, free speech, the right to due process, and not being a complete moron.

To surmise, I suggest you watch as much video from C-SPAN as possible, particularly the Democratic and Republican conventions, and do as much reading as you can stomach to try and see past the illusions. A couple more good sites for you are:



Well, the CD is coming to an end (literally) and I need to do some homework before bed. I didn't cover as much as I had wanted to; I originally hinted at writing this post on 15 August 2004. I have been trying to gather my thoughts on it but it is just too much. I will leave you with one last link though. You will need a BitTorrent client but the videos are good: http://dv.open4all.info/

Categories:

If you want to know the real reason we went to war...

It would be folly to brush aside as coincidence the fact that both presidents to engage in war with Iraq were from the same family. I think that GWB was just cleaning up house by taking out Saddam this time.

We also needed a scapegoat because we couldn't find Osama in the attention timespan of our media.

Posted by Mr Frosti on Saturday, 11 September 2004, 19:49:51 EDT.

That is a pile of crap.

I will agree that there would be some vindictiveness factored in because of the assassination attempt on his father by Saddam but no one is that stupid. I believe he authorized action based on more credible reasons than pure spite.

As I said, watch, and read, better information than CNN and Fox News. That is the kind of tripe that you will get from there.

Posted by James Sumners on Saturday, 11 September 2004, 23:58:41 EDT.