beyond belief
the bush campaign has stooped to new lows by asking "church-going volunteers to turn over church membership directories" to local campaign headquarters. civil libertarians have condemned this move as a clear violation of church and state and a number of churches, including the southern baptist convention, have summarily condemned this ploy as well. i have, on occasion slammed on the sbc for intermingling faith and politics, so i have to give them the props on this one. they might be willing to turn their national convention into a virtual campaign rally for bush, but clearly they have their limits.
perhaps bush is more vulnerable than many of us expected. joe klein is reporting that the chicken-hawks are squabbling among themselves, a majority of american's have finally admitted that the 'liberation' of iraq was (suprise-surprise!) a bad idea, and bush is now blatantly whoring himself to evangelicals in a desperate attempt to win votes. dear friends, i hope that he doesn't win yours...but if he does, i'll love you anyway.
if you would like a complete record of the bush administration's (mis)statements on iraq, check out this report from the House of Representatives' Commmittee on Government Reform.
Brueggemann’s Response to “Election 2024”
1 week ago
9 comments:
dude, that is ridiculous.
Here is my question, oh leftists. Why are you going to vote for Kerry? Because of his hardline policies? Because of his beliefs? Maybe if he had any that would be worth discussing. The guy is a waffler, and his campaign is being run on the idea that, "hey, I am not Bush."
The freakin' mayor of Boston called his campaign, "incompetent."
The man so far has said, "I will do everything totally different than Bush." Yet he is yet to say HOW he is going to do everything different than Bush.
Vote for the man if you will, but it still comes down to a couple of points for me. I have a hard time voting for anyone pro-choice, which Kerry very much is. I also have a hard time voting for someone who is a waffler. Kerry is. Bush, like it or not, does what he says he will do. He does not pay much lip-service to anything. He actually has follow-through. Clinton didn't, Kerry wouldn't.
America must be getting dumber, because noone is asking Kerry, "HOW?"
soebs,
thanks for responding. i would like to answer your questions point by point, but am actually on my way out the door and the way out of town. however, i will try to answer you at length later.
i'll leave you with two quick replies. one, not being bush is enough for me. two, the fact that i am pro-life is one of the reasons that i am not voting for bush. i'll try to get this finished sometime this weekend. until then, if my esteemed colleague dr. james wants to respond, he is more than welcome to.
Yes, I will throw out a few. Agreed. I am pro-life and refuse to vote for Bush. As i see it we are over 20,000 dead as a result of an unjust war, we are breathing more carcinogenic air than we were 4 years ago, and the standard of living is, well...substandard at best. Yes, "pro-life" is about more than just abortion.
Regarding "waffleing" I'm sorry but Bush has so many waffles on his stack, he could very well start up his next failed business venture with his own line of "Waffle Houses" To name a few...how about quotes...
George Bush
Date: 1/5/2004
Quote/Claim:
"Teacher training money is up. We've increased the teacher training and recruitment budget significantly." [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
In his most recent budget, Bush proposed to freeze Teacher Quality State Grants - cutting off training opportunities for about 30,000 teachers, and leaving 92,000 less teachers trained than called for in his own No Child Left Behind bill. - House Appropriations Committee Report, 200
George Bush
Date: 9/26/2002
Quote/Claim:
“The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons…And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes.” [Source: White House Web site]
Fact:
“Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.” - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
George Bush
Date: 5/2/2000
Topic: Gay Marriage
Quote/Claim:
"[It is] going to be up for cities and states to make those decisions [about gay marriage]." [Source: CNN Web site]
Fact:
"President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage." - Sacramento Bee, 2/25/04
These are just a few of the many. Glad to hear further thoughts on the matter if you wish.
Is it just me? Or for the last couple weeks has blogger had some real problems? Every time I click on a blog, I have to reload it several times because it comes up broken, or missing...
You know, in 4 years of presidency, it is very easy to come up with changes in stances in policy. That is usually due to the fact that times change so quickly. Not to defend the man or anything. But the man said he was going to destroy the Iraqi government, and he did. His father had the chance and didn't follow through. Clinton pulled all his support from bosnia and serbia during those skirmishes, and the military will never forgive him. I have talked with many military folks (my brother included), and they have all said that people may say what they want about "dubya," but the man does what he says he is going to do.
You have successfully dodged my question though. Why are you going to vote for Kerry? You cannot argue that he is running under the idea that he is "not bush." There are many dems that are calling his campaign "incompetent" and "simple-minded." And he is not doing anything to change their minds. He has yet to lay out a plan, to say what he is going to do, to do anything, except say "I am going to do everything different than Bush."
And I am sorry, there may be more to being pro-life than abortion, but when something is causing 1.4 million lives a year?? That seems to take the front burner to me.
soebs
Your comments leave a couple of thoughts, and with all due respect...
1) You are willing to give Bush a "bye" regarding the waffling issue, due to the "changing times" or "a lot can happen in matter of 4 years". And since you are not willing to give a "bye" to Kerry (even though he has held office through the "changing times" for 15 years longer than Bush), I'm left to assume that you are completely biased to the right.
2)No one here has stated they are voting for Kerry, yet you immediately assume when one holds a criticism toward the incumbant, they must be voting for Kerry.
3)You state that "voting for Kerry because he is not Bush" is not a valid arguement. I disagree wholeheartedly. I think the majority of Americans vote on a "lesser of 2 evils" basis. To say this is not a valid argument assumes that people voting for the ideal candidate everytime. While I can give good reason for another to vote for Kerry, I would have no trouble going to polls and voting against Bush simply because he is dishonest.
4) Citing 1.4 million abortions as cause enough to throw out all other pro-life causes leads me to think you have only numbers in mind. Well how about these then...
*The Bush administrations 2002 withdrawl of a set US contribution of $34 Million dollars from the United Nations Population Fund by UNFPA estimates will "translate to two million more unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 more abortions, 4,700 more dead mothers and 77,000 deaths of children under five."
* according to Greenwatch Today, "Pollution caused by coal-burning power plants causes 24,000 premature deaths in the U.S. each year, according to a new analysis of government data released Wednesday. And while the Bush administration's Clear Skies proposal will help alleviate that problem, it will save fewer lives than any other plan under consideration – including simply retaining the laws already on the books, the analysis found."
and
* "Power-plant pollution is also responsible for 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks each year, according to the analysis, which used the same EPA data and methodology employed to develop the administration's Clear Skies plan. The report also found that 90 percent of deaths due to fine particle pollution could be avoided using currently available technology."
*20,000+ dead in the Iraq War.
*And consider this... "Between 1990 and 2000, the number of abortions dropped 18%, from an estimated 1.6 million a year to 1.3 million, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization that both sides of the debate rely on for data" Link Eight Years of this decade were under Clinton.
*And from the extreme right..."Thanks to G.W. Bush’s leadership, companies such as Planned Parenthood, the largest baby-killing conglomerate in the world, will get taxpayer funding. Planned Parenthood was responsible for the deaths of 227,385 Americans in 2002 alone...Under Bush, this baby-killing organization has received more tax-funds than under Clinton! Thanks in large part due to government handouts under President Bush, Planned Parenthood raked in a hefty $36.6 million profit in its last fiscal year." Link.
You've got a shallow case if you're just running on abortion numbers alone.
soebs and james,
thanks for the dialogue. i am going to wait before fully exposing/explaining my political convictions...but rest assured that i tend to take up arms with dr. james.
I am getting ready to leave the country for awhile, but just to quickly combat #2.
And I quote: "dear friends, i hope that he doesn't win yours...but if he does, i'll love you anyway." (Jeff Gentry, via this blog.)
That is in the very post we are commenting to.
And if you think both candidates are evil, isn't it silly to vote for either of them? The logic of voting for the lesser evil is ridiculous! I will not vote for someone whom I view as evil period. I would rather vote for "baby doe."
just to clarify...
as james noted, i never directly supported kerry's candidacy on my blog. however, as soebs assumed, i am indeed a kerry supporter. i even have the bumper sticker and 'real deal' t-shirt to prove it. i'll be wearing the latter to a xenos home church meeting tomorrow night in the hopes that i can convince a few members of columbus' shrinking republican base to disembark W's ship of fools.
my favorite bushism of the last week: "one of the great admonitions in the Good Book is, don't try to take a speck out of your eye if I've got a log in my own" (courtesy of whitehouse.gov).
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