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Liberal TreeHugger

I am a conservative but unlike the current breed of "conservatives" I do not believe that the Republican Party is conservative. The current administration is hell bent on spending money taking away rights and playing a shell game with our taxes. I am starting this post to be a direct assault on the radical conservative movement that seeks to distort the record, lie and dupe the American voters into believing they care, are right, and are conservative.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

more reason

Special to The Courier-Journal
I shall cast my vote for John Kerry come Nov 2. I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White House, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions. I fall in the category of good conservative thinkers, like George F. Will, for instance, who wrote: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and having thought, to have second thoughts."
I say, well done George Will, or, even better, from the mouth of the numero uno of conservatives, William F. Buckley Jr.: "If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war."
First, let's talk about George Bush's moral standards. In 2000, to defeat Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. — a man who was shot down in Vietnam and imprisoned for over five years — they used Carl Rove's "East Texas special." They started the rumor that he was gay, saying he had spent too much time in the Hanoi Hilton. They said he was crazy. They said his wife was on drugs. Then, to top it off, they spread pictures of his adopted daughter, who was born in Bangladesh and thus dark skinned, to the sons and daughters of the Confederacy in rural South Carolina.
To show he was not just picking on Republicans, he went after Sen. Max Cleland from Georgia, a Democrat seeking re-election. Bush henchmen said he wasn't patriotic because Cleland did not agree 100 percent on how to handle homeland security. They published his picture along with Cuba's Castro, questioning Cleland's patriotism and commitment to America's security. Never mind that his Republican challenger was a Vietnam deferment case and Cleland, who had served in Vietnam, came home in a wheel chair having lost three limbs fighting for his country. Anyone who wants to win an election and control of the legislative body that badly has no moral character at all.
We know his father got him in the Texas Air National Guard so he would not have to go to Vietnam. The religious right can have him with those moral standards. We also have Vice President Dick Cheney, who deferred his way out of Vietnam because, as he says, he "had more important things to do."
I have just turned 78. During my lifetime, we have sent 31,377,741 Americans to war, not including whatever will be the final figures for the Iraq fiasco. Of those, 502,722 died and 928,980 came home without legs, arms or what have you.
Those wars were to defend freedom throughout the free world from communism, dictators and tyrants. Now Americans are the aggressors — we start the wars, we blow up all the infrastructure in those countries, and then turn around and spend tax dollars denying our nation an excellent education system, medical and drug programs, and the list goes on. ...
I hope you all have noticed the Bush administration's style in the campaign so far. All negative, trashing Sen. John Kerry, Sen. John Edwards and Democrats in general. Not once have they said what they have done right, what they have done wrong or what they have not done at all.
Lyndon Johnson said America could have guns and butter at the same time. This administration says you can have guns, butter and no taxes at the same time. God help us if we are not smart enough to know that is wrong, and we live by it to our peril. We in this nation have a serious problem. Its almost worse than terrorism: We are broke. Our government is borrowing a billion dollars a day. They are now borrowing from the government pension program, for apparently they have gotten as much out of the Social Security Trust as it can take. Our House and Senate announce weekly grants for every kind of favorite local programs to save legislative seats, and it's all borrowed money.
If you listened to the President confirming the value of our war with Iraq, you heard him say, "If no weapons of mass destruction were found, at least we know we have stopped his future distribution of same to terrorists." If that is his justification, then, if he is re elected our next war will be against Iran and at the same time North Korea, for indeed they have weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons, which they have readily admitted. Those wars will require a draft of men and women. ...
I am not enamored with John Kerry, but I am frightened to death of George Bush. I fear a secret government. I abhor a government that refuses to supply the Congress with requested information. I am against a government that refuses to tell the country with whom the leaders of our country sat down and determined our energy policy, and to prove how much they want to keep that secret, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Those of you who are fiscal conservatives and abhor our staggering debt, tell your conservative friends, "Vote for Kerry," because without Bush to control the Congress, the first thing lawmakers will demand Kerry do is balance the budget.
The wonderful thing about this country is its gift of citizenship, then it's freedom to register as one sees fit. For me, as a Republican, I feel that when my party gives me a dangerous leader who flouts the truth, takes the country into an undeclared war and then adds a war on terrorism to it without debate by the Congress, we have a duty to rid ourselves of those who are taking our country on a perilous ride in the wrong direction.
If we are indeed the party of Lincoln (I paraphrase his words), a president who deems to have the right to declare war at will without the consent of the Congress is a president who far exceeds his power under our Constitution.
I will take John Kerry for four years to put our country on the right path.
The writer, a Republican formerly of Louisville, was Jefferson County judge from 1962-1968 and U.S. senator from Kentucky from 1968-1975.

The other side, or an answer to the Rabid dog that is Zell Miller

Why this Republican Ex-Governor will be Voting for Kerry
Elmer L. Andersen, Former Republican Governor of Minnesota Minneapolis Star Tribune Wednesday 13 October 2004
" Throughout my tenure and beyond as the 30th governor of this state, I have been steadfastly aligned -- and until recently, proudly so -- with the Minnesota Republican Party.
It dismays me, therefore, to have to publicly disagree with the national Republican agenda and the national Republican candidate but, this year, I must.
The two "Say No to Bush" signs in my yard say it all.
The present Republican president has led us into an unjustified war -- based on misguided and blatantly false misrepresentations of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The terror seat was Afghanistan. Iraq had no connection to these acts of terror and was not a serious threat to the United States, as this president claimed, and there was no relation, it's now obvious, to any serious weaponry. Although Saddam Hussein is a frightful tyrant, he posed no threat to the United States when we entered the war. George W. Bush's arrogant actions to jump into Iraq when he had no plan how to get out have alienated the United States from our most trusted allies and weakened us immeasurably around the world.
Also, if there as well had been proper and careful coordination of services and intelligence on Sept. 11, 2001, that horrific disaster might also have been averted. But it was a separate event from this brutal mess of a war, and the disingenuous linking of the wholly unrelated situation in Iraq to 9/11 by this administration is not supported by the facts.
Sen. John Kerry was correct when he said that seemingly it is only Bush and Dick Cheney who still believe their own spin. Both men spew outright untruths with evangelistic fervor. For Bush -- a man who chose to have his father help him duck service in the military during the Vietnam War -- to disparage and cast doubt on the medals Kerry won bravely and legitimately in the conflict of battle is a travesty.
For Cheney to tell the hand-picked, like-minded Republican crowds in Des Moines last month that to vote for John Kerry could mean another attack like that of 9/11 is reprehensible. Moreover, such false statements encourage more terrorist attacks rather than prevent them.
A far smaller transgression, but one typical of his stop-at-nothing tactics, was Cheney's assertion in last Wednesday's vice-presidential debate that he'd never met Sen. John Edwards until that night. The next day -- and the media must stay ever-vigilant at fact-checking the lies of this ticket -- news reports, to the contrary, showed four video clips of Edwards and Cheney sitting next to each other during the past five years.
In both presidential debates, Kerry has shown himself to be of far superior intellect and character than Bush. He speaks honestly to the American people, his ethics are unimpeachable and, clearly, with 20 respected years in the Senate, he has far better credentials to lead the country than did Bush when he was elected four years ago. And a far greater depth of understanding of domestic and foreign affairs to do it now.
Not that the sitting president has ever really been at the helm.
I am more fearful for the state of this nation than I have ever been -- because this country is in the hands of an evil man: Dick Cheney. It is eminently clear that it is he who is running the country, not George W. Bush.
Bush's phony posturing as cocksure leader of the free world -- symbolized by his victory symbol on the aircraft carrier and "mission accomplished" statement -- leave me speechless. The mission had barely been started, let alone finished, and 18 months later it still rages on. His ongoing "no-regrets," no-mistakes stance and untruths on the war -- as well as on the floundering economy and Bush administration joblessness -- also disappoint and worry me.
Liberal Republicans of my era and mind-set used to have a humane and reasonable platform. We advocated the importance of higher education, health care for all, programs for children at risk, energy conservation and environmental protection. Today, Bush and Cheney give us clever public relations names for programs -- need I say "No Child Left Behind? -- but a lack of funding to support them. Early childhood education programs and overall health care are woefully underfunded. We have not only the largest number ever of medically uninsured in this nation, our infant mortality rates, once among the lowest in the world, have worsened to 27th.
As taxes for the wealthy are being cut, jobs are being outsourced if not lost and children are homeless and uninsured, this administration is running up the biggest deficit in U.S. history -- bound to be a terrible burden for future generations.
This imperialistic, stubborn adherence to wrongful policies and known untruths by the Cheney-Bush administration -- and that's the accurate order -- has simply become more than I can stand.
Although I am a longtime Republican, it is time to make a statement, and it is this: Vote for Kerry-Edwards, I implore you, on Nov. 2."

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Fazed

I have to admit that I am totally amazed that less than five days to go and about half of the people in America seem to still believe that he is "just a regular guy" and really down to earth.

I find it hard to believe that more people do not look at the evidence.
The Bible tells us "by their fruits you shall know them" so let's look at the fruits that Bush has produced (Aside from those FINE twins, which Laura gets credit for) ... Okay we have A HUGE deficit... Oh and we have MASSIVE unemployment after the really great tax cut that made everyone better off.

(fun fact) You can't make lemon bars without a LOT of sugar....

Err.... come to find a few things are missing. (W'sMD...) Ummm..... like TONS of Super Duper high explosives. Explosives that the UN Security task force had sealed prior to getting kicked out before the invasion. Explosives that we knew about. Explosives that could have been accounted for if we were not so busy sending the troops to protect the Palaces and the Oil Ministry...

So THAT's how these dirty arabs have been killing our honorable son's and daughters, and business people, and journalists, and their own Police, and more random people.
Well!
Well done Bush!
Nice Command from the Commander who said that the Mission was accomplished in Iraq, and the Dick Cheney who said that the Iraqis would be cheering and Loving the American Liberators. And Rummy... Ahh Rummy. How I loath you.

More Fruit!

Personal debt- all time high
Bankruptcies- talk about you Bankruptcies!
petty crime - rising...
Perhaps Iraq is not the only place that needs a well staffed police force.
Underfunded mandates. No Child Left a Dime
Orwellian lingo, like "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" that actually are going to end up defiling the Air we all breathe and destroying the Forests that my Brother has never seen and will probably not see this year.... Thanksgiving ....
So four more years of Bush should just about do us in.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Debate, or how to say the same thing over and over again

Bush is a parrot. Kerry at least knows what he is talking about. Bush tries desperatly to appeal to the Middle Class in America. His whole Political Persona is based on his being a plain ole' ordinary country guy. Just a cowboy out on the range.

He tried to say that he was looking out for ordinary Americans and cited the Pell Grants as an accomplishment. Well, the Truth has never been an area where this President has been familiar with. The reality is much less attractive than you would be led to believe if you listen to Bush.

"In the 2000 campaign, Bush promised a maximum grant of $5,100 for each freshman. When Bush released his budget in February, it capped the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,050 for the third year in a row, and the American Association of Community Colleges called it a freeze that would be "a severe blow" to students from low-income families at a time of declining state and local support for public higher education. The White House has argued that the program has a $3.7 billion shortfall, and that raising the maximum award while making the shortfall worse would be irresponsible..."

Talk about Flip Flopping!

No Child Left A Dime

Bush's 2004 budget cut funding for after-school programs from $1 billion to $600 million
It was probably waste anyway though. You know how this Presiden likes to cut spending... Uhh well spending on anything but Bombs.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that spending on the war on terrorism and homeland security is responsible for only a small portion of the overall reversal of the deficit, while Bush's tax cuts account for much of the reduction resulting from policy initiatives.
The War is an area where Bush can spend as much as he likes. He can say "look I'm just trying to keep you safe from the shadowy terrorists, the forces of darkness, evildoers, haters and extermists. I have to spend this money because we cannot give in to terror." But we are doing just that. We are giving in to terror. We are allowing this President to lead us down a path of dispair and fear, giving up Civil Rights and creating an atmosphere of mistrust an xenophobia.
Great!
If Bush thinks we should lead the World by example then what the next few years hold for us is a World full of bombs, guns, and W's MD. Isolationism, fear, and desperation. THat is where this President's vision will take the Country.
Personally I'd rather have a President like Kerry who at least wants to try and be civil with the other nations. Anyone who says that it doesn't matter what Germany or France thinks about us 'cause "we are just gonna kick their f*(^g Ass" has never left home. The fact is that other countries are as civilized and have better standards of living in a lot of cases.
The way Bush discredits Federal Healthcare is another example of his double and triple standards. If you use his logic, anything that the Federal Government does is wasteful and innefficient. Why then does he want Homeland Security to be a Federal agency? Why do we have a Military? the answer that he will never give is that there are some services that can not be provided by the private sector as efficently and comprehensively as a Federal program. He should tell all the people living in Europe that their Healthcare system sucks and see how they react.... Oh wait they already have reacted to him... They HATE him. Arrogant, swaggering and dismissive. Great qualities for an asshole but not a President of America.
The debate was a waste of time. Nothing new was said. I hate the whole process. No real questions. Just crap. I am already tired and the heat is just starting to get cranked up.
Any thoughts?

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

The War President

SO there is a lot of divisiveness in America right now.

Republicans and Democrats both think they are right.
I hear "conservatives" and "liberals" (mostly "conservatives" though, they seem to think that once they have a label like that then they are always right and if anybody disagrees with them then they are "liberals" and therefore wrong) talking about why they are right and the other side is wrong.
I hear Bush talking about terror and war and waging war and defending America and "Freedom Loving People" and "Haters" (he really called the Democrats haters. Ah Priceless) but I don't hear him talking about the millions of people that disagree with his policies.
He is supposed to represent American values, not enact his own.
He was not hired as the CEO.
He was (argueably) elected to represent Americans and uphold the Constitution of the USA.

The fact that he refuses to acknowledge divergent opinions should make and true Conservative take issue with him. The fact that he is directly violating the seperation clause of the Constitution should concern everyone (even Christians) because regardless of personal belief the responsibility of the President is to uphold the Constitution.
Even if we did hire him to be the CEO I think we have a problem.
If you were a shareholder and your CEO decided to say change the core business function, like the CEO of Nike deciding that from this point forward they would make network routers and stop making athletic supplies, then when the shareholders took issue with it he said, "this is the direction we are going in. I prayed and God told me to do this." He would be fired.
He would be fired because he violated the charter.
He took the company in a direction that it was never intended to go in.
Now as voters and taxpayers we are like the shareholders of a really big company. It is our responsibility to make sure that our CEO (president) is listening to the shareholders. If the shareholders of a corporation say 'divest our widget holdings and focus on the divot manufacturing' and the CEO invests all the capital in widgets he is violating the trust that the shareholders have placed in him.
When Bush stands up in front of Millions of Americans as they protest and says you are a "focus group" he is disregarding the voices of his shareholders.
Even if you think $125.00 of a tax return is a great thing you have to realize that this President is acting as if America is his company.
He is acting as if no one else matters when it comes to the decision making for the direction that the Country needs to head. We have a name for that type of person and I believe it is called a Dictator.
He is using his position to gain personal wealth and creating divisions in America and in the World.

Now there may be people who don't care about how America is viewed in the World. I understand that sentiment. I grew up in Georgia. In the South, more often than not, people want to see bombs drop. They want to see bullets fly and bodies shipped around in bags. They like gravestones. It makes them feel good that America is killing people because then we have an enemy. They feel this way because that was how they were raised.
Very few people who have served in a war zone want to see it again. Very few people who think about the sanctity of human life (something I think Christians would understand) want to see a war. Terrorisim has existed for a long time. As long as there is a millitary industrial complex in control of the government we will have terrorists. They are essential for the sale of arms to continue.
So that brings me to my main point. If Bush really wanted to end terrorism he would stop the mass production of bombs, guns, landmines, nuclear weapons, fighter jets, bombers, warships. etc.... He does nothing about the cause of the terror because his power in America is dependent on making the majority of Americans afraid. Fear is his only real tool and he wields is without compunction.
If Bush wanted to bring America together he would acknowledge the divergent opionions and work to incorporate them into his policies. But he does not want that. He wants the 'conservatives' and the 'liberals' to hate each other. He wants the keep America busy and distracted so that while the 'conservatives' say we are right and anybody that supports a Democrat is weak minded he can plunder the treasury. Whlie the Democrats are trying to appeal to the simple minded masses they are constantly forced to find ways where they are similar to the Republicans so that the masses will not feel like they will be faced with a real paradigm shift if the vote for a Democrat. It is a really slick setup that we are dealing with. Really smart people are falling for the gag. Really well intentioned Americans think that we are truly in grave danger and should give up our rights so that we can be more safe.
In the mean time Bush is making the world look like a very scary place. He is helping the cause by giving the terrorists exactly what they thought we would become. I think a name needs to be added to the Axis of Evil and George W Bush is that name.

go here for laughs

http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4041

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Bush Lies! I wish he didn't but he does

Here is a well documented case of some lying that Bush will be doing tomorrow night. Granted Kerry will not stick to the God's truth but at least the basis of his argument is not steeped in distortions or ... Lies
Go get it Bro. Oh and try not to take cheap shots at my liberal thinking. That serves nothing. If you want to convince me I'm wrong, stop insulting my intelligence

Checking the Facts, in Advance
October 12, 2004
By PAUL KRUGMAN


It's not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds
increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight
lies or distortions you'll hear, and the truth about each:
Jobs


Mr. Bush will talk about the 1.7 million jobs
created since the summer of 2003, and will say that the
economy is "strong and getting stronger." That's like
boasting about getting a D on your final exam, when you
flunked the midterm and needed at least a C to pass the
course.
Mr. Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to
preside over a decline in payroll employment. That's worse
than it sounds because the economy needs around 1.6 million
new jobs each year just to keep up with population growth.
The past year's job gains, while better news than earlier
job losses, barely met this requirement, and they did
little to close the huge gap between the number of jobs the
country needs and the number actually available.
Unemployment


Mr. Bush will boast about the decline in
the unemployment rate from its June 2003 peak. But the
employed fraction of the population didn't rise at all;
unemployment declined only because some of those without
jobs stopped actively looking for work, and therefore
dropped out of the unemployment statistics. The labor force
participation rate - the fraction of the population either
working or actively looking for work - has fallen sharply
under Mr. Bush; if it had stayed at its January 2001 level,
the official unemployment rate would be 7.4 percent.
The deficit


Mr. Bush will claim that the recession and
9/11 caused record budget deficits. Congressional Budget
Office estimates show that tax cuts caused about two-thirds
of the 2004 deficit.
The tax cuts


Mr. Bush will claim that Senator John Kerry opposed "middle
class" tax cuts. But budget office numbers show that most
of Mr. Bush's tax cuts went to the best-off 10 percent of
families, and more than a third went to the top 1 percent,
whose average income is more than $1 million.
The Kerry tax plan


Mr. Bush will claim, once again,
that Mr. Kerry plans to raise taxes on many small
businesses. In fact, only a tiny percentage would be
affected. Moreover, as Mr. Kerry correctly pointed out last
week, the administration's definition of a small-business
owner is so broad that in 2001 it included Mr. Bush, who
does indeed have a stake in a timber company - a business
he's so little involved with that he apparently forgot
about it.
Fiscal responsibility


Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry proposes $2 trillion in
new spending. That's a partisan number and is much higher
than independent estimates. Meanwhile, as The Washington
Post pointed out after the Republican convention, the
administration's own numbers show that the cost of the
agenda Mr. Bush laid out "is likely to be well in excess of
$3 trillion" and "far eclipses that of the Kerry plan."
Spending


On Friday, Mr. Bush claimed that he had
increased nondefense discretionary spending by only 1
percent per year. The actual number is 8 percent, even
after adjusting for inflation. Mr. Bush seems to have
confused his budget promises - which he keeps on breaking -
with reality.
Health care


Mr. Bush will claim that Mr. Kerry wants to take medical
decisions away from individuals. The Kerry plan would
expand Medicaid (which works like Medicare), ensuring that
children, in particular, have health insurance. It would
protect everyone against catastrophic medical expenses, a
particular help to the chronically ill. It would do nothing
to restrict patients' choices.
By singling out Mr. Bush's lies and misrepresentations, am
I saying that Mr. Kerry isn't equally at fault? Yes.
Mr. Kerry sometimes uses verbal shorthand that offers
nitpickers things to complain about. He talks of 1.6
million lost jobs; that's the private-sector loss, partly
offset by increased government employment. But the job
record is indeed awful. He talks of the $200 billion cost
of the Iraq war; actual spending is only $120 billion so
far. But nobody doubts that the war will cost at least
another $80 billion. The point is that Mr. Kerry can, at
most, be accused of using loose language; the thrust of his
statements is correct.
Mr. Bush's statements, on the other hand, are fundamentally
dishonest. He is insisting that black is white, and that
failure is success. Journalists who play it safe by
spending equal time exposing his lies and parsing Mr.
Kerry's choice of words are betraying their readers

Friday, October 08, 2004

The Debate

So it seems to me that for a man who is a MBA and has gone to Harvard and Yale, our President would be able to come up with more than this idiotic simpleminded good ole boy persona. If he were trying to win best picture I could see it but the fact is he is running for President.

I wish that Kerry had said more about how poorly this administration has done on the Environment.
Arsenic in drinking water
Would have been an easy hit, but he let it slide.

Bush still repeats the same things over and over. I noticed that he took a new saying from Uncle Dick and attacked Kerry's voting record. Attacked his being on the job.

Bush as far as I remember has spent more time on vacation than any hardworking American Small Business owner EVER gets. As we begin to see Bush talk we see a man who has been tutored by scheming, Machiavellian shadow people. A man who when left to speak his mind says things like "misunderestimate me", and calls his opponent Sen. Kennedy. A man who said that the terrorists are cunning and never stop thinking of ways to hurt us and neither do I. He exists because a lot of Americans are unwilling to accept that he is lying to them. That he is pretending to be whom and what he is. Look at his policies. Look at where the money comes from and where it goes. THAT is the true nature of this President. These are the principals of the Bush Administration;
Cronyism, Graft, Theocracy and Greed
Kerry won the exchange as to who is the better Statesman. I think it was the answer to the young woman (Uma Thurman look alike) who asked about her tax money going to fund abortions. Kerry was right to define a difference, and a distinct difference between him and Bush, that his personal beliefs did not override his duty to uphold the Constitution of the USA. He explained what many before him have had to do. Separate their personal beliefs (and here I have to say what the he11 was Bush saying about Dredd Scott????!!!!!!??????) and uphold the Constitution.
Bush was all swagger and simpleton. Just as full of himself as he could be. He did admit at one point (I noticed) that there was the possibility of a Kerry victory. Chink Chink
The Emperor wears no clothes

Go to www.getstewed.blogspot.com for the other side. Oh wait this just in... Stew was watching the Butterfly Effect. What irony.

PEACE
Now I'm going to go eat mushrooms and smoke crack, as is the custom in Oregon.

Our Vice President

1 HE is being investigated by federal prosecutors about the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA officer, the wife of a vocal critic of the US government in the build-up to the war in Iraq.

2 HE has twice been arrested for drink driving.

3 IN 1986 he opposed the release of Nelson Mandela (below) from jail in South Africa.

4 HE backed tax breaks for energy corporations and fought efforts to clean up hazardous waste.

5 HE made disastrous decisions as Defense Secretary under President George Bush Snr. He turned military duties over to private companies and put so-called intellectuals with no military experience into key posts in the Pentagon.

6 CHENEY'S stint as boss of energy company Halliburton led it from success to disaster in five years when he bought a subsidiary which saddled the firm with a multi-million pound asbestos lawsuit.

7 AS boss of Halliburton he struck lucrative deals with Saddam Hussein and Colonel Qaddafi.

8 DESPITE the fact that Cheney should have relinquished his links because of a conflict of interest he still gets £100,000 a year from Halliburton. And, surprise, surprise, the Bush-Cheney administration awarded Halliburton £5.5billion in contracts for work in Iraq.

9 AS vice president, Cheney has been THE decisive force pushing America into war.

10 HIS biggest failure as vice president was in 2002 when he visited nine Arab and Muslim countries six months after 9/11. He anticipated securing the countries' support to remove Saddam Hussein. But not one provided troops for the war. HORRORS OF WAR: Hawk Cheney pushed strongly for conflict in Iraq

11 NO president has returned to power after appointing him to a post in his administration. Ronald Reagan was the only Republican president since Eisenhower who managed to serve two full terms. And he is the only one canny enough not to have appointed Cheney to office. Under Richard Nixon he had a job in the executive branch, under Gerald Ford he was Chief of Staff and under George Bush snr he was Secretary of Defense. None were re-elected. Jimmy Carter defeated Ford, who had Cheney as his chief of staff, by 2 million votes. Ford later said that listening to Cheney's advice was "the biggest political mistake of my life".

12 HE managed to get five deferments from the Vietnam War. One of the more ingenious ways of qualifying was getting his wife pregnant. It was announced that childless married men no longer would be exempt from fighting for their country. So, nine months and two days later the first of his two daughters was born. Presidential candidate John Kerry famously served in Vietnam, yet Cheney constantly questions his war record.

13 HE was one of just 21 members of Congress to oppose the Safe Drinking Water Act

14 HIS electric bill for his 33-room Washington mansion is £120,000 this year alone. And he's trying to get the Navy to stump up for it, saying it's on the grounds of the Naval Observatory.

15 HE opposed extending the Civil Rights Act. This was designed to give black Americans the same rights as whites. Cheney also voted against holding Martin Luther King Day annually.

16 HE told Senator Patrick Leahy to "go f*** yourself" during a heated exchange on the Senate floor this year.

17 WHEN he was a student he dropped out of Yale University. He spent his time partying rather studying. He arrogantly believed he could bluff his way through.

18 HE voted to protect citizens' constitutional right - to own armour-piercing bullets.

19 HE was one of only four Congressmen to vote against banning plastic guns that are invisible to metal detectors.

20 HE used to smoke three packets of cigarettes a day. His favourite meal is steak and he has had four heart attacks and a pacemaker implanted.

So when it comes to questionable character just think about these issues.


Wednesday, October 06, 2004

First steps

I am taking very tentative steps. Really it is more that I am at work so I need to try and get this in as quickly as possible.
Stew you are an inspiration.
Catie you are my love
Olive you are cuter than any bunny
Grey Baby is the greyest cat in the world except for Kona who beats you only because there is more of him...

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Stew you are just wrong

Stew you are so wrong. Like when you thought that the Hunnicuts wouldn't notice their car missing.....