The New Road

Not to sound redundant, but Kerry does come across as an elitist. While both candidates have more money than they know what to do with, Kerry comes across as a man of money. I agree with the assessment of the photos, though. It's those slight little twitches that can change many a mind for those who don't follow what the parties are promoting.

That's a perception that the Republican party has been going to great lengths to create. Kerry is a smart, personable, good guy. It's true that he is driven, but that's what makes a good president.

I think it's just not the Republican machine doing it, it's Mr. Kerry himself doing it. My opinion of Kerry is that he is a smart man but not exactly a warm, fuzzy, personable kind of guy. Not the kind of guy you could walk up to in DisneyLand and say, "Hey, want to go on a ride with me?". My opinion of Bush is that he's not that smart but is a pretty personable guy. I think they're both good guys doing what they (read THEY) think is right. I think both are driven--a person couldn't be in their line of work if they weren't.

Oh, and how 'bout Ms. Heinz-Kerry's comment about Ms. Bush's never holding down a job? OUCH!

That's all a big perception play, primarily by the Republicans. I'm assuming you have never met either man. You are judging Kerry from the debates, and by what the Republicans say about him. The debates are somewhat stiff to start with, and aggressive. And the Republicans? Of course they want to paint as negative a picture of Kerry as they can because they have nothing positive to say about Bush.

So ask yourself, seriously, how are you getting your information about Kerry. And given that, is it fair to say to characterize him as you have?

About Tereza, whatever. It's nowhere near as bad as the way the Cheney family has been smearing the Kerry camp with that outing crap. Mary Cheney has been out for twenty years. She was outed by her own father in the VP debate. It's hypocritical, it shows a deep disregard for gay rights (which is actually a plus to the base), and insults the intelligence of us all (again, playing to the base.)

Please give me a little credit for being a reasonably intelligent person and capable of making decisions on my own. What would it matter if I had met either candidate? And why do you assume that I get all my information from the debates and the "republican dominated media"?

The only person that comes across as a truly warm person in this whole matter is Edwards and I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. Want to know why? He's a lawyer who made the majority of his money off malpractice and other medically related lawsuits. I don't trust anyone who takes advantage of people and "the system" like that.

I think the problem with the outing issue is the manner in which it was said, not the fact that it was said. Everyone knows about Cheney's daughter. Children should NEVER be included in any debate, regardless of their age. My take on that whole issue is that it's the manner, not the verbage.

Because the media is republican dominated at this point. There are lots of polls out there that show Kerry in the lead, but the mainstream media doesn't play those. When Kerry makes a gaff they play it for days. When Bush makes one of his numerous screwups it gets a sound bite. When Bush gives a stump speech he gets an hour of broadcast air time, free. And then there is Sinclair. Sinclair proves the conservative media bias without a doubt.

As to Edwards. I'm glad to hear that the next time you or your children is injured because of a faulty product that you will not be suing the manufacturer. Good luck with that.

People are injured because of manufacturer neglect or oversight. It happens. Lawyers are needed to prosecute those cases.

In addition the litigation effect on medical insurance has been repeatedly overblown by the administration. The accepted industry estimate is that 2% of the cost of insurance is due to liability.

What do you think about the flu shot shortage? And he fact that the president is blaming it on litigation. It was a clear oversight of this administration in it's role to protect the public health. Once again, the administration failing.

As to including Mary Cheney in the debate. Calling her a 'child' is a bit of a stretch. I think she is in her forties. She is also well known in the gay community and out out, not just Rock Hudson out, but out out. And the vice-president brought it up first. And in every response he has given to the same sex marriage issue.

It occurs to me that I was at a party on Saturday that was majority lesbian. And, strangely, nobody even mentioned Mary Cheney. Though there was a lot of talk about the election. All of it, pro-Kerry and anti-Bush.

Reality is: not all media is republican dominated
Reality is: manufacturers had to throw out a batch of the flu vaccine this year--but we're always short.
Reality is: those who NEED it are getting it
Reality is: we are a litigous society-it's out of control. Healthcare costs are higher because of it-higher than the 2% you quote. Liability is only part of it.
Reality is: Mary Cheney is gay. She should still not be brought into political discussions without her knowledge and/or participation.
Reality is: She is Dick Cheney's child. Dick supports her. What else matters?
Reality is: Anyone who continually socializes with you would have to be a democrat.
Reality is: BOTH candidates have warts, if they didn't the race would be clear-cut.

Reality check: When was the last time you saw flu vaccine rationing? People camping overnight for vaccine? People dying in line?

Reality: Bush was warned of this a year ago and DID NOTHING.

Reality check: Do you have facts for the above 2% amount?

Reality check: I know Cheney loves his daughter.

Reality: Cheney, Bush and the rest of the white male crony cabinet are using same-sex marriage as a wedge issue to divide the country between bigots and non-bigots. They probably don't even care, but they use the issue anyway because it plays on people's core fears and bigotry. Rove is on record as saying that he doesn't care personally about the anti-abortion issue, but that it is a great way to drive the votes.

Reality: I'm sure Kerry does have warts. But if there were big ones, we would have seen them by now.

Reality: I don't care about Bush's warts. Republicans judge people by 'character'. I judge them by what they do. Look at how bad the economy is. Look at the disaster in Iraq. Look at the polarized populace. Look at the insane tax cuts for the super wealthy. Look at what he HAS DONE. It doesn't matter if he is a nice guy or not if screws us over.

"Anyone who continually socializes with you would have to be a democrat." Not true. This morning I had a nice one on one talk with a Republican and it was very civil.

For years I have had to deal with Republicans on the radio, Republicans in Congress, Republicans sometimes at work, with their spitting ranting hate-based rhetoric. Cursing me for my open-mindedness. Thinking that I was crazy because I hadn't accepted the invisible man in the sky as my savior. Hating my friends because they were minorities, or gay, or whatever.

For years I ate that crap. Live and let live. Right? They want to be bigots. Ok. They want to hate my friends. Ok. They want to tell everyone to love the invisible man in the cloud. Ok. As long as they don't fuck with me directly, I'm pretty much ok with that.

But then there was the impeachment and six years of non-stop muck-raking crap. Against a good president. A man who really cared about this country and made it better. And they took him down and disgraced him. With that dress. That stupid dress. And it all looks so retarded in hind-sight. Who cares? Right. Clinton was on al Qaeda's ass but the congress was always nipping at him because he took the presidency from the first incompetent Bush. But even today people hate Clinton for no good reason. They blame everything on Clinton for no good reason. It's stupid.

Then the Republicans stole the election and decided to turn my country into a third world banana republic with forty years of fascist dictatorship:

"This job would be a lot easier if it was a dictatorship" -George W. Bush

The Republican hate and fear machine kicked into high gear and Bush sent us into an optional war with a country that hadn't attacked us. And that was it for me.

How people can even conscience four more years of this is beyond me. It's not even a question for me. There is no trace of doubt in my mind that Bush is the most evil, most awful, most insane, most ridiculous president ever.

That's why I speak up now. I used to bite my tongue, but no more! No more! This has to stop. This insanity has to end. We have the vote now. If we don't win there then we need to impeach. If we can't do that we have to continually protest until we drive the bastard to resign.

I'm not alone on this. I get out. I meet people. This is a shared view. When people talk about Bush they hang their heads in disgrace.

The time of the Republicans and the conservatives will come to an end soon. We will take the pendulum and drive it back. Liberalism will come back. Free thought will come back. Belief in intelligence, reasoning, thoughtfulness will come back.

You may have heard just the Republican side before. Now we are coming back to take control of our country and to get it onto the right track once again.

I'm done with Republican politicians. Forever. Forever, and ever, and ever. I don't trust them. They never have the public best interest at heart. They are always abusing the system for their own gain. Their tactics are always dirty and low. They lie continuously.

Perhaps you are lucky in California, but at least the last three years, there has been rationing of the flu vaccine here. This year is no different, frankly, in terms of what is available to me. First the elderly and children, then healthcare workers, then everyone else. Same as always. And how in the world is it the president's fault that a company in Great Britain screwed up?

Republicans will be in power, just as Democrats will be in power as the years go by--we have a two party system. One is going to have control one way or the other. Until a viable third party comes up, that's the way it's going to be.

Clinton's was a blessed presidency. He had no real conflict to deal with. By reports I read, he did not, have his hands properly on alQueda. And by reports I read, the assumption (and it's not just Jacqueline's) is that Kerry will handle them the same way: with investigations, injunctions and rhetoric. It's not just republicans and/or republican dominated media that feel this way.

I'm not understanding at all the issue you have with free think, the idea that we live in a banana republic, that the entire country believes in a God and thinking this is all a republican value. Do I have to be a republican in order to have the right to think or express myself freely?

The same sex marriage is a polarizing issue whether you're a republican or democrat, black, white or other person of color---so is abortion. Those are moral issues for most people, not political. I know people who are ardent supporters of one candidate but are vehemently opposed to their platform on this.

Kerry's got big plans but I still fail to see how he plans to institute them. I've read Bush's plans and fail to see how he plans on instituting them as well. They both have good ideas and pipe dreams. And that scares me. I know my vote counts for nothing, just as yours does, because of the states we live in. As Jacqueline said, we have to leave it up to those swing states and hope they make a decision.

About the flu vaccine: The plant was in England. The company that owns the plant is located here in Alameda County. Bush new about our unreliable three vendor sourcing a year ago, and did NOTHING. There has never been rationing here. Never been lines. Never been people dying in lines.

About the two party system: I don't mind the two party system. I would like more. But it's the Republicans, in particular Karl Rove, who wants to see the end of the Democratic party and forty years of Republican rule. He is on the record with that.

As to Clinton and al Qaeda: I recommend strongly that you read the 9/11 report. It is very clear that Clinton was doing all that he could, given that there weren't 3,000 American casualties to fight al Qaeda. Especially since congress was mercilessly on his back. The unfortunate truth is that Americans need body bags to take threats seriously.

About thinking freely: I'm not sure what you mean here. I think you may want to say 'democrat' instead of 'republican'. But I'm still not sure I get it even then. I'm not trying to take anything away from anyone, well, except the presidency from the president. I'm not the one locking people up without due process. I'm not the one creating laws that will allow peoples homes to be entered without their knowledge. I'm not the one who creates list of people who can't fly, that you can't find out you are on, and can't get off of, and then assigns people that disagree with me to the list.

About issues that polarize: The issue I have there is that this president had the audacity to represent himself as a 'uniter not a divider'. Then he brought in radical right wingers like Ashcroft, Wolfowitz and Rove. People who immediately shifted to a far, far right policy stance.

In addition, he had unprecedented unity in this country after 9/11. Afghanistan was a war supported by the vast majority of Americans. Then, he blew it. He blew it by starting this optional war.

I agree with you. Same sex marriage. Abortion. These should not be political issues. But Bush is using them to drive a wedge into an already divided country so that we have to pick sides.

What happened to the unity of the Clinton era. We didn't have people trying to beat each other up in coffee shops over political issues then. Now, thanks to G W Bush, we have an unprecedented rift in the American political landscape with the right wingers wanting to push us further into a fascistic society, and the left just trying not to get sucked under. This right wing dictator can't heal the country. He has shown that. Listen to his speeches. Listen to him in the debates. He's not talking to everyone. He is talking to his hard right base.

About Kerry's plans: I'm not sure I underestimate Kerry implicitly. Politicians have plans. They get in. They execute plans. Kerry has written lots of legislation and gotten it passed. He knows how to get things done.

Bush is the one you should wonder about. What has he gotten done? Has he overturned Roe v. Wade? Has he banned same sex marriages in the constitution? Has he gotten prayer into schools? No. No. No. No. Unless it's moving the military he can't do shit. Because he isn't a consensus builder. He is a divider. Not a uniter. He can't move the congress, so he can't get stuff done.

As to the relevance of my vote. I have cast it, and that is the best I can do directly. But I can raise my voice. I can call this president on the bullshit that I see daily from his administration. Enough is enough. Let's dump the shrub.

Back to the pictures, funny that I saw pretty much the same photos today, though the candidates were reversed. Bush was up at the lecturn, hands outstretched with nothing but a maroon backdrop behind him. Kerry was surrounded by people at a lecturn, obviously at a rally of some sort. And, gasp, it was on NBC--what I assume to be one of the republican dominate media outlets you speak of.

None of the major networks are as clearly biased as Fox. Fox is unprecedented in it's level of bias. The major networks do have a bias towards the right for these reasons:

1) They want access to the president. At this time this leads to a bias towards the right. Hopefully as of November 2nd this will lead to a bias towards the left.

2) They have been browbeaten by the conservatives to continuously check themselves for a left-bias. This is why we see stupid comparisons. For example we see a story about how both candidates lied in the debates. They compare a Kerry 'lie' about the cost of the war ($120B not $200B, depending on who you ask) to a Bush 'lie' about not caring about Osama. Which is crazy on it's face and also leads the viewer to believe there is a tit-for-tat in the lying. Where Bush clearly lied significantly more in the debates, and those lies were substantive to his arguments.

3) There is a commercial aspect to the news, which means 'if it bleeds, it leads'. That's not a bias in either direction, but it does tend to favor muck rakers. And muck raking is the specialty of the right.

Also, you have to look at frequency. Fox does this type of crap all the time. Other networks, sometimes yes, sometimes no. This leads me to believe, rightly, that there is a conservative bias at Fox where they try to use every available means, however small, to bias peoples opinions towards the right.

Another prime example I saw was a standard campaign news article (Bush was here, Kerry was there). Their were two photos attached to the article. The first was Bush climbing into his fighter jet in the Texas Air National Guard. The second was Kerry looking scruffy and vacant as a Vietnam protester.