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Post by TheMasterGeek on Nov 3, 2004 19:15:32 GMT -5
Haha! .
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Nov 3, 2004 21:35:08 GMT -5
I see another possible advice columnist.
Dear Count Cheney...
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Post by Bango on Nov 3, 2004 22:09:12 GMT -5
A letter sent from Kerry,(by his people)....
Dear --------,
Earlier today I spoke to President Bush, and offered him and Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good conversation, and we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity for finding the common ground, coming together. Today, I hope that we can begin the healing.
In America, it is vital that every vote counts, and that every vote be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process. I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there won't be enough outstanding votes for our campaign to be able to win Ohio. And therefore, we cannot win this election.
It was a privilege and a gift to spend two years traveling this country, coming to know so many of you. I wish I could just wrap you in my arms and embrace each and every one of you individually all across this nation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
To all of you, my volunteers and online supporters, all across this country who gave so much of themselves, thank you. Thanks to William Field, a six-year-old who collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time selling bracelets during the summer to help change America. Thanks to Michael Benson from Florida who I spied in a rope line holding a container of money. It turned out he raided his piggy bank and wanted to contribute. And thanks to Alana Wexler, who at 11 years old started Kids for Kerry.
I thank all of you, who took time to travel, time off from work, and their own vacation time to work in states far and wide. You braved the hot days of summer and the cold days of the fall and the winter to knock on doors because you were determined to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. You worked your hearts out, and I say, don't lose faith. What you did made a difference, and building on itself, we will go on to make a difference another day. I promise you, that time will come -- the election will come when your work and your ballots will change the world, and it's worth fighting for.
I'm proud of what we stood for in this campaign, and of what we accomplished. When we began, no one thought it was possible to even make this a close race, but we stood for real change, change that would make a real difference in the life of our nation, the lives of our families, and we defined that choice to America. I'll never forget the wonderful people who came to our rallies, who stood in our rope lines, who put their hopes in our hands, who invested in each and every one of us. I saw in them the truth that America is not only great, but it is good.
So here -- with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I've come to know our vast country so much better and that prayer is very simple: God bless America.
Sincerely,
John Kerry
TJ, about what you said...my sources are the news stations in my area, and the interviews that they took of people who were tricked, or voted but never got counted, due to the machines shutting down or people not registering the democratic potential voters,(poor interview they had of one woman who was heartbroken that they did that to her just cause she was a democrat)....
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Nov 4, 2004 12:01:49 GMT -5
I'm still depressed.
The Red Zone By MAUREEN DOWD With the Democratic Party splattered at his feet in little blue puddles, John Kerry told the crushed crowd at Faneuil Hall in Boston about his concession call to President Bush. "We had a good conversation," the senator said. "And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing." Democrat: Heal thyself. W. doesn't see division as a danger. He sees it as a wingman. The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule. He doesn't want to heal rifts; he wants to bring any riffraff who disagree to heel. W. ran a jihad in America so he can fight one in Iraq - drawing a devoted flock of evangelicals, or "values voters," as they call themselves, to the polls by opposing abortion, suffocating stem cell research and supporting a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on "moral issues." The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"? While Mr. Bush was making his little speech about reaching out, Republicans said they had "the green light" to pursue their conservative agenda, like drilling in Alaska's wilderness and rewriting the tax code. "He'll be a lot more aggressive in Iraq now," one Bush insider predicts. "He'll raze Falluja if he has to. He feels that the election results endorsed his version of the war." Never mind that the more insurgents American troops kill, the more they create. Just listen to Dick (Oh, lordy, is this cuckoo clock still vice president?) Cheney, introducing the Man for his victory speech: "This has been a consequential presidency which has revitalized our economy and reasserted a confident American role in the world." Well, it has revitalized the Halliburton segment of the economy, anyhow. And "confident" is not the first word that comes to mind for the foreign policy of a country that has alienated everyone except Fiji. Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage." He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq. Just as Zell Miller was so over the top at the G.O.P. convention that he made Mr. Cheney seem reasonable, so several new members of Congress will make W. seem moderate. Tom Coburn, the new senator from Oklahoma, has advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and warned that "the gay agenda" would undermine the country. He also characterized his race as a choice between "good and evil" and said he had heard there was "rampant lesbianism" in Oklahoma schools. Jim DeMint, the new senator from South Carolina, said during his campaign that he supported a state G.O.P. platform plank banning gays from teaching in public schools. He explained, "I would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend should be hired to teach my third-grade children." John Thune, who toppled Tom Daschle, is an anti-abortion Christian conservative - or "servant leader," as he was hailed in a campaign ad - who supports constitutional amendments banning flag burning and gay marriage. Seeing the exit polls, the Democrats immediately started talking about values and religion. Their sudden passion for wooing Southern white Christian soldiers may put a crimp in Hillary's 2008 campaign (nothing but a wooden stake would stop it). Meanwhile, the blue puddle is comforting itself with the expectation that this loony bunch will fatally overreach, just as Newt Gingrich did in the 90's. But with this crowd, it's hard to imagine what would constitute overreaching. Invading France?
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Nov 4, 2004 12:02:43 GMT -5
Two Nations Under God By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Well, as Grandma used to say, at least I still have my health. ...
I often begin writing columns by interviewing myself. I did that yesterday, asking myself this: Why didn't I feel totally depressed after George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, or even when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore? Why did I wake up feeling deeply troubled yesterday? Answer: whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is. Is it a country that does not intrude into people's sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn't trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us - instead of dividing us from one another and from the world? At one level this election was about nothing. None of the real problems facing the nation were really discussed. But at another level, without warning, it actually became about everything. Partly that happened because so many Supreme Court seats are at stake, and partly because Mr. Bush's base is pushing so hard to legislate social issues and extend the boundaries of religion that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president. I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out. The election results reaffirmed that. Despite an utterly incompetent war performance in Iraq and a stagnant economy, Mr. Bush held onto the same basic core of states that he won four years ago - as if nothing had happened. It seemed as if people were not voting on his performance. It seemed as if they were voting for what team they were on. This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, "Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?" the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way. My problem with the Christian fundamentalists supporting Mr. Bush is not their spiritual energy or the fact that I am of a different faith. It is the way in which he and they have used that religious energy to promote divisions and intolerance at home and abroad. I respect that moral energy, but wish that Democrats could find a way to tap it for different ends. "The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs." I've always had a simple motto when it comes to politics: Never put yourself in a position where your party wins only if your country fails. This column will absolutely not be rooting for George Bush to fail so Democrats can make a comeback. If the Democrats make a comeback, it must not be by default, because the country has lapsed into a total mess, but because they have nominated a candidate who can win with a positive message that connects with America's heartland. Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk that Mr. Bush has a mandate for his far right policies. Yes, he does have a mandate, but he also has a date - a date with history. If Mr. Bush can salvage the war in Iraq, forge a solution for dealing with our entitlements crisis - which can be done only with a bipartisan approach and a more sane fiscal policy - upgrade America's competitiveness, prevent Iran from going nuclear and produce a solution for our energy crunch, history will say that he used his mandate to lead to great effect. If he pushes for still more tax cuts and fails to solve our real problems, his date with history will be a very unpleasant one - no matter what mandate he has.
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Post by Charisma69 on Nov 4, 2004 19:47:15 GMT -5
Excellent articles Aunt Arlene. Thanks so much for posting them.
The second one was especially good, and does an excellent job of stating exactly how I feel right now.
This is the first election that I became really depressed about the outcome.
I wasn't happy that Bush won last time, but I didn't realize how bad he could be at the time.
This time I know how bad it is and I'm wondering how free our country will be when he's finished with us.
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Post by TraditionalScream on Nov 5, 2004 21:29:58 GMT -5
Great picture ITL. How horrid, and reminds people of Tony Blair's "dracula" rival - yeeeseehhh Well, another four years of neocons. I agree with 'Starcats' analysis that - "the Bush administration will unravel like a ball of twine in a cats paws" - I believe their philosophy is innately f**ked, and it will come to exposure for their actions. The Neocons and the Bus**tes have gathered some very bad karma and it has not yet shown them up - but it will. Let's hope that bad karma isn't swirling around America, though it may be. In any case, it's gathering storm. I can only hope that Blair won't take Britain any further down Bush's line. Bush said now that because he has the political capital of the American people, he is going to spend it. Where and how? He shouldn't. He's losing already.
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Post by AlyWay on Nov 6, 2004 10:31:12 GMT -5
maybe this will make some of you smile. I saw a bumper sticker today that said The Road To Hell Is Paved With Republicans.
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Nov 6, 2004 12:29:25 GMT -5
I like that. Simple, not overstated...
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Post by Dr. Purple Goddess on Nov 6, 2004 15:03:12 GMT -5
Anyone else watch Real Time with Bill Maher?
Last nights finale was disturbing to say the least. But I find myself liking Bill even more....and worrying about the fate of this country...
I just want to say something about the electoral college for a minute if I can...
It needs a serious overhaul or it needs to be done away with....those two choices! In Oklahoma, if the majority of the electorates are for a candidate than all the votes go to that candidate.....It's a simple matter of math and percentages... if the popular vote is (for example) for Kerry in 1 congressional district than that electoral vote should be his regardless...none of that majority electoral vote crap wins the state.
I don't know, it's more complicated than that...but the system is screwy
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Post by grailwolf on Nov 6, 2004 17:04:19 GMT -5
Bumper sticker of the day: John Kerry Bringing full sentences back to the White House Ah, if only it had been so...
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Nov 6, 2004 22:56:55 GMT -5
Didn't quite know where to post this. Originally I planned it for DG's top 10 thread in The Tome, but I thought it might offend. I thought it might be more appreciated here. Top 10 Ways To Tell George Bush Has Been Watching Angel10. Starts quoting the show in his speeches. For example, "Bring it on" from "Dear Boy". 9. Starts wearing a black trench to cabinet meetings. 8. Starts calling the twins Connor #1 and Connor #2. 7. Buys a rottweiller puppy and names it Jasmine. "Bad Jasmine! Get off the couch!" 6. Replaces his VP with a vampire. Um, probably not a good example. 5. Makes Colin Powell shave his head and insists on calling him Gunn. 4. Renames the White House the Hyperion. 3. Makes his lawyers get Wolfram and Hart business cards. 2. Sets up a commision to investigate drilling for oil in Pylea. 1. After a night with Laura, pretends that his alter ego, Georgelus, is forcing him to do evil things. Kind of explains a lot, doesn't it?
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Post by Charisma69 on Nov 6, 2004 23:05:17 GMT -5
Oh my God, those are so very funny.
I especially liked # 6, 5, and 1. ;D
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Post by tjaman on Dec 7, 2004 8:56:02 GMT -5
What calibration of subtlety do we need to distinguish Dubya from Dubyalous? His evil actions are virtually indistinguishable from his merely stupid actions.
(and yes, I did just make up the word "Dubyalous" specifically for Py.)
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Post by Insane Troll Logic on Dec 7, 2004 9:00:59 GMT -5
Dubyalous sounds like he lives deep in the bayou and tells lost strangers they have purdy mouths.
;D
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