How dare Bush?

How dare Bush call himself a patriot, let alone worthy of the presidency? Kerry fought in Vietnam, even though he was against the war. Bush didn’t fight in Vietnam, even though he was for the war. The swift boat vets against Kerry weren’t even on his boat. All the vets on Kerry’s boat support Kerry. Moore's Letter to Bush

Still, our "two-party" system is forcing us to choose between a war candidate and a war candidate, when polls show rising opposition to the occupation. Voting for Nader is the right thing to do! Military and Corporate Occupation

The Fascists Have Already Won

This past week I was embroiled in an intense debate with a Democrat from Texas. See my August 7 post, "Select a Candidate," and click "Comments" to follow the action!

Excerpts:
Tom: "True, Bush is much worse than expected, but if we let that scare us into voting for Kerry, then the fascists have already won."
Sheryl: "In terms of reforming the system. Who do you expect is going to make these reforms? The people who benefit from the very split in the liberal vote?"
Tom: "You can start by passing [Instant Runoff Voting] in those states where Democrats still control the legislatures."

Olympics coverage

I have no quarrel with swimming, gymnastics, and rowing, but I'd sure like to see more Olympic soccer coverage, including the Iraqi men's team and the U.S. women's team. I enjoyed the discus and water polo coverage.

Running on Empty

Brian Kaller, a guy I know from the Ken Pentel for Governor campaign, recently wrote an excellent article for the Pulse newspaper. It's titled "Running on Empty: A Field Guide to the Coming Fuel Crunch." He writes:

"These experts might be wrong, as many have been before them; perhaps our ingenuity will simply come up with a substitute, and we will laugh at articles like this as we laugh at the Y2K scare. Or perhaps the more apocalyptic predictions are right, and my daughter will one day hunt elk through the crumbling canyons of downtown Minneapolis. In lieu of further evidence, I'm placing my money in-between."

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1249&mode=&order=0

Blood on Democrats' hands

In January I responded to a StarTribune commentary that said Nader had blood on his hands for splitting the liberal vote (see my January 11 post). Today on MPR I heard a story about how the Clinton administration stood by while hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered in Rwanda.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/rwanda/index.html

I’m not sure that Nader would have done much better, but I personally think that if the U.S. is going to use force, air strikes from a safe distance can save a lot of innocent lives. This tactic appears to have been effective against Serbia (under Clinton) and Afghanistan (under G.W. Bush). Given that the Clinton administration had intelligence on the Rwandan genocide, it can be argued that Democrats have blood on their hands for supporting Clinton.

As for the Republicans, the Iraq occupation continues with more casualties, many civilian. As the U.S. attacks al-Sadr’s forces in Najaf, could somebody please tell me what al-Sadr did that was so bad? Didn’t Saddam Hussein kill his father? Was he against democracy? Was he more sexist than the new Iraqi government headed by Allawi? What, if any, were his thoughts on the Iraqi oil revenues? I’d like to know. Reports from Aljazeera indicate we could be stirring up a hornet’s nest of opposition:
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

Select a Candidate

I invite you to take MPR’s "Select a Candidate" survey.

It asks you about the issues, then tells you which candidate most closely matches your views. As expected, my scores were:
Nader 93.0, Kerry 46.0, Bush 0.0.

As of this writing, the cumulative results from all respondents are:
Kerry 52%, Nader 42%, Bush 26%.

The numbers don’t add up to 100% because it’s the average of overall matches. If they did add up, it would be:
Kerry 43%, Nader 35%, Bush 22%.

This is unscientific, of course, MPR has a liberal audience, and it’s subject to change, but if poll numbers were like this, at least Nader would get into the debates. If everyone who agreed with Nader would simply support him, our future would be much brighter indeed.

The Manchurian Candidate

"The Manchurian Candidate" was pretty good. I saw the original on PBS on Saturday and then saw the movie in the theater Sunday. There are a few differences, for example it’s the son, not the husband, who is the politician in the remake. I can’t say more without giving away the ending.

Al Franken has a cameo role in the movie. I sure hope he runs for the seat held by the late Senator Paul Wellstone. If he does, I may find myself voting Democratic. God willing, we won’t have to endure another six years with Republican Norm Coleman!