The only thing I worry about is the safety of ALL Americans and who is going to provide us the best protection from those that want to hurt us. There are to many things at stake to put someone in office that would try to negotiate with people who have no intention of holding up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately we are the worlds super power and we have an obligation to the rest of the world to not give in to the terrorists.
To this point- The Bush admin policies are not making us safer abroad of at home. Read a newspaper today and you will see that recent US Intelligence Reports are highly pessimistic about Iraq. Iraq was not the home-front of the war on terror, but it is now and so as it slips from bad to worse we elevate the danger to ourselves and the international community that tried so hard to keep us out of there because they knew it wasn;t about terrorism but installing a free-market economy in a resource rich nation.
- Military brass from both sides of the political fence agree that by diverting human and financial resources from Afghanistan and Pakistan we hurt our chances in the war on terror. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent there and Osama Bin Laden is loving every minute of this war in Iraq. Imagine how much easier it is to enlist young Islamic men to join against the west when Paul Bremer fired 500,000 state workers in Iraq in time for them to watch as 14,000 CIVILIANS have been killed in Iraq. Are they different than any of us? If you think not just be happy you weren't born in Iraq than in the US.
Hmmm, that's certainly buying into the Kerry rhetoric, however how does one build a house without trees for wood? How does one fight a forest fire without access to the wilderness? How does a river flow all year without a dam (by the way, all the rivers you kayak on are damned in Colorado and the west, to do otherwise is pure ignorance). The water does not exist for kayaking, and without dams your season would last about a week.
-This is a pretty simple look at the relationship between the environment, the economy and resource use. Seriously, is that all it is to you? Of course natural resources are used to enable our quality of life and that is why they need protection and strong management. The Bush administration has headed agencies that were previously charged with that responsibility with lobbyists from the industries that sell those resources for profit. The environmental situation in this country and the world was bleak before the thugs came into office. I fear that in coming decades we will all feel the hurt from the administrations recall of regulations on mining, timber harvesting, pollution controls, curtailing of clean water standards, new definitions of "wetland" that streamline development or exploitation of wetlands, weakening of clean air laws... Seriously one could go on and on. Do you think he does this for you? Or for industry? This isn't just a question of protecting the environment -for alot of folks that just squishy liberal talk right?- this is an issue of public health. Thousands of people die every year in this country from illness related DIRECTLY to dirty air. Over the past 40 years this nation has fought to change that and we were really making progress in maintaining cleaner air and water, they are undoing it. Try turning off Bill O'Rielly and reading about it, its in the public record.
bush may be dumb and texan..... but at least he is consistent
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No he isn't. First he didn't think Al Qaeda was a threat, then after Sept 11th, he did. Didn't want an independent commission to investigate 9-11 then he did, didn't want a homeland security dept., then he did, didn;t want international assistance in Iraq, then he did.
He says he follows the teachings of Christ. Is he humble? Is he benevolent?
He talks about taking responsibility and being held accountable unless you are a large corporation in which case you need loopholes, cutbacks and rules won't apply.
If anything he consistently misleads the public using hyperbole and vague references to 9-11. Consistent is just not a good way to describe these guys.
He talks about patriotism as though he owns it, but he is trampling the core values of of this country, freedom to speak out, to question, to practice or not practice any religion you choose, to fight for those who can't fight for themselves, to allow everyone an equal opportunity to succeed. The policies and values of this president are not true, in my opinion to those values that make this country great. We are a country that was built on those values and on strong relationships with the international community. That is our strength, cooperation with the international community. Of course its hard working with the UN and other countries because we all have differing interests, but we are part of an international community and our greatest strength lies in the strength of that community. I fear that under this administration we have lost the moral authority that took so long for this nation to build. Now neither our allies or our enemies trust us and we look bad. Don't believe be? Take a trip, Europe, South America, Asia, and ask people what they think. And the amazing part is that they haven't given up on us as a nation. Most people I have spoken with outside the US take care to separate their frustration with our government from their belief that on the whole we are good people.
Internally our strength is our people, not our military. Of course a nation as large as our needs a strong military but we also need to educate our public and that is just one more area where this administration has fallen flat. This goes no and on and I respect everyones position wholeheartedly. Just don't get your info from commercials on TV or nutty TV pundits.
For those who would call this stance weak, thats fine, but I have been to ground zero, and I was at the site of the Bali bombing while the ground was still smoldering and the air reeked. We are fighting ideas not just people and you can't kill idea with bombs.
Hope I didn't rustle to many feathers. xoxo
Clark