- August 31, 2004 -- you can vote for Kerry and Edwards because of civil rights, medical care, medical insurance, the environment, the economy, education, and any number of issues-related reasons. What I am hearing from the Republican convention is that we need to vote for Bush because of his strong stand against terrorism. Don't look now, but almost everyone is strongly against terrorism. The reason the Bush campaign keeps ringing this one bell is to keep people too scared to think. I know people who are Bush supporters who simply will not hear, read, or discuss any issue. They have given their allegiance to the Mighty Leader Who Will Protect Us From Evil Because God Is On Our Side, and they have resigned their obligation as citizens of a democracy. Bush is exploiting fear to keep them from learning about or thinking about the issues.
- August 30, 2004 -- I still do not like the way that the Bush administration uses religion to divide people, barters appointments and access to power for support from religious groups and organizations, and exploits the faith of people for political advantage. Deal Hudson's story is a case in point.
- August 29, 2004 -- Thanks to Garrison Keillor for "We’re Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore," In These Times, August 26th:
Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for reelection on a platform of tragedy—the single greatest failure of national defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed, hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent, even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken for the president’s personal satisfaction but sold to the American public on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully.
August 28, 2004 -- The day is not here yet as I post this on Friday morning for Sunday's date, but the reason is for a lifetime. See yesterday's Reason to vote for John Kerry and John Edwards, the same story: The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty.
The Census Bureau's definition of poverty varies by the size of the household. For instance, the threshold for a family of four was $18,810, while for two people it was $12,015.
The only indicator of academic success that is always consistent for any group of children is their families' socioeconomic status. It's hard to study when you are hungry and haven't seen your mom for days because she is working unpaid overtime or two jobs that pay less than minimum wage. Way to leave no child behind, George W.
- August 27, 2004 -- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
- August 26,2004 -- George W. Bush will stubbornly pursue his policy and his decisions because he doesn't "flip-flop." I think that "flip-flop" means something like "learn from experience" or "evaluate the outcomes." And then, of course, there is the money he and his friends are making. We need a change, and John Kerry will bring the changes we need.
- August 25, 2004 - Economic policy in the Bush administration does not benefit me or anyone I know. Creating low-paying jobs with low or no benefits is one of the ways that taxpayer money goes to the pockets of millionaires. Huge corporations pay starvation wages to workers, and the government makes up the difference. This is reverse Robin Hood economics squared: rob from the poor and give to the rich exponentially.
- First the economic policy permits poverty wages so that the company (owned by the people George Bush calls his "base") can make big profits.
- Then the government puts tax dollars into programs of aid that require a bureaucracy of well-paid appointees, chosen of course, from the "base."
- This aid, earmarked for education, medicine, utilities, etc., goes back to the "base," either directly in the form of grants or from the low-wage consumer who gets aid from the tax-funded program and uses it to pay for goods and services.
- Finally, we add the tax cuts that let the rich keep more of their money and place the tax burden for the programs to subsidize the poverty wages on the middle-class.
The "base" is making more and more money, and we have an economic boom at the investment level and planned recession for the rest of us.
Kerry can do better.
Note of thanks: the link above to the Presbyterian Hunger Program published on Nurse Ratched's Notebook came to me from Thudfactor
- August 24, 2004 - Kerry's economic policies can restore hope for Americans currently reeling from the jobless recovery in an economy that is good for investors and increasingly dismal for workers. From American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips: Phillips quotes Time correspondents Michael Duffy and Dan Goodgame:
He [George H. W. Bush] believes that taxes must be kept low on capital gains and on top marginal incomes, so that members of the educated and monied elite -- which he sees as the creative force in the economy -- will have an incentive to risk their capital.... He believes, implicitly, that taxes need not be low on the wages or savings accounts of ordinary Americans, who are not a creative force in the economy and who anyway have no choice but to work and scrimp." (p. 126)
Phillips goes on to describe the current administration as "leaning even further in the direction of investment-focused economics," and giving "unprecedentedly open favoritism to the rich." This is a book to read before you vote, especially if you are in the income range from $10,000 to $300,000.
August 23, 2004 - John Kerry has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, about the SBVT smear campaign, which is appropriate given the evidence of collusion and the history of the group making the ads. But he has not permitted the ads to distract him from his campaign on the issues. Kerry's speeches continue to challenge Bush on the issues.
Meanwhile, the Bush campaign is wasting time at both ends, encouraging the ads by refusing to denounce them, and yet denying collusion. Maybe we need a Commission to find out where the intelligence broke down and why George W. Bush doesn't know anything about the ads and can't stop them even though his people finance the group and appear in the ads. He states with apparent candor that he is not attacking and would not attack Kerry's war record. The Republicans are debating against themselves, keeping this issue alive in the media, and avoiding responding to Democratic challenges on the issues. George W. Bush will never respond to the issues. His success depends upon our not noticing that what he says is never connected to what he does.
August 22, 2004 - Today is Sunday, and many devout Christians reserve this as a day of worship. As a demographic group, these people are expected to vote for George W. Bush. The reasons that Bush has given them are terrorism, fear that gays are going to do damage to the concept of marriage, fear of immigration, fear that our government is going to abandon Christian principles, fear of specific groups within our own communities -- drug addicts, poor people, gays, immigrants, women -- each of whom poses a particular threat to our "way of life."
Christians read the Bible, and are aware that Jesus opposed the Pharisees and their strict "rules of right behavior," teaching his followers to love and care for people, no matter who they were. Many Christians will resist the message of fear that Bush is promoting, and they will look at Kerry's stand on important issues and find reason and justice and a caring spirit, which are the opposite of fear, more suitable to Christians:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7, KJV)
As Americans, we have the power to provide for our children's education, to provide health care and medicines, to raise up the poor and give hope to future generations. We do not have to buy into the fear messages of George W. Bush. We can vote for John Kerry, and many of us will do so in November.
- August 21, 2004 - While it is entertaining and a comfort to know that someone in the Bush camp will risk money and power for the third vice, the message here is not Hudson's indiscretion and illegal behavior with the student, a matter that, he states, "was satisfactorily resolved long ago." Now, I don't think 1995 counts as "long ago," but even if it were yesterday, it is not the important message. The message is that the Christian right's support for George W. Bush is not a spontaneous uprising directed by the voice of God, or even by the voices from the pulpit, as it has been represented. It is a concerted effort to court the religious right for political advantage:
Mr. Hudson first caught Mr. Rove's attention by publishing a study in Crisis in 1998 arguing that Republican candidates could make inroads among traditionally Democratic-leaning Catholic voters by focusing on regular churchgoers, a strategy that dovetailed with Mr. Bush's emphasis on "compassionate conservatism."
Mr. Hudson signed on as an adviser to Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. For the last four years, he has been a prominent participant in a weekly conference call held by the Republican National Committee each Thursday with influential Catholic supporters.
I don't like the divisive way that Bush has used religion, in his 2000 campaign, in his conduct of the office of President, and in the current campaign. This story gives insight into his agenda and the way in which he has played religion.
Kerry wears his religion well, as a moral and ethical foundation. This is much more appropriate to public office in a democracy.
- August 20, 2004 - I don't believe that we are safer today than we were before 9/11. Responding to a more hostile world, Iran is talking about action to pre-empt an attack by Israel or America against its nuclear facilities. And we can't even call for more moderation in Iran, since we have set the bad example.
- August 19, 2004 - We need the Kerry plan for health care so that businesses can afford to hire people. The cost of medical benefits prevents employers from hiring. All of the issues come back to economics. The economy needs to take care of people so that people can work to grow the economy. That is the plan that works. When we do not take care of basic needs of people, the result of that neglect spreads in very predictable ways. We can recover economically, but only if the recovery includes jobs and opportunity for middle-class people and a safety net that actually catches you. Kerry's plan:
The Kerry-Edwards plan will give every American access to the range of high-quality, affordable plans available to members of Congress and extend coverage to 95 percent of Americans, including every American child. Their plan will also fight to erase the health disparities that persist along racial and economic lines, ensure that people with HIV and AIDS have the care they need, end discrimination against Americans with disabilities and mental illnesses, and ensure equal treatment for mental illness in our health system.
- August 18, 2004 - I think we should actually practice what the Bush Administration preaches, and we should see to it that no child is left behind. Bush has not done this, he has only said it. Kerry has promised to fund No Child Left Behind. Bush's policies of privatizing education have not worked and will not work. Private for-profit (charter) schools are not accountable to school districts or to state education departments. Read all of the New York Times story on charter schools. One of the major points to observe in the story is how the story came to be published. The Bush administration obviously planned to bury it. Would they want us to know that shoddy schools whose students scored consistently lower on grade-level tests in reading, writing, and math were serving a mostly poor, mostly minority population in the poorest geographic areas? Knowing that, we would have to vote for Kerry, because Kerry has a plan to support public education. When k-12 education becomes a privilege of the wealthy and not a right of every child, democracy is at risk. Kerry will fund schools, not just talk about them.
- August 17, 2004 - CNN's Issues page has both Kerry's position on the issues and George Bush's position on the same issues. To read the lists, which give a good starting point for anyone interested in the differences between the candidates, click on the "Issues" buttons below the candidates' photographs. When I look through the Bush list in civil rights and social issues, I find positions that benefit no one but still seriously disadvantage, abandon, or endanger a select group. This mean-spirited use of government has no place in a democracy where rights of citizens should be protected so long as they do not endanger or damage other people.
- August 16, 2004 - I agree with Kerry on the issues. The election should be about issues, not about personalities (although Kerry/Edwards wins this contest hands down over Bush/Cheney). The election is not about religion either, although it is apparent to me that Kerry is a devout Christian. I like Kerry's brand of Christianity, which comes through at moments as the visible underpinning of strong social consciousness, a sense of community, fairness, and caring for people. I do not approve of the Bush use of Christianity, which he proudly wears as a badge of merit or claim to entitlement. But the election is not about religion. It is about the issues.
- August 15, 2004 - Still looking at the Friday story, did you notice that the average tax cut for people in the top 1 percent is roughly equal to 1.5 times the average total income of the middle 20 percent and almost 5 times the average total income of the bottom 20 percent? The story says:
The report said the top 1 percent, with incomes averaging $1.2 million per year, will receive an average $78,460 tax cut this year, and have seen their share of the total tax burden fall roughly 2 percentage points to 20.1 percent, according to The New York Times.
In contrast, households in the middle 20 percent, with incomes averaging $57,000 per year, will receive an average cut of only $1,090, the newspaper said, citing the CBO report.
People in the lowest 20 percent of earnings, which averaged $16,620, saw their effective tax rate fall to 5.2 from 6.7 percent, though their average tax cut was only $250.
- August 14, 2004 - Did you notice that yesterday was Friday 13th? More to the point it was Friday. So, we had the news release that the Administration does not want us to hear. We are all going home for the weekend, hurrying to get the week's work to some acceptable level so we can pick it up on Monday. By Monday, the bad news we didn't hear on Friday will be old news, and, if we hear it at all, the outrage will be calmed by the passage of time. Watch your Friday news for those stories in which the Administration can't effectively spin the truth out of view. This week's Friday story is about the self-serving and unfair Bush tax plan and what it has cost middle income people in the United States. John Kerry has a better tax plan.
- August 13, 2004 - John Kerry has a plan for winning the peace. This is not reversal but appropriate response to changed circumstances. And I want to know whether George Bush would have gone to war in Iraq as he did if he had known then what he knows now about WMD's, the loss of civilian lives and coalition casualties, the cost of the war in dollars, and the uncountable cost to Americans in the loss of confidence in government.
- August 12, 2004 -- John Kerry will do a better job fighting terrorism. He has a plan. Bush claims to have strength, to be willing to confront the terrorists. He wants us to not back down, not lose confidence. This would all be fine if he had a plan. He went into Iraq without a plan for winning the peace or an exit plan. We have to find a way out of Iraq -- out of the mess Bush has gotten us into. We are not safer now than we were before the invasion of Iraq. We have just as much fear and anxiety at home, and thousands of our young people are in Iraq in constant danger. Other thousands of militants who resent our intervention continue to oppose us with deadly consequences, for us and for themselves. How is that safer? We need someone who can make and work a plan, not just talk like a bully and plunge ahead into conflict.
- August 11, 2004 - I support John Kerry's energy statements. We do need to set a goal of independence from foreign oil, and for that matter more independence from oil in general. Oil is increasingly difficult to find and its use generates air pollution, two facts that make it imperative that we investigate alternatives and use oil efficiently and sparingly. The road to independence will be long, but we need to make a start. The option is to continue fighting over oil until the last drop is gone and then crash. If we reduce our dependence upon Middle Eastern oil as aggressively as possible, the only negative effect will be to those who have exploited the conflicts in the Middle East in order to control production of oil.
- August 10, 2004 - John Edwards!
- August 9, 2004 - I would like to have confidence in our government again, to feel that human rights are really rights, that a vote is a vote, and that the voices of people are heard. Apparently I am not the only one with a crisis of confidence related to the current administration.
- August 8, 2004 - I know where the tax cut dollars are going. The median income in the United States comes in at around 40,000.00 to 42,000.00. That is a real family value there, one that can be measured. It is what the median American family has to feed, house, educate, entertain, and sustain itself for a year. Of course, income taxes come out of this amount. This family will get a tax cut from Kerry, but not from Bush. Bush says middle income people are getting a tax cut, but take a close look. The median tax cut in the median income range is not equal to the median increase in cost of additional child care because this administration has cut after-school programs. And when the median increase in the cost of health care kicks in, you are paying your median health care, child care, and tax dollars to subsidize the tax cut for people who make over a million dollars a year. Anyone whose family income is less than $150,000.00 for 2004 should vote for John Kerry in November, and people above that income but not quite to the million dollar mark should join us as well. Dick Cheney says that more people are keeping more of their money due to the Bush tax cuts, but that is not true. More money is being kept, but far fewer people are keeping it, notably those whose incomes are above $300,000.00 a year.
- August 7, 2004 - Okay, I know I am supposed to think of the good that I expect Kerry to do and not just key on the bad things Bush has done, like first of all get himself into office by questionable means, then run the nation into debt for the next two generations, alienate our allies, and trample both civil rights and human rights in his quest for empire. I'm supposed to be a rational, thoughtful, tolerant person who sees both sides of issues and considers carefully before deciding which is better. Now that is what I usually do. However, in Kerry vs. Bush, this just isn't working. Kerry is bright, articulate, caring, and well-informed, and he has the potential to be a good president. Bush has had his turn and messed up big time. Kerry addresses issues, and Bush has "dishonest and dishonorable" ad campaigns.
- August 6, 2004 -I believe that as President Kerry will be more honest with us and more responsive to us than George W. Bush has been, and that Kerry will offer more confident leadership. On the response to 9/11, when President Bush continued to sit in the classroom and read along with the children instead of responding to the crisis, what was he thinking? His own statement quoted in a CNN story today:
But Bush told the 9/11 commission that his instinct was to project calm, "not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis," the commission reported last month.
How is that an honest or useful response? Project calm? How is it strong confident leadership to sit quietly when the place is on fire?
- August 5, 2004 - The environment: global warming is not a myth or a theory but a fact, and we need to modify some of our policies and practices in order to protect our habitat. Here is one habitat we are destroying that is literally coming back to bite us, in the increased number of shark attacks in costal waters surrounding the growing dead zone of ocean. John Kerry's plan for the environment will take these problems seriously.
- August 4, 2004 - I heard Tom Ridge describe the information leading to the elevated terrorist threat level as "new" at least three times. He even said:
But we must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the president's leadership in the war against terror, the reports that have led to this alert are the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan.
The information was old, but the statement was designed to make it look new. This administration uses fear -- keeping us afraid -- for political advantage, raising and lowering threat as political strategy. This psychological use of fear to keep people from focusing on the issues is abhorrent, particularly since the statements are designed to mislead. Security is a major issue, but fear is debilitating.
- August 3, 2004 - Teresa Heinz Kerry
- August 2, 2004 - Kerry and Edwards have an energy plan that will explore and use new technologies. Too many of the leaders of our current administration have grown wealthy in exploitation of American dependence upon oil, and specifically upon foreign oil. They are invested in oil and will not explore alternatives. We need change in our energy policy, and John Kerry will bring this change.
- August 1, 2004 - Kerry will do a better job with health care. Medical insurance costs too much for employers and for employees, and too many people have no health insurance. Kerry has stated that health care is not a privilege, it is a right. John Kerry will bring this perspective to the critical task of insuring affordable health care to all Americans.
- July 31, 2004 - I don't want to hear Bush talk about terrorism any more.
- July 30, 2004 - John Kerry's actions throughout the primary process and his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention convinced me that he is a patriot and a statesman.
