Work Your Brain — Terrorism Edition

• The 9/11 Timeline — To mark the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ThinkProgress has created a comprehensive timeline documenting the key events since September 11, 2001. Their timeline charts five threads:
  • The steady increase in international terrorism and the growth of al Qaeda
  • The campaign to block and obstruct the work of the 9/11 Commission, and the failure to carry out the commission’s recommendations
  • The failure to stablize and rebuild Afghanistan
  • The downgrading of the hunt for Osama bin Laden
  • The steady decline of America’s image abroad
• ABC’s ‘Path’ Not Taken — Ruth Marcus @ TheWashingtonPost.com writes a scathing review of ABC’s “Path to 9/11″ mini-series that was fraught with inaccuracies and blantant flaws.
  

  The docudrama is an inherently flawed form, one that invites embroidery. The irony of “The Path to 9/11″ is that this dramatic license was so unnecessary, given the richly detailed narrative in a document available to the docudrama’screators. It was called “The 9/11 Commission Report.”

  Hat tip: John in DC @ AmericaBlog

• More

  Tags: terrorism, ABC, Keith Olbermann, George W. Bush, 9/11, Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Memorial, World Trade Center, Mark Juergensmeyer, al-Qaeda, 9/11 Commission, Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, Condi Rice, George Tenet, Saddam Hussein, al-Zarqawi

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Conspiracy Theories, The Middle East

9/11: Around The Blogosphere

Remembering the Day

• For Thou Art With Us — Sarah Bunting @ TomatoNation.com was there.
  

  We come up the rise to the corner where a crowd of people has gathered, all looking up, and the towers come into view — the south tower closer to us and to the left. “Ohhh, man,” we both say, and “Jeeeesus Christ,” and “This is not good. This is not good at all. This is fuckin’ bad.” So dumb. So dull. We sound like frat boys when the keg is dry, but there’s nothing else we can say about what we’ve got in front of us. In front of us, high above us, the south tower has a huge hole torn through it, a burning, screaming maw with thick black smoke pouring out. Occasionally, flames lick up one corner of the twisted mouth of the hole and then retreat, only to reappear on the other side. It doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t even seem that serious at first, actually, until I remember just how big the building is, how many stories high — and that the hole must therefore cover twelve stories, at least. “This isn’t the kind of history I want to be present at,” I say, lamely, to Bob. “Me neither,” he says.

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  Tags: 9/11, World Trade Center, terrorism, New York, American flag, Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, Conspiracy Theories, George W. Bush, Matt Lauer, Rudy Giuliani, ABC, tragedy, patriotism, Ground Zero, We Will Never Forget, al-Qaeda, CIA, Pakistan, Taliban, Joint Special Operations Command, NSA, National Counterterrorism Center, Tora Bora, al-Zawahiri, Paul Krugman, NATO, Bill Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, Pentagon, healthcare, Iraq

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Conspiracy Theories, The Middle East

Work Your Brain — 09/09/06

A Little Fun First

• Thursday Thirteen #2 — ribbiticus @ Pond Perspective offers some gems of advice. Here are my favorites:
  

  5. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

  10. Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

  11. We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

  12. A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

  13. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

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Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Crayons, terrorism, Logan Airport, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Congress, wiretapping, Osama bin Laden, Mother Jones, liberals, 9/11, religion, aetheists, women, virginity, Journal of Sex Research Western soceity, involuntary virgins, economy, America

Work Your Brain — 09/04/06

Women’s Rights

• Class warfare at Starbucks — lambert @ CorrenteWire writes about how class warfare starts over breast milk. Companies are far more likely to be accomodating to executive mothers who need breaks during the day to pump breast milk, but the women who work in the stores and “on the line” have to “barricade themselves in small restrooms intended for customers, counting the minutes left in their breaks.” There’s a lot of pressure to breast-feed in this day and age, but it’s easy to get discouraged and give up under less than ideal conditions.
• A Mystery From the Time When Abortion Was Illegal and Dangerous — olvlzl @ ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES remembers a horrible, deadly practice from the pre-Roe era — infanticide.
  

  The woman who owned the trunk was in her 60s in 1983. The papers say she was called a “pillar of the community” when she lived in the area. People who remembered her said that at the time the babies had been killed she often appeared to be pregnant but she never had children. The authorities found her but she wouldn’t say anything about the trunk. I don’ t know of any legal pressure put on her to talk. The fact that there were five corpses of infants wrapped in newspapers from different years certainly suggests serial infanticide, not a misdemeanor in anyone’s book.

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Tags: Starbucks, Women's Rights, breastfeeding, class warfare, abortion, baby snuffer, infancticide, Islamofascism, propaganda, War on Terror, WWII, Osama bin Laden, Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq, Domino Theory, Hitler, whistleblowers, Russell Tice, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Department of Justice, 101st Fighting Keyboarders, Fox News, David Warren, Debbie Schussel, Kathleen Parker, Mark Steyn, Glenn Greenwald, hypocrisy

Work Your Brain — 09/02/06

First Some Fun

• Thursday Thirteen #3 — Baggage @ Baggage That Goes With Mine wrote thirteen reasons why the internet is better than real life. This is my favorite.
  

  11. On the internet, you can pop into a forum or a blog and tell a person that their beliefs are dumb, they should be breastfeeding, they should never co-sleep, they should divorce their husband, they should shave their legs, and they should stop wearing mom jeans. In real life, people would punch you in the face.

In Memory Of Katrina

• But you can keep them for the birds and bees — Mac @ PeskyApostrophe wonders about all of that Katrina aid money the U.S. asked for and got from other countries last year. She comes to the same conclusion I did.
  

  I’m appalled at a variety of things when it comes to the Katrina rebuilding effort and FEMA’s role in it all, but this is a whole new level of incompetence. As part of my new job, I am now involved in grant-writing. In a good portion of grants, the grantee expects a report as to how the money was used. While I’m sure these gifts did not come with any reporting requirements, if one of our grantees found out their money had been either wasted or didn’t got to the program for which it was intended that would pretty much guarantee they’d never give money to us again. And you have to wonder if, should another emergency situation arise, these countries would think twice about giving aid money to the U.S. if we’re not going to use it and use it wisely.

• First the Flood, Now the Fight — Spencer S. Hsu @ WashingtonPost.com wrote a special report on the butting of heads between FEMA and state and city officials in the rebuilding of the Gulf States and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. FEMA swears it’s not trying to be difficult but the process seems to be designed to wear down those requesting help until they just give up and either take what little they’ve been given, which isn’t much if anything.
  

  Through hundreds of such disputes large and small, the most costly disaster in U.S. history is fast becoming its most contentious, with appeals and disputes worth nearly a billion dollars bogging down repairs of critical public systems and delaying the return of residents.

  Current and former officials at all levels blame FEMA workers’ inexperience with eligibility rules, weaknesses in U.S. disaster laws and inconsistent treatment by Congress for much of the wrangling. The huge scale of the storm and honest disagreement over whether federal or local taxpayers should pay the tab add to the conflict.

  “Disasters should be difficult to declare. . . . But once you get them, FEMA should not worry about cutting costs,” said Daniel A. Craig, who stepped down in October as head of FEMA’s recovery division and is now consulting for New Orleans. “Public entities are eligible for everything they have lost due to the disaster. It is not up to FEMA to cut corners or makes sure money is saved.”

  Gil H. Jamieson, FEMA’s deputy director for Gulf Coast recovery, agreed that “we’re in this to rebuild the city” and added: “We are not in it to delay for the sake of delay. Are there folks who sometimes hose it up? Absolutely. But I think we’re doing a good job of helping it recover.”

  The disputes come as the costliest part of the recovery begins: restoring water, power, roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities along the Gulf Coast. Agency veterans said the spending will have more impact on the physical rebuilding of the Gulf area than anything else FEMA does over the next decade, possibly eclipsing its role in aiding individual victims of the storm.

  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, for instance, sustained $446 million in storm losses, said Executive Director Marcia St. Martin. But FEMA has committed just $113 million so far.

  FEMA notes that New Orleans promised U.S. environmental regulators $640 million in repairs before Katrina, and that the antiquated system is too big for the Crescent City’s reduced population.

  “That’s what makes a city — if you don’t have water, sewer and drainage, you don’t have a city,” lamented Robert Jackson, spokesman for the sewer board. “The money so far only scratches the surface of the devastation.

  Hat Tip: Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla

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Tags: Thursday Thirteen, Internet, Hurricane Katrina, FEMA, aid money, Gil H. Jamieson, Daniel A. Craig, Gulf Coast recovery, New Orleans, Islamofascism, George W. Bush, Muslims, women in the media, Support the Troops, defense appropriation bill, Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congress, Pentagon, Lower 9th Ward, National Hurricane Canter, 9/11, Max Mayfield, Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, terrorism, Ann Jones, Taliban, NATO, Christians, American Dream, Martin Niemoller, Germany, Nazis, Rocky Anderson, Utah, Salt Lake Tribune, patriotism, lie, Walter Jones, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Caddam Hussein, Donald Rumsfeld

Open Letter To Congress

Dear Congress,

The United States has more people in prison than any other country. We’re in debt nearly 9 trillion dollars. We have the second worst newborn death rate in the modern world. 2/3rds of young Americans can’t find Iraq on a map. The dollar is falling, falling, falling. Iraq is a mess. Our 15 year olds rank 24 out of 38 in mathematics and 26 of 38 in problem solving. We’re the fattest nation in the world! Hello, Iran? The number of uninsured Americans continues to rise. We haven’t found Osama bin Laden.. and yet,Congress is focusing its power and efforts on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Seriously?

And you wonder why the vast majority of Americans disapprove of the job you’re doing. [“Dear Congress” (Audacity)]

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Tags: Congress, Iraq, Gay Rights, Iran, Osama bin Laden, national debt, stupid

Another 9-11 Conspiracy Theory Points The Fickle Finger At Cheney

He is a former Lieutenant Colonel for the United States Air Force who flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He has received the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country’s foremost experts on National Security. Dr. Robert Bowman was the former head of the Star Wars program under Presidents Ford and Carter and even was the first to coin the term in 1977.

Oh, and recently, he’s gone public with his opinion that the government’s presented version of what happened on September 11, 2001 isn’t the truth and that he suspects that the architect behind the scenes is Vice President Dick Cheney.

In an interview with The Alex Jones Show aired nationally on the GCN Radio Network, Bowman (pictured below) stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware of what was taking place and were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack.

Bowman outlined how the drills on the morning of 9/11 that simulated planes crashing into buildings on the east coast were used as a cover to dupe unwitting air defense personnel into not responding quickly enough to stop the attack.

“The exercises that went on that morning simulating the exact kind of thing that was happening so confused the people in the FAA and NORAD….that they didn’t they didn’t know what was real and what was part of the exercise,” said Bowman

“I think the people who planned and carried out those exercises, they’re the ones that should be the object of investigation.”

[…]

Bowman agreed that the US was in danger of slipping into a dictatorship and stated, “I think there’s been nothing closer to fascism than what we’ve seen lately from this government.”

Bowman slammed the Patriot Act as having, “Done more to destroy the rights of Americans than all of our enemies combined.”

Bowman trashed the 9/11 Commission as a politically motivated cover-up with abounding conflicts of interest, charging, “The 9/11 Commission omitted anything that might be the least bit suspicious or embarrassing or in any way detract from the official conspiracy so it was a total whitewash.”

“There needs to be a true investigation, not the kind of sham investigations we have had with the 9/11 omission and all the rest of that junk,” said Bowman.

Asked if the perpetrators of 9/11 were preparing to stage another false-flag attack to reinvigorate their agenda Bowman agreed that, “I can see that and I hope they can’t pull it off, I hope they are prevented from pulling it off but I know darn good and well they’d like to have another one.”

[…]

In addition, from the very start we have put forth eminently credible individuals only for them to be ignored by the establishment media. Physics Professors, former White House advisors and CIA analysts, the father of Reaganomics, German Defense Ministers and Bush’s former Secretary of the Treasury, have all gone public on 9/11 but have been uniformly ignored by the majority of the establishment press. [“Former Head of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect” (Infowars.com)]

By the way, Bowman is currently running for Congress in Florida’s 15th District.

Just thought I’d add this theory to my collection.

Hat tip to Preemptive Karma.

Tags: Conspiracy Theories, 9/11, Dick Cheney, Dr. Robert Bowman, Osama bin Laden

Tired of Spinning

I know it seems like I’ve been preoccupied lately with my depression and depression in general and my birthday and my new puppy. (Have you seen my new puppy?) However, believe it or not, I’ve been keeping up with the news and online back and forths when my internet wasn’t down. I’ve even added a few new voices to my online daily reads.

To be kind of honest, I’m just a little tired of all of the arguing and excitement even among people who are supposed to be on the same side of the political fence. There’s only so long you can live on high alert before you burn out.

And mostly, I’m tired of the spin. I feel like I’ve been on one of those sit-n-spins for 5 years and I feel a little ill. At this point I don’t know what to trust anymore or what the truth is or even what those “facts” Big Dog insists are the only thing you can trust are.

It always amazes me how extremely differently the left and right interpret “the facts” whatever they are.

For example, here are two interpretations of a recent story concerning documentation that may show a possible connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Ladin from a liberal blog and a conservative blog.

Liberal: Middle Earth Journal

Yes, after three years of pouring through tens of thousands of documents found in dusty basements of Saddam’s pleasure palaces, investigators have found two or three documents where some low level lackey has hinted that Saddam may have considered cooperating with OBL’s agents in the war on terror. As we’ve pointed out here in the past, OBL and Hussein clearly had one thing in common - the enemy of my enemy is maybe, kind-of, sort-of my friend. Neither was any fan of the United States. But, of course, OBL is a fanatical Muslim while Hussein had no use for people of that ilk. He was a self-centered, heretical dictator interested only in his own power and control.

Conservative: One Big Dog

In recently released papers the association between Hussein and bin Laden is disclosed. These papers are written by Iraqi officials and start sometime in 1995 and go through to 1997. The papers discuss an association between the two terrorists, an association that the 9/11 Commission denies. Leftists every where to this day harp on the “fact” that there was no association between these two killers.

[…]

Moonbats are such that if they repeat something long enough they begin to believe it and they influence their drones to believe it. Even in the face of evidence they can not grasp the reality of the situation.

That last bit is particularly funny to me because both sides say the same thing about each other. Kind of makes me think that no one knows what’s really going on anymore. I think everyone is making it up now and hoping someone buys their bullshit at this point.
In case, you’d like to check out what they’re actually talking about, the liberal’s reacting to a post found here and the conservative is reacting to an article found here, but it’s the same story sort of. Personally, at this time, I have no comment about the actual story. I’m still waiting for all of the facts to come out. I don’t think it’s enough to get over-exited either way.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get all riled up over something any minute now. Some Senator will say something or pass something that will piss me off. Or some moron will try to make Wicca the official religion of Los Angeles. Or someone will take a bank full of puppies hostage. It’s just that every where I go there are other bloggers already all riled up doing just as good a job pointing out the insanity and stupidity of our government. Some are really mean about it too. And if they aren’t nitpicking about the other party, they’re nitpicking about their own party or about other liberal bloggers. Oy.

Personally, I’m mostly waiting for someone else to realize that we need to stop whining and start actually doing something about it. I can’t do it all by myself. I’ve already called and volunteered my services for the 2006 campaign, but I’m just one person.

Tags: politics, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden

Feeling a Little Childish

Ever feel like saying, “It takes one to know one!” to the “most powerful man in the U.S.”?

“As I have told the American people, people like Zawahri have an ideology that is dark, dim, backwards,” the president said. “They don’t trust, they don’t appreciate women. If you don’t agree to their narrow view of religion, you’re whipped in the public square.”

So…dictating what a woman does with her own body is trusting and appreciating her? Insisting on connecting the government with a narrow-minded fundamentalist view isn’t backwards, dim, or dark?

You can read the CNN.com version here but it’s not as fun as listening to it “live”…Bush actually sounded like he couldn’t remember the name of Bin Laden’s “Number 2″ guy…and he didn’t appear to have actually listened to what the Al-Queda leader had to say…in fact, that seems to be a large part of this problem — no one’s listening to each other.

The really basic idea I got from the whole thing is that Bin Laden and his cronies want the U.S. and it’s allies to get their noses and military out of the Middle East and they claim if we do that, there will be a truce…and Bush’s answer is “Heck, no! We won’t go!”

I feel like we could settle this whole thing like they did in the good ole days — have a car race for the pink slips of the Middle East countries.

Tags: politics, George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden, al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda

Where in the world is Bin Laden?

Remember back around fall 2001, when President Bush said that finding Osama Bin Laden was our highest priority? Remember when he said that the U.S. would not tolerate countries that harbored terrorists?

What the fuck happened?

From CNN.com:

CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an “excellent idea” where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened…

[TIME] magazine asked Goss when bin Laden would be captured.

“That is a question that goes far deeper than you know,” he said. “In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we’re probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.

“We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you’re dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play.

“We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.

Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: “I have an excellent idea where he is. What’s the next question?”

Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he name the country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of sanctuaries.

We invaded a country that might or might not have weapons of mass destruction because they might use them one day though we had no proof and still have no proof. We alienated half of the world by insisting we invade without their agreement. We insisted that we knew better and could do whatever the hell we wanted and not worry about the repurcusians…and yet still no Bin Laden and now all of a sudden, we don’t want to step on any toes or upset any Middle East countries?

Tags: Osama bin Laden, CIA, Porter Goss, War on Terror

The 411 On My Reflective Silence

I really wanted to sit down and write out my feelings yesterday, because Thursday night I went to see Farenheit 9/11 and then came home and listened to John Kerry’s acceptance speech. I was impressed and touched by both in different ways. However, neither relieved that strange feeling of unease that I’d been feeling on Thursday during the day. If anything, that feeling was more intense as I lay in my bed that night thinking of everything from the Bin Laden’s doing business with the Bushes to the promise of a better tomorrow to the seemingly inevitable draft.

The truth is that there is so much I want to say about all of those things, but when I think of them, when I want to articulate my thoughts, my feelings are so passionate that I’m not certain how clear they would be hear and I’d rather be clear than end up hypocritically sounding as silly as those foolish people basing their all-important presidential vote on the candidate’s appearance, choice of spouse, or religious background. Ironically, the last has actually become an issue thanks to a president who cannot separate his religious beliefs from his state responsibilities.

The truth is that during Farenheit 9/11, I travelled the gambit of emotions from shock to amusement to dispair and sadness to anger to dismay. I left the theater feeling a bit depressed and without hope for a country that could foolishly re-elect a president who has done so many questionable things in and out of office, particularly in office.

I would like to state for the record that I did not agree with everything that Michael Moore dragged through the mud. For example, I wish everyone would stop whining about the 2000 election and the whole Florida issue. The fact is that it happened. Bush became president as a result. We can’t take back the last few years. I’m tired of the whining. I’m tired of everyone bringing it up, usually as a snide remark. I am not a republican but I do wish people would just let go. (That said, I do find all the little nitpicky things that Michael Moore pointed out about it — Bush’s cousin working for Fox, the first network to announce Bush the winner of Florida despite the other news media’s declarations that Gore won, and making that call for the anchor people, just sets my conspiracy-theorist senses all a-tingle.)

Also, I was offended for Bush at Michael Moore’s criticism of Bush’s intial reaction (the first 7-10 minutes) to the second plane crashing into the WTC. He even criticized Bush’s reaction to the first plane crash — but at the first plane crash no one knew what was going on; no one knew it was terrorists. For all he knew, it was an accident, not something a President need get involved in right away. The second plane crashed while he was in an elementary school class room being read to a story by little children when someone came and whispered in his ear. For the next 7-10 minutes, he sat and continued to listen to the children. However, even I could seen the stunned shock on his face as he obviously struggled to accept that this impossible event had occurred. I remember very vividly how I felt on 9/11. I remember how stunned and numb and disbelieving I was. I remember feeling shock and feeling sick to my stomach. I kept thinking that it was all impossible. While, yes, it would have been nice to know that our President had immediately jumped up and started giving orders, I at least accept and recognize that he maybe needed a few minutes to pull himself together as a human being. Imagine the pressure.

However, during the movie I think my sense of loyalty to President Bush and his administration was stretched even thinner than it has been over the last few years. It’s no secret that I don’t care for the way he’s been running this country. I felt he did a good job dealing with 9/11 but that after that we all went to hell in a handbasket. So much of the things he’s done has been an attempt to take away civil liberties that I as an American have a right to, that many people died in the past to give me.

I am deeply disturbed by the financial connections of the Saudis, particularly the Saudi Bin Ladens, and the Bush family. It bothers me that they were investors in all of President Bush Jr.’s businesses and that after his Presidency, Bush Sr. was on the board of their over-seas business. It disturbs me that the Patriot Act was passed without anyone in Congress reading the details. It disturbs me that when F-9/11 was made only one Congressman had a child serving in Iraq. It disturbs me that an ambassador of the Taliban was a vistor to D.C. and given a tour and met with US officials just months before the attacks. It disturbs me that rather than hold Bin Laden’s family that were in the states at the time of the attacks for questioning (which would be a normal mode of operandi in any investigation), the US flew around picking them up in various cities as well as important Saudi “visitors” and flew them home ourselves. I’m angry that from 9/11 Bush was telling his “intelligence” people to prove Iraq was involved. I am in awe that prior to 9/11, Bush spent 42% of his first 8 months in office on vacation. If I did that, I’d be fired. No wonder he didn’t have a clue that 9/11 was going to happen. I somehow doubt he read the reports with the warnings at all. There’s just so many little things…including statements early in his term by high level officials on his staff that Iraq did not have WMD and couldn’t possibly have them, only to turn around a year later and insist we go to war to stop Sadaam from using this massive supply of WMD — which we have never found.

So, I left the theater depressed. As scenes from Iraq had appeared on the giant screen, I was horrified, being the pacifist that I am. I also came to a sudden realization. A co-worker had mentioned that he had read that Bush’s administration were planning on pushing through the “bill” for a new draft the day after “he’s re-elected”. This new draft will include men and women aged 18-34. As I watched the bloody, gory war scenes, I realized that I fit into that category. While I know in my heart of hearts that medically I would never pass any physical and probably wouldn’t ever be forced to go, I was suddenly aware of a renewed respect for those people who can go to war and come home not completely destroyed inside. I have tremendous respect for those people who serve in the military and remain human. I know if it were me, I would completely be destroyed…and somewhere in the back of my head, I understood my late cousin a little more, perhaps a better understanding of why he killed himself after Desert Storm. But the thought that I could be drafted, that my friends could be drafted, just eats at me. It’s bad enough that D has told me that he’s being sent to Iraq in September. My mom thinks he’s just going in a JAG capacity, but I have a suspicion that the military is spread so thin, that he’s going in a different capacity.

And, while I felt very good about the promises John Kerry made in his acceptance speech, he mentioned increasing the numbers in the military so that we could close the backdoor draft of National Guard and retired/reservists. I can’t see the recruitment numbers being that high now in a time when you are guaranteed to go to war and possibly die — not when the local news is always talking about this or that young man who would have graduated this past May who was killed, leaving wife and kids and girlfriends and all manner of a promising life. The only thing I can think is that a draft is the only way and it scares me. I hope I’m wrong.

I thought that John Kerry’s speech was good. I thought it was inspiring and I thought it was definitely aimed at the undecided and the unhappy Republicans just as much as it was an explanation to the dedicated Democrats and the Independents determined to avoid another four years of Bush’s bullshit and warmongering and destruction of civil liberties and freedoms. If he can accomplish half of the things he wants to do, I’d call his presidency a success.

What amazes me are the Republicans criticizing him the next day who didn’t bother to listen to or read the speech. They were just repeating rhetoric and mis-information perpetuated by angry right-wing media reporters and talk show hosts. The one that gets me is their claim that he will raise taxes and how they don’t want their taxes raised. I’m am just dying to know how many of them are making more than $200K a year since those are the only people who are getting their tax break rolled back.

It also killed me that President Bush didn’t bother to hear or read John Kerry’s speech either and admitted it to the press. He then proceeded to make a snide remark “attacking” John Kerry’s wife, implying that Laura Bush is a better First Lady and that’s what you get when you vote for him. I’ve been curious how long it was going to take people to start attacking Teressa Heinz Kerry because she wasn’t born an American and while not “black,” is technically an African-American. I think that Teressa is a strong, intelligent woman who is a contributer to social and community services. I know that Laura Bush is involved in the education cause (which is interesting since Bush refused to fund the “No Child Left Behind” Act after pushing it through) but you rarely hear anything about her and what she’s doing. I think we need a strong first lady like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, or Hilary Clinton in the White House. I think it’s great that Teressa comes with John, but really who should be making their decision on who to vote for based on their wife?

I have to thank President Bush though. For 29 years, I had barely a passing interest in politics but thanks to him, his administration, his policies, and his mixing his religious convictions with my civil liberties, I have taken quite the interest in politics and the world in general. After Kerry’s speech, I ordered a book to help me become more informed on the government and politics. I plan to start really working on becoming even more informed. I never want to be caught off-guard on any of this. I want to be sure of my convictions because I understand it all, not because I’ve been told to by my parents, the media, or friends. I don’t want to ever be surprised again that something like the Patriot Act has passed and been signed and because I was uniformed, I couldn’t have done everything in my power to protest it and it’s abuse of power and lack of respect for my freedoms as a loyal American citizen.

I’m not sure how clear all of that was. I feel better now that I’ve let it out. I still feel uneasy and I don’t know exactly why. Maybe I’ll feel better on November 3rd…then again, maybe I’ll feel hopeless. Right now, I feel like Kerry and Edwards are speaking to me when they say “Hope is on the way!”

Tags: politics, Farenheit 9/11, John Kerry, Democrats, George W. Bush, Conspiracy Theories, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, hopeless, DNC, Osama bin Laden