I try not to get overly political here, but tomorrow, we here in Ohio (and you in Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island) have a critical decision to make in the primaries.

I'm supporting Barack Obama, and I just wanted to say why:

• Obama has been against the war in Iraq from day one. I truly doubt that Hillary would have handled the situation much differently than George Bush.
• His limited amount of "experience" in Washington is an asset to me. He's taken the high road and hasn't fallen into the pockets of lobbyists.
• He truly understands technology issues, which is important to me, and will be critical to the nation in the coming years.
• He has liberal values, but has shown an ability to reach across the aisle and appeal to both parties. This will be critical in getting elected, and in getting things done once in office.
• His positions have been consistent and from the heart. It seems like Hillary doesn't sneeze unless a focus group tells her to.
• I believe he has the best chance of beating John McCain, who looks like he's going to be a tough opponent. For better or worse, Hillary is divisive to the party.
• Obama is, well... likable. This is the factor that ideally wouldn't be important, but it's important for a President to be able to rally the nation behind a given cause. Hillary says that oratory doesn't matter - I have to disagree.

No matter who you support, please vote tomorrow. I hope you'll consider voting for Obama. Thanks, and I now return you to your regularly scheduled rock and roll music. :)

As if we needed more proof, the Bush administration is functionally retarted. A world-wide consortium of top scientists overwhelmingly concluded that global warming is happening, and that we are causing it, and Bush and the gang are still ignoring it.

Oh, wait. Maybe these scientists all have ulterior motives and are part of a giant conspiracy. Maybe they're in the pockets of the all-powerful furnace manufacturing lobby, who are terrified that their products will no longer have a purpose in the future? Hmm... we should follow the trail of money for the funding of this so-called research; clearly there's so much for them to gain by falsifying research in this area.

Hmm... or, maybe Bush knows something that we don't know. He does have two years left as commander-in-chief of the United States military; maybe he knows that humanity's days on this earth are numbered, and that we should enjoy them to the fullest while we're still here?

Or maybe the Bush administration is just functionally retarted. I'm going to have to go with Occam on this one.

God damn, it feels good to be able to say I live in a blue state again.

That's it. I'm sick of tired of being treated like a criminal just because I'm a mass murderer. I'm sick of society's prejudices. Everyone acts like there's some kind of a law against killing people. We need murder. We're too crowded in this country, and I'm just doing my part to thin the herd. I demand respect! This weekend, we rally!

The conservative party wins the election in Canada. The terrorist party wins the election in Palestine. Why do I have a sinking feeling out our midterm elections in November?

You've got Bush actually talking to press, taking unscreened questions at bipartisan events, changing his position on an important issue, and admitting that he's a total screwup (well, in so many words). And now the Senate has cooperated across the aisles to kill the extension of the Patriot Act? This is officially an odd week in Washington.

Maybe the Senators have been listening to the new version of Wrong Side of the Revolution? If you'd like to buy me extravagant gifts for saving the country, I won't object.

quit (kwt), v. To cease performing an action.

exit strategy, (n). A plan for removing oneself from a difficult situation if it arises.

Quick! Somebody buy Rumsfeld a dictionary! Or somebody buy me the one he seems to be writing, so at least we can speak the same language.

Or maybe he meant to say "quilting is not an exit strategy"? I suppose he's right there. Though knitting would have been a reasonable Afghan exit strategy.

...

<rant>
I'm sick of reading the kneejerk conservative reaction to Ohio Issues 2-5. Nine times out of ten, they just spout the "it's a bunch of liberals trying to get an unfair advantage in the electoral process" talking point. Huh?

• Issue 2. It'd allow absentee ballots for anyone who requested them. In a perfect world, this might be moot (if still a good idea), but this is truly only fair. As somebody who lives in a little town, which is (as all little Ohio towns tend to be) very conservative. I walked right up to the polling place on election day and voted: no lines whatsoever. Meanwhile, in the Democrat stronghold big cities, polling places were few and far between, and were vastly understaffed - both with people and voting machines. A huge number of people had to take off of work (low income families love doing that) and wait out in the rain for hours in order to cast their votes. If we aren't going to give them the ability the same ability to vote quickly that the rest of us enjoy, then christ on toast, let's give them a way to have their voices heard next time.
• Issue 3. This one's my favorite. It lowers the cap for individual contributions to an election for a person to $1,000-2,000, and it eliminates corporate contributions. The single biggest reason for the rampant corruption in all levels of our government is campaign finance. And this isn't just because the fat cats can afford to tilt the scale towards Republicans. Even the Democrats who play the game are corrupted by it. Corporate contributions are the worst of all. If they want to influence the election process, they can educate their employees on which candidate is best for the company (and thus their job). And maybe, just maybe, with less money in their pockets, incumbents would have to spend less of their time campaigning and more of their time... what's it called? Oh yeah, "working".
• Issue 4. Takes the current administration out of the control for drawing congressional district lines, and leave changes to a non-partisan committee. There's absolutely no reason why a temporary partisan administrator should have the power to stack the deck for congressional elections.
• Issue 5. Puts control of the Ohio Board of Elections into a nine-member bi-partisan board, rather than a single corrupt and manipulative partisan asshat like Kenneth Blackwell. Talk about a no-brainer. He pulled more strings than a marionette during the 2004 elections. At the very least, this takes away a possible point of impropriety.

These aren't rocket science. I'd support them all the same if the Democrats were in charge. And let's face it, in a few years, they will be and some of this stuff will suddenly work agaist my views. Still, this is just plain fairness and common sense.
</rant>

Does Bush even try anymore?

I'm suddenly reminded of the Daily Show last week noting of his talent for directing attention away from his previous examples of stupidity by doing even stupider things. The Democratic Party would have to be completely incompetent not to sweep the Presidency and Congress in the next few years. In other words, it could be an interesting era to be a politics buff.

I wonder when his approval rating will reach 15%...

I wish I could say this was a Photoshop hack, but at least our esteemed President wants to avoid literally pissing on the UN. Instead, he was caught at the UN Security Council meeting scribbling a note to Condi Rice which says "I think I MAY NEED A BATHroom break?".

I think I got kicked out of chemistry class one day in high school for passing that same note to Russ. But then I grew out of that phase.

Ok, no I didn't, but then again, I'm not President of the USA.

You know, sometimes I almost convince myself that Bush isn't an absolute idiot, just a douchebag who is wrong most of the time. Then he goes and does something like nominating John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN. The same John Bolton who has said things such as “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States when it suits our interest and we can get others to go along.''

Pissing on the UN and assuming a superior role over the rest of the world weakens our nation in the end. Bush is too short-sighted to see that we need to cooperate with the rest of the world, not lord over it. Europe is centralizing. China and the rest of Asia are growing in power. Our dollar is ever-weakening. We will not be the world's lone superpower for long, and the world's collective memory will remember what dicks we were when we had the power.

George W. Bush is an absolute fucking idiot.

Ohio is once again a shining beacon of political pride. Not only is our Republican governor dead last out of 50 states in approval ratings, his rating of 19% is eight percent lower than the 27% rating of the second lowest honoree. C'mon, even Schwarzenegger is batting 40%, and he's not even a carbon-based life form.

Justin Jeffre, former dreamboat singer in "98 Degrees", has decided that he'd like to be mayor of Cincinnati. He'd join the esteemed ranks of former Cincy mayors including Jerry Springer.

*sigh* And I had hopes of Ohio not being the US's prime source of political embarrassment again in 2005. Oh, Justin Timberlake, where are you when we need you most?

This makes me giggle. Cheney showed up for a ceremony in Poland commerating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp wearing something that would be considered dressing down even for me. I like the guy glaring at him from behind. The best part: his knit stocking cap with the words "Staff 2001" on it. That's excellent. :-)