politicians are but men.

Four more years.,. Four more years… four more years. From the chants you may have thought these words to be ingrained in the human psyche just as Lincoln’s famous “four score and seven years ago” speech.

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George W. Bush will continue to be our 43^rd president, leading the nation (or misleading… oh crap, I exposed my satirical ploy) through the year 2008. After watching the Republican National Convention I think that this result is almost inevitable. From the American flag waving, the support your military signs, the signs that say “freedom!”, the marketing of the letter “W”, the pandering to the religious right, and the politicization of September 11^th, 2001. It is obvious to me and all Americans that if we do not vote for President Bush come November, we do not support the military, hate America, are shameless murders who want to kill babies, moral-less husks of flesh who support the love between two human beings (because they are of the same sex), and that it is we who choose to divide America. This is the message of the RNC.

In the past few days, seeing as how I am nothing more than an undergraduate college student, I have begun to scratch my head about the republican economic plan and that of tax cuts. The economy is not exactly my cup of tea and admittedly I do not know much about it in detail. But that wasn’t much of a problem, because of course, the economy is seldom mentioned. The only problem our country seems to be actively facing is that of protecting our homes and our children. If I could insert the teariest eyed picture of a toddler here I would.

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I’ll start being serious now. Tonight’s performance from Zell Miller was absolutely one of the most hypocritical speeches I have ever heard in my entire life. And I think I rightly call it a performance, because I think if I was 80 years old and senile it would have caused me to jump up in my chair and shake my cane and yell “four more years” in unison with the crowd. Senator Miller spoke of bipartisanship during times of war, the banding together of individuals as Americans in our greatest time of need and insecurity, but that bipartisan spirit was only reserved for his belief in re-electing George W. Bush and not for his compatriots and citizens in the Democratic Party. What exactly was Zell Miller thinking when he ripped into John Kerry about Kerry’s defense issues voting?

Miller said he was mad that Kerry voted against a whole laundry list, including from what I remember: the B1 bomber, B2 bomber, f14, f15 planes, apache helicopters, patriot missiles. etc etc etc. actually I don’t think Miller even had to know any of this, he cold have just pulled it off the GOP website like I just did.

<SO WHICH IS IT? IS THE RECORD FAIR GAME OR NOT?

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against B-1 Bomber. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against B-2 Stealth Bomber. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against F-14. (H. R. 5803, CQ Vote #319: Adopted 80-17: R 37-6; D 43-11, 10/26/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against F-15. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against F-16. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against AV-8B Harrier Vertical Takeoff And Landing Jet Fighters. (H.R. 2126, CQ Vote #579: Adopted 59-39: R 48-5; D 11-34, 11/16/95, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against AH-64 Apache Helicopters. (H.R. 2126, CQ Vote #579: Adopted 59-39: R 48-5; D 11-34, 11/16/95, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against Patriot Missiles. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against Aegis Air Defense Cruiser. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against Trident Missile System For U.S. Submarines. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against M-1 Abrams Tanks. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against Bradley Fighting Vehicle. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

ü Sen. Kerry Voted Against Tomahawk Cruise Missile. (S. 3189, CQ Vote #273: Passed 79-16: R 37-5; D 42-11, 10/15/90, Kerry Voted Nay)

Now to me, Joe Schmoe sitting at home, that would outrage me. How are we going to fight a war without equipment? But after all, things are never as one sided as they seem, especially if you are reading the completely liberal dominated media. It’s a good thing we have the internet, or I’d think Miller was right. HMMM.

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I kind of like this one I found from NBC’s August 1^st 2004 “Meet the Press”

MR. RUSSERT: “But on defense and intelligence authorization bills, you have the same voting record as John Kerry.”

SEN. MILLER: “…(long awkward pause)…I didn't try to cut--now ultimately he came along and voted for some”

Just sort of amusing. Anyways, time to check into these claims about trying to cut these weapons out of production. I think even common sense might tell us something was fishy if we are still flying in cold war era planes into Iraq. What happened to giving our soldiers the best equipment? How badly can a vote be taken out of context?

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I think that if Cheney says as Bush (41) secretary of defense,

Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion. That's the peace dividend. … And now we're adding to that another $50 billion … of so-called peace dividend. Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements. … You've directed me to buy more M-1s, F-14s, and F-16s—all great systems … but we have enough of them.

Nobody would say anything bad about that, because hell, that was after the cold war was subsiding and the Soviet Union breaking up. Context context context. Slate sure knows his stuff; he basically tore Miller’s argument apart for me without me having to move a finger.

Did Kerry vote against these specific weapon systems? No actually he voted against the Fiscal Year 1991 Defense Appropriations Act and Bill. So I guess Slate’s right, you could actually say that Kerry voted to abolish the US military. But c’mon that’s crazy talk. The Defense Appropriations Bill has thousands of things on it. That’s an absolutely unsubstantiated claim. But it doesn’t matter if these things aren’t really true or aren’t really false at the RNC. You can really say anything you want, if you have Zell Miller who wants to be critical of Senator Kerry he can say anything he wants. If people believe him it hurts Kerry, if people think he’s full of shit like I do, well… then they can always say he’s a Democrat anyways and is not affiliated with the Republican party (psst. Although his voting record would suggest otherwise).

If Zell Miller is going to conduct this sort of disingenuous brainwashing of the American public he does not deserve to be a US senator, Republican or Democrat. And he will not, he is not running for re-election. The US does not need more senile stuck in the mud 78 year old senators who are living in the past.

But the main issue that has faced me personally during the RNC is one that is voiced by a few people on Cucommunity. I believe we should rely on intelligence gathering forces such as the CIA, etc. to inform us of plots and acts of terrorism that threaten us. If they are factual statements, such as Al-Qaeda attacked us, then by all means, go send troops to kick his ass and get justice. If they are not, aka. Iraq, then resume relying on intelligence. Everyone keeps saying retrospectively that Saddam Hussein was a bad man. Sure I agree, was he an imminent threat to the welfare of America? Was he plotting to launch an attack on us? Was he trying to do anything, build up a military, and make weapons? We don’t know yet, but now we can say, oh yea sure he was, he was going to kill us and amass huge support. We don’t know that.

The other side of this is minority report, Phillip k dick science fiction-esque foreign policy where we attack and kill them before they get the bright idea to kill us. I don’t believe in this, we are not a country of war mongers that goes to war because we get an itchy feeling in our bottom and is still cold war paranoid. We don’t spend billions of dollars on intelligence for nothing you know.

But then again I could be wrong. I accept that fact. But nothing has proven to me otherwise.

Dick Cheney said we have the strongest healthcare system in the world. I don’t know how exactly he measures that, but I have a strange feeling he’s wrong. The RNC keeps telling us that democracy is the only way to have a successful economy and that America is the strongest power. How are we to address China in the coming years then? Are we going to call them communist and attack them because they attack or status quo of the sole super power in the world? I don’t know what we will do, but it is inevitable that the China situation goes away. And it does not make it any better when George W. Bush tells the world that the United States will protect Taiwan if China makes a move of aggression (reversing the US’s non-involvement no comment stance for the past how many years?). Taiwan is not Israel, our foreign coddled child. China will be come a hugely industrial power, with nuclear capabilities, with science that towers our own, with production methods that rival ours, and a booming economy. With a president like Bush who doesn’t examine the world unless it is immediately in his face, how are we to plan for the future? I don’t understand how he plans to take care of America, even domestically if he is predominantly concerned with playing real life- Counter Strike.