Bush Still President - Don't Expect Him to Change

Bush Still President - Don't Expect Him to Change

It simply boggles the mind: we've already had four years of some of the most appalling and abusive foreign and domestic policy in American history, some of the most well-documented atrocities ever wrought on the American populace and it's all combined with the biggest and most violently botched and grossly mismanaged war since Vietnam, and much of the nation still insists in living in a giant vat of utter blind faith, still insists on believing the man in the White House couldn't possibly be treating them like a dog treats a fire hydrant...

...It is a weirdly embarrassing time to be an American...

...This much is clear: We are not, with a grim Bush victory, headed for buoyancy and friendship and sincere hope for something new and refreshing. We are not, with another four years of what we just endured, headed toward any sort of easing of bitter tension, a sense of levity, or sexual openness, or true education, or gender respect, or a lightness of spirit and of step.

- Mark Morford

August 29, 2004 NYC

Remember their spirit and commitment.
Let's not feel sorry for ourselves.
Let's not falter.
This is still the soul of our nation we're talking about saving.
John Kerry lost, not us.
We shall not lose as long as we have heart, soul and commitment.

Taiwan Guy's Prayer

Taiwan Guy's Prayer


"Jesus, may it come to pass
Though he wants to eat my ass
That this lion come to thee
And from beastly sin be free......"

AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!!


Poem and dramatic "AAGGGHHHH!" by Iddybud


tip o'the hat to Scrutiny Hooligans for the photo

Morning Star

Morning Star

The morning star appears in the sky while it is still night. Darkness broods over all nature. Its appearance is almost prophetic. It tells every student of the heavens that, though it is still night, there's a new day coming, and its dawn is just at hand.

So it is with us, dear readers.

So it is with us.

Keep your eye on the morning star.

Kerry Concedes

Kerry Concedes
"No retreat, baby, no surrender"

I think the John Kerry campaign gave up too easily on counting ALL the votes in Ohio, electing to not wait for the final tallies.

I understand his desire to unite America, but if we're uniting under a tyrant, what good is done for the American ideals concerning the balance of power which our founding fathers set down long ago? (That little tyrant Bush, by the way, was going to give a victory speech regardless of whether or not Kerry was willing to concede. Some f**king uniter!)

What are we all so afraid of? Why is counting every vote frowned upon? We really should ask ourselves. The vote is the citizen's mouth- the citizen's heart - the citizen's privilege - the citizen's loudest/most effective voice.

What happens when/if stories pour in about Ohio voter fraud and improprieties?
(And will media cover up these stories under pressure from the White House?)

Regardless of whether or not Bush won a nationwide popular vote, I highly suspect that Ohio wasn't "over". Provisional ballots could show surprises, regardless of the soothing comments Kerry made in his speech. Perhaps the final news about them will never be shared with the American public.


Note: I wholly concur with Josh Marshall's comments HERE.

We can feel disappointed, but let's not let it stop us.

Bush ready to Jump On Victory

Bush ready to Jump On Victory

True to form, it looks like Bush is ready to pounce on victory, insensitive to the fact that half the nation voted for the other guy and wants to see every vote counted in Ohio.

Four more years of Bush will be disastrous for America.

I'd like to project something optimistic right now, but frankly, I think America is in trouble. I feel badly for her, as I would for a beloved friend.

A Weird Time to Be a Blogger

A Weird Time to Be a Blogger

Bloggers, too, find themselves in a frustrated wait

In their first big election, online pundits suddenly found they didn't know what to say... LINK

Zogby latest: Kerry likely to win BIG

Zogby latest: Kerry likely to win BIG

Utica, NY pollster John Zogby is predicting a clear win for John Kerry:

Bush 213 electoral votes
Kerry 311 electoral votes
Nevada and Colorado - still too close to call.

Early exit polls predict Kerry will be victor

UPDATE: 5pm

New Exits Keep Kerry Up
Early exit polls predict Kerry will be victor

Florida: 50/49 - KERRY, Ohio: 50/49 - KERRY, Michigan: 51/47 - KERRY, Pennsylvania: 54/45 - KERRY, Iowa: 50/48 - KERRY, Wisconsin: 51/46 - KERRY, Minnesota: 57/42... Developing..

Sen. John Kerry looks to make a victory of the electoral college, according to all three sets of exit polls conducted by a consortium of six media organizations (the National Election Pool) that RAW STORY has acquired and confirmed with myriad sources.

Here are the first exit polls, confirmed from sources in both parties, as leaked to RAW STORY. The first number is the percentage of voters supporting Kerry, the second are those supporting Bush.

AZ 45-55
CO 48-51
LA 42-57
MI 51-48
WI 52-48
PA 60-40
OH 52-48
FL 51-48
MICH 51-47
NM 50-48
MINN 58-40
WISC 52-43
IOWA 49-49
NH 57-41

Here are the second polls:

U.S.: 50-49
FL: 50-49
OH: 50-49
CO: 48-50
NM: 50-48

Here are the third polls:

FL: 52/48 - KERRY
OH: 52/47 - KERRY
MI: 51/48 - KERRY
PA: 58/42 - KERRY
IA: 50/48 - KERRY
WI: 53/47 - KERRY
MN: 57/42 - KERRY
NH: 58/41 - KERRY
ME: 55/44 - KERRY
NM: 49/49 - TIE
NV: 48/49 - BUSH
CO: 49/50 - BUSH
AR: 45/54 - BUSH
NC: 47/53 - BUSH

Wall Street affected by blog reports of predicted Kerry win

Wall Street affected by blog reports of predicted Kerry win

Amazing.

Colorado Newspaper Up to Dirty Tricks?

Colorado Newspaper Up to Dirty Tricks?

"With all precincts reporting, Bush wins Colorado, 41-34 percent", paper reports – except election hadn’t started yet!

LINK

Early Exit Polls Show Kerry Winning

UPDATE: 3 pm

Early exit polls predict Kerry landslide, though early polls not considered reliable
LINK

Kerry ahead in MI 51-48, WI 52-48, PA 60-40, OH 52-48, FL 51-48

Woman in NJ Has Vision - It will be President Kerry

The banner on the Ace of Coins card gives the cue meaning Prosperity

Woman in NJ Has Vision - It will be President Kerry

In a Tarot-card inspired vision link, a NJ woman has seen a Kerry presidency.

"I saw the 'Hangman' card for President Bush," said the woman. "I said, 'Oh my God.' In other words, his career was going to be over as the president."


*Tip o'the hat to Moderate VoiceModerate Voice

No More Poll Thuggery!

Twits practicing poll thuggery


Remember these twits?

If there's one lesson we've learned from the 2000 election hijacking-hijinx, it's never to let poll thuggery occur without it being put under a public and legal microscope.

Republicans are trying desperately to suppress the American vote.

Why do you suppose they're doing it?

It's simple.

They know [and fear] the candidate for whom the crowds are waiting to elect as they stand in three or four-hour lines.

What to do at polls

What to do at polls

Whether you are a first-time or longtime voter, casting a ballot can be a confusing process. Here are some tips to make sure your vote is counted today:

1. Don't panic if you registered to vote and you can't find your name on a list. Get help from a poll worker.

2. Bring photo identification with you to the polling place, along with a current utility bill or something else to show who you are and where you live. Voters who registered by mail and are voting for the first time are required to provide this information. If you have no identification, you may sign a statement declaring who you are and where you live.

3. Read the signs on how to use the voting machines, a list of your voting rights and how to file a complaint if your voting rights have been violated.

4. Vote between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to avoid long lines. Know when polls close in your area. If you are standing in line at the time when the poll is scheduled to close, you will be allowed to vote.

5. If your name is not on the polling place's list of registered voters, you are entitled to a provisional ballot that will allow you to vote. It will be counted later, after election officials confirm your status as a registered voter.

6. When finished voting, check your ballot to make sure you voted the way you wanted to.

7. If you feel your rights have been violated, you can file a complaint with your state election officials. Every polling place must be able to provide contact information about where you can file the complaint.

8. If you experience problems, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. That's the hot line being operated by the Election Protection Coalition, which is composed of many organizations including the League of Women Voters. You can also call 1-866-747-1471. That's the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

--Source: League of Women Voters and U.S. Election Assistance Commission

Bush doesn't deserve re-election!

Bush doesn't
deserve re-election!
He has lied to America - and the only promise he's kept is to stay the disastrous course in Iraq.
I recognized Bush's lies, hubris, and destructive determination long ago

This is nothing more than a repeat of an Iddybud post from September 8, 2003. It's here to show you that Bush was wrong THEN, and he's wrong TODAY.

He's never attempted to change course in Iraq (and let's face it - it's FUBAR); nor did he ever once try to foster genuine cooperation from the world community.

Never.

He turned Iraq into his bitch, causing it to become the center of terror while he was lying to American citizens about a Saddam-9/11 connection. Most of Bush's supporters still believe there was a connection.
*(Beyond belief, but they really do).

Now Osama Bin Laden is back to taunt us; he's mocking Bush. Bin Laden, by his appearance on that tape, seems to have transformed from sickly, skinny Islamic fanatic to a tanned, rested politician for many Muslims to reconsider in what he hopes will be a serious light. He wants to look like an important man in the eyes of the Muslim world. The frightening part is, thanks to Bush , he might. Why? Because he was able to get the better of America under Bush's [failure to] watch!

Had we not blindly barged our way, in the darkness of unnecessary and poorly planned and unprepared warfare, into Iraq and caused disastrous strife, destruction, and death, the heart of the Muslim world (at least the centrist part) would have been calling for Bin Laden's head for what he did on 9/11.

Instead, many young Muslim men are taking Bin Laden seriously.
*(Beyond belief, but they really do).

We cannot allow Bush to escape accountability for 9/11 being an overwhelming success for the hijackers, for allowing Bin Laden to remain a free man (enabling him to encourage and inspire al Qaeda), and recruiting thousands of new terrorists with his horrific foreign policy.

Anyone who goes into the voting booth tomorrow should read what I wrote well over a year ago.

This is a man who will not change.

You cannot correct mistakes if you cannot admit that you made mistakes to begin with.

If Bush is re-elected, we are doomed to see more disaster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 8, 2003 at IDDYBUD:

The Bush Speech-September 7, 2003
My questions and comments to Mr. Bush
Part I

1. "Nearly two years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we began a systematic campaign against terrorism. These months have been a time of new responsibilities, and sacrifice, and national resolve and great progress. "

Iraq and its Saddam Hussein Regime never attacked us before your infamous pre-emptive strike, Mr. Bush.

Not two years ago. Not ever.


2. ".. we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror, possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and for 12 years defied the clear demands of the United Nations Security Council. Our coalition enforced these international demands in one of the swiftest and most humane military campaigns in history."


Not the 9-11 brand of terror, Mr. Bush. Not in the case of Iraq. There was no Al Qaeda connection.

The UN was proceeding with the renewed search for WMDs and/or evidence of existing programs for WMDs.

Iraq was cooperating...allowing them in.

You were childishly impatient, Mr. Bush.

You haven't found WMDs yourself, Mr. Bush.



You call your campaign "humane"? Do you realize at least 7,836 Iraqi citizens and soldiers are dead?

Have you seen the photos of what you have wrought, Mr. Bush?

Allow me to provide a few:




Credit: RobertFisk.com

Credit: latimes.com



How do you feel now that you've burned so many international bridges with your ugly pride and hubris, Mr. Bush?


4. A. "We have carried the fight to the enemy. We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilization, not on the fringes of its influence, but at the heart of its power."

B. (appeared later in speech) "Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated."


The central front of a war on terror? Do you mean Pakistan? Saudi Arabia--where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from? Are you speaking of the Phillipines? Indonesia? Iran? Georgia? Azerbijan?

Are you saying the heart of terror was or is in Iraq?

Or are you saying you carefully CHOSE Iraq because she was the weakest nation, knowing you would "bring on" the terrorists from all these other regions once the pre-emptive attack began?

If that is the case, and it appears it IS the case from all you have said, then you were immoral and the cause of the Iraq war was unjust.

You told us, Mr. Bush, that Iraq's regime posed an "imminent threat". That is what you said.

You lied.



5.This work continues. In Iraq, we are helping the long suffering people of that country to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. Together we are transforming a place of torture chambers and mass graves into a nation of laws and free institutions. This undertaking is difficult and costly -- yet worthy of our country, and critical to our security.


Worthy of us? It would be far more worthy of us to take care of the dangers and the basic needs we face right here at home, Mr. Bush. Our all-too-compliant Congress should tell you to eat your request for $87 billion...and go begging to the UN for it instead. Take your battle for desperately-needed cash to the central front--the heart of the world's hope...the UN.


6. Our enemies understand this. They know that a free Iraq will be free of them -- free of assassins, and torturers, and secret police. They know that as democracy rises in Iraq, all of their hateful ambitions will fall like the statues of the former dictator. And that is why, five months after we liberated Iraq, a collection of killers is desperately trying to undermine Iraq's progress and throw the country into chaos.


In the view of the Iraqi resistance, I would beg to differ. They do NOT seem to understand this as you say they do.To them, you are no more than an occupier, Mr. Bush. We realize that you wish the ideals of these real people were as easy to take down as the statue of Saddam Hussein. They do not see themselves as a collection of killers, but as a collection of patriots trying to undermine your occupation of them.


7. "Some of the attackers are members of the old Saddam regime, who fled the battlefield and now fight in the shadows. Some of the attackers are foreign terrorists, who have come to Iraq to pursue their war on America and other free nations. We cannot be certain to what extent these groups work together. We do know they have a common goal -- reclaiming Iraq for tyranny."



You represent tyranny to them, Mr. Bush. You have gone about this in a dangerous and entirely wrong way.


8. "Most, but not all, of these killers operate in one area of the country. The attacks you have heard and read about in the last few weeks have occurred predominantly in the central region of Iraq, between Baghdad and Tikrit -- Saddam Hussein's former stronghold. The north of Iraq is generally stable and is moving forward with reconstruction and self-government. The same trends are evident in the south, despite recent attacks by terrorist groups."



Sure, Mr. Bush...sure.

New explosion hits pipeline in northern Iraq


Ethnic Tensions Flare in Northern Iraq; at least 15 killed

US troops raid homes in Iraq's 'Sunni triangle'
27 August 2003
BAGHDAD: US troops hunting guerrillas and criminals raided homes overnight in Iraq's restive "Sunni triangle", the army said yesterday, as tension simmered among ethnic groups in the north and Shi'ite factions in the south.


10. " America has done this kind of work before. Following World War II, we lifted up the defeated nations of Japan and Germany, and stood with them as they built representative governments. We committed years and resources to this cause. And that effort has been repaid many times over in three generations of friendship and peace. America today accepts the challenge of helping Iraq in the same spirit -- for their sake, and our own."


Yes, we did this work before..in Europe. Unlike Iraq, 1940s Europe had been a place in which most basic structures (especially government-related) existed BEFORE the war.

A U.S. role in rebuilding Iraq should not exclude the assistance of and power-sharing with multilateral institutions. If you look at the period after World War II, our nation (the US) was the only nation that was feasibly able to rebuild Europe, so depleted of resources were the other countries that could possibly have helped at the time. If you look at history, however, the U.S. did the work in a rather new multilateral environment, for the time period, which included the UN, NATO, and what was once 'the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade'.

In the case of Iraq, other nations and institutions are available to help. And I know that they'd be ready if they believed our leader sincerely wished for an international cooperation based upon respect. The U.S. needs UN and international cooperation to lighten the overwhelming economic and military burdens.

Mr Bush, you also need desperately to counter these perceptions of U.S. unilateralism. Swallow this dangerous pride, Mr. Bush.
It's getting late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting late---and here we are --a year later-- with estimates of 100,000 Iraqi civilians (half of them women and children) dead, a shaky coalition with members dropping regularly because of insecurity, including intimidating, brutal beheadings, and Bush unwilling to admit he's made dreadful mistakes. On top of that, Bin Laden's back to laugh at him.

He doesn't deserve our votes.
I want to change horses before this one drowns all of us.

Wow. Like, I'm really shocked. Oil Prices Down

Wow. Like, I'm really shocked. Oil Prices Down.


"Hay-looooo, suckers!"

Geez, I never would have expected oil prices to go down just before the election!


"The smile on your face
Lets me know
That you need me
There's a truth
In your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says
You'll catch me
Whenever I fall..."

From a song by Ronan Keating, When you say nothing at all

Watch Message From John Kerry

A fresh start for America
By John F. Kerry | November 1, 2004

SHORTLY after Christopher Reeve passed away, his wife, Dana, stood with me on a stage in Columbus, Ohio. She wanted to talk to America about her gutsy, heroic husband and his dreams for the future. She told us, "He imagined living in a world where politics would never get in the way of hope."

Also with me that day was John Glenn, whose daring journey to explore the heavens made us hopeful again.

In the closing days of this campaign, I ask Americans to choose the vision John Glenn embodies and Christopher Reeve never abandoned.

On Tuesday, Americans face a fundamental choice: We can choose to continue the failed policies of the past four years -- or we can vote for a fresh start for America. For the past four years, George W. Bush has made the wrong choices for America. Nowhere is this more clear than in his catastrophic misjudgments in Iraq.

He took his eye off the ball -- diverting resources from destroying the terrorists who attacked us on Sept. 11 to rush to war against Saddam Hussein, who had no collaborative links to Al Qaeda and no links to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Bush administration now calls Iraq "a remarkable success story." Americans know better. Iraq is a mess: We see kidnappings and hostage-takings, cities too dangerous for our soldiers to enter, more than 1,100 brave American troops killed, and now the incredible failure to secure weapons and explosives -- at the Al Qaqaa complex alone, 760,000 pounds of explosives have disappeared. It took just one pound of these explosives to blow up Pan Am Flight 103.

And we see another set of Bush failures here at home. Bush has spent four years fighting for the powerful and well-connected, but his policies have squeezed our middle class and those struggling to join it.

He's let companies outsource jobs to Asia and given them tax breaks for doing so -- and he's the first president to lose jobs in 70 years. Four million more Americans have fallen into poverty on his watch -- 1.3 million of them children. He's ignored the runaway cost of college, let healthcare costs soar out of control, and driven gas prices up to $2 a gallon with an energy policy that punishes American families -- and rewards the Saudi royal family. And after raiding the Social Security trust fund, he's now vowed to privatize Social Security with a plan that will cut benefits up to 45 percent.

If the president thinks we're doing just fine, then he must believe that we shouldn't hope for something better.

It doesn't have to be this way. John Edwards and I will take this country in a new direction.

First, we'll get healthcare costs under control. That means covering all of our children and giving families access to the same private health insurance that members of Congress give themselves. It means allowing our seniors to import safe, FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada. And it means lifting the ban on federal funding for stem cell research.

Second, we'll fight to raise middle-class incomes by keeping and creating good-paying jobs in America. We'll roll back tax breaks for those who make more than $200,000 a year and give middle-class families tax credits to help pay for college, healthcare, and child care.

Third, we'll work to save Social Security. I will not privatize Social Security; I will not cut benefits; and I will not raise the retirement age.

Fourth, we'll make America independent of Mideast oil within 10 years. We'll do it by investing in technology and alternative energy sources and in cars and SUVs you only have to fill up once a month, not every week.

Finally, I will fight a smarter, tougher, and more effective war on terror. I will stop at nothing to hunt down, capture, and kill the terrorists. I will never give any nation or organization a veto over our national security. And I will always build and lead strong alliances so that America never has to go it alone.

If you join with me on Tuesday, we will both defend our country and fight for America's families. We will unite Democrats and Republicans to succeed in Iraq and restore America's leadership in the world. We will once again stand up for the middle class and all those struggling to join it. We will never again allow the politics of fear to obscure our hope for the future. And together, we will lift up this nation with the confidence that our best days are still ahead.

Senator John F. Kerry is the Democratic candidate for president.

Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

A Letter from a Soldier

"We appreciate your support, but we can't see those yellow ribbons from here. I ask that you let your vote show your support. I don't know what you go to bed thinking, but I go to bed wondering not how many more years of this administration I can
handle, but how many more days
I might survive."

A Letter from an American Soldier

A Matter of Survival
By George Sprague
Concord Monitor | Letter
Thursday 28 October 2004

When I was home in New Hampshire on leave last month, a lot of people approached me to tell what a good job we're doing here in Iraq.

I appreciate the support, but I don't need the media or those people to tell me what I see every day. We are not getting the job done.

People ask me, "How's it going over there?" Cities have been overrun and are in a state of lawlessness. My job brings me into the streets. I see these things as they happen. They aren't just headlines for me. All we are doing here is treading water, and at this rate we can't keep afloat much longer. I'm just a simple man, but I can see that everything this administration has done with Iraq has been dead wrong.

We appreciate your support, but we can't see those yellow ribbons from here. I ask that you let your vote show your support. I don't know what you go to bed thinking, but I go to bed wondering not how many more years of this administration I can handle, but how many more days I might survive.

George Sprague
Balad, Iraq

Battleground NE Ohio:I Never Would Have Imagined

An Iddybud Exclusive


This Tuesday, Americans who live in NE Ohio may be the ones who determine who our next president will be.


From the Battleground of NE Ohio:
"I Never Would Have Imagined"
One American citizen's journey toward the America of our dreams
by Todd J. Schneider
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Oct 05-30, 2004

It’s hard to know where to start reporting on the last month here in NE Ohio. These are simultaneously exciting and perilous times for our great land. And here in Ohio, all the storms that have hovered over our political landscape seem to have been drawn here by some great magnetic force. We have been told for decades (or at least since the advent of the ‘talking head’) how important our state is in national elections - that such and such never won such and such without carrying Ohio. But it always seemed like a thing of urban legend or misplaced pride. Until bush usurped the office of the presidency.

But I will try not to blab, but rather condense the political story of our home here in the Connecticut Western Reserve, and how it’s touched my family over the last weeks.



You may have read about Ohio’s voter registration phenomenon in a Sunday New York Times article about a month ago. Well let me relate just a few institutional and personal examples to describe how this has taken place. First, there is America Coming Together, the bold 527 that has changed the face of voter registration. Locally, it is run in Akron by Will Duby, but the first contact with our maverick, independent Summit Dems group was our friend Jessica Fischel. When our group first started back in February to put on armor to go into battle, we struggled with a way to boost voter registration until, all the sudden Jessica shows up at one of our early meetings to tell us about ACT. From there, we all just volunteered with ACT (me, doing data entry every Thursday evening) whenever we could. And the next to the very last day before the registration deadline on Oct. 4th, ACT blessed us with a visit by Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, Julianna Margulies, Aidan Quinn and Steve Buscemi. They joined us to go ‘blanket register’ a senior citizens high-rise in Akron’s Opportunity Park. What a gas to look through a staircase window to see whether anyone was covering a floor and catch Steve Buscemi or Marisa Tomei knocking on someone’s door to ask them if they needed to register or maybe get an absentee ballot form.

With the Kerry campaign, under Laurie Depalo, we had a massive voter registration push through September, knocking on every door in Akron’s wards 3, 4 and 5 over one weekend, just as an example. Combine this with the dedicated programs of the NAACP and the unions, and the result was a flood of thousands of registrations at the Summit County Board of Elections. So many in fact, that a number of workers had to be hired, complete with the accompanying political intrigue surrounding the party affiliations of the hirees.

Finally, at the most basic level were folks like me. I had a modest goal back about 2 years ago, in the days when it seemed that the Republican juggernaut was unstoppable. I thought that the only way to fight the money would be sheer numbers of progressive voters, so I got a stack of registration forms to carry around in the back of my van. I really didn’t think I would get many more than ten people signed up, as I am nobody of any real consequence, but if Jim got ten and Heather got ten and Gary got ten.....you get the idea. That goal has been easily doubled, and so has Jim’s, Heather’s and Gary’s. But the coolest things about this was seeing our 14 year old son Eric get a neighbor who hadn't voted in all her 60 plus years to register for the first time. Or when a fellow worker, who I had registered, ended up registering 3 people himself - the last one on the VERY LAST DAY before the deadline!

My friends, Northeast Ohio has been a whirlwind. John Kerry and John Edwards have been here numerous times, and the impostor himself came to our little suburb a few weeks ago (derisively known as 'Caucasian Falls' for decades - so it was just the right place for him). In my wildest dreams, I would have never thought that I would see Michael Moore in our towns twice in the same week, or Jesse Jackson Sr. or Carol King, just to name a few of the luminaries that have visited us to impress upon our voters the importance of getting the ‘monkey’ off our backs. And the volunteer effort has been heartening beyond description. I was at a meeting for volunteers for ‘game day’ at Kerry headquarters last night, and the place was so full you couldn’t move - and it was the second such meeting of the day! The energy was so high you could get shocked if you weren’t careful, and as I looked around the room, I caught the faces of so many that I have come to know and love. In just the last 10 months, since the political season shifted into overdrive, there has been so much that has happened, and we have made friendships borne of necessity and a love for our Constitution that will last forever. It seems like a lifetime.



There are so many little stories I could tell from here in NE Ohio that would illustrate the importance of this campaign and its impact on us all. But there isn’t the space on any blog for all of them, so let me finish with one that really stands out. My friend Rob Lutz has been doing yeoman duty over at Dem Hq in Medina County (a rather republican county, by nature), and was there one day when an older man walked in and explained that he wanted to register to vote, but didn’t know how to read or write. Rob introduced him to the head of the Democratic Party, who happened to be there, and together, they filled out his form. The new voter signed with an 'x' and the form was initialed by the Dem Party head, according to law, and the gentleman went on his way.

This citizen felt the importance of voting against bush to be so important that he was willing to walk into a room full of strangers and say, “Hey, I’m illiterate, and I’ve never voted before in my life!” Doing what he felt was right and necessary for the future of our country was a more powerful force to him than any loss of face he might have encountered there in that office, and he came to us to help him be able to make his opinion heard!



Marissa Tomei in Ohio
photo courtesy Todd Schneider

Dear readers, my family and I are everyday folk. But fate and bush have landed us squarely in the lap of history and given us a new understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship. In my most fanciful thoughts, I never would have imagined that we would be part of a team that stood to take down a tyrant, but here we are. Ever since 9-11-01, the forces of the Right have wanted America to think of that day as the end of history, but for us it was the beginning of a journey of duty and service to our country’s way of life. Yes, a beginning of a new history of understanding what it means to take control of America’s political destiny, and what can happen if we don’t act. And for us, there’s no turning back.

Todd J. Schneider Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Which Leader Were You in a Past Life?

Which Leader Were You in a Past Life?
brought to you by Quizilla


I was Confucius!

Your life began in 551 B.C. in the
Chinese village of Zou. You worked as a
teacher until age 35, when you became advisor
to the exiled Duke Zhou for a time. Later you
became a magistrate and even the Grand Minister
of Justice of Lu Province for a time. After a
while, you took to wandering with your handful
of disciples and unfortunately found that
high-ranking nobles in many courts were
plotting to have you killed. You continued,
however, to speak on morality and honesty until
you finally retired and spent your remaining
days writing. You died at the age of
72.