I know...I was an idiot in 2000

I especially like the bumper sticker I consistently notice driving through the townships in the SL Valley: If you aren't pissed off, you are clearly not paying attention. Bush Campaign 2000-2008.

I regret to announce that I did indeed vote for George W Bush in 2000. I didn't know anything about Al Gore, except that I found it funny that he kept reminding us that he invented the Internet. I just thought that maybe since George HW Bush had done a decent enough job at the White House, his son might echo his works in legacy. Boy, was I wrong. I think that Dubya may be the dumbest president we've had to date, only slightly more dumb than Dan Quayle, and that's saying a LOT. Our President has made the USA more isolated than at any time previous in the history of our great nation. His wannabe replacement, John McCain and his pet pitbull with lipstick (Palin) scare me even more. Yes, she did refer to herself as a pitbull. With lipstick. Leno, O'Brien and Letterman were all thanking the heavens after that quip.
McCain and Palin say they love this country. I say "Bull@#$%!" Maybe more like America in the 1950's. They are holding onto the Good Ole Boy system and will not let go. All I heard last night was one-liners of sarcasm, finger pointing and hatred. Palin thinks the biggest problem in the country right now is Barack Obama. Maybe she should get out of the hockey arena and start travelling to the Lower 48 every once in a while. I got a text from my uber-conservative friend now living in Chicago last night immediately following Palin's speech and he said he was impressed. I was NOT impressed, however, and I think that people like Sarah Palin are going to destroy this country. She sure knew how to divide herself from anyone respectable. Did you hear one positive aspect of her opponent? Does she have any idea that once he wins, her son that is slated to leave for the war, will be calling Obama his Commander-in-Chief and that she will have to support him? Talk about burning bridges from the get-go.

I believe that we need to change or reshape the face of the United States of America. For example, I don't believe that leaders, men or women, have the right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her own body, even if it means having an abortion. We DO NOT KNOW when life really begins for these babies, and that's beside the point. It is NOT free agency when we tell someone what they can or can't do. Let the women make their choices, it's theirs to make. The devil tells us what we have to do, not our leaders. Our true leaders give us a choice. I don't want to have my wife or sisters go through abortions, but I will respect the rights of my countrywomen to have and make that choice. Gun rights? Absolutely. Tax increase? Yes. As long as those taxes go to programs vested in our country, and not some bullshit war in Iraq that we currently dump $10 billion into every month. I pay a price to live in this country, so taxes do not bother me. World Police? Nope. I care for those in other countries, especially in war-torn Africa where I have spent a great deal of time, work and money, building back up what terrorists have destroyed. But it's enough that we have to police EVERYONE that does not stand up to our policies. Let us be done with it. Like the great Ike Eisenhower warned us, "In signing the Constitution, we did not end that great script with "And they lived happily ever after". Why do we struggle with the idea of losing our superpowers to China? Everyone else has had a turn, and we have to put soldiers everywhere just to ensure our pockets get fatter so we can keep building bigger companies to monopolize the world with.

McCain/Palin will be an interesting bit to watch. As Scott T of Billings Montana said, "I suppose Palin does help McCain if all we Americans cared about was rallying around the flag, fighting the big war on terrorism and now engaging in a cultural war on the eastern elites. Palin and McCain can rant and rave about all that until the cows come home. But, at the end of the day I have to sit down at my kitchen table and figure out how I am going to put food on the table, pay my bills, put gas in my car and hope I do not get sick as I cannot afford too. I have not heard one word offered on stage at the Republican convention that addresses the issues I face at the end of every day at my kitchen table. But with that giant American flag waving behind their podium every night, why would they even care about me and all the other millions of Americans sitting at our kitchen tables staring at our pay stubs?"

I like Obama. I like community organizers. I like change. I don't care if he is muslim, Christian, Hare Krishna. I don't have to have someone who runs for President of a country that chooses to recognize freedom of religion be of my own faith to choose him as my leader. Heaven will be full of people that most of my neighbors don't want to see, and frankly, they will wonder just how the hell they got there in the first place since they weren't American, or Republican, or LDS, or God fearing people. Is there any way at all we can just keep the good things in life, and toss out the dross and become refined once again...only this time, ALL will be invited to the dinner table; The gay, the black, the Muslim, the gay black Muslim, the white, the American Indian, the poor and oppressed, the mother who had an abortion, the mother who chose to keep her baby, the rich and pompous and all of the rest of us that fall into these categories deserve to be treated like EQUALS.

We ALL need a good wake-up call. I will give my reasons for voting for Obama later. But now, all we need is change. Let us foster it in, and prepare ourselves for a LOT of work ahead of us.