A plea for intelligence!

Here are my responses to your twenty reasons.

1) I believe that although George Bush has made mistakes, he is an intelligent, good man, of strong character. He has America's best interests at heart. Our safety is his number one priority. I trust him.

I'm glad to hear you admit that Bush has made mistakes, but he is unwilling to make that admission. That means he won't attempt to correct the mistakes he's made. I agree that he is a good man of strong character, but I disagree with him. Intelligent?...hmmm...

2) I don't believe John Kerry is a man of character or honor. His number one priority is to be president. It has been, for thirty-five years. It has made him a very calculating, self-aggrandizing, manipulative man. He will say or do whatever he must to become president. We've had "Slick Willie." We don't need "Slick Johnny."

Really, it's impossible to judge any politician's character. We see only the face they show to the public. Bill Clinton is not a man of good character -- at least in some ways -- but he was a good president. Sometimes you have to have a bit of a ruthless side to be a good president -- Bush certainly has his share of ruthlessness. We don't yet know what kind of president Kerry will be, but I'd sooner take my chances with him than suffer four more years of the arrogant mistakes of Bush.

3) I believe in individual accomplishment, accountability and free enterprise, not big government and socialism.

I believe these are Republican buzz words. Democrats are not about big government and socialism, but about equal opportunity for everyone. The argument gets more and more confused as each side misrepresents the other. As for myself, personally (not representing any other Democrat), I don't understand the problem with socialism. Canada, England, and France are productive and happy nations. We seem willing to sacrifice our happiness for the pathological pursuit of profit and a misguided belief that every waking moment must be spent working. We only live once; I don't intend to waste my life focused on nothing but my job.

4) I don't vote one way or the other because of race, religion, union affiliation, or MTV.

Agreed. I believe Kerry will leave religion out of politics, where Bush seems determined to infuse his own religious beliefs into our government. As a pro-choice atheist, I find that frightening.

5) I am tired of Moore-onic comments from the likes of Cameron Diaz ("Bush is going to legalize rape") and Cher ("Bush is going to lock up all of the gays in one state").

I haven't heard these comments. I hope they were facetious and are being taken out of context.

6) I am sick of the distortion, fabrication and slanting of the news by CBS, NBC, ABC and the rest of the liberal media.

I work with the media, and I can assure you the only agenda of the networks I work with is attracting more viewers.

7) Michael Moore's time was up fifteen minutes ago.

I don't understand this comment.

8) I would rather fight the terrorists in Iraq than here.

I would rather fight the terrorists in Afghanistan than here. Unfortunately, Bush has succeeded in duping the American people into thinking Iraq has something to do with the war on terror. I could go on for hours on this, because this is the MAIN reason why I'm voting for Kerry, but I'll try to be brief. Bush was fixated on attacking Iraq long before 9/11 -- I still have a tape of one of his 2000 debates with Gore in which he's already talking about it. I don't know what his motivation was for attacking Iraq, but it was a plainly personal one, and he dragged the country and the world along with him, searching desperately for a reason. While most of our military has been bogged down in Iraq, Osama Bin Laden has slipped away, Al Qaeda has regrouped and grown strong again, attacked Spain and Russia, and is almost certainly ready to attack us again. I only hope that Kerry will win and will somehow solve this Iraq debacle and redirect our military against the real bad guys.

9) I don't care who has the best hair. I want leadership.

Agreed.

10) George Bush has kept the country safe since 9/11.

We are no safer than we were on 9/11. I just keep reminding myself, the chances are virtually nil that terrorists will attack my little town.

11) Teresa makes Hillary look like June Cleaver. Laura is a first class First Lady.

There is no usch position as First Lady. The President's wife has absolutely no power or authority. Who the presidential candidate is married to is a total nonissue.

12) Bush is resolute, decisive and dependable. Kerry lacks commitment or a moral compass.

Not true. That's the spin that the Bush campaign has put on Kerry. If you actually listen to Kerry's speeches in their entirety, you'll see that he is consistent, logical, and committed.

13) Bush walks the talk. He paid 30% in income taxes. Kerry says he doesn't want tax cuts for the rich, and then pays 12% in taxes. Kerry votes against AK-47 ownership, but owns one. He is against big SUV's, but owns one.

Nobody's perfect. Better Bugs Bunny than Daffy Duck.

14) Despite the feeble attempts by the DNC and the media to obscure the obvious, Kerry DID defame Vietnam veterans. He met with the enemy. He gave them aid and comfort. He threw away the medals that he now clings to, with the passion of Gollum and his "precious" ring. He won't sign the Department of Defense Form 180, which would release his military records. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are honorable and brave men. I stand by their side.

Americans have the right to question American policy. I thought we were all in agreement now that Vietnam was a bad idea. Whether he agreed with the war or not, he fought for this country. He may have only spent four months over there, but that's four months longer than Bush. Besides, what does it matter? This is today. Bush was an alcoholic, a draft dodger, and a derelict. When you're running for president, every little thing you've ever done is brought into the spotlight. Even a president is human.

15) I am concerned that if Kerry is elected president, his shameful lies about those who served in Vietnam will be reinforced and cemented into the consciousness of my grandchildren and their grandchildren.

Aw, now that's just silly. Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire. We know now that the Russians are just people, just like us. The Japanese brutally attacked Pearl Harbor, killed thousands of our people, and we dropped two nuclear bombs on thier country. Now we're close allies and friends with Japan.

16) I want Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Matthews to just shut the hell up for a while!

You think that will happen if Bush is elected?

17) There are disturbing parallels between Kerry in the 70's and Kerry now. He has gone from "How do you ask the last man to die for a mistake (in Vietnam)?" to Iraq is "the wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place!" He said that in Vietnam, atrocities were occurring on a daily basis, with the consent and direction of the entire chain of command. Now, he has said that the atrocities of Abu Garibe happened with the consent and direction of the entire chain of command.

He didn't say that the Abu Ghraib atrocities happened with the direction of the entire chain of command. He said that the chain of command failed to prevent the atrocities. That is disturbing. Believe me, the Republicans would be saying the same thing if this happened under the Clinton administration. As for the "wrong war" bit, I refer you to my reply to #8.

18) Bush is a man of action. Kerry didn't accomplish anything during twenty years in the senate. His four months in Vietnam have been his centerpiece accomplishment. If that is the criteria for becoming President of the United States, there are thousands of veterans more qualified than he is.

That may be true, but Kerry is the Democratic nominee. I'd rather have Howard Dean myself, I was very excited about him. But as president, he will by necessity have to do something, and I think he's got a good plan of action.

19) If Kerry had his way, Saddam Hussein would not only still be in power, but he would own Kuwait and perhaps other neighbors, as well.

Maybe, but we might have Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda might be destroyed. THEN we could focus on that little flea Saddam Hussein and all the other dictators of the world. If a bully is beating you up on the playground, you fight him off before you go attacking a bully who's picking on someone else.

20) John Kerry is an opportunist and arm chair general. Rather than having a plan of his own, he attacks with distortions and half-truths, from the enviable position of hindsight. I still don't know what he would really do about important issues. He scares the uninformed with untruths about the draft, healthcare, taxes, jobs, voting rights, Iraq, social security, stem cell research, and anything else that he can throw into a whirlpool of negative rhetoric.

Hey, it's a campaign. Bush is doing the same thing, as if by saying "John Kerry is inconsistent!" over and over again, that will somehow make it true.

Anyway, I don't expect to change your mind, and that's not really my goal. I just wanted to have an intelligent debate with a Bush supporter, without all the partisan rhetoric. I hope that whoever wins the election, things won't be so bad. I desperately hope I'm wrong about Bush and that he knows what he's doing, but from what I've seen, he's a bumbling incompetent who's making things up as he goes, figuring God's on his side and will solve any problems he can't. Since Bush will mostly likely win (or steal) this election, I truly hope it's just that he knows things the rest of us don't, and he's making the right choices even though it doesn't look like it.

By the way, I don't oppose everything Bush has done. I'm grateful for his support of the national do-not-call registry, and I am delighted about his Moon/Mars space initiative. Everybody has their good and bad qualities.

Collin R. Skocik

How do you justify the fact that 100,000 innocent Iraqis, {mostly women and children} have died in this war that didn't need to be fought ? How many Iraqis consider Americans to be terrorists ? A human life is a precious thing whether it's an American killed in the twin towers by Al Quaeda or an Iraqi family killed in their home by American bombs. How many American servicemen have lost their lives , limbs or committed suicide because of this senseless war.
Please read some of the books written about the Viet Nam war and you will find that atrocities were committed by both sides. Do yourself a favor and go see Going Upriver. You will see that throwing away their medals wasn't a lark for these veterans it was a heart wrenching experience for the veterans and the Gold Star mothers who threw away the medals awarded to their dead children. They succeeded in bringing the war to an end. This would not have happened without the dedication of this straggly bunch of disillusioned veterans. There are too many parallels between the wars in Nam and Iraq.

I am only going to respond to reason #10. You stated that Bush has made us safer since 9/11.

Well, hmm...we were attacked under his watch, and uh, there are 380 tons of conventional explosives missing in Iraq.

Here is a list of coincidences on 9/11.

1. Several FAA flight controllers exhibited extreme incompetence on 9/11, and evidently on that day only.

2. The officials in charge at both NMCC and NORAD also acted incompetently on 9/11, and evidently on that day only.

3. When NMCC and NORAD officials did fianlly order jet fighters to be scrambled to protect NY and DC, they ordered them in each case from more distant bases, rather than from McGuire and Andrews.

4. After public statements saying that Andrews Air Force Base had no jet fighters on alert to protect DC, its website, which had previously said that many jets were always on alert, was altered.

5. Several pilots who normally are airborne and going full speed in under three minutes all took much longer to get up on 9/11.

6. These same pilots, flying planes capable of going 1,500 to 1,850 miles per hour, on that day were all evidently able to get their planes to fly only 300 to 700 miles per hour.

7. The collapse of the buildings of the WTC, besides occurring at almost free fall speed, exhibited other signs of being controlled demolitions: molten steel, seismic shocks, and fine dust were all produced.

8. The video and physical evidence suggesting that controlled demolition was the cause of the collapse of the WTC co-exists with testimony from people in these buildings that they heard, felt, and saw the effects of explosions.

9. The collapse of WTC-1 and WTC-2 had some of the same features as the collapse of WTC-7,even though the latter collapse could not be attributed to the impact of jet fuel of an airplane.

10. Both towers collapsed just as their respective fires were dying down, even though this meant that the South Tower, which had been hit second collapsed first.


I will get to the rest later, but please ask yourself, do you really think Bush did all he could to protect America? To me the evidence suggests complicity, perhaps Bush gave stand down orders.

Tmsater,i disagree with numbers 2,6,7,8,9,13,16,17,18,and 20. Theres some hipocrosy going on here.
2)You say john kerry will say anything to get elected. Well, so will george bush. He has done a masterfull job of "terrorizing" the american people in order to get votes. He has ignored his last four years of failure by focusing
on their fears. Since when do republicans have conventions in new york?
Since they started exploiting 9/11! All i heard was 9/11 this and 9/11 that.
He said nothing of what he will do the next four years.

6)You say your sick of distortion and fabrication from the liberal media?
I assume your a fan of the fox news channel,a channel which distorts and fabricates and flat out lies!

7)Michael moores time is not up. Believe it or not he has been making films for
years. His time has only begun.Fahreheit 9/11 was just another film on his ressume of greatness.

8)Since 9/11 there has been no hard evidence that we would have to face terrorists here. Do you think that would happen with all these over the top security measures taking place? If we ever had to face them here its because bush did not do his job of protecting us.

9)John Kerry is a leader. Bush is a master misleader.

13)You want to talk about cuts? Your beloved george bush cut anti-terrorism funding by 12%!

16)I want Bill O riley and sean hannity to shut up for a while!

17)The investigation into the prison scandal did go pretty far up the chain of command. So far up that Donald Rumsfeld apoligized for the whole incident!

18)You mean more "conservative" veterans right? The centerpiece of bushs accomplishments is that he rallied the nation after 9/11. But he didnt make it last.

20)once again,bush uses terrorism to scare and get the vote.