I think you should vote for Bush, but unfortunately I don’t get to make that decision. If you’d like to decide for yourself…

Visit the Voter’s Registration Guide over at Kottke’s site. I’m pretty sure he’s a liberal so the fact that I’m linking to this portion of his site means I think it’s legit and it’s basically just giving you information about how to sign up and vote. So if you’re not registered for whatever reason, need to update your info, or anything else, go to this site and it’ll send you where you need to be to be ready for the elections in November.

Categories: Politics

Life in Iraq sounds kinda sucky right now. From Healing Iraq:

bq. “The situation in Baghdad looks the same as it was in the couple of days before the war last year. Streets are almost empty by seven in the evening, a whole lot of Baghdadis have remained home yesterday for fear of getting cut off from their neighbourhoods in event of Americans blocking off streets or something. There was an ongoing military operation very close to our neighbourhood almost all of Monday night till midday. At one point I imagined that the Apaches were landing on our roof (that was after I published the previous post), and explosions kept rocking our house which brought back uncanny memories of last April 10th when there was a fierce confrontation between Fedayeen and advancing Americans just outside our doorsteps.”
(Read the full post)

Let’s hope the upcoming U.S. response to the radical Islamic militia forces goes well. A lot depends on it. A marine comments in an email over at Andrew Sullivan.

bq. “This battle is going to be talked about for a long time. The Marine Corps will either reaffirm its place in history as one of the greatest fighting organizations in the world or we will die trying. The Marines are fired up. I’m nervous for them though because I know how much is riding on this fight (the war in Iraq, the view of the war at home, the length of the war on terror and the reputation of the Marine Corps to name a few). However, every time I’ve been nervous during my career about the outcome of events when young Marines were involved they have ALWAYS exceeded my expectations. I’m praying this is one of those times.”

Categories: Politics

Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 Commission today. The transcript is avialable at FoxNews.

From what I gather, she’s an incredibly intelligent woman, well educated, and a great person for her job. Her comments about 9/11 reveal a lot about the Bush administrations response to the terrorist threat and operations prior to the event itself. The transcript is an interesting read.

Here’s some interesting parts of what she said.

“The threat reporting that we received in the spring and summer of 2001 was not specific as to time, nor place, nor manner of attack. Almost all of the reports focused on Al Qaeda activities outside the United States, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. In fact, the information that was specific enough to be actionable referred to terrorist operations overseas.

Most often, though, the threat reporting was frustratingly vague. Let me read you some of the actual chatter that was picked up in that spring and summer:

“Unbelievable news coming in weeks,” said one.

“Big event — there will be a very, very, very, very big uproar.”

“There will be attacks in the near future.”

Troubling, yes. But they don’t tell us when; they don’t tell us where; they don’t tell us who; and they don’t tell us how.”

Categories: Politics

via Lileks:

bq. Imagine if you woke from an operation and discovered that your tumor was gone. You’d think: I suppose that’s a good thing. But. You learned that the hospital might profit from the operation. You learned that the doctor who made the diagnosis had decided to ignore all the other doctors who believed the tumor could be discouraged if everyone protested the tumor in the strongest possible terms, and urged the tumor to relent. How would you feel? You’d be mad. You’d look up at the ceiling of your room and nurse your fury until you came to truly hate that butcher. And when he came by to see how you were doing, you’d have only one logical, sensible thing to say: YOU TOOK IT OUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS. PUT IT BACK!

Fair critique of some people’s objections to the war en mi opinion.

Categories: Politics

John Kerry was asked what his first executive order as president would be. His response: “Reverse the Mexico City policy on the gag rule so that we take a responsible position globally on family planning.”

The Mexico City Policy required “nongovernmental organizations to agree as a condition of their receipt of Federal funds that such organizations would neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.”

This type of policy is particularly important in terms of US support (or lack of) for the United Nations Population funds which has been accused of working with the Chinese government to coerce abortion.

*My thoughts:*
It’s moral policies like this that ’cause me to dislike Democratic candidates in general. I realize Republicans aren’t always saints either, but this kind of issue stands out. For me the election is about morality at least as much as internal/foreign policy. I don’t agree with everything Bush does, but I agree with him on a majority of moral issues including abortion and the importance of the traditional family. In this case especially, Bush reestablished the Mexico City Policy during his administration and for that I applaud him.

*Outside Sources:*
• Mexico City Policy - Wikipedia

Categories: Politics