Politics:

I resent that Bill Maher suggests that religious people support George Bush and scientific people don't. I am religious, and my religion says that people who cause death for personal gain are evil. Since the war in Iraq was so clearly fought so that the American taxpayers could be fleeced by George Bush's constituents, and people were killed in that war; George W. Bush is evil. That is a religious statement, and because George Bush is evil (as defined by my religion) I cannot support him.

On the other hand, I love Bill Maher because he suggests that people who do not participate in their own democracy are boring. BRAVO!

I also like Bill's show because he has the most inciteful stuff running during the credits, for example bit of footage where Barack Obama is talking to an entertainer who has never voted before:

"I don't care wether you are a big music star or you work in Micky-D's, Uncle Sam is taking some of your check. He's either putting it in schools, or he's putting it in prisons. He's either putting it in roads and bridges and hospitals here, or he's putting it in Iraq after they've been destroyed."

"If you don't like what you see going on around you, if it offends something (he indicates his heart) - your sensibility; for you to not do something about it is to admit defeat. I don't like being pumped like that."

I can't say it much better than that!

Politics:

Vice President Dick Cheney and others continue harping on the same question over and over again even though it has already been answered a dozen times by Senators John Edwards and John Kerry. They (the Republicans) keep repeating the question about why the senators voted against funding the war and they continue to try to imply that the senators were voting against funding the troops. Are they really that stupid? How much of that $87 billion will actually go to supporting U.S. military families? How much is really simply lining the pockets of the already bloated contractors for whom the War in Iraq is already a stunning economic victory.

That funding bill, while it did include a few minimal token gestures of support for the U.S. military and their families was almost entirely about making contracting corporations a whole lot more profitable. All non-corrupt politicians were ethically bound to vote against it. That says something about the level of corruption in our government today. Why will neither Cheney nor Bush allow real questions to be asked in their press conferences? I think it is because they fear this question in front of live cameras:

"How much of the $87 billion funding for the War in Iraq was ear-marked for actually supporting the troops in the U.S. military?"

Facts:
1) Senator John Kerry is a real veteran. He actually volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy at a time when his nation was at war. How must that make President Bush feel? Frankly, I do NOT fault the president for wanting to avoid that war. At the time people may not have known it, but in hindsight we can see that it was an unjust war, with the U.S. government backing the wrong side (a dictatorship against the people of Vietnam), because a few people in power happened to have economic interests in seeing that dictatorship survive.

2) Senator Kerry figured at least some of the fallacy of the Vietnam War out, and decided to use the political process as laid out in our constitition to try to extract his country from that pointless war. This is NOT a change of heart. He was simply continuing to serve his country. He had simply learned that not all those who serve in political office are really serving the people, so he proceeded to work towards getting us out of a bad war.

3) Senator Kerry has spent the better part of a lifetime since then in public service. He, like Bush and Cheney, happened to be in that class of the few wealthy people in America who can chose ways to serve. He decided to do it in public office.

4) His voting record stands for itself. He has always showed compassion to fellow human beings. He, like every other elected representative, has had to make compromises. Nearly every bill is overloaded with riders, provisos, compromises, limits, and sometimes completely unrelated adjustments to the law. Of course there are things that make sense in nearly each bill, and there are also things that you don't like in each bill. Weighing those priorities is a nasty job, and all of our elected representatives have volunteered to do that for us. It is a fact that they don't all read all of each bill all the time. So any time someone points out in a political ad that Senator X voted for bill A, or Senator Y voted against bill B; you should ask yourself: "What are the sponsors of this ad not telling me? What other riders were there, that made this particular bill so offensive, or so provacative to the senator?"

5) So far, John Kerry has not been caught in a lie. Wow, that can't make the man in the oval office comfortable either... Sun Tsu would suggest that the best way to confront truth is to distract from it. So we know that someone in the Bush campaign has read "The Art of War."

Politics:
While watching the Democratic National Convention on PBS tonight, I think I just saw a possible presidential candidate in Barack Obama, the Illinois State Senator who is running for U.S. Senate and delivered a transcendant keynote speach at the DNC in Boston. He proposes something I have found harder and harder to do myself, that is to unite all Americans, even the ones who voted for Bush.

Check out his campaign website at: http://www.obamaforillinois.com/ and decide for yourself.

I also liked what what Howard Dean said about politics being much to important to leave to the politicians. People, we MUST reclaim the U.S. government in our own name.

Politics:
Kojo Nnamdi just had delegate Bob Marshall on his show talking about the Federal Marriage Amendment. I am appalled, as a voter in district 13, Bob Marshall has NEVER represented me. He is abhorrent to me in every way, and his stands on women being subservient and against same-sex unions are simply crimes against humanity. How is it possible that no one ever runs against Bob Marshall in district 13's elections? Every time I go to the polls there is only the one choice - so I typically write in "Sunny Chapman" (who pioneered women's rights) because there are no real oponents.

So, how does the marriage of two men, or two women, have any impact at all on my own marriage with my wife of 11 years?

No one has yet been able to tell me an answer to that. Bob Marshall ranted on Kojo's show for ten minutes about how allowing gay marriage would destroy marriage... but he never explained why or how. Frankly I assert that people who make that claim must not be in a very strong marriage themselves. Get over it folks. Some men love men, some women love women, it is all natural. Dolphins enjoy same sex play. Monkeys enjoy same sex play. So can homo sapiens. Get over it already, and spend your time (and my tax dollars) solving real problems - like fixing public transportation shortages (at the local level) and researching better fuels (at the national level).

Politics:

What the heck is wrong with our president? How can he believe the world is a safer place today than it was before the invasion of Iraq? More people hate the United States than ever before. I feel far less safe because of the madman in the oval office.

How can he site Afghanistan as a success? Sure the Taliban are out of Kabul, and that is a good thing, but there are still plenty of them throughout Afghanistan, and the American forces sure didn't catch Osama bin Laden nor many Al Caida operatives... that makes the military operations in Afghanistan a FAILURE, not a success.

Where the heck is the opposition leadership? How about bringing the conversation around to human values, that is the value on human life. Obviously the Republican party places no value on human life, they are willing to sacrifice Iraqis and U.S. Soldiers to make a few constituents very wealthy... so clearly, money is more valuable to Republicans than human life is. How about the value of a solid relationship between two loving people, regardless of their sex? How does it harm my wife or I and our relationship if Jim and Dan love each other? It does not, of course. There are those who want to stir up fear, to use fear as a tool to manipulate people's votes. That is wrong. Roosevelt said: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." - that is still true today.