Saturday, August 28, 2004

Well first of all, thank you to everyone who congratulated me on my new job. I tried to update yesterday and it got lost in the world wide interweb to that crafty foe: Page Cannot Be Displayed.

It was a political rant which I'm sure most at least one of you would not have wanted to read. Possibly more since my Friends' list is comprised of several countries including Finland, Canada, and England. Not to mention several people in the States here who are too young to vote. I'm sorry, gals, but soon. Very soon. Continuing with the politics for a minute (I haven't caught up with my news in several days) I have turned into a C-SPAN junkie. I'm constantly checking the listings to see if there is anything of interest on there. I fear I may have to torture myself with watching the Green Party's Vice Presidential Nominee talk for an hour. The part that I listened to yesterday were just insane. He was really doing a dis-service to the American People. I felt that way anyhow. He was twisting truths and misinforming people. The host was just giving him a chance to speak. I'd appreciate a more hard hitting host. Not someone that spoke over him, but someone who requested examples or something more concrete or at least corrected him on the facts. One thing he said was that Kerry should apologize to the Vietnamese people and stop being so proud of medals he won for killing a kid. If I'm not mistaken in 1971, John Kerry sat in front of a Congressional Hearing and gave Testimony to the horrors he witnessed in Vietnam and urged the Senators to do what they could to get the United States out of that war ASAP. I do believe I may have found something that I disagree with my candidate on. A small thing, but I'm not certain so I'm asking if anyone knows the answer please let me know. Why did Kerry and Edwards vote against the Laci and Connor Law? Was it the partial abortion concerns? I hope there was more to it.

I found it interesting that Senator Bob Kerrey is all for a national ID card. He gave some very convincing arguments and I believe that I side with him now. Very, very forward thinking Democrat that man is. Interesting ideas.

As for my job, I'll be working at US Cellular as a customer service representative. It's a really up place. They have a gym and a track so I've heard. So that means that I love you all, but I won't be online anymore. :( I don't really know what else to say about that so I'll field any questions you might have.

Oh! We went walking on Thursday night. I saw the coolest dog! A Landseer. This lady was walking this dog. It looked like she had a miniature cow on a leash. His name was Lance and he was just the softest thing ever. Landseer is actually a color of Newfoundland which was debated as being a different breed.

I bought some new fish. Four Black Mollies and Two Red Swordtails. They look great in my tank. I'm so excited.

You know what's funny? I don't really know what to say about myself. I could write for hours and hours about politics and what's going on and the consequences, but if you want me to write about myself it's just not as interesting. I can't get excited about my daily activity the way I can about my plans and my opinions. I just got finished watching Max Cleland introduce John Kerry at the DNC. Very good stuff. Band Brothers by Springstein was a very nice touch indeed. Well I suppose the song is actually called "No Surrender." Either way I liked it. And Edwards is just really so adorable.

No retreat, no surrender.
~Bas

ETA: Here's a Bushism for you. Bill Frist is a republican senator from Tennessee. "I want to thank my friend, Sen. Bill Frist, for joining us today. … He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. (Laughter.) Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me."—Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004

Whoopah! I'm back.

A very interesting take on the Kerry/Swift Boat debacle. I think people who are tired of being told what to believe and feel like Kerry's not telling the truth would be interested in that article.

But I have to say that while it is a very interesting article and I did enjoy reading it. It didn't change my mind. I'm glad that Kerry served in Vietnam, I suppose. I mean...do I really want anyone to serve in a war? No. But I'm glad that he survived. Wish that Agent Orange hadn't contributed to the cancer that killed my grandfather so he'd be alive now and we could get into clashes. He'd be a Republican though I wonder if he wouldn't be in Anyone But Bush camp. But the point is that I'm not voting for Kerry because he did or did not serve in Vietnam. I don't really think that Kerry's platform is that he served in Vietnam. He's been talking about getting back to the issues for a month now. I'm sure he knew his old opponents would surface, but I don't think he meant for Vietnam to be the crux of his campaign. It's certainly not why I'm voting for him now. I'm concerned about the issues. His stances on the issues most align with my own beliefs. I want to move forward. Kerry is willing to do that. Bush is extremely stubborn and lives steeped with traditions. Tradition is wonderful. But we shouldn't let it impede our progression into the future. Most importantly, Kerry's record is clean. I'd like to give him a try. I'm tired of Bush and his war. I watched part of the Census Bureau report and the Employment report yesterday. The economy is supposedly up. I don't really feel like it's up as finding a job is really difficult. I'd like to study those numbers. It may be that minimum wage jobs are up because another study shows that the poverty level was increased by one million people this year. That's people who make povery level pay or less and do not have healthcare. But regardless of the economy, I'm tired of a president who is always on vacation, who opens his mouth and I don't believe anything he says because there's always a spin to it. His past record for lies has left me with no confidence in anything he says. I'm tired of his war. I know that Kerry doesn't plan to end it. How could we end it now? But I don't want the man who lied to get us there having his say anymore. I'm voting him out. And you can say that we needed to free the Iraqi people so good came out of it. And I'll agree with you, but I'll say that the President should have given his people the right to decide if we should have gotten involved. There's a difference between gay marriage and war on Iraq. A gay marriage doesn't affect me. It's between the couple. Going to war to liberate Iraq does affect me. I think if the American people had known we were going to liberate Iraq, we would not have wanted to go or we would have wanted more troops to be sent. But we were told we were looking for WMDs. I'll end it there unless someone wants to spur me into contining, but I had something else I wanted to share.

Yet another Slate.com article, this one on the RNC (Republican National Convention) I found this one to be interesting and also misguided. He talks about President Bush being an alright guy to vote for because when he's in a room, he's the most famous guy around. Much like when Bill Clinton was in a room, he was the most famous guy around. I don't know how accurate that is since it's all an opinion. Not to mention that the guys he cites as example are both presidents while Kerry is just a nominee. I guess his point is two-fold. 1) Christian rock really creeps him out. And 2) only the most famous guy in a room can be president, everyone else is doomed to failure. Would that mean that school bullies should run for office because everyone will know who they are? What about Hitler? I won't continue.

Keep on rockin' in the free world
~Bas

ETA: Do you want to know WHY the Iraqis aren't falling over themselves to thank us for getting rid of Saddam?

A fun meme

Stolen from lync and I didn't even comment on hers. YET.

I think my friends will enjoy this one.

1. Comment to this entry with an imaginary post you think would be totally out of character for me to make--something I'd never talk about, never discuss, never say, anything. It has to be completely out of character for me.

Optional assignment:
2. Post this in your own journal.