IF YOU’RE
A CONSERVATIVE
Doug Bandow,
senior fellow at the Cato Institute, writing
in Salon. “Serious conservatives should
deny their votes to Bush. . . . A
Kerry victory would likely be bad for the cause of individual liberty and
limited government. But based on the results of his presidency, a Bush victory would be catastrophic.
Conservatives should choose principle over power.”
Writes
conservative columnist Walter Olson: “I'm among those who believe George W. Bush doesn't
merit re-election, though I supported and in fact actively advised his campaign
the first time around.”
Writes
syndicated columnist Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune: “At the age of 50, I get
few chances to try something entirely new. Come Nov. 2, I plan to take one of
those rare opportunities. I'm going to vote for a Democrat for president. I've never done it before, and I hope I never
have to do it again. But President Bush
has made an irresistible case against his own re-election. His first term has
been one of the most dismal and costly failures of any presidency. His second
promises to be even worse.”
Or click here for a whole
slew of Republican switching to Kerry, like well-known Texas financier
David Bonderman, of the Texas Pacific Group in Fort
Worth, who backed Bush last time. Now backing Kerry, he says Bush “is turning out to be the worst
president since Millard Fillmore – and that's probably an insult to Millard
Fillmore.”
Or look at editorandpublisher.com,
which shows that as of Sunday, 31 papers that
backed Bush in 2000 have switched to Kerry – versus just two that have switched the other way.
F Ask your Republican friends
(gently) . . . if conservatives feel this way, and if
so many editorial boards, having given it considerable thought, feel this way .
. . maybe there’s something to it?
IF YOU’RE
WORRIED ABOUT SECURITY
Click here
for the story of a man who stowed away in the wheel well of an American Airlines
737 Friday. What if, instead of a
160-pound man, he had been a 160-pound bomb?
We know George W. Bush has managed to create thousands of new terrorists
abroad and turn much of the world against us.
How much safer has he made us here at home?
Everyone knows by now that the Bush team forgot to guard an Iraqi warehouse
with 350 tons of high explosives – a single
pound of which in the wheel well of a 737 could easily bring the plane down. This was more than 700,000 pounds.
There is the tendency to forgive Bush anything – giant deficits, millions
more in poverty and without health insurance, more assault weapons and fewer
cops, the attack on embryonic stem cell research – all because somehow he will
keep us safe. But c’mon people. He
ignored the urgent warnings about bin Laden nine months before 9/11 . . . he turned most of the world against us after 9/11 . . . he’s got our military
stretched thin and our financial strength weakening by the month . . . how is
this making us safer?
And then there’s this (and I’ll stop):
CARL’S
EPIPHANY
In large part:
THE LAST STRAW
Carl F. Worden
That's it, I've had it.
I've been a registered Republican
since I pulled my first lever in a voting booth, and I've voted as a loyal
Republican for Republican candidates consistently every year. I am 55 years
of age. I am considered a right-wing Christian conservative and strict constitutionist who knows the Framers of the Constitution
expected strict adherence to that original document unless and until it is amended.
You don't get much more conservative
and constitutionally-minded than I am, and that is why I just cast my Oregon
vote-by-mail ballot for Democrat John Kerry as the next president of the
United States. So did my wife -- and she's a very independent thinker. I know
there are thousands of lifelong Republican/Independent conservatives who are going
to do the same thing on November 2nd, because they've written and told me so.
The absolute last straw for me took place at the Bush rally,
held in Central Point, Oregon on October 14th. . . .
Three local teachers got tickets to
the Bush rally, passed all the security checkpoints and scrutiny and got in.
They never created or caused a disturbance, and they were perfectly peaceful
members of the audience waiting to hear Bush speak. But before they got to
hear Bush, they were expelled from the rally by Bush rally staff who objected
to the words printed on the T-shirts they were wearing.
No, the words on the T-shirts the
ladies were wearing did not disparage Bush, nor did they suggest support for
Kerry or any other candidate. The words did not condemn or support the war in
Iraq, nor did they slam any Administration policy. No, the T-shirts the
three women wore showed an American flag, and under it the words, "Protect
Our Civil Liberties". That was all -- I kid you not.
That was it. That was the last straw
for me. That was the defining moment I'll never forget. That was my
epiphany.
Bryan Platt, Chairman of the Jackson
County Republican Central Committee, said he stood 100 percent behind the
person who made the decision to exclude the women, removing
any doubt that one or two individuals exceeded their authority and blew it. No,
it was solid, Republican neo-conservative fascist policy on open display,
and the Brown Shirts weren't about to apologize for it. No way.
. . . My decision to vote for Kerry
was a vote to get Bush and his administration out. I could have voted for a
third party candidate who couldn't possibly win, but that would have translated
into a vote for Bush, and I just couldn't do that. . .
This election is different: In this
election, we all have to answer the call to vote wisely. Lives depend on it,
and God is watching how we vote as well. When an individual sins, God
deals with him individually. When a whole nation sins, God
deals with the nation nationally. It's right there in the Bible.
The way I see it, the threat Bush presents is just too great. I know what Bush did with his first four years on good behavior, and so
do you. What scares the bejeebers out of me is what
Bush would do with four more years with nothing to lose -- and an assumed
mandate from the people for what he did the first four. . .
What I do know is that any party that
would find the words, "Protect Our Civil Liberties" offensive or even
threatening, is a party I won't belong to anymore.
That was the last straw.
Carl F. Worden
FASCISM
ISN’T EASY TO DEFINE
Fascism? Did Carl say fascism? Ouch.
But what is fascism, anyway? It’s
even harder to define than “irony.” Click
here for one site’s definition (and be sure to scroll down to the photo).