Tim Fogarty’s Blog

A vote for George W Bush:

• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for Empire, of might makes right, of the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to us because we’re America, of we don’t need no stinking treaties and we don’t need no friggin allies.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for the 1500 political appointees in all the key positions in the executive branch, appointees who make the daily decisions, appointees who have a conservative agenda, some who want to turn America into a Christian theocracy, others who want to rig the system so that they and their friends can make as much money as possible.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for using the Book of Revelations as a foreign policy paper. Any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians requires part of Palestine not being under Israeli control, and The Second Coming won’t occur until Israel controls all of Palestine. (See also here.)
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote to overturn Roe v Wade. Bush said so during the second debate. When asked about what type of judge he’s appoint, he mentioned Dred Scott. You were probably scratching your head, wondering why in the world he’d bring up slavery. What type of judge would be for Dred Scott? But in fact, Dred Scott is a code word for abortion. The religious right often refers to Roe v Wade as “the Dred Scott of our times”. So Bush was sending a message to all the people on the far right that he’ll appoint judges to overturn Roe v Wade.

  Now contrary to what some people on the far right believe, no one wants there to be more abortions. Plan Parenthood and other organizations are not pro choice for their financial gain. They don’t want women to have abortions. They want women to be able to choose whether and when to have children. If the people on the far right would spend a fraction of their time, money, and energy on teaching women how not to get pregnant, there would be a lot fewer abortions.

  Overturning Roe v Wade will not end abortions. Rich women will always be able to go somewhere to get one. Poor women who are desperate will turn to back alley abortions once again.

  There are many ways to reduce the number of abortions. Overturning Roe v Wade is not the way to go.

• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for fiscal irresponsibility. Deficits do matter. Bush has never vetoed a spending bill. Most of our current deficit is due to his tax cut to the wealthy. Even though 63% of corporations pay no federal tax, he just signed a bill giving them an additional $119 billion in tax cuts.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for big government. Even though all branches of government are controlled by Republicans, the federal government has grown more rapidly under Bush than it did under Clinton. Social welfare programs grew $96 billion in two years. Pork-barrel spending rose 21.6% [cite]
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for crony capitalism. Time after time, businessmen invested in him in exchange for access to government.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for laws with names that are the opposite of what they do. Healthy Forests is a give-away to the timber industry, allowing them to clear-cut millions of acres of forest, far more than what is needed to minimize forest fires. Clear Skies repeals part of the Clean Air Act, allowing 520% more mercury, 68% more nitrogen oxide and 225% more sulfur dioxide. Changes to the Clean Water Act means the law no longer apply to 60% of rivers, lakes and streams. No Child Left Behind sets standards to be reached by 2014. So pretty much everyone in failing schools today are being left behind. The federal government mandate, even if fully funded, does nothing to improve failing schools today.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for big oil. Bush’s energy plan gives $20 billion in tax credits to coal, oil and nuclear industries, while ignoring renewable energy industries. A vote for Bush is a vote to destroy the tundra.
• A vote for George W Bush is a vote against the separation of church and state. Our forefathers were not trying to protect churches from meddling by the state, but protect the state from meddling by the church.

  As of May 2004, “Of the $100 million that the Department of Health and Human Services has given to the Compassion Capital Fund, no charities run by Jewish, Muslim or other non-Christian faiths have received money from the fund, although some have applied.” [PBS Frontline]

• A vote for George W Bush is a vote for incompetence. 9/11 may or may not have been preventable. But the Bush administration ignored all the warning signs. Going to war may or may not have been the right thing to do, but the Bush administration has made countless mistakes in the execution of the war. Bin Laden is still free, looking well rested in his latest video. 1100 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis have died…for what?

John Kerry has experienced war first hand. He fought in Vietnam and when he returned, he fought to end the war. John Kerry can work with our allies to deal with problems throughout the world. John Kerry will return sanity to the workings of the federal government.

If you need more information, please read this. (pdf)

Whether you are in a red state or a blue state, it is so important that you vote on Tuesday. Not only must we win, we must win by a sizeable margin. We must repudiate the actions of this administration.