(no subject)

I can guarantee you one thing: even the most casual student of history will someday look back at this election, and say "this was the pivot point."

They'll say "this is when it was obvious things had gone a bit crazy".

If you disagree vehemently with me that Bush is going to be known as the worst President in our history up to this point, you can think "the liberals are all crazy, and we can't trust them" and you need to vote.

If you at least kinda-maybe agree with me that Bush is going to be known as the worst President in history up to this point, you can think "he has to be stopped, we can't trust him", and you need to vote.

Twenty years from now, maybe, people will ask "what did you do about things in 2006?" and maybe you'll have to look embarrassed and say "I was wrong" or maybe you'll be able to look proud, and say "I was right," but you'll be shamed to your core if you have to say "I didn't care."

But don't take the word of some random longhaired weirdo you met on the internet. Look to your heart, and look at the world, and decide.

A lot of people have said a lot of things about the threat of Muslim terrorists. "They could sneak atomic bombs into our cities", they say... just like the Soviet Union, with far more money, and far greater resources, could have.

From shortly after the time the first atomic bombs went off, Robert Heinlein recognized, and spoke against, the danger of nuclear war, and he spoke about this very fear: another nation would learn to make atomic bombs, and could sneak them into our cities, and conquer us.

This isn't a new threat. This is something we've been facing since the day the first (test) nuclear explosion occurred.

While we need new ideas, while we need good ideas, we do not have to give up the values that make us America.

We do not need the right to capture non-citizens, without being able to show there's some justifiable cause to hold them.

We do not need the right torture.

We do not need to invade unfriendly, but non-dangerous, nations, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

(Anyone want to dispute that number? Fine: show me where you not only disagreed with Dr. Burnham's report (the one published recently in Lancet), *and* show me where you insisted that there be another study to find the true numbers. Then I'll take you seriously. Those who dispute the numbers, but don't care about the truth, don't concern me.)

We do not need the President to spy on citizens without warrants; let him spy under the rule of law, or let him ask that the law be changed. He's had years to request the changing of the law, and he hasn't.

Most importantly, we must not have a Republican Congress that refuses to investigate wrongdoing or incompetence, that refuses to dig for the truth, that is unwilling to exonerate, or shame, their standard bearer with the plain, unvarnished truth.

We need healing... and that means we need the truth.

(no subject)

I can guarantee you one thing: even the most casual student of history will someday look back at this election, and say "this was the pivot point."

They'll say "this is when it was obvious things had gone a bit crazy".

If you disagree vehemently with me that Bush is going to be known as the worst President in our history up to this point, you can think "the liberals are all crazy, and we can't trust them" and you need to vote.

If you at least kinda-maybe agree with me that Bush is going to be known as the worst President in history up to this point, you can think "he has to be stopped, we can't trust him", and you need to vote.

Twenty years from now, maybe, people will ask "what did you do about things in 2006?" and maybe you'll have to look embarrassed and say "I was wrong" or maybe you'll be able to look proud, and say "I was right," but you'll be shamed to your core if you have to say "I didn't care."

But don't take the word of some random longhaired weirdo you met on the internet. Look to your heart, and look at the world, and decide.

A lot of people have said a lot of things about the threat of Muslim terrorists. "They could sneak atomic bombs into our cities", they say... just like the Soviet Union, with far more money, and far greater resources, could have.

From shortly after the time the first atomic bombs went off, Robert Heinlein recognized, and spoke against, the danger of nuclear war, and he spoke about this very fear: another nation would learn to make atomic bombs, and could sneak them into our cities, and conquer us.

This isn't a new threat. This is something we've been facing since the day the first (test) nuclear explosion occurred.

While we need new ideas, while we need good ideas, we do not have to give up the values that make us America.

We do not need the right to capture non-citizens, without being able to show there's some justifiable cause to hold them.

We do not need the right torture.

We do not need to invade unfriendly, but non-dangerous, nations, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

(Anyone want to dispute that number? Fine: show me where you not only disagreed with Dr. Burnham's report (the one published recently in Lancet), *and* show me where you insisted that there be another study to find the true numbers. Then I'll take you seriously. Those who dispute the numbers, but don't care about the truth, don't concern me.)

We do not need the President to spy on citizens without warrants; let him spy under the rule of law, or let him ask that the law be changed. He's had years to request the changing of the law, and he hasn't.

Most importantly, we must not have a Republican Congress that refuses to investigate wrongdoing or incompetence, that refuses to dig for the truth, that is unwilling to exonerate, or shame, their standard bearer with the plain, unvarnished truth.

We need healing... and that means we need the truth.