300 WORDS OR SO OF TRUTH

We the intelligent, observant people of America hold the following truths to be self-evident:

The Bush Administration is in all respects a tyranny of mediocrities, that values dollars and cents above common sense; that favors an exclusive ideology over an inclusive democracy; they are an unelected cadre of self-serving demagogues who will lie, cheat, steal and manuver by any means necessary to ensure that they retain power and that the special interest groups they cater to are served to the exclusion of everyone else.

Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton.  He had to leave this post to become vice president of the United States, but he's still got stock options and Halliburton's business is war.  What better place to ensure the long term health of the company than the Middle East, where if you start one war, on whatever pretenses, you're ensured a decade or more of turmoil bound to keep your business booming.  (Even better, go into Afghanistan and make goo goo eyes at Iran and you could be a billionaire soon).

George W. Bush was on vacation most of his first term.  Then 9/11 came along.  Now all of a sudden, he could look like a wartime president by always presiding over a wartime economy, the hell with the young, mostly poor men and women whose bones and blood, blood and bones paves the way for his new faux heroism.  Oh, and don't worry about not having ever actually served active duty in the armed forces.  All you have to do is talk tough, look "presidential" and know how to have your gaudy entrance on an aircraft carrier stage managed by your people and you too can be The Greatest American Hero.

As the Democratic Convention begins, remember that it's not so much about whether or not Kerry-Edwards are the best, most liberal, most progressive candidates we can support.  Just thing about the damage that could be done by four more years of Bush, four more years of assaults on the environment, civil liberties, abortion rights, the poor and the United Nations and then the election becomes not a choice but an imperative, not about partisan politics but about a fight for the future of our American values itself.

PS  One more thing...leave Kerry's wife alone.  We are not electing the spouse, we are electing the candidate, and all the criticism of Mrs. Kerry-Heinz for her "bluntness" and "kookiness" seems awfully hypocritical coming from a media that often complains about political personalities always delivering the same canned responses to questions.  You can't have it both ways.