Daniel Cody - “Left on the Lake”

As you may have heard, the RNC convention is getting started today in New York City!

Our prez. seems to have stolen the spotlight though by changing his tune on the ‘War on Terror’:

“We have a clear vision on how to win the war on terror and bring peace to the world.” - GWB July 30th 2004

Yesterday on ‘The Today Show’:

“I don’t think you can win [the war on terror]. But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are — less acceptable in parts of the world.”
- GWB Aug. 29th, 2004

What the hell happened to the ‘clear vision’ he had last a mere 30 days ago on how to win the war on terror? I guess it must have been so clear that he can’t see it anymore, otherwise this prez. who has based his entire campaign on being the #1 guy to deal with terrorists doesn’t sound like much of a winner.

What happened to “You’re either with us or against us.”??! And what’s up with this “We’ll make the terrorists ‘less acceptable’” bullshit?

I thought we were kicking down doors all over the world to hunt down and kill these terrorists, and now the guy who’s been hijacking our civil rights in order to do so wants to just make terrorism just ‘less acceptable’ in the world?

Pretty sad numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau today, where they report that 12.5% of American’s were living in poverty in 2003.

An extra 1.5 million people fell below the poverty line between 2002 and 2003, the vast majority of them children. It’ll be interesting to see how (or if) the Bush campiagn tries to spin this, but it’s pretty obvious why they dropped their early August campaign slogan of “We’ve turned the corner and things are getting better”.

Things aren’t getting any better here in America unless you’re a beneficiary of the Prez’s tax cuts which even the government says favor the wealthy. As for the rest of us, well we just try to get by, and sadly, about 1.5 million of our fellow American’s couldn’t do that in 2003.

Jenny and I went to a checkup for her and the baby this morning, and while we were there, the doctor put a ‘doppler’ on her belly and we acutally got to hear the heartbeat of the baby which was pretty cool!

There’ve been a lot of little signs here and there that she’s pregnant, but after actually hearing the baby this morning, it really hit home that we’re having a kid. This Wednesday, we’ll get the visual proof when they do the first ultrasound on her.

Last week, GWB took the opportunity to give himself a timely pat on the back in Oregon, crediting himself and his policies with Iraq fielding a ‘free’ Olympic team this year:

“The image of the Iraqi soccer team playing in this Olympics, it’s fantastic, isn’t it?” Bush said. “It wouldn’t have been free if the United States had not acted.”

To which those very same Iraqi soccer players responded:

“Iraq as a team does not want Mr. Bush to use us for the presidential campaign,” Sadir told SI.com through a translator, speaking calmly and directly. “He can find another way to advertise himself.” - Salih Sadir

And:

“How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes.” - Ahmed Manajid, Midfielder

And the coach chimes in:

“My problems are not with the American people, they are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?” - Adnan Hamad.

Much more in this Sports Illustrated article.

More good news.. We found out about 7 weeks ago that Jenny is ‘with child’!

Yes indeed, yours truely is going to be a father for the baby who’s due March 18th or so. We’re very excited about the news, and Jenny has been handling the stresses of being pregnant pretty well. We think we’re going to want to find out the gender of baby, just so we can plan ahead for a few things, and have some stuff ready for when baby is born.

Obviously lots of changes coming up, but we’re pretty excited about them!

In the last year:
Marriage. Check.
House. Check.
Baby. Check.

The trifecta is complete!

We didn’t have to get far into this week to pick a winer! Our beloved Prez. George W. Bush gets this weeks award for the following quote in response to a question about his opponent John Kerry raising taxes on the richest Americans and how it’s a failed strategy because:

the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway. - Associated Press

Zing! That must be why the president has cut taxes to the wealthiest Americans with his tax cuts! I mean, if those tricky rich people are just gonna dodge their taxes, why even bother trying to tax them in the first place???

This of course follows last weeks words of wisdom:

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,” Bush said. “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - Associated Press

Indeed!

From a recent Bush Campaign stop in Missouri:

When gatekeepers announced final seating for those with tickets, protesters with tickets tried to get in, but their tickets were grabbed and torn up, and police threatened them with arrest if they argued back. One woman screamed, “You’re tearing up my ticket,” and hit back at the man when he started shoving her with his chest, trying to shut her up. The police arrested the woman. Two other people were “taken down”: a young girl who could not back up fast enough because there were so many people behind her and a man who is charged with trespassing because he was standing on property his own tax dollars partially funded. - Springfield News Leader

This is just one more difference between the Bush campaign and the Kerry campaign. At the Kerry campaign stop here in Milwaukee on Monday evening, Bush supporters and Anti-Kerry protestors were not only allowed access to the event, but they were allowed to bring in their huge placards and bullhorns.

They were allowed to shout through their bullhorns ‘Four more years’ while Theresa Heinz Kerry was speaking, and she was allowed to shout back at them: “Four more years of hell!“. Each side got their say on the matter, which is how Democracy is supposed to work.

Contrast that to the event in Springfield desribed above, or a number of other Bush campaign events where ‘protest’ was not only shut down all together, but those not drinking the proverbial kool-aid weren’t allowed to participate in the democratic process at all. Or hauled off to jail because they had on the wrong T-Shirt.

Is VP Cheney getting desperate to point the finger at Democrats or what?

Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that rising consumption and decreasing domestic production have led to high gasoline prices but also blamed his Democratic opponents and their opposition to the Bush administration’s energy policies. - Associated Press

The ‘logic’ here is if we allowed the Bush/Cheney/Lay Energy plan to go forward, we could be drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge right now, which would increase our oil reserves so much that basically GASOLINE WOULD BE FREE!

This follows up the VP’s recent calls on Democrats to approve a bill that would allow call off all future Presidential elections because, according to the VP, “I’m just peachy-keen happy with who’s in power right now.” His rational was that “another four years of Bush and I will ensure that America’s rivers will flow with honey, the streets will be made out of gingerbread, rainbows will make daily appearances, and everyone will get to own their own assault rifle.”