Been waiting 8 very long years for today! VOTE!

This day hasn't come soon enough for me. Have you ever waited 8 years for anything, let alone replacing a President? These past 8 years have been an exhaustive and often demoralizing period of time in my life. In this country I love so much, I thought I would never see a President choose a war that was really an unnecessary misadventure, over a diplomatic solution. The costs alone were staggering and will be paid off in my children’s lifetime. That doesn't even come close to the cost to the families who lost a loved one unnecessarily or had a family member maimed for life.

Then there was the arrogance our President showed to everyone here and abroad. He didn’t need the world to support our invasion of Iraq basically alone. I am so tired of a cocky President and Vice President. Self-confidence is one thing, but arrogance is totally intolerable, especially for a President or Vice President.

The last straw for me was when President Bush and his inner circle decided on their own to redefine torture in such a way that they were then justified to do what they wanted to do with those in the grasp of their clutches. Sure we had some really bad, nasty guys. But we as a Country swore an oath to uphold the Geneva Convention, not because it was trying to appease others but rather it was agreed to, to help protect our troops if caught by an enemy, should they be captured. I was so angry when McCain, who was tortured, caved under pressure from President Bush and Vice President Cheney and went along with them and dropped his objection to legislation, which would provide cover to the both of them.

Yes, I have been waiting for a very long time to be able to listen to the TV and the words of a President I could once again respect, instead of muting the sound when they spoke. I have been waiting to hear words of honesty where I could once again believe what they said. I have been waiting a very long time to break the secretive nature of this Vice President and President and once again to obey and respect the Constitution, rather than looking for ways to go around it or suspend some of its protections for our rights hard fought.

Yes, it’s time for a change all right. The excesses of the past 8 –20 years have caused our economy and stock market to crash. Yes the Middle Class will be hurt a lot by more unemployment. But we will get through this and be a better people. We will watch over the weakest among us. We will provide charity to the needy as individuals because we know we are all in the same boat and those who have been blessed will step up to the plate. It’s a new day. It’s your new day if you choose it. Vote, as the well being of you, your family and your country need you to vote. This election is the most important election since the 1930's.

I know we will still have 2 1/2 months before the actual change of President and Vice President takes place on January 21st. But I have waited for 8 very long years, I can wait 2 1/2 more months, but today we take the first giant step.

There was one good thing that these past 8 years have initiated for me. It started me blogging as I was so frustrated I needed a way to release my feelings. Blogging helped me do that and find a new joy: writing!

If you believe in a Free Press and Blogging, stop Bill S. 1959

If you favor your right to dissent, then you must call your Senator and oppose Bill S. 1959. All Bloggers should oppose this Bill whether on the Left or the Right of the political spectrum. Here are some excerpts of the Bill:


" (3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideology based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terror-related propaganda to United States citizens."

"The term 'homegrown terrorism' means to use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segmnet thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."

You can see from the above definition, just writing comments against the government can be defined as "homegrown terrorism." We must stop Bill S. 1959 from passage.

If you want to read the entire Bill click here.

My 2nd Anniversary of Blogging- Thanks!

This is my second anniversary as a Blogger. I started the process by picking out a Template and learning some code, so that I could add simple things at first like underlining, bolding and using italics. Then I changed my Template to this format and have left it the same since.

It's been an excellent year for me as my readership has increased about 7 fold this year compared to last year. I want to thank all of you who have visited this site and found something interesting to read, even if you don’t agree with me. I don't investigate to make news but to report on the news on some topic that has bothered me or I want to praise someone. This past year, my main topic has been the Iraq war and the Bush Administration. It has occupied my thoughts, increased my frustration levels and made me wonder about the lot of us.

I have been disappointed in the American public and wondered how they can still support a President, Vice President and Administration that have obviously been so incompetent. Is it everyone is “too busy” to care about this stuff? I have wondered are we as a society so consumed with sex (avoidance or promotion) that anything related, if it involves the President, we want them impeached. But for going to war on lies and twisted logic, for spying by our government on Americans without Court approval, for ignoring laws passed by Congress with "Signing Statements" which say to government employees don't follow these parts of the law I have singled out, or for torturing people we call enemy combatants in violation of the Geneva Convention, we are all fine with that. Not me as you can see from what I have written this past year.

I heard on Bill Maher this Friday that the French have a voting record of about 85% of their citizens voting in every election. We can't even muster 50% as a nation even in the worst of times. Which usually means that less than 25% of us really elect our President and our Congress. Scary, isn’t it? That is why the Religious Right have gotten their way. They are well out of proportion of the rest of the population, but THEY VOTE! And yet we scorn the French. Go figure. Maybe if we had listened to them we wouldn't have gone into Iraq in the first place and found ourselves with this mess on our hands.

Yes, you can see this Administration is the cause of my getting interested in speaking out. I guess I have to thank George Bush and Dick Cheney for contributing to the Blogger community as they have single handedly created and promoted a new voice of Democracy: Bloggers. I am proud to be called one and proud to be associated with all those great Blogs I enjoy reading: The Moderate Voice, Kiko's House, Cognitorex, Sideways Menchen, Foreign Policy Watch, Salon.com, Andrew Sullivan of Time, Centrist Blog Digest, Charging RINO, The Debate Link and BackTalk.

Why write a Blog post? Does it matter?

I didn't realize it, as I passed right through the number, but I have posted over 400 Blog posts since I began in May, 2005. I have had over 12,300 Visitors and I enjoy writing to help me cope with the frustrations I have had with this President and an Administration that has taken the Constitution and turned it on its head.

I don't know if my writings have advanced any dialogue or changed any minds out there but it has allowed me to have less stress because once I have written about something which has infuriated me, the anger and stress levels are reduced. If nothing else, that's a good reason to keep writing.