Regular scans of US media with international outreach (trash doesn't leave local or regional boundaries.......) tell a different picture of the ratio of liberal American media, and your 80% is a ridiculous ratio (in reality things look rather reversed). But I guess all that's not shining brightly on the conservative agenda and brings up uncomfortable questions will be denounced as being liberal.....
But it's hard to understand how blindly you follow your leadership, even more so since the circumstances how Bush became president were disgusting. In Europe we had some utter bad experiences with leaders with absolute power, therefore it's hard to take for example how easy you can forgive to be lead into war with weak if not plain false reasons given.
So my question to you: How do you cope with the fact that the arsenal of weapons of mass distruction in Iraq has turned out to be non-existent? And do you still believe that there was a link between Saddam and Al Qaida and 9/11? Are you happy with how things turned out in Iraq after the military victory? Do you really think this has lead to more sympathy towards the US in the potential pool of terrorists? If not, how can you still support Bush with his war on terror strategy?
By the way: I'd never say Kerry is an ideal choice, but there's no other choice in my eyes to avoid the certainty of even more porcellain broken during a second Bush presidency.....
Forranger,
While I still assert that this is NOT a good place to discuss politics of ANY stripe, I feel I must reply to your comments.
First a little bit of background on myself. I was a registered republican voter, who voted republican in every Presidential election beginning in 1980, including the Presidential primary of 2000 (when I voted for McCain). However, since the election of 2000, I have realized that the republican party (and for that matter the democratic party) have been bought and sold many times over. I was horrified and disgusted with Bush's brand of gutter politics, both against his own party mates AND against Gore. I was even more angered and disgusted with the way Bush and his people subsequently conspired to steal the election. I reject the politics of hate and fear, which **I** feel Bush and his people practice. Some would call me a "sell-out", others would call me a left-leaning radical, however on some issues I am quite conservative and on others I am moderate and on a few I am quite liberal. Therefore I also reject "labels" as none seem to fit. I would say that I am among a growing number of Americans that are utterly disgusted with the corporate control of our politics, that reject hate and fear AND feel that NONE (with the exception of a VERY select few) of our current politicians actually represent the people which have elected them.
As to your questions there are many of us that reject Bush out-of-hand for the lair that he is. There are many of us that realize what a true threat to democracy (the ideal that is), that Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft among others, represent. Sadly, there are too many of us that are complacent, that are satisfied with our suburban lives, our 9-5 money making gigs and our place in life that we are "allowed" to attain, to upset the apple cart so to speak. We sit back and do little or nothing while pretenders to the throne steal elections, disparage and denounce honest people and lie and deceive the American public through their conspirators, the corporate press. In our elections we are presented with little or no true choices, the candidates being but shades of gray, rather than black and white differences apart. There are also many of us that have served time in the military both in war and peace time, that realize what a cluster-f**k Iraq has become. Many of us realize that it was unnecessary, wrong and down-right criminal to fight a war with Iraq. Saddam Hussein while being a despot and a murderous tyrant, didn't change much in the 30 odd years he was in power. And for most of those years the U.S. not only supplied him with intelligence and money, we also provided him with the VERY weapons of mass destruction that we supposedly went to war with him over. Citizens of the U.S. are rightly enraged by the attacks on this Country on 9/11, but we don't even shed a tear over the 10,000+ INNOCENT CIVILIANS that our "preemptive war" has killed. It is simply considered the cost of "business". We are not outraged (most of us anyway) that 1000 and counting, of our best and brightest have died fighting an unnecessary war, all for NO gain. We sit back while the Administration goes off to fight its' so called war on terror in Iraq and do not speak up while the real terrorists (such as bin Laden) escape to fight again. And while regimes that actually threaten us (such as North Korea etc.) develop weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems that can actually hit our soil, we engage them in dialogue that has proven meaningless in the past. Meanwhile, while we waste billions of dollars on a space-based missile defense that won't possibly see results for at least 10 years, probably longer, the dollars we need to educate the next group of our best and brightest are rapidly dwindling. And the last and best kicker of all, our middle-class lifestyles and jobs, the very ones that have made most of us SO complacent in the first place are rapidly being out-sourced to the Third World. Poverty is escalating at a rate exceeded only by the Great Depression. This is a weapon of mass destruction and true terrorism and it is being committed by our Corporations. Meanwhile, we distract our masses with images of bin Laden, Hussein et al. Prestidigitation at its' finest and it is being committed by ALL our politicians liberals, conservatives, democrats and republicans.
Last but not least, there is an old saying, "between the devil and the deep blue sea", which I think happens to describe this election completely. We have a choice to go by fire or by drowning so to speak, well I choose drowning. Because at least for a while anyway, I can tread water AND I might just be able to make it to shore. Fire and my butt is a crispy critter from the outset. Now back to discussing WitP, politics have no true place here, as only a precious few of us are ever going to agree upon them anyway. My momma always told me never to discuss politics or religion, as that was a sure way to make enemies.
Rick
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