Well, I can't resist the obvious comment.

It is Dubya who ran on, among other promises, a promise that he would
"improve the tone" of political discussion in America (though he forgot to
mention fj.life.in-japan). It isn't just Busheviks like the following chap
[included below] who put the lie to that promise, but also many of BushCo's
highest political appointees. Not just lies and slander, but outright
criminal partisan attacks, as with the White House outing of CIA agent
Valerie Plame. (Dubya also promised to do something about that crime--but he
still hasn't made the phone call to Novak that would solve the mystery.)
Campaign promises are cheap, and Dubya has broken all of his--except tax
cuts for the wealthy.

Perhaps the most significant REAL issue of Dubya's campaign is why he has
nothing positive to say on his behalf (at least to the peons who earn too
little money to benefit from his rich man's tax cuts). Dubya's own campaign
squandered over 70% of BushCo's $200 million on negative advertising, and
what I've seen of the rest was that it was non-issue emotional fluff.
Reminds me of those content-free emotion-tweaking Japanese ads. The "soft"
external advertising has been much more vicious and negative--but that's
natural, since there is nothing positive to say about Dubya's policies.

In 2000, at least Dubya's lies and evasions were not obvious, since he was
not the incumbent, and he could pretend to have a positive side. Still, the
main thrust of his campaign was to claim Gore was worse. This time around,
Dubya has nothing but the claim "Kerry is worse!"

mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> Kevin Gowen <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote:
>> mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
>
>>>> How did I dismiss his "patriotic duty"?
>
>>> Oh, you know; the sarcastic remarks about his service in Vietnam.
>
>> Oh, that patriotic duty!
>
> Yes, that.
>
>> Is that what you were shouting about when you
>> were spitting on the returning vets?
>
> Sorry, you are confusing me with something in your imagination.
>
> Please try to keep your imaginary friends out of the discussion.
>
> Mike

-- 
We don't know if 9/11 could have been stopped--but we do know Dubya
failed to stop it. That's the FACT.

Do you agree that democracy is good and depends on serious discussion
of the issues? If so, don't reply to off topic, ad hominem garbage.
Send it to "The vile spewers of mindless blather thread".