Happy Halloween!!!

Scary costume ideas:

A Republican
Zell Miller
Karl Rove
Michael Moore
A recent NYU graduate
A fire-breathing dragon faced midget with knives for fingers

I'm thinking of going as an undecided voter. Not a hard costume. All I need is a blindfold and ear plugs, and a sign in each hand supporting bush and kerry. I can stumble around, looking confused, until I finally tear myself in half, trying to figure out what the difference is between these two very similar candidates.

It's all about Iraq.

No matter how you feel about abortion, gay marriage, homeland security, stem cell research, etc... it all comes down to ARE THINGS GOING WELL IN IRAQ?

The answer to this is not disputable. NO.

Of course, to Bush, "Freedom is on the march" and "We'll have elections in January" and "Those explosives were gone before we got there."

Unfortunately for Bush, it looks like once again, "fact" and "videotape" have conspired against him. An ABC News affiliate clearly shows American soldiers breaking seals on these bunkers, opening up barrels filled with explosives and then... leaving.

They left because it wasn't their job to secure the site. Their unit was much too small. They were on their way to Baghdad. They hadn't received any orders to secure the site, even though the Bush administration knew about the explosives.

Now these explosives are in terrorist hands. And Kerry is rightly faulting Bush for a catastrophic oversight.

Bush: "He's just not supporting our troops."

Huh?

I don't get it. Kerry says it's Bush's fault, and Bush translates that to: "He's not supporting our troops?"

Last time I checked, Bush wasn't fighting this war. But he's been out of the office a lot, I guess I missed when he went to Iraq and fought alongside our soldiers.

Then, Guiliani, who I genuinely liked because he was more presidential on 9/11 than the President, before he started stumping for Bush, goes on TV and says its not Bush's fault the explosives are gone.

IT'S OUR TROOPS!!!!

And the republicans seem alright with this.

So Kerry blames Bush, and he's against our troops, and Bush's crony blames our troops, and Bush is golden?

I don't get this.

The reason why Iraq is more important than anything else, is that right now, there is a void in the middle east. If we fail, the terrorists have a new home. At least Bush and everyone can agree on that.

WE ARE FAILING.

Not because of our troops, but because of leadership. Bush went in with a war plan but not a peace plan. He ignored the advice of the intelligence and world communities, and as a result, there's chaos, and a whole lot of missing explosives.

While New York City continues to get less terrorism defense funds per person than Alaska, Bush has let tons of explosives into enemy hands. Clearly, Bush's "offense is the best defense" plan has a few holes.

If we lose Iraq, which is likely given the mistakes Bush has made and refuses to admit, then we risk something far worse than 9/11. That thing that Cheney loves to talk about and the christian fundamentalists love to build bomb shelters for.

If we lose Iraq, we won't care about gays, or stem cells, or janet jackson's bizzare nipple clamp.

We'll have more serious things to worry about.

Bush keeping us safe? He can't keep Iraq safe-- and that's a sign of things to come.