[title of entry]

I'll eventually come up with a killer entry title for this only if it becomes a series.

The number of ways that I loathe GWB et al for the way they're bastardizing the political discourse in this country grows daily. He's using the exact same smear tactics he used on McCain in 2000 (and that Gore used on Bradley), only it's so much more vicious this time around.

1) To wit, this from the VP: "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

That logic is as insulting as it is preposterous. If John Kerry gets elected, there will be another devastating terrorist attack. That's what he said. There are no qualifiers. If, VP threatens us, we elect Kerry, there will be another terrorist attack. It's purely detestable.

2) I can't believe the Republicans are still clamoring, even today, that they are the party for small government. Whitehouse.gov claims that they're restraining the size of the Federal government. If that's the case, though, then why can I go over to Google News and find nearly 400 articles on the just released forecast for FY 2004, and its record-shattering $422 Billion budget? Here's a neat little factoid for you, straight from the horse's mouth: In the eight years of Clinton's presidency, the deficit went up $1.263 trillion.

Wait, wait... lemme spell that out... During Bill Clinton's presidency, he authorized the spending of $1,262,689,326,747.48 more than what was in the public coffers.

Bush II has thus far (to 9/3/04) outstripped the revenue of the government with the spending of the government by $1,559,312,755,370.73.

[pause, breathes, fumes...]

It hasn't even been a full fucking term, and he's already OUTSPENT A 2-TERM LIBERAL!

Ugh.

3) A "loyalty oath"?!? Are you kidding?

From PittsburghLive.com: "Of course, Bush and Cheney are not the first guys to come up with the loyalty oath gimmick. That old blow-bag Sen. Joe McCarthy foisted loyalty oaths on many Americans in the 1950s. Fomenting distrust and hysteria was McCarthy's specialty, and he claimed that anyone who refused to sign a loyalty oath disavowing support of the Communist Party was un-American. He had quite a run for a few years, but was eventually drummed out of the Senate in disgrace -- along with his loyalty oath."

4) Another 400+ count for articles on Google News about new records magically appearing at the Pentagon regarding Bush's service in the National Guard. Yet, somehow, the records that would put an end to the scandal about whether or not he went AWOL are still missing.

4a) FREEPers disgust me. As soon as the story about these new records (which have a gap in them six-months wide leading to further suspicion about Bush's wherabouts), these knuckleheads were saying, "It's ancient history!" A question for them, in that case: Why the hell is the swiftboat thing so goddamned important if it is ancient-er history?

5) From a 9/7 AP report, published on the NYT website: "Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused the White House on Tuesday of covering up evidence that might have linked Saudi Arabia to the Sept. 11 hijackers. ... The accusation stems from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's refusal to allow investigators for a Congressional inquiry and the independent Sept. 11 commission to interview an informant, Abdussattar Shaikh, who had been the landlord in San Diego of two Sept. 11 hijackers."

COME ON. If there's anything to be learned about Bush's conduct in the White House, it's that you can get away with literally anything, and if someone tries to call you on it, you attack them mercilessly and by any means necessary.

I don't know how this country will survive four more years of this guy.