Dryden Is Home

Jib Jab: Second Term

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/jibjabinaugural.html

They're back with more! It is almost infuriating to see him and to know four more  years of Bushit.

Moving North? Not me.

Let's all pack up our shit and move to Canada, France and the Carribean. Fuck that! Fuck France and Canada and the Carribean. We are not leaving this country! More people (51 million) voted against our current and next president than against any other sitting president in American history. More - against - ever! We lost. We lost by 3 million votes nationally. We could have won it all if just 130,000 Ohioans, well mathematically just 65,001 in Ohio (out of a country of 290,000,000 people) would have made the difference. Such a small amount would have made K-dog of Beacon Hill the next president. It isn't a landslide and wouldn't have been with those 65,001 people. The country is split. We are not ultraconservative.

-EPA created to protect the environment
-Roe v. Wade helped deliver pro-choice rights
-Social Security established

Cry in your beer if it makes you feel better. Talk to people in other countries if it cheers you up. We must go on, because while four years seems like a long time (and new supremes will make things last longer) let's get outselves together and look to how to make out country the progressive powerhouse that it once was. Get out and get involved! Run for office. Get a seat on the planning board or the local finance committee. Run for city council or congress or senate or govenor. Don't chase after the money in a new deadend job if what happened in the past 24 hours really makes you mad. Get real. Get involved. Be the change you wish you could see.

-Civil rights ammendment
-The end of segregation in schools
-Labor rights, working wages, 40 hour work week

The last 100 years have seem America shift to the left more and more. We (the liberal agenda) are winning in the long run. Life on earth and in this great country is so much better off for so many more people than just 100 years ago.

-Medicare, medicaid
-unionized labor
-public education

This is not the end. I konw there will be dissenters. People will have arguments against what I've written. Please write, post, comment, call, email, talk about the election and your own future and America's future. It is your right and your responsibility as a citizen of this world.

Keep the faith. Since 1960 , Democrats have had the executive branch 20 years and republicans have had the executive branch 24 years. The country and our generations have been split along party lines. The party of Kennedy, Clinton, FDR, LBJ and John Forbes Kerry is not dead. The party will return.

Nighty, night America.
-Peace Corps
-Americorps

Anticipation Day

So this is finalllllllllllllly it. Voting Day in the United States. It is 12:25am here in Ithaca. I'm not in a swing state. New York will go to Kerry. I'm not from a swing state. Massachusetts will go to Kerry. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting my first Ithaca based customer at 10:30am to go over requirements for his website. In the afternoon I'll be working on projects around the house. If the weather is nice, we'll continue outdoor yardwork. My parents are here until Thursday. They got here on Saturday afternoon. If the weather isn't nice, we'll be working on indoor projects and perhaps I'll be doing some website work.

I have a very bullish prediction for the election. It all is going to depend on voter turnout. Who and how many people go to the polls will make the difference. It is so close, in so many places, I'm concerned that people may get lackidaisical and decide to stay home. I'm just hoping that doesn't happen. I've been supporting Kerry since January when my new friend (another Dave M.) and I canvassed around Concord. It was a very exciting day capped off with a victory celebration in Manchester. Tomorrow New Hampshire will once again be Kerry Country. So will Ohio and Florida and Iowa and Wisconsin and Michigan and Minnesota and Pennsylvania and Nevada and New Mexico and a whole lot of other states. Kerry wins big all over, 385 electoral votes to 153 for Bushies.

I wonder when we'll have the results of the election. Will it be an early night? Will we be up until 3am like in 2000? Will we be waiting until later in the year to get a decision? I'll be watching CNN's online coverage and will be tuning into the local NPR station throughout the evening. Maybe by the dawn of November 3rd we will have a president.

I hope you vote today. I hope you vote in a swing state. I hope you vote for Kerry. I voted in Berlin, Massachusetts last Wednesday evening by absentee ballot. I'd like to give you a reason for Kerry, but my webfriend Tony Pierce has already compiled a list.

From Tony's Blog:

so since i dont vote for people who cant find their way on the ballot, choosing between the people that i now see on the ballot, i will be voting for john f kerry

who won the debates - in a sweep

who faught in nam and was a hero moreso when he returned and called bullshit

who was a senator for 20 years

who gives a shit about the enviornment

who is Christian and knows how to seperate church from state

who can stand in front of people and speak like a man who earned his college degree

who has no family ties to saudi arabia who were 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists

who wont be giving any tax breaks to the rich

who isnt running with a vice presidential candidate who is profitting financially from the war in iraq

who wrote a friggin book about global terrorism and afghanistan back in 1997 long before it became trendy to yell out "terror" to try to get re-elected

who believes that a woman should have the choice to decide what happens in her womb

who will provide a much needed balance to the republican congress and republican supreme court because america works best when there is compromise.

Tony is voting in California, so his vote for Kerry will help Kerry win the largest of all the jackpots available. I wonder if the "I don't live in a swing state" could ever turn the tide based on opposition turnout. What do you think?

If you live in Boston and you are a Kerry fan, you have to love seeing Tom Warner, John Henry and Theo Epstein on stage in Manchester, New Hampshire this past weekend. You also have to love seeing them on the front of JohnKerry.com for most of today. We've been granted a wonderful wish of winning the World Series. We're halfway home.

Debate 1: Thanks for the memories

When the drinks are milk and Kahlúa and the shots are bailey's irish cream on the rocks, the game goes by very fast. By 10pm Thursday night the debate was all and all over. The booze won, as did John Kerry and the television was filled with little smudge marks from our sharp-shooting team of nerf gunners.

I'd have to say Kerry was in control from the beginning. He was presidential in his mannerisms and his plans. He actually had plans. For some reason the simplton stance of on message and on certainty and no new thoughts, just the same talking points of G.W. alarms me. I'm unsure of how to take polls that show that upwards of 45% to 53% of the people in the united states are standing with this guy. What is it that I'm missing that these 130,000,000+ people are seeing?

John Kerry reads. He listens. He thinks. He dwells. He ponders. And then, he comes up with plans and solutions and makes them public. Detailed solutions. Detailed plans. Are knowing the details or being nuanced negative characteristics for a leader to have? Shouldn't decision makers have the most information and be able to sort and disperse that information clearly.

I don't know how G.W.'s operation works, and he's the one who is in the public and has the easiest access to lots of free press.

I can see how Kerry's percentage numbers can be split. Some (50%?) like Kerry for who he is - a senator, a prosecutor, an anti-war activist, a father, a husband, a soldier, a scholar. Some (the other 50%) like him because he's not Bush. Check.

Bush's numbers are more like - 90% love him for who he is. 10% are democrats who appear to be worried that Kerry is weak on terror or too liberal and they need to go to the republican ticket, because the democratic party has moved away from them. These people will vote for Bush because he's not Kerry. I just can't figure out how honest, hard working, god fearing people go to Bush, when he hasn't been honest with America, has vacationed more than any other president and who instead of living in the fear of an almighty and powerful god - has put fear into Americans and has cheated us out of a safer future.

Enough of a rant. The first debate is over. Kerry: 1, Bush: 0.

Coming up next:
Tuesday, October 5th, Case Western Reserve University in swingstate Ohio - Vice Presidential Debate
Friday, October 8th, swingstate Missouri - Town Meeting Style - kicking it old school
Wednesday, October 13th, swingstate Arizona - Domestic Policy

Debate Drinking Fun

Tonight Avery and I are at Andrea's house in Cambridge. We'll be playing a debate drinking game starting at 9:00pm. Fran will be joining us too. Play along at home, here's the list we will be using.

At the Start:
If Bush wears a red tie, drink. If Kerry wears a blue tie, drink.

Finish Your Glass If:
• Anyone in the audience gets dragged out of the auditorium
• Bush mispronounces any word or name
• Kerry refers to Vietnam

Do a Shot If:
• Anyone refers to “Al Qaeda”
• Anyone refers to “weapons of mass destruction”
• Anyone refers to the “United Nations”
• Bush mentions the deficit
• Bush admits he made a mistake ("miscalculation" counts)
• Kerry says something is "the truth"

Drink One Sip If:
• Anyone says "terrorism"
• Anyone says "flip flop"
• Anyone says "Saddam Hussein"
• Anyone blames "the media"
• Anyone mentions their own military service
• Anyone says "September 11"
• One candidate interrupts another candidate

Drink Two Sips If:
• Anyone uses the word “evil”
• Anyone says "Osama bin Laden"
• Anyone mentions "North Korea"
• Anyone looks at the wrong camera
• Anyone talks past their time limit
• Bush says "cut and run"
• Bush pronounces “American” as “A-merken”
• Kerry says "W stands for wrong"
• Kerry brings up Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment
• Kerry calls the war on Iraq either a “profound diversion” or a “crisis of historic proportions”