Hundreds of you--
Well, dozens of you--
Okay, no one has asked me who I am going to vote for. I'm going to tell you anyway.
To explain my vote, allow me to paint a few word pictures for you.
First reason: Outsourcing.
Four years ago, Providian (one of my credit card companies) called me from the United States to complain about how frequently I paid my bill. Now they call from India. "Hi," they say in Apu's voice, "my name is Bob." They asked me if I want to make an instant payment on my card. "I'm not giving anyone in India my checking account number," I say. They never denied being in India.
I just saw an ad for Dell today. A guy called Tech Support from his bed. He spent the entire ad being assured that Dell would always answer the phone. The Dell dude wasn't from India, though, so the ad is entirely fiction, since Dell has outsourced their tech support.
So, all the people who used to work at Dell and Providian are out of work, because the cost of paying them was too much for their employers, and the cost of the long distance calls were cheaper.
This has happened since Bush took office. The man who said he was going to protect American jobs. The only thing he didn't tell us was the only American jobs he was going to protect were those of CEOs.
Second reason: Iraq.
We should have never gone to Iraq.
Today, we should be watching the trial of Osama Bin Laden. But no. We have to make sure the world is safe from Saddam Hussein's (nonexistant) weapons of mass destruction.
Yes, Steve, Saddam and his sons were evil.
But if our job is to eliminate the heads of states that are evil, we need to be in North Korea, Syria and Iran. But we're not.
Third reason: oil prices
Ain't it interesting that 4 years ago, gas was $1.19 a gallon. Today, it's $1.99. Bush is an oil man. He's got to be loving that. (This isn't exactly his fault. Gas prices went through the roof after 9/11.)
Those are the reasons I won't vote for Bush.
But I'm not voting for Kerry either.
First reason: Kerry voted for the war in Iraq and then against funding it. If you can't stand by your principles, you shouldn't be president
Second reason: Kerry called the Bush/Cheney administration a "Do what I say not what I do administration" when it was announced Cheney received a flu shot. Kerry didn't mention that all heart patients, including Bill Clinton, were prescribed the shot by their doctors.
Third reason: Theresa.
Theresa Heinz Kerry, heiress to the Heinz fortune, said that Laura Bush hadn't held a real job since she married Dubya, and didn't have enough of a clue as to what the middle class needed. Of course, Laura was was a school teacher and a librarian. Theresa has worked for the Heinz company--not on the production line, of course, but on the board. And she worked on the boards of other companies. That, I guess, qualifies her to know what the working class wants and needs.
Fourth reason: Kerry's war record.
Sorry. You can't claim to be a war hero and a war protestor at the same time. Choose either one or the other, and I'll be happy.
Those are the reasons I won't vote for Kerry.
So who will I vote for?
He's the Libertarian candidate for president. He was arrested (along with the Green party candidate) for trying to get into the debates a couple of months ago.
Yes, I know he won't win. But he ought to.
But since he won't--I am announcing a grassroots protest against both major parties!
JUST DON'T VOTE!
More later!
2 comments:
You CAN be a war hero and a war protester at the same time. Example: you agree to fight in a war and are heroic in doing so, and then come back while it's still going on and slowly come to the realization that the war is wrong, and protest it to try to save others like yourself from having to fight in it.
These are not diametrically opposed notions.
But Kerry ran on the premise that he was a decorated war hero and opposed the war. He was trying to appeal to both sides of the fence. And I found that disingenuous.
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