Please do not dump a lot of hatorade on me for what I'm about to say.

I don't know much about politics and what goes on in the world today. This is inexcusable but I've just been so busy examining my navel for most of my life that I've been unable to focus on much else. I realize in retrospect that this is not quite as good of an excuse as I had orginally thought. So, I'm trying.

One of my known readers has recently blogged about those who vote without information. I admit to having fallen into this category in the past. I wanted to be part of the process, I wanted to be a voter, so I voted. I tried to be informed, after all I have some basic ideologies, and tried to vote for the people who seemed to represent these same ideologies...

And here we are today.

I'm trying to get informed. I've been watching the debates and here are some of the things I've gathered. The Republicans seem to like to take key phrases and pepper them through the party and through the media outlets that they control. ("wrong war, wrong time", "global test", "flip-flopper", etc) It makes me sick to hear the same phrases over and over and over again. Sound bites, buzz words, catch phrases, whatever you want to call it -- makes me feel like someone is trying to manipulate me and I don't like it.

I'll go on record saying this -- Bush screwed up getting us into this war but in some ways you have to admire his tenacity for sticking to the decision no matter how screwed up it is. I would like to believe that the reason for this is because he feels it is important to show a strong face as the President and not let his guard down. I would LIKE to believe this, but I don't. I think that he really thinks he's doing the right thing continuing this mess and that scares the fuck out of me.

I appreciate the fact that Kerry seems to be a thinking man. He voted to go into Iraq based on the information he had and then has changed his position because there was no real reason for us to be there. Sure, Saddam Hussein was a bad ass mother, but he wasn't posing any imminent threat to the US. Or that's not the way I understand it. (See above.)

I don't know much about the budget either, but this deficit thing I'm thinking isn't a good thing. If I spent all of my household money and then spent way into the negatives, I think the bank would have some things to say about that. Maybe that's just me. I like that John Edwards said flat out tonight that they can't cure that problem -- honesty is so refreshing! Much more refreshing than denial and rhetoric. Cheney with his "I never said there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11" honestly made me gasp. I haven't been that shocked since the Mominator called out of the blue and asked Scott if he wanted any kittens...

Anyways, I'm not voting for Bush, I don't mind saying it. It's basically because I don't like his politics and I don't like his "people" and I think the amount of discord and hate that's been generated in this country under his administration is appalling. And scary.

But, what do I know? I'm just an uninformed American.