In a press conference this morning, John Kerry blasted the President and Republicans for trying to divert attention away from the real issues and mischaracterize his statements:

…I apologize to no-one for my criticism of the President and his broken policy.  If anyone owes our troops in the field an apology, it is the President and his failed teams, and the Republican majority of the congress that has been willing to rubber-stamp policies that have done injuries to our troops and their families.

What our troops deserve is a winning strategy.  What they deserve is leadership that is up to the sacrifice that they are making.

They have a "stand still and lose" policy in Iraq, and a "cut and run" policy in Afghanistan.

I can’t help but think that if George W. Bush and his cronies in Congress like Jon Kyl and J.D. Hayworth put half as much effort into attacking our enemies like Osama bin Laden as they put into attacking our heroes like John Kerry, John Murtha, and Jim Webb; Osama would have been killed or captured by now.  Republicans, having full control of the government, have failed to protect America and now we will see what can be accomplished when both parties share some of the power.

Under normal circumstances, I would say that there is no way to know, with a shift in power, that the incoming power structure will do a better job of protecting America or not, but this situation is an exception.  I can state unequivocally, and with 100% confidence, that the Congress will do a much better job at defending this country than the Republicans have with full control.  My reasoning for such confidence is simple; the job cannot be done worse than it has been over the last 6 years.  We are now far less-safe and less-free than we were when President Bush took-over, and we are less-safe and less-free then we were on 9-11.  The task ahead is difficult, but as long as the Democrats take control of at least one house of Congress, single-party rule will be over and reasonable compromises will have to be reached.  The job of Congress to oversee the President will resume and the country will be both safer and freer for it.

President Bush's veto of the Stem Cell Research Bill yesterday was a reprehensible and indefensible act that once again put politics over people.

For those who haven’t heard me rant in person, remember the following:

* Animals have no rights
* Businesses have no rights
* Cloth has no rights
* Cells have no rights

That is correct; none of the above have any rights at all. Only people can have rights. For President Bush to put the "well-being" of groups of cells above that of millions of people worldwide whose lives could be saved or greatly improved by the results of stem-cell research is disgusting. That he would do it to pander to his political base and thus consolidate his power is morally indefensible.

On Thursday, the President made a prime time speech about saving the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. He made several proposals that will require a great deal of money to rebuild the area but he made no mention how this would be funded. Already I hear Republicans saying there must be some “offsets”. I wonder who will be affected by these “offsets”, the middle class? There are several things he could do, he could reduce the cost of the Iraq war by bringing our military home, he could rescind the tax cuts he already gave the rich and he could prevent the repeal of the Estate Tax (a cost that would exceed $138 billion, according to Sen. John McCain).

The President spoke of a mix of government and private companies to do the rebuilding. I wonder if Halliburton or other politically connected companies are going to get no-bid contracts. Will the companies chosen pay living wages? The President has already suspended the Davis-Bacon act that would guarantee workers be paid at the prevailing rate for the area.

I also wonder how much money and how many lives could have been saved if the levees had been fixed instead of cutting the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers in order to give tax breaks to the rich.

“Misleading,” “specious,” “bogus,” and “disingenuous” are all terms used by the Media, such as USA Today, New York Times and NBC to describe the political ads by George Bush about John Kerry. The latest ad about the Patriot Act is no different. It is a total distortion of the facts! John Kerry is not trying to repeal the Patriot Act but to strengthen it. Kerry along with Republicans Larry Craig and Arlen Specter and others have recognized the need to fix the Patriot Act to improve its effectiveness as an anti-terrorism tool and prevent abuses that violate civil liberties. They have co-sponsored legislation to achieve this goal (S.1709).

Under the Craig-Specter-Kerry approach, the government will have more power to go after terrorists than before the Patriot Act, not less. They do not eliminate a single government power. Instead, their approach creates new checks on abuses that still leave the government with far more power to attack terrorists.

Bush says at the beginning of his ad: “I’m George W. Bush and I approved this message.” This proves that Bush is so afraid of his own record that his only chance in this election is to blatantly lie about his opponent.