I feel so stronly about this that I am posting it in my journal too...

I had originally posted this as a comment in capitolbarbie78's journal, but I feel so strongly about this that I am going to go ahead and post it in my own journal as well. This isn't a game of who has more pins on their lapel people this is our future. Stop being blindsighted by the muckraking and look at the facts. FACTS.

Then make an INFORMED decision....

The Census Bureau just recently reported that 1.3 million more Americans fell below the poverty line in the last year. That is 4.3 million Americans living in poverty since George W. took office.

Not unlike his crappy Medicare Prescription Drug plan, Bush is trying to implement a new tax cut for the rich, that will be permanent, while forcing nearly 6 million middle and low income families to take a pay cut. This pay cut is in addition to the another perk of Bush's wonderful new reform being implemented... the overtime pay reform. Yup people earning as little as $24,000 a year (cops, fire fighters, nurses, teachers, and all of you dreamers trying to make it in the NYC communications industry - you editorial assistants and marketing associates, and public relations specialists, etc.) will lose their overtime rights if this reform goes through. Where will that push the poverty level of this country?

This election is NOT about purple hearts or blue stars, we are not a box of lucky charms, we are a country of people and we need to start looking at the actual numbers here folks. A good President wasn't necessarily the one that made it to flight school in the Navy or survived Marine OCS. A good president would help people like me and 90% of my friends to afford, or maybe, just maybe HAVE health insurance for the first time since we were dropped off of our parent's insurance policy after college. A good President would stop providing major corporations with incentives and tax cuts to outsource jobs to India and Asia. A good President would stop spending billions of dollars in resources toward a war chasing THE WRONG bad guy. In fact, he would use those resources and civil servants to help rebuild NYC and it's economy and maybe reinvest that money into the nearly 20% of school systems that are failing, or the nearly 40% of school districts who are having to layoff teachers and staff because of budget cuts. By the way these layoffs are causing classroom sizes to increase, in some areas, to nearly 50 kids per class. A good President would put a cap on the tuition cost increases at this country's public universities. A good President would guarantee the women of this country that no matter who is in the Supreme Court their right to choose what happens to their body will never, while this person is in office be overturned. And a good President would realize that abstinence doesn't happen and family planning centers and women's health outreach program ARE necessary and do require funding.

I don't care who the President shot in the ass in a war I wasn't even alive to see, and I don't care who he carried out of the jungle with him. I don't even care if he ate a pound of salt or put blood in his urine to dodge the draft. Guess what - so did millions of other people who were afraid to die for something they weren't even old enough to understand. I wouldn't have wanted to get shipped overseas away from my friends and family to die either, so who am I to judge. Military service and hours logged means nothing when it comes to policy making.

Show me a man who will make my country prosperous again. A country that will help to guarantee that when my sister and brother graduate from a college that they can AFFORD they will be able to find jobs and have health care. Show me a man who is more concerned about the kids in this country who can't read or write. Show me a man who is fighting the war of homelessness and poverty in this country. And I will show you a vote. Until then stop wasting my time with pointless articles about purple hearts and draft dodgers.