I am jittering around these days like I've got a wide open caffiene drip attached to my arm.  I am trying not to watch any news, 'news' or info-tainment about this election.  I can't stand it.  I actually fantasize about Kerry winning the thing.

I can't decide whether to go to a party or to take a big tranquilizer and go to bed.  I'm afraid I will jinx it if I stay up and watch.  I also don't really believe it'll be over on Tues. night.

I think Weds. morning will bring lawsuits, not a president. 

I think it's likely that the voting will be so fucked we'll have a do-over.  It's possible, people.  A do-over.  Hunh.  How weird would that be?  Really, really weird, that's how weird.

I'm leaning toward the big tranquilizer.  I'll probably be so jacked up that it'll only take the edge off.

Lord, I simply abhor Bush.  I am often surprised at how much he and his ilk make me feel like puking.  There are so many, many reasons to hate his policies here and around the world.  It's difficult to decide what the main reasons are, because in this case, the whole is so overwhelmingly awful, that breaking it down into its component parts becomes even MORE overwhelmingly awful.  Makes me want to curl up in a fetal position and die.

I can, however, for all 2 of you who might read this, at least try.

Here is MY biggest reason to get rid of Bush:

WOMEN'S RIGHTS. 

The backlash I usually get on this topic flows from some twisted idea that now that women are 'allowed' to be doctors, lawyers, executives, etc., there is equality and are treated the same as men. 

Well, all you women who believe that shit are doing exactly what the neo-cons want--you're easing up.  You're getting complacent.  You're not paying attention to what's going on right in front of your face. 

The late-term abortion ban is just the most obvious brick in the wall going up around us.  Yeah, I'm pro-choice.  And that's it--pro-CHOICE.  If you don't want an abortion, don't have one.  Get it?  GET IT?!?  You have a CHOICE to NOT have one.  That's all there is to it.  You don't want your daughter having an abortion?  Then teach her how to avoid getting pregnant in the first place until she's good and ready to be a mother.   There's some seriously fucked up, naive, stupid notion that outlawing abortion will stop unwanted pregnancies and/or premarital sex.  That is just so obviously wrong and pathetically naive on its face I can't even stand it.  People who think that are stupid.  STUPID. 

Yeah, I said it--if you think outlawing abortion will stop unwanted pregnancies and/or premarital sex, you are STUPID.

The abortion battle raging in this country is NOT about the fetus.  It's not.  It's about a woman's right to control what happens to her body.  Look.  Bush and those of his ilk are using this issue to erode MY right to make medical decisions about my body with my doctor.  This is not a problem for men.  Neo-cons and anti-choice folks aren't lining up to interfere with your penis or your sperm.  They're lining up to interfere with my ovaries and my uterus.

This crusade to take over women's bodies is one of the crudest, most offensive, repressive, and vile movements in the history of American life.  It is NOT about children.  How can I say that?  Here's how:  because none of the anti-choice groups, and none of the Bushies give a flying fuck about the kid after it's born.  Especially if it's not a white kid with a high probability of growing up to be a neo-con, anti-choice white man.

The anti-choice brigade is only concerned about the fetus while it's inside the woman.  It is not concerned with the mother's mental or physical health.  There is NO EXCEPTION in this law for the mother's health.  NONE.  That's right.  If your pregnancy is endangering your life, and you are likely to die, you are NOT ALLOWED TO LIVE.  It would be illegal for you to survive.

Second, the procedure is so poorly defined doctors can't really tell if they would break the law in any given situation.  It's becoming more and more common that women who miscarry late in pregnancy are forced to give birth to a dead baby because a doctor might find himself in jail for sparing her the mental anguish and physical dangers associated with laboring to deliver a dead baby.  So if you find yourself in the tragic position of miscarrying your late-term child, you're going to give birth to it.  Period.  Even if it kills you.

This president and his anti-choice cronies want to hijack our bodies and enslave us to pregnancy, period.  You WILL HAVE THAT BABY. 

Even if it kills you.

What's next? 

I actually asking--what's next?   If Bush and the neo-cons aren't tossed out on their ample asses, it's going to be very, very hard to arrest that kind of momentum. Bush and rest of those selfish assholes are restricting access to birth control information all over the world.  And, because women's overall health is so tied to our reproductive health, funds that provided disadvantaged women with basic reproductive health care not associated with pregnancy at ALL are being cut off.

We will die--one way or the other--for this 'cause.'

I would note that the administration's decisions to cut off family planning aid here and around the world because abortion is discussed as an option has actually caused abortion rates to rise because women can't get birth control.  Nice. Really nice.

So now that this group of manaical control freaks are violating my human and civil rights with their plot to take over my body--what's next?   Well, I expect they will start trying to restict birth control options and continue to return women to the dark ages.  They don't want women to know or embrace our sexuality or even understand our biology. 

Sex is dirty.  Sex is bad.  If you get pregnant, it's because you're bad. 

We're being marginalized and enslaved.

Read The Handmaid's Tale.

So THAT'S why Bush has got to go.  I don't see the purity, the beauty, or the necessity to trade in my rights so that they can have their 'culture of life' with respect to my womb.

Some fucking culture of life, though, yeah?

*thousands dead in Iraq
*millions without the ability to see a doctor in the United States--

Oh, that reminds me--did you know that there are federal rules making fetuses eligible for free/low cost prenatal care, but THE WOMAN CARRYING THE FETUS IS EXCLUDED? What the fuck, people.  What the fuck.

*hundreds of wrongly convicted men and women have been sprung from death rows around the US.  How many innocent people has our country murdered?  How many did Bush murder as gov. of Texas?  Nice culture of life.
*millions children in the US receive substandard educatio ns in this country, and Bush underfunds his own mandate.

This 'culture of life' is a load of bullshit.  Horseshit.  Dogshit.

Lies.  Manipulations. Fallacies.  Smoke and mirrors.

They want us in 'our place,' ladies.  Seen, not heard.  Chattel.  It's just easier for them all that way.  Good, evil.  Black, white.  Man, woman.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

I'll find my own place, thank you.  I don't need your help, and I won't be your property, your pawn or your devil.

YAY!  Red Sox win!  If the Sox can beat the Curse of the Bambino, then ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!

That's all I got time for today.

Over and out.

Front page, above the fold, big picture of Ariel Sharon--the Knesset approved the plan to pull settlers out of Gaza!  Yay!

Disclosure--I am Jewish, I have a vested interest in Israel and its survival, and I wholeheartedly support the withdrawal from Gaza, and I hope there will be at least some redistribution on the West Bank.  It's the right thing to do.

I know there are people who will think that this is bowing to terrorism and showing the 'evildoers' that terrorism works.  You go ahead and think that.  You're wrong.  And this should have happened long ago.  It might have if some extremist settler nutjob hadn't murdered Rabin in '95.

I think this move is going to help Israel in the eyes of the world, and perhaps generate some moral authority as well.  We'll see.

In the meantime, Dubya and his crew somehow lost 380 tons of explosives in Iraq.  The excuses are pathetic--"we were ahead of schedule," "it might not even have been there."  I notice that these excuses they're tossing around are rather similar to the reasons the anti-war/pro-diplomacy gave--and continue to give--for holding off on the war in the first place.

Convenient.

Have you noticed that Dick Cheney looks like Lex Luthor?  Dubya is kind of like that creepy dumb scarecrow thing--LeGree?  Was that his name in the cartoons?  I think it might have been.  Of course, that's so perfect because Simon LeGree was the horrible slave owner in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'  Thpppt on Dubya.  That's what.

So, basically, this election boils down to this:

Do you want the Legion of Doom running the joint or would you prefer the Justice League?

I'm going for the Justice League. 

5 days to go!

On the bad news side, there are huuuuuuuge problems with the voting in Florida.  Surprise!  Yeah, that's a shocker.  Not.

Anyway, the Chicago Tribune had a great article about it today, noting the following disturbing facts:

1.  Lines are so slow at these new touch-screen machines that "only six votes per hour are being cast in parts of South Florida."
2.  Perhaps as many as 60,000 absentee ballots in Broward County, Fla. are unaccounted for.
3.  Reporters from the Miami Herald monitored the pace of the lines at 14 of these touch screen voiting machines in 3 separate South Florida counties.  According to their calculations, the things are so slow that in 12 hours, only 71 votes could be cast.

**All of the above AND MORE appear in Jeff Zelany's article "Early Voting in Florida Gives Cause for Concern," Chicago Tribune, Oct. 27, 2004.  You can find the entire article at the Tribune's website by clicking here--> http://www.chicagotribune.com" title="http://www.chicagotribune.com" target="_blank"http://www.chicagotribune.com....  It's free, but you have to register.

The absolute BEST, BEST part of the article--and this is a direct quote:

"Gov. Jeb Bush ordered election supervisors to "preserve order at the polls" after episodes of voter harassment arose and some workers threatened to abandon their posts when an aide was nearly choked by an angry partisan who grabbed the identification badge around her neck." Id., emphasis, mine.

Holy crap!  That is so awesome!  I think that's just awesome.  I wanna VOTE goddammit, and you, poll worker, are screwing this all up!  C'mere!  I'll give you a hanging chad you &^#$(@**#&$^& !!!

Right on.

Like I said--5 days to go.

Then the litigation begins!  Whee!