Lee and Sachi do it again. Their specialty is taking an overly-complex subject and distilling it into it’s most salient and tangible parts. Excellent stuff.

Last year, the National Retail Federation polled 8,100 American adults regarding Halloween-related spending and 41% responded that they will carve a pumpkin to celebrate the holiday. Meanwhile, trends in voter turnout indicate that we can expect 39% of eligible voters to be casting ballots on November 7.

I, for one, will be doing both.

Bush orders humanitarian aid to Lebanon, but opposes cease-fire

The article comes from The Associated Press. Basically, Bush says to keep supplying Israel so they can keep bombing Lebanon back into the stone age, and next to those bombs to include some first aid kits, blankets, and bottled water. That is so wrong. The people who control Bush have gone completely mad. All of them.

Here are some more words from the current mouthpiece of the Bush Administration, Tony Snow:

Look, we would like a cease-fire tomorrow. We would like a cease-fire immediately. But it has to be a cease-fire that is going to stand the test of time so the people in that region and people in Lebanon particular, a country that has been hard hit by occupying forces and by frustrations of its democratic aspirations, deserve a shot at having the freedom and democracy its people deserve. And the only way that’s going to be possible is if there is no longer an internal threat of the sort that we’ve witnessed in recent weeks.

Deserve a shot at democracy? By destroying the capital, blowing up schools, bombing bridges, power plants, television and radio stations, and water treatment facilities, tearing families apart, by these acts we are giving the Lebanese People a shot at democracy?

When I was growing up, back in the 70’s and early 80’s, Beirut was synonymous with “war zone”. If you saw a building being torn down in the neighborhood you’d say, “Wow, looks like Beirut”. And now, unfortunately, due to a new generation who refuses to learn from history, Beirut looks like Beirut again. This is a tragedy for the world. We should be ashamed.

Maybe. Speculation and the Blame Game is good sport but that’s about all. We now know how many write-ins for Sims there were, but what we don’t know are the voters’ intentions. We’re these protest votes? We’re they ignorant mistakes? We’ll never know. But I’m betting the Gregoire campaign may make an issue out of this even though they have no one else to blame but themselves for their poor performance at the polls. It was their race to lose and they did a fine job of it.

I voted for Gregoire because I didn’t want Rossi, the Republican, to win, however, I don’t think either candidate will likely bring positive changes to Washington State. Perhaps we should just do away with the governorship? Do we really need a governor?

The outcome of last year’s ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees was a lot like the ‘00 election, the main difference being the Red Sox lost in Game 7 and Gore won the popular vote. But the umpires could have given it to the Yankees, anyway, just as the Supreme Court gave it to Bush. It could be a repeat performance this year. Will the Red Sox win fair and square but still lose? Will Kerry’s come-from-behind win be shattered by the curse of the ballot box?

Anyway, I’m loathe to admit it but I do believe Bush pulled it off last night. He definitely presented himself better than before. He was energetic, up beat, and had many of his arguments down. (Third time’s the charm.) Kerry continued on with his same themes, spitting out facts like an encyclopedia. Kerry is certainly smart but he really beats you on the head with “the facts.” I don’t believe that his superior reasoning skills resonate with the average American with a high school education who normally spends the evening watching reality television programs. Bush’s low-brow ideas and diction score more points in the like-ability column.

It shouldn’t be a popularity contest. Deciding who should be President of The United States of America is more important than electing the next Prom King. But, alas, such is the nature of the species.

So by my count, that’s Kerry/Edwards 3, Bush/Cheney 0. I just can’t imagine how anyone who really paid attention to the debate last night could conclude that Kerry didn’t prove his superiority over the issues and the facts. On shear intellect, Kerry is the hands-down master. So unless you base your judgment on which man was the bigger blowhard with the more simplistic black-and-white world view, you’ve got to give it to Kerry.

Will the voters see it that way? Somehow, I doubt it.

Interesting sideline: at one point during the debate Cheney cited factcheck.com as a place to get the details on Cheney’s current relationship with Halliburton. He must have really meant to say factcheck.org. The .com address is a placeholder for George Soros’ blog, the subtitle of which is, “Why we must not re-elect President Bush.”

Can you imagine the poor voter’s confusion? It makes me positively giddy.

The rhetoric of the far-right never ceases to amuse. The next thing you know, the Administration will declare a War on Secularism to go along with the War on Terror, which is going so well at the moment. (Does anyone remember the War on Drugs? Did we win that one yet?)

Amen, and pass the condoms.

I’m having a moment of clarity. I realize the obvious. I realize that, along with a lot of other people, I have fallen prey to the peculiar American frailty which has given us so many bad presidents. I refer to our national tendency to treat presidential elections as though we were all high-schoolers choosing a Prom King.

Thus, when it comes to qualifying for the American Presidency, a grating accent can be a bigger political liability than a record of homicidally misguided policies. Being inconsistent is a greater personal failing than being consistently, doggedly, disastrously wrong. Being dorky is more damning than being dictatorial.

We all need to get a grip and quickly. Whatever it has been traditionally, this Presidential race should not be a personality contest.

Amen and right on.