Your Vote Counts in November

20 Reasons to Go to the Polls

It's easy to be disenchanted with the political state of affairs in the United States. Voter turnout here has been poor for years, and is a downright embarrassment when compared to many other countries.

Instead of just throwing your hands up in frustration, I urge you to vote this year. It's the best chance we've had since 2000 to turn the tables on the Republicans. Yes, the Democrats have their problems too. But this year it's clear that the Republicans don't deserve your vote.

We won't loosen Republican control of Congress unless YOU VOTE. Don't depend on others to do it for you. All of our votes count. (Well, except perhaps in a few districts in Ohio and Florida.)

Sure, right now a lot of people are talking about the Mark Foley sex scandal. But here are 20 other reasons to get rid of the Republicans.

Remember, channel your outrage and vote!

International Blunders

1. Iraq War

The Iraq War has been a mistake and a disaster from the very beginning. I hardly need to expand on this, given the enormous amount of writing on the topic. Although Congressional Democrats are not blameless here (most went along with the President), this war was brought to you by George W. Bush and his Republican neocon cabal. These folks were foaming at the mouth since at least 1997, looking for an excuse to attack Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein. (As of October 2006, at least 44,000 civilians have died in Iraq, perhaps over a hundred thousand injured. Over 2700 U.S. military personnel have been killed and over 20,000 wounded.)

2. 9/11 and the so-called "War on Terror"

Recent disclosures indicate that prior to September 11th, 2001, Secretary of State Condi Rice received stern warnings from then-CIA chief George Tenet that we were at risk of a major terrorist attack on the mainland. We already know she ignored the memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within United States."

I'm not one who believes the conspiracy theories that the Republicans launched the attack themselves, but this catastrophe happened on their watch. And what have they done to improve our situation since? The Taliban are back on top in Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda has more members than ever before.

3. Iran and North Korea

Unable to reign in their obsession with Iraq, the Bush Administration has in the meantime ignored two powers within the so-called "Axis of Evil", Iran and North Korea. While our military was busy destroying Iraq in order to (supposedly) save it, Iran and North Korea have spent the last few years developing their nuclear capabilities. Now we find ourselves at serious standoffs with these nations, which both happen to be run by or influenced by fanatics who really don't like us.

4. The Kyoto Treaty

The Bush Administration has steadfastly refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, even though our country is the worst offender when it comes to emitting greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The entire time he's been in office, Bush has tried to cast doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus and physical evidence that human activity has led to unprecedented global warming. It's enough to make your blood boil, if it wasn't already from the higher temperatures on our endangered planet.

5. John Bolton

George W. and his people can't resist poking their fingers into the eyes of the world community. John Bolton was clearly not the right person to send to the United Nations – after all, he said it was fine by him if someone decided to blow up the UN. When Congress refused to confirm Bolton as our Ambassador to the United Nations, Bush circumvented the process and appointed him using his executive powers.

The Culture of Corruption

6. Jack Abramoff

The notorious former lobbyist, now in jail, helped put dirty money in the pockets of so many Republicans it's a wonder no one bumped him off before he sang to the authorities.

7. Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Michael Scanlon

These repugnant guys, part of Abramoff's web of deception and money laundering, wanted total Republican control of the U.S. -- forever. Yes, they're sharp, but did they really think they would get away with bilking the Indian tribes and selling invitations to meet the President in the White House for $25,000 apiece? Their arrogance is hard to measure.

8. Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and Our Government for Hire

DeLay, formerly known as "The Hammer", was the powerful House Majority Leader until he was brought down by the Abramoff scandal. He sold his influence in Congress, using his power as Majority Leader to stifle bills he didn't like and fast-track others in exchange for political "contributions" and personal gain.

Bob Ney pled guilty to bribery and corruption earlier this year. Oh yeah, he's also the one who brought us "Freedom Fries".

9. The Dismantling of the Ethics Commission

The Republicans used their power to finally squeeze the life out of the House Ethics Commission, after both parties secretly agreed to refrain from allowing complaints to be filed against various members. Now the commission is virtually toothless, part of how all these scandals described here were allowed to happen in the first place.

10. Enron

Too bad former Enron CEO Ken Lay died before he could serve his sentence in prison. Even his Republican buddy George W. in the White House couldn't save him from being convicted. In fact, Bush seemed to forget his old pal during the Enron scandal, even though they were close enough for George to call him "Kenny Boy". Remarkable how poor George's memory could be, given that Lay was the co-chairman of Bush's re-election campaign! Oh the wicked webs they weaved...

Let's not forget that thousands of former Enron employees lost their retirement funds as a result of Lay and associates' deceptions and the collapse of the company.

11. WorldCom

The WorldCom case was the largest bankruptcy and accounting scandal in U.S. history. Thankfully former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers is behind bars. But like many other corporate leaders, he and his company managed to give significant sums of money to Republican causes to help lubricate the wheels of government regulation. (Yes, they give to Democratic Party causes too, but if you add it all up much more goes to the GOP.)

12. Randy "Duke" Cunningham

In 2005 the former Republican congressman from California pled guilty to a multitude of charges including bribery, tax evasion, and fraud. Like the other pols described above, he was involved in various schemes to sell his influence in Congress. He took $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, who never seem to have enough friends in high places.

Government by the People, for the People?

13. The Demotion of FEMA and the Hurricane Katrina Response

Perhaps as part of the Republican "Starve the Beast" mentality to shrink the federal government, President Bush managed to demote FEMA from its cabinet-level status during his first term, and allowed it to be subsumed into the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Although George W. was convinced that Brownie (former FEMA director Michael Brown) was doing "a heckuva job" managing the Katrina response, we all know how that turned out. Sure, we can't blame the weather on the Republicans, but did you notice how different the hurricane planning and responses were in Florida (e.g. Hurricanes Frances and Charley)? It sure is nice to be governor when your brother is the president.

It's hard not to notice that most of the folks affected by Katrina were black, while those threatened by hurricanes in Florida were white. The death toll from Katrina was vastly higher than the tolls in Florida. Imagine how different it might have been if Republican leaders got the buses to New Orleans and Mississippi before the hurricane?

Over one year after Hurricane Katrina, fewer than half of the former residents have returned to New Orleans.

14. The End of Representative Government

Chalk another one up to Tom DeLay: not only was he hell-bent on getting as much money as possible for himself and his cronies, he also tried to rig the voting system to make sure Republicans would stay in office forever once elected. Through a series of highly questionable acts, he managed to redraw the districts in Texas to cause 5 Democrats to lose their seats in the House in 2004. The new lines make it nearly impossible for incumbents to be defeated in future elections.

15. Wealth Gap Widens

Since the Republicans have been running the show, the gap between rich and poor has grown even wider. They implement tax cuts for the rich, while real wages for many people have been declining for years. In particular, CEO pay has skyrocketed during the Bush years.

16. The Stolen 2000 Presidential Election

Republicans and Democrats have been monkeying with ballot boxes for a long time, but in 2000 the GOP wanted to be absolutely sure their boy George made it to the White House. In Florida they ditched tens of thousands of voters from the registration rolls, and in Ohio thousands of votes for Bush seemed to appear at the last minute.

17. Diebold and ES&S

The chairman of the board and chief executive of Diebold, Walden "Wally" O'Dell, proclaimed in 2003 that he would deliver the state of Ohio in the 2004 elections to the Republicans. Meanwhile he helped raise truckfulls of dollars for GOP candidates. Does this worry anyone?

Over and over again, Diebold's machines have been shown to be unsafe from tampering.

The principals behind ES&S, another prominent voting machine manufacturer, have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to Republican and extreme-right causes.

Shouldn't we have laws saying that manufacturers of electronic voting machines must be politically neutral, and that all machines must be safe from tampering? Yes, but you can be sure a Republican-led government won't do that.

And Let's Not Forget...

18. Plamegate

It appears that the White House sought to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for openly criticizing the trumping-up of evidence on Iraq's WMDs. They put his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, in mortal danger by revealing her identity. This Administration will stoop so low it is willing to sacrifice its own intelligence agents in service of political goals.

[A friendly reader offered an addendum: recently Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, claimed that he was the person who "outted" Plame to Robert Novak. (See Newsweek article.) Supposedly Armitage is known to be a gossip, and let the info slip inadvertantly during a conversation. So perhaps this was not a conspiracy after all.]

19. The Bridge to Nowhere

Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is one of the main supporters of "The Bridge to Nowhere", This boondoogle would cost taxpayers $320 million, and would link a town to another that has a population of 50 people. Oh yeah, he's also the guy who recently described the Internet as a "series of tubes". Ted Stevens is third in the line of succession to the President.

20. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), an area of 19 million acres, has been threatened for years by those who would like to open part of it up for oil drilling. Approximately 1.5 million acres would be at risk of being spoiled by oil extraction, transportation, etc., while the amount of oil produced would probably barely make a dent on worldwide demand.

Still, President Bush and his allies keep pushing to open ANWR. Instead of arguing about drilling in wildlife refuges, shouldn't we be putting our resources into developing renewable energy?

By now you may be thoroughly depressed reading the recap of Republican misdeeds. That is not my intent. Let's vote these bastards out of office!