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You're kidding, right?
2004-09-30 12:08 a.m.

Excuse me, but I seemed to have missed something. BIG.

Because all I keep hearing in all this lead-up to tomorrow's debate is how good Bush is rhetorically and how challenging it will be for Kerry to best him.

Eh?

This is the same man who speaks only through circular definitions and makes up or misuses words as he goes along, right? You know - the one that had a television show, albeit short-lived, dedicated to the fact that he was at best mediocre and on average the village idiot, the family clown; the one whose god-awful and ridiculously banal speeches became fodder for humor/commentary books like Is Our Children Learning?, by Paul Begala and Presidential (Mis)Speak, by Robert S. Brown.

This is the same man who referred once to "The country of Africa", stumping us all, right? This IS the man who said he needed to organize a team of SPACIAL ENGINEERS to build his Mars program, right?

So is that the one we're hearing about when we hear about the skill, the delivery, the sheer intelligence in debate and discourse? Or perhaps they mean Barbara Bush?

Cause that I'll buy.

Perhaps I've been in a coma unbeknownst to me for the last year or so, and I've missed the big moment of W's transformation into a competent - nay, superior speaker. Yes, that's the only explanation. My family is just covering up my lapse from consciousness, to lessen my trauma. To protect me and ease me slowly into the fact that I've missed a year of my life and only dreamt about Africa, teaching, and all the movies I've seen lately.

A more likely possibility is that the big scam rolls on: "Analysts" who become guests on radio or news-magazine shows are part of an agenda trying to make things up, cover things up, or color our memories and version the truth. Like I said, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
Apparently, there was now never a time when W. was a bumbling idiot. Today, someone told me that her dad said "Well W. won the 2000 debates against Gore". And I said, "Um, did your dad watch the 2000 debates?" Or did the media erase and re-write that too?

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's revisionist history. Especially when we're talking about things that happened within the last four years. Come on now, we're not all that stupid, are we?

I just don't believe at all what they're saying. I also don't believe the polls. And I don't mean "I don't believe it!", I mean I literally question the validity of what I see, hear, and read about lately in terms of numbers. NJ is now officially a swing state? Please. Please!. To whom did these pollsters speak? And anyway, I question the accuracy of these numbers considering everything going on: Florida's hurricanes, for example, are taking priority there over everything else right now, disrupting the "everyday process", so how much can we trust the "Bush lead" in Fla.? Or even the "Kerry lead", for that matter? Ridiculous. They lie so much it's even become obvious to my optimistic mother.

So I'm on my way home from Thomas' dinner party tonight, and my bud called me frantic - ok, concerned, asking my age. When she finally explained that she'd been discussing the reinstatement of the draft with a few colleagues, I understood that she was trying to figure out whether or not I was in the "18-26" category. For you see the newest plan is to be more...oh...how did they put it..."egalitarian" about the way selection works - ladies, THIS MEANS YOU. So it turns out I'm too old,
and I can't imagine what they'd plan to do with a feminist, conscientious objector who hangs out with communists anyway. But I tell ya, if I was 23 right now, I'd be planning to move out of the country or become a nun before the shit hits the fan.

There have been 2,300 insurgent attacks in Iraq in the last 30 days. Morale is the lowest it's ever been among troops currently stationed there (doi). With an already over-expended and depressed military, it's obvious that more "man-power" is needed - more than we have voluntarily or readily available. And if W gets in again, for sure we will be headed to Syria, or perhaps, with the brewing pipe-line problems, even Nigeria next. This is all far, far from over. To think a draft can't happen is naive - things of this nature are expedited especially quickly when it's a "time of need". Oh, and with the new systems, it doesn't matter if you have registered officially for the draft or not. Have a license? Have a voter registration card? Pay taxes? Have a social security number? You're all ready for boot camp! Hooray! You're an army of one!

All of this, of course, pending who gets into the White House in November. I'm hoping the dissemination of such info to everyone who comes across my path in the next two months will motivate them to vote Bush out. If none of the other reasons are motivation enough, then perhaps this will be.

This Friday I'm throwing an Estro-night chez-moi, and it couldn't come at a better time. Steve will be out with Ryan doing boy things, so I decided to invite my girls over (well, Ok, girls and gay male friends). I explained in the invitations I sent out on Monday that we'd do girly things, like talk about campaign ethics and our Imperialist foreign policies, of course while braiding each other's hair and looking at pictures of Paris Hilton. I just can't wait.

Need sleep now - big time. Every night this week has just been packed with stuff; I taught today, for example, then came home for a bit, went back down to Newark to meet Lisa before heading off to my book club at McGovern's. After that I raced over to Tai-Chi and then headed over to Thomas' place for a dinner party. Tomorrow night, my friend's band is playing a Rock the Vote type show around here somewhere, and then since Thomas and Nicole are coming with us I know I'll wind up going out for drinks afterward. And then when I get home - I won't be able to wait until Friday to watch the debate that I'll have taped.

Well at least I kicked my throat thing in 14 hours flat. Thanks, Steve's soup, Green Tea, and my very own well-balanced immune system. You're the best.

xo,