Life: October 2004 Archives

So, my alma mater, Case Western Reserve University, played host to the vice presidential debate last night. It looks like things went off without a hitch, although watching the debate on TV, it could have been taking place on the moon as easily as it could have been at Case -- you really can't tell where the debate is being held. The stage and everything is totally generic.

Anyways, the Linux gods were with me, and my PVR didn't crash so I was able to watch the whole thing. I think that Cheney represented the Republican side well, and while I'm not as down on Edwards as Mark or Kevin is, that could be because I wasn't paying 100% attention (the joys of multi-tasking). I did notice some contradictions in what Cheney said (that he had never met John Edwards before the debate, that he had never suggested a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda), which NBC news pointed out today. I'm sure that tonight's edition of "The Daily Show" will have a field day as well.

Speaking of which, I just managed to get caught up on several past episodes of the Daily Show today. Did anybody else catch Jon Stewart's interview with Seymour Hersh? It's on the Daily Show's website (here is a direct link). The whole thing is rather shocking, in that it made me feel like we're living in a modern day Nazi Germany. By this I mean, the classic refrain "How did the German people let Hitler take power?". After watching this interview, I'm wondering how the American people let Bush take power, and hijack our country's good name in the process.

-Andy.

I saw some truly horrific footage from Iraq today on the NBC nightly news. I literally stopped what I was doing, and was taken aback by what I saw. They were covering the triple car bombings, that killed 34 children. Back when Bush sent our troops to war, I think that everyone kindof knew that there would come the part after the major fighting, when attacks were made on US troops. I thought that at its worst, it would be 1 or 2 US deaths per day. And so far, that has pretty much come true (I'm not sure what the daily death toll is).

But what I didn't expect, were Iraqi's attacking Iraqi's. Sure, some of the insurgents may be from other countries, but that alone doesn't explain the violence that I saw on my TV today. If you're purposefully killing children in order to promote your agenda -- I don't care what it is, but it isn't right. I don't understand how anyone in Iraq can support these insurgents. And my only hope is that days like today will jar the country away from the violence, on to the path towards peace and stability.

-Andy.