My Fellow Americans, there comes a time in the course of a country's history that decisions that may very well shape the future of said country must be made. Sadly there isn't some great computer that can make those decisions for us so we have to rely on the citizens of this great but misguided country. November 2nd is a big day for this land, we will file into little tiny booths and vote for the next leader of this country. Unfortunately the rhetoric and all out bullshit from both sides will continue unabated from now until then, we will hear promises and mud slinging from both sides. Both sides will try and kiss our asses, lie to us and convince us that the other candidates mother was a whore. The mistake both will be making is that they will not talk about the issues, they will not speak to us as equals but as the idiotic members of a mob that isn't coherent enough to make up our minds when presented with the facts. The candidates belittle us and treat us like children, just look at the debates, all that was needed was a small group of guys standing behind the candidates saying "Oooooh" and "Awww Snap".

I watched the two Presidential debates for as long as I could stomach the crap shoveled in my face and I even tuned into the Vice Presidential debate and was just as frustrated. How are these guys the best that this country can offer? George W. Bush is an idiot, plain and simple, the man is a fucking moron. I don't care what school he graduated from, there is something to be said for that look that can only be described as a deer caught in headlights when anyone asks him a tough question. John Kerry is an insufferable bore and every canned response of his has something to do with him being in Vietnam. "How would you rectify the economy Senator Kerry?", "Well when I was in Vietnam...". Argh shut the fuck up about Vietnam, you are a hero, no one (well no one with a brain) doubts that, it isn't the answer to every question. John Edwards has to be the shining star of this election, the man is charismatic and seems to have that Bill Clinton "I'm lying, but you love me" Southern charm to him. As for Dick (appropriate name) Cheney, the man seems to be the Devil incarnate. How can anyone believe anything the man says, when he tries to look sincere he looks damned evil. He always looks evil, the man is fucking crazy, look at that nervous twitch he has, that man is scary. The point is this country is in some shit if these four are the best and brightest in the nation.

There is another option to supporting these four guys of course, wait I am not talking about Nader since if you are voting for him I really hope you get herpes. Wasting your vote on Nader is stupid, you might as well vote Bush because that is what the Republicans are counting on since most Nader supporters are either disaffected or would-be Democrats. The choice I am giving you is to vote for the issues, not the person, don't pay attention to these assholes. Look at the issues important to you and make up your mind that way. It is a lot easier than looking at the men you have to chose between, Dumb and Dull. So in an effort to make the issues the center piece I decided to make a statement with my original "Robb the Vote" column (get it, "Rock the Vote" with "Rock" replaced by my name, hardy har har), this time I stray a bit from that lighter formula and hopefully give you some food for thought about the upcoming election and some more issues I feel are important. I hope you enjoy, are enlightened, educated and maybe even entertained.

Don't Fence Me In : After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 America was gripped by fear and hysteria. The country was in fear of the possibility of more ruthless attacks on the United States by invading Japanese forces. What they may have been more afraid of was the fear of an attack from within the country. The Pacific coast of the country had a large Japanese-American population and those citizens quickly became very suspicious for no other reason but bigotry and ignorance. Narrow minded people feared even their neighbors, people they had known for years just because they were of Japanese decent. In February of 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which removed Japanese-Americans from their homes and placed them in internment camps. Under the supervision of the War Relocation Authority more than 120,000 people were relocated, of which more than two-thirds were American citizens. The camps were scattered all over the country mostly in desert regions of states such as Utah, California, Idaho, Arizona and Wyoming. Life in the camps was hard especially since the majority of the interned were guilty of no crime but being of Japanese decent. For 4 years many were held without cause watched constantly by armed military personnel.

The Executive Order signed to intern the Japanese was intended to prevent sabotage or any action that may hurt America or help the Japanese cause. Internment is vastly considered to be one of the biggest mistakes in American history. Displacing the Japanese-Americans to brutal camps was a heinous act of which the government admitted it's wrong-doing. Many years after the internment camps were broken up a letter proclaiming "We can never fully right the wrongs of the past. But we can take a clear stand for justice and recognize that serious injustices were done to Japanese Americans during World War II" was delivered to families of former internees. Along with the letter an offer for the amount of $20,000 was given to the families of internment victims. The President whose signature accompanies the letter was none other than George Bush, father of our current President.

What is ironic about this situation is that internment camps are once again operating with the approval of the President of the United States. On the naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba thousands of Iraqi and other Middle Eastern citizens are being held at "Camp Freedom". The reasons that the government has given for detaining these people is that they are either "illegal combatants" or "terror suspects". Anybody who has lifted a weapon in the direction of an American soldier should be held, anyone who had engaged in a plot to terrorize the United States should be held, however there are many people who are there just because of their race. How do you tell a terrorist from an ordinary citizen? It is nearly impossible, anyone could be a "terror suspect", in fact if I was of Middle Eastern decent I wouldn't write this column because it would probably get me on a watch-list. Now is internment necessary? Yes, as I stated before people who threaten or take action against this country should at least be questioned but there should be a clearly defined line, a law or something which would result in less innocent people being plucked from their homes for questioning for no reason except "National Security".

G.I. Prez : Ulysses S. Grant is probably one of the greatest war-time generals in the history of the military. He led the Union to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War. In 1868 Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States based on his success in the war. Grant's term as President is widely considered to be the worst in the history of the job. His term was marred by scandals such as the Credit-Mobilier scandal in which the Vice President was implicated in an Enron-like situation. Now Grant was not by most accounts a corrupt prez he just was surrounded by corrupt men and was inept to stop them because he wasn't up to the task of being the Commander in Chief.

The reason I bring this up is that we have a candidate running for President who brings up his war record like it is the single deciding factor for people to vote for him. John Kerry put his life on the line to fight for this country in Vietnam. Not only that he is a war hero, however our current President, George W. Bush did not serve in Vietnam despite being of age. George had his father use his connections to get him into the National Guard instead of having to go kill the Vietcong. What Kerry did was honorable and heroic, but it has nothing to do with the Presidency.

Bill Clinton was in my mind a good president, put aside the cigar incident he kept the economy going strong and kept us out of war. Clinton didn't go to Vietnam he was a National Guardsmen as Bush Jr. was. Did Clinton's lack of military experience affect his ability to run government, nope. I am not saying vote for Bush because he was a National Guardsmen, for God's sake please don't vote for him, but don't vote Kerry just because of his war record. It is a moot point, it has nada, zilch, nil, nothing to do with the quality of President that John Kerry could be. Look at the issues people, don't get pulled in by the smoke screens that both these candidates put up. Kerry woos people with his "war hero" rhetoric while Bush scares people by saying shit like "terrorist, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden" every five seconds. Not every question can be answered "I served my country in Vietnam" or "Al Qaeda hates freedom".

Count This! : The most ludicrous thing that we should be worrying about in an election year is that the voting system will be either corrupt or deficient. In the 2000 election Al Gore won the popular vote and George W. Bush won the electoral college. In the days following the vote details began pouring our about voter fraud, absentee ballots and a general cluster-fuck of what should have after 221 years of experience an easy task of counting votes. What many of you may not realize is that this happened once before and the consequences of that situation were far-reaching and in some cases tragic.

In the 1876 Presidential election Samuel Tilden narrowly beat Rutherford B. Hayes out for the popular vote but couldn't carry enough states to win the electoral college's nod. With the Compromise of 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes the Republican candidate took office and became the 19th President when the Reps struck a deal with the Southern states to give their electoral votes to Hayes. The Compromise part came into play with the promises made to the Southern states for their precious votes.

In the South after the Civil War there was a period called Reconstruction, the war ravaged South was under military rule from the North and the South was not able to send any Senators or Congressmen to Washington to voice their concerns. The punishment of the South did not sit well with the old aristocracy of the South, especially when you consider the fact that some of the soldiers that were lording over the defeated Southerners were freed black men. In fact during Reconstruction the South was under a kind of "Negro Rule" where blacks held many political offices. With the Compromise of 1877 Reconstruction was ended in the South and along with it came the end of sanctions against the South. They were now free to send representatives to Washington and institute racist rules such as the Jim Crow laws and the Black Codes in the South which stripped freed blacks of many of their rights. With the power restored to the South they were even able to keep freed black from voting by instituting poll taxes and the Grandfather Clause which stated that a person could vote if their grandfather had voted. Of course if your grandpa was a slave as all slaves' grandfathers had been then, well you get the point. After Reconstruction ended blacks were free but couldn't gain their Civil Rights until the 1960's.

In the 2000 election there was massive voter fraud with some states (cough Florida cough) going as far in some districts to not allow black voters to cast their votes. Absentee ballots and those of military personnel overseas were never truly accounted for. A recount in Florida never took place and the Democrats conceded an election that they should have fought for. George W. Bush didn't steal the election as many Democrats would like to say, they were handed it on a silver platter due to the Dems weakness and unwillingness to fight. I voted for Gore in the 2000 election because quite frankly I didn't (and still don't) trust Dubba-ya, I don't trust anyone dumber than I am. Being a voting resident of Florida I have wondered everyday since what would have been if the Democratic party would have showed some sack and contested the missing ballots and pursued the claims of voter fraud in Florida. Since there was a problem with the ballots and the election was in question there could have been a Compromise of 2000 in which the Democrats could have maybe replaced Dick "The Devil" Cheney with Al Gore. Something could have been done so we didn't have to sit through 4 years with an idiot for a President and corrupt assjack as VP.

Well it's almost 4 years too late now and we are in a world of hurt, our economy is in the toilet, prescription costs are through the rough, Social Security looks like it will be a myth by the time I am able to collect and we are fighting a war which many believe we shouldn't be fighting. Would Gore have gone to war in Iraq, who knows, who cares, no one can rewind time. What is important is that nothing like what happened in the 2000 election and in the 1876 election can ever happen again, the election is too important to leave any doubt. Every ballot must be counted, every vote counts that is what our history teachers taught us and that is the way it should be.

Arcane Relics of the Past : In my last politics column I went on a mini-tirade about removing any and all religious iconography and sentiment from government, I still believe that any Senator, Congressman or President that makes a decision (representing the American public) based on his/her personal religious affiliations than they should be impeached. Your religion isn't my religion and probably isn't my neighbor's religion, you are in government to represent every single person; Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Christian, Jehovah's Witness, even those freaky cult-like religions that worship things like Elvis.

This week I went to Hollywood Video to rent a couple of flicks, so I am perusing the sections looking for something that I haven't seen (pretty freakin' hard btw) and I see a couple of odd titles. First was "Fahrenhype 9/11" which seems to be a documentary attacking the famed "Fahrenheit 9/11". Okay so the latter was released on Tuesday (October 5th) and along with it, the right-wingers put out a documentary dispelling that flick. Stupid, petty, ridiculous but whatever I ain't gonna rent that piece of shit. One thing I found amuzing was that they claimed they had celebs on this DVD and I looked further into it and the only non-politcal analyst's name I recognized was Ron Silver who was probably most recognizable as the bad guy in "Time Cop", oh yeah big-time celebs. I think it's pretty amusing which celebs actually support George W. Bush, you've got some heavy hitters, Don King, Kid Rock, Britney Spears and Stephen Baldwin. While I do love boxing, kinda liked "American Badass" and I did love "The Usual Suspects" and Brit's ass I wouldn't listen to any of these schmucks about anything political. Meanwhile John Kerry has supporters in Michael "Marty McFly" J. Fox, Natalie Portman, Ben Affleck, P. Diddy, and Alec Baldwin. If there is a Baldwin I trust it sure is Alec, lmao! Advantage : Kerry.

Anyways I continue my search through the store and come upon a movie called "George W. Bush : Faith in the White House". Now when I saw this I nearly exploded, what the fuck is this shit huh? Why get so mad you ask, well because of this tagline I reply "See how the power of faith can change a life, build a family and shape the destiny of a nation...". Oh no it gets much worse peeps, check out this synopsis on the back of the box cover, "Not since the days of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln has a president put so much stock in his Christian faith and prayer life for making decisions and leading the United States in its hour of crisis". Why should his Christian beliefs factor into his decision making? What does his Christianity say about taking more and more money from the middle class and giving tax breaks to the upper class? I don't recall a passage in the Bible (Yes, I have read it) about robbing the poor and giving to the rich. I know that for thousands of years wars have been fought because of religious ideals and I think it is about time that it stops, we don't need another Holy Crusades do we? Religion has no place in government, it only serves to serve those who believe in that religion and excludes all others of different or no faiths. There was a statement on the back which I did love though and I swear I didn't make this shit up "According to BBC correspondent Justin Webb: "Nobody spends more time on his knees than George W. Bush". So that's how politics works? Remind me never to run for public office!

Ok well after my pilgrimage to the Horror section to pick out some classics I started my trek home and I get stuck behind this big ass truck, after rolling up my window to keep the smog emanating from the tail pipe from choking me to death I noticed something disturbing on the truck's bumper. Now if it was a "Honk if you're horny" or "I'd rather be fishing" bumper sticker I wouldn't have cared but this ass jockey had a bright, shiny rebel flag on this bumper. Ok redneck, the Civil War ended in 1865, I think the Confederate flag should have gone out with it. Now despite my anger with this particular idiot for celebrating the racist icon, the flag is in fact still flying in many states of the South. What could be the point of flying the flag of the defeated Confederacy, a flag which represented slavery, racism and immorality? There are rebel flags in every facet of life; it has become a fashion item, I question anyone's judgment for wearing an icon of death, destruction and misery. The rebel flag should be torn down from every single government building and burned, after letting any descendant of a slave to piss on it if they so desire.

Smack Your Kids Up : I abhor child abuse, it is wrong, plain and simple. Abusing your child or even your spouse is the act of stupidity and a sure sign that you are an impotent prick. However there are some situations that a firm spanking could do some good. I am not talking about your child breaking a window or getting a bad grade. Some kids are good but do bad things, they should be told they were wrong and I believe if you raise them right a "I am not mad at you, I am just disappointed in you" can hurt them so much more than a fist in the gut. However if you have one of these new-era kids that are more like little adults than pre-teens than maybe more extreme measures are in line. If you tell your child "No" and the response you get is "Fuck off" than maybe your kid needs a smack on the ass.

Child abuse and spanking are not the same, I was never spanked, paddled or smacked as a kid, I was psychologically programmed not to fear my parents but to fear disappointing them. While I learned more and felt worse from their words I have had experience with children that aren't as conditioned as I was. My friend's little brother's first words in my direction were "Fuck you", he was 8 years old and I went outside to investigate why a rock had just broken my mother's car mirror. I asked what happened and that was the response I got. Knowing him for the next 8 years I realize that it probably was like saying "Hello" to him, it was no big deal to say such a thing, even to someone who could probably have knocked him out with the back of his hand. This kid is a problem child, in trouble with the law and expelled from school countless times. Could simple words drill their way into his head, probably not, but would a firm hand make an impression? I am not advocating beating a child but we have limited parents' rights to the point where yelling at your child is an "iffy" situation.

Governmental Interference With My Belly : America is the fattest country in the World, most Americans are overweight, this is a cold hart, fat fact. Why is this, what could make our once lean, muscular country turn to blubber? I know it must be because we have the largest supply of fast food in the World and enough money and freedom to spend said money on tasty fries and burgers made with a small amount of meat. Well that is probably a contributing factor but let's think realistically here, there are many countries which have fast food and many that don't have food at all. If 80% of the population of America is overweight and 20% of Africa is overweight that is a sizeable difference and we look to be giant tubs of grease. Think about it though, Africa probably has a lot more places where there is a deficient amount of food so the chance to be a fat pig is a lot slimmer. Now if you were to compare the percentages of lard asses between America and Britain then it doesn't look as bad for us Yanks. Americans are overweight, but is it that big of a problem? If a person wants to eat pounds of greasy foods who cares, why does the government decide to put pressure on the fast food industry to corral overeating. Everyone has to die of something, if people want to over-eat, over-smoke or over-drink they are going to do it regardless of the government's position, I say go for it as long as you don't hurt anyone else.

Recently a documentary called "Super Size Me" was released in which Morgan Spurlock goes out and eats nothing but Super-Sized McDonalds meals for a month and gains an extraordinary amount of weight. Now this dumb fuck felt worse and looked terrible and because of him McDonalds decided to phase out the Super Size program and started adopting a less fatty, more health conscious menu. Now I am underweight, athletic and I like my fast food, I like to Super Size my Mickey D's and get twice the fries and Coke for $.39. Now should my eating habits be regulated by the government as many health nut job groups are insisting? Hell no, if some jackass wants to eat Super Size fries until his arteries are clogged so be it, if you ban Super Size then you might as well take out every fatty product off the shelves of the supermarkets, while you are at it you might as well take the lollipops out of the kids' mouths after the get their teeth pulled you damned bullies! The government has far weightier problems to deal with than taking the comfort food out of some fat dudes' mouth.

Justification for War : Of every issue talked about in any column I have written this is probably the one that will wind up getting me in a lot of shit. I do think that the war in Afghanistan was justified, we went there under the guise of weeding out the terrorist regime and ridding the world of the Taliban. However when we should have been focused on completing that goal the government decided to refocus our war on terror and attack Iraq. Now we had evidence that Afghanistan was a hot-bed for terrorist activities, the Taliban was sponsoring Al Qaeda. Iraq had no connection with Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden or any other terrorist group but using the fear that Bush and Co. put into the American public they lied to everyone and said those four little words which shook us to our cores, Weapons of Mass Destruction (insert scary music here).

So while we are still supposedly combing the desert and the mountains kind of looking for Al Qaeda operatives and Osama we deploy troops to go into Iraq and destroy Saddam's ability to produce or launch his W.M.D.'s. Only problem is that they don't have any W.M.D.'s, the most they have are some rifles and grenades, we couldn't even find his stash of supposed chemical weapons. Then lo and behold we start hearing grumbling from the government that the intelligence committee knew that they never had any W.M.D.'s or chemical weapons. So why go to war, why unseat Saddam, why are there over 1,000 young men and women in flag draped coffins? What was the point of going to war without the U.N.'s consent and making us even more unpopular on the global stage? If you are looking to make yourself a target you do whatever it takes to piss off the people that are already pissed at you, well we did just that. Now we have a huge bullseye over our nation and for the terrorists hunting season on our way of life is on.

Saddam was a bad man, that is not in doubt, the guy deserves a cap in the ass for sure, but was it our business to do it unilaterally, couldn't we wait for U.N. approval? Aren't there other places that have demonstrated that they are developing these W.M.D.'s? Of course there are, we know of two right now that look to be in a straight line for an American boot up their ass, North Korea and Iran. Both countries are rapidly developing a nuclear weapons program, Iran our bitter old enemy / ally just had a successful missile test and what are we doing about that? I would bet that Dubya and his cronies are licking their lips waiting to get a hold of Iran's oil, I mean to bring Democracy to the lawless Iranians. Why didn't we go to Rwanda and put an end to the genocide, why didn't we get more involved in Chechnya or if we have such a hard-on for bringing Democracy to the world, why is one of our closest neighbors, Cuba still a Communist regime? I wonder if things would be different if Cuba was an oil-rich country.

War is part of the world we live in, there is always going to be war, bloodshed and violence. Unfortunately terrorism is now part of our daily vocabulary, we can't stop people from hating us because we are the strongest, richest nation in the World. Jealousy, envy and resentment are never going to go away. We should do what is best for this country, we should root out terrorism wherever it hides. There shouldn't be a corner of the world where anyone who plots against the United States should feel safe. That being said, we should at least have a reason to go to war. There is no way to hide from war, we tried once with World War 2, we stayed away while millions of Jews were being killed by the Germans. It took an act of terrorism by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor to get us into WW2. We shouldn't make that mistake again, we shouldn't wait but we shouldn't jump the gun for economic gain. Fighting a war should be a clear decision, something that should be implemented to prevent an attack on American soil or to prevent genocide but we should never go to war without reason or clear evidence. If there are W.M.D.'s somewhere, let's see some evidence, don't go on a guess, don't sacrifice the lives our our young to play a hunch.

Can we safely pull out of Iraq now, no. Whatever we do it is going to be wrong, we made the wrong decision going there and now it's our mess to clean up. We should start training the Iraqi's to take care of themselves. No longer can we be the police of the World, we need to take a step back and let people dictate their own futures. There are enough problems here at home to worry about another country. We need to sure up Homeland Security, take steps to make air travel as safe as possible and investigate suspicious activities here at home. There are terrorists here in America living amongst us, let's find out who they are and take away their feelings of safety, make them feel hunted. George W. Bush and his campaign has been all about terror and fear, they want us to vote for him because the terrorists are plotting against us and he is the only one that can protect us, bullshit!!! No one can protect us from these villains, the government can make it harder for them to operate but it's impossible to say there will never be another 9/11. They should stop trying to scare our votes out of us, focus on hope, we need to be able to live our lives without fear. We need to regard terrorism as a natural disaster, it may happen today, tomorrow or a year from now, we never know but we shouldn't let it dictate the way we live out our lives.

Corruption in the White House : Does anyone not concede that Dick Cheney's association with Halliburton is if nothing at least embarrassing. If he isn't corrupt than he is stupid because all of these scandals coming out. Watching the Vice Presidential debate was like watching a guilty man try and squirm around in a courtroom. In the year 2000 Dick Cheney pulled down over $36 million dollars in income from Halliburton, since he has been Vice President and been dolling out government contracts to his former company and they have experienced a slight boom. How slight a boom you ask, well just a 91% increase in government contracts. Now this in is addition to claims that during Cheney's tenure Halliburton is reputed to have contracted with two countries of the government's seven "State Sponsors of Terrorism" and that Cheney is reported to have withheld over 10,000 pages of documents from an investigative committee appointed by Congress. How can we trust a guy with this amount of dirt on him? Is it even possible? Bill Clinton was nearly impeached because he had an extramarital affair. I would rather my President screw a secretary than do half of what Cheney has apparently done. Why is there no rally cry to get this fucker impeached? Why are the Democrats allowing this to occur? Where is the uproar, where is the furor from the nation to impeach this old bastard? If he would have diddled a intern with a Halliburton pen would it be a different set of circumstances? Why would the Republicans not replace him with Rudy Giuliani as was rumored if nothing but to remove the specter of corruption from this administration?

Who To Believe? : Don't believe the candidates because they will say whatever to get themselves elected, if 90% of the voting public wanted a candidate willing to fuck a chicken then by God Kerry and Bush would be chicken-fuckers. Don't believe the parties because they don't give a shit about you, they don't care about anything but what is important to their cause. Don't believe extremists such as Michael Moore or Bill O'Reilly, they are so far in their political closets that they will never concede that even 2+2=4 if they said it equaled 5. Don't believe the celebs who come out in support of candidates since you probably have a better education than those morons. If there is one thing that is true, it is that everyone has an angle, what is important to me probably isn't important to you. Don't listen to me, listen to yourself, listen to what is important to you. Make an informed decision, go on the Net, look up the candidates policies or even their voting records, watch the debates if you can sift through all the rhetoric, bullshit and flat out lies. Make a decision that you can live with because your vote may affect this country negatively or positively through the course of your life and your children's and so on. I used to agree with George Carlin that voting really didn't matter, that one vote would never make a difference, but after the 2000 debacle who knows my one vote may push my candidate over the opposition.

Oh yeah, one more thing...I am Robb and I approved this message.