politics i was going to write something bashing the president but then i realized that i'd immediately go off on a tangent about politics in general. so here we are.

it takes two things to get elected in the united states: money and votes. you need the money to finance your campaign and you need the votes to win the election. the rich people have the money and the poor people have the votes. usually, the demands placed on the candidate by the rich and the poor are incompatible. the rich say, make us richer by taxing the poor and giving us big fat juicy government contracts. the poor say, make us richer by lowering taxes and providing more services. the potential candidate is in the position where he has to con the rich out of their money or he has to con the poor out of their votes. or both. the result is that successful politicians are adept liars. it's a feature of our system. and the media leads us like sheep to act all shocked and indignant when we find out about it.

the republicans tend to make the rich a lot richer and the poor poorer. the democrats tend to make the poor less poor and the rich a little richer but not as much richer as they would be if the republicans were running the show. it's a feature of democracy that unhappy people are more likely to vote than happy people are. now you should be able to see where this is going. when the democrats are in charge the poor are happy and complacent and don't vote. which makes it more likely that the republicans will take over. and they take care of that little happiness problem with frightening speed. (bush spent 10 years of budget savings in 6 months and 9/11 hadn't even happened yet.) which makes the poor poorer and unhappier and more likely to vote the democrats back in. it's one of those circle of life things.

in 2000, bush jr pretty much had the votes of the rich secured. the trick was how to con the poor out of their votes. and here's where i gotta admire the politician in the man. he bribed them. vote for me and i'll give you an immediate $500 tax refund. and here we thought bribery was illegal in the united states. pah! what are the sentencing guidelines for 250 million counts of bribery? i'd be really amused to see someone use this tactic to harass the most evil man in the free world.  ¶ 1:53 PM