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The Left Coaster: Why You Should Ignore The Gallup Poll This Morning – And Maybe Other Gallup Polls As Well

I thought the most recent Gallup poll smelled funny.

From the introduction of President Bush at his rally in Rochester, MN yesterday:

Father we are glad for this opportunity today to hear our President, a man you have appointed to lead us as such a time as this.

– John C. Steer, Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Rochester

I find it hard to believe that God would appoint someone who would defy International Law, most of our allies, the UN and THE POPE to wage pre-emptive WAR against a nation that posed no threat to us. And deceive the American people and the world about the reasons for going there.

Quagmire is not to strong of a word to describe what is happening in Iraq.

Before I even care what John Kerry might do to fix the situation in Iraq, I’d like to hear Bush’s brilliant plan! Stay the course? But he’s strong and convicted! Isn’t he? Right.

The pace of attacks, death and destruction is quickening in Iraq. More Americans have been wounded in the past month than in any previous month.

No one is happier than myself about the continued heavy rotation of Hold On by Wilson Philips on our branch’s Muzak system.

Break free, break from the chains…

We’re back from a quick weekend in Colorado for a wedding, and the weather is beautiful today. A nice 50-70 swing in temperature today.

We bought some new running shoes yesterday, so I may make my inaugural run in comfortable shoes tonight, although I have to go to the Metropolitan Airports Commision (MAC) meeting this evening.

MAC promised that in exchange for not moving and then expanding the airport at it’s current location, they would provide window and insulation upgrades for all houses within a “Noise Contour”, an area where the average decibel level was measured to exceed a certain level.

Our house is across the street from the end of phase 1, and would be amongst the first to receive the upgrades when phase 2 started, which was scheduled to start soon. However, now they are going back on that promise, and offering to share the cost of central air (which we already have).

Why central air? The theory being that you can leave your (old, decrepit) windows closed in summer, and not be subject to extra plane noise.

So now I am going to the meeting to see what the deal is. After having just flown into Denver and then back here again, I know one thing. I wish they had decided to move the airport 10 years ago.

[Cheney’s speech] . . . signaled that Mr. Cheney and the administration’s other hit men will spend the next two months trying to sell their failed approach to foreign policy, and encouraging Americans to believe that anyone who acknowledges that the United States needs to take a more patient and humble approach to the world is in league with the girlie men.

Mr. Bush’s Acceptance Speech

Andrew Sullivan’s post is an elegant rebuttal to Zell Miller’s speech.

Zell Miller’s address will, I think, go down as a critical moment in this campaign, and maybe in the history of the Republican party. I kept thinking of the contrast with the Democrats’ keynote speaker, Barack Obama, a post-racial, smiling, expansive young American, speaking about national unity and uplift. Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man’s speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I could only muster a cheap shot and comparison to a sci-fi character.

I subscribe to the American Progress report, a daily email update of links and news.

I am generally supportive of the points that they make, but this just blew me away.

SOCIAL SECURITY IS NOT IN CRISIS: According to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 75 years, the Social Security shortfall is projected to be 1 percent of all taxable income. Even at current levels, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits until 2052 (http://www.cbpp.org/6-14-04bud.htm)

Here’s what I wrote back (not sure if anyone reads the replies).

What happens then? I should just not worry about receiving benefits for the taxes I'm paying now? I retire in 2048. I think it is extremely naive to just bury your heads and say it's fine until then. That's not fine for me or anyone younger.

Taxes need to be increased now. We need to have a balanced budget. It is essential to the continuation of our country's well-being.

Everyone knows, when you buy a house, you start paying now, so that in 30 years, the house will be paid off. This is no different. You can’t live in a house for 29 years, and then pay for it in the 30th, unless you are the most disciplined saver in the world (which I would imagine most people are not) And who will lend you the money for 30 years and trust that in the 30th year you’ll be able to pay it off? No one.

We can’t wait 50 years to figure out how to pay for Social Security, because in 50 years, we won’t be able to afford it.