EXCERPTS FROM MICHAELMOORE.COM

In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%), think the war wasn't worth fighting (51%), and don't approve of the job George W. Bush is doing (52%). (Note to foreigners: Don't try to figure this one out. It's an American thing, like Pop Tarts.)

There are nearly 300 million Americans -- 200 million of them of voting age. We only lost by three and a half million! That's not a landslide -- it means we're almost there. Imagine losing by 20 million.

BUSH HOMETOWN PAPER HAD ENDORSED KERRY

(Crawford Texas, 29 September) Few Americans would have voted for George W. Bush four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would:
> Empty the Social Security trust fund by $507 billion to help offset fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time slash Social Security benefits.
> Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce veterans benefits and military pay.
> Eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.
> Give tax cuts to businesses that sent American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by policy encourage their departure.
> Give away billions of tax dollars in government contracts without competitive bids.
> Involve this country in a deadly and highly questionable war.
> Take a budget surplus and turn it into the worst deficit in the history of the United States, creating a debt in just four years that will take generations to repay.
Vice President Cheney's Halliburton has been awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts without undergoing any meaningful bid process, an enormous conflict of interest, plus the company has been significantly raiding the funds of Export-Import Bank of America, reducing investment that could have gone toward small business trade.
The re-election of George W. Bush would be a mandate to continue on our present course of chaos. We cannot afford to double the debt that we already have. We need to be moving in the opposite direction.

la cosa nostra aka this thing of ours

OP/ED PAGE: CONCERNING THE SECESSION OF MANHATTAN

(editorial) it is the opinion of the management of wd world that it would be to the best interest of the residents of the island of manhattan, to secede from the united states of america, effective immediately.

the governmental options are:
1) democratic republic of manhattan: elected president and governing body.
2) principality of manhattan: monarchy with a king or queen (figurehead). elected prime minister.

politics 3

NYC ROOMATE AD (REPUBLICANS NOT WANTED)

(Craigslist) One bedroom available in a 3 bedroom apartment in a Crosby Street walkup. Medium (unfurnished) size bedroom, large furnished living area. Lots of light and exposed brick, high ceilings, skylight, roof access, nice neighbors, and within 1-4 blocks of 13 trains. Women and non-Republicans only. Please like to clean (we like that). Available after November 28. Rent is $975 a month, plus 1/3rd utilities and one month security.

Thomas Friedman

Tom DeLay (Republican)

Hummer

IN MY NEXT LIFE BY THOMAS FRIEDMAN

(NY Times 25 November 04) In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader. Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge - something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.
But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.
I want to be the owner of a Hummer - with American flag decals all over the back bumper, because Hummer owners are, on average, a little more patriotic than you and me.
Yes, I want to drive the mother of all gas-guzzlers that gets so little mileage you have to drive from gas station to gas station. Yes, I want to drive my Hummer and never have to think that by consuming so much oil, I am making transfer payments to the worst Arab regimes that transfer money to Islamic charities that transfer money to madrassas that teach children intolerance, antipluralism and how to hate the infidels.
And when one day one of those madrassa graduates goes off and joins the jihad in Falluja and kills my neighbor's son, who is in the U.S. Army Rangers, I want to drive to his funeral in my Hummer. Yes, I want to curse his killers in front of his mother and wail aloud, "If there was only something I could do ..." And then I want to drive home in my Hummer, stopping at two gas stations along the way.

BLUES SECEDE!

(Washington Times) Secession, which didn't work very well when it was tried once before, is suddenly red hot in the blue states. In certain precincts, anyway.

The Internet has exploded with talk of a blue-state confederacy, including one screed circulating by e-mail that features a map of a new country called "American Coastopia" and proposes lopping off the Northeast, the West Coast and the upper Midwest to form a new country, away from the "rednecks in Oklahoma" and the "homophobic knuckle-draggers in Wyoming."

"We were all going to move to various other countries, but then we thought; why should WE move?" the anonymous message asks. "We hold our noses as we fly over you. We are sickened by the way you treat people that are different from you. The rest of the world despises America, and we don't want to be lumped in with you anymore."