My Response!

Alright I have cooled off a bit since that email my grandpa sent me...Here is my response:

Grandpa,
It is the vast distortion of facts in this latest of a series of emails that continues to boggle me why you continue to insist I am on the wrong side when even the Libertarian candidate, Badnarik, would rather have Kerry in office than Bush.
The Facts:
1. Your wrong if you think this a campaign run by teenagers. We all know that Iowa is the state which truly nominated John Kerry as they are the first state to vote in the primary system. So let's look at the facts: 32% of people aged 18-64 voted for John Kerry in the Iowa caucus. 43% of people aged 65 and older voted for John Kerry in the Iowa caucuses. Kerry won 38% of the vote in that state which clearly shows Kerry is stronger among older people who watch the Vietnam war play out.
2. Unfortunately, your wrong about the Vets too. Vets supported Kerry overwhelming in the primaries and they continue to stand by his side.
3. I don't think I have seen one email yet that accurately states John Kerry's position, so your claim that we are a bunch of socialist is unsupported.

Grandpa - You and I (and probably Badnarik) know what will happen tomorrow. We are going to elect the next President of the United States. I am not claiming John Kerry is God, after all he is a politician. You may also remember that I did not support John Kerry in the primaries and he is not the one I would have voted for. However, he is the clear alternative to the current administration who is set on erasing basic civil rights, destroying important social programs that have been set up over the past 50 years, and creating a record deficit that will take years to pay off.

Urg!

My grandpa, the libertarian really urks me sometimes!
Here is an email he sent to the family today:

Kyle,
This is the response from my cousin Jerri who lives in Washington near Mt St. Helens. Her husband Mike was a navy fighter pilot. He was shot down over Vietnam and was imprisoned in Hanoi for over five years. He was terribly tortured to admit the things Kerry said before a Senate hearing in 1971. This was of course long before your were born, but many of us remember all so well. Perhaps this gives some perspective why so many of us senior citizens have so much contempt for this man who consorted with the enemy while troops were still fighting and dying there, no matter what people think of that war today; then he went to Paris and met with enemy officials and after that came home to organize parades in Boston and other towns waving the viet Cong flag, spewing hatred for America and everything she stands for, even hatred for WWII veterans. He won the nomination only because of the swelling voter roles by youngsters who are too young know the real Kerry. He is no patriot, he was a traitor and is not fit to lead.

G'pa B

Good Will Hunting - University Experience

I have noticed one common similarity between Good Will Hunting and my university experience. Despite the movie’s intention to break common stereotypes there are many portrayed throughout the movie. One such instance is the relationship played out between Will Hunting and a Harvard attendee, Skylar. The relationship proves very elementary as the characters struggle with commitment, anxiety, and questions of whether they love each other. In a side plot, Will must decide whether to leave his non-existent ties for an offer to move to California with Skylar. The writers seemingly added this to the movie to appeal to audiences as they identify with what the characters are going through. The film doesn’t leave out snooty professors as Professor Lambeau plays the role drawing another similarity to the audiences own experiences. Other typical stereotypes are shown in the movie including long study hours and cramped dorm rooms.

Good Will Hunting - University Experience

Summary of Good Will Hunting:

The film follows a young Boston native who struggles with a decision to embrace his genius qualities or to continue his current lifestyle of bar and job hopping. After several years in foster care the main character, Will Hunting, is resorting to street antics and is finally jailed for hitting a police officer. A top professor at MIT bails Hunting out of jail after discovering that the young adult can solve baffling math problems in his head. The rest of the film follows Hunting as develops relationships with a college student named Skylar and a court-ordered psychiatrist played by Robin Williams.

Fun Facts about Quotation Marks

I thought this was some interesting facts about quotation marks:


History: In the days when printing used raised bits of metal, "." and "," were the most delicate, and were in danger of damage (the face of the piece of type might break off from the body, or be bent or dented from above) if they had a '"' on one side and a blank space on the other. Hence the convention arose of always using '."' and ',"' rather than '".' and '",', regardless of logic."
Future: We see the use of quotation marks in pop culture, with many people incorporating it into their dialog by making the quote gesture.
Use of Internet limits punctuation through instant messaging and emails. People abbreviate to save time on typing and therefore punctuation is lost including parenthesis and quotation marks. Especially in direct quotes used online…left without quotation marks more and more often

Endorsments

Hey Guys,

Actually 15 newspapers endorsed Sen. Kerry today including the NYT and the Boston Globe (which were no surprise)..But what is really cool is that 5 Florida newspapers endorsed him which is awesome. Even cooler is the fact that one of the most conservative newspapers in the country, the Tampa Tribune, refused to endorse Bush this year like they did in 2000. They have endorsed the Republican candidate every year since 1952 (except 1964). They are no friend of Kerry's, but the fact that they spent a whole page (top to bottom) talking about this failed admin. is a big plus!

As far as the polls go...we were gaining some ground last week in the national polls with many showing Kerry leading narrowly. However, it appears we will be slaughtered this week with a bunch of national polls showing Bush up a few points (see Gallup and Zogby tomorrow). But, I want all of you to read this and remember Oct. 27, 2000.
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/10/27/tracking.poll/

Furthermore, I find it interesting that despite the national polls this is still an electoral game and Kerry is leading in many of the battleground states. When you factor in that the new reg. (which many are youths who only have cell phones and are not being polled), plus our huge GOTV efforts (which can account for 3 or 4 points as we kicked the Rep. ass at the ground game in 2000 and they admit it) I am very confident about the future of the election.

Anyway, have to be at the airport very early in the morning for Kerry's motorcade and I still have a five page paper to right. Hope all is well.

-Kyle

Prediction

Ok..I have been putting it off for weeks, but I am ready to make my final predictions for the elctoral count on Nov. 2.

Kerry 311 Bush 222

But a few things could make it tick a bit.
1. Coloado Initaive passes splitting their electoral votes proportionally which would add 4 to Kerry
2. One of Maine's districts goes for Bush adding one electoral votes to Bush
3. I am wrong on a state..but that would never happpen..lol

HAHA! Candidate has gone insane!

Who would of thought Kentucky would ever be a battleground Senate race. Well, the race is apparently falling into that category this week after a serious of disturbing events by the Republican candidate. He recently apologized for calling his democratic rival, Daniel Mongiardo, looked like one of Saddam Hussein's sons.

Today this is what Salon.com (wire service) is reporting:
"Among other things, he tore up his agreement to debate Mongiardo in Lexington, KY, and insisted on being in the Republican National Committee headquarters with no audience or reporters present and the debate held over a satellite link. He refused to debate live so it was taped and will air tonight. People who have seen the tape say Bunning appears to be reading from a TelePrompter, leading to speculation that the 73-year-old Bunning is ill, possibly with Alzheimer's."

Before these reports arose a poll on Oct. 7 showed Bunning only up 6 points. This could get interesting.

Here is the future President of the United States and me.

4 State Race

The Race for the Presidency has come down to a final four states...nevermind what some of the national pollsters say about 15 states that are up for grabs. With three weeks to go before Nov. 2 it is obvious it has come down to this:

1. Florida - Big Surprise Right? Florida truly is a tossup state. Zogby shows Kerry up, Gallup shows Bush up. Kerry's internal polling shows a win for them. Bush's internal polling shows a win for them. Prediction: Who Knows?

2. Wisconsin - This blue state in 2000 is a possible steal for the GOP. Again Zogby shows Kerry us, Gallup shows Bush up. Prediction: Kerry will take it, barely.

3. Nevada - It really is surprising that Kerry is doing so well with some polls showing him up. Dems have to be happy this state is moving their direction in historical terms. Prediction: Bush will take it, barely.

4. Ohio - Another tossup. Lackless job numbers and Bush's poor debate performance are pushing Kerry into the lead. Ohio natives are generally conservative on social matters like abortion so that helps the GOP. Prediction: The state moves blue. Kerry.

The only other state that is worth mentioning is Colorado which is truly a tossup. However, on the ballot this year will be an initiative to give their electoral votes proportionally to the candidates. Polling shows conflicting opinions, but it is likely to pass giving one candidate 5 EV's and the other 4 EV's. Therefore, Colorado is not on the list of the 4 most influential states.

Other pundits claim these states are up for grabs (I doubt it):

Kerry- Penn, NJ, Maine, NH, Iowa
Bush - AR, MO, VA

Senate Confindence

Im beginning to feel better and better about this Senate campaign.
The Facts:
1. We will definatley pick up Ill., Obama (D) could quit campaigning right now and we would still take this seat from the Republicans
2. Things are looking good for Salazar (D) in Colorado with every poll released giving him a narrow lead
3. Ok - Back and forth. Carson (D) has been up a point or two in a majority of polls and it is amazing he is doing this well in a dark red state. He did really well on Meet the Press the other week, did you guys see it?
4. AK - As crazy as this sounds we are poised to win AK..they don't really care for the rep. woman. It could go both ways but we have the edge.
5. We will def. lose GA ...no doubt about it. (who care..Zell Miller was a Rep. anyway)
6. We will probably lose SC.
7. NC - is getting interesting...its literally a tossup..with the Dem.. up a point in most polls.

Prediction - We win ILL, CO, OK, and AK. We Lose GA, SC and NC becomes irrelevant.

If we lose NC - 50-49-1 (the Ind. sides with us) and Edwards splits the ties
If we win NC - 49-50-1 (the Ind. sides with us) and the VP is not important
I cant wait until Nov. 2!

Debate Reaction

So...post-debate reaction:

It is apparent President Bush did better in this debate than the first one, however, I was impressed on how well prepared Senator Kerry was, especially in the first half...One of my favorite facts he pointed out (it even shocked me a bit)...In response to Bush saying we had a huge coalition in Iraq, Kerry says: If Missourri was its own country they would be the third largest country (troop levels) in the coalition in Iraq behind the U.S. and G.B.

I don't trust all of the online polls which say Kerry won by 70 or 80% margins because I know they are rigged (lol). However, I did see my first scientific last night from Gallup. They are reporting a narrow lead for Kerry 47-45 when asked who won the debate. However, what is most important about this poll is the fact that 38% were Rep., 32% were Dem., and 30% were Ind.

Whats most significant and important about this debate is how the Ind. feel about the performances, "Democrats rallied behind Kerry's performance by 87% to 8%, while Republicans rallied behind Bush's performance by a slightly smaller margin, 83% to 10%. But independents chose Kerry by a 16-point margin, 53% to 37%."

Futhermore, Kerry received much higher favorability ratings than Bush after the deabte.

Kerry & I

Well, I finally got to meet Kerry the other day when he spoke at USF. I was a motorcade driver and I drove Senator Nelson and Congressman Jim Davis. When we got back to the airport Kerry shook my hand. I told him he kicked ass at the debate the night before. Senator Nelson also thanked me and shook my hands. It was a great day! I can't wait any freaking longer until November 2...I want to see some results from all this had work we have been doing.

VP DEbate

In trying to be as non-bias as possible I will say Cheney did well at the debate the other night. If I had to pick who won I would say it was pretty much a draw since Cheney had a couple good lines last night (even if they weren't true...like the one about never meeting Edwards before). However..every online poll I have seen as Edwards win by about 70% or more. These aren't scientific..but I just saw my first scientific poll and it still gives the win to Edwards. I guess we have to be happy with the Senators performance last night.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/05/opinion/polls/main647648.shtml

University Community

I observed the Students for Kerry web site as noticed several things they do to integrate their members and keep them informed. The students are able to post links to interesting websites and news articles. The web site also allows the members to email all 150 people with one click...Therefore making it easy to let students and any faculty on the list server know of Kerry events in the Tampa Bay area. For example, when John Kerry came to town on Friday the group sent an email to everyone and the results were great. 9,000-10,000 people attended Friday's rally and many of the Students for Kerry members were at the event due to the group being connected.

Rhetoric Image

Why of course this has to be a picture of George W. Bush. The man is a genius when it comes to creating positive images for the American public despite the fact that they may not be true.

The following picture was taken last year as President Bush stepped out of his flight suit and stood in front of the now famous "Mission Accomplished" banner. This image is upsetting to me, because since that photo over 900 U.S. men and women have given their lives towards a mission that was never really accomplished. The President was posing for a photo-op and wasn't telling the American public the true reality of Iraq.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040927/photos_pl/mdf709693

Missed Class...It was worth it!

I have missed a couple English classes the past couple of weeks...but I have to say it was well worth it and I would do it again if I had the same opportunity. Last week I got to drive Senator Bill Nelson and Congressman Jim Davis to the Kerry event and back to the airport in the Kerry motorcade. When we got back to the airport, they all three played football for a few minutes. I congratulated Kerry on his debate performance and he shook my hand. Senator Nelson thanked me for taking care of them and I shook their hand. I saw a few other big wigs at the airport to...CNN's Candy Crowley was there, and a couple other congressman were on the tarmac with the next president of the United States.

What a great day!