I'm voting for Kerry, but need facts about Bush

Great Debates
21

I wrote a nice long post about some of the many things that are wrong with the No Child Left Behind Law. It disappeared when I hit “Submit.”

But this website explains some of the problems with funding, lack of accomodations for special ed students, and the way the law encourages schools to encourage dropouts!

National Education Association

22

I won’t go into specifics on the Patriot Act. But my signature is taken from a recent federal court ruling.

23

You, my fellow Dopers, are golden.

I just skimmed it for now, but your info is even better than I expected – and my expectations were already high. I don’t have time to respond right now. Plus, I haven’t checked to see if any of my areas were not addressed. I’ll be back this afternoon.

If anyone has any additional information, please feel free to add to this.

Thanks.
By the way, today’s electoral vote predictor has Kerry at 271 votes. A dead heat for all practical purposes.

Here’s a link to a WSJ summary of the [url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-battleground04-frameset.htmlbattleground states status.

24

Fixed link.
Here’s a link to a WSJ summary of the battleground states status.

25

Algernon,

I’m happy your looking for more informed ways of persuading voters… especially undecided ones. I started a thread a month ago about how to persuade a Bush voter… you might get some interesting info there too: Best Arguments…

One argument I think is very effective is the fact that Kerry will face a Republican Congress… so he can’t do any “socialist” stuff… while Bush has never vetoed a single spending bill nor has congress barred him much. Bush and a Republican Congress means overspending guaranteed. Kerry in power means more responsible Congress and President.

26

Thank you all for your wonderful information. I deeply appreciate it. I followed and read all the links, both internal and external to the SDMB.

This board is a wonderful resource.

(And Shayna, I didn’t forget Kerry’s positive attributes, but your links did supply me with some additional insights. Thanks.)

27

Either you read that backwards or Kerry lost 14 points since you posted yesterday. Kerry: 257 Bush: 271

28

Those have been going wonky a lot. I’ve seen 'em going all over the place.

P.S., Algernon, I started athread about US Commission on Civil Rights report for George W. Bush and his administration that should have some good facts for you.

29

Ummm…

  • he hasn’t screwed up the American economy. In fact he’s done pretty well considering he’s sufferred the dot-bomb and 9/11.
  • he hasn’t abandoned Afghanistan.
  • he, like the rest of the world, including Kerry, was deceived over Iraq. He may not have told the truth, but that’s not the same as lying.
  • he’s a Christian right-winger so you can’t hold trying to implement such policies against him though you obviously disagree with the policies themselves. Freedom of speech and all that. Right?
  • Kerry could appoint absurdly liberal judges to the Supreme Court. Your point is? And anyway, don’t they have to be ratified?

The rest are actually reasonable.

30

It changes every day. Sometimes by quite a bit, depending on the latest polls. For example, today’s (Oct 25) chart shows Bush with 285 votes. Interestingly though, the same chart except modified based on somewhat dubious assumptions about how undecided voters will vote, shows Kerry with 284 votes.

I think my attribution of this election still stands – it’s a dead heat.

31

Due to a strongly conservative controlled Congress, it is unlikely that absurdly liberal judges could get ratified, yet is it likely that absurdly conservative judges could be ratified.

32

Wrong. There is (or at least should be) a line regarding where personal belief ends and where attempts at legislating those beliefs begins. Funny that you refer to “freedom of speech” explicitly but include “separation of church and state” as part of “all that”.

33

This is one of the most horrific things I’ve seen.

War is a matter of serious consequence- one of the gravest matters that a State can engage in. I assume that’s a given.
Team Bush repeatedly “did not tell the truth” about matter of the most vital national interest. To split hairs about what does and does not technically count as a lie is to miss the point opf the fundamental and egregious dishonesty in a matter of lives and death.
Second, they actually did tell some lies in addition to their concerted efforts to mislabel and misrepresent the case for invading Iraq.

34

Agreed that we don’t know he was lying, and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Neverhteless, he’s the president, and should be held accountable for the bad intelligence. He’s a big ‘personal responsibility’ guy, right? Sitting at the desk with the ‘Buck Stops Here’ sign?

35

I don’t want to get off topic, but you did bring it up. You’re actually going to do this? :eek:

I wouldn’t know what to do, even if my best friend tried this with me. I guess I wouldn’t be terribly mad, but a definite WTF would be in order, unless your friends requested this information…

36

I’m actually curious what it looks like. Care to share with the Dope, Algernon?

37

I think it turned out quite well actually. A little hard to share though because it is a single-spaced twelve page Word document.

I imagine it would raise the defensive hackles of the recipient if it arrived out of the blue. You can rest assured that the recipients all knew it was coming. The initial impetus to write it was a consequence of a discussion (well, an argument) I had with my voting age son. He was clearly mis-informed regarding a lot of the facts.

38

If you email it to me, I’ll parse it for posting.

39

How do you know that Congress won’t swing the other way very soon?

40

Then I suggest you think things over. Consider a game of poker: you can only go by what people bet, plus what little evidence you have. Saddam turned the stakes up high, we bought it, raised the stakes higher, and then called it, finding that it was not true.