Folks,

Here's what I was thinking this morning-

1) George Bush and the Republicans are doing their damnedest to paint John Kerry as a whiny, anti-American pacificist activist. This is, well, retarded, seeing that...

2) The man was wounded THREE times in Vietnam! What do you want from him? If anyone gets to come home and say "you know what fellas? I don't think this was a good idea" then it is John Kerry. But no. I even read that some Republicans are challenging one of his purple hearts because he was injured in a confusing gunfight where he may have been shot by friendly fire. And?!!?!?! He was still ass deep in dead bodies in a gunfight! A gunfight!!! Jesus Christ, if the man had gotten a hangnail I would have given him the Silver Star.

3) Bush's bent definition of patriotism challenges the very tenets of democracy. Saying Kerry was anti-American for protesting the war is exactly the same as the recent trend of branding anyone who dissents about America's military bullying as a hater of freedom. That's dumb.

4) I love my country and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I also love that we have a strong military that keeps New Zealand from invading and making me a Kiwi. But folks, it doesn't make me, John Kerry or anyone else less of a patriot for saying that 100 American soldiers (plus countless young Iraqis) dying in April is not right. Especially with no defined goal or accepted motive.

5) I wonder what will happen when a 20 year old American kid comes home with his face blown half off and protests this war. Will Bush say he's a whiny self-loathing America hater? Somehow I don't think that will play too well in the press.

I'm cranky.