Here’s the thing, you can’t vote if you aren’t registered - even if you are over 18 years of age (even if you are 118 years of age)  So, right now, this minute, take the time to register to vote.

Go to this URL: http://www.declareyourself.com/ and register to vote in your state.

Find out if in your State there is permanent absentee voter status.  In some states as long as you vote in an election, you get a ballot for the next election mailed to you each and every election. 

So, why are you still reading this?  Go register to vote!

What do you want to bet that the Republican candidates all made just a little bit of pee in their pants when they heard that ‘Lil George was going to be paying a visit to South Carolina to shore up support among Republicans?  With friends like George supporting your party who needs Democrats to trash talk it?  This is the same Bush that went around the country selling the same message just before the midterm elections and voters didn’t buy then either.

Every time Bush opens his mouth about Iraq, 70% of Americans scream at their TVs, “What part of YOU WERE WRONG does The President not get”?  He was wrong about WMD, he was wrong not to send enough troops to secure Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, he was wrong to disband the Iraqi army weapons in toe, he was wrong to order the army to drive right by munitions caches on their way to Baghdad, and right now - this very minute - George W. Bush is wrong when he says staying in Iraq will keep America safer.

Staying in Iraq is making America more exposed.  Our military is stretched to the breaking point, the troops are not rested and the President is oblivious to all of this.  With our troops out of Iraq we could concentrate on a three-point plan to make America in fact safer:

1. Implement real counter terrorism measures here at home.
2. Move more forces into Afghanistan and Pakistan and take off the head of al Qaeda – the real al Qaeda, not the one in Mesopotamia.
3. Bring our National Guard home with the equipment needed to help Americans in disasters and to help secure our southern boarder.

Instead, our troops are stuck in Donald Rumsfeld’s “long hard slog” going nowhere and accomplishing nothing.  Well, they are acting as great recruiting agents for al Qaeda, Hezbolah and Hamas.  Leaving Iraq to the Iraqis to sort out would make for a better Iraq and a safer America.

Leaving George W. Bush at home and out of South Carolina would make for easier campaigning for Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain.

Just when you think George W. Bush must have run out of outrageous claims to support The Bush Iraq War, the Bush administration attempts to pull yet another fast one and lay the blame of this failed miserable little Bush War at the feet of Senator Hillary Clinton.

According to the Bush Administration, the terrible state that the Bush Iraq War is in isn’t the Commander and Chief’s responsibility at all, it’s Senator Clinton’s fault.  Huh, come again?

Let’s take these one at a time:

• It was the Bush Administration’s fault that the claims of WMD were unfounded.
• It was the Bush Administration’s fault that the Bush Administration sent 150,000 troops to fight a war whose plan called for 500,000 troops.
• It was the Bush Administration’s fault that half the administration was planning to leave Iraq in 2002 and the other half was resolved to stay for decades — that the right hand didn’t know there even was a left hand.
• It was the Bush Administration’s fault for failing to predict the sectarian violence in Iraq, even though there were CIA reports that that is exactly what would happen after the fall of the Hussein government.
• It was the Bush Administration’s fault for failing to send our troops to war with the equipment and training they needed.
• It was the Bush Administration’s fault for declaring “Mission Accomplished” almost 1600 days ago, when in fact the “mission” isn’t even defined.
• It’s the Bush Administration’s fault for not letting the Iraqis split their country into three separate countries and to get al Qaeda Mesopotamia out of the country.

So, what then, according to the Pentagon, is Senator Clinton’s fault?  She asked a question that her job requires her to ask!   George W. Bush is a desperate man, who’s been backed into a corner and is slinging mud in the direction of anyone who looks like a good target.

It worked in the 2004 campaign against John Kerry because the country was still largely in support of the Bush Iraq War.  However, now that it is evident that The United States would be safer leaving than staying, this smear tactic will not work again.

Has the President substituted one addiction for another?  Addicts frequently substitute sex, shopping, gambling or food when their drug of choice is denied them.  Has George Bush just changed his drug of choice to waging war?  He openly admits to abusing drugs and alcohol in his younger years.  Even if he didn’t the videos of him drunk combined with his DUI arrest would be enough to convince almost anyone he has an addictive personality.

Now, this post is not about unfounded gossip that Bush is drinking or using drugs; in fact there is no way to know that.  However, you can’t turn a pickle back into a cucumber and the President’s personality isn’t going to transform just because he has the will power to abstain from drugs and alcohol.

Twelve Step programs use the following 20 questions to “test” whether someone is an addict or alcoholic.  Depending on which Twelve Step program is giving the quiz, the questions will substitute the word “alcohol” for “cocaine” or “gambling”, etc.  The idea is the questions are universally able to tell if someone is addicted to an act or substance.  The following 20 questions are taken from Gamblers Anonymous’ website with the words “gambling” and “gamble” substituted with “waging war” and “wage war”.   According to Gamblers Anonymous http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ answering yes to seven questions is an indication of a problem.

1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to waging war?
2. Has waging war ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did waging war affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after waging war?
5. Did you ever wage war to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did waging war cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often wage war until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your waging war?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance waging war?
12. Were you reluctant to use “waging war money” for normal expenditures?
13. Did waging war make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
14. Did you ever wage war longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever wage war to escape worry or trouble?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance waging war?
17. Did waging war cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to wage war?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of waging war?
20. Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your waging war?
Now, some of those questions only Mr. Bush himself can answer; but clearly he scores a positive hit on at least 10 and most likely more of the questions.

When any addict’s behavior becomes out of control it is time for an intervention.  Normally a family member or the courts intervene and force the addict into treatment.  However, only the Congress has the authority to get involved in this case.  No other person and no other legal body has the authority to force the President to stop this addictive behavior.  It is time for the House of Representatives to do something, anything to make the addict in the White House stop.

George W. Bush’s addictive personality is responsible for his unwillingness to leave Iraq. He is convinced that victory is just around the corner. He believes that the next military raid will produce great results.  He sees great logic in that taking $400,000,000,000.00 and sending it to that sink hole known as Iraq to be followed by even more billions.  His behaves as a child told he couldn’t have his ice cream when the congress attempts to put even reasonable restrictions on his ability to wage war.

If George Bush is the addict, then the Republican Party is his enabler.  Having control of the congress for the first six years of his Presidency, the Republican leadership did nothing to temper Bush’s addictive conduct and now time is running short; and only the threat of impeachment or a trial on the house floor will get the Addict in Chief’s attention.

Have you seen it yet?  Its worth a watch because the Hott(sic) for Hill video is both fun and funny; but, it is difficult to say which is more entertaining the video or the conservative talk show hosts having an aneurysm over thinking a 22 year old lesbian from California is in love with Hillary!

It should come as no surprise the CMO (Conservative Media Outlets) are making a big deal out of this story.  It fits right into their agenda – keep the public scared and outraged.  This, of course, fits into the outraged category and the fact that the video is just a parody, well never mind that – just focus on the moral decay aspect of the story, right?

For the record, the woman in the video isn’t a lesbian, she a thespian making a parody of a parody.  Not an easy thing to do, but Taryn Southern did it well and hats off to her.   She’s a Hollywood actress that is looking for publicity not a lesbian trolling for Hillary booty; notice in the video when she hopes Hillary is “Bi” that the screen text says, “Bilingual”?

The CMO knows that the video is a parody, but chooses make-believe outrage over the truth. That politics is full of hypocrites should come as no surprise.  After all, this week’s activities were astounding with Mrs. Vitter saying she’s never been more proud and the Senate voting down a bill that would have supported our troops by guaranteeing troop “down” time.

Desperate to turn attention away from Republican failed policy in Iraq, the appalling lack of support for our troops, the CMO pulled out the last arrow in their quiver placed a poison called a lie on that arrow shot it at Hollywood.   Admittedly Hollywood is an easy target for so many reasons; but, why is it that the CMO hates Hollywood and California until it comes to Ronald Regan and Fred Thompson?

To the CMO: lighten up!  It was just a fun video making fun of the Obama video. Would that more people in our society were as clever, fun and entertaining as Ms Southern.  More importantly, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all take ourselves just a little less seriously and laugh?

Of course the Internet has always had a strange etiquette all to itself and every once in a while everyone steps on someone’s Internet toes.  However, Joe Biden has really gone over the line with his intrusion into the Youtube.com debate process.

Rather than just encouraging his followers to submit questions for the debate and maybe even suggesting a topic for his supporters, Senator Biden actually posted the exact verbiage on his campaign website he’d like you to ask.  Yes you got it, word for word exactly what he wants you to look into a camera, say, and then upload to You Tube.

Now there are a couple of reasons Mr. Biden might be asking people to do this for him.  It is possible that he doesn’t know how to upload videos to YouTube and wants someone to ask his question for him or perhaps Joe is simply to shy to ask his own question. 

But, the real reason is that Joe Biden is disrespecting the entire process by attempting to jam his question up user’s (humm can’t say that … ok, got it) tube!  Biden is stepping all over the You Tube community by attempting to get just one question submitted by so many users that You Tube has no choice but to show the video during the debate.

But, why?  If Joe Biden wants to answer that question, why not just reword some other question that gets asked the way he’s done at all the other debates?  Could it be that Joe is afraid of offending You Tube users by restating their questions instead of answering them directly?  Well, too late Joe, you’ve already offended You Tube users by violating the integrity of the community’s process. 

Senator Biden, are you that afraid of the questions voters will ask that you can’t just let the process happen organically?  Can your question really be so important that it should jump the line and bump out real voter’s questions?

You can call Joe Biden’s campaign at 302-428-5427 and let them know what you think of Joe attempting to fake the You Tube process or you can email You Tube at abuse@youtube.com

Yes, absolutely, the debate format with 10 candidates is frustrating and tedious.  If they are that arduous and painful for viewers, it is difficult to imagine how the candidates get through them.

But, democracy is built on a foundation of ideas, and ideas are grown in the sunshine of open and honest exchange.  Without open debates early on in the process, the candidates get shielded from ideas – the very dreams of others.  Admittedly, sometimes these are ideas that the candidates don’t want to hear and sometimes even ideas that sound a bit odd.  But the first amendment doesn’t say we have the right to free and non-crazy sounding speech.

So, Hillary, Barrack and John, Please do not exclude anyone from the debates who has even a bare claim to legitimacy as a candidate for President.  Who knows, an idea might be brought forth, on which one of you might win.

After just having gone through an administration that has attempted to quash free speech at every opportunity, would it really be so bad to throw Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel a bone?  Just a tiny bone?

Fred Thompson couldn’t come up with better than, “I don’t recall”?  It must have occurred to Mr. Thompson that the American public is no longer amused by the phrase, “I don’t recall”.  It went over like a lead balloon when Nixon used it, it wasn’t funny when Regan trotted it out and at least Clinton said he did NOT have sex with that woman Ms Lewinsky — at least he THOUGHT he could recall.

Now, after six long horrible years of the Bush administration being unable to recall the most fundamental decisions our government faces on a day to day basis and the voting public having to put up with scandal and inexcusable pardons from the President, Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee actually had the will to use the words, “I don’t recall”.

Has Fred been hiding under a rock for the past six years?  No clue what has been going on with the current administration?  If there is a God in Heaven he will get the Republican nomination just so the people can have the satisfaction of voting against, “I don’t recall”. 

Three years ago, President George W. Bush said he assured the American people that any member of his administration responsible for the outing a CIA employee’s name would be fired and punished.  Period.

Today, however, the President of The United States admitted at a White House press conference that a member of his administration had leaked that name.  So, how is it that nobody has been fired, and the only person convicted of a crime in connection with the investigation has received a commutation?

Hello, Mr. Bush?  Hey, Mr. President?  YO, GEORGE?!  Wake up and do your job!  You, sir, stood on the steps of the Capital, placed your hand on the bible and swore to uphold the Constitution of The United States of America, and now no one is asking you do anything other than that which you swore to do.

The double standards your administration will be remembered for by history will cultivate the creation of a new term.  In years to come to “bush” will mean to say whatever is required to keep people silent just long enough to do what one was planning to do any event.  Congratulations, Mr. President, your wish has come true; you will be remembered by history after all – well, at least by etymologist.

Just because the calendar is old technology doesn’t mean it can’t change the entire election in 2008. Yeah, yeah, Internet blah…different…blah blah…online…it’s been said.

Enough already!  The same factors that were important to Abraham Lincoln are important to Hillary Clinton and Fred Thompson.  Organization, name recognition, endorsements, and voter turn out will play an equally important role in the next election as they’ve played in every election.  However, there is one important shift in 2008 – the election calendar.

Unless you’ve just not been paying any attention at all to the 2008 campaign, you know that the election calendar has been moved forward.  The most important effect of these changes is that California voters will have absentee ballots in hand before the Iowa caucuses. 

So, is Iowa more or less important to the over all process?  While on the one hand it could be argued that Iowa becomes more important, because there is less time to recover from a defeat before February 5th, it might also be argued that voters in the Tsunami Tuesday states won’t have time to change their minds.  In other words, in 2004 a Californian supporting Howard Dean might still have voted for him, had they been able to vote in rapid succession.  In fact, Dean had officially pulled out of the race before the 2004 California primary while his name remained on the ballot.

Barring New Hampshire  and Iowa deciding to move the process even earlier, Californians might actually have a real voice for a change.  California gives voters the choice of permanent absentee voter status.  As long as a voter keeps voting in elections by mail, a ballot is mailed to them for the next election without having to apply.  So, the most die-hard voters typically vote absentee, meaning the base of he base might already have mailed in their ballots before the New Hampshire Secretary of State tells them how they are supposed vote.