2008 Woodie Awards
John Kerry for President
The staff of The Valley Star enthusiastically endorses John Kerry.
Michael Ordoña
Issue date: 5/26/04 Section: Opinion
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November's general election may be the most important of your lifetime.
And make no mistake; this is an election that can be won, and won big, by Sen. John Kerry.
Most major polls show the candidates neck-and-neck despite the Bush campaign's staggering expenditures so far on ads attacking Kerry. With literally millions of voters just waiting to be engaged - 20 million of them college age - the president has to be sweating bullets, hoping students don't get off their asses and vote.
Let's look briefly at the Bush presidency, and how it hurts you, the college student.
* Are you old enough to go to war?
* Are you hoping to get a job after college?
* Do you expect to have any assistance at all from Social Security when you retire - or when your parents retire about 20 years from now?
* Do you care about having your medical and academic records open to investigation, even if you haven't been charged with a crime?
* Do you think it's wrong for an administration to mislead a country into a long and bloody pre-emptive war with no exit strategy and then request billions and billions of dollars for the cause without declaring exactly what the money is for?
* Do you object to the religious beliefs of a draft-dodging, recovering alcoholic having a major impact on civil rights legislation?
* Do you object to the destruction of three decades' worth of Environmental Protection Agency protections of the environment?
If you said yes to any of the above, you had damn well better care about doing what you can to effect regime change at home.
In fact, if lying about an extramarital affair was enough to impeach Bill Clinton, what is the appropriate punishment for a president who has misled the nation into a pre-emptive war? As the bumper sticker says, "No one died when Clinton lied."
No less an authority than Watergate insider John Dean told Salon.com, "To say that the Bush-Cheney secret presidency is undemocratic is an understatement. ... This administration is truly scary and, given the times we live in, frighteningly dangerous."
That being said, The Valley Star's endorsement of John Kerry for president is not purely a vote against the phenomenally crooked and shortsighted machinations of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and company.
Kerry does have plans for the future of America, and they make far more sense than the no-funhouse mirrors in which the current administration sees the world.
One of the primary problems facing our nation is rampant unemployment. Bush's trickle-down economics have failed to stimulate the economy (although they have certainly succeeded in making the rich richer), and his support for outsourcing of jobs and moving our manufacturing base out of the country have added up to the first net job loss during a presidency since the Great Depression.
And make no mistake; this is an election that can be won, and won big, by Sen. John Kerry.
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Most major polls show the candidates neck-and-neck despite the Bush campaign's staggering expenditures so far on ads attacking Kerry. With literally millions of voters just waiting to be engaged - 20 million of them college age - the president has to be sweating bullets, hoping students don't get off their asses and vote.
Let's look briefly at the Bush presidency, and how it hurts you, the college student.
* Are you old enough to go to war?
* Are you hoping to get a job after college?
* Do you expect to have any assistance at all from Social Security when you retire - or when your parents retire about 20 years from now?
* Do you care about having your medical and academic records open to investigation, even if you haven't been charged with a crime?
* Do you think it's wrong for an administration to mislead a country into a long and bloody pre-emptive war with no exit strategy and then request billions and billions of dollars for the cause without declaring exactly what the money is for?
* Do you object to the religious beliefs of a draft-dodging, recovering alcoholic having a major impact on civil rights legislation?
* Do you object to the destruction of three decades' worth of Environmental Protection Agency protections of the environment?
If you said yes to any of the above, you had damn well better care about doing what you can to effect regime change at home.
In fact, if lying about an extramarital affair was enough to impeach Bill Clinton, what is the appropriate punishment for a president who has misled the nation into a pre-emptive war? As the bumper sticker says, "No one died when Clinton lied."
No less an authority than Watergate insider John Dean told Salon.com, "To say that the Bush-Cheney secret presidency is undemocratic is an understatement. ... This administration is truly scary and, given the times we live in, frighteningly dangerous."
That being said, The Valley Star's endorsement of John Kerry for president is not purely a vote against the phenomenally crooked and shortsighted machinations of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and company.
Kerry does have plans for the future of America, and they make far more sense than the no-funhouse mirrors in which the current administration sees the world.
One of the primary problems facing our nation is rampant unemployment. Bush's trickle-down economics have failed to stimulate the economy (although they have certainly succeeded in making the rich richer), and his support for outsourcing of jobs and moving our manufacturing base out of the country have added up to the first net job loss during a presidency since the Great Depression.
