I am dedicating this page to my cyber friends who
have offered thoughts on this very important election.
A Special Thanks , for the political bush cartoon below.
A picture that speaks volumes about
this trigger-happy, raging person we get to call
president but hopefully only until 2005.Carolyn

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trigger-happy adj. Slang. 1. Having a
tendency or desire to shoot a firearm
before adequately identifying the
target.

raging n. 1.a. Violent, explosive anger.
b. A fit of anger.

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Dear friend,
I hope you will join me in signing a petition calling
on progressives to vote to defeat George W. Bush in this year's
presidential election: http://www.Vote2StopBush.org/join.html
Many progressive activists are urging voters this year to support
Kerry/Edwards in all swing states. Progressive votes for Kerry in
swing states may prove decisive in attaining the vital goal of
defeating George W Bush. While progressives disagree with Kerry's
policies on Iraq and other issues, I believe that removing Bush from
office should be the top priority in the 2004 presidential election.
This approach is endorsed by leading progressive activists, including
most of the public! M.

Other Things You Can Do
Your Vote Matters

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Thanks M. I signed the petition and hope all will do the same!
Carolyn

Please go to my site and join the many links I have
placed there to help defeat the Bush/Cheney administration. This is a critical LIFE OR DEATH
moment in all of our lives. If this regime is to get
elected, all of us will be affected negatively in some
way. For your sons and daughters, your grandchildren
and for all those you love, DO ALL YOU CAN TO STOP BUSH! Thank you. http:www.carolynconnection.com
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Read below than sign the petition: http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/americaspac
_petition_904_bvc?rk=k7aL-fK1tBTzW
Ask Bush to Denounce Anti-Choice Ads on African-American Radio
Americas PAC, which is headed and funded by far-right activist Richard Nadler, has been running a series of ads targeting African-Americans.

Please read this outrageous, preposterous, cockamamie and beyond the pale ad ... Carolyn

The ad reads:

Today, one third of African-American pregnancies end in abortion. Black babies are terminated at rates triple that of white babies. Under Title X, schools can council scared kids to abort their babies without even consulting their parents.

Every year, the abortion mills diminish the human capacity of our community by another 400,000 souls. The Democratic Party supports these abortion laws that are decimating our people. But the individual right to life is protected in the Republican platform.(How dare these bigots act as though they are looking out for the minority... this is a cheap trick to get their votes... DO NOT ALLOW THESE FLIMFLAM ARTISTS TO HOODWINK YOU!)

Democrats say they want our votes. Why don't they want our children? (God forbid, if these young woman need to go on welfare...Don't want your children...HUH?? IT'S ABOUT CHOICE! The real message is: VOTE REPULICAN BUT...don't you ever make a mistake cause you will pay in more ways than one!)

Learn the racial truth about America's abortion laws. Don't buy the Democratic lie. Killing unborn babies is no way to help those in poverty. (I am so angry at this last statement! I just wonder how they propose to help those in poverty... 'LET THEM EAT CAKE!!' ...STILL, IT'S ABOUT CHOICE!!!!

These jerks ought to be strung up (like they use to lynch Afican Americans' but first they should READ THE DEFINITION OF AN EMBYO!!!!)

em·bry·o n., pl. em·bry·os. 1.a. An organism in its early stages of development, especially before it has reached a distinctively recognizable form. b. An organism at any time before full development, birth, or hatching. 2.a. The fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal following cleavage. b. In human beings, the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development.

(Get your nose out of our female bodies and stop trying to incite fear in the very poor and the very young! Read my lips...IT'S ABOUT CHOICE!
Carolyn)

Please sign the petition and pass it on: http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/americaspac
_petition_904_bvc?rk=k7aL-fK1tBTzW
Now read this young woman's story:

Six months before I became pregnant, I marched the streets of Washington, D.C. Every January 22nd, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, thousands of 'pro-lifers' from all over the country pour into the streets to protest. The year I turned eighteen, I was one of them. How could I have known that in less than a year I would become one of "those women" against whom we were marching?

I will never forget the night before the march. The vigil. The one that ends with Catholic Mass in the Basilica. I was in awe, very aware of the "privilege" to share in the occasion with bishops and cardinals from all over the world. The splendor of this church alone. And there were so many men MALES indeed, most of them were.

During a moment of silence, from several rows behind came the blood-curdling screams, those of a woman. She screamed with her whole being, in protest of the church, the gathering of all these men, and against our efforts to end legalized abortion. Right then it seemed to me that all of the bodies present should have been able to absorb or buffer the screams of one lone woman. But her voice, her message, resounded throughout the Basilica, and went right to my very core.

I never actually saw her. As this woman was wrestled down and led out, the Mass continued as if nothing had happened. Nothing. Wait a minute. I can't even begin to describe the way her screams tore through me. I did not see one person turn around. I had been standing next to a priest who grabbed hold of me, physically keeping me from turning and acknowledging her. But it was too late. I recognized something in this woman's voice. And while I had no idea what it was, I'd never felt so afraid as I did that moment. My tears came and wouldn't stop. Another young woman nearby was as affected, and she and I clung together, sobbing and rocking into one another, waiting for the Mass to end.

The next day's march was filled with people toting all kinds of pictures of mutilated fetuses. We were excited to take pictures of the most grotesque, most "convincing" signs we found. Many people brought their young children and babies to the march. My friends and I decided to pose with one for a picture because we thought it made a statement. I'm sure I still have it somewhere, the picture of me and Jessica and Laura with some smiling baby among swarms of huge, blown up photos of bloody fetuses. For me, it was all about the babies. Saving them. Sending them into good, Christian families who weren't able to have their own. It seemed so obvious to me, especially with the baby shortage they talked so much about in religion class. Individual couples were waiting years to adopt while so many women aborted their babies.

So imagine my excitement, following the initial shock and shame of an unintended pregnancy, to be able to do the "right thing." My plan was to tell my parents once arrangements had been made. With ease, I found a program out east, Circle of Love or something like that. The woman with whom I spoke was great. She was delighted to tell me about their program, and even more delighted to receive answers to the questions about my background: White, upper-middle class, excellent health and education, and college-bound. She commended me for my bravery, and empathized with my situation. I had just graduated from high school the month before, and in the fall I was to go away to the University of Tennessee, where I had accepted a cheerleading scholarship. Really, we surmised, if this had to happen, there wasn't a better time in my life. Rather than go away to school, I would go out east for a year. The agency was ready to pay for my housing, any counseling I might need, even college courses while I waited to have the baby. I would even be allowed to aide in choosing the adoptive family, and was assured the child would be placed in an affluent one, where they would have endless opportunities. She helped me envision my return to Tennessee the following fall, where I could just pick up the poms again and nobody would ever have to be the wiser. It all seemed very romantic.

But then came the questions about the "father," my then-boyfriend Dennis. She should have been delighted to know that he, too, came from a "good" background, one nearly identical to mine. As I told her about him and his plans for college in the fall, something was happening on the other end of the line. Something was terribly wrong, the fading connection seemed almost tangible. Her breathing, her tone, everything had changed. With these words, it was all over: "Oh. Well, I'm really very sorry, but we just don't have a demand for bi-racial children. Our program won't be able to help you."

Dennis was black.

So. It wasn't about babies after all, but about white babies. They didn't tell us that in religion class, nor did they mention it at the march. But wait! Open any newspaper and you can find couples advertising, selling themselves as loving parents who wish to complete their lives with your baby. Yes. Your white baby.

When I began dating Dennis, my mother warned me. She said that while it was okay with her, I should remember the social context in which we lived, especially in Memphis. Some white boys might not want to date me once they knew that I had dated a black one. This, for me, was a non-issue because I would never date someone who held those opinions anyway. I never dreamed that racism extended beyond that. Surely not amongst the more liberal and educated. Surely not into the northern or eastern borders. And certainly not into the pro-life movement.

It appears that little has been written about the pro-life movement and it's rhetoric as ideas based on notions of white supremacy. This needs to be discussed. I wonder how many other women have found themselves in similar situations. How can people justify talking about baby shortages when there are over 500,000 children in the United States waiting for homes? And how about worldwide? How many of these children are non-white? And for that matter, how can they talk about babies in economic terms anyway?

Demand. Supply. Market.

I recently looked up the agency that I had dealt with on the Internet. I wanted to find and read their mission statement, curious to see if anything has changed since 1992. I found the agency in Massachusetts. According to their web page, they do not discriminate based on age, religion, class or race. Against whom, though, is not clear. The adoptive parents? The girl "in trouble"? Their offspring? Maybe, I hoped, they had just added this anti-discrimination clause in the past seven years.

I wish I could say I believe it. Let's just leave it at this: I'll believe it when I see it. When the couples in the paper start seeking not white babies, or even babies, but any child. When there are not five-hundred thousand children, one thousand children, or even one child left awaiting adoption. When there are programs like the one out east available to all women, not just middle or upper class white women carrying white babies.

In other words, I won't be crossing back over anytime soon.

Epilogue: For the first seven years that followed my abortion, I did not talk about it. The impact of the shame I felt around it was tremendous. And it thrived NOT because I had made the wrong decision, but because of the fertile soil such silence provides. I needed to talk about what happened to me, but I was certain that if others knew this one piece of information, it would change everything. So I came to feel like a fraud, doubting my goodness and dedication to anti-racism work. Because when it came down to it, hadn't my decision been based on race?

Then I took a course in Women's Studies, then another, and I was hooked. Soon after I particpated in my community's production of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues, I wrote my story. I shared it, and nobody disappeared. In fact, I found that I knew several other women who have had an abortion, it was just something we never talked about.

Robin Ringleka currently resides in Chicago, where she works for an international women's leadership organization.
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Friends,
Please join me in putting pressure on the Veterans of
Foreign Wars to DENOUNCE the swift boat ads!
We need to rattle the cage of this veterans org.
and remind them that these dirty campaign tactics
are an affront to ALL veterans.
They need to be reminded that this type of smear
campaign is NOT what the VFW stands for!
Tell them that they will be held to account if ,
by their silence, they condone the lies !
Some talking points:

~ Remind them that John Kerry is THEIR FELLOW
VETERAN!
(The Vice commander -in -chief of the VFW,
Edward S. Banas, is also a Vietnam Vet. )

~Point out the fact that the ads have been proven
to be lies by the only other officer
present on the day in question, William B. Rood

~An attack on one veteran is an attack on ALL vets
who deserve so much more .

~If you or a friend/family member have served in the
US armed services, let them know!
Ask them to take a stand on this issue on behalf of
ALL veterans and DENOUNCE the
swift boat ads!
To send your letter, please use the following address
or email:

WASHINGTON OFFICE
200 Maryland Avenue, N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 543-2239
(202) 543-6719 FAX
e-mail, VFW@VFWDC.ORG
Thanks for all you do!
Please Pass this request on!
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Below is something a nephew of one of my cyber friends wrote... It was so articulate and poignant I wanted to include it on this page.
A nephew writing to his Uncle who is leaning towards Bush. Carolyn

My senior year in college was a real eye-opener.
I spent that year under the tuteledge of Dr. Dick Bennett,
my English professor at the time and a linguist from
Stanford who spent his career compiling a huge,
annotated bibliography entitled, "The Control of
Information in the United States". It went back to the
very roots of the American power structure, focusing
on the oil, steel, electric, auto and railroad tycoons and
their influence in our government. It catalogued every
misleading quote (refuted by documented evidence and
years of research) ever recorded from the mouths of our
nation's power brokers and elected officials, specifically
in matters concerning the public trust, public health, and
human rights. At the time, it was the most noble and
patriotic thing I had ever seen anyone do. Here was a
man who stood for truth, and whose humanity was evident
in everything he did. I worked for him about 20-hours a
week at his home, doing mainly filing and some book
reviewing. He founded an annual award for authors whose
books exposed certain truths about the world that you
rarely hear about because of the corporate conglomeration
of our media. Back then there were 23 companies in
control of 80% of the U.S. media. Today, only 5 companies
are in control of 90% of every newspaper, periodical,
tv station, radio station and publishing house in America.
Dr. Bennett was a propaganda expert in the mold of
Noam Chomsky, and had a very judicious and
philosophical approach to his work that Chomsky
sometimes lacked. It was almost propaganda-as-art.
As a literary mind of the highest order, he could appreciate
it as a discipline; The command of the English language
being leveraged to manipulate the masses and keep
them sedate, while the robber barons grew fat off their
indentured servitude. It fascinated him, as it fascinates
me still to this day. I said all that to say this: I appreciate
your willingness to see both sides of the issue, but I see
evidence all around me that this year is different from
all that have come before it. The network media has
finally completed its decades-long transformation into
right-wing noise machine, drowning out all pertinent
discussion based on documented fact and hard research.
The media gets its marching orders from Karl Rove's
fax machine. Right-wing talking points are issued daily
that are PURE PROPAGANDA meant to distort facts
and deflect criticism from the administration, as well as
certain complicit members of congress and the major
news media. No one in power is held accountable.
The debate is framed completely from the Republican
point of view, and all the Kerry/Edwards ticket can do is
try to weather the deluge of misinformation hurled at them
daily from the RNC. In other words, there aren't two
sides to this issue anymore. Not in this election! You are
either FOR the public trust or you are AGAINST it. How
many more trillions of dollars of republican-sponsored
national debt will it take to realize that we are all being
robbed by misappropriation of taxpayer dollars, enslaved
by a system that chokes out the middle and working class,
and stripped of our protections from corporate high-crimes
(pollution, fraud, malpractice) by a political wing that has
long held up the "corporate trust"? For someone who
has studied propaganda-as-art, this administration is far
and away the most transparently obvious purveyor of lies
and deception that I have ever seen. They are not good at
lying and they do it A LOT! These are the people that all
great liberal minds say is the end of America! They will
stop at nothing to further their agenda! Do you know what
that agenda is? What I'm saying, dear Uncle, is I would
hate to see this 228-year experiment suddenly crash
around our feet because we weren't vigilant enough to
realize that, yes, there are those speaking for us that
welcome the end of that dream, and are bent on its arrival.
This country stands on the edge of a knife. Maybe Kerry
is a liar just like the rest of them. Maybe we're past the
point of no return, no matter who we elect, if we can truly
"elect" anymore (I'm starting to have my doubts about that,
too). I'll cast my lot with the Democrats and hope for the
best. I hope you will too. I don't know how much of the
left-wing alarmist whistleblowing truly gives you pause,
but I have put in enough hours of research to know that
there's something seriously wrong happening with the
GOP. They scare the shit out of me. Always have,
but as I've said, this year is different. Can't you FEEL it?
Love You Man!

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HERE'S SOME GOOD NEWS! One of the Kerry strategists says that Bush needs an approval rating of 60% as he heads into the fall. Currently his approval rating is 48%. Another factor: when incumbents have won, 52% of voters, on average, said the country was on the right track. Now just 37% think that about Bush. Every incumbent who was reelected had a double-digit lead at this point. Following their conventions, the average elected incumbent has held a 16 point lead while Winning Incumbents have led by an average of 27 points. Incumbents have enjoyed an average bounce in the vote margin of 8 points. Average won't work for Bush at this time. We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that this election does not go to Bush! We need to put petty differences aside and get on the bandwagon. If Bush wins we all lose -- liberals, progressives, conservatives, socialists, greens, libertarians, other parties and non-voters alike! His policies are bringing ruin to our country financially, ecologically, politically, socially, religiously, and fundamentally! M

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Hi Carolyn

I just remembered in my church I was telling a friend who I teach English with as a second language, about the 9-11 movie and one of the younger people over heard me and said I needed to re-think my position. I was shocked!! The pastor never talks about politics. Thank God! That would be the end.

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Dear Carolyn,

I don’t know if you heard Bruce Springsteen on Nightline. He and many other stars are doing concerts in the key states for Kerry in October. When Ted Koppel asked him why after all these years he is becoming political his answer was very powerful. My children have to grow up in this country. That says it all. I don’t understand why anyone would want their children to grow up in a dictatorship. Why are people so willing to give up their constitutional rights? The people I have spoken to that support Bush think we were right to attack Iraq. I truly can’t discuss the subject with Bushies because I might get into a fight with them. I just want to say, “why are you so stupid?” I hope in November we will be celebrating and not crying. If Bush wins all America loses and the stupid just don’t understand. Whether Kerry is the be all and the end all, I don’t know, but he seems like a much better choice (almost anyone else would be). In TV Guide I saw where Bill Mahar and Michael Moore (both who voted for Nadar in 2000) begged Nadar not to run this time. I am just hoping Nadar near the end throws all his votes to Kerry. I'm sure he can’t really want W to win!

Say hello to your kids for me

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Subject: Greenspan's warning future cuts in Social Security :

Hi Carolyn,

All the more reason to go ahead and take retirement payments at age 62 - it may not exist at all if we wait until 66 plus whatever it is for me (seems like 66 1/2.) MAYBE those already getting it won't get CUT OFF? But, if Bush and Co. are in, anything could happen. It makes me ILL to think about....

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Subj: Day in the life of Middle-Class Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.

With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised.

All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance -- now Joe gets it, too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo.
His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath.

The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.

Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive.

His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home.

His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired.

His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.

Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."