What a difference a day makes...

I feel much better than I did yesterday so I won't dwell on my solitude. I am alone but I do have good friends and a family that is close and cares about me.

I was busy at work today but I was also very much a political activist. Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest independent media conglomerate in the country with 62 stations in 39 states, was planning on running a blatantly anti-Kerry documentary on all of their stations, preempting regular programming. Sinclair is blatently conservative and partisan. This is not the first time this year that they have been accused of partisanship. When Peter Jennings read the names of the Americans that had been killed in Iraq on Nightline, Sinclair forbade it's 7 ABC stations from showing it. Common Cause and other groups have notified its members to sign a petition protesting the decision on the documentary. They also set up a blog called Boycott Sinclair Broadcast Group on which they had a list of all of Sinclairs advertisers with links and email addresses. You could email the advertisers individually or collectively to inform them of your displeasure. I emailed a few individually but I also sent out a collective email from which I got about 20 responses. There have been several advertisers that have decided to pull their advertising and because of this Sinclair's shares dropped enormously. When Sinclair announced that they were not going to air Stolen Honor (the anti-Kerry documentary), their stock price rose. They are now planning on running a "news" program using much of the documentary and may run it more than once. The plan ism if they run the show, note the advertisers, boycott the advertisers, and let them know that they are being boycotted.

I also worked tonight, a phone bank for Common Cause to get out the vote. I can't stand cold-calling but we were given a list of people to call and a script so it wasn't so bad.

The things President Bush says never cease to amaze me. Yesterday, while campaigning in Iowa, he had this to say in response to Sen. Kerry's contention that the war in Iraq was a distraction from the War on Terror, "Just the other day, Zarqawi announced his sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden. If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces in Iraq, does Sen Kerry think that he would be leading a productive and peaceful life?

Of course not, and that's why Iraq is no diversion, but a central commitment in the War on Terror, a place where our military is confronting and defeating terrorists overseas so we do not have to face them here at home."

To me this sounds as if our military is being used as a sacrificial anode, so to speak. The President is giving the terrorists something to attack somewhere else so that that which the President thinks is valuable is not damaged. Human life is the most valuable commodity and to me, this says that a soldiers life is worth less than others. This is immoral to me both as a veteran and as a human being.

I commented to my friend Sharon yesterday after she ranted about American society's values on her blog and then was apologetic about it that as it was her blog she could say what she wants and there is no reason to be apologetic. I am going to apply the same doctrine here.

Goodnight all.