20040710

i may have been wrong, but kerry still sucks

wow... could've sworn i put up some stuff saying what's wrong w/ kerry's plans for our country, but i guess not. in the meantime, a friend has pointed out that two of my arguments are inaccurate, and, in an effort at fairness, i'll include his counterpoints.

1) kerry is complaining about outsourcing american jobs, yet he wants to raise the minimum wage. employers, not wanting to take a cut in profits, will either: A) fire employees to save money; B) raise the cost of goods and services to save money; or C) outsource jobs to save money.

--counterpoint: forrest totally shot down point C by saying that minimum wage jobs are pretty hard to outsource. i hadn't actually thought of that, but it makes sense. burger king would have a pretty hard time doing any thing if all its burger-flippers were in some small third-world country, like cambodia, haiti, or southern california.

2) john kerry has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to the economy. he says that he will create 10 million new jobs in his first four years; but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were only 8.2 million unemployed people as of june 2004. is he planning on unemployment going up by 2 million in those 4 years?

--counterpoint: yeah, he kinda shot this one down too. i can't believe i hadn't thought of it, but he said the population would probably have increased by then. i checked into that, and the US Census Bureau projects that by 2010, there will be an increase of what i would consider the working age (20-64) population, to the tune of about 19 million people.

3) kerry has no confidence in his chosen VP candidate.
--"In the Senate four years -- and that is the full extent of public life; no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year.... When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then." --John Kerry, January 2004
--"John Edwards is ready for this job. He is ready for this job." --John Kerry, following the Edwards announcement

i didn't actually argue that one with forrest, but i'm sure he would've had some complaint about it. oh well. he may be a confused individual, but he's still a pretty cool guy.

i think thats about enough complaining for now... assuming i still know how to do it, i'm gonna put up a few more random pics from my trip, and then go attempt to have some fun.