Administration misused intelligence?

Here's another claim, now from a senior CIA analyst, that the Bush administration misused intelligence to justify the already made decision to go to war with Iraq. I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! Look, I think it's a good thing that Saddam Hussein is not in power. However, I also think that it's totally unacceptable that our administration led us into war under false pretenses. Basically they took intelligent reports that were very inconclusive and used them to make definitive claims about Hussein's WMD programs and ties to Al Qaeda. Moreover, after removing Saddam, which again was a good thing in and of itself, the aftermath has been botched badly.

I can't believe that through most of 2004 I was undecided about whether to vote for Bush or Kerry. Granted it seemed like a choice between a douche and a turd sandwich. Now though, we have three more years of a President who has:

- Led us into war under false pretenses

- Given us massive budget deficits by increasing spending by a vast amount while at the same time sharply cutting taxes

- Been Commander in Chief as the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq is botched

- Authorized the wiretapping of US citizens without obtaining warrants

- Pushed for a social security privatization plan by talking up how the SS system will run out of money in 2040 something. The latter part is true unless something changes, but the privatization plan has absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact converting to the proposed plan will cost the government around a trillion dollars and make SS run out of money sooner. We can have a debate about privatizing part of social security contributions, but it has nothing to do with making the system more solvent.

- Given much of the tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. One example: heard about the planned elimination of the estate tax? It will cost the government tens of billions a year in tax revenue and only benefit the wealthiest 2% of the population as they are the only ones who actually have to pay it right now. That's a fact.

There are many other problems I have with the man's policies including his reprehensible opposition to stem cell research, his absurd funding of only sex education programs that teach Abstinence Only to students, and his ridiculous support of teaching Intelligent Design in science classrooms.

It's mind boggling to me that about 40% of Americans still support this administration. It seems like no matter what the President does, these people will claim it's good. It's amazing how many people will vote for a President and a party that they think agrees with their moral views, no matter how much the country is flushed down the toilet as a result.

Personally, I'm almost to the point where I'd accept some farker's planned voting strategy for the next election. He's calling it the Glass Parking Lot plan. He wants to vote against ALL incumbents. I won't quite do that because some challengers might somehow be worse. Keep in mind, I use to be quite conservative. Then for many years I was moderate and if anything still somewhat right leaning. I'm still fairly moderate, but I'm sick of this shit.