1994 Crime Bill and Changing the Mistakes.

We all have those things in our past that embarrass us or come back to haunt us. If we’re lucky, its not caught on tape or doesn’t leave a paper trail. Unfortunately for politicians, everything they say and do are recorded and their votes come back to beat them over the head if the legislation they vote for has unintended consequences or later becomes unpopular. One of the most haunting choices made by Democrats was the support of the 1994 crime bill. This is especially troubling for Joe Biden since he was a major force in writing the bill.

The 1994 crime bill was written during a time when tough on crime rhetoric was extremely popular, even among Democrats. Legislation cracking down was a slam dunk and enjoyed bipartisan support. I will not defend Democrats on this, they should have known better. The war on drugs was always racist, Nixon made that clear, and being tough on crime meant targeting poor and urban areas which dis-proportionally effects minorities. I understand that and I was 5 when the bill passed.

The crime bill expanded on laws that are widely believed to have exploded the prison population and led to an era of mass incarceration where America leads the world in prisoners in raw numbers by hundreds of thousands. Two percent of Americans can expect to be incarcerated with 2.2 million being in prisons at any given time. 65% of that population are minorities. The minority population in American prisons alone almost matches China’s entire prison population. That is, well, there are no words for how truly atrocious of a failing that is.

So when Trump/Pence criticize Biden for the crime bill, it’s justified. But media, reporters, interviewers, whoever is talking to them need to press the Trump administration what they would do to rectify the mistakes of the crime bill. Odds are, they wouldn’t have anything to say. That’s because they’ve already taken the law and order stance. They’ve taken the side of cops in racially charged shootings, criticized Black Lives Matter, and denied systemic racism is the justice system. They barely want to acknowledge racism exists at all and racial disparities in society. It’s easy to criticize the crime bill, but Trump and many Republicans are happy to continue the tough on crime policy that throw so many people into prisons. Right wing pundits are shouting in their echo chambers that Democrats are going to release prisoners and criminals because trying to help them is considered soft on crime. Trump even pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was found to be racially profiling for years arrested when he refused to stop racially profiling.

Democrats, to be fair, aren’t much better. After all its difficult to make the pitch to help criminals because we still have this idea that criminals are inherently bad people. Only the most progressive of elected officials and advocates are vocal about prison and drug reform. Here’s the thing though, they’re trying. Joe Biden plans to reduce mandatory minimum sentences. Some people are serving 55 years for a drug that’s now legal in several states. Some are serving life for ounces of a drug. Additionally Biden supports decriminalizing marijuana. It’s not legalization, but its a step because drug crimes affect minorities at a dramatic rate. Democrats in Florida recently allowed ex-felons to vote again, giving a voice back to those, again dis-proportionally affecting minorities, who have paid their debt.

So, one side, you have Trump who refuses systemic racism exists in the justice system, is reluctant and slow to disavow support from racists and white supremacists, and fights for monuments to literal traitors who fought America for the sake of slavery.

Then on the other side you have Biden who acknowledges the need to make a change. They’re slow, incremental changes, but its a start.

So, remember when Trump and pundits bring up the 1994 crime bill to claim Biden can’t fight for minorities, it’s just a distraction from Trump’s own problem with race and that he has no plan to address it.

Bully in Chief Invites the Bullied

So, FLOTUS is having a special guest for the SOTU, a victim of bullying. An irony considering Trump’s bullying, but that isn’t all. The 6th grader is being bullied, because his name is Trump.

 

26 months in office, not a single word about bullying from Melania, not one. Now, suddenly, she wants to shine a light on victims, not of discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, gender, life style, weight, etc. etc. etc. but because they share a name.

 

Trump (all of the first family) has been beyond parody since they started their campaign 37 years ago, but jeez, do they keep raising the bar. 4 out of 5 trans people will attempt suicide and/or self harm. The suicide rate for LGBT people across the board is significantly higher than the rest of the population. Minorities of color face daily discrimination. The majority of girls will be sexually assaulted along with a significant percentage of boys.

 

But, no. No, none of that is of consequence to them. Only when its a kid that share’s their name, a much rarer case of bullying, does it catch their attention and matter to them. It’s a sign that bullying only matters when it affects someone like you. The bully victim will be sitting next to Lyin’ Ted, Crooked Hillary, and at least half a dozen other people D. Trump has name called, bullied, and harassed.

 

It’s hard to take this seriously as an attempt to call out bullying, it’s much more likely the case the victim is being used as a political pawn. To point out, ‘look, look how divided the left is making us, picking on a kid!’ during a speech where D. Trump is supposedly to call for unity.

 

Now to get personal.

 

My own bullying likely cause me to deny who I was for over a decade, and trust me, I know what it’s like to get made fun of for their name (in addition to so many other things), my name is R. Kelly during a time scandals continuously came out against him, some, extremely sordid. I’ve self harmed, attempted suicide, and tried to drown my horrible memories in alcohol. I know what it’s like.

 

I have nothing but sympathy for the kid, but what M. Trump, likely at the direction of her husband, chooses to prioritize when it comes to bully victims is horrendously transparent. Its truly a spit in the face of every child bullied and abused for their race, gender, orientation, etc.

Conflating Companies with People

Once again as Trump tweets from his porcelain throne, he touts how great his trade war is, how amazing the tariffs are and how the money is flowing in for the treasury. How our market is stronger than ever while China’s is down and touts the incredible increase in steel industry profits.

But here’s the problem, that doesn’t anything good except for steel CEOs and government. Just because steel profits are up doesn’t mean anyone is getting money except for that company, that’s it. Why do people think just because steel does better, means steel workers do better?  There will be an increase of 500 steel jobs, that’s it. Steel jobs have been declining, in spite of production being steady, for decades because of automation and that trend will only continue.

And while there might be a few more steel jobs, the auto industry is already warning they will lose jobs because of the tariffs. Speaking of auto, I hope you enjoy paying upwards of 5k more for a car, because the price of steel is higher. The cost is going up both because of tariffs and steel. In fact, anything that requires steel to make, like, everything, will cost more.

Who’s paying? You thought China right? Cause that’s who the tariff is on, but no, it’s us. It’s a regressive tax on the poor. They tariff the cheaper imported steel, so now companies have to pay more for production and products which passes on to us, meaning we also pay more in sales tax as well on almost everything.

This isn’t even touching on the subject that the government has to put farmers on welfare because of tariffs on the United States is hurting them incredibly.

So, when Trump says that the government is making money, when he gives his tax breaks away to the rich, the big steel industries are making money; ask yourself, why am I, the middle class and the poor still getting fucked?

Women’s March, MeToo.

I’ve seen some extremely inspiring videos like one from musician and artist Halsey who recited a poem on her experiences growing up; going over rape, abortion, and sexual abuse. This is way to familiar from stories from other women I know personally and stories from hundreds of women all over the world.

These things are hard to avoid, but, people still manage to avoid it. As a man, and working with men growing up, I’ve heard men say sick thing, I’ve heard men make repugnant jokes, and even brag about things they’ve done and condone abhorrent behavior and decry women for just standing up for themselves. And they still don’t see it. They hear about rape or sexual abuse and harassment and they put the onus on the woman to not be molested. They might not say it with a woman present, but a ‘decent man’ will say terrible things when he doesn’t think women are around.

Men feel entitled to women, period. I know this because I follow people who share their stories, who share texts they get from men who ask for pictures, who call them bitches for not talking to them, send unsolicited dick pics, and insult their life styles. I see it from people who are artists, YouTubers, Social Media promoters, in general, if there’s a woman in public view, she is harassed.  If there’s a woman who isn’t, she’s probably been harassed too.

I know these things because I have eyes and ears.

If you want to see it, it’s easy to see it.

Of course if you don’t want to see it, it’s incredibly easy to discredit and dismiss it.

Trump of course told women to get out and march to celebrate the success of the economy, telling his base that they don’t have to listen to why women were out there. And of course Fox Insider ran a video of the repulsive Tomi Lahren decrying the women’s march as ‘modern day feminism’. Calling it a vulgar display and degrading what it means to be female, without offering up a single argument to support that stance.

Of course, if you listen to women like Natalie Portman and other’s who spoke at the women’s march and if you listen to women who have spoken out for years you begin to understand. They are afraid to be themselves. To be accepted and express as the want without fear of being objectified, molested, and sent hateful messages and mail. To live without fear of both being alone and with others, to live as they choose, and not as society demands them to live.

I wanted to share my MeToo experience, but I don’t quite have it in me to do it. Not yet.

But, this movement is vital, it’s important. It’s important so that everyone can live in peace and comfort, without being afraid of putting themselves out there or worried that if they’re in the public eye they aren’t going to be sent rape fantasies or hate mail just for existing.

It’s important, and it’s empowering for me personally. So to those standing up and speaking out, you have my undying gratitude.

Celebrating Trump’s First Year

I’ve been wanting to avoid political writings, but this is special. This is President Trump’s first year. Now, since the first year typically rides on the previous presidents’ fiscal plan and Trump’s tax cuts won’t go into effect for some time, we can’t really judge this president on the economy until next year. Those record numbers Trump’s touting, yea, that’s all Obama’s administration. ‘But those pay raises businesses are giving out cuz of the tax cuts’. Yea, okay, except the tax proposal hasn’t gone into effect and won’t for a while, so the businesses always had the money to do this. In addition, the two companies that reportedly did this by handing out bonuses with extreme caveats (Like being at the business for 20 years) and did so while announcing massive layoffs.

So, other than the big tax cuts, what has Trump done?
What has he done?
Show your work.

The biggest thing I see his supporters point to is North Korea, Iran, Law and Order, and putting American people over immigrants, oh, and he killed ISIS. I’m not joking, they accredit the entire defeating of ISIS to Trump. For no reason I can figure out other than they just hated the black guy so much. If you read the papers instead of just watching news on TV, you would have seen that ISIS was in its death throes long before Trump.

In addition, Trump has rolled back dozens of regulations put in place to protect citizens and shrunk national land marks for private consumption. He also pulled out of the Paris Agreement which didn’t require America to do ANYTHING. We didn’t have to do anything. It was a commitment to reach goals we ourselves set, and nothing happened if we didn’t reach them.

This may have contributed to our standing in the world. I hear many people say Trump made us strong to the world again, we were the laughing stuck with Obama but now Trump has restored us…

Except not even close, at all.

I don’t know what metric they’re using, but it must be within their own heads.

Gallup polling put us at 30% approval for a leadership role, below Germany and China.

And the cherry on top, the government shutdown. Now, this isn’t automatically on the president, government shutdown happened under Obama too. However, this is quite different isn’t it? Republicans control every part of the process, and they can’t get their own team on board for an agreement. This is also different because we have such a great deal maker as president. Even though there’s not much evidence for that.

Republican’s are using CHIP and DREAMERS as bargaining chips, except those are things we already had, and most people want.

Now, there was already a bill that was created by (R) Graham and (D) Durbin. President Trump said he would sign a bill if it hit his desk even if he wasn’t a fan of it. He said that. And then it hit his desk and he said ‘nah, I changed my mind, people of color are from shitholes, I want whites,’ after which I assume he ate the bipartisan bill as to leave no evidence that Republicans and Democrats can cooperate.

So, what has Trump done?

Well, he has golfed.

A lot.

And not just golfing, but just visiting golf resorts. K’now, to remind him he’s rich.

  91 trips to golf clubs, totaling, as of this writing, $49,518,575. Fifty Million Dollars. Instead of making sure the people in Puerto Rico have power and are recovering, he’s golfing. Instead of dedicating a day to civic service like other previous presidents on MLK day, he was golfing. Instead of passing any decent legislation, he was smacking those balls around.

These aren’t partisan issues; most people agree on reasonable terms. Trump though? Nope. Because he’s not reasonable. His position is changing so often, he backs down from what he says and blames others and plays the victim when almost everything going on right now with the shut down is by his own design. The Graham/Durbin bill wasn’t perfect, but it removed the VISA lottery (which isn’t actually a lottery and Trump doesn’t understand that) in favor of more targeted immigration that aided those in struggling countries. It protected DACA recipients, extended CHIP, AND provided border security funds.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would have avoided shut down. And Trump said fuck it, I alone will decide to shut down government, and then blame others. My signature move.

Stay Weird folks, it’s the only way we’ll survive.

Trump is Busy

I wasn’t going to do much more writing on politics, because it turns people off, and instead focus on other things, but you know what, screw it. I think it’s fun and I like to be angry about things sometimes, so I’m going to write about politics. That being said, I hope to write about other topics that are important to me, as time allows, and that often involves politics on some level. Now, on to the insanity.

Trump is about to take office, and he has no idea what he is doing, his transition team does not know what they are doing, and nobody was vetted by the Trump team. Not only that, many Trump has chosen are either vastly under-qualified, abhorrently ignorant of their position’s tasks, or have conflict of interest issues.

Several of Trump’s picks often change, or are forced to withdrawal because of scandals popping up in the middle of the process. Monica Crowley for example was forced to relinquish her post. The person poised to take over the National Security Council has changed THREE times since Election Day. The most recent appointee, General Kellogg, didn’t start meeting with the current administration until this month, a few weeks before Trump’s inauguration. Rick Perry might not have been aware of what the Secretary of Energy did until recently. Tom Price may have used his position in congress to enrich himself. The vetting process of many of Trump’s picks seems to have never been started, until they’re sitting down at the confirmation hearing which causes all sorts of problems.

Not least of which among these problems are that if the nominee is not confirmed, the process has to start all over again. Secondly, the way the nation runs could be disrupted if people are confirmed and then during the presidency, we discover criminal activity in a cabinet holder’s past. So far Trump has only made 30 nominations, with very little vetting done beforehand, and we have 660 to go.

660

660 people who are not even nominated yet. Trump’s Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said that there are picks, but they haven’t been announced. But why wait? Why wait? Why wouldn’t they make announcements as soon as possible so we can know who Trump is choosing?

There have been almost no appointments made to the National Security Council, an essential component of the government that communicates and analyzes key data and security concerns across the country, and no one has been chosen to replace the Obama team.

While the transition team has said it will keep the most important members of Obama’s administration, those that are vital for the function of our country, it is unclear how many positions will be empty until Trump appoints staff.

So far Trump’s highest cabinet members are ridiculously controversial and several of his highest appointments had to be changed. This is basic stuff, and he can’t even get staff for key positions, even ones that don’t require confirmation. While it’s not likely the country will fall into disarray while the transition takes place, this is just the beginning.

This is the first impression Donald J. Trump is making on us as President of the United States, and he went out of his way to fuck it up. He was running for President for two years, and when he finally won, he continued to campaign, and during none of that time did he take the time to learn anything about how the presidency works, and he continues to show no interest in how government works.

Instead of making appointments, he chose to hold rallies to boost his own ego. Instead of vetting potential staff, or even current staff, he picks twitter fights with civil rights heroes. Instead of learning about the enormity of what being President means, he has continued to lie straight to our faces.

Instead of doing his job, as President, he boasts and insults others.

Instead of staffing key security positions, instead of insuring that the country will be secure while he is President, Trump is busy being Trump. He will be busy answering questions about his conflicts of interest, he will be busy worrying about his money and his business, he will be busy inflating his own ego, he will be busy bullying others and praising Putin.

We should be worried, because while his staff, cabinet, and administration responsible for safeguarding American’s, Trump will be busy.

You want to know how I know that? Trump is taking his first few days off, and his team lied to us about it too. They didn’t tell America, but Trump did tell foreign papers he wouldn’t start on the weekend. That’s right. Trump won’t start till Monday.

Because Trump is busy.

Losing Election Faith

Yesterday the Electoral College cast their ballots for president, these are the real votes that matter, the ones that elect the president of the United States of America. There were protests and fights to make electors flip their votes from Trump. On the grounds of is disqualifying behavior, his temper, his possibly thousands of conflicts of interests, his incredibly poor choice in cabinet picks, the consensus that Russia directly interfered in the election process, and the fact that Hillary Clinton received nearly three million more votes than the soon to be president.

Now, no one is surprised that almost no Trump electors defected and he will be president, it was a hail mary at best and an incredibly shocking amount of electors would have to flip in order to dethrone Trump. However, something unprecedented did happen, not since the 1700s, an historic number of electors did flip, but mostly from Hillary. Even more surprising to me, they flipped from Hillary, to a republican, Collen Powell.

Now, I can understand the Electoral College, I guess, and the reason it’s there. But it needs revision, or something needs to change. Not only did my vote, and the millions of others who voted for Hillary Clinton,  net us absolutely no representation in the presidential election, the EC college showed me that even when our candidate gets the overwhelming majority of votes, they can still choose not to represent us. Most of these defectors from Hillary came from Washington State, Hillary won by 16%, 500,000 votes, a clear victory, and four electors did not vote for her, three instead voted for a republican.

So, even though Hillary won by a huge margin, she will lose the EC, and even more so because electors defected. This is the third time in my life the democrats won a non-incumbent race in the popular vote (Gore, Obama, Hillary) and again, the democrats will lose because that’s just how it works. The party that represents minorities such as blacks and LGBTQ, will lose with a majority vote, because they didn’t represent the minority, I guess. I don’t know, I honestly can’t figure it out. People tell me it’s so coastal elites don’t tell rural farmers how to live. I’m clearly not a coastal elite, in Amish country, PA, but whatever. But if that’s true, then isn’t it rural farmers telling coastal elites how to live? Whatever, all I know is that I can’t have faith in the election process anymore. If my vote isn’t thrown straight into nowhere, the elector I vote for might not even vote my way.

 

Recount Idiocy

I’m going to get right to the point, we all know exactly how Trump would respond if the situation was reversed between him and Hillary. This isn’t speculation or hyperbole, it’s straight from Trump and his supporters. Trump himself called for a revolution because he believed the electoral college was a ‘disaster’ when he thought Romney beat Obama. Trump said all the way up to the election, basically at every rally, that the election was rigged, and alluded that he would not accept the results of the election if he lost. Trump supporters were even suggesting a revolution to remove Hillary ‘by any means’

Bearing this in mind, calling those who oppose Trump’s election ‘whiners’ because of mostly peaceful protests is a little sad. But also bearing all of Trump’s claims of rigged polls in mind, the U.S. government officially stated Russia influenced the election through hacking, and that Trump is actively claiming there are three million illegal votes (with no evidence), a recount isn’t a bad idea.

While it’s very likely a recount won’t change much and the likelihood of hacking is extremely low, a recount is helpful for restoring the faith in a voting system Trump himself and many right-wing sources have tried so hard to undermine. Does it make sense to make unwarranted claims the dead vote, that illegal aliens vote, and that people vote multiple times, and then block attempts to ensure the vote is accurate? Because that is what Republicans are currently doing, blocking the effort to ensure the accuracy of the vote, and it makes no sense to do it while Trump is claiming the vote isn’t accurate.

I mean, it makes sense to claim three million illegal votes were counted for Hillary, from Trump’s point of view, even with no evidence. After all if Trump honestly believes that almost three million more votes were cast for Hillary, he’d have to admit he actually came in second in terms of popularity. It would also mean to represent America, he would have to do so in a way that represents more Hillary voters. If he convinces himself the popular vote isn’t real, if he convinces himself the actual number is whatever he believes it to be, then he wins, he has a mandate, he can do what he wants because he won the popular vote, in his head.

Now, I won’t mention that there were only four cases of voter fraud this election cycle, and most for Republicans, and now Republicans are blocking the recount efforts, and still painting the Liberals as the ones casting fraudulent ballots, no I won’t mention that, it’s a little off topic.

But my final thought is on this thing Liberals have. It’s a true problem, it’s this idea that we should listen to those that know more us. So when a group of election lawyers and data experts ask for a recount, like idiots we listen. So when people ask, ‘why the battleground states, why only those states?’ it’s because that’s what was recommended to ensure the validity of the voting system.

TL;DR
President-Elect Trump said that there are illegal votes, so we should recount. End, Of, Story.

The Complicated Relationship With Power, Money, and Our Presidential Candidates.

As more and more stories are coming to light that Trump might not be as honest and un-corrupt as he portrays, shocker. For example that the Florida Attorney General Bondi, asked Trump for money, he gave it to her, and his Trump University case was coincidentally dropped. Additionally Trump has benefited greatly from connections in Saudi Arabia and dealing with the Saudis, in spite of taking every attempt he can for decrying Hillary for the Clinton Foundation receiving money from Saudi Arabia.

There are two things that really bug about this, well three. The first is twofold. The direct comparison between Hillary and Trump in certain dealings. For example, money from the Saudis. Trump made a conscious decision to deal with them and do business with them, payment for a service. The Clinton Foundation on the other hand received a donation, with no obligation of services in return. Donations, I must point out, which leave a paper trail and we know exactly how much was donated and where the money goes.

Second in that first point, I really couldn’t care less about who receives money from the Saudis for reasons I’ll get into later. The problem is that Trump is making a big deal of it. That’s the problem with what almost everything Trump says, he makes accusations while being guilty of the same, if not worse. It’s the double standard that infuriates me. That if Hillary does it, she’s a sleazy politician. If Trump does it he’s a savvy business man. If Trump makes a 1.2 Million off of a speech to Wall Street, he’s just making money parting with his experience with money, if Hillary makes 200k off of a speech to Wall Street, she’s obviously in their pockets. If Trump uses laws to take advantage of bankruptcy and to strong arm small businesses out of their money, he’s just being the best businessman he can. If Hillary makes deals to the best of her advantage, she’s the worst politician ever.

Yes, Hillary makes money, the Clintons are good at making money and they worked fucking hard for it. Trump did too, off course, but there is a difference. The Clintons have used their platforms as huge figures to speak up for issues they believe are important, they have raised a charitable foundation that has ranked higher than the Red fucking Cross by Charity Watch, and they actually pay taxes. We have Trump on record having not paid any taxes at all in some years and uses loopholes to claim properties at low prices for tax purposes while trying to price the properties high to sell them.

Thirdly, with Trump and Hillary basically guilty of the same crimes, using the system to their advantage, I must point out, this is how it works. It just is. I’m sorry it just is, and it likely won’t change. If you’re rich and powerful, you bump elbows with others who are rich and powerful, end of story. There are huge, powerful, and most importantly, wealthy figures in the Middle East, and if you want to make connections and get things done, you deal with them. That goes for everyone. If you want to be big and have a lot of political connections and clout with the possibilities for lucrative deals, you basically deal with the Middle East. Is it right? Is it good? Should it be different? I don’t know, I don’t have those answers. The point is, that’s how international dealings are. Anyone who is anyone knows everyone. Trump himself says he “Loves the Saudis,” and has dealt with Osama Bin Laden’s half-brother.

The point is, Hillary and Trump are both players a game we are all a part of and if we want to see a change we can’t focus on just the players, but the game. Now, we have a choice between to players who could seize control of powerful influence over the game. We have Trump, who has a history of being a cutthroat businessman, who takes an active role in pushing other players down to elevate himself. We also have Hillary, who has also played the game, but has used her resources to try to elevate the other players of the game. Hillary is also the one who has at least feigned interest in reigning in Wall Street.

Trump Proves It.

Trump once again proves how much of a tremendous dick clown he is. After what felt like he was thanking the mass shooter for proving him right on Islamic terror, he went on to continue his rhetoric  on how we must remain ‘vigilant’. I would really like to know what he means by telling people to remain vigilant, because the best I can discern he means that you should be weary and afraid of Muslims.

Not surprising, Trump has turned attention on ‘Radical Islam’, on immigration and Syrian refugees instead of talking about how a man with a history of being investigated by the FBI and mental illness got a fucking gun legally. Sarah Palin also jumped in  to attack Paul Ryan as well. Why? Immigrants of course, that’s the real problem.

Once again the people who want a simple solution for a complex problem show how completely out of touch they are with the actual problem. The Orlando shooting, as well as the attack in San Bernardino, were both carried out by U.S. born citizens. Literally nothing Trump is proposing would have stopped these attacks, unless of course he his laying fear mongering ground work for broader powers against Muslims.

This is absolutely insane. I can not understand this line of thinking. Barring people on the terrorist watch list or with a history of mental instability is a violation of 2nd amendment rights, but restricting and judging the entire population of Muslims is what we should be doing?

No doubt that Republicans will continue to bash Obama for not saying ‘Radical Islam’ because we all know once he says it, it’ll go away, but they forget George W. Bush spoke with a very similar tone Obama did. If anything Bush Jr. made it even more clear we weren’t fighting Islam. Here are just a few quotes.

“Americans understand we fight not a religion; ours is not a campaign against the Muslim faith. Ours is a campaign against evil.” [9/27/01] “We’re taking action against evil people. Because this great nation of many religions understands, our war is not against Islam, or against faith practiced by the Muslim people.” [1/5/02] “Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn’t follow the great traditions of Islam. They’ve hijacked a great religion.” [10/11/02]

Where Bush to say those things today he might be called a terrorist sympathizer.