US Elections II

A couple of things that have struck me about the US Elections in this past week.

Firstly, anyone who has been charting my rants against the TV Network that wanted to show an anti-Kerry film fours days before the Election will be relieved to hear this from the Guardian:

"A film linking Kerry's anti-Vietnam campaigning to the torture of captured US soldiers will now not be broadcast. Sinclair Broadcast, the Republican-leaning company that planned to show it, made the announcement after shareholders claimed the programme could harm their investment. Parts of the film will now be shown in a documentary examining the use of such broadcasts in influencing elections. Sinclair's shares fell 23 cents to USD6.26 yesterday, down from a high of more than USD15 in January."

Glad the Shareholders stepped in where the authorities supervising fair elections didn't...Interesting to see how the film is going to be used now however.

On the other hand, I am despondent today. Many things have got me down this week regarding the US - our re-deploying troops so George Bush can keep his Election promise of sending no more American troops to Iraq being just one of them.

However, this morning I heard that a spokesman for the Catholic Church in America has declared that any practicing Catholic who is seen as supporting abortion (that is, voting for John Kerry) will not be able to receive communion (i.e. essentially be ex-communicated). Therefore what the Catholic Church of America has stated is that all Catholics (of which America has one of the highest global populations) must vote for Bush.

I thought there were rules governing the involvement of religion in elections?

It has made me realise that the sheer number of underhand methods and extra forces that the Republican party have been able to employ against the Democrats makes it all but certain he will be President for another four years. Four more years of war. Four more years of big business dominating the world. Four more years of antagonism. Four more years of that evil bastard Rumsfeld.

Neevr mind, given the Republican tendency towards war, we can always hope they launch a Nuclear strike which wipes us out before the four years are up...