Just a few notes on the speech by Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. I liked his description of the Bush Administration as "stay the course" not just on its failed Iraq strategy, but also on its failures with regard to health insurance, the budget deficit, energy security, global warming, pension security, and much more. According to Pope, "it would not be difficult to do better" than the Republican Party.
Pope added that the Republicans were almost the opposite of reality, where "clear skies" means more pollution and "healthy forests" means clear cutting. With regard to voting, Republicans attempt to keep people home by scaring them, lying to them, telling them their vote doesn't matter, etc. We all need to counter this cynicism by responding, "It matters to ME!"