My ultra-political post

The other dayI got into a semi-intense discussion revolving around the presidential election. Or more specifically, about why I should vote conservative in the election. My lack of quick thinking during the discussion left me thinking of why specifically I will vote for John Kerry in November, barring massive changes in the current situation. Please note, I don't consider myself pro-John Kerry. I consider myself anti-George Bush. Here's just three issues I have.

Iraq.
Now granted, I was living in an Arab-Muslim kingdom when the war with Iraq first went down, so that probably skews my perspective a bit. I saw graphic news footage of the war, footage of the millions upon millions protesting around the world, and many opinions opposing the US administration (these views were heard frighteningly infrequently in the USA). Plus, exactly 0% of the Moroccan people supported the war in Iraq, as evidenced in the two protests while I was there, one of which number 1,000,000 people in a city of only 900,000.
But as I see it, we invaded a country that had never once threatened the United States (or anyone else, leading up to this invasion) auspiciously looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction, which it turns out we never had any evidence of in the first place. In the process, we scorned the entire international community (except for Tony Blair sans support of the British people) who asked and told the US repeatedly there was no justification for invasion. And in the end, we never found any Weapons of Mass Destruction (although this fact has rarely been brought up), got a whole bunch of people killed, and are now stuck being military police in a country rife with guerrilla violence.
Not only this, but in order to get support of the American people for the war, the administration led people to believe Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda were working in cahoots; not only was there no evidence of this, but these two guys are actually pretty much arch enemies. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like being deceived, and I don't like the arrogance of our country to decide we know what is right, even though the entire rest of the world is telling us it's not.

Life.
I am pro-LIFE. LIFE is in caps so that you don't confuse that with pro-life the abortion stance. I am pro-LIFE as in all LIFE. The current president is pro-life, but that only applies to unborn children. It does not apply to life of the environment or natural world. It does not apply to life of those convicted of capital offenses. It does not apply to the lives of innocent Iraqis killed during our invasion.
You all read my sociological facts on differences in life expectancy by race an entry ago. Pro-life does not apply to all these years of life lost due to inequality and problems indicating institutional discrimination. Several million people have lost health insurance in the past four years (ask one of your friends without health insurance what a doctor's visit costs). Now, maybe this is picky, but why are pro-life people not pro-health as well?
Given all this, I think I will call this position pro-unbornlife from now on, to avoid confusion. (and I will retain use of pro-LIFE meaning life more broadly speaking). In any case, it bugs me when I hear people talk about the administration being pro-life, when what they really mean is pro-unborn life.

Sex.
The current administration is pro-unborn life. It also supports plans that will offer Sex Ed funding only to schools that teach abstinence only, despite the fact that study after study has shown these programs are ineffective at preventing teen pregnancy (not to mention the spread of STDs). Clearly, not telling children that condoms exist will keep them from having premarital sex. So, more kids are getting pregnant and are not allowed to get abortions. This just smells of disaster to me.
The current administration also only offers money to fight AIDS in Africa to programs doing abstinence only. Again, study after study done in Africa shows these programs are ineffective in stopping the spread of AIDS. And yet, we claim to be fighting AIDS.