Senator Zell Miller, 2001

In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington.

Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so.

John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its “Digital Dozen.”

http://miller.senate.gov/speeches/030101jjdinner.htm

Good stuff. Found over at Wacky Neighbor

Update: Much of what Miller said Kerry voted against, Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, also worked to cut. Others, Kerry didn’t actually vote against. He voted against the Fiscal Year 1991 Defense Appropriations Act, which wasn’t a vote on those individual weapon systems. Just like Kerry voted against $87 billion in body armor for soldiers, with $20 billion of that earmarked for Halliburton.
(Source: http://slate.msn.com/id/2096127/)

Multiple choice question. The title of this post refers to:

1. Judges who disagree with Republicans
2. Judges who uphold the Constitution
3. All of the above

Elizabeth Dole, in a speech at the RNC said:

Two thousand years ago a man said, ” I have come to give life and to give it in full.” In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance; from the money in our pockets; and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

She couldn’t be more wrong. Freedom of religion means exactly freedom from religion, for those who don’t believe in God, or want to practice any religion. For those that do believe and want to practice, they’re free to do so as well. It means the State does not sponsor any specific religion, or type of religion (ie, monotheism). If she wants to say “under God” when she says the Pledge, that’s just fine. Forcing children at a public school to do the same, not fine. Similarly, if she wants to write “In God I trust”, on her money, that’s just fine with me. Having it printed on the money, not so much.

Personally, neither of these things actually bother me at all. I don’t care that “under God” is in the pledge or that “In God We Trust” is on our money. What does bother me is that these people think they have the right to force it on people who do care about it.