Yes, it is. Burgess is dead on. I'm disgusted that our neighbours to the south have made this decision. For the most part, Canadians are no better, we've made stupid political decisions, and PMs like Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney have been about as inspired choices as Bush Sr. or Carter. But with Bush Junior and his goon squad, we have all the facts: An illegal war against Iraq; the most reckless economic policies ever seen in America's history; being referred to as "incompetent" by even a right wing publication like The Economist; a nation utterly divided by an increasingly intolerant social conservative agenda. We have Halliburton, My Pet Goat, outed CIA agents, torture chambers masquerading as military prisons, and a massive, uncontrollable debt. If this wasn't so dangerous to all global citizens, including Americans, it would be funny. But a world arms race starting up all over again, and thousands killed daily in Iraq, this is anything but funny.

I would like to apologize to Canadians for this fiasco. I can only say that my state went for Kerry. But of course this is another one of those vicious campaigns that the children of Lee Atwater bring to su. Most "born agains" are like Jimmy Carter, decent people ( I am "born-again" myself and a recovering fundament- alist). There are groups though that think the Rapture is imminent and that Christians are being persecuted. You here this constant railing by talk radio about an "anti-Christian bias" in the media and in the culture (Gay marriage makes people heads spin). Reoublicans then took a semi-trailer full of propaganda around from church-to-church and filled peoples heads full of garbage. It is my fear that we will see governments up here ape the Bushies.

Your apopogy is accepted T Bravard, and your fear of future canadian election campaigns imitating the down and dirty stuff from stateside is well founded. We may find out sooner than we'd like.

Nail on the head, Steve! Especially this plum: "..The next four years will be one prolonged monkey-faced smirk.." I laughed and laughed and laughed, tears started flowing, and I began to blubber..I sobbed and sniveled and snotted..then I thought to myself wot a wunnerful werld..

Well T., no apology necessary :) However, the one thing I can't wrap my head around is the abuse of prisoners at Abu G. and Gitmo. I mean we all disagree on various policies and such but torture is something I thought everyone could agree on. I thought Abu G would be the end of Bush but somehow torture came to be seen as just another policy difference. That's even scarier to me than pre-emptive war.

Great piece, Mr.Burgess. Frank, it is incredible as to what has become normalized, especially in terms of the abuse of human rights and liberties. The mainstream media is trying to paint Fallujah as some den of evil insurgents, but it is a middle class city of rather nice homes, they say, and a lot of resisters are local doctors, engineers, teachers, even children defending the place they call home against american occupation. These are the old fascist methods, american style now, being used to de-humanize the enemy, before laying seige to their cities. It is as if the people were vermin that didn't count and the americans were just involved in pest control for the betterment of us all, thus validating the attack and oh so cleverly escaping accountability for their own very sinister and murderous acts. I read this in article lately, relevant to your concerns on Abu G. a quote by Edward Herman in his acclaimed essay on the Banality of Evil:

"Doing terrible things in an organised and systematic way rests on normalisation. There is usually a division of labour in doing and rationalising the unthinkable, with the direct brutalising and killing done by one set of individuals...others working on improving technology ( a better crematory gas, a longer burning and more adhesive napalm ...) It is the function of the experts, and the mainstream media, to normalise the unthinkable for the general public."

Good quote Lynn. I have to say, if we can't agree on torture I don't know what the red and blue of North America can ever agree on.

Since Nov. 2, 2004, I have felt a deeper sympathy for all U.S. citizens than I did on Sept. 11, 2001. It seems as if they have lost the country they once knew. And it wasn't terrorists; they did it to themselves. A tragedy.

Mr. Burgess, You seem so stunned that Bush won. You have been fighting the election of 2000 for 4 years, and Bush won again in 2004. YES, George Walker Bush IS the president (2 term) of the United States of America. The fact is, in an election, the voters choose the better of the two candidates. Have you really (or did you really) critically examine the history of John F Kerry (WAR HERO) like the American public did? Blinded by your bigotry of Bush (CHRISTIAN) you gave JFK a complete pass. Americans like myself - held Kerry accountable for his anti-American, anti-war, weak Senatorial track record - and sent him packing. Bush, with all his failings, clearly was the better candidate.

Uh...Frank, is it so anti-american of Mr. Kerry to point out that killing civilians is bad for everybody? Did you read the news TODAY? And there is more gory video, too. War is hell. Kerry is a war vet, he's seen it first hand (not like that smirking, silver spoon fed, ex-coke head ,dui,draft dodger in the oval office. Kerry's big crime is that he is a liberal? Anyone would be better than Bush.

Didn't mean to pick on Frank. That last one was for David.

David, it is a source of amazement to me that John Kerry, who served his country in Vietnam, is "un-American" while George W. Bush, who pulled strings to avoid service, is hailed as a true patriot. Kerry criticized the war-- but if putting your life on the line doesn't earn you the right to comment on the war, what ever could? Your definition of anti-Americanism is truly frightening--you favour the man who hides behind a flag over the man who takes action and later, having done his country's bidding in an unjust war, has the courage to speak the truth. Your attitude and those of other Bush supporters strongly suggests that you will never understand your own nation's best interests.

Reading this article and the comments posted in answer to it is so invigorating! I too was disappointed by the outcome but...everything considered... though Sen. Kerry possesses a superior intellect and showed great courage in his military career, his campaign up to the debates was so lame as to irretrievably damage his candidacy and prospects of election. Still, he got the vote of all the "liberals"(loose use of the word). However he was unable to convince any other decent open-minded thoughtful voters of conservative persuation (there are more than a few, thank you)to support him although these conservatives were lucid enough to see through the lies and manipulations of the current Bush team. Lies not being a novelty in politics, no surprise there. Kerry suffered from the same disease that afflicted Al Gore.I call it Chameleonitist.(He would have died of sheer exhaution laying on a Scottish plaid.) I understand that his position was tricky; between disavowing U.S. international action, appearing to renounce America's use of its military supremacy(only G W Bush could take a stab at it in a previous campaign). Kerry's campaign after the debates was a strange mixture of passive-aggressive behaviour(basically saying that Bush's failure was that he did not do enough militarily to win and that he would be more ruthless "killing"). I do not blame the "undecided" for having decided "against" the equivocal candidate. Kerry was a courageous soldier. He can speak well. He's intelligent, but what did he convince anyone about? Always striving to spare both the goat and the cabbage,in the end loosing the battle on being a significant altenative to the current Bush administration. Really there is little difference, other than in the packaging, between the two leaders and what they offered to the electorate. Coy and hypocrisy were equally abundant. Former Pres. Clinton, at the official opening of his library, was right-on when he reminded us that both these candidates wanted the same thing. The Chinese with their millennial culture also had it right about this campaign:"We prefer the devil we know than one we don't." Bush is a greedy pretentious puppet who thinks God is on his side. He's been manipulated by Cheney and his clique from day one. It is possible that this election will result in four years of the same horrors, however there are physical limits to this demagoguery but it's likely that these limits have been reached. They fought hard and rough for a second mandate, and they now control all levers of power. I think they will inadvertenly fall on the sword they brandished.The catastrophies are their creations. No justice. no peace! It's "elementary". Why then is it that this president is unable to learn? He did learn to repeat lines whispered to him in the earphone, though the last time(first debate) was not as convincing. He was way better at the WWII Commemoration Ceremonies in France this summer. I know. Watching the ceremonies on live TV I would first hear the lines from a voice-off camera and then hear them very convincingly rendered by a proud thoughful president with a shining intellect. Time will tell of course as it always does. The U.S. has an abundance of smart, kind people, there has been and there is ample manisfestation of that. Their authors, their artists(I don't mean "pop"), their scientists, their intellectuals have made significant contributions to world thought and culture. I will not give up supporting them because they have contributed many selfless gifts to our knowledge of human kind and the world we inhabit together. The campaign just ended will we discussed for years to come. The next four years of this administration will, I expect mark a generation or more.