Osama bin Laden announced his endorsement: No One

Osama bin Laden made a new home video to discuss the U.S.'s election next week.

He denies the accusations of hating freedom. Yeah, right. He believes you're free to do anything you want, but he'll shoot you if it goes against the Koran.

Also, he seems to be endorsing the administration of former President George H. W. Bush. The translation was unclear. I think ObL was trying to confuse us with that one.

But I don't think that was his main point. His main point is he plans to kill us regardless of who wins the election: "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Each state that doesn't mess with our security has automatically secured their security." Maybe he prefers Nader. I don't really know.

Osama and his al-Qaida buddies are aware we're having an election on Tuesday. They read the newspapers. (They're probably even conducting polls and focus groups to predict the outcome.) Certainly, he's trying to affect the outcome of the election. But he can't just come out and ask us to vote for Candidate A or Candidate B because the typical American voter would vote for the candidate that he doesn't endorse (if we believed that's what he meant). Apparently, he's trying to say he's just as scared of Kerry as he is of Bush. I guess he doesn't miss his old pad in Afghanistan. Maybe the new cave has a pool. But I digress...

If you want evidence of who ObL would really endorse, I'd suggest you watch the "Kerry On Iraq" documentary that the Bush campaign produced. For example (from the transcript):

"I voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam Hussein comply with the resolutions of the United Nations." (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At Announcement Of Candidacy, Patriot’s Point, SC, 9/2/03)

...

"But the president and his advisors did not do almost anything correctly in the walk-up to the war. They rushed to war. They were intent on going to war. They did not give legitimacy to the inspections. We could have still been doing inspections even today, George." (ABC’s "This Week," 10/12/03)

If I were a terrorist, I'd vote for the man who's a dove because the hawk might send a missle into my current cave or bunker. I wouldn't be impressed by those who "vote to threaten the use of force" or "would still [be] doing inspections even today". I'd be afraid of the man who'd risk his chance of re-election by waging war against me and my terrorist neighbors.

By the way, Kerry want to give nuclear fuel to Iran. Iran is a member of both the "Axis of Evil" and OPEC. They don't need nuclear fuel for fuel. They want nuclear fuel for terrorism or war. If ObL is registered to vote (perhaps he votes by absentee ballot), he's voting for Kerry. Ten out of ten terrorists vote against Bush.

Praying for Rain

The state polls seem to be hinting at another nail-biter of a U.S. election. At this point, butterflies flapping their wings and drops of rain can make the election swing one way or the other. Even if it doesn't rain anywhere in the country on Tuesday, George W. Bush can win it fair and square. But he fairly won the election in 2000, and it still took several weeks for Mr. Gore to conceed his loss (for the second time). This time, I'd like to see not only a win for Bush, but also a solid, uncontroversial win.

The best way for that to happen would be rain in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvannia, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Hey, rain could even be a factor in Hawaii (I heard Dick Cheney is visiting Honolulu tomorrow). Rain probably isn't very likely in New Mexico for meteorological reasons, but Bush is likely to win there anyways. In the case of rain, we'd expect some less enthusiastic voters to stay home, such as lukewarm voters and voters who only want to vote against Bush (instead of for the Democratic nominee). A strong win vs. a narrow win in these states could mean the difference between months of legal wrangling and Supreme Court appeals and a quick victory for the candidate with the most support.

Now, I don't want to disenfranchise anyone, so I'm not endorsing hurricanes or flash floods. I don't want anyone to be physically unable to make it to the ballot box. But I think if enough people in "swing states" are looking for their umbrellas on November 2, we'll know who our next president is when we wake up on November 3.

I'm sure that Kerry's campaign staff would tell me that actually Kerry's support runs deeper, but I won't believe that unless I see it. The polls I've seen indicate that most of the people who plan to vote for Kerry prefer him because his name isn't "George W. Bush". Many people strongly support Bush. Few people actually like Kerry. It takes a lot of campaigning to get people to vote for someone they dislike especially if they'll get wet in the process.

John Howard is re-elected in Australia

Over the weekend, Australia re-elected John Howard.

Hooray for Australian voters!

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard says he is "humbled" after winning a fourth term in office.

With 70% of the votes counted in Saturday's election, results indicate Mr Howard's Liberal-National coalition has won an easy majority over Labor.

I'm confident that Australian voters chose the best candidate for a safer Australia despite the view of John Kerry's sister:

Diana Kerry, younger sister of the Democrat presidential candidate, told The Weekend Australian that the Bali bombing and the recent attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta clearly showed the danger to Australians had increased.

"Australia has kept faith with the US and we are endangering the Australians now by this wanton disregard for international law and multilateral channels," she said, referring to the invasion of Iraq.

Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms Kerry said: "The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta -- I would have to say that."

John Howard has been a strong ally of the United States in the War in Iraq, and I view his re-election as an indication that Australia continues to be a loyal ally of the America.

Thanks, Australia.