I'm voting against Bush more than I am voting for Kerry, and it has a lot to do with Bush's decision-making policies.

For one, he based many of his actions over in Iraq on speculations. Although he had some information pointing to a possibility that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction, he was still guilty of speculation, and it would worry me a great deal to see a president elected for a second term who bases important decisions (decisions as weighty as war) on information that only supports possibility rather than certainty. Although Bush was denounced for not having acted on the possibility of terrorism attacks by plane during the 9-11 crisis, I would rather have someone act rashly when it comes to internal defense rather than acting rashly when dealing with something as consequential as war.

Another policy of Bush's that irks me is his use of religion to rationalize his administrative decisions and political opinions. For example, Bush uses the Bible to support his position against gay marriage. First of all, there is a distinct clause in the constitution mandating that there is to be a distinct separation between church and state. According to this regulation, Bush should keep his hands out of this issue unless he happens to be a member of the heirarchy of the church (which he is NOT). Second of all, even if the constitution were not to prohibit governmental control over the church, the Bible is something which is very open to interpretation. I happen to know that the passage to which Bush likes to refer never directly prohibits gay marriage. Although it labels homosexual activity as unnatural (which it is, biologically speaking), it never condemns gay marriage. And even if that is only my interpretation, it serves to prove my point that the Bible is very open to a variety of interpretations. I personally am not a fundamentalist. Finally, as ALL Americans are aware, we are free to practice whatever religion we choose to practice, and of all the religions in the world, not every religion refers to the Bible. Does that therefore exempt Americans who do not believe in the Bible from the condemnation of gay marriage? By the way, Mormon men are allowed to marry more than one wife in our country. The Bible does not look kindly upon that either, but it continues to be allowed. By Bush's policies, perhaps Mormon men should no longer be allowed to take more than one wife. And yes, heterosexual marriages can take advantage of the benefits of matrimony as well. So the argument that homosexual marriages will take too much advantage of their legal status is nullified by the fact that heterosexuals are just as likely to do so. Maybe we should just make marriage illegal.

Finally, the "No Child Left Behind" program is a very ineffective plan for bringing less fortunate schools more funding. The "No Child Left Behind" plan provided that schools whose students scored higher on standardized testing would receive more governmental funding, and schools whose students scored below certain score floors would lose governmental funding. This seems to be a faultless way to provide an incentive to teachers and administrators in school districts with students scoring in the lower percentiles of standardized testing, however there is a very distinct problem: the schools whose students score low are the schools who are already funded poorly and thus cannot afford to pay their teachers well enough or purchase high-quality education resources. Therefore, this plan, put into action, would actually favor the schools with more money and leave the more unfortunate schools in even worse of a financial position, thus leaving many inner-city schools with continually lowering funding, and defeating the purpose of bettering the educational resources with which less wealthy schools provide their students.

Bush doesn't handle foreign OR internal affairs as well as he ought to, and if he were elected for another term, I'm inclined to believe that he may do some major damage to our nation's international relations as well as our internal situations.

So that's why I'm voting against Bush.