I will probably upset some friends and family with what I have to say. Political issues are a VERY touchy subject right now in America and that very much so includes a lot of the folks I know. In fact, a good buddy of mine dating back to our middle school days is in the Air Force right now. Last I knew, he was in Idaho training how to repair fighter jets. He very well may be one of the people I offend.

I don't care.

Regardless of who I may hurt, offend or upset, it makes no difference in how my opinion is formed. Anyone can take what I have to say and think nothing of it. I simply don't care.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" starts with the coverage of the 2000 election, something I remember well. It was the first election in which I voted. At the time, I vaguely remember having the thought about the two presidential candidates that it really didn't matter who ran the country. The United States had been a time of unprecedented peace since the collapse of the Soviet Union. By the time I started paying attention to international and political things going on in the world, Clinton was in office and seemed to be doing a great job. You only heard about the economy hitting all-time highs in all kinds of positive ways. I was 10 when Clinton entered office, so what reason did I have to doubt his abilities as President?

Dole came along in 1996 and I couldn't imagine a man who can't move one arm and has trouble mastering leaning off the front of a stage being our President. I would've voted for Clinton, but wasn't old enough.

In the fall of '99, I had a history class in high school in which politics came into the conversation. One friend of mine said something that has always stuck in my head. When we started discussing the difference between the Democratic and Republican parties, my friend said, "It seems like Democrats are following through with what the founding fathers had in mind." The founding fathers, as he saw it, believed that a government should be by the people and most importantly for the people and that the Democratic Party seemed to embody that idea far more.

Then came the 2000 election. I really never had strong feelings -- positive or negative -- towards Gore or Bush. However, something just felt wrong about Bush. I turned 18 about one month before the election, making me eligible to vote and I had every intention of doing so. I paid close attention to debates and anything else that I noticed about the two candidates. That comment of my friend's was always in the back of my mind and may have swayed my vote. I decided my little ole vote would go for Gore. As it turned out, I voted for the majority, but the man I voted for would not be President.

Ever since then, things have gone down hill. I have despised every move Bush has made. In fact, I found it scarily appropriate that it was cold and rainy the day he was inaugurated (the high in Washington was 39° that day).

There were a lot of things that thoroughly caught my attention throughout "Fahrenheit 9/11," but not the things that I had heard about beforehand. One of which was the certification of the election results. This is apparently done in a joint session of Congress. If any Congressman wishes to make an objection to the election results, rules require the signature of one Senator. Michael Moore's movie shows Representative after Representative referring to Al Gore, in his duel role of Vice President and President of the Senate, as "Mr. President," stating that they object to the election results. All said that they were one of many that objected, none of whom were Senators. I'm not sure what happens if Congress does not certify election results, but I can't imagine that it would've been a bad thing for Gore. He had to more-or-less tell every single Representative that objected to the results to go sit down since their objection, under the rules, was not allowed since they did not have the signature of 1 of the 100 United States Senators.

A minor part of the movie caught my attention and that was a couple of Marine recruiters going after youngsters in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan. I very vividly remember these recruiters coming after me around my 18th birthday and how much fun it was to talk to them. They would listen to anything you had to say. Any interest you had was greatly encouraged and touted especially how it could be nurtured in the military. My favorite part was always letting them down. "I have asthma. Would that be a problem?" One of the first recruitment calls I got was from the Army. As soon as I mentioned asthma, they had absolutely no interest in me at all. In retrospect, I did knowingly waste some federal government employees' time and I feel bad for that. But, it was awful damn fun.

Back on subject. Before I saw "Fahrenheit 9/11," I scoured different sites, hoping to read about some of the real damning stuff on Bush. Now that I've seen it, I know why I never found anything. There aren't any quick and easy-to-extract bombs in it. Instead, it's one large H-bomb instead of a lot of small grenades.

You may be wondering if this movie affected my opinion of George W. Bush. The answer is no; it confirmed it. This will have no bearing on my vote. Minus the discovery that Kerry is an active Nazi Party member, I cannot see me voting for Dubyah at all.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" will come out on DVD on October 5th. Ironically enough, that is my 22nd birthday. Creepy.