The deadline to register to vote was last Monday, so if you haven't registered yet, you can go back to your Gamecube and ignore this. But, if you are registered, it's more important than ever before that you vote. Maybe you were registered, like me, by your high school teacher in a mandatory government class. Maybe you registered during freshman orientation. Maybe you registered to get someone to stop bothering you outside the theater when you went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Whatever the reason, if you're registered you absolutely must get off your butt and vote on November 2. Moreover, you absolutely must vote for John Kerry.

Yes, I know, Kerry is a lousy choice. I know you wanted Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, or even Ralph Nader. Kerry is a typical politician. He cares more about winning votes than about doing the right thing. He supports the war in Iraq. He's against legalizing gay marriage. Are these the qualities of a man I want running my country? Of course not.

However, while Kerry is a typical, lousy politician, George W. Bush is entirely atypical. He is terrible in ways that nobody could have predicted in 2000. We all "misunderestimated" his apparently limitless capacity for corruption. From gutting the Securities and Exchange Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and energy regulations at the behest of his corporate sponsors at Enron and the like, to giving billions in no-bid contracts to Dick Cheney's company, his administration is simply shameless.

After four years, I'm still shocked by the stuff the administration thinks we'll swallow. Donald Rumsfeld told us they knew where Iraq's WMD's are. Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice have linked Saddam Hussein to 9/11 multiple times. They announced that Bush's National Guard records were "accidentally destroyed." That sounds suspiciously like "my dog ate it." They seriously expect us to believe that when TomRidge raises the terror alert level it's in response to "terrorist chatter" and not a surge in Kerry's poll numbers. Though, according to Cheney, a victory for Kerry is a victory for the terrorists; maybe Kerry's success does merit a change in the alert level.

Some days I wonder why the Bush administration even bothers lying to us. For the most part, Bush doesn't. He simply doesn't talk to the press. He's given fewer press conferences than any president since the advent of television. This past year he went fourteen consecutive months without mentioning the name Osama Bin Laden to the public. I'm waiting for the day they just stop talking to us altogether. I expect it to come in the form of Rumsfeld going off like Jack Nicholson. "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"

The most appalling example of what the administration thinks they can get away with is the fact that they have seriously discussed not holding an election on November 2. Jon Stewart jokes about it. The Nation ran their idea of what Bush's speech will be when he cancels it. Nobody seems to care. The founding fathers would have gone running for their guns at any mention of such an idea. People should have been protesting in the streets when Rice mentioned that, but I think The Apprentice was on or something.

I could keep going with examples but there are already hundreds of books out there by better writers than I detailing exactly how bad Bush and his cronies have been. They're all over Barnes & Noble. Read them, think about how shameless this administration has been so far, and try to imagine what they will get away with when they don't have to worry about another election.

Despite all of this, you probably aren't thrilled by John Kerry or by any politician. They don't particularly care about your vote because, historically, people our age don't vote. We don't vote because they don't care about us. It's a vicious cycle that needs to change, and this is the year to do that. This promises to be one of the closest elections in history and Pittsburgh could very well decide who our next president is. College students make up over 13 percent of the Pittsburgh population. That's enough to give the city to Kerry by a landslide. All we have to do is vote once and they'll be stunned.

More than just making politicians pay attention to you, you need to vote for Kerry because there are some key differences between him and Bush that really apply to you. Kerry has pledged that there will not be a draft during his administration. George Bush finally made the same pledge during the second presidential debate, but has not explained how he will carry out his plans without overextending our military even further. Given the existing shortage of troops and Bush's list of "evildoers" that he wants to deal with after Iraq, I'm keeping my passport handy as long as he's in office.

In addition to promising that we won't be drafted, John Kerry has pledged to do away with the most controversial portions of the Patriot Act and replace John Ashcroft. Although it does contain some important legislation to protect us, it's truly staggering how bad other parts of the Patriot Act are. It's as if legislators completely forgot that we have something called the Bill of Rights. Under the extremely vague definition of "domestic terrorism" in the Patriot Act, political groups like the Progressive Student Alliance and the ACLU could already be identified as terrorist threats. The FBI can go to Hunt Library and demand to know what books you have checked out. They can get records of your purchases. Ashcroft knows all about that box of condoms you bought at CVS last Friday. If Bush is right, and Al Qaeda hates us for our freedom, then he's made us safer by taking that freedom away. That's not how I want my president to protect me.

This gets to the most important difference between Bush and Kerry. A vote for Kerry is a vote for the status quo, while a vote for Bush is a threat to the freedoms we've taken for granted our entire lives. If you want to be able to march through Washington, have somewhat clean air to breathe while you shout angry slogans, and be able to afford some painkillers after the cops beat you up, vote for Kerry. If you'd rather an extended vacation in GuantanamoBay as an enemy combatant, stay home on November 2nd and go protest Bush's second coronation instead.

Vote Nader in 2008. Vote Mickey Mouse. Stay at home picking your nose. But please protect this country we all love and vote Bush out of office next month. Then sit back and enjoy four years of Saturday Night Live skits mocking Teresa Heinz-Kerry.