FLASH: GEORGE W. BUSH IS A FOOL!

For the longest time it was only hinted at. Some of us, deep down inside ourselves, knew the horrible, ugly truth, and yet very few had the courage to actually come out and admit it. The time has come, however, for the American people to come to their senses and shake off this pathetic case of national denial. Go ahead and say it: George W. Bush, the president of the United States of America, the most powerful man on the entire planet, is a complete moron. The sooner we admit this fact - which has been blatantly obvious to the rest of the planet since the day in 1999 he announced his candidacy - the better off we'll be as a nation.

The truth shall set you free, baby!

Here is something else we need to come to terms with: He is a reflection of us! We must perform a mass mea culpa and admit to the rest of the world that Weeda People made the worst electoral mistake in our history - or since the German people foolishly put Adolf Hitler in power seventy-three years ago - when we sent this idiot to the oval office. It can only be the result of America's becoming so politically dumbed-down in the last quarter of a century that so huge a segment of the voting public actually thought, seriously believed that sending this disgusting half-witted frat boy to Washington was a neat idea. This deplorable situation would never have happened had the administration of Ronald Reagan not gutted the FCC in the early eighties. When they got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, which mandated that both sides of any given issue would be granted equal exposure on the people's airwaves, the rise of corporate sponsored, right-wing Hate Radio was all but inevitable. And yet, so many people still insist on calling it the "liberal media" and claim that it is controlled by left-wingers. I mean, how crazy is that? Fairness in broadcasting is today but a distant memory. Ignorance may be many things. Bliss it is not.

Is it any wonder that we are the laughingstock of the world? Yeah, yeah, I know! The Bush Mob stole the elections of 2000 and 2004. But if most people didn't actually vote for him, a significant minority did. An extremely significant minority! It's easy to steal an election when the results are that close. That's how Lyndon Johnson was able to steal a senate seat from Coke Stevenson in Texas in 1948. All it took was rearranging a handful of ballots in one precinct! Think about that for a minute! But for a few corrupt officials in one small Texas district, America might have been spared the horror of Viet Nam a generation later. We really should start thinking about giving that state back to Mexico.

A lot of people still insist on supporting the First Fool out of force of habit, but I seriously believe that that situation is going to change any day now. If they turned their backs on Richard Nixon, they'll easily turn on Dubya. Come to think of it, compared to Bush, Nixon is starting to look better and better, is he not? It must be remembered that, with the possible exception of Woodrow Wilson, Nixon had the best mind of any president of the twentieth century. For all his faults no one, not even his most severe critics, ever accused the Trickster of having the IQ of a half-eaten box of MilkDuds. To describe our current chief-executive as a wretched fool is pretty much of a no-brainer (irony intended, indeed).

Just look at the damage that his administration has done to our country, not to mention the planet, in just five and a half short years. Do you think for a minute that an intelligent competent leader would have been short-sighted enough to invade Iraq based on a cooked-up pretext in 2003? Three and a half years ago, I was able to predict the disaster that Iraq would eventually prove to be. Do you mean to tell me that this president and every single member of his cabinet wasn't smart enough figure that out on their own? Am I to understand that I, a High School drop-out, am smarter than the president and everyone around him? Apparently I am. If that fact doesn't scare the bleeding, mortal shit out of you, nothing will.

Someone recently asked me if I thought that America might win this war. Here's the dirty little secret that NO ONE has thus far admitted: It's already lost. The only reason the asses of evil (Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld) invaded Iraq to begin with was to seize that country's vast oil reserve. We've lost this war and we deserve to lose it. If "winning" means stealing Iraq's main economic export and handing it over to the White House's corporate connections, then we must lose this war. In fact, for the sake of precedent, in order to assure that no future leader will be reckless and stupid enough to ever attempt such a foolish stunt again, we should all be praying for defeat. All of those brave American kids (and only God knows what the final tally will be) - not to mention at least one hundred thousand Iraqi men, women and little children - have died in vain. The geo-political catastrophe that George W. Bush and company have created in that region of the world will be with us for decades. Count on this: The day will come when the United States retreats in disgrace from Iraq. Will we do it while the American death toll is at a relatively paltry twenty-six hundred? Or will we stupidly wait until it's over fifty thousand? Your call.

America was at this very same threshold with respect to Viet Nam in January of 1968. When the North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive that month, it was obvious to everyone except another moronic Texan and his cabinet that the war was lost. President Johnson could have cut our losses then and there but his pride wouldn't allow him to do so. At that time, the US death toll was under twenty-five thousand. Over thirty-thousand more would die before it was all over. Oh, and may I remind you that we also lost that war? I assure you, we will lose this one as well. I'm not being speculative here; I'm telling you the truth. Take it to the bank.

Whenever a soldier is buried, whether it be in a military cemetery or a civilian one, a marker is provided by the government that states the person's name, dates of birth and death, and the name of the conflict in which he or she fought. The other day, I visited the grave of a kid that I knew who lost his life in the obscenity that we, as taxpayers, are now funding in Iraq. His broken body lies a quarter of a mile down the road from where I now sit, at the Orange County Veteran's Cemetery on Craigville Road in Goshen, New York. Irving Medina, was just twenty-two years old when he was killed on November 14, 2003 when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in front of the vehicle in which he was riding. When I read what was inscribed under his name, I wanted to vomit. A lie has been carved in bronze for all time and eternity: "Operation Iraqi Freedom". Are you naive enough to believe that this war was ever about freedom? I've got a better name for the conflict:

O peration
I raqi
L iberation

Now that's more like it! To quote the great philosopher, Stan Freberg, "Wake up, Cratchett, it's later than you think"! That's pretty good advice for the American people. Are you listening, folks?

WAKE THE FUCK UP!

The sad fact is this: The international credibility of the USA has been utterly and completely destroyed by this mediocre and imbecilic man. The support and good will that was showered down on us from all over the world after the hideous attacks of September 11, 2001, have been totally and irretrievably squandered by what is, unarguably, the most overtly criminal administration in history. The destruction that has come to your country, possibly, even, with your unwitting support, will be with us for generations. This is not a time to for us to be holding our heads high, mindlessly singing America the Beautiful. The time has come for us to hang our heads in shame.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net