It advanced queries asking whether those who yet back President Bush somehow remain unconcerned concerning all the costs realized and to be realized by the administration’s calamitous foreign misadventures as well as others that recent evidence suggests was and ostensibly is still front and center on the Oval Office desktop: (1.) perhaps a million of our military physically mutilated and/or consciously and/or subconsciously permanently traumatized by experiences few, if any, of those pushing the policy had suffered, or ever had the courage to subject themselves to; (2.) the fact of how we imposed misery, death, and maiming on millions and millions and millions of human beings of all ages, 100% under the hubris-laden aegis of bringing them freedom (freedom from dependable electric power, freedom from adequate potable water, freedom from adequate sewage disposal; freedom from even scant medical care; freedom from adequate education; freedom from less than 50% unemployment rates; freedom from fear they or their family members will — from out of nowhere, out of anywhere — know the most gruesome death and mutilation [Do you hear the ghost of Janis opining that “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose”?]); and (3.) a more than doubled in seven years interest-bearing national debt that will absolutely eviscerate any chance our heirs will be able to compete with governments that have been devoting their common weal to advancing their infrastructure and the competitive edge of their youth.

Again and again, it’s not just George Bush. Nor is it just the Bushmaster and Dick Cheney. Think of it this way: A don has this enforcing Gumba, who he knows full well is an out-of-control Gumba. George Bush and his underling henchmen is the Gumba, and all the Republicans in the House and Senate and all who voted for them compose the aggregated Don. Absence of their don, the Gumbas would never have been able to wrought all the rotting they did, or are yet set to.

Oh no? Until January, 2007, when the GOP lost its majority in both chambers, there had not occurred a single House or Senate oversight hearing. Not a one! Not concerning the wisdom of Iraq. Not concerning the billions and billions of no-bid contracts to the Vice-president’s corporation or to the billions and billions that had been lost to fraud and outright abuse in the sands of the mid-East subcontinent. Not concerning devolution of our constitutionally protected civil rights to mere toilet tissue. Not to anything! Just, “Yas-suh, yas-suh. What’s-ever you wants suh.”

Soon — way, way! Too soon to suit me, when never would be a millennium too soon — McCain placards are going to defile windows and lawns and McCain bumper stickers are going to desecrate bumpers. However the presumptive Republican candidate for president is an honorable fellow, his positions on Iraq, on tax relief for the super wealthy, on a federal judiciary predisposed to benefit corporate America and the well-to-do, on federally sponsored scientific inquiry he jokes is a “paternity or crime issue” and thus “a waste of time and money,” and the sorry plight of one-third of our country as solvable primarily via David Stockman’s (Ronald Reagan’s advisor) “trickle-down economics;” an economic theory ridiculed by the senior Bush as “voodoo economics.”

Ya know folks, until a majority of Americans feel the US Constitution, the mechanics that underlie our government, the names of the representatives and senators and their policy positions as evidenced by their votes, as opposed to their public postulations, and just a tiny hint of basic econ 101 are at least as important as Bret Favres’ completion percentage or the names of those starring on Grey’s Anatomy or which book Oprah is hawking or which overly obese ‘loser’ lost the most . . . ain’t nuthin gonna change, except for the worse! You simply cannot prevent an ignoramus who wants to be duped and pacified with mind-numbing distraction from being duped and pacified with mind-numbing distraction.

To all who tell me they just don’t discuss religion and politics among family and friends, I demand to understand why not? Is it cowardice? Why isn’t it? After all, few had such qualms expounding on the savaging of Scott upon his wife, Lacy Peterson. So how is it that the savaging by America’s religious and political leaders upon ‘others’ are so different the topics are sacrosanct from open and robust consideration?

To my way of thinking, the last five words in our national anthem have become an out-of-place, hyperbolic quest for feel good self-delusion. I mean, what other conclusion is there when we are so insufficiently “brave” that we can’t even broach among friends and relatives matters that truly are all that really matter?

— Ed Tubbs