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Democrats at the convention in Boston have been given their instructions:  Make Nice to President Bush and his Administration.

          It makes me want to scream and pull my hair out by the roots.  “Make nice” to the lyingest, sneakiest, cheatingest, greediest and most secret administration ever witnessed in my lifetime???

          “Stay positive in your speeches.  Don’t slam the present administration,” the DNC hierarchy has warned convention speakers.

          They just have to be kidding!  The Bush administration and its bevy of mud-slinging, career-wrecking amoebas are still mired in the primordial ooze.  They are so un-evolved in the chain of human dignity – oxygen is not required for their survival.  And, we’re supposed to pretend these single-celled organisms are Homo erectus?  Homophobic, for sure - but not even close to Homo sapiens as we know them.

          After watching the opening night speeches on C-SPAN, I am happy to report that no one seems to be listening to the weenies running the show.

          When I’m-really-your-President, Al Gore, asked us to channel our anger over the dishonesty of the 2000 election into a positive energy of defeating Resident George W. Bush in 2004, we roared our agreement.

          We are angry.  We thought we were angry when Resident Bush and his Supreme Court cronies stole the election – but that was mild irritation compared to what we feel now.  After almost four years of Bushwhacker and his rollicking rodeo of Republican congressmen we’re seething.

          Over 900 American soldiers killed in Iraq for nothing but lies and greed.  Thousands more are permanently and devastatingly injured.  Tens of thousands innocent Iraqis dead and dying because Bush launched an illegal and immoral war against a sovereign nation that had nothing to do with the horrors of 9/11.

Resident Bush has taken our reputation around the world, slathered it with lard and cracker crumbs, and tossed it in the deep fryer.  So delightful does he find the taste of his culinary adventures, he’s done the same thing with our environment, our programs for America’s neediest citizens, the hope of a helpful prescription drug benefit for our senior citizens and fair benefits for our men and women serving, or having served, in our military.

He’s proven himself to be the Commander-and-Chef from Hell.

It is impossible to “make nice” to a man who has done so much to destroy so many of the values that made us proud to be Americans.  It is a task accomplishable by only the most milquetoast of our citizens.

President Jimmy Carter came out swinging at the convention last night. The octogenarian Plains, Georgia peanut farmer had both barrels loaded for bear.  He took dead aim on the current administration and fired straight and true. 

Not one exaggerated word did Carter utter.  Not one untrue word passed his lips.  His soft, southern lilt never rose to a shout.  But he pummeled Bush with the smooth integrity and honed workings of the mind of a Noble peace prize winner.

Later in the evening, they rolled the Big Cannon out onto the lectern.  There he stood, tall and strong in all his white-haired, sparkling-eyed glory – President William Jefferson Clinton.  The man Republicans love to hate and Democrats love to love.

Our boy Bill picked up where President Carter left off. He took the already-pummeled Bush and pureed him. We loved it!  We roared our approval and clapped till our hands bled.

Responding to Bush & Co.’s attacks that America would not be safer with John Kerry as President and John Edwards as Vice-President, Clinton said, “Don’t you believe it.  Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.”

The universal truth of those simple words, “strength and wisdom are not opposing values” - and the sad consequences of its complete absence during Bush’s bullying reign of incompetence - will surely carve Clinton’s words into the stone annals of great political statements.

We witnessed many great speakers last night.  Every one of them contributing to our knowledge and stirring our collective soul as responsible, decent human beings.  Despite their orders from headquarters, they spoke the truth from their hearts.  And we loved it!

“Make nice” to Resident Bush and his administration?  Surely, they jest!

Patricia J. Foster, timucua@webwizzards.com  Independent Writer