Americans must devote themselves to learning more about their government. It's the only weapon they have in controlling it.

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"The Founders Never Heard of Dumbing Down"
By jon faulkner

I'm so tired of hearing that someone else is surprised that Bush committed another criminal offence. There's got to be an end to people's gullibility. Politicians are fond of saying that Americans are a lot smarter than they get credit for. If they're so smart, how come they keep voting against their interests? Why are they quiet as mice as their freedoms are stripped from them? Why are the three branches of government under republican control? The sad, unadorned fact is, Americans are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, and worse, their smug complacency makes them indifferent to the destructive influences that guide them. Their republican representatives regard them as idiots, and treat them as such.

So called, respected media sources, report each new Bush atrocity as if his tenure hasn't been a long string of criminal acts and lies. The television brings us Chris, Tim and George - Katie, Rush and Bill. They ride T.V.'s electronic conveyor belt, broadcasting duplicitous information, while studiously avoiding anything newsworthy. Stolen elections - a Congress that has surrendered its power to declare war - a president, who didn't win the popular vote, or the election, but has now stacked the Supreme Court - all die quietly, along with democracy, as the Democratic opposition grovels in fear and humiliation. Hard to believe it's so easy, that a few unremarkable but determined people, can hoodwink so many millions. Mark Twain, that most quintessential of Americans, may have been observing the current administration when he said, "The louder they talked of their honor, the faster we counted the spoons."

Only a very, slow witted electorate, could continue believing the nonsense spilling from the White House. When Bush Nation deliberately invited Americans to believe Iraq was responsible for 9-11, Fox News took the ball and ran. Other major news sources, spanking themselves on the ass, galloped after. Bringing up the rear, as it were. What fun was had by one and all! Many, compensating for all the times they got their asses kicked at recess, spewed yet more venom at the worn out librills. Elderly morons pointed excitedly at their T.V.'s, clutching their tiny flags and fumbling with their hearing aids. "They're just yeller!" The hideous octogenarians screeched when they thought they heard some poor bastard oppose the war.

Orin Hatch, the Republican fixture from Utah, thinks flag burning is just terrible. He lacks the capacity to see the symbol of our freedom is cheapened if we must protect it with criminal penalties. It is quite beyond him to understand the flag needs no threats of penalties to insure its integrity. It stands alone, a powerful thing, a symbol of every American's strength and courage and does nicely without Orin's fevered heroics. Just what kind of place is Utah? Recently, a half-wit from there wrote a letter to the editor describing Ann Coulter as "drop dead beautiful." So they're blind too? The woman is horse-face ugly, and her gila monster disposition compliments her looks perfectly. Hatch provides an argument for why Congressmen should stop referring to themselves as the honorable this and that. Republicans are rude and vulgar and fully aware that bad manners send the message - I'm one of you! - to their constituents. Statesmanship, with its attendant grace and dignity, is a completely foreign concept to them.

Poor Americans. They have definitely shit in their mess kits this time. They've been duped by a semi-literate who didn't have anything else to do but play president. Then, someone told him he was in charge of the military so he began taking himself seriously. Why did they have to tell him that? That he's the Commander in Chief! Over the whole shootin' match! He never would have found out if some busy-body hadn't told him! The Christians throw their bones and when you thought it was impossible for them to be any more delusional and dangerous they come up with a zinger. Like their argument dispelling evolution. On the fourth day of Genesis, 6,000 years ago, the ancient sun and stars perished. But that was 12,000 years ago, give or take a few days. No one knows for sure. Then, regeneration brought it back to six thousand. That's when God did that thing - took Adam's rib ya-know - made him the original mother. So much for evolution. Gap theory? Or hocus pocus. You decide. Nero stomps a pregnant woman to death. Cheney shoots a lawyer.

"We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour ..."

T.S. Elliot

Authors Bio:
Jon Faulkner is a licensed Master Mariner. He has long considered the conservative republican mindset a form of mental illness. He lives in northern Maine.