Thanks to syntheticmuse for the image.

Read this, an open letter to Laura Bush from poet Sharon Olds, declining the First Lady's invitation to read at the National Book Festival. Make sure you get to the bottom. The last two lines are a kicker.

Among other things, Olds said, "So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire."

That's me. A formerly proud American who feels anguish and shame. Even worse, I'm a registered Republican who had never voted anything but Republican in a presidential election before Bush took us into Iraq.

But I voted Democrat in 2004, and I will again in 2008.

(Thanks, Sarah's Books - Used & Rare for the link.)

Bush

War in Iran?

Is President Bush planning war in Iran? Read this and this. Then come back. We'll talk.

Dismantling the Constitution

I am appalled at Congress' recent action to uphold Mr. Bush's desire to torture anybody he wants--oops, I meant political prisoners. No, that's not it. Prisoners of War, yeah, that's it.

Sigh.

I'm especially disappointed that John McCain supported the move. I thought he would be the lone voice of reason in the Republican Party. I can't help but feel McCain sold out his personal history and experience to stay in the running for the presidency. "To Thine Own Party Be True," I guess.

What I cannot understand is why we are not talking about impeaching Mr. Bush. He is systematically dismantling the Constitution.

First, he voided the Constitutional Rights of American citizen with illegal wiretaps. Can you say, "Nixon," boys and girls?

Now he's gotten Congress to "clarify" the Constitution so that it says he can do what he's been doing for several years. But the Supreme Court is the branch of government given the task of interpreting the Constitution. And given that he seems to hold this legislature by the warm fuzzies, it appears the Executive Branch is the only functioning body in Washington (the other Washington) these days.

If that doesn't frighten you, you clearly haven't studied history and don't understand the "checks and balances" our Founding Fathers tried to build into our government.

Jim McDonald, over at Making Light, has posted a call to U.S. troops to disobey illegal orders: those that go againsts their oath to support the Constitution. I'm afraid I can't imagine many soldiers doing it; someday I'll write about the experience that convinced me the military breeds out individual responsibility and integrity in favor of obeying orders. But I love that McDonald's put into such lyrical and empassioned language the need to remember that Mr. Bush' and Congress' actions are illegal.

Hell, let's impeach the lot of them and start over.

Bush
impeach

Scared

I can't keep quiet anymore. I've tried to avoid political topics on my regular blog (at least mostly) because it has a specific purpose, and I don't think politics would help it. But I have to express this, so I'm saying it here in this forgotten corner of the blogosphere, just to get it out.

I'm scared. Bush seems to be making plans to invade Iran--not that he's planning to invade Iran, mind you, he's just making plans, just in case, while pursuding diplomatic solutions. Yeah. Kind of like when he made plans to invade Iraq.

I never understood the Iraqi invasion, and I suspect the pundits have it right who say he's just finishing up the Bush Legacy. I understood Afghanistan, and I supported it. But he invaded Iraq when Afghanistan was still unfinished.

And why Iraq? If we wanted to invade a Middle East country in the name of 9-11, most of those terrorists were Saudi Arabian, and we've seen since that the Saudi royal family are probably supporting terrorism against the U.S.

But no, Bush wanted to go riding into Iraq (despite the entire world's protest, sans a loyal Tony Blair), so he did. And now we're embroiled in this ugly affair we can't seem to get out of.

And I'm lying awake at night wondering how well my basement would work as a bomb shelter.

Bush