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