I would like to surprise everybody and start on a positive note by listing the things I would like to thank George W. Bush for accomplishing in his first term as president. I consider myself pretty independent, and so it's important I show that I am not part of the bipartisan game of casual badmouth that our bicameral legislature so often turns into.

I publicly and personally thank George W. Bush for the following things:

1. Making it somewhat easier for first time buyers to get home loans.
2. Setting an example among Republican executives by naming minorities to senior posts.
3. Being the first president to voice support for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This is progress, but I'm one of those people that pays attention. Based on everything else I've seen from this Bush administration's foreign and domestic policy, from the classroom to the courtroom, from Texas to Iraq, from energy to the environment to the things that should be between, I am ashamed of the decisions of my self-proclaimed president. That doesn't make me hostile to him personally; he's welcome to join my family for a pancake Sunday brunch any week, and I'd be happy to discuss what's on his mind with model civility. He's just a man: one who spends 40% of his days at vacation homes while handing, or if you insist on believing it, delegating the kingdom's keys to corrupt and narrow interests. The negative consequences are beyond what any one brain could completely conceive, let alone take responsibility for. When he actually shows up for work his day is crammed with campaigning for re-election before avid supporters at staged events or pitifully tap-dancing before the press and an understandably concerned public. For all I know, from within his bubble George and his other face Laura are content in their goodwill and hard work. Perhaps I can rightly accuse them of nothing more than the folly and delusion of others with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I'm no Eminem, so why hassle sock-puppets? Well that good natured, God-fearing, homespun guy that plays Commander-in-Chief for the free Christian world on TV isn't the real problem.

No American of reasonable knowledge could vote for George W. Bush's re-election in clear conscience. I say this not because of who he is, but because of what his administration enables.

How short-lived my gratitude can be when stacked next to the damage. Those new home buyers also got higher property taxes levied by strapped states forced to divert resources in a bad economy to Bush's unfunded mandates. He may have exercised his own affirmative actions, but does he show respect to Powell, even need Rice, or have interest the careers of a justice nominee beyond religious tests? When people ask me where I think Bush lies, I'm left wondering where they've observed him honestly or accurately describing his policies and practices. I'm seeing intelligent citizens of all stripes getting out of their chairs to condemn the behavior of this administration, like the thousand points of light the Bush family missed.

Hey, another one!

As far as I'm concerned, America *and* Bush are considerably late in recognizing that the history and violence of the Middle East requires us to resolve the fate of the Palestinians by granting them a sovereign nation. I publicly proclaimed the very same thing in a model United Nations held in Mobile, Alabama back in 1987, and have assiduously continued to uphold that position against regular opposition (and accusations of anti-Semitism) ever since. The difference between me and George here is that I say it because I believe it, not because policy wonks backed me into a corner in the quest for Iraq. Note also that I didn't wait for Israeli leaders to suggest it first. Unlike Dubya, I wouldn't have walked away from the table after taking the Oath of Office, only to return with a road-map summary of Carter's doctrine coordinated with generous continuing subsidies to the Israeli government and military and a blind eye to their many offenses. He says he supports peace, but Bush's doctorine in practice is a guarantee for continued violence.

These people descend from the Samaritans, who Jesus once taught us could be so good.

Palestinians did not arrive at a culture that commits acts of terrorism in a vacuum of unprovoked complacency. It all started with being evicted from their homes, since Britain was snobbish about accepting the flood of Jewish immigrants following World War II. Back then there did exist a place called Palestine, a Monopoly property held over by the UK after the waning age of Risk. They just passed the deed to Zionist groups interested in recolonizing their holy land. The parties of the original excursions were given about half the territory that is present-day Israel, but after much heated warfare, gross acts of oppression, and the overall suspension of international consideration or law, the Jewish newcomers claimed every cubit and then some. You would think after the horrors of Nazi Germany that if there was one culture on Earth that would *never* commit prisoner massacres or pile members of another faith into concentration camps, these chosen ones would be it. Maybe it's precisely that paradox that keeps so much of America ignorant and acquiescent, because the history is there to be read from six days out. Unfortunately, our ostrich act leaves the door open for the absolute wrong crowd and the part of the story that leads Arab people to organize into international networks intent on harming America.

The real reason the United States military has worked actively and aggressively to arm and train the Israeli military for half a century is because it is a reliable and profitable way to see our most advanced weapon systems and techniques tested in an active battleground.

I've personally heard several senior military officers say this, and I'm told Donald Rumsfeld has even offered the perspective on national television before. I recall a recent news story in which an F-16 was used to annihilate 5 Palestinians on the street in Gaza where 2 were known criminals and the other 3 completely unidentified. At an inch of text in a non-local Sunday paper, this isn't even news to Americans and there is, of course, absolutely no response from the White House. The individual Palestinian, an abstraction to almost all of us that we've been taught to fear or hate, doesn't even rate the 3/5 of a man our forebears allocated to slaves. George just sends more F-16s and a pile of money to build the wall wherever Sharon feels like he can put it today.

How could we care about the Palestinians? We use them for fodder.

War profiteering is the darkest sin in which a superpower can engage, and the already reprehensible Bush administration has opened its floodgates. Like six weeks after Bush took office when Dick Cheney met with those oil executives to discuss a map of Iraq; we all know the topic wasn't forming partnerships. That was about the same time as Paul Wolfowitz's original plan: simply march in and seize all the southern oil fields outright. Yes, President Bush later turned the crisis of 9/11 into opportunity... the kind of opportunity that involves dollar signs and blood if not political longevity. Now the War on Terror is our daily spectacle, here to thrill us, chill us, and fulfill us. Once a sovereign country, now our front-lines, Iraq has been the focus of enough of our tax money to put every college age kid in this country through four years and a Bachelor's. What has been gained? More hatred, more violence, more instability, more insecurity, and more debt. Furthermore, saturation media exposure not only benefits terrorism, it is its primary mechanism. So thanks.

The crisis of 9/11 provoked a more circumspect response in me, and I put it in a single from that CD I keep talking about. The inescapable anxiety has been with me since, and will stay at least until November.

This Fall

by Hilfiger Tout

I solemnly dedicate this song to the souls of all who suffer or perish so that others may profit in commerce, publicity, or political gain. Under the license, you are permitted to copy, distribute, or perform any of my songs free of charge. I'd rather have your conscience awaken than anything you could pay me.

The software work continues, although there have been many interruptions. I will grow more silent still, until it is my time again. A magic disappearing act will unfold soon, but I remain with you always.

Any last words?