CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN!

I have actually felt sorry for George Bush lately! Imagine being a President with poll numbers so low, they are sinking into the ground. He looks nervous and bedraggled lately, much grayer than usual and losing that swagger that made him so unpalatable. His efforts to "change his ways" for political purposes are so blatant a fool could see them. First, he has agreed to some sort of a "time table" for Iraq, something the Democrats have wanted for a year, and which Bush and his Buddies have criticized, saying Democrats only want to lose, be failures, show their cowardly nature!

Lo and behold, suddenly it becomes Bush's idea and he is cutting a deal with Maliki. I don't know what agreement he has made about the Iraqi oilwells. I have a feeling he will keep control of them as the spoils of the war.

There have actually been a few bills lately that Bush has not vetoed. That must have hurt him to the quick, since his veto power has been one that he took pride in using. The bill to bail out struggling homeowners passed without a whimper, even though it is about a year, at least, too late. The empty houses pepper each block in our country like ghosts of the past. It makes one wonder what will happen if many of them remain vacant for years. We will then have graying shanties with shutters askew, peopled by vagrants and rats. This will make property values plummet. Californians might eventually be able to afford their rents. Michigan will be a state-wide ghost town.

Last week, Obama advised us all to inflate our tires. John McCain, in his cute Republican way, started handing out tire gauges. I am amazed that he did not hire Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears to hand them out, but then he may be miffed at Paris for calling him "that wrinkly old man."

The truth is that inflating your tires will bring about a savings in gas. It is advised by all of the experts on automobile lore. It is also safer, by the way, because your tires get a better grip on the highway. So Obama's advice was good and when he said that McCain took pride in his ignorance, it struck a chord in my memory.

Remember Freedom Fries? Remember when the Honorable American French Fry was changed into a symbol of dishonor and dislike? We weren't to call them French Fries, because the rightwing was angry at France for not joining the Coalition of the Willing! We were supposed to call them Freedom Fries, just to teach the French....those cowardly souls...a lesson!

In the first place, French Fries are not called French Fries because they are French, even though the French Canadians have their little roadside kiosks where they sell Patates Frites! They are called French Fries because the potatoes are frenched, which means they are sliced thin before they are cooked.

Now all of that is forgotten. We don't have to crucify the French any longer. Now we have Michelle Obama, who made the statement "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of America!" That brought on an onslaught of rightwing fury. In the Southern states, Ads were concocted pointing out Michelle Obama's lack of patriotism. She suffered more than the French, who didn't seem to care if we drank their wines or ate our hot potato slices at all!

It is reminiscent of the Dixie Chick furor that the rightwingers brought about, simply because one of a popular country western trio said that she was ashamed that Bush hailed from her home state of Texas! This infuriated the rightwingers into action. They smashed the Dixie Chick tapes and called the radio stations threatening to boycott them if they played any Dixie Chick songs. Recently, the group has revived their career, but the enjoyment and excitement seems to have left them, and no wonder! For a country where freedom of speech is exalted, these reactions seem rather foolish.

Now, let's move on to the last election, where the swing state of Ohio held the key to the presidency. There were all kinds of shenanigans as the Church Members took over the reins. Some people received postcards sending them to the wrong precincts. Others were left standing in the rain for as long as 12 hours. Some precincts in the Republican sections had twelve voting machines, while three machines were provided for the crowded Democratic areas. Blacks were intimidated by in-your-face interrogations about their status as possible felons. One Democratic precinct had a parking lot located in a funeral parlor, with a funeral going on, and people forced to move their cars in a pouring rain.

The election season was filled with little tricks and cute little phrases. John Kerry was branded as a "flip flopper" who couldn't make up his mind. Then, he was ridiculed by the Swift Boat crowd, in Ads paid for by a multi-millionaire Bush-Cheney friend. Karl Rove worked overtime making up his contemptuous phrases, which were repeated over and over until the innocent and ignorant among us believed every word that was spoken.

This country was inundated with fear. If you spoke up about what was happening, you were called a "friend of Osama" or a "traitor" or worse. You were told that those of a Liberal bent were sinners and the first thing the NeoCons did was take over the schoolbooks, to make sure that God was in the classroom. That God was missing from their hearts soon became apparent, as Rush Limbaugh preached about the "lazy poor" and the "drug addicts who belong in prison." That he himself was a drug addict didn't seem to matter. He kept up his drivel and still keeps it up, as the Republicans glue themselves to the radio, still convinced they are above the ordinary citizen, still convinced they will have a lofty perch in Heaven. They cling to this belief even though their leading ranks are riddled with corruption, graft and sin. They cling to this belief though the investigations and the indictments. They cling to their beliefs even though it is clear that their leader lied to start a War. Why? To take over the resources of another country and get them into the hands of International Corporate Buddies!

Having said all this, it is difficult to understand how any thinking person could vote for a Republican ticket. I say that even though, not too many years ago, I voted Republican. However, the Republican Party has changed since the NeoCons took over. Ministers in expensive silk suits make dire political threats and urge hatred between Christian beliefs, between Catholic and Protestant. This is all forgotten in a flurry of excitement over the words of a rather errant Reverend Knight, but his words were no worse than the NeoCon preachers have been announcing for years! I listened to one White preacher who advocated assassinating Hugo Chavez. Another wants God to give everyone promotions...although that one is all right with me.

There is no indication that NeoCons have changed at all. Already, the tripe appears! Already, the nasty Ads, the constant belittling, the contempt, the ridicule, the lofty stance of those who claim a better seat in Heaven, even though they have twisted religion to suit their political purposes. It is hard to believe that people become so politically enraged that they snarl like angry tigers and release torrents of angry words, but it happens.

I chose to support Barack Obama because I believe he is a fresh, new face in Washington, D.C. I am tired of old John McCains and Kennedys and DeLays and Stevens and anyone who has become such a fixture in Congress that you can't seem to disengage them with a shovel. I am tired of an institution that would protect such a man as Strom Thurmond, who preached racial hatred, while hiding from the world his baby born from an affair with a 15 year old maid. I am tired of the corruption, the foolishness, the expenditures. I am tired of stupid secretive earmarks spending money for such necessities as a Teapot Museum and a Bridge to Nowhere! I believe Barack Obama may make a dent in this old institution and make some needed changes.

I have been amused by Republicans who warn that the Democrats will raise taxes. With our country trillions of dollars in debt, I would like to know how they believe this debt will be paid off....and it won't be with Chinese noodles! As long as their spendthrift leader stays in office and that needless war continues, that debt will go up. Attack Iran, and it will triple! That is not even discussing the fact that Iraq is making billions of dollars in oil profits, while a struggling United States pays the bill for the Bush destruction! Bush will leave office with more money than he had when he entered it, simply because his family is enmeshed in the oil business. What we have done is impoverished ourselves and enriched many others.

What else can be done when an organization becomes so inbred and corrupt that it can hardly handle its business, which is taking care of the American public? You try someone fresh and intelligent and educated and new....and you hope to God he means it when he promises change! You believe in change and you hope it is change you can believe in. There's no other way to clear up the complicated disaster this has become!