(6/23/2005) Today I was watching CNN when I witnessed Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld extend his middle finger to touch his nose when Senator Kennedy was lambasting him for his incompetent leadership with the war in Iraq. I admit that the timing of Rumsfeld's middle finger touching his nose could have just been a big coincidence, however, I don't believe that it was. It looked like a sideways "F*** You" finger insult all the way.

Rumsfeld finished his answers to Senator Kennedy by saying that he had offered his resignation to President Bush twice and both times Bush told him to stay on the job. Therefore, since Bush is condoning this high level of gross incompetence from his top level staff, and since the buck stops at Bush's desk, then I believe that President Bush should resign, and if he won't resign he should be impeached.

Bush started the war in Iraq based on a lie, it has been fought based on a seemingly endless string of lies, and things have gotten worse, not better as he continues to claim.

This war in Iraq, that the Bush administration proudly calls their "war on terror", has already cost the American taxpayers over $400 billion dollars and over 1,700 American soldiers lives. How much more money is going to be wasted and how many more lives are going to be destroyed before our country's leadership admits its errors and cuts our loses short by ending this pointless conflict.

Based on the Bush administration's history of never admitting error, accepting responsibility, or subjecting themselves to accountability I fear that this war will continue on endlessly. Therefore, the American people must rise up and demand that this senseless war be brought to an abrupt end.

If we had real leadership in Washington, and not all these right-wing neocons and fascist puppet chickenhawks, the war in Iraq would have been handled very differently from start to finish. We should have gone into Iraq and destroyed their weapons stock piles and weapons manufacturing capabilities, and then immediately withdrawn all our troops and left all the reconstruction and democratization activities up to the United Nations.

There are many reasons why the Bush administration did not handle the war this way, and they include some of the following reasons:

• The war in Iraq is not a real war against the terrorist who attacked us on 9/11. Those guys were from Saudi Arabia and everyone knows that the Bush family has a long and friendly relationship with the Saudi royal families (see Bush holding the princes hand). The war in Iraq is a manufactured war designed to take out Israel's enemy, Saddam's army, for the benefit of the Jews in Israel and neocons in America.

• The war in Iraq is designed to help a few American corporations make hundreds of billions of dollars. The American people are paying for the war and companies in the military-industrial complex are reaping the benefits, companies like: Halliburton, the Carlyle group, General Dynamics, etc.

• The war in Iraq has allow some large American based oil corporations to fill the void left from the reduced supplies of oil coming from Iraq, and it has allowed them to exploit Iraq's oil resources for pennies on the dollar.

• The war in Iraq has driven up gas prices to record levels. As a result American based oil companies are making record profits by price gouging the American people. For example, last year ExxonMobil made a record $25 billion in profits.

• The war in Iraq has been used as an excuse to justify a huge increase in our government's budget deficits. However, the real reason for almost all of this new debt has been Bush's tax cuts that have gone to the very wealthy.

Therefore, in a way the GOP is giving all the American people the "F*** You" finger. And not just about its war in Iraq but just about everything else they have done, and are planning on doing. For example, the following facts show that they have been giving us the "F*** You" finger everyday they have been in power:

• President Bush claimed, and continues to claim, that his first tax cut went to the middle class when you can see from this chart that this tax cut went mostly to the very wealthy. His next two tax cuts were aimed even more heavily towards the very rich.
  

• President Bush claims that repealing the estate tax, or "death tax" as he likes to call it, is for the benefit of small businesses and farmers when it really is a tax cut designed to benefit the children of billionaires.

• President Bush claimed that he could cut taxes, pay down the debt, secure the money in the Social Security trust fund, and balance the federal budget all at the same time. However, we now know he was wrong and Gore was right. We now have the biggest deficits in our country's history and yet Bush continues to call for more tax cuts and more spending increases.
  

• President Bush lied about his long-term and very close relationship with Ken Lay, the CEO of Enron. Then he refused to stop Enron and the other energy companies who colluded and conspired to price gouge the people of California following the deregulation of their electricity market. In fact, Bush's actions made this rip-off possible.

• President Bush has rolled back environmental regulations while claiming he is improving the environment.

• President Bush has rolled back cronyism rules for the benefit of his friends working inside our federal government.

• President Bush withheld information and refused to testify before the 9/11 commission. He objected to the creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security. And his failure to heed several intelligence warnings allowed the terrorist attacks on 9/11 to take place.

• President Bush nominated and re-nominated a bunch of right-wing extremist to life time positions on the federal bench. Then his Republican pals in Congress threatened the Democrats with the "Nuclear Option" is they did not stop their filibustering of these terrible nominees.

• President Bush has blocked media access to President Clinton's papers, he refused to release the list of people meeting on the energy task force, he keep the Democrats in the dark about his "Shadow Government" plan, and he won't give the Democrats the information they requested on U.N. nominee Bolton.

• President Bush has placed a block on the media from photographing the flag draped coffins being brought back from Iraq, and he never attends any of their funerals. On top of that he has cut funds for veterans and extended service requirements.
  

• President Bush continues to push for more tax cuts and spending increases despite huge budget deficits that appear to be growing out of control.
  

• President Bush has never vetoed any of the pork filled legislation passed by a Republican controlled Congress, and he has never even threatened to veto any of it.

• President Bush proposed giving amnesty to over 5 million immigrant who are in the U.S. illegally. He has also proposed opening the borders to Mexican workers on a temporary basis.

• President Bush has encourage companies to outsource their U.S. jobs to foreign countries. His first nominee for trade representative was unavailable for media comments because he was busy setting up one of his company's factories in China.

• President Bush wants to expand the failed NAFTA free trade agreement to more poor third world countries with his CAFTA agreement despite a ballooning trade deficit that is weakening the United States.
  

• President Bush awarded a $10 billion dollar government contract to a foreign based computer company for equipment and services instead of several good U.S. based companies that wanted that contract.

George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress sweet talk the American people everyday in an attempt to placate and mislead us, but behind our backs they are giving us the "F*** You" finger. They are treating us like we are all just a bunch of ignorant sheep who can't pay attention long enough to see their hypocrisy.

Well some of us can see the right-wing's hypocrisy, and we are educating those who cannot. We are giving Bush and his right-wing pals the "F*** You" finger right back in their faces with both hands.

It is just a matter of time before the pendulum of public opinion swings the other way and the American people see the GOP wolves under the sheep's clothing. A day of reckoning is coming for the right-wing puppets and their wealthy puppeteers, and when that day arrives they are going cry real tears. The tables are turning and when they are turned you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be singing and dancing, and laughing my ass off.