Sometimes it takes years to unravel a mystery. In the past seventy-five years, there had been numerous mysteries that had never been resolved to everyone's satisfaction:
In 1947, an 'alien invasion' in Roswell, New Mexico was covered up by the government, even though a whole town full of witnesses claimed to see alien bodies, a crashed spacecraft, and intriguing evidence that this incident was something of an extra-terrestrial nature. Shortly afterwards, "Area 51" came to be in the Nevada desert; even though it was identified on government and military maps, military bureaucrats continued to deny its existence.
The John F. Kennedy assassination, of course, was phenomenal fodder for conspiracy theorists. And, because documents had been sealed for seventy-five years, the entire truth wouldn't come out for another thirty years when, in 2038, the federal government would release everything pertaining to the murder. All most Americans who were alive on November 22, 1963 would see was the bland Warren Commission report, an obviously doctored and sanitized version of the events surrounding one of the most infamous times in U.S. history.
Some believed the assassination of Bobby Kennedy was never resolved satisfactorily. Many speculated that actress Marilyn Monroe's death had never been fully explored - or, at least, details were never made pubic.
Sinister activity, and lying to the American people about it, had become commonplace among federal government officials and bureaucrats. Americans never knew about U-2 spy planes soaring over the U.S.S.R. until pilot Gary Powers was captured after the Russians downed his plane and made a public spectacle of it, demonstrating to the world that the United States was not quite the squeaky-clean, innocent little kid it portrayed itself to be. During the Vietnam war, U.S. troops were exposed to a dastardly thing called Agent Orange. Only after soldiers returned with disasterous symptoms and illnesses did the government finally acknowledge use of this dangerous chemical concoction.
No one knew until years later that the Ronald Reagan had made a secret deal with Iran to release 444 American hostages only after he assumed the office of the Presidency. Gullible Americans never gave it much thought at the time: but the timing was incredulous! As Reagan was in the middle of his inauguration speech, he announced that the hostages had just left Iranian air space and were on their way home. Jimmy Carter had sacrified his run for re-election as he focused on honest and ethical means of getting those prisoners back. Why couldn't Reagan, at the very least, have invited Carter to share the podium with him for that one moment, so that both the present President and the incoming President could raise their arms in victory? Instead, Reagan operatives eventually were shown to be part of what became known as the illegal, reckless and highly irregular Iran-Contra affair which traded weapons and military intelligence for the hostages.
The government lied to the citizenry about secret CIA prisons, denied that it sexually abused and tortured 'detainees' during the early years of the Iraq war, and lied about 'weapons of mass destruction' as the sole reason for invading Iraq in 2003.
These were lies straight from the second Bush administration. But the most sordid lies of that administration had yet to be found out. On Monday, July 21, 2008, Interim President Colin Powell and Interim Vice-President John McCain announced the release of newly-discovered records recovered from the wreckage of the Republic Party's national headquarters in Washington, DC. Workers had come upon across a cache of sealed ledgers and documents in a safe that had been blown apart, probably by the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombs, and buried under tons of debris. These documents clearly revealed that the Bush administration had, indeed, been played a part in the tragic disaster of September 11, 2001, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City had been obliterated by "terrorists".
Voluminous volumes of secret papers, agreements, and elaborate plans proved what many conspiracy theorists had believed for years: the United States government had participated in this horrendous event! A capsular version of the tangled web of government deceit and deception dramatized these unequivocal facts:
1. The Bush family had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein ever since George H.W. Bush was criticized and humiliated during Desert Storm for not 'finishing the job' and ousting Hussein at that time;
2. George W. Bush, son of George H.W. Bush, and Bush family friend Dick Cheney, had hatched this bizarre plan even prior to the son's election as President. Cheney, former CEO of a little-known company called Halliburton, had devised a sub-terrain of small corporations that would work within the Halliburton corporate structure, but only under top-secret government clearances. A team of professional demolition experts had been recruited, sworn to secrecy for life, and been put in charge of the plan to blow up the twin towers in New York. Younger brother of the 43rd President of the United States, Marvin L. Bush, was named CEO of a corporation that would assume responsibility for security within the World Trade Center complex.
3. The World Trade Center had been a 'white elephant' for years, losing billions of dollars in rent revenues as companies moved out and left multiple floors of the 110-story skyscrapers vacant. Silverstein Properties, LTD had acquired rights to the buildings as the leaseholder. The summer before 9-11-01, the leaseholder had negotiated a new insurance policy which specifically would cover the building in the event of a 'terrorist attack'. Silverstein's original $16 million investment would return $7 billion once all insurance claims were settled after the disaster.
4. Part of the seven-building complex were leased to various government offices, including federal courts, the CIA, and the FBI. Among documents that were obliterated when Building 7 was unceremoniously destroyed were important documents pertaining to government court cases against many large corporation accused of fraud, tax evasion, and erroneous earnings reports. In an instant, many government cases were dissolved for lack of evidence, or were - at best - minimized, as large companies with ties to the Bush and Cheney families saw the evidence against them evaporate.
5. The planes smashing into the World Trade Cener twin towers would create an enormous visual for most of America, but few would ever come to recognize that both towers actually came down as if they had been destroyed by demolition experts, hired to blow up buildings and make them implode on themselves. Which, in fact, they were.
6. Two of the federal government's largest contractors had direct ties to the White House: 1) Cheney was a former CEO of Halliburton, which had in a few years gone from an insignificant little company to the largest private presence in Iraq, as it was awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts without even having to submit a competitive bid; 2) George H.W. Bush, along with many of his cabinet members like James Baker, had joined the Carlyle Group shortly after he left the White House. In just a few short years, the Carlyle Group had become one of the largest government contractors - again, without those pesky requirements of a competitive bidding process. Among those who had made major investments in the Carlyle Group was a family that had put up $2.5 million - a family with the last name of binLaden.
7. The Bush family ties to Kuwait, Dubai and China were well known. Few, however, realized that the Bush family put those interests ahed of the best interests of the United States of America; the Bush dynasty was intent on being part of the new global domination, regardless of how many people had to be killed or how much property had to be destroyed.
Powell and McCain appeared on national television, broadcast from St. Kitts, and pledged to the American people that there would never be another possibility of one family assuming so much evil power and accumulating so much personal wealth while pretending to serve in the best interests of the United States. "Kennedy, Bush, Clinton - I don't care what the family's last name may be," vowed McCain, "such unmitigated power is unparalleled in our society, and we will do everything we can to keep such gluttonous practices from ever happening again."
It would become just one more part of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. mission.

Sunday, July 20, 2008. The AROB Group partiers had spent most of Saturday nursing hangovers. Now, it was finally time to 'get back to business'. Jil, Dana, Lynn, and their sizeable enturage boarded an O.U.T.R.A.G.E. plane and returned to the States. It was as if there had been a ten-day void in their lives (in reality, there was a ten-day void because this writer's computer was frozen, and the daily chapters couldn't be written). As it turned out, retired pig farmer Phil Baker - former computer technical consultant for IBM - ascertained that the computer problem was caused by this author's two cats lying on the modem and causing it overheat. A simple flick of a switch, and ten days of computer "outage" was resolved!
Despite what might have seemed liked useless frivolity, the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteers -hundreds of thousands of them across the U.S.A. and thousands more in St. Kitts - were heavily engaged in numerous issues facing the country. What, until very recently, had been the world's largest 'superpower', was now a country going through exhaustive pain and suffering as cities were being rebuilt, survivors were being nourished and cared for, and and the nation's corrupted political system was being revamped.
As with most powerful civilizations throughout world history, America had become a pagan society. High standards, moral integrity, ethical behavior, and the simple duty of being kind to others, were all but erased from the American consciousness as most citizens focused on getting rich, gaining power or status, and taking care of their own creature comforts, regardless of how vile, vulgar, or selfish such pursuits might become. People spent more time pouring over the investment portfolios than they did reading their daily Bible verses. Getting high, getting drunk, and getting laid had been national priorities for decades; getting involved in patriotic or religious activities seemed unimportant. The only real difference between the gradual ruin of the U.S.A. and the decline of the great ancient Roman empire was the manner of dress: contemporary Americans didn't wear togas. It wasn't unusual to hear a sweet little old lady utter the 'f-word' on national television. Society was left with little dignity, and even less commitment to spirituality or wholesomeness. Lust replaced love. Selfishness replaced selflessness. And Ronald Reagan's "All for one...ME" trickle-down theory had pissed all over the lower and middle-classes while adding bloat to the burgeonous upper-crust in American society.
Media and movie producers discovered that "sex sells". After World War II, the giant American military-industrial complex discovered how profitable "war" could be; government recognized how it could operate with sleight-of-hand if it just kept a tight reign over the press and the people. In the late 1990's, the Republican Party spent billions of taxpayers' dollars to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying to Congress about some shabby real estate deals and an extra-marital dalliance with another consenting adult. It wasn't about 'morality', or the Republicans' being fine, upstanding, protectors of purity. It was all about the Republicans not wanting to be the first to "get caught" at such illicit behavior. Twenty years before Bill Clinton, the Republican President Richard Nixon had been "caught" as the country's "First Crook". Despite Nixon's denials, he'd gotten caught with his pants down. Republicans couldn't afford to get caught with their secretaries' panties down, and Clinton's philandering became the easy target. Everyone in Congress knew which senator was screwing his administrative assistant (who was on the government payroll, yet demonstrated few - if any - job skills). It was common knowledge inside the beltway that too many of those unmarked doors in the Capitol Building led to private lairs where lawmakers lingered for 'quickie' liaisons between legislative sessions. Even young pages knew the representatives that kept a bottle of twelve-year-old scotch in their desk drawer, or which elected official would reward handsomely in return for a golden shower.
Government excess.
It had infiltrated every aspect of American society, to a point where society wasn't even outraged by it anymore. Vulgarian, boorish behavior was commonplace in offices, corporate boardrooms, and even in the hallowed halls of Congress. Yes, of course, there had always been banality throughout the history of the world. Lewd, lascivious behavior had always been part of powerful peooples' lives. But it had usually been kept quiet. Ben Franklin was once caught fondling a beautiful young paramour, but no one heard about it until long after his death. Thomas Jefferson had a longlasting affair with one of his slaves, but it remained a private matter for generations. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower both carried on affairs with secret lovers during their presidencies. John F. Kennedy was a prolific womanizer, but even the press chose to ignore it as a personal matter, not for public consumption. Lyndon B. Johnson was a rascally-rabbit whose sexual appetite was voracious, but remained unpublicized until after he died. In her exhaustively credible book, "The Family - The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty", Kitty Kelley makes no less than a dozen references regarding George H.W. Bush's infidelities. In the same book, she documents countless incidents regarding George H.W. Bush's son, George W. Bush. The son's infidelities, alcohol and drug use, rumors of an early girlfriend's abortion, hot temper, DUI arrest, verbal abusiveness and womanizing were rampant during his adolescence and well into his early forties.
One of the reasons the title of this blog is intentionally misspelled is to distinguish it from the real meaning of the word. A "bushwhacker" is one who fights or attacks from the bush; one who clears a path through woods or jungle territory; one who lives or hides out in the woods. From the perspective of these past 181 blog chapters, our "Bushwacker" title was intended to identify the Bush family as among those Rush Limbaugh might have called "wackos". Like most politicians of the twentieth century, the Bush family was legendary only in its own mind. Like most politicians of the twentieth century, the two Bush presidents only looked out after themselves and their personal allies. The Bush family's personal ties to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, and China were not necessarily in the best interests of the United States; those ties were in the best interests of the Bush dynasty. Along with all other sniveling, egregious, depraved personalities that made up America's upper-crust, the Bush "wacko" family deserved to die out before it did any more damage to the nation or the world. On January 17, 2008, George W. Bush, along with his father and brothers, were among the thousands of wealthy and powerful elitists killed by O.U.T.R.A.G.E.
The Kennedy dynasty was eliminated from American politics with the deaths of Ted Kennedy and many of his nephews and nieces who had political aspirations. The up-and-coming Clinton dynasty was nipped in the bud with the death of up-and-coming Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Government excess.
Oppressed United Taxpayers Revolting Against Government Excess (aka O.U.T.R.A.G.E.) now was taking the country and returning it to its rightful owners: "we the people".
In less than a month, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had added another one million members to its roster. Now sixteen million strong, the organization that had planned and executed the 'Rebellion of '08' was stronger than ever as Americans began to recognize that they could actually have a voice in their government again.

It had been an elaborate gala, and Jil, Dana, and Lynn were appropriately honored. They had invested a lot of time and effort into the "National Parade of Honor", and the nation had come together in a way unknown in contemporary times where patriotism and love of country were considered incidental. The all-night party at the Shiggity-Shack had been the second (or third or fourth) night of partying in a row for the AROB team and those other hangers-on. Most of the troops slept until at least noon, or later. Before Hammy's vulgar, unceremonious display of lighted methane on the beach, most had agreed that they would get together at the Shiggity-Shack at 3:00 p.m. to regroup.
Bob and Cher Ryan showed up at precisely three o'clock. The bar - and the beach - was empty. Within minutes, Ron Oetting, Patrick Hamilton, Cher Thomas, Lynn Patrick, and the Bakers (Phil and Janie) arrived. It was almost four-thirty before Jil, Dana, Lynn and their girlfriends finally managed to get to the beach (lightweights).
Phil and Janie Baker had arranged for a special surprise. After everyone was assembled at the Shiggity-Shack, Phil stood up, raised his glass, and made an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen," he pontificated, "we're here because of the phenomenal efforts of three outstanding ladies. Jil, Lynn and Dana did an outstanding job of bringing our nation together between Memorial Day and Independence Day. Over the past few decades, our nation has been stripped of its dignity, its heritage and its integrity. Now, if you ask me, stripping is an artform that should be left to professionals, not scumbag politicians and government bureaucrats. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to introduce you to one of America's premier exotic dancers...a legend in her own time....please, let's give it up for 'Catty Patti'! From behind the Shiggity-Shack's cardboard-thin paper walls that closed in its tiny kitchen, emerged a statuesque woman outfitted in full "Lady Liberty" regalia. Amidst background music of "God Bless America", "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "The Star Spangled Banner", Patti's ample proportions created such a sensual sensation, even the grains on the sand stood up to salute!
Among the hoots and hollers of the male members (no pun intended), the females in the crowd loudly protested about gender discrimination. "We want studs," they yelled in unison, "we want studs!" Anticipating such a reaction, Baker had already made appropriate accommodations. From behind the corrugated walls pounced an army of Chippendale dancers, sparsely clad in paper-thin black hot pants and black leather thongs. As they joined the gyrations of 'Catty Patti', the AROB crowd went wild! Jil, Dana, and Lynn were invited to join the Chippendales on stage, and - as could be expected - this 'regrouping' turned into a full-blown dance of debauchery. The party continued way past midnight. And, as could easily be expected, no one returned to their rooms in any degree of sobriety.

Jil, Dana and Lynn were on a private O.U.T.R.A.G.E. jet, enroute to St. Kitts for what they believed to be a 'planning session'. "I HATE meetings," said Jil, "they're so unproductive!" Lynn sipped on an ice cold Bushwhacker, a creamy, frothy concoction from the Islands. Dana nibbled on a silver tray of imported cheeses, delicate French crackers, and exotic sausages. Jil seemed nervous, always concerned that she might be unprepared for the "inquisition" she anticipated. Finally, to put herself at ease, Jil helped herself to an ice cold Bud Lite. She expected to be grilled by Interim President Colin Powell and Interim Vice-President John McCain. She wasn't looking forward to this exercise. By the time the plane was over Kentucky, Jil had switched from beer to Bushwhackers. Other members of the AROB team (Adams, Ryan, Oetting and Baker) were also on board in the back of the plane. Patrick Hamilton, Cher Thomas, Lynn Patrick, Cher Ryan and Janie Baker were also part of the troupe. It was an unusually quiet flight, perhaps because all eleven passengers had 'closed' Jilli's Pub the night before and were feeling little pain.
By the time the plane was over Georgia, everyone was drinking Bushwhackers.
By the time the plane landed in St. Kitts, all eleven passengers were shit-faced.
Eleven Hoosiers stumbled off the plane into the hot, sticky St. Kitts sunshine. Ron Oetting tripped and fell face first on the tarmac; predictably, Jil was there to pick him up and brush the debris from the cement off him. As Phil and Patrick farted and laughed uncontrollably, the rest of the entourage staggered into the airport terminal, seemingly unaware of Oetting's accident. Fortunately, he landed on top of his carry-on bag, thus having escaped any serious injuries.
Bob Ryan led the group to two black Lincoln limousines waiting outside the airport. Patrick ("Hammy") Hamilton poured himself into the back seat of one of the cars and collapsed on the floor of the car. "Oh, look," he slurred as he looked up at the roof of the car, "it's 88 degrees in St. Kitts." "Oh, look," replied Phil Baker, "it's 88 degrees in - where the hell are we? - St. Kitts." Before he could finish the sentence, he collapsed on top of Hammy like a 220-lb. sack of cement.
This drunken party of revelers were in no condition to attend any kind of a meeting, and Jil Adams was concerned that this group of inebriated idiots would embarass her.
Embarass her? Hell, this group was about to embarass the whole country!
The limos drove all eleven party people to St. Timothy's Resort, just across from the Shiggity-Shack. "You have six hours to sober up," the limo driver warned. "Then we'll be back to pick you up."
At 8:00 p.m. sharp, the two limousines returned. Clothes had been laid out in each room, and everyone was dressed to the nines. Jil, Lynn, and Dana all looked hot in their black-sequined gowns. Hairdressers had been recruited to help them with their buffants. Hammy, Bob, Phil and Ron had been fitted into black tuxedos. Janie, Cher, Lynn and Cher were all decked out in lavish black evening gowns. Obviously, this was not a "meeting", but an all-star event! As the passengers disembarked from the lusterous sedans, it was apprent that Jil, Lynn and Dana were about to be honored for their "National Parade of Honor". Jil accepted a beautiful award from Colin Powell that seemed to pale in the presence of her golden blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. Lynn and Dana were brought up on stage to accept similar awards.
The ceremony concluded before 10:00 p.m., and the rest of the evening was spent dancing and drinking. It was almost 2:00 a.m. before the limo drivers dropped everyone off at St. Timothy's Beach Resort. The clan decided to end the evening at the Shiggity Shack. The girls changed into bikinis' the guys slipped into swim trunks. The hot, steamy island evening became one more party! To Jil's surprise, O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had arranged for another plane load of her friends to come down for the celebration. Kathy, Michelle, Donna, Connie, Suzanne, and Phyllis joined the party that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Hammy ended the evening by sprawling on the beach, spreading his legs, farting, and lighting it on fire. The flame could be seen for almost a quarter-mile down the beach. After that, everyone retired to their respective rooms for a much-needed respite.

Jil, Dana and Lynn were on a private O.U.T.R.A.G.E. jet, enroute to St. Kitts for what they believed to be a 'planning session'. "I HATE meetings," said Jil, "they're so unproductive!" Lynn sipped on an ice cold Bushwhacker, a creamy, frothy concoction from the Islands. Dana nibbled on a silver tray of imported cheeses, delicate French crackers, and exotic sausages. Jil seemed nervous, always concerned that she might be unprepared for the "inquisition" she anticipated. Finally, to put herself at ease, Jil helped herself to an ice cold Bud Lite. She expected to be grilled by Interim President Colin Powell and Interim Vice-President John McCain. She wasn't looking forward to this exercise. By the time the plane was over Kentucky, Jil had switched from beer to Bushwhackers. Other members of the AROB team (Adams, Ryan, Oetting and Baker) were also on board in the back of the plane. Patrick Hamilton, Cher Thomas, Lynn Patrick, Cher Ryan and Janie Baker were also part of the troupe. It was an unusually quiet flight, perhaps because all eleven passengers had 'closed' Jilli's Pub the night before and were feeling little pain, other than throbbing headaches and bloodshot eyes.
By the time the plane was over Georgia, everyone was drinking Bushwhackers.
By the time the plane landed in St. Kitts, all eleven passengers were shit-faced.
Eleven Hoosiers stumbled off the plane into the hot, sticky St. Kitts sunshine. Ron Oetting tripped and fell face first on the tarmac; predictably, Jil was there to pick him up and brush the debris from the cement off him. As Phil and Patrick farted and laughed uncontrollably, the rest of the entourage staggered into the airport terminal, seemingly unaware of Oetting's accident. Fortunately, he landed on top of his carry-on bag, thus having escaped any serious injuries.
Bob Ryan led the group to two black Lincoln limousines waiting outside the airport. Patrick ("Hammy") Hamilton poured himself into the back seat of one of the cars and collapsed on the floor of the car. "Oh, look," he slurred as he looked up at the roof of the car, "it's 88 degrees in St. Kitts." "Oh, look," replied Phil Baker, "it's 88 degrees in - where the hell are we? - St. Kitts." Before he could finish the sentence, he collapsed on top of Hammy like a 220-lb. sack of cement.
This drunken party of revelers were in no condition to attend any kind of a meeting, and Jil Adams was concerned that this group of inebriated idiots would embarass her.
Embarass her? Hell, this group was about to embarass the whole country!
The limos drove all eleven party people to St. Timothy's Resort, just across from the Shiggity-Shack. "You have six hours to sober up," the limo driver warned. "Then we'll be back to pick you up."
At 8:00 p.m. sharp, the two limousines returned. Clothes had been laid out in each room, and everyone was dressed to the nines. Jil, Lynn, and Dana all looked hot in their black-sequined gowns. Hairdressers had been recruited to help them with their buffants. Hammy, Bob, Phil and Ron had been fitted into black tuxedos. Janie, Cher, Lynn and Cher were all decked out in lavish black evening gowns. Obviously, this was not a "meeting", but an all-star event!

Sometimes machines just don't work well; kind of like humans.
So, when you can't get into your blog, you don't get a chapter written for the day.
Fortunately, this so-called "author" has a beautiful, blue-eyed, blond-haired friend that always manages to come to his rescue when he's in trouble, broke, drunk, or just outright useless. Unbelieveable, Jil set up a "makeshift" office on her bar.
The computer was perched between two MegaTouch machines; the computer keyboard was sitting on an empty beer cooler. So this chapter of the "Bushwacker" blog didn't get published until late in the day...and this nefarious amateur authpr was able to get the job done, thanks in large part to the one woman who has always been there for him, even in the worst of times (actually, ONLY and ALWAYS in the worst of times).
As I've always said, "With friends like Jil, my enemies can't hurt me."
Jil's "National Parade of Honor" had been a tremendous success. Interim President Colin Powell was already preparing (unbeknownst to Jil)a special recognition ceremony in St. Kitts where she'll be honored, along with her two partners who helped make the parade so successful. Lynn and Dana will accompany Jil on one of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. private jets to an elegant ceremony in just a few weeks.
"Jil is the ultimate party planner," I said to myself. "Give her a budget and a deadline, and she does wonders. Give her a unlimited budget and no deadline, and she'll work miracles."
Precarious as this "work arrangement" was, it was made much more pleasant because Jil was there, and because she kept replenishing my peapickers. Creativity is always the benefactor of never-ending quantities of alcohol. It seems to encourage inspiration. And, the definition for "inspiration" is an idea that once was considered mediocre, but - in light of looming deadlnes - is suddenly genius!
Just as suddenly, the keyboard slid into the beer cooler, and I fell off my barstool. As always, Jil was there to rescue me, and as my wrinkled old body melted into the safety of her soft, supple arms, I couldn't help myself: as any dirty old man of any credible substance would do, I deliberately clung to her svelt, warm body.... perhaps a little longer than was appropriate or necessary. Heh...heh....heh....

Sunday, July 6, 2008, would have been George W. Bush's 62nd birthday. He didn't live to see it.
In some parts of the country, Independence Day celebrations were still going on, marked by reverent memorial services to all those who perished in the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'Rebellion of '08', and punctuated by fabulous fireworks displays that had been put together with some celerity. Many communities had been celebrating the entire holiday weekend, anxious - or desperate - to refresh the American spirit and begin the dream of a new American way of life.
Some four months after the hurricane and earthquake struck both coasts of the U.S., the drudgery of search-and-rescue efforts, and the massive challenge of clean up and rebuilding, continued.
Millions of Americans were still grieving; millions more were involved in the humanitarian efforts to restore the nation. Millions more were going about their daily lives, especially in the heartland where O.U.T.R.A.G.E. bombings had been less instense, and the effects of the hurricane and eathquake had gone unfelt. Volunteers had streamed in from all parts of the country, and from other parts of the world. Everybody wanted to help. U.S. allies and enemies sent planes and boats filled with food and medicine. So many U.S. leaders would have been stunned by the thought of the world's richest nation needing assistance from nations less endowed. But that was part of Americans' problem: they never wanted to see themselves as part of the global community. They always saw themselves as superior, powerful, arrogant. Americans lived in $100,000 homes while much of the rest of the world lived in mud huts. Americans drove $60,000 gas-guzzling SUVs to work, parked them in the company parking lot, and drove home at night. Much of the rest of the world's workers rode bicycles to work. Americans would complain when they couldn't get a reservation at a five-star restaurant. Billions of people in the rest of the world might scavenge for food all day long and still go to bed hungry.
Few Americans were alive today who had suffered through the Great Depression of 1929. Back then, a new society of wealth and privilege had emerged as more and more people invested in the 'stock market'. The money flowed like manna from Heaven. Giddy with their new-found wealth, many believed the bubble would never burst. And, when it did, thousands of the nouveau riche' suddenly found themselves trading leveraged accounts for window ledges.
It took America twenty years and a world war to recover from October 29, 1929.
Now, sixty years later, the memories of those desperate days were replaced with a heady new consumerism that exploded
in full force. People were buying cars that cost more than their parents' first homes. Toys and gadgets filled store shelves, screaming at the shopper to "buy now, pay later". WalMart promised "low prices - everyday" on junk no one really needed - but "need" was exaggerated in a society fueled by its own superfluity. Color television sets, personal computers, cell phones and Blackberries all became - in their time - "necessities" of a society swimming in excess. "The Great Depression could never happen again," so-called 'experts' touted on TV shows and in financial newsletters. Then they went on to explain why such a financial catastrophe would never be repeated. Investment brokers, financial advisors, and bankers offered money management services to people who didn't know what to do with all their money. It was prudent to participate in 'wealth management' programs. A stock market or housing downslide was characterized as a "correction" in the marketplace. While a few more sober prophets warned about the impending bankruptcy of America, very few paid any attention. Just keep building up one's personal fortune, and that would protect them from becoming a homeless waif selling pencils on a street corner.
It was an incredulous house of cards, all based on an inherent faith in the government's ability to keep things from certain collapse. And the most prolific profligacy came from those who should have known best: politicians, bankers, stock brokers, lawyers, and financial planners. Drunk with power and money, they all knew the party would eventually end; but no one wanted to think about having to clean up the mess when the revelry returned to reality, and a fiscally-hungover nation finally sobered up. Like the college party girl who finds herself spread out on the bed and her clothes slung all over the floor, Americans might be waking up wondering why they smell like Old Spice and Brut, and their pussies hurt so much. Getting screwed is always fun until you pass out from all that gang gaiety; waking up with a massive headache, and vomit in your crotch, tends to ruin the illusion.
The people behind the Bush administration knew full well it was setting America up for another great economic disaster. But, it was all part of a sinister scenario: the pragmatic assumption could be made that Democrats would win the White House in 2008, and carry a majority in Congress. With Republicans out of office for the next eight years, the "depression" could be blamed on the Democrats, and return Republicans to power in the middle of the 21st century's second decade. Just as FDR and the Democrats has taken power away from Herbert Hoover because of his inability to harness the effects of the first depression, Republicans could wrest control for perhaps twenty years or more, just as the global environment was changing. By 2025, Republicans might be able to begin the achievement of their ultimate dream: a new world order with one central, all-powerful, global government. The one thing Republicans didn't plan on was the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'Rebellion of '08', a revolution which would revolutionize the American power structure, dismantle the corrupt two-party system, and put the people back in charge of their government.

Since the Democrats took control of Congress after the mid-term elections in November, 2006, things had - predictably - gone awry. Infighting was rampant as Americans' public servants argued about meaningless trivial that had little to do with running the country. As was once pontificated in "Paradise Lost", it seemed "better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven".
For as much alike as they were, Republicans and Democrats couldn't agree on anything other than who had the power to control, manipulate, deal, and intimdate.
It was one more evidence why Article I of the twenty-five resolutions introduced by O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had been to "take the 'con' out of Congress".
Now that most elected officials were dead and gone, new candidates could be groomed...candidates who would agree to be true statesmen and public servants instead of arrogant backstabbers who only concerned themselves with their own power and wealth. For the first time in recent history, capable, qualified potential candidates were coming forward, forming their own political parties and creating their own political platforms. When asked why they were running for public office, most of these fresh new faces made the same reply: "I never wanted to be part of the sewage in Congress...." Running for Congress in the past was like a race among sewer rats. Now, new candidates recognized the opportunity to bring new ideals and fresh approaches to government.
To be sure, there were some radical opportunists who tested the patience of O.U.T.R.A.G.E. panelists. One fruitcake from LaCrosse, Wisconsin proposed turning the United States into the "largest nudist colony in the world", making the nation entirely "clothing optional". Another band of hyped-up 'hippies" - leftovers from the late 60's - wanted to start the 'Free Love' Party, where everyone would live in giant communes and share everything, including chores, money, and lovers.
But even these off-the-wall types agreed that one thing had to change: Congress had to return to being the servant of the people instead of the bagman for special interest groups, wealthy elitists, lobbyists, and big corporations.

On Friday, July 4, 2008, Jil, Dana and Lynn roared into Los Angeles in their lime green O.U.T.R.A.G.E. motorhome to march in one final parade. The "National Parade of Honor" had been a phenomenal success, as more than 220 parades were organized in over 200 cities and towns across the country. A virtual ghost town since the 9.4 earthquake struck, Los Angeles still managed to bring several thousand people together for this Independence Day celebration. It had been planned by several area VFW and American Legion posts as a tribute to American veterans, and as testament to the greatness of the American spirit, even in times of the worst adversity.
Veterans proudly marched through the devastated downtown area of L.A., some with the help of canes or walkers, others in wheelcairs or motorized scooters. But they marched.....
Here were the true heroes of America's many military conflicts over the past fifty years. They weren't pompous politicians who never faced the wrong end of an enemy sniper's rifle. They weren't glittery movie stars or highfalutin', puffed-up millionaire celebrities who pranced around like waxed mannequins, never knowing strife or hardship. These were hard-working, modest, honest, honorable men and women who had served their country out of a sense of duty and patriotic fervor. Now, many of them faced their golden years in poverty and aloneness, forgotten by their countrymen all because they weren't the flamboyant types that demanded fame and fortune. All they wanted was to be remembered for what they did. All they wanted was recognition for their humble and courageous service to God and country. They were proud, not pretentious.
Many of them were old, too old to be of much remaining value to their communities. Some of them were homeless, too poor and unstable to be of value to themselves after returning from the horrors of war. Most of them were just 'common' people, too 'common' to ever be the subject of a spotlight or the topic of a column in the L.A. Times.
The parade lasted four hours, and at its end near the famed "Hollywood" sign, Jil had planned an extravagant fireworks display to mark America's 232nd year of Independence.

Misfortune befalls us all at various times in our lives. God seems to dish out larger portions of bad luck to some more than others. "God never gives us more than we can handle" might sound encouragingly philosophical to some; to others, it's just a pile of patronizing psycho-poop. Lynn was one of those who had seen some of that poop come her way. Now approaching her early 60's, she had been the victim of a ruthless corporate downsizing less than two years ago. Just weeks after suffering a mild stroke, she learned that the company she worked for had been sold. Her new employer callously informed her that just ten days before Christmas, she would no longer have a job. Nor would she have any kind of severance package; her pension was dissolved; the employer's share of her 401k had been taken away. At age 57, she had few job prospects, particularly in her field of expertise. Thrown to the streets like table scraps tossed to a hungry dog, Lynn had gone through two years of hardship. It was only when her friend, Jil, invited her to join the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. parade project that Lynn fully returned to the vital, vibrant, vivacious vamp she'd always been. Like millions of Americans who had been victims of corporate bankruptcies or buy-outs, downsizings, layoffs, or jobs being shipped to India, Lynn lost more than an income. She lost a large part of her being. Too many Americans defined their lives by what they did for a living; now Lynn had been given the opportunity to participate in an event that had changed lives. The 'National Parade of Honor' had been one of the most notable successes of O.U.T.R.A.G.E., thanks to the diligence and discipline of Jil, Dana and Lynn. True, there had been some raucous revelry along the way, but as Lynn always said, "If you don't have any fun in your life, you sure as hell won't have any fun at all after you're dead!"

Like so many of America's forgotten war veterans, millions of American workers had also been displaced, replaced, or misplaced. Ruthless corporate 'fat cats' looked out for themselves and their shareholders while paying scant attention to the core associates who actually made things happen within the company. To "save money" executives replaced American workers with cheap labor in India, China or Malaysia, all so there was more slush funded for executive perks, bonuses, and retirement packages (rarely did cost-saving initiatives ever result in lower costs to the consumer). America was full of homeless, hungry, unemployed, underemployed, hopeless and hapless veterans and workers. In a land of such wealth, it seemed shameful that so many good people were living on the edge. The 'National Parade of Honor' had returned value and significance to the lives of these hopeless, hapless millions. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had helped restore a sense of self-pride and had refreshed the spirit of the masses. Happy Birthday, America! Now, let's blow out the candles and get this party started!

Mahatma Gandhi once made this prophetic statement:
"The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice."

It seemed a fitting description of America's decline from greatness.
Politics, of course, had become the scourge of America, as the corrupt two-party system minimized voters' choices to the lesser of two evils. Congress had forgotten its role as public servant, and had established itself as some kind of arcane monarchy within the republic. Dealmaking, deception, and debauchery had reduced public confidence in Congress to all-time record low ratings.
Pleasure without conscience was practically a national past time. Ever since the "hippie" days of "free love", America had declined into a cistern of abandoned mores and even fewer manners. People slept with anyone they wanted, disregarding the vows or commitments they'd made to others. Use of alcohol and drugs ran rampant as an impotent, hypocritical government spent billions on a so-called 'war on drugs'. Self-gratification trumped self-respect, or - even more insultingly - respect for others, everytime.
Wealth without work was a way of life. CEOs of major corporations lived lavish lifestyles, paying themselves hundreds of times more than those whom they employed. While they rummaged through corporate resources like rats in a cheese factory, middle and lower-incomed workers lost their jobs, their pensions, their health benefits, and their self-esteem. "Cooking the books" was common place, and - even as government prosecuted many large corporations for such illegal and immoral behavior - it, too, practiced the same kinds of unethical accounting. The Bush administration had been especially vile as it deliberately tried to hide the enormous cost of an ill-planned 'war' in Iraq from American taxpayers.
Knowledge without character exemplified America's lais'sez faire attitude toward learning. School children could tell you all about the latest exploits of greed heads like Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise. "Sports fans" knew all the vital statistics about their favorite athlete or team. The most vile jokes could be repeated over and over again, and still find a receptive audience. Many Americans swore by the knowledge imparted in the entertainment rags and gossip magazines. 'Cosmopolitan' women would sleep with moneyed men and then write a 'tell-all' book to satisfy the putrid desires of consumers hungry for all the dirty details. But few Americans could name their Congressman. Even fewer could admit to reading any of the great classics in world literature. As Gore Vidal once said, "Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them, either!"
Business without morality was a way of doing business. WalMart, of course, was the most prolific example of how money meant more than treating employees, vendors, and even customers with any kind of good-heartedness. Terms like "Business is business" and "winning at all costs" were popular mantras as America entered the 21st century. The more ruthless you were, the more money you stuffed into your bank accounts and investment portfolios. Giving customers a good value at a fair price wasn't as important as enhancing your profit margins by putting fewer corn chips in a bigger bag, deceiving many shoppers into believing they were really getting a good buy.
Science without humanity became more pronounced as research labs devoted more time to things that would generate profit instead of things that would generate proprieties for the public good or welfare. Billions were spent on developing the latest aphrodisiac, but precious little was budgeted for trying to save the environment.
Worship without sacrifice was evident as people had stopped going to church. Then, even those that went find it inconvenient to sacrifice their sleep on Sunday mornings, preferring instead to attend a brief Saturday night service. As churches witnessed declines in attendance at sunrise services, such eloquent events were scrapped. Sunrise tee-times were much more important to millions of slothful Americans. As a day of rest and reflection, Sunday had been forgotten; well-heeled Americans could shop 24 hours a day, seven days a week while lower-incomed Americans rang up their multiple credit card purchases at the check-out lanes.
Almost certainly, when archeologists would dig up long-buried McDonald's signs two thousand years from now, they would be convinced that the sub-humans of the 21st century worshipped the 'golden arches'. It made one wonder: had the crucifix actually been a religious symbol? Or might it have been the logo for a medieval fast-food chain that sold kosher knishes in the days of Christ? The "Big Knish" could have been the quick kitsch some enterprising entreprenuer pitched to the new Christians, a cheap and tawdry predecessor of the Big Mac, appealing to the taste buds of the undiscriminating masses. Judas Iscariot could have been the Ray Kroc of his day!
The O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'Rebellion of '08' had effectively destroyed much of the things that Gandhi envisioned as destroying us all. It had been a violent massacre, a murderous revolution. But, as Joseph Stalin once said: "You cannot make a Revolution with silk gloves." While the 'revolution' had taken only a matter of minutes, the healing process of uniting Americans would take years - maybe even decades. That process would require silk gloves.

The backbone of America's economy has always been small business. But, over the years, greed conquered common sense, and small family-owned businesses became large publicly-owned conglomerates who had little interest in being good corporate citizens within their local communities. Long-term objectives were discarded for short-term profits that out-performed last quarter's profits. That's why O.U.T.R.A.G.E. believed Article XIX was important: it was a resolution to nationalize all public corporations.
The idea was to regulate corporations so that they would become more responsible to society instead of solely responsible to their executives and shareholders. Of course, big companies always tried to portray themselves in the best light with glitzy TV commercials and warm magazine ads about how they shared America's interests in the environment, quality of life, ecology, and prosperity. The raw truth was something more sinister: they're interest was in grabbing more of your money.
If that resulted in deceptive packaging (to make you think you were getting more than you actually were), or tainting their products with addictive substances (that would get you "hooked" on their brand of cigarettes or soda pop), or convincing you that their "designer beer can" somehow made their product better, it was all designed to draw more customers into a web of consumerism from which many people could ever escape. As easy credit became more available to millions of customers, Americans were headed down a slippery-slope of 'buy now, pay later" - sometimes much later, at the expense of exoribtant interest rates and miscellaneous "fees". The lobbyists, of course, made sure it was all "legal" with the help of a pliable and gullible U.S. Congress who gleefully went along with anything the industry proposed. The American consumer, by 2008, was in a pond of financial quicksand - and the big banks had just recently made it more difficult for people drowning in debt to declare bankruptcy and relieve themselves from the tenacles of big business.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. believed Article XIX to be an important measure in keeping corporations under control, maintaining fair and equitable profit structures, and ensuring that employees would not be robbed of their pensions or benefits after years of loyal service, just because some CEO needed a million-dollar golden parachute. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. employment experts were working closely with economics professors and corporate leaders, alongside a battery of 'common' citizens, including laborers and union leaders. The work continued in St. Kitts day and night. This was just one of twenty five resolutions that was to be passed into law as soon as the new Congress convened after being elected next November 4. Again, difficult questions arose: how do you allow free enterprise and still try to control basic avarice? It presented perplexing issues that took long hours of debate, compromise, and amicable collusion as the formal language was being readied.

Jim Hightower is a renowned political activist, and editor of "The Hightower Lowdown", a monthly newsletter that had been a pain in George W. Bush's backside ever since Bush assumed office. Toward the very end of 2006, Hightower wrote a column for his progressive readers, entitlted "Our Clueless War Leaders". It was a brutal critique on the absolute ignorance of the Bush administration in regard to its war in Iraq:
"The most basic rule of war is this," wrote Hightower: "Know your enemy.
A major reason that Bush's Iraq war is such a disaster is that the commander-in-chief is clueless about the culture of Islamic people. That's no surprise, since George W. Bush has the intellectual curiosity of a butter bean. But most of the Bushite counterterrorism officials also don't know beans about theie enemy.
Jeff Stein, the national security editor at Congressional Quarterly, has recently been asking a rather fundamental question: 'Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?' Since the Sunni-Shiite culture clash is a 1,400-year-old conflict that is now playing out in civil war in Iraq, with our soldiers trapped in the middle, an understanding of this difference is crucial to the war.
The head of the FBI's national security branch agreed that it is important for a man in his position to know the difference....
but he didn't. He could not even tell whether neighboring Iran is Sunni or Shiite - a rather crucial distinction, since the new Iraqi government is forging alliances with Iranian theocrats.
Stein's question stumped Rep. JoAnn Davis, who heads the subcommittee overseeing much of the CIA's work in Islamic countries. 'The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice-versa,' she said.
Rep. Terry Everett, head of a subcommittee on tactical intelligence, also stumbled. 'I thought it was differences in their religion, different families, or something,' he said. Then he added, 'Now that you've explained it to me, what occurs to me is that it makes what we're doing over there extremely difficult.' Golly, Terry.....really? Shouldn't you have thought about that several hundred thousand lives and $373 billion ago? Sheesh, these people clearly don't know what they're doing!"
Hightower's column exemplified the absolute arrogance and implicit ignorance of the Bush administration. It was as if George W. Bush, brave and courageous bullfighter, had entered the arena without knowing that a crazed, wild bull will charge and attack if you wave a red cape in front of it!
Even Roget's II "The New Thesaurus" didn't have a synonym better than 'stupid' to define the woefully inadequate and - more pathetically - incompetent Bush administration as it stumble-bummed its way through a radical war it failed to even try to understand. Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars had been pissed away; hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost; hundreds of thousands more victims had been permanently injured, maimed, or disabled; American taxpayers were now trillions of dollars in debt, and the inmates running the insane asylum refused to recognize the reality they had so badly mangled.

Is e-mail private? Or is e-mail public information?
An O.U.T.R.A.G.E. panel of legal experts was hotly contesting this issue, an issue that had been lumbering through the courts for years. In 1986, Congress passed a law to forbid the interception and/or disclosure of e-mail and other online transmissions without a warrant. But, as always, there was a loophole. if the messages were more than 180 days old, Congress said they could be obtained with a subpeona or a court order, which investigators can get a lot easier than a warrant. Twenty years later the Justice Department argued before an Ohio appeals court that even new messages should be able to be obtained without a warrant IF they're intended recipient had already read them! In other words, the Justice Department presumed that the owner of an opened e-mail had no reasonable expectation of privacy. It was one more demonstration of how the Bush administration trampled on the rights and privacy of American citizens without regard for the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
On December 15, 1791, Congress proposed - and the states ratified - the Bill of Rights. The Fourth Amendment specifically stated, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
With information floating around through cyberspace, was the Constitution still operable when it came to privacy issues? The founding fathers could not have foreseen the coming of the Internet; but, just because it's "out there" for the world to view, could the FBI, the CIA, or any other government agency simply gather that information without probable cause - and without a warranted reason?
As O.U.T.R.A.G.E. milled through the process of dismantling the federal government, legal and moral issues arose at every turn. The O.U.T.R.A.G.E. mission was to return substantially more power to the states while maintaining a Constitutional structure for the nation. It was imperative that states' rights be honored; after all, the U.S. government had taken more and more away from the states over the past few decades. To burst that bloated, gluttonous belly of power inside the beltway would require considerable acquiescence on the part of Congress. Potential new candidates needed to understand that Congress would no longer be a "power base", but would return to what it was supposed to be: a public servant full of humility and obsequious subserviency.
Before his assassination, George W. Bush had adamantly believed that citizens had no right to privacy when it came to "fighting terrorism". Bush believed it was acceptable for the government to look into citizens' bank accounts, telephone records, or e-mails. As predicted in George Orwell's book, "1984", the "thought police" should be allowed - within the Bush mentality - to "read" your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or invade your private thoughts just because they felt like it. It was an issue that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had contested for years, along with dozens of other civil rights groups. The attitude that you were presumed guilty until proven innocent was in diametric opposition to the freedoms granted to Americans. Whether it was your 'snail mail" or e-mail, the government had no assumed right to look at it. Even a FedEx package delivered to your door was none of the government's concern.
"But what if that pacel contains a bomb?" some would fearfully quiver. Like it or not, that's part of the price we pay for living in a free society. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had placed small bombs in thousands of public buildings, government offices, private homes, and corporate headquarters as it set out to exterminate America's wealthy, influential and powerful. It was the price those wealthy, influential and powerful people paid for living in a free society. Now it was up to O.U.T.R.A.G.E. to bring civility back to the country it had torn apart. How do you balance the right to privacy with the expectation for public safety?
The Bush approach was blatantly wrong. The freedom fighters' approach was insecure and frivilous in a world filled with horror, violence, and terror. Certainly there had to be a compromise. As O.U.T.R.A.G.E. viewed it, the change had to come from within the minds and hearts of the people. Instead of trying to protect us all from hatred and bigotry, hatred and bigotry had to eradicated from the public mindset. People had to stop thinking that they were better than someone else because of the color of their skin, their religious convictions, their political beliefs, their financial net worth, their social status, their sexual persuasions, or their positions of power. As utopian as it sounded, changing mindsets was the key to a more perfect union. Love, compassion, allotment, contrition, tolerance and understanding had to replace greed, selfishness, lust, hatred, bigotry, arroagance and indifference in our society.

The cost for the Iraq war had been calculated a hundred different ways. Depending on what you were trying to prove, the cost of the was was either lower than the Bush administration had projected, or higher than could be imagineable. Before the war began, administration officials predicted that the conflict would cost approximately $50 billion. By the end of its thrd year, the cost had escalated to at least $380 billion. True costs, opponents argued, were in excess of $1.3 trillion, when health care and disability benefits for U.S. soldiers, rebuilding costs in Iraq, and allocations for equipment and supplies were added. Essentially financed through deficit spending, interest payments alone, over time, were projected to top $100 billion.
Depending on the state you lived in, the cost to taxpayers could be somewhere between 5 and 10 billion dollars. If you lived in a city of approximately a quarter-million population, you could expect your city's share of the cost to be about $175 million. If you lived in a large metropolitan area, your city's share could be three-quarters of a billion dollars, or more. All of this money had to come from somewhere, and it usually resulted in fewer services being provided by municipal governments. Thus, it came as no surprise when many cities along the east coast announced they had little money to spend on search-and-rescue, community care, or reconstruction efforts. Washington, DC and New York City were broke before being struck by a gargantuan hurricane. On the west coast, Los Angeles suffered the same economic turmoil.
In the fall of 2006, the National Priorities Project (NPP), estimated the cost of the Iraq war "based on the analysis of legislation appropriating funding...and Congressional Research Service reports." NPP was quick to point out that those costs included only incremental budgetary costs, not interest, or future costs related to the war.
For several years, it had been widely rumored that the Bush administration was working "off the books", intentionally not including billions of dollars of "war costs" in the federal budgets. It was the same kind of shell game that large corporations used to soften the impact of quarterly losses. The federal government had prosecuted some companies for such deceptive bookkeeping practices, often sending CEOs to jail and imposing massive fines. Of course, the government could violate the same standards, and who would prosecute the government??
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. had engaged the services of several reputable economics experts and analysts from all over the world to take an in-depth look at the true cost of the war. It was important for the U.S.A. to know exactly how deeply in debt it was. Obviously, it was time to cut up the country's credit cards and establish a budget on which Congress would be forced to live. With the 'fat cats' now dead and buried, it was up to those new incoming Congressional candidates to understand the need for intense and frugal measures. "A billion here and billion there..." wasn't going to work anymore. It was time for Congress to start pinching pennies.
The concept of taxpayers sending all their money to Washington, and then letting Washington reallocate it at its whim, was an archaic - and, now, more than ever - and worthless idea. Washington would no longer be given free access to the federal purse strings. The 'fat cats' in Congress would go on a starvation diet.......

If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison.

"When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When people fear the government, it is tyranny." - Benjamin Franklin.

"This, and no other, is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, his is a protector." - Plato

"Terrorism is the best political weapon, for nothing drives people harder than the fear of sudden death." - Adolph Hitler.

"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if [they believe] their personal security is threatened." - Joseph Stalin.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson.

Wise men have made profound statements over the eons; few men have paid much attention. Since 2000, the Bush administration had planted fears and doubts in the minds of American citizens. Virtually every stumble-bum speech George W. Bush ever made warned about the "war on terror". Bush was fodder for comedians, as the country looked at him as nothing more than a sick joke. Late-night comedian David Letterman ran snippets every night called, "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" which would begin with Roosevelt's famous"we have nothing to fear but fear itself". Then a clip of Kennedy urging citizens to "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." The two-minute segment always ended with George W. Bush stuttering, stammering, or saying something incredibly stupid. The most surprising thing about this comic segment was that there was enough material to sustain it for more than two years!
Himself a paranoid, weak, and diminutive personality, Bush relied on his family's wealth, power and influence to get him through what would have otherwise been a vacant, unproductive life. Shortly after his re-election, a web site appeared that provided elaborate "proof" of Bush being the Anti-Christ. All you had to do was "Google" on to "George W. Bush - Birth Date" and scroll down a ways. There it was: all the 'documented' evidence outlining how this little pipsqueak of a man could prance around as President with a smug, twisted smile on his face and a Napoleon-style swagger that he must have thought gave him that look of authority his ego so sorely coveted.
Throughout his wasted youth, Bush's low self-esteem surfaced as he abused alcohol and cocaine. He failed miserably as a businessman. His father's money, power, and influence got him into an ivy-league college, got him elected as the Governor of Texas, and eventually plopped him into the comfortable chair behind the Presidential desk in the Oval Office. Bush's secret diary revealed he didn't have a clue as to what he was doing. Had it not been for a staff of 438 people telling him what to do, what to say, and how to act, George W. Bush wouldn't have been able to tie his own shoes.
The freakish twist to the George W. Bush legacy was how his block-headed, spoiled-rich-kid attitude actually helped him maintain a stubborness when it came to destroying the United States of America. He had even publicly said at one time that he would not change course in Iraq, even if his wife, Laura, was the only one who still believed in him. Laura Bush had been a calming influence in her husband's life; in 1963, she was involved in a bizarre auto accident. Her Chevrolet ran a stop sign, hitting a Corvair that was driven by her boyfriend - and killing him! No charges were ever filed, even though it had all the potential earmarks of a sinister murder plot that could have made an intriguing segment on Dateline or 48 Hours Mystery.
That incident must have helped Laura grow up in a hurry. Soon afterwards, she met George W. Bush, and it was her influence that - probably more than anything else - helped him grow up.
Now, the massive Bush ego had turned him into a megalomaniac. He had become a terrorist in his own right as he vigilantly battled the other terrorists of the world. The warnings of Madison, Plato, Jefferson, Franklin, Stalin and Hitler went unheeded.
Bush's stubborn streak as an adult wanting to "stay the course" in Iraq almost certainly mirrored his childhood tantrums when he wanted to play cowboys-and-Indians until he'd 'killed' all the 'bad guys'.
Some of the world's wisest men had warned us about lunatics like George W. Bush.

Friday, June 27, 2008. The telecasts from St. Kitts were non-stop, as viewers could tune in to witness and observe all the activities going on; they could even participate in discussions by going online to interactive web sites. This was truly democracy in action, as 'common' citizens from all over the United States actually helped to write the language that would eventually become new laws of the land. In 1992, H. Ross Perot had suggested interactive online voting, along with a paid holiday that would encourage more voter turn-out.
The United States was in a position to become a true democracy, ruled by the people, instead of a republic, ruled by representatives elected by the people. Computer technology enabled instantaneous interaction and popular participation. Unlike in colonial days when communications took weeks to reach many areas of the new country, referendums could be posted and voted on in quick order. Newly-elected members of Congress would no longer play, "Let's make a deal" and pass laws without the public's knowledge or consent. They would introduce legislation, write the laws, and make recommendations to their constituents. The people would have the final say as to what became law and what didn't. Members of Congress would become subservient to the people, and would only be able to do what the people wished to be done. This was a striking difference; politicians over the past fifty years had become jaded, believing they were some kind of royalty or pompous monarchy onto themselves. Now, politicians would return to being public servants who had to answer to the citizenry before they could take action on anything.
As such a concept gradually sunk into America's consciousness, people began remembering lessons from their civics and government classes which reminded them of how it was supposed to be. "We the People....." meant all the power was not intended to repose inside the beltway. Never had political reform been so pronounced in the United States.
Article XI was a resolution to relocate the federal government's headquarters to Lebanon, Kansas, designated as the exact center of the contiguous 48 states. A panel of experts were working on that resolution, assisted by a sub-committee of architects and contractors who today were ready to reveal preliminary sketches for the new government facilities.
When one thought about it, moving the government's offices to the center of the country made perfect sense for lots of practical reasons:
1) When Washington, D.C. was established as the nation's capital, it was pretty much in the center of the country; now it was thousands of miles from much of the country, causing an imbalance that created serious financial and geographical concerns. Members of Congress were reimbursed for travel expenses from their home states to the Capital. That mean many Congressmen received lavish reimbursement checks for their travel. Putting the nation's capital in the center of the nation would provide more equal reimbursements instead of the disproportionate compensations some now earned.
2) The nation's capital would be more protected if it were in the middle of the country. Washington, DC could easily become a target from incoming aircraft or seagoing vessels intent on attacking. It would be far more difficult to attack a target that was thousands of miles inland.
3) Since the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. explosions and the devastating hurricane had all but demolished Washington, DC, it made sense - both emotionally and financially - to rebuild somewhere else. Pennsylvania Avenue, K Street, and most of Washington's 'business district' consisting of government-related offices, were gone. In an ironic, almost eerie twist of fate, Independence Mall and many of the city's memorials had remained standing. Those areas could be rebuilt and preserved as monuments to the city that had served as the nation's capital for so long. It was more pragmatic, and prudent, to move on and relocate the capital to a more central region of the country.
At 4:55 p.m. EST, the committee presented their sketches to the nationwide television audience. Strikingly simplistic and altruistic, the designs reverently demonstrated a memorial to those killed by the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'Rebellion of '08' and at the same time glorified the promise of a new beginning for America's government. Architects who worked on the project saw a need to commemorate the dead and honor their memories. Now, rising from those ashes would emerge a new kind of moral and ethical government that would set high standards for society and return America to a clarity of genteel and purgative wholesomeness. A web site had been established to show details of various plans, and citizens would be asked to vote for the presentations they preferred. Article XI would be written to accept the design chosen by the majority of Americans. It would then be proposed as legislation, to be considered by the incoming Congress in November, 2008. Once Congress approved the bill, it would be put to a popular vote. If the American voters authorized such action, construction on a new U.S. Capitol and a new U.S. capital city could begin before the end of the year.