About Last Night, or
Just Leave the Fifty on the Dresser, Condaleezza

I went to my favorite party of the year on Saturday night.
Hosted by a very sweet lesbian couple whom I've known professionally and socially for more than a decade, their guest list always includes a ton of reporters, editors, photographers and others in the journalism field.
Because my field of journalism deals with public relations and the corporate side of the profession, I was eager to hear what the media journalists had to say about the hijinx in the Bush administration.
Needless to say, the hot topic was that idiot Dubya's new, trillion dollar Mars scam.
I felt comforted that even my wildest theories about the reasons for Dubya's ridiculous new scheme were shared by virtually everyone I chatted with last night.
The consensus was, the plan appears to be an ill-timed, blatant attempt by Bush to generate huge government contracts for his heavy contributing, war lovin' buddies in the defense and aerospace industries.
Even the non journalists were appalled that Bush thinks launching a trillion dollar plan to gather dirt from Mars is more important than spending money on issues like fitting all domestic airports with state of the art screening technology and legitimately trained security personnel, increasing affordable health insurance for more Americans, funding for more medical research, education and other domestic necessities Bush has ignored.
I was so fired up last night, I didn't even remember to cop a buzz.
For some reason, this trillion dollar Mars scam has outraged me even more than the lies Bush told about the WMD's, which dragged us into a war.
The absurdity of the plan, combined with the sheer gall Bush had to propose such a superfluous waste of tax dollars after his inept budget plans had already produced record deficits, just shows how the lemmings who believe all his lies, fear tactics and fake patriotism have emboldened him.
During an especially spirited discussion headquartered in the living room, Henry, a lovely man I met, thought I was joking when I said Exxon had named an oil tanker after Condaleezza Rice.
Even with a couple of reporters there to verify my claim, Henry bet me $50 that Exxon did not have a Condaleeza-named tanker.
I virtually leaped over the coffee table to shake on the bet.
Immediately, Vincent, a reporter who was sitting with us, whipped out his cell phone and called Laura, another reporter who was still on duty who'd be joining us soon. He asked her to Google, then print out some evidence of the Good
Ship Condie's existence, and bring it with her to the party.
Laura arrived within the hour with the proof.
Henry forked over $50 cash, and refused to accept a rebate I offered him for his graciousness in honoring the bet.
Henry is married to a journalist, so he hasn't been closely following the outrageous shenanigans of Dubya and his team of weasels. In fact, for a Boston Democrat, Henry seemed to kind of like Bush when the conversation first started.
By the time the rest of us finished clueing him in, he was appropriately outraged.

That's what it's going to take to get Bush thrown out, my friends, mano a mano education and relentless persuasion.

We Americans who have seen through the manipulative, dishonest misrepresentations and fear tactics Bush has used to further the selfish agendas of his elite peer group, MUST take every opportunity to enlighten our fellow American voters.
For Texans who oppose Bush, the task of exposing him as the fraud he is to complacent, uninformed Texas voters can be compared with trying to piss up a rope.
But...the rest of you stand a better chance of helping your state's electoral votes go *anywhere* but the Bush column. Get the word out!
America just can't handle the strain of four more years of Dubya's petty fiefdom.
Can I get an amen on that?