IT LOOKED LIKE TOMMY FRANKS MIGHT DEMAND RUMMY RESIGN TODAY BUT HE DIDN'T HAVE THE GUTS. I BET BASIL DALACK WOULD!

And I bet you never heard of Basil Dalack-- unless you live in Tequesta, Florida. The 76 year old lawyer won a seat on the Village Council there recently. Mr. Balack looks like an unlikely hero, but he's as brave and courageous as the generals who have forced the pitiful corporate media to start talking about Rumsfeld's-- and therefor Bush's-- gross incompetence this week. And, like them, he's a beacon of light all citizens, another proud American citizen who is refusing to go along with the destruction of our country-- a veritable V FOR VENDETTA soul right in Tequesta.

Mr. Balack, a Korean War vet, has refused to take the oath of office because it requires him to "support, protect and defend" the federal government. And to Mr. Balack, that's the equivalent of "blind support" of the war and of Bush Regime. If he took the oath, he says, he'd have "the blood of all those Iraqi and American kids on my hands." So he's refused-- though it's put his position in jeopardy-- and he filed a federal lawsuit today, claiming that the oath violates the Constitution by placing a "prior restraint" on his right to free speech and denying him, without due process, the right to take the office to which he was legitimately elected.

Telling the local press that "I have to do the right as I see the right," he says he will continue to speak out against the war and to criticize the Bush Regime-- even if that means he will never be allowed to take his seat on the Council.