WHAT DID BUSH STUDY AGAIN? I KNOW IT WASN'T HISTORY

Funny how this is more "acceptible" than dressing him up as Hitler

A foreign army, bolstered by out-of-control mercenaries, occupies a far off country. Civil war is stoked by the occupiers and divisiveness is sewn. The residents, pushed to the brink, fight for their independence. It's an old story played out throughout time and in every corner of the world. Yesterday we Americans contemplated our own desperate battle for independence from overwhelming British military-economic power. It isn't easy-- not with all the propaganda spewing out of the Bush Regime-- but many Americans are starting to see the occupation of Iraq in terms of a national independence movement.

Today's NY Times however, presents Bush's strange twist. Whether through frightening ignorance or by design, he claims the U.S. Revolutionary War has a different set of lessons to learn than the ones we learned in school. Bush can't seem to grasp that he is King George III. Stretching every definition Bush told military families in West Virginia that "Our first Independence Day celebration took place in a midst of a war-- a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom. Like those early patriots, you’re fighting a new and unprecedented war-- pledging your lives and honor to defend our freedom and way of life."

The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a brutal and horrific war against Iraq's people and in favor of a corrupt puppet regime, selected by the NeoConservative-dominated Bush Regime under a patina of fake democracy. Not even thinking Republicans beelieve Bush's lies any longer. No one spat on him though; no one, as far as the Times reports, screamed that he's a murderous tyrant who should be impeached, tried and punished for his crimes.

The Washington Post coverage of the same propaganda event, ends with an unimpressed voter's reaction. "I've heard it all before," said Patti Scott, 72, of Richmond. "I just don't approve of the war." And these days, Patti Scott speaks for most Americans, far, far more than George Bush does. And yesterday's Baltimore Sun editorialized about the results, not in Iraq, but here at home, where Bush has done more damage to the essence of America than anyone else-- foreign or domestic-- in our nation's history. His Iraq agenda was also a domestic agenda and the consequences are not full grasped by most of us.

Sweeping federal measures, most of them heavily cloaked in secrecy, have robbed Americans of privacy, due process of law, even freedom of movement. Warrantless wiretaps, e-mail surveillance, national security letters secretly demanding information on thousands of citizens and, soon to come, the equivalent of national ID cards-- all would be abominations to Jefferson.

America's suspected enemies have fared worse. They have been tortured, held indefinitely without charge and spirited away to secret prisons abroad so no one knows who they are or what has happened to them.

The United States has been fortunate to have suffered no terrorist attacks since 9/11, but there's little evidence that any of these extraordinary measures have had anything to do with that. What they have done is to further isolate the United States at a time when the war in Iraq has left America with no global good will to spare. And Iraq has now become a proving ground for development of terrorist weaponry, such as the roadside bomb, and tactics.

In the weeks and months after 9/11, when the Bush administration was paring back civil liberties through the cynically named Patriot Act and travelers were coping with what would become increasingly burdensome restrictions, fearful Americans were persuaded to accept the sacrifice in return for a greater measure of safety.

But Jefferson would argue that was a false choice. Liberty is the source of security. An open, accountable government is the best protection against tyranny and incompetence. Travel restrictions in the form of identity papers - aimed not at terrorists but at illegal immigrants - represent the cost of unchecked power on the quality of American life.