President Bush has a way with words that some fail to truly appreciate.

In late 2000 Mr. Bush told his $800-a-plate crowd that, "This is an impressive crowd – the haves and the have-more. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."

This quote might be worth remembering for those who also remember him saying just a few months ago that, "most people in America understand that the rich people hire good accountants and figure out how not to necessarily pay all the taxes and the middle class gets stuck."

Correct, Mr. Bush. We understand precisely how your "base" stick it to us.

We understand how Social Security is regressively taxed and how the cap of about $101,000 works. We understand that Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon/Mobil, is making bukoo’s of money by exploiting the working class with runaway gas prices. And we know that his contributions to Social Security – which most retired Americans rely on as their main source of income and are barely getting by due to the rising cost of living – stop at that cap. The rest of his income goes untouched.

We might also want to remember Bush’s comment on Valentine’s Day 2007: "money trumps peace."

But the one that really has got me going is the Presidents comment yesterday about what he DOESN’T do to show the American people how he acknowledges the sacrifices being made to continue his illegal, immoral and unjust war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan: he doesn’t play golf.

"It’s just not worth it anymore to do."

Of all the cynical things that can be said this one seems to really disturb me.

While I certainly feel that soldiers should honor their oath by refusing to follow unlawful orders I find it very upsetting that while he sends them to commit his crimes, in return all that he offers back is the promise to not play golf.

On November 13, 1872 Gustave Flaubert, the famous French Writer, wrote a letter to his friend, Ivan Turgenev, in which he said, "I have always tried to live in an ivory tower but a tide of shit is beatings its walls, threatening to undermine it."

Why are we not undermining this President and his* war?

Impregnated in Bush’s words are something for us to all consider.

For the Mother who spent last Sunday worrying about her son or daughter in Afghanistan; for the soldier who obeys his unlawful orders to participate in aggression in Iraq; and for the citizens who finance this beastly act, perhaps it is time we contemplate the wisdom of our President.

"It’s just not worth it anymore to do."

______________________________________________________________________________________________

* Some have said this isn’t just Bush’s war since Congress approves the funding and has not taken concrete steps to holding Bush and his cohorts accountable for their "high crimes and misdemeanors", the soldiers obey the unlawful orders and the citizens tolerate (albeit from an apparent stance of passive aggressiveness) and finance the aggression.

I completely concur.

---