Yes, I am a Bush Basher. That is, I refuse to turn a blind eye as he commits offense after offense. I offered this story to Grand Moff, but he told me to do it. So, here's today's Bush Bashing.

I don't see why Republicans continue to stick up for this guy. He intentionally avoids doing the right thing -- things that every Republican and/or Democratic president before him did. Today's example: failure to fill appointments on the Intelligence Oversight Board.

"Bush didn't make appointments to the board until March 17, 2003, well after his administration had begun an aggressive post-Sept. 11, 2001, expansion of intelligence-related activity."

Well, what is this Commie-Pinko "oversight board" anyway? Some sort of socialist FDR invention, no doubt. Right?

"First set up by President Gerald Ford, the board has been used by every president since to flag possible wrongdoing in the intelligence community, providing an additional layer of review above in-house watchdogs in such agencies as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency."

Maybe these guys are just window dressing. What if there aren't any problems to investigate?

"Last month, the Justice Department's inspector general reported that the FBI had referred 108 possible violations of intelligence regulations to the oversight board in 2004 and 2005, ranging in severity "from relatively minor to significant."

A few heavily censored reports that have been made public suggest that the more serious cases involve surveillance of U.S. residents without proper supervision.

The total does not take into account any alleged violations that might have been reported from the other 15 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community."

How can America claim to stand for freedom and opportunity if we allow our president to smirk at our rights? What kind of idiots are we when we allow our leaders to lie to us, even when we have their original misstatements on tape? We need to make our voices heard. Perhaps the palsy-twatted* Democrats in Congress and the Republicans who already have started to question this administration will grow a pair and start doing the right thing if they knew the American people were standing behind them.

Are we a brave people committed to rights and equal opportunity, or are we a bunch of weak sheep who readily submit to authority?

*Thanks to Todd