Knee deep

It’s a small thing, but it holds an important lesson. If you’re part of the Bush administration, you can use obscene language and obscene gestures on worldwide television and in front of Congress; you can do obscene things to people but you can’t say shit if it’s for the purpose of criticizing a Republican President.

Ask Denise Grier, an Athens, Georgia oncology nurse who was ticketed for having a bumper sticker that says “I’m Tired of all the Bushit.” Perhaps you’ve seen one like it. I’ve seen far more vulgar bumper stickers than that one, but this one is different because it criticizes a Republican President. She was pulled over and given a ticket that carries a $100 fine; a fine for “lewdness.”

Now you can turn the country inside out, charge the taxpayers tens of millions and cripple a government if a Democrat president fires his travel agent or says something rude or hooks up with a woman, not his wife and the folks of Georgia will run wild in the streets with glee, but George Bush is God’s president and you don’t criticize God in Georgia.

Now if it were me, I would have given the officer Cheney’s advice or perhaps Scalia’s “Sicilian” gesture, but Denise has more class than I do and will take it to court.

"This is all about free speech," said she to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The officer pulled me over because he didn't agree with my politics. That's what this is about, not whether I support Bush, not because of the war in Iraq, but about my right to free speech."

What about giving Denise the same rights that the wise-guys in power have? What about an end to the duplicity, hypocrisy, secrecy, mendacity and censorship? Isn’t it time to put an end to being so polite to the religious hypocrites and Republican opinion shouters that we let them turn this into the kind of country we pretend we’re saving the world from? You’re damn right, and I’m damned tired of all the Bushit too.