Dear Washington

I've noticed that everyone is mad at you, Dubya's poll numbers are down, Congress has even worse numbers. Let me send you all a clue. Congress, President Bush is not the enemy, we, the voters elected him. Your constant screeching about how he stole the election is insulting to everyone that voted for him.

Congress, you now belong to the Democrats, fine. This was not a repudiation of the war, though. You did not run on the war, you ran on elimination the earmarks and sleaze, remember? The sleaze is thicker than ever, so are the earmarks. Meanwhile you talk about how the election was about the war. Sorry, I was there, remember? The election was not a thousand years ago, it was less than a year.

Congress, I am curious about how Dubya worked so well with the Democrats in Texas. Yet he is unable to work with the Democrats in Washington, even when he lets Ted Kennedy write his bills. Yet you say he is dividing us. Dubya has vetoed exactly how many of the laws you passed? Just who is being divisive? You complain that Bush's tax cuts hurt the deficit yet revenues are through the roof. You complain that Bush's tax cuts hurt the poor when the cuts removed millions of the poor from the tax rolls entirely. Explain, please, how come the rich pay a higher percentage of total taxes now than before those cuts, that hurts the poor. Please use real numbers, not sound bites.

Please explain why you are yelling at Exxon and the other oil companies. Why can China and Cuba drill for oil off Florida's coasts while our companies cannot. Please use small words here because it's very confusing. From here it looks as if you are tripping our companies and then cursing them for falling. When you are through with that, explain why you think you can run the car companies better than Ford, GM and Chrysler.

I read where you have been trying for TWO YEARS to come up with a new intelligence estimate of the actual danger of extremist Muslims. Meanwhile I keep reading about The Religion Of Peace. You know, Washington, I have never claimed to be a particularly peaceful feller but in my sixty years of life I've never strapped explosives to my butt and exploded myself in a crowd of people. Why is it that only The Religion Of Peace do this?

There are about a billion and a half Muslims in this world. You, Washington, claim that only a minority of them are dangerous. Fine. That is nice to hear. I would like a best guess as to how big a minority, though. When I was going to school I read that 49% is a minority, so is one percent. Muslims have been killing us since the '70s, that should be long enough for you to give a better figure than "a minority", I mean if it's one percent there are a million and a half who want to kill my kids. Somehow though I don't think it's only one percent. Ten percent? That's fifteen million potential splodeydopes out there. Twenty percent? Come on Washington, we are paying you trillions of dollars every year, PLEASE tell us what the real risk is.

We'd kind of like to know what you plan on doing about that risk, too. The bigwigs of alQueda are talking about how important it is that they win in Iraq, you are saying that alQ isn't in Iraq. What's wrong with this picture? You claim that Iraq isn't doing any good yet the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors keep reenlisting. Washington, I know you think that our military is stupid but here is a clue, they are smarter than the average civilian, look how many fail the entrance exams. I do believe that a rifle squad will have a higher IQ than a similar sized group on a college campus. Or Senate committee. Nobody that didn't enlist before 9/11/01 has an excuse for not knowing what they were getting into. This means almost everyone.

We would kind of like it, too, if you will stop trying to lock up Border Patrolmen, Deputy Sheriffs and Marines for doing the jobs we send them out to do. If you don't want Border Patrolmen to try to catch border jumping drug smugglers, fine. Change the law. Put on paper that those drug smugglers can't be shot in the ass after pegging a shot at the Border Patrol. Instead, after the whole Border Patrol Sector is out investigating the shooting, you lock up the Border Patrolmen for not reporting the shooting. I realize that you are lawyers, of course, but the rest of us can't quite understand how they were all investigating that shooting that wasn't reported.

Well, Washington, I have a lot more questions but since you have been trying for TWO YEARS to tell us how serious the splodeydope problem is, get started on those.

Love, Peter.