November 9, 2004

I am very critical of George W. Bush. I believe we should hold our presidents to a higher standard.
While I am critical, I still want to judge him in the scale of merit as Reb Nachman
advises us to do with everyone, even our worst enemies.

I am convinced that Mr. Bush cannot possibly be as dumb as people think he is. One obvious example
is that while he has the worst record on the environment of any recent president, his ranch
in Crawford is super eco-friendly. Nonetheless, I have a few bones to pick with W and they
are listed below in no particular order ...

1. He has the worst record on the environment of any recent president. For the love of God's green earth
he should show some respect for mother earth and mother nature and do something
in the next four years to prove that respect.

2. He has his finger on the button but he can't pronounce nuclear. It's not cute to say "nucular", it's scary. Either someone is paying him to say it wrong or he is being stubbornly
ignorant. To be fair, I hear Jimmy Carter says "nucular" too but there really is no excuse.
Think new clear. This isn't just semantics, it's important.

3. He has born false witness concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and while people are dying
every day for that lie, he shows no remorse and no ability to admit to a mistake.
His joke about not finding any weapons of mass destruction in the oval office wasn't funny,
it was insulting and offensive.

4. Another joke that wasn't funny was when he said in the beginning of his first term something
like, "Things would be a lot easier if this were a dictatorship ... as long as I'm the
dictator." Ha ha! I didn't hear many people laugh in the background cause as they say
on The Farm where I was born, "No jokes on the astral plane."

5. His joke about being able to become president if you got straight C's in college wasn't funny either.
There is a reason why 70 Yale professors boycotted the graduation he spoke at. I went
to Wesleyan University and I don't know anyone who got straight C's. You would have to
either be a dim wit or else really be slacking off to perform that poorly and as I am holding
that he is not that stupid, it must be the latter, and that's not good.

6. He has done nothing in his first four years to further the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
Bill Clinton worked his ass off to create peace in that region and was a real diplomat.
This is a crisis that needs immediate attention yet the administration still has
a policy of "wait and see".

7. He is anti-intellectual. Bob Woodward, author of Plan of Attack, asked Bush the question of whether
or not he felt that our relationship with Iraq was patronizing or imperialistic
and his response was that such views were the opinions of the elite. I found this
very dismissive. There is a whole focus for History majors at Wesleyan called Imperialism
and the Third World and there are a lot of really good and really smart people who
are watching very closely how we behave in relation to the rest of the world so Bush
gets no points in his appeal to the simple, common man. We should be reaching for the highest
common denominator not the lowest.

8. Another very telling statement Bush made to Woodward was that as president he didn't have to answer
to anybody. That is not true! W is accountable to the people of the United States and
to the global community whose court of opinion he stubbornly ignores. Don't forget what
the kabbalists say: "Without the people there can be no king."

9. The way he uses his faith and his relationship to Jesus and God offends me because he uses it to
his political advantage while innocent civilians and poor and working class soldiers
are dying because of his misleadership and his hypocrisy.

10. He said the war on terror could not be won. Does that mean we will forever be at war with this
ill-defined enemy? Will we ever be safe? Will we ever be free? What a terrible thing to say.

Well I guess these are my top ten qualms. I'm sure there are others but I will leave it at that for now.
Just because he gets another four years that doesn't mean I will stop my resistance
or stop being oscar the grouch. Dissent is patriotic and I am being a good patriot
because I love my country and my people even though they chose another four years of W.
That's mighty W of ya.

And by the way, I have one more personal issue I must add. I wrote him two very thoughtful letters via
email and he did not respond to either one of them. Bill Clinton at least sent me
a signed photograph when I wrote him. It just made me feel like he didn't care what I
had to say or that it wasn't important. What's up with that?

B'Shalom,

Avniel