I'm 56, a grown woman descended from a long line of Republicans, including a
multi-term Republican State Senator.

Actually I had voted for a Republican candidate in every
Presidential election since I was 21 years old.

But when George W. Bush was running for President I saw a History Channel
documentary during which one of "W"'s oldest friends was being interviewed. The man
merrily related an anecdote he considered hugely amusing...

To make a long story short, although former First Lady Barbara Bush had
suggested to her new daughter-in-law Laura that it would be unwise to ever
criticize "W", Laura Bush made the mistake of doing just that.

Once.

It was during the period of time when Bush was newly entering politics. He gave
a speech that Laura had listened to very carefully.

Driving home from the political rally, George asked his young wife how she
thought he did.

She told him honestly that she didn't think he had done as well as he might
have.

The friend relating the story laughed that Bush was so furious at Laura's criticism
that he drove clean through his back garage wall and right out the other side
of the building.

The friend of George Bush who related the story thought it absolutely hilarious.

I didn't find it the least bit funny.

What I did think, was that it suggested a major character flaw and a horrifying
lack of self control.

And I found the very idea of that kind of flaw in a Presidential candidate to
be very unsettling.

And the idea of a violent, uncontrolled response to nothing more than a minor
criticism left me extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having George W.
Bush at the helm of this country.

So although I HAD voted for his father, for the first time in my life I chose
NOT to vote Republican when George W. Bush ran for President.

Actually, the more I saw of George W. Bush in the years AFTER he assumed the
Presidency, the MORE uncomfortable I became.

And after 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq. one thought kept resurfacing....."This whole scenario just
doesn't FEEL right".

I received an email from an old friend which mentioned a book by Dr. Justin A. Frank, a Washington, D.C.-based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry.

In his book, "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President", Frank wrote, "....when the most powerful man on the planet consistently exhibits an array of multiple, serious, and untreated symptoms -- any one of which I've seen patients need years to work through -- it's certainly cause for further investigation, if not for outright alarm".

Clearly I wasn't the only one with the feeling that something is just not quite right.

Saturday, out of curiosity, I went to see Michael Moore's documentary
"Farenheit 9/11".

Personally, I don't particularly care for Michael Moore.
But to give credit where credit is due, he does do his homework.

And I was curious. So I went.

By about halfway through the movie, the entire audience had become deathly
silent.

You could have heard a pin drop in that theatre.

So this is my take on the movie.

It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.
It also doesn't matter whether you're a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim,
an Athiest or an Agnostic.

Do yourself a favor and leave your political and religious affiliations at
home.

Walk in the theatre door as simply an average American citizen.

I believe that you will emerge every bit as shaken as each and every person in
that theatre did Saturday afternoon.

Do you consider yourself a reasonably intelligent human being?.

Presented with fair and unbiased information, do you think you can analyze a
situation and draw your own conclusions?.

Occasional sardonic movie commentary from Moore aside, there's MORE than enough
fair and unbiased historical video in that film to scare the living hell out of

ALL of us.

Because much of what you're going to see has been edited out of our evening
news.

You're also going to see candid interviews with our duly elected officials.
From BOTH political parties.

Read the book. Go see the documentary. Make your own decision.