HERE IS A LETTER I SENT TO JOHN MCCAIN JUST DAYS BEFORE HE BUCKLED LIKE A LEATHER CODPIECE ON GEORGE BUSH'S 'MAY-I-PLEASE-RAM-BAMBOO-POLES-UP-PEOPLES'-ASSES-AND-TELL-THEM-IT'S-FOR-THIER-PROTECTION' BILL, WHEN HE SAID 'FUCK YOU' TO EVERY VETERAN AND AMERICAN AND PRESUMABLY HIS OWN CONSCIENCE, BY VOTING 'YES-YOU-CERTAINLY-MAY-MY-SWEET-SWEET-PRESIDENT-SIR':

NOTE-The highlighted parts are for you're edification, and were not highlighted in the original letter.  Every bit of the original boring ass boringness was left in.

Senator John McCain                                         

241 Russell Senate Ofc. Bldg.

U.S. Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510                                                                                                                20SEP06

Dear Senator McCain;

  I am an Ohio resident, but since you will be an obvious choice for the next president of this great country, I wish to let you know how a moderate American, who just wants the people of his nation and the world at large to be able to live a peaceful life, earn a decent living, and fulfill their potential, feels.

  I do not come from the polarized right or left, but from the vast sea of humanity in between.  I do not vote along party lines, but with my conscience.  I believe in God, and in his benevolence and love for ALL of his children on Earth.  I am a veteran of the First Gulf War, pro-choice, pro-democracy, pro-term limits, pro-annihilation of all REAL threats to peace in this world.  I am in favor of preserving the  environment even if it means smaller profits (I use public transportation every day to go to my blue-collar job). Although I don't own a gun, I support every American's right to.  I want this country to treat it's teachers, first responders, and farmers better, and it's white collar and political criminals worse.  I believe the minimum wage should be at least $8.00 an hour, which is still a paltry sum but would allow millions of citizens and families to go from destitute to merely poor.  I want our military to return to serving the people rather than the personal vendetta of a powerful few.  I want to hunt down and bring to merciless justice the actual perpetrators of  the destruction and terror wrought on 9/11 and beyond.  I want every single American to be able to read, vote, and get proper, competent medical care.  I want to see my nation embrace rather than fear  immigration, since it's what has always made this country great.  Most importantly, I want my leaders to stop skirting the issue of human rights by condoning, nay mandating, the egregious dismissal of the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  This in order to perform torture on suspects detained on secret charges in secret places, as if tagging these people as 'Persons Under Control' could mitigate their degradation. The Conventions are very clear on this issue and there is no need for further 'clarity', which we both know is a euphemism for 'subversion'.  I urge you to give NOT ONE INCH of ground on this. This country has been able, with a few small scale exceptions (i.e., The Me Lai Massacre), to look down it's nose at the atrocities and foul behavior of it's enemies in combat.  Never in our history have we come so close to taking our place among them.  My outrage at this administrations' attempt to destroy America's credibility regarding P.O.W.s could not be stronger, and your stand against these despicable forces could not be more important.

  I read the following quote regarding my right as a taxpayer to not pay for something I might find morally reprehensible:

 "The bill would compel all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos for the derivation of stem cells, overturning the president's policy that funds research without promoting such ongoing destruction."

  This quote comes from a White House press release.  It is meant to justify the continued emasculation of scientific research in this country, and is consistent with our president's stand on stem cell research, as well as global warming, and any other science that contradicts his narrow views and threatens the income of wealthy men.

  Since the president is so interested in protecting my moral rights, even to the point of ignoring the peoples' overwhelming opposition, I would like to have the following programs restricted from using one penny of my federal tax money, as I find them morally bankrupt:

-Any tax cuts for anyone making more than one million dollars a year;

-Any program that violates the Kyoto Protocols, and allows companies to wantonly pollute our country to increase their profits, as well as any other short-sighted program which turns a blind eye to undeniable and irrefutable scientific evidence to expedite the consumption and destruction of every bit of our planet's limited resources;

-Any salary paid to Karl Rove, who has been revealed as a source in the Plame case (The corrupted Mr. Novak's recantation notwithstanding), and therefore, as per President Bush's assurance that anyone found to be connected to Mrs. Plame's 'outing' would be summarily fired, should be out of a job;

-Any program designed to cut off basic services like medical care from any human in this country, legally or otherwise;

-Any program that subsidizes poorly run companies whose leadership makes obscene amounts of money by reneging on promises of pension and benefits to it's employees.  Many airline and insurance companies fall into this category;

-Any program that contributes federal (STATE) money to a religious (CHURCH) organization, no matter how benevolent.  I still believe in the founding fathers' clear desire to keep these entities entirely separate;

-Any program that misappropriates money earmarked for Homeland Security by giving it to insignificant suburbs with miniscule risk levels;

-And finally, any federal program aimed at subverting the will of the people of a particular state.  If Massachusetts voters approve same-sex marriage and Californians wish to stop the pointless prosecution and incarceration of American citizens for minor drug violations, particularly the prescribing and distribution of medical marijuana by professional medical personnel, let them.   Other states will undoubtedly choose the alternate path, and that is Democracy in it's purest form.  The sovereignty of the states of this union have been undermined by the federal government for far too long.

  Although you and I differ in our opinions of some issues, I hold you in high regard as you appear to be in the vast minority of this country's leaders; those who wish to lead with their conscience, not merely fall into lock-step compliance with every edict of an increasingly secretive and evasive executive branch that clearly disdains the freewill of the American People.

  If you do in fact wish to occupy the nation's highest office, I have a few words of advice from your non-polarized constituents:

-Please make the government as transparent as possible.  Honest leaders give those they lead a stake in their own governance; 

-Lead by the will of the people, and when they speak, listen.  Even if what they say is painful to either of our ears;

-Give the people back as much of their freedom as you possibly can.  When you take away freedom, particularly through the vile practice of suggesting it is unpatriotic to question the need to do so, you encourage a lack of personal responsibility, and you make good people into criminals.  I am sure I don't need to quote the countless statements made by American leaders throughout history on this subject to you, Sir;

-Break the cycle of leadership through fear-mongering and baseless propagandizing.  No matter how much those that make such decisions try to de-humanize hundreds of 'detainees' in U.S. custody, I will not forget that I, the American Citizen, have been repeatedly told we are at war(against an abstract concept) by the leaders of this country.  If we are at war, we must be holding prisoners of war.  This country still stands in righteous indignation of the way men like you were treated by enemy combatants over thirty years ago.  To manipulate semantics in an attempt to justify cruelty and barbaric practices is to insult the intelligence of adults and does irreparable harm to the education of children.  We both know that the easy way is frequently the wrong way;

-You could do a lot worse than to emulate the great American, Teddy Roosevelt, and bring low the new crop of Robber Barons in this country.  Companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot have done the old guard one better by making the workers (and taxpayers) of this nation pay the slave holder for the privilege of indentured servitude, while destroying all avenues of escape from the plantation.  This is criminal enough without adding the horrible exploitation of millions of workers around the world for the enrichment of a tiny fraction of the populace who are so convinced of their own entitlement that they rival the despots of this world in the unending pursuit of their own gain.    

  Mr. Senator, I still believe in this country, and I am confident that it can get back to being an example to the world that disparate people can live in peace and prosperity without the iron-fisted rule of a police state or a demagogue.  You are in a unique position to facilitate this re-emergence, and I urge you, as George Washington once was by the people who loved him, to continue your efforts on behalf of the American People to accomplish this end.  There is no more noble cause than this, and no better time than now.

  Thank you sir, for your time and attention.

Regards,

D. E. Bishop

www.damnedgentlemen.com