"Yeah, how exactly are we so friggin' independent???"

I see it like this, Bobert. I happen to love the USA. Not as much as Canada mind you, but lots for all that. I love the 'spirit' of the American people. Sometimes it's brash, loud, noisy; sometimes it is heartfelt, kind, caring. Other times it is beaten down by the likes of garbage like Cheney, Bush, 'Scooter', Wolfowitz, etc. However, I used to think that Bush would pull a coup d'etat. I think he might still try, but for the first time in years, I know the bastard won't succeed. I really believe the American people will clean house and get rid of the people who are giving the USA a bad name around the world. I think you will 'take a good look' at your Independence Proclamation and examine what you almost lost with/through the abuse of your Constitution--a document I deem to rank up there with the code of laws from Hammurabi, the Magna Carta, the Ten Commandments, the Gettysburg Address. Your country has the ability to change the world for the better, so much for the better. It has the ability to ensure through peaceful means that no one starves, that children are educated, that people are free. And despite the best efforts of that bastard who now sits in your White House, I think you will take your country back from these carpetbaggers. They are trash. Get rid of them. Vote for people who will ensure that ". . . government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Once again I have a faith that the USA can overcome this crass insult to its notion of itself, and that that overcoming will be accomplished by folks like you and Ebbie and Amos and Rapaire and Janie and Mickey and Kendall, Dickey, and and and. I think that y'all almost lost it. Almost. But I think also that you are beginning to see that and you'll take your country back from the Neocons and Big Businesses. I think it's a long road ahead to rebuild from the excesses and disgraceful care the USA has received for many decades, but I think the American people can do it. AND, I think you will!