By Chris Basten

  As you cross the Wisconsin border from Minnesota, you cannot miss the first few overpasses that have been spray-painted with the message, "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS." The message has been on these overpasses since Operation Shock and Awe started in Iraq. In the midst of traveling home to visit my family this past weekend, I could not help but notice that someone had painted over the 'TR' in Troops to relay a new message: "SUPPORT OUR OOPS."

I thought that maybe it was a mere coincidence and that weather had eroded away the first two letters. But upon returning home to Minnesota, the message was clear as day: "SUPPORT OUR OOPS." The 'TR' was removed deliberately on one of these overpasses and it gave me a hearty little chuckle for this is exactly what the government expects us to do.

I haven't written much of anything about Iraq because it is such an obvious infraction of human rights and dignity. Writing about how evil our invasion is seems a moot point. Moreover, Iraq has been written about more than any other topic since its invasion by US troops. It is tiresome, to say the least, and still people support the Bush Administration primarily because it isn't liberal or because it is pro-life as far as abortion goes. Ironically, fetuses here at home have more rights and protections than American teenagers in Iraq do. That sounds anything but pro-life to me.

But, hey, the Bush Administration promotes itself as conservative so scores of Republican-supporting voters blindly accept anything it tells them. The way I see it, the same will be true of most Democratic supporters if John Kerry gets plugged into office. Several people are lemmings racing toward a proverbial cliff come election time and they evolve as sheep led to slaughter once they begin listening to the dictator inserted into the Oval Office.

I have a hard time believing that any third party would not be seduced into the same trap assuming they could ever get into Washington. What makes us think that it would be so different? We play the same mind games every four years and think that more of the same Big Government thinking will make things better and it never works. Any third party is full of human beings just like other political parties. They, too, would start out with good intentions. But how do we expect them to stay honest and on task in reducing the government if they are star-struck with all of the royalty and deep pockets that a position in Washington affords them?

It just seems counterintuitive to place vulnerable human beings into positions where they have to battle constantly with pleasing others, saying the "right" things, looking good in front of a worldwide audience, and trying to refuse all of the money and favors that are bestowed upon the most powerful throne in the world. Washington is the most irresistible stage of control and wealth on the planet. How could any human being, susceptible to the finagling of lobbyists, hostile voters, and other world dictators, resist the perks that are inherent in working for a Presidential administration? It cannot be resisted as our vast wasteland of Presidents, past and present, has shown us time and time again.

A Presidency, with too much power, money, and military might, is damned from the get-go. Because of the system and the way it is, no President or Presidential-hopeful is enabled to tell the truth. America polices the world and the more it does so, the more it has to cover up its mistakes, disasters, scandals, and outright lies. The Presidency doesn't work and yet we are forced against our will to put up with the desires of idiotic politicians and naive, bossy voters.

We "support our oops" the world over without even realizing it. In supporting the Presidency, we support the denigration of human life and innovation. In continuing to line up at the troughs of Presidential promises, we continue to vote for death, waste, taxation, force, wars, and endless lies. Presidents and their bumbling administrators are responsible for more fatalities and money-wasting programs than any other influence known to mankind. The more we support these warmongering, robbing, lying parasites, the more they drain us and eradicate our ability to live in peace and quiet.

We must stop supporting the federal government (our biggest "oops" of all) for it does nothing to support us. It is a racket that looks good from the front but rapes, pillages, and kills everything out back. Everything is done with a deceitful smile and a gun covertly stuck in our ribs. This Romanesque romance with government must die. Enough is enough! Stop supporting our federal troops, our Presidential oops, our political poops, and our lobbying groups!