At 1:30pm (EST) this morning I made a phone call to the White House to inquire if George Walker Bush was in to receive my call. Just to show you I really made the call, the phone number, for those of you who would like to call Dubya as well, is (from USA and Canada: 1-202-456-1111 and from the rest of the world: 001-202-456-1111.) The call was answered by White House phone operator, “Brad”, who asked if there was anything he could do to help. I pressed PLAY/RECORD on my Radioshack phone tape recorder and opened a can of Diet Coke. “As a matter of fact,” I said, “There IS something you can do for me.” He assure me that was what he was there for so I lay down what was on my mind.

“Brad, I was wondering if you would ask the President, from me, if he wouldn’t mind resigning from office as soon as possible. And also, if he wouldn’t mind taking his entire cabinet with him. Could you get that message to him, Brad? I’d really appreciate it.”

Brad got a good chuckle out that. But I wasn’t laughing. I don’t see the harm in waiting a few more months to allow the U.N. to finish their business and for the USA to maybe not be in such a hurry to drop those bombs. The way I figured it, if you did it my way, the stock market wouldn’t be so shaky, the world wouldn’t be so frightened, WW III wouldn’t seem so imminent and gosh darn it, we wouldn’t have to spend all that money on a war. Brad maintained his composure and pretty much gave me the “weapons of mass destruction” song and dance and the usual roundabout these types of government lackeys do so well. But I wasn’t buying an ounce of it. Brad told me how it was great that a citizen took the time to call the White House (yeah, i PAID for the call!) but that the political situation was something that the President and his cabinet members took seriously and the American public could trust that they were making the best decision on our behalf. He told me that. I told him, you pour syrup on waffles, NOT Mike Randle.

His next thing was to thank me for the call but I reminded him that I was paying for the call and if I was simply asking him questions, I would think he was obligated to answer them. His answer was that the phone lines were ringing off the hook and so, because him and I were speaking for such a long time, we were tying up the line. I said to him that I was trying to avert a world war and a serious mess in the middle east, therefore, my call might be a bit more important than those other calls. But, he brought up, I was asking the President to resign, which he certainly wasn’t, according to Brad. But when I asked Brad if anyone had thought to ask President Bush to resign, he said he didn’t know and couldn’t answer that question. So, of course, I asked, what makes him so sure Bush WOULDN’T resign if no one had even asked yet?

Brad got a little steamed and gave me some patriotic sentences that kept repeating something about “Saddam executing his own people.” I was kind of confused because I wanted to know exactly what he meant. Saddam has countered (and keep in mind Saddam is a huge liar..but I couldn’t get his phone number to confirm it) that everyone he “did away with” had it coming…er…I mean violated Iraq laws. I can only imagine how slim those laws are… (But back to Brad)….so I posed the following questions to Brad:

Me: Brad, you ever watch “The Sopranos?” Brad: (laughing) Yes, why? Me: If Tony Soprano gives the word to rub someone out, he’s a killer, right? Brad: I guess so. Sure. Me: If someone else gives the word that someone has to be eliminated-for whatever reason- and Tony can stop it by simply saying “Don’t do it” and he doesn’t, is he just as responsible? Brad: Well, i suppose so. What’s your point? Mike: Ok, ok…i am almost done here. So, in your eyes Brad, there’s isn’t a difference…we just established that. Now, if Saddam believes certain people have violated the laws that he overseas or that HE DECIDES (or his Regime believes) is worthy of execution (or murder…same thing, right?) and he has them eliminated (and he’s abviously killing Iraqis-cause they live in Iraq…duh), then, regardless of what crimes they are percieved (real or not) of have committed, he’s simply a murderer, right? Brad: That’s kind of the point the President is trying to make-that Saddam needs to be removed and that people have lost their lives due to his being in power. He needs to go, and the President will see to that. Mike: Got it. Um…so, given that information, as Governor of Texas (from 1994 to 2000), George Bush oversaw over 300 state sponsored executions and refused to not only commute even ONE of them, but refused to allow ANY “11th hour” chances for possible innocense to be proven by anyone, even though these types of chances have led to cases being over-turned in other states and even endorsed by some republican judges. So Dubya let everyone of these people get executed without so much as lifting a finger, including a woman who had murdered her physically abusive husband 25 years earlier and had since become a model inmate, helping to turn other inmate’s lives around, thus making society THAT much better. And Dubya let her fry. Those are HIS people that he allowed to be murdered. Regardless what they did or didn’t do, he had the POWER to stop or even take a better look at any of these cases and he chose to pass. Brad: Look, I don’t agree with everything the President does, but i respect him and i think he has our best interests at heart. Mike: O.K., Brad, I appreciate your help. I write an on-line diary for a rock and roll website and I’m gonna put this interview in my next diary.
Brad: Where can I view it?
Mike: You can go to www.thefreedomman.com and click “Mike Randle’s Diaries” or you can go to www.lovewitharthurlee.com and click “other links”. Say, have you ever heard of “Arthur Lee?”
Brad: Albert who?
Mike: Nevermind. Thanks again!

Mike Randle