Some would say I’m obsessed - - I like to say that I enjoy keeping myself informed. If I’m not actively watching cable news on the TV - you can surely bet that Fox News is almost always playing in the background so I can hear it. If I’m not on the TV - I’m listening to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity on the radio either in my car or on my stereo. If I’m not doing any of those things - I’m surfing around to various news websites, some op-ed articles on the web or reading other ideas and opinions in bloggers.

I like to listen to the ‘other side’ - - that is to say, people with differing views and opinions from the ones that I hold near and dear. I can’t say that I give equal time to the ‘other side’ - - because I simply don’t have enough compazine to control the nausea that subsequently results from it all. However - for the past couple of days I have been reading and listening to a fair amount of folks from the other side of this fence and I’m hearing a running theme that I am finding quite disturbing.

That is the concept that many folks on the other side of my fence are hoping and praying for America to fail. They want to see the worst economy in the history of this nation. Forget recession - - they would dance in the streets at the prospect of a full blow depression. They want to see a fumbled war in Iraq - - they want to see mass American military deaths over this military action in Iraq. And these people want PEACE?

Why do they really want these things? So they can point their fingers at GWB and say “See? He sucks - we were right!!”

How sad is that? See, there’s this huge argument going around that many of the war protestors are Anti-American and unpatriotic. They take offense, really - as they should. If anyone called me that, I’d take huge offense. However - while I believe that a good percentage of the war protestors have good intentions and truly believe that war is bad - - I’m finding that there are a good, vocal many who just simply don’t like Bush and would be willing - - and even ecstatic to see America, as a nation, fail, and fail MISERABLY just so they can say “I told ya so!” That is something I find hugely unpatriotic and Anti-American…HUGELY.

Speaking your mind is not unpatriotic. Excercising your freedom of speech in a way that criticizes your government and it’s leaders is not Anti-American. That is stuff that many people, throughout our history, have died for - - to maintain our freedoms as a nation. Dissent isn’t even unpatriotic. Dissenters get thrown in prison and persecuted in countries like China or Iraq - not here.

But to wish such amazing ill will upon this nation for political gain? That is something I find untenable. To wish an economic depression upon an entire nation in the name of forwarding your own political agenda and/or candidate? Am I the only person who sees something wrong with this line of thinking? To wish a failed war upon a nation - including thousands of American military casualties - - just so you can sit back and smugly say “See? Told ya so” - that, to me, is unforgiveable and I just can’t wrap my head around that line of thinking.

It’s so contradictory, isn’t it? …”I dont’ want this nation to go to war in Iraq . . . but IF we do, I really hope we lose in a BIG way and that a lot of American military personell die because of it - - THEN what is this administration gonna say to justify it? I can’t wait to hear all those Bush supporters eat crow over it when it happens….oh, but what I really want is peace.”

That is just wrong - - doesn’t matter what side of the fence you’re sitting on. To those people who wish such things upon this nation - - I say go be a human shield in Iraq sometime in mid-March - I’ve got airfare.