On Dec 28, 7:32 pm, V aol.com> wrote:

The Walker Prerogative

"I'm a uniter, not a divider."
-George W. Bush

George W. Bush is the most polarizing president in history.
-Rolling Stone

The fighting had stopped.
Paul Wright stood on Harbison Road, watching the last of the missiles
fall. The two factions had been fighting ever since the had declared
himself President For Life, and called those against him traitors and
ordered their round-up. They had retaliated by bombing DC. The
Santoriam faction had then bombed Boston, and it had escalated. Now,
most of the country was in ruins, private militia facing off against
each other, old grudges fulfilled. The UN had pulled out after coming
under fire from the FOTF factions. Others had left after hostage
taking and killing became common.
Paul stepped over the body of a child, and walked up the ruined road.
It splintered under his feet, its surface nearly reverting to the
dirt road that it had come from.
He was becoming quite concerned for his cousin, Iris.
He took the hill carefully, avoiding land-mines and unexploded
munitions. Huge rubble blocked the way.
He sighed, wondering where she was.

But I'm the decider and I decide what's best.
* announcing that Donald Rumsfeld would not be replaced as Secretary
of Defense, April 18, 2006.

What did the president know, and when did he know it?
-Referring to Richard Nixon and Watergate.

Paul approached the hollow bulk of Irmo High School as it slowly fell
into ruins. Great holes yawned in its bulk. Paul stopped and looked
at it without emotion.
Though the school proper was in ruins, the W. C. Hawkins stadium
right
next to it was untouched.
Paul decided to play a hunch.

"I'm constantly looking to see if things could be done differently,
or
better."
-George W. Bush

"I wish you had given me this written question ahead of time, so I
could plan for it.. You know, I just-- I'm sure something will pop
into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the
pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hasn't yet."
-George W. Bush, 13 April 2004
After he'd been asked if he recalls any mistakes as president.

Around the side, over the crumbling main entrance, he found what he'd
been looking for.
Paul climbed the steps and walked towards the crumbling main doors.
There, standing with her back to him, was a girl. She wore a calve
length coyote fur coat. Her features were vaguely Asian. Her hair was
long and dark. He smiled and moved towards her.
"I knew you'd be here" He said.
She turned, regarded him, and also smiled. He leaned against the
rusty
fence while she leaned against the broken window frame. They studied
each other warily, then:
"What new?" He asked.
She shrugged, said "The Walker thugs have called a cease fire. But
the
other side is dubious. I'm sure they regard it as a trap. It doesn't
seem likely to hold." "Fuck."
The girl looked at him, said "I thought this was your favorite type
of
situation, Paul."
"It is, Chi Fang. But it's so tiring."
Chi Fang smiled, Said "When politics become all or nothing, nobody
wins."
"Ruins. Only ruins. Oh, well, Rome wasn't ruined in a day."
She shrugged, said "Well, it's better then what the African-Americans
got. Their schools got completely razed."
Paul looked at the sky through the gaping holes, said "They claim to
care
about the citizens, but their actions betray them. They lined their
pockets while the populations starve. Nothing ever changes."
"Not since the early days of Sumar."
He nodded. She moved over to him, threw her heavy furry arm over his
shoulders, and kissed him full on the mouth. He looked surprised, but
returned her embrace and kiss. The fur touching his skin made him
excited. She, too, was getting excited, her embrace tightened, their
breathing became heavy.
They heard a rocket pass overhead, heard it explode nearby.
"Looks like," She commented "That the cease-fire has failed."
"Looks like it," he agreed, reluctant to let her out of his embrace.
She finally disentangled herself, pushing him back against the fence.
He sighed, glaring at the sky again. She patted her hair down. He
read
a nearby poster, which turned out to be a recruitment poster for a
right-
wing militia. Even they had to resort to advertisement. Things were
tough all over.
"What now, Mrs. Fang?"
She shrugged, adjusting her fur coat around her.
"We could try to get another cease-fire going, and try to stop them
from killing each other. I'm not optimistic about our chances,
though."
"Saving face is always more important then doing the right thing."
"Right. In politics, a show of strength trumps the right thing every
time."
"You sound as cynical as me, Chi Fang."
"Can you blame me?"
She reached out, took his hand, and led him to the stairs. He
followed
her mechanically.
"They can't get along with each other, let alone anyone different,"
She
said.

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and
irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.
-George Washington

I really believe that the pagans and the abortionist and the feminist
and the gays and the lesbians who are trying to make that an
alternate
lifestyle, the ACLU, people for the American way, all of whom have
tried to secularize America. I point my finger in their face, and say
'You helped this (9/11) happen.'"
-Jerry Falwell, founder, Moral Majority

We don't need any American mullahs.
-Jack Van Impe, television preacher

"It’s a good thing we found you, Mr. Wright" Brooks Pruit said,
wiping
a rag over his guns, "You coulda wandered around for weeks. And the
theists are getting restless."
He sat on the navigation seat of the land ship. They had picked up
Paul
Wright and Chi Fang two days earlier, as they were walking up Broad
River road towards the remains of the capitol city. Potshots riddled
the land leviathan. Steering the behemoth, Calvin Smith attempted to
keep it on the road and out of the potholes that increasingly
littered
the road.
They passed a housing development. Paul caught sight of several
bodies
impaled on spears on the lawn of the crumbling red brick buildings. A
sign warned heretics and unbelievers off the property under pain of
death.
Bishop Maxwell, in full clerical garb and the frills of his office,
sat in the back fiddling with chocolate rosaries.
"Damned Protestants" He said "They lack the humility and forgiveness
directed them by our Lord."
Paul snorted. "Humility and forgiveness are often in short supply
when religion is involved."
"You, an unbeliever, would know little of such things, Mr. Wright."
"Oh, I disagree, Bishop."
"Stop it, you two!" Chi Fang spoke up. "This is no time to be
fighting
among ourselves!"
"I agree, Mrs. Fang," the Bishop said, leaning back smugly. Paul
rolled his eyes. He returned to his window.
"If we start fighting" Calvin said, turning the ship left, "Then all
hope is lost."
"Hope" Paul said dismissively.
"It's all we have left" Chi Fang commented.
Paul spoke without turning "Then the world is in a piss state."
The craft trembled. Calvin cursed, swung to the right.

Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you
are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
George W. Bush
* State of the Union Address (September 21, 2001)

If Bush says we hate freedom, let him tell us why we didn't attack
Sweden, for example.
-Osama Bin Laden

Paul Wright and Chi Fang exited the meeting room. It had not gone
well. The assembled simply yelled past each other rather then deal.
He
leaned against a stained paneled wall and let out a breath. It had
been a tiring, frustrating day.
"I don't believe these people" He said to her "It's like they don't
want to get along."
A tattered flag fell limply between them. She shrugged.
"Maybe they don't. There's more profit to be made in war then in
peace," She said.
"Guess that's why the nations' been on a war economy since Korea" He
grunted.
"Image is everything. None of them want to look weak. Even if common
sense says otherwise."
"Out of touch politicos making our decisions for us" Paul said. He
pulled out a lighter, held it behind the tattered flags. A puff of
smoke appeared. They stood, and strode down the hall. A moment later,
the flag burst into bright orange flame.

I want to be the peace president
George W. Bush -21 July 2004

Stand back and ask how this could have happened. Ask how a prosperous
country isolated by two oceans could have embroiled itself in other
people business that someone would want to do us harm. Even sitting
in
the middle of Europe, Switzerland isn't beset by terrorist attacks,
because the Swiss mind their own business.
-Harry Brown

"It appears" Calvin Smith said, attempting to keep the leviathan on
the
road, "That a flag caught fire and burned down the building."
Chi Fang rolled her eyes and returned her gaze to the bullet-proof
glass.
"And" Calvin continued, "Their calling it a terrorist plot to disrupt
the talks."
"What talks?" Paul said, amused. Calvin shrugged, turned back to his
driving. Brooks Pruit whistled as he cleaned his guns.
"Guess the talks broke down, then," He said.
"No" Paul correct, "They never got beyond shouting."
"They seem more intent" Chi Fang said, "On yelling at each other then
actually discussing anything."
"Ahh. Typical" Brooks said.
"What else" She said, spitefully.
The land ship bumped as it ran over bodies, piled high and unburied.
It appeared that they were meant to be cremated. But no one remained
alive to finish the job.

1945 We can't do business with Stalin. He has broken every one of the
promises he made at Yalta. A very disappointed President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, shortly before his death on April 13, 1945, commenting on
the Big Three meeting (Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, and Marshal Josef Stalin of Soviet Russia).

You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot
easier... So long as I'm the dictator.
* Responding jokingly to the difficulties of governing Texas, "The
Taming of Texas," Governing Magazine (July 1998); also cited in Is
our
Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush (2000) by Paul
Begala.)

The middle-Southern president Criswell smoothed back black hair. He
had
taken control of the Tex-Ar-Kana states after the federals had
started
fighting among themselves. Other presidents had taken control of
other
sections of the states. They were masters of their own little
kingdoms. They attempted to keep peace between themselves, but little
battles did keep breaking out.
"The first thing we need to do" He shouted into the mike, "Is arrest
that fuck-up, Walker!"
The crowd erupted. Criswell flashed a boy's smile into the ancient
camera. The crowd went along. They welcomed someone who appears to be
a
straight talker.
"Christ" Chi Fang whispered to Paul Wright, "These guys are
potentially as bad as the last bunch."
"Only potentially" He replied, watching the overhead screens. The
crowd erupted again, drowning out her retort. The presidents' North
Louisiana drawl rolled out again. It was not the half-French Cajun
dialect. He glared at the camera.
"Only?" She asked once she could be heard again.
"Let's not be too hasty with our judgment."
"Even with politicians?"
"That's right" Paul said, sipping his drink, "First, let's give them
enough rope."

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore- Apocalypse Now

The fifth material cal very of the Southern Carolina Confederacy rode
across the broad clear plains. Most were dressed in trendy new-civil-
war facsimiles. Sliding behind them, were super modern guns and
machinery. Commander Lee List rode along the ranks and shouting
orders. They more or less ignored him.
Riding alongside the phalanx but not with it, Paul Wright and Chi
Fang
rode. They wore trendy apocalypse now-style fatigues. It marked them
as irregulars. It also marked them as ruthless enemies and flakey
friends.
"I didn't believe that New York would cave that quickly" Chi Fang
said.
"Once they saw the banning" Paul replied "That changed their
quickly."
"Moral must be very low" She said, swinging her rifle to her left
shoulder. She steadied her horse. Behind them, the smoke raising from
the city stained the sky black. Paul shrugged.
"Well, everything is running down" He said.
She sighed, said "It's even hit moral lately."
The rode to the top of a hill, looked back down on the column of
soldiers. They drove restlessly north.

Paul stood, staring at Lincoln’s white visage. It was pockmarked with
holes. Half of the nose was gone. It depressed him for no reason he
could identify. Behind him, the Washington Mall lay in heaps of
rubble. This building was one of the few still standing. The water in
the pool was dark and stagnant. The silence was eerie. The
Southerners
were fools to believe they could just come in and take over, and gun
the resistance into submission. They were on the edge of pulling out,
or "cutting and running" as the advocates of the Washington
occupation derisively call it. The city was turning out to be too
difficult to control. It was only a matter of time.
Impulsively, he raised his gun and shot the rest of Lincoln’s nose
off. He heard answering gunfire outside, but didn't move. It wasn't
close, in any case.
A stone fell into the dark, stagnant, pool. A green cloud bloomed in
the middle of the ripples. Paul stood, watching the ripples bounce
around. It soon settled back into its normal gloom.
Paul smiled as he studied his image in the glassy surface. It
revealed
his true depths.

Saigon ... shit; I'm still only in Saigon
Captain Benjamin L. Willard- Apocalypse Now

Behind a rusty and disrepair fence, a couple of a tennis player shot
a ball between themselves.
The rest of the city had lost its enameled finish and now shone dully
in the feeble rays of sun. Sounds of gun fire sometimes erupted from
the bowels of the city. There were dozens of courts, but less then
half were in use.
"Your sloppy, Shane" Said one of the players. The other growled and
served the ball. Its surface was crawling with green mold. As the
first figure raised his racket to swing, it bounced on the cracked
and
broken surface and disintegrated.
"Well" The first figure said, "That appears to be our game."
"Looks like it" The second figure replied, wiping his face with a
cloth. They both started to pack up their equipment. A runner came
up.
"Major Bruce! Major McCarthy!" He yelled. They turned, and saluted.
Shane Bruce took the message. Robert McCarthy looked over his
shoulder. Bruce finally passed it to him.
"Looks like" Bruce said, "That our vacation is over."
"Looks like it" McCarthy agreed.
They went to look for some functioning showers.

Chi Fang returned the two salutes and waved them to seats. McCarthy
and Bruce took their seats and waited. She studied several folders,
ticking off pages. She finally looked up and sat back, acknowledged
them.
The two men looked at her firmly.
"Thank you, gentlemen, for coming" She said.
"As you know" She continued, "The factions we've been fighting have
not in any way been depleted. More fighters replace the ones
destroyed. Their leaders have gone undercover. We had the President-
For-Life on the run until several hours ago. Since then, he has
dropped out of sight."
"The Vice-President and the Sec-Def?" Bruce asked, lazily.
"No sign. We believe all three have retired to one of those
undisclosed location they spoke about."
"I'm surprised" McCarthy commented, "That those two would admit the
Prezforlife."
"They probably need to, if only to protect whatever secrets he know,"
Bruce said.
"That's right" Chi Fang commented, "And that's what I want you to do:
Find the Prezforlife."
"Nothing else?" Asked Bruce. She shook her head.
"That's all."
McCarthy flipped a stray mote of his fashionable jacket, and said
"What about Wright?"
She scowled, said "Nowhere to be found. He vanished after the
Richmond
affair."
"Typical" McCarthy muttered. Bruce nodded.

Three figures trudged thru the ruins of DC. Two men and one woman.
The
woman was armed with a long rifle and other less visible weapons
hidden away. The men had heavy pistols on their persons. All treaded
cautiously, as danger hung around every corner. McCarthy stepped
gingerly over the body of a young girl with a grimace. The air was
full of gas or blood.
Chi Fang indicated an open door.
"This is the last place we were able to track him" She said.
"The prezforlife" Bruce said, "Or Paul Wright?"
"The prezforlife, of course" She said, glaring at him.
"Of course" McCarthy said with a smile.
They went on in silent. Then, Bruce lit a cigarette.
He said "Suppose Wright has joined the opposition?"
Chi Fang shook her head.
"He'd never do that" She said.
"We don't know that" McCarthy said "He would if he wished to cause
trouble."
"No" She said firmly "He is so against them, that it's unlikely in
the
extreme."

Exterminate the brutes,
-Kurtz, Heart of Darkness

The three stood staring at a charred corpse in front of a heavy steel
door. It still smoldered slightly.
"Well, that solves that" McCarthy commented.
The others nodded.
Bruce said "That solves the prezforlife's fate."
The wind picked up. It blew loose fragments from the corpse off into
the wind. They watched, all lost in their own thoughts.
Bruce cleared his throat, said "Now, the only mystery is who killed
him."
They nodded and began to look around. Finally, McCarthy held up a
ballpoint pen with a smile. They looked at it with a frown.
"So" Bruce said "That clears up Wright's doings."
"I guess the sec-def and the vice-prez have left the country" Chi
Fang
said.
McCarthy strode out and stared out to the horizon. Chi Fang joined
him. They stared, lost in their own thoughts.
A figure watched them. Finally, he put the ancient heater away,
turned, and stumbled away over the rubble and bodies.

PDW