As a loyal and patriotic Vermonter, it is always good to hear from one of my sitting Senators working for IOTA (Imperial Oil Tanker America).

Just checking e-mail yesterday in between work and chores, and this letter from Mr. Leahy popped up.

So yes, let's "level with the American people."

Maul Man is not a deep thinker.

But if he were, he might suggest that the war in Iraq has been a bipartisan effort to engage in a global sequential war to control 60% of the world's remaining recoverable fossil fuel energy reserves, as well as to generate stupendous wealth for the MI(2)ME (That'd be Military/Industrial/Intelligence Media/Energy) Complex.

Ron Paul won't save us. Neither will Barack, Billary, or John McCain.

This is what them graduate students call a 'systemic structural" problem.

The Empire is on a collision course with history - and perhaps any patriots left might best consider re-tooling their prospects more locally.

It's gonna be a fun century.

Here's the Leahy letter:

Dear Mr. Maul Man,

Last night, the President gave an Oval Office address about Iraq . Like many Vermonters, I looked to the President to level with the American people about the tragedy unfolding there, and about the real results of his escalation policy, the so-called "surge." I hoped he would set out a new strategy to end our central role in Iraq 's civil war and to promptly and safely bring our courageous soldiers home.

And like many Americans, I was deeply disappointed with what I heard.

It seems clear that the President has no idea how to end this war and has every intention of laying it on the doorstep of the next President. He would leave as many troops stuck on this treadmill next summer as we had there a year ago.

We have been in Iraq longer than we were in World War II. The surge that was supposed to usher in a political solution among Iraq's warring factions has failed, with a settlement no closer today than it was one, two , or three years ago. Meanwhile , our presence has become an excuse for Iraqis to avoid reaching a settlement.

It is time to begin bringing our brave troops home from the middle of Iraq 's civil war.