Add the one and carry the five, Dubya.

Math was never one of our strengths. We may have been reading at a junior-high level in fourth grade, but we were still counting on our fingers in high school. The ridicule received from friends for having to take Math 00-Stupid in college not once but twice was mitigated only by the satisfaction gained in charging them money for writing their English papers: $50 for an A, $40 for a B and $30 for a C paid for more than a few beers. Our point? We know nothing about math.

And neither, apparently, does the President of the United States..

Step up to the bar, boys, and grab yourself a beer 'cause we're about to piss a number of you off. Why? Because we're giving serious consideration to withdrawing our official support of the Bush Administration.

You read right.

We have been strong supporters of Bush over the past several years. His decisive actions in Afghanistan which turned the Taliban into nothing more threatening than a bonus question on Jeopardy was just. His nomination of John Roberts to the High Court sent a good man to sit in judgement of the country. And contrary to growing opinion, we're doing the right thing in Iraq. But for a man who's glaring weakness going into his first term was foreign policy, his domestic one has us seeing red.

As in red ink.

The numbers are almost too large to grasp. Earlier this summer, a Republican-controlled Congress passed a $286 billion transporation bill loaded with more pork than humanly thought possible. Add to that a $12.3 billion energy bill that, among other things, allows oil companies to violate fundamental tenants of the Clean Air act. The Iraq war has cost, to date, $5.6 billion and, broken down per person in the US, has personally cost you $727. The deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 will be $331 billion and the federal debt is closing in on $8 trillion.

Yet because he's trying to make amends for his lack of reaction to Katrina (which is nothing compared to the incompetence displayed by Louisiana's governor and New Orlean's mayor), he's now promised a $200 billion aid package to the region without raising taxes for the rest of the country.

Uh, hello? We're fighting a war on multiple fronts. We're running an $8 trillion deficit. We're gonna give New Orleans $200 billion to rebuild ON A FLOOD PLAIN. And yet he still refuses to discuss a tax increase. We may be math illiterate, but your president has trouble spelling the words "fiscally responsible".

Just as the Clinton Administration wrongly took credit for the economy of the late '90s that was nothing more than an illusionary bubble built in Macromedia Flash, the Bush Administration is simply borrowing more money to fund programs that it had to borrow against in the first place. Confused? Do the math because obviously no one else has bothered to.

No, we're not turning to the Dark Side. The Democrats are more clueless than Bush's math advisor and we have a deep mistrust of anyone who thinks this country's welfare program serves a higher purpose. But we're highly disappointed in the lack of appreciation Bush has for a working man's dollar.

One of the hardest things to do in life? Speaking truth to power. Good thing we're drunk while writing this. Otherwise it would be hard.