President went to New Orleans on the first anniversay of Katrina this past week to tell the 50% of the population who are left in the city that now has 25% of it's electrical power restored and 60% of it's businesses still closed,....... that relief is on the way. The people seemed grateful and polite......or just shell shocked and amazed.  It was sort of hard to tell.  Appears to be part of the President's new political strategy called "Shock and Awe II".  The strategy is to show up in places where no one expects to see you and make absurd observations and statements and then escape before the "shock and awe" wear off.  He seems to have the methodology down cold.

President's defending his foriegn policy again.  He says we are in deep trouble.  The new political strategy seems to be to go after the small group (60% of the American people) who aren't supporting his policy in Iraq.  This new strategy also seems to be trying to equate the present conflict in Iraq with World War II.  According to the President, it doesn't mean these misguided unbelievers aren't patriotic, it means they are just uniformed or stupid and don't realize that they are the equivalent of a modern day Nazi sympathizer (which does sort of make them unpatriotic).  As soon as they realize that they will rally to his cause (because no one wants to be unpatriotic).He goes on to predict or prophesy (depending on your viewpoint) that the future of western civilization is at stake (apparently he believes that if Bagdad falls, Peoria is next), that this is the pivotal conflict of the 21st century (presumeably the remaining 94 years after he wins the great conflict will be peaceful) and he (as the moral equivalent of Roosevelt and/or Churchill depending on which speech you hear) is right and the rest of us are unfortunately WRONG.  Considering his track record on being right on anything it is surprising that he does have it right this time..........we are in deep trouble.

Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfield is giving history lessons again.  This time he's comparing the people who oppose the war in Iraq to British Prime Minister Neville Chaimberlain and the pacifist who gave away Checkoslovakia to Hitler in 1938 to try to avoid World War II.  

The various cable networks "policy wonks" are starting to proclaim the Israeli/Hezbollah/Lebanese/Iraq/Afghanistan War as the opening stages of World War Three and the recent incursion into Lebanon by Israel as the "Archduke Franz Ferdinand Moment", referring to the assasination incident that started World War I.

The "new" agressive Bush policy of negotiation which replaces the "old" Bush agressive policy of "no negotiation" is supposed to make the President look like a statesman.  That's because his predecessor, the old George W. Bush screwed things up so bad that a replacement was needed.  The presumption is that the public won't notice that they happen to be one and the same person.  

The latest in the parade of CIA Directors and agency fixers "to be" is busy explaining to the media, Congress and the American people why they should remain ignorant and keep their nose out of what the government does on their behalf. He will determine what is best for us.

According to Air Force General Michael Hayden, "True accountability is not served by inaccurate, harmful and illegal public disclosures," the 61-year-old Air Force general said. "I will draw a clear line between what we owe the American public by way of openness and what must remain secret in order for us to continue to do our jobs."

Presumeably he will also determine what is "harmful, illegal and inaccurate" for us too.

Seemed to me like that was the attitude that got us into this mess. I always thought that if your goal was to get out of a hole one of the first things you need to do was stop digging.

The President is out politicking again on the Arizona-Mexican border. Says he offers a comprehensive strategy to get the job done. Presumeably he is talking about his comprehensive strategy to stop illegal immigration, not his comprehensive strategy from last year to fix Social Security.

Meanwhile, as Presidential Elections approach in Mexico, according to the polls, the country is starting to come "unhinged", no one seems to be in charge and Mexicans think the country is teetering on chaos. No wonder they want to leave.

Only difference is here our President is "unhinged", we only wish we had an upcoming Presidential election and our President thinks he's in charge which is why were all worried, so maybe we can cut a deal.

Mexico needs a new President that can speak Spanish. We've got one we don't want. Maybe we could trade them for a good pitcher and a couple utility infielders. Worth a thought. If they'll let us throw in a vice President they can keep one of the infielders.

Defense Secretary Don Rumsfield has weighed in on the "National Guard to the Rescue" Mission along the Mexican border.

See, we thought all along the government was going to rotate a new 6,000 National Guardsmen to the border to stop illegal immigrants every two weeks for a total of 156,000 troops. The Secretary's reading seems to be we are going to send 6,000 total for the year for "surviellance, communications and construction" and rotate them in and out every two weeks.

These 120 new green troops every two weeks are not there to catch anybody. They will do "surveillance" (translation: drink coffee and look South) along the 2,000 mile border to "communicate" something to the people we didn't send to stop the 3 million Mexicans trying to cross into the U.S. and presumeably while we are there we are going to "construct" something for someone, of which and for whom is yet to be defined.

At a projected cost of $1.9 billion for the year, that's $300,000 per National Guardsman.

Could this be a job for "Halliburtonman"?

President Bush spoke last nite. Some Republicans were afraid this might happen.

He has a Five Part program to solve the illegal immigration problem.

Part One: With three million illegal immigrants coming into the country each year he's decided to use stronger methods to slow the invasion. He's going to say "NO", and he's going to say it more firmlier.

Part Two: He also wants to create his "Guest Worker" program to allow new illegals to work here along side the workers with green cards who already do work here, both of which are supposed to return voluntarily to their homeland after their stay is up................. if they want to.

Part Three: For those that have already cheated and violated our laws by coming here illegally we will find a way to make them citizens that isn't amnesty because we will call it something different.

Part Four: We will rotate 6,000 National Guardsmen from across the United States every two weeks to do their yearly two week training stint on the U.S./Mexican border. They won't need to bring their guns because they are "observers only" doing support work like digging latrines for the immigrants they can't stop. This is part of his new "Guest Guardsman" program. It will cost less than sending all 150,000 of them together to Iraq for two weeks so it is cost effective.

That's it.

You're probably wondering where Part Five is? Did I mention the President can't do math either.