It is ironic that George Bush seems preoccupied with ensuring he goes down in history with a wonderful legacy, because he had it all handed to him and he squandered it.

He could have followed 9/11 with an invasion of Afghanistan with enough troops to secure the area, cut al Qaeda off, captured or killed bin-Laden all without the help of the local warlords and mercenaries the US now relies on as allies. He could have built as close to a functioning democracy in the middle east as you could expect and used that as a forward operating base of liberty, if you will. A Marshall Plan-like program of rebuilding Afghanistan's infrastructure could have created so much American goodwill around the world and at the borders of an unstable middle eastern region, China, and Russia.

A wave of patriotism along the lines of what happened after 9/11 would have swept the nation a second time as the army would have succeeded in Afghanistan. He would have easily won a second term, and probably could have gotten concessions on his more questionable and divisive plans (such as the illegals to citizenship plan). Even his deficit spending would have been accepted because everybody knows its okay to dip a little into the red during a legitimate struggle for the country.

Instead he attempted to turn citizen against citizen through the politics of dividing by fear, stripped troops from Afghanistan to invade Iraq on dubious terms so bin-Laden will probably never answer for his crimes, and any money that could have been used to rebuild Afghanistan was pissed away on contractors and mercenaries in Iraq. The folks back home have become extremely divided and bitter, the GOP is quickly falling into the hands of the religious "right," confused as to its message and fracturing. By all accounts, he'll be remembered as one of the word presidents of all time. In the final indignity of all, Civilization XI will replace Dan Quayle with George Bush, 43, as the next to lowest ruler ranking at the end of the game.

He could have been a hero, up there with Lincoln, Roosevelt or Washington in American History. He had the chance, and he blew it.

You did it to yourself, George. If only your shenanigans hadn't hurt the rest of the us as well.

I don't know if al-Qaeda dragged old file footage of Osama when he was digging trenches against the Soviets in Afghanistan or whether he's going to become a spokesmodel for "Islamic Formula" hair coloring.  I don't know if he has any ability to pull any strings anymore.  Frankly, it's probably just a NYAH-NYAH-NYAH to Bush who, correct me if I'm wrong, said he was going to get Osama some six years ago.

I do know one thing.  It's predictably sad or sadly predictable that our War President needs to reduce the blood and lives of our soldiers, not to mention the lives and blood of countless Iraqis to the level of a high school after hours brawl.  We're kicking ass, indeed.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

New dye job, solidly progressive message -- loos to me like someone is angling for Keith Olbermann's job.

I just think people have got to be clear that we're being manipulated every time that they issue a statement, because they're trying to use the media as a way to terrorize us. After all, we haven't seen an attack, and this is one way that they try to terrorize the American people.

Who's he talking about, Bush or al Qaeda? Oh wait, same thing. Nevermind.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.