Blowin' in the Wind

When my children were toddlers, they'd cry every time President Bush came on television. Maybe because he interrupted Elmo or maybe because they were liberals from birth. Like Mommy. (Daddy, too. Although he became more liberal after listening to Mommy's ranting for seventeen years.)

Now my children are safe inside their kindergarten classrooms and I torture students instead by forcing them to view the President strutting his stuff in front of the American people and an ornery press corps.

I'm glad my boys missed today's performance. Did anyone else feel like hurling during lunch?

When Bush lectures about wartime strategy and sacrifice, I get offended on several levels. His condescending tone indicates he believes he's some kind of authority when in reality he knows nothing about either issue. How can he talk about sacrificing the lives of brave soldiers for a noble cause when he's never been upfront about the cause in the first place? Are his buddies in oil companies sacrificing when they rake in huge profits through legal price gouging? As a teacher, I cringe when the leader of the free world butchers his native language. His unearned arrogance leaves me embarrassed to show his speeches in class because most of my students are astute enough to wonder out loud,

"He doesn't even understand himself. Does he?"

Then Bush was asked what his administration has learned from Hurricane Katrina that will make federal response more effective once Hurricane Rita blows through Texas. His answer was something like,

"Maybe this time people will take evacuation orders seriously."

Yet another example of a conservative compassionately blaming people who had no means to effectively haul ass. Let's hope the good people of Texas aren't as unfortunate.

Now it seems the rest of the world is catching on to what my children knew from the get-go. Bush's approval ratings are at an all-time low and it seems the pressure is getting to him.

Drink up, Georgie. It's gonna be a long weekend.