... if he weren't steering the ship on which we're all riding.

The simple ability to own up to one's screw-ups might be the single greatest contributor to inner peace.

The unnatural, practiced ability of this administration NOT to own their screw-ups ensures that the USA is not at peace, either internally or abroad.

We may be unsettled but Bush is unhinged!

This is truly frightening. He doesn't KNOW when he's laughing. He actually said, "I'm not laughing," when everyone in the world saw him laughing. All along, whenever I have seen that laugh, that smirk, I have taken it as a sign of his arrogance, his dismissal of his questioners. Now, I see that it is just a tic, an unconscious expression of the little boy caught killing those frogs. He doesn't know he's laughing. Someone has to tell him that he has laughed whenever the number of dead in his war has come up or any other of his multitude of sins has been mentioned to his face.

War IS unsettling. It makes people feel sour. Karl Rove said so, and now G.W. has said so, too. As if this war just happened, without any causes or anyone to blame for it. As if Iraq had attacked the USA. The way the kid in the high chair learns so early to say, "Uh-oh" and look at the ceiling after deliberately dumping his cereal on the floor. "Uh-oh!" Bad war, upsetting everybody. How could that have happened?

Oh, well, let's just do another kid thing and hope it will go away. "Where's that dune buggy? That was fun!"

Where's New Orleans? I used to LOVE getting drunk there.

Where's my aircraft carrier? I had fun playing soldier wearing a codpiece and all.

Where's my boat and my lake? I want to catch another perch or bass or whatever it was. That was fun!

More prisoners to torture? That's always fun.

Another execution? Oh, goody. Those are really fun!

Let's go sign some bills with our fingers crossed behind our back. That's fun!

Let's go cut some brush! Better yet, let's go kill some frogs. That was fun!

GOD HELP US. THIS IS OUR PRESIDENT.

I wonder how many of them are directly or indirectly related to the war--manufacturing helmets and personal armor, reconditioning army tanks, etc? I think most people, on some level, realize that the war has provided an artificial boost to the economy that wouldn't be there otherwise. Without that, the economy would be a train wreck too--just like everything else he's touched.

Bush says the war is the reason for his low ratings.

In fact, Bush's ratings have been in a stready free fall since he took office *except* for the war boosts.

The following graph tells the story clearer than a thousand words:

http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Approval.htm

What me worry? Mad Magazine anticipated GWB. Alfred E Newman was supposedly created with Primce Charles as the model. Looking at it today King Goerge the W fills the same bill and much better.

What me worry? Disapproval, hell no, unsettled is far better sounding. Especially unsettled about the Irak war. But then comes the question which was not asked: Who started that war in disregard of international laws? People have been hanged for supporting rulers that did exactly that, not even starting the wars themselves. Granted that was almost a generation ago, but there was no change of international laws since than. Lies were used in 1939, the same happened in 2003. WMD's, support of terrorists were the excuses. Factual is that the same dictator was supported by the US government when he attacked Iran, now on the target list in top position. The famous axis of evil, dont touch North Korea, they got the bomb already. In the meantime the deficit reached unknown heights or better depth. The rich get richer and the poor are paying for it! True democracy Mr. President. The economy looks not badly ,just hope that the nations who finance the boom dont call in their loans, than watch it really tank, 1929 was a just dip in comparison.

the man should be selling used cars. He would be good at that. He has the basic cunning of the con man, the shallow glibness of someone who really has no idea that he is incomplete. Sad for him, and us.

We're just "unsettled." It doesn't have anything to do with his job performance. It isn't HIS responsibility. It's just that we're unsettled and don't know how to look at the bright side!

Maybe if his approval ratings go down a few more points, we'll discover that we're also hysterical and overly emotional.

The image of President Bush riding shotgun

in a Border Patrol dune buggy reminds me

of when Presidential candidate George Dukakis

had a photo op riding in an M1 tank to

show he was strong on defense.

Looks like Dubya's finally jumped the shark!

Bush is so oblivious that he is scary. He is truly demented.

It looks like Bush is using the Walmart model for the nation's security. Instead of hiring fulltime workers and giving them benefits, Walmart hires part time workers, gives them crazy alternating schedules (to prevent them from taking a second job) and does not give them benefits. Bush seems to hold the National Guard to the same type of business model. Instead of sending a large number of standing, full-time military members to Iraq, he understaffs and sends part-timers out there. Instead of hiring specially trained, fulltime border patrol agents, he grabs part-timers and throws them into the breach for unspecified periods of time.

This seems to be the new model everywhere. I have worked in hospitals which delberately understaff and hire "traveling" nurses... part-timers who don't get fulltime benefits and who work for a 6 month schedule; then their contracts are terminated. Want to know how well that is doing? Take a look at the skyrocketing number of accidental hospital deaths and at how many hospitals are closing. One of the first hospitals I knew of that switched over to this model was just torn down to make way for high priced condos.

Boy, we've got some real business geniuses out there. And now we've got a Decider in Chief who is using this disasterous model of skelton staffing with a deliberately irregular workforce for our national security. People used to know that the bottom line isn't always money. Bush knows with regard to his inner circle - the bottom line is loyalty. If you give workers a decent salary, adequately compensate for some of the more detrimental workplace environments and benefits that help make their lives a little better, they'll stay, focus and do a good job. If you don't, they'll say "Fuck you" and cheat you whenever they can.

Oh, and I didn't forget about the contractors. In this modern business world you don't hire your own maintenance staff. You contract out to others. They will also rob you blind, but hey, it keeps the economy chugging along.