America Collectively Awakens (or at least hits the snooze button)

So it seems that Bush's numbers continue to plummet. Clearly, millions of people are slowly awakening from their long, stupid slumber. Bit late, thanks, but at least they're realizing what they're responsible for by voting this administration into a second term. And kudos to Cindy Sheehan, the mother of the Army kid who was killed in Iraq, for being vigilant outside Bush's Texas "ranch." (By the way, is it at all questionable -- to anyone -- that this man has spent literally over 20% of his shitty presidency on vacation? That's two and a half months a year, guys.) Evidently, many people and organizations are joining her protest (read about it here), but not surprisingly, you'll hear virtually nothing about it in the U.S. media. In fact, a quick search on CNN will show Britney Spears' name being mentioned in the last week by more than a 2-to-1 ratio over Cindy Sheehan's. But if you really dig, you'll learn that a whopping 34% of people polled actually approve of Bush's handling of the Iraq war. The only surprise there is that the number is so high. Are 34% of Americans really that dimwitted?

Wait, don't answer that. Like the old saying goes, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

How is it that nothing sticks to Bush? I mean, folks, he lied about the reasons for going to war and, for the first time in American history, invading a sovereign nation. We started a war! Thousands upon thousands of people have died, we've spent (wasted) hundreds of billions of dollars, and it was all because of Bush's lies. Why is this not a bigger deal? I honestly don't get that... Clinton gets a hummer in the White House, lies about it (what man wouldn't?), and gets castigated beyond belief by the conservatives. Then, just for good measure, he gets impeached! Meanwhile, Bush lies about his reasons for starting an actual war, for God's sake... and everyone just shrugs and goes about their business, pumping their SUV full of $2.40 a gallon gas. The 9/11 Commission report, the WMD report (oops, there weren't any!), the Downing Street Memos (which 90% of Americans are still clueless about), the Senate Intelligence report... it goes on and on. How is this man still holding the office of President of the United States? Truly, it boggles the mind. I'd be very angry about it if I weren't just so totally incredulous.

Bush also signed his energy bill this past week, you know, to give his oil industry buddies a few more tax breaks. Actually, I'm all about saving energy, and I'm admittedly pretty ignorant at this point about the true nuts and bolts of Bush's bill. I do know there are tax breaks for oil companies, though, and that Daylight Savings Time will be extended by a month come 2007. I'm sure there are some other high points, though, as the thing was 1,724 pages long. How about starting some energy savings by limiting the damn bill to one ream of paper? Anyway, I hope it's good... Ol' George hasn't done much good in his time in office, so this would be something. Interestingly enough, though, the bill's cost (over 10 years) is over $12 billion, twice what the Bush administration had said it would be. Sounds suspiciously like the Iraq war...