A Bubble Built For Two (or Three)

"As I travel around the United States, I see a lot of appreciation for him. A lot of people come up to me and say, 'Stay the course,'" she explains.

Poor dear. Didn't Karl Rove tell you the crowds and photo ops are all pre-screened, carefully managed affairs? Oh, wait � Rove thinks Bush is a great president, it's just the war that people don't like.

But Laura pushes on, insisting it's not George's fault, but that of the times in which we live. Katrina. The War on Terror. Illegal Domestic Spying.

It's Katrina's fault? What kind of codependent nonsense is that?

Mrs. Bush also follows in Mary Cheney's footsteps, decrying the use of same-sex marriage as a campaign tool. Please note the implications here; conservatives are simply standing off a ways, so when more liberal voices chime in in support, they can point fingers and say, "See? They're using it as a campaign tool!" (This is the same dodge President Bush pulled with 'attack ads' in his 2000 campaign. Bush never agreed to Al Gore's proposal, but jumped all over Gore when Gore then fired off an attack ad.)

Mexican President Vicente Fox is casting a skeptical eye on rumors of President Bush's plan to task the National Guard with border patrol duties.

The White House offered assurances worthy of the finest voice-mail systems.

Press 1 to hear that we consider your country a friend. Press 2 to hear assurances that this is only temporary.

It's been pointed out on other blogs that the Bush Administration has failed to fund the border patrol in accordance with its earlier promises, making the deployment of National Guard units a clear example of 'doing something while doing nothing.'

But National Security Weasel Stephen Hadley assures us, "It's what the American people want, it's what he wants to do."

Funny, I don't recall voting on militarizing the border.

Mr. Bush's speech on immigration pointedly ignores some of the hate-mongering coming out of the folks at FOX News, such as commentator John Gibson, who took time out from whining about the War on Christmas to advise decent white folk to, "... do your duty. Make more babies."

Gibson, like the border-reform clown mentioned a couple of days back, seems to be deathly afraid of being outnumbered by Hispanics.

Despite assurances that he is not militarizing the border, Mr. Bush nonetheless waxed enthusiastic about an entire new infrastructure to secure our borders. High-tech fences, patrol roads, barriers, motion sensors, infrared cameras, and unmanned aerial vehicles. (While he did not give specifics, the UAV is familiar to most Americans as the Predator aerial reconnaissance drone, currently used by the military.)

Mr. Bush also talked about expanding detention facilities, and continuing to add more. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to who got the contract? Might those be the mystery facilities being built by the folks at Halliburton?

And then, of course, legal foreign workers should carry a new identification card, featuring biometric technology. It's a good bet that this would follow on the heels of a proposal for a national ID card - which will directly fuel an increase in identity theft.

It looks like 'mission creep' is already settling into the surveillance state mentality of the Bush Administration. When we fail to catch terrorists, we'll catch illegal immigrants and drug dealers.

Finally, an English professor at Boston College resigned to protest the selection of Condoleezza Rice as this year's commencement speaker.

Professor Steve Almond describes Rice's actions as being, "... inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive."

Almond goes on to detail some of Rice's failings in regards to the truth.

"It is the content of one's character that matters here � the reverence for truth and knowledge that Boston College purports to champion," Almond adds. "Rice does not personify these values; she repudiates them."

Yet, Almond's concerns seem unfair to Boston College's seniors, whom the professor describes as impressionable.

The hallmarks of a Jesuit education should be high ethical standards, as well as the ability to think critically. I would hope the professor has more faith in the graduating class than that which he evinces in his letter.

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