[BREAK] If you're a fan of the pithy, you'd be hard put to find a few paragraphs of minimal mainstream media verbiage that can so succinctly describe the fundamentally flawed ethos of an entire administration as well as the 5 paras from today's NY Times below!

- - - SNIP Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis. Mr. Bush acknowledged that, for some, rebuilding may have been so gradual as to seem non-existent. But, Mr. Bush said: “For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.” “I feel a quiet sense of determination that’s going to shape the future of Mississippi,” he continued. And then, in comments that could have been as applicable to the other main challenge of his administration — Iraq — Mr. Bush said: “As this part of the world flourishes, and businesses grow, people will find work and have the wherewithal to rebuild their lives.” Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass. - - End of SNIPPET

In almost everything this regime of bumbling war criminals and failed businessmen has touched, from Iraq through Katrina, from Social Security through the handling of security post 9/11, the US can fairly be portrayed as a Marx Brother's comedy . . . with sub-par performances by the third string buffoons filling in for the genius brothers. Unfortunately, the cast change has been accompanied by a total change in genre. Instead of a comedy piece, this real life production has become a very sad drama, bordering on the edge of horror. The same man who held a plastic turkey for his Thanksgiving photo op in Iraq now stands before a another prop, a few new buildings hiding the overall shame and ruin. I give the Times some credit here. It isn't often that the mainstream media strays from reporting just what the White House press office hands out in the press packet. By allowing the readers to get even the briefest peek behind the Bush administrations propaganda curtain, reporters Anne E. Kornblut and David Stout have gone where few of their peers dare to tread. They have, we can only hope, opened a few eyes to a fact many of us have known for a long time. Where perception is paramount, the Bushies perform swimmingly. But where progress is the prime parameter, Bushie BS fails to float. [/BREAK]