The President came out of the Oval Office, walked across the street, and gave a press conference today. It was the last straw. Do you recall being in a romantic relationship or in a business deal when it finally dawns on you that talking to the other individual is a total waste of time because it does not matter, one way or the other, up or down, what that person has to say? Of course you do. We have all been there. In this instance, George Bush, Jr. is that person.

He has no credibility left, and he is completely untrustworthy. He comes into office in January, 2001 never having left the country except to take a helicopter tour, with Ariel Sharon as his personal guide, of Israel. That is the extent of his foreign policy experience. Interesting, isn't it? So the man knows nothing going in, and now he is lecturing us about the Middle East and Iraq, both of which are mess, largely thanks to the disastrous, insane policies of Bush’s "neocon" controllers. There is no need to quote what Bush says, because, as in the failed relationships just mentioned, what he says is pointless.

Well, not entirely. It has a point, but only on the meretricious level of politics, not on the level of truth and reality. My thesis, remember, is that the Bush Jr. Presidency was all about politics and flag-waving, and nothing else, from the start. I'm referring mostly to Palestine, to Iraq and to the fool's errand predicated upon the 9/11 terrorist atrocities--the so-called "war on terror", the mother of all enablers. It worked in 2002; it worked in 2004; it may very well work again in 2006.

I’m also referring to the  patriotism card, the tactic of wrapping yourself in the flag and pretending you are some kind of hero, when you are nothing but a hack politician on the make. "Bush's Brain" Karl Rove could win again. P.T. Barnum's famous advice concerning the intellectual shortcomings of the American people must be Rove's guiding light and cardinal rule. This, at least, is what the  Bush press conference today signifies loud and clear.

The nominal commander-in-chief of the lone surviving "Superpower", taking his cue from Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, is playing the patriotism card once again, for the last time. It is all that he and his inner circle have left. It may be all that he and his co-conspirators need to get them through the last two years of his failed Presidency, especially when one takes a good look at the alternatives. The Democrats, with notable exceptions like  Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, are a sorry lot. The liars and con men you know, already in control, may be preferable to the liars and con men you think you know, who want to take over.

Remember, the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill voted for Wolfowitz's War for the same rank political reasons that Bush proposed it. The "base" of both parties is the same: AIPAC. We are all paying the price for the hijacking of America. Forget the political parties; the only hope left now are those few courageous individuals and authentic patriots willing to step up and speak out against the madness and the nonsense--like Murtha, Byrd and Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.