The road to hell...

...was paved with good intentions.

So we learned last night during George Bush's farewell speech to the nation.

He took the country straight to Hell but wanted us to know he followed his principles and made decisions that he thought were best for the country. In other words, he meant well.

In Bush's narrow world where everything is black or white, good or evil, any decision made for that noble principle of freedom is worth any trade off.

The goods and evils are clear cut even though the goals are ambiguous. How close are we to "freedom?" How much further do we need to go? What's the threshold where the price becomes too much? The objective unattainable? When is enough, enough?

None of these issues matter to old George as long as his efforts are in pursuit of "freedom."

Liberated from the scrutiny that might cause him to rethink his decisions, the president plows on...fueled only by the certainty of his principles. He made tough decisions, he said. Whether or not you agreed with him, he did what he thought was right.

Few regrets. No remorse. He's riding out of town on the road on the road of good intentions. He has no clue where it ends. We do. The world went to Hell in a handbasket ever since he arrived. But he meant well.

Speed on by yourself, Mr. President. Good bye and good riddance.

The president and the preacher

Here's a bit of irony. On the weekend that Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the next president of the United States, his old pastor Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright will also be in Washington, D.C., speaking at the Howard University Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel.

Rev. Wright has a standing engagement to preach every Martin Luther King Birthday weekend. As fate would have it, that weekend coincides with the inauguration. Wonder if they'll have time to catch up. :-)

Bush's legacy: it could have been worse

After eight years of what could be the most dismal presidency in modern history, George Bush has found the ultimate talking point to salvage his presidency – It could have been worse.

Most of us probably wonder what could be worse. President Bush began his presidency with the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. He responded with a misguided war that claimed 4,000 American lives and wounded 30,000 Americans, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

He plunged the America into the worst economy since the Great Depression, and presided over a period when we lost more than 4 million jobs.

History will vindicate him, he says, because it could have been worse. The crux of his case seems to rest on what didn't happen rather than what did.

Pres. Bush's chief argument is that we have not had an attack on the Homeland since 9/11. If keeping America safe is your legacy, you are overlooking one big ole data point. Despite explicit warnings that Al Qaeda was determined to attack the United States, Bush was caught off guard when Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States. The terrorists killed thousands of innocent citizens, but Bush wants to be remembered as the guy who didn't let it happen…again.

We now have the worst economy since the Great Depression. Lucky for us the windows in Wall Street offices don't open because there has been mass panic over there for the last three months. Bush responds that he inherited a recession, he ended on a recession, but in the meantime there was 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. Let's do some math. Bush was president for 96 months, and he claims success for 52. Even by his definition of success, half his presidency was spent in a recession. It could have been worse, however. We could have spent the entire presidency broke.

When asked about the federal government's lackluster response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush snapped that they plucked 30,000 people from roof tops right after the storm passed. In a city of 2 million residents, the feds can take credit for rescuing 30,000.There are 9,000 Louisiana families still living in trailers and more than 30,000 gulf state residents still receiving assistance. Five of 23 acute-care hospitals in New Orleans remain closed. The bus system carries less than a third of its pre-storm passengers. Many neighborhoods remain vacant. It could have been worse, I guess; He could have let the entire city drown.

Finally, when confronted with the reality that the country's standing in the world has been greatly diminished; Bush retorted that this was the view of Europeans and the elite. You don't even need data to rebuff this claim. Just think back a month when Bush took a valedictory tour to the country he "liberated" from Saddam Hussein. The most memorable point of the trip was when an Iraqi journalist hurled both of his shoes at the president. That's standing for you. Not sure how that one could have been worse.

For every major decision, the president was resolute and wrong. To bolster his legacy however, Bush asserts that it could have been worse. Let's thank God that he wasn't president for longer; he might have just proven it to us.

What so proudly we hail...

The flag, Silly.

After months of resisting requests to wear a flag pin during the campaign, Barack Obama eventually capitulated and donned the patriotic symbol. Now the flag is one of the more prominent things in the official photo that will be used throughout his presidency. Oh say can you see?

Bail out for porn? Come on...

Times are hard in the porn industry. They are so hard that Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis are planning to ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly," said Larry Flynt.

I know... Congress will say this is too hard to do. This won't stimulate the economy, and the American people will have no desire to bail out porn. The thought will be enough to make your head throb. We'd rather go about life carelessly blowing Bubbles. But we must do it. We must bail out porn.

Think of the impact if we don't act. Men will be forced to look at their own wives. Wives will have to fend off increased advances from other women's husbands. Camcorder sales will increase dramatically. Children will wonder why their parents now go to bed so early.

Well the porn industry won't take this lying down. They refuse to swallow their pride and let the the economy stick it to them in such an impersonal way. After all, why should porn be brought to its knees? Congress will have to enter this debate, or the American people will get screwed.

Could this all be true, I wondered? I was getting all riled up when the thought occurred to me that this might just be a stunt. Who cares, though. If we can spend money to bail out crappy Chryslers, surely we can lend porn a hand.

Congress, cut em the check. Keep it coming, Larry.

To seat or not to seat? For Ill. senate seat squabble, that is not the question

Honestly, they should have seen it coming. I'm not sure how politicians and the media were caught off guard when Gov. Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to be the junior senator from Illinois.

Maybe they were distracted by all their huffing and puffing about how crazy Gov. Blagojevich is and how it would be ludicrous for him to appoint a successor to Pres. Elect Obama's seat. Maybe they thought that the embattled governor would take legal and PR advice from media pronouncements. Maybe the governor isn't as crazy as we'd like to think.

Ask yourself however, if you were Gov. Blagojevich, what would you do? It should have been a no-brainer that Blago would try to find the cleanest Black politician to appoint to President Elect Obama's vacant seat. What better way to inoculate the governor in his ongoing public relations and legal troubles. What does Blago have to lose by making the appointment?

The huffing and puffing continued with people openly wondering why Roland Burris should accept the job. Why wouldn't he? Once you get past the emotion of the moment, Burris makes some pretty interesting points. The decision about whether he should be seated is a legal one. So far I have not seen anyone dispute the pure legal basis for Burris' appointment. Burris also makes the point that he is qualified and the sins of the appointer should not be visited on the appointee.

The lone criticism I've heard against Burris thus far is that he is too ambitious. That his ego outsizes his talent.

Since when is humility a job requirement for the senate? Since when do candidates have to wait until the chattering class deems them "ready" or "qualified"? I seem to remember last year's democratic primary race come down to a bruising battle with two senators who began their senate careers labeled ambitious beyond their abilities. Now one of those candidates will be president and the other secretary of state. Ambition is no disqualifier in American politics.

Now the huffing and puffing continues with Harry Reid declaring that he will not seat Burris. Harry Reid, the guy who couldn't stop an idiot lame duck president from doing anything is now going to block Roland Burris from being seated?

How will you do that, Sen. Reid? Ahhh.. he won't seat the new appointee. Clever! Just in case, the Illinois secretary of state has also vowed not to certify the new appointee. A ceremonial one-two punch. Brilliant!

I wonder how well both those approaches will work? Burris told you that he intends to fight you in the courts; he is treating this as a legal matter. Burris told you that he is qualified and his record is without challenge; he intends to make this a David and Goliath fight in the streets of Chicago, where it counts. Rep. Bobby Rush laid out the role race could play. All the media huffing and puffing about the race card will be meaningless when the Bobby Rush PR machine gets cranked up in Chicago.

Burris has laid out his three strategies for succeeding Obama in the U.S. Senate, and I wonder if anyone is paying attention.

To seat or not to seat? To certify or not certify? Those are not the questions. The democrats of Illinois and congress seem unaware of what the real issues will be in this fight, and quite honestly, they ought to see them coming.