Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?

I've been to London to visit the Queen.
Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?
I spied a little mouse under her chair.


Georgie visits the Cat in the Hat

article
Amid royal pageantry and a smattering of anti-war protesters, President Bush opened a state visit Wednesday defending the invasion of Iraq as a necessary use of military power while likening reconstruction efforts to rebuilding a shattered Europe after two world wars.

A smattering of anti-war protesters. Now we know how many "a smattering" is. Approximately 100,000. (Update: after reading other articles, it appears that there really were no more than a few hundred - expecting large numbers Thursday for the main event at Trafalgar.)

Reconstruction efforts? You call this reconstruction efforts?

He's not really that ignorant. Wait. Strike that. He may actually be, relatively speaking, the most ignorant man on earth if you consider the opportunities he has and passes up to view the world, in favor of golfing and "clearing brush" on his "ranch" (Casa Fabricata, as Maru calls it).

I was talking with a man from Denmark last night, who commented that the only place outside the U.S. Georgie had ever been when he took the White House was Mexico. The Dane also told me something I didn't know: after 9/11, it was demanded that all Europeans get "smart card" passports - the ones you swipe through a machine and it reports everything about you (which, if tied to those grocery cards and credit reports and magazine subscriptions, etc., etc., could be a whole lot more than you were thinking someone else had a right to know) - but that Americans were not required to have the same passports. One other interesting thing he said when I mentioned the propaganda that George Dinglehead keeps spreading here about other countries hating us for our freedoms: "But you are not free. You can't even speak your minds in your workplaces without fear of reprisal." Touché.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip gave a royal salute to the American leader, greeting Bush at Buckingham Palace.

Is that like a raspberry?

As ceremonial cannon blasts from a 41-gun salute shook the palace, Bush and his wife, Laura, moved down a receiving line with the queen and prince, greeting Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and a phalanx of military officers in formal dress.

Good thing he didn't bring a battalion along for protection as he wanted, because, if action in Iraq is any indicator, they'd have started firing on the crowd when the cannons went off.

And the palace was the setting of a major embarrassment for British security services. A journalist got hired as a royal servant despite presenting bogus credentials. The Daily Mirror newspaper said its reporter, who quit the job as a royal footman Tuesday night after Bush's arrival at the palace, had full access to the queen's residence and to the president's guest room for his two-month tenure.

And a good thing the Queen didn't waste all that money reinforcing walls and things like that. But I don't imagine that will make any of them see the absurdity of the "security" measures they force us all to take these days.

[Bush] was praising the spread of democracy, while saying that "history has shown that there are times when countries must use force to defend the peace and to defend values."

Bush did not plan to define which values he was referring to, nor when, exactly, war is necessary.

No. I'm sure he didn't. We are awfully long on generalities and awfully short on details. Just look at the occupation. And may I say: we are not "defending" anything in Iraq. That is definitely not a defensive action.

And thank you, Michael Jackson, for taking the headlines off the war and other important issues for Americans and the entire world, and refocusing the building anger and frustration of Bush supporters onto something they can really sink their teeth into. I'd swear at you, but I realize it's just possibly a frame-up to have that very effect. If not, please keep your nasty ass at home till we get His Slowliness the Dope out of office.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.