Bush has received little attention or thanks for his compassionate reforms. This is less a reflection on him than on the political challenge of compassionate conservatism. The conservative movement gives the president no credit because it views all these priorities -- foreign assistance, a federal role in education, the expansion of an entitlement -- as heresies, worthy of the stake. Liberals and Democrats offer no praise because a desire to help dying Africans, minority students and low-income seniors does not fit the image of Bush's cruelty that they wish to cultivate.

Compassionate conservatism is thus a cause without a constituency -- except for the large-hearted man I first met in 1999 and who, on Monday night, proposed to double global AIDS spending once again.

But it was only a hint of his former boldness. On policy, this State of the Union was the least ambitious effort of an ambitious presidency. Given the short calendar and a hostile Congress, there was no other option. The time for boldness has passed. But in his speech he seemed his same, confident self. And one source of his confidence should be this: His achievements are larger than his critics understand.

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Gus: Mea culpa... Mea culpa... Mea culpa... I never saw any of this wonderful compassion. I stand corrected. I believed his generosity on the AIDS crisis was also to make sure US labs got their cut on the medicine and thus stopped the making of cheaper generics... And make sure funny policies, like no condoms or such, got the better of the solutions... That's why one has to throw more moneys there, for pharmaceuticals to collect a bit more in the loop...

Sure his achievements are larger than we give him credit for but his bad bloopers are hundred times cancelling his best and successful desires.

The waters in new Orleans are still lingering, virtually...

The recent "successes" in Iraq still comes at the price of a fully divided nation with concrete walls between tribes, and, even during this quiet month, the US has lost more than 36 soldiers and has about badly 150 injured in the duty of war. All's not quiet on the Western Front, Mr Bush... another 25 years of "occupation" at least...

Million Iraqis dead since invasion: study

A new study estimates that more than 1 million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Data compiled by London-based Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS) reveals a fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict.

The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.

Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.

"We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000," ORB said in a statement.

The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 per cent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities.

The highest rate of deaths throughout the country occurred in Baghdad, where more than 40 per cent of households had lost a family member.

'We'll arrest Bush if he comes here'

Voters in two Vermont towns have voted in favour of a resolution calling for the indictment and arrest of US President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what they consider violations of the Constitution.

More symbolic than anything, the items sought to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they ever visit Brattleboro or nearby Marlboro or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere - if they are not impeached first.

American inequality highlighted by 30-year gap in life expectancy

By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Thursday, 17 July 2008

The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday.

The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners.

Despite an almost cult-like devotion to the belief that unfettered free enterprise is the best way to lift Americans out of poverty, the report points to a rigged system that does little to lessen inequalities.

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see toon at top.

Since his last ever state of the union (see toon at top), Bush has presided over ten times more damage to the price of fish. But soon we're going to see the end of him — and we'll celebrate into the night like when we saw the end of Howard and Blair... Have a Merry Christmas on this single thought alone... but add many more good feelings of peace and joy for 2009... Hopefully this will be the new beginning we have been waiting for since the Bushit came into the oval office. Serious work will be politically started on arresting global warming and the degradation of the planet... If Obama is true to his slogan "hope and change", we might salvage the furniture.