Bush plays with swords.

It was embarrassing to watch Bush's trip to the middle east this week, especially when he visited "His Majesty" at the Al Murabba Palace to beg him to please, please lower the price of oil. Anyway Bob Cesca has a graet Op-ed at Huffington Post Below is an excerpt

There's a rule -- something about running with scissors -- which ought to have applied here. But the implicit hazard of an accident-prone Ruprecht waving a sharpened blade in the vicinity of living humans fails to underscore the true danger and indignity of the event -- the real-world horror of our constitutional defender and chief diplomat dancing and smirking while brandishing those Saudi weapons.

They're called "Chop Squares", Mr. President.

While the sword President Bush had slung over his shoulder like a clump of Crawford scrub wasn't specifically an executioner's sword -- in the same way a looped and knotted length of rope isn't specifically a hangman's noose or a Teflon-coated hollow-point bullet isn't specifically a cop-killer -- the resemblance was striking enough to send a message that the United States -- the "shining city on the hill" or whatever the hell Saint Reagan called it -- is willing to toss aside its commitment to human rights, justice and democracy in order to sniff the taints of our true global masters: the House of Saud which, last year, conducted at least 136 public beheadings in these so-called Chop Squares. It's also worth noting that during the same year in which President Bush delivered his second inaugural, the Saudis publicly beheaded 191 people.


Meanwhile, we're in the business of invading and occupying nations like Iraq even though the House of Saud helped to finance the 9/11 attacks. We're in the business of selling our national sovereignty to the Saudis at discount prices -- prices which were driven down by corporate malfeasance -- malfeasance which was encouraged by Bush Republican deregulation. We're in the business of merrily pumping Saudi oil into our cars while refusing to seriously conserve and, with our ridiculous hillbilly-defiance, we fool ourselves into believing that driving these vehicles is somehow "patriotic" while we accuse men like Al Gore of being unhinged.