Is it just me?

Laura Bush on TV condemning Myanmar's military dictatorship for not allowing US hurricane relief: "We know already that they are very inept," she said. Yeah, thanks for the piercing insight, Laura. Though, to be fair, she may have been talking about Texas cheer-leading or the Lady Rotarian Bake Sale.

Several things struck me here:

1) The invisible First Lady: Really, who the hell is Laura Bush? It's been eight years now and frankly other than a couple of publicity photos of her wan, powdered, blow-dried ass reading a book to a couple of third graders or a quick clip of her pants suited backside on the way to Marine One clinging in true subservient fashion to her husband's sleeve like a good little republican housefrau , what have we seen of this woman? And now she's an expert on Myanmar's political situation, disaster relief, and foreign policy? Color me a little skeptical on this one, but then again how much worse than our current State Department could she be?

2) The naming of things: She kept referring to Myanmar as Burma, as does the rest of the Bush Administration. Burma. What's next? Maybe she'll give us an update on human rights abuses in Peking. Or the revolution in Ceylon. Of course, what do you expect from a White House that keeps building 2 billion dollar Spirit bombers, 120 million dollar F-22 Raptors, and 3 billion dollar CX Cruisers to fight the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? When you've got those kind of toys, I guess you can't afford to reprint the maps.

3) Pot, Kettle, and Blackness: 22,500 dead by the latest count this morning. Don't these people have enough problems already without adding FEMA to the mix? Seriously, can anybody blame Myanmar's Junta for being reluctant to accept 'aid' from the same folks who brought us the Katrina response? What's the plan here? Send them Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco and some New Orleans PD to restore order and get the whore houses and bars up and running again? Or are we going to ship over a couple boatloads of FEMA trailers and some Haliburton contracts?


Understand, I have no love, respect, admiration, pity, or support for the despots running Myanmar at the moment. I am appalled that they can't put aside their own power mad selfishness for a moment and take help for what's left of their desperate population. But, seriously, Laura Bush calling somebody else's response to a hurricane disaster of unprecedented proportions 'inept?'

Yeah, it's just me.

In all candor, Laura, please go back to the country club or your charity for the underprivileged children of Exxon executives and leave the citizens of Maynmar, and the rest of us, the hell alone. No, really, we've got enough problems.