Bush Jong Il is off on a jaunt to Argentina in a week or two for some Latin America free trade [sic] summit in Buenos Aires. I expect some fun and games, since Hugo Chavez, my favorite South American anti-Yanqui caudillo, will also be in attendance. But if Bush cannot face Cindy Sheehan without fleeing to the hinterlands of a safe Air Force base in Colorado, I don’t suspect he will have the nerve to face Chavez either.
Which is a pity. That could be fun to watch.
One of my colleagues, an Argentine national, said Bush will be traveling with 2,000 people in tow (that is how many jumbo jets?), not including reporters (there will probably be 300 reporters — 300! — going with, a whole ‘nuther jumbo jet). It seems not only is Bush Jong Il taking his armored limo, plus the entire Imperial motorcade of two dozen vehicles, he is also taking all the water he and his inner-most retinue will need for the visit. Water! For hundreds for several days! Even Caligula drank the local water in Gaul! I suspect Caesar Potus actually has food tasters, too. I wonder who insures their lives?
Buenos Aires is not happy about this. And it shouldn’t be, either. Big demonstrations are planned. Not that Potus will ever see them, or even know they take place.
I want very much to live in a normal country. A cute, happy, contented country that doesn’t send all its army hither and yon, where national security actually ends at the international frontier. Where it doesn’t matter who the president is. A pleasant, affluent, peaceful country known for something useful and interesting — like fine wines, dark chocolate, well-made cell phones or hand-crafted bicycles — as opposed to war, death, destruction, demagogery, arrogance, debt and conquest.
12:07 pm on November 2, 2005
