Like the space shuttle Challenger disaster 17 years ago this week, the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia played out in real time before a nationwide television audience, reminding us not only how precarious life in space is, but how fucking similar the Reagan and Bush Junior presidencies really are. May everyone rest in peace -- February 2, 2003.

U2's Bono bet his 'forgiven debt' on the wrong guy! Firing Treasure Secretary, Paul O'Neill, and White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey as part of a shake-up designed to control political damage from the ailing economy, Bush is on a rampage to avoid Daddy's mistakes.. Will Alan Greenspan be next? Green doesn't exactly go with oil, unless, of course, it's money. -- December 8, 2002.

With a stroke of Bush's pen, Tom Ridge, the eerie fairy from Erie, Pennsylvania who brought America the color-coded national warning system will now head the new Department of Homeland Security involving the merging of $40 billion in budgets from a broad swath of well-protected bureaucratic turf. Welcome to the biggest virtual, centralized grand database ever. Records show your chip has not been implanted under your skin yet. Your retina pattern, please. -- November 25, 2002

Now the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches are dominated by the GOP/Conservative wing of the statist bird. While the left wing of the same bird contributes to reductions of freedoms as much as the right, sometimes they bicker over trivia...like which freedoms should be eliminated first. Now expect a smooth ride to hell.