The award for the chief US war propagandist of the year, and the competition was tough, goes hands down to John Burns of the New York Times. He cannot contain himself and cannot curb his enthusiasm for the Bush family. In fact, his affection for the Bushes has been noticed. Bush Sr. invited him to Texas to his presidential library (I should have my own presidential library, by the way) to tell the crowd what a foreign policy genius Bush jr. is. This is from his article today (and they do not classify his articles as editorials, mind you, as they should, or at least "Propaganda Pieces") when reporting about the new Iraqi army. He says: "The new batallion made a credible showing with a precision marchpast..." You would think that he is evaluating an army in heavy battle situation. He also liked the uniforms. Then he proceeds to: "Through the parade and the soldiers' exurberant tribal dancing that followed (he is no expert on Arabs, their language or culture, but can identify a dance when he sees one--HOW IMPRESSIVE IS THAT) there was an air of expectancey (he also is an expert on air quality), hesitant but still real (he can tell reality from unreality), that Iraq can overcome the paralyzing (he was an emergency physicion on ER for a season, from which he learned a lot about medicine) insurgency of resent months and construct the Arab Middle East's firrst, or at least fullest, democracy." I was reading this on the plane, and whenever I read his pieces I look for the nearest bathroom sign, as I get a strong urge to vomit. I get the same sensation when I hear intellectuals referring to "civil society." Howard Dean has educated himself further on world affairs: he keeps referring to the civil war within Islam. That talk only proves one thing: he has been reading the dreadful Thomas Friedman. Do you know that Thomas Friedman has political ambitions? I head that he wants to be Secretary of State one day. I was with him on a panel once, and he cannot stop telling you: "I was playing Tennis with James Baker the other day," "I mad that same point in my lunch with George Bush Sr." These are exact quotations, by the way.