Reassurance is not the only thing to look for.

Tonight George Bush will appear on TV to once more ease Americans' doubts about the U.S. mission in Iraq; to assure us we're winning. If I were advising the president, I'd suggest he salt his speech liberally (whoops, sorry, I mean, if I were saying this to the president, I'd say "salt your speech a lot" instead) with words he needs to use more often, like "freedom" and "democracy." Ooooh, especially democracy. Doesn't that just get the juices going? Those are words that always stir great nationalism, make us wanna destroy shit and kill foreigners.

I know some very harsh critics of the president say he's out of touch with reality. But I'm not so sure. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He might just be an astute student of Hitler's Nazi Propaganda Minister, J. Goebbels, who said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Bush actually said something kinda similar, like, "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

That's seems pretty close to what the Nazi Propaganda Minister said I think, except where Goebbels said "lie", Bush says "truth." At least the president is up front enough to admit he's indoctrinating us. So, that's pretty cool.

But I'm a little suspicious about his repeating the "truth" over and over for it to "sink in" part since we all know (but not all admit) he's lied about reasons for going to war. Oh, and he's lied about some other stuff too but I won't go there now. Don't wanna taint my take on his speech before I hear it.

Remember: *FREEDOM* *DEMOCRACY*

[NOTE: Just as I typed that, I received an e-mail from a friend in the midwest containing the rules of the George W. Bush Speech Drinking Game.

So, inspired by that game, I might suggest a gulp of your favorite alcoholic beverage tonight everytime you hear either of those words. That's my suggestion as inspired by the game rules. They were sadly missing, but there are a number of other events that warrant woofing down more. For example, game rules dictate each time Bush says, "stay the course", "finish the mission", and "we're winning" you must take two drinks.

There are many, many other occasions to partake as stated in the rules, but I won't list 'em here. I believe in promoting responsible alcohol consumption. And besides, I haven't decided if maybe the George W. Bush Speech Drinking Game is making fun of our president just a little bit. I mean, c'mon, does he really speak those platitudes all that much?]