Oh what rutty ruts we weave!

If you like a good metaphor, I think you might love this one. On August 26, 2004, president Bush came to Las Cruces, NM. It was an election year and he was hustling votes.

Las Cruces official's warned the Bush campaign their little international airport couldn't handle the weight of a C-17 jet ladened with heavy bullet-proof vests, limos, and other presidential accoutrements so necessary for Bush's comfort and safety. But the jet went ahead and landed anyway.

Someone in town had given their permission Air Force officials said. Who remains vague, maybe because no one wants to claim responsibility for the nearly two-thirds of a million dollars damage the two inch deep ruts in runway 4-22 suffered! Seems the Bush example was followed, i.e., responsibility of anyone for anything doesn't exist.

After Bush's visit, runway 4-22 was closed down. Now, twenty-six months later, it still remains closed. It took almost 14 months for the city of Las Cruces to receive a check in the amount of $603,754 from the Air Force to repair runway 4-22, making the Bush Las Cruces appearance one of the most expensive campaign stops of the 2004 season.

I'm not so sure the city's slowness in getting runway 4-22 repaired wasn't a very wise decision, being as how it's another election year--just in case Bush got a whimsy to drop by Las Cruces again this fall.

But Las Cruces' rutted remnants of Bush's presence got me to thinking of the tracks Bush and his business hacks have left all over the world, to include those inside the vaults of the U.S. Treasury.

Runways can be paved over, and the holes dug to bury the dead resulting from this administration's global hubris can be filled in, if not forgotten. But the ruts in the lives of millions upon millions of survivors cannot.

But be patient, for if Bush doesn't maim or kill you politically, economically or militarily by January, 2009, he and his gluttonous hacks may have sated their appetities for wealth and opulence by then. And they may actually decide to leave office then!

That would seem to be the indication hinted at by the actions both Bush and Cheney are presently taking. With U.S. national debt up over three trillion dollars ($3,000,000,000!) since they took office, and the country having to borrow $2.5 billion each and every day (why that's $1/2 a billion more than we're spending in Iraq every two weeks!) just to remain solvent, looks like our president and his veep are hedging their bets against U.S. economic collapse.

Or I could be overly pessimistic here. Bush and Cheney may simply be planning their escapes to avoid war crimes trials. Whatever the reasons, Cheney is investing heavily in "Old Europe" bonds and inflation protected securities in what looks like anticipation of a U.S. economic armageddon as Mike Whitney over at Counterpunch suggests.

And what of Bush? Well, that one's even more curious. Seems there are rumors here, and stories in various Latin American (but not U.S.) newspapers. As succinctly put over on Wonkette's We Hate To Bring Up the Nazis, But They Fled To South America, Too:

"Here’s a fun question for Tony Snow: 'Why might the president and his family need a 98,840-acre ranch in Paraguay protected by a semi-secret U.S. military base manned by American troops who have been exempted from war-crimes prosecution by the Paraguyan government?'"

The answer's probably simple: To get away from all the ruts Bush has created, to cover his tracks (or ass?), leaving the rest of us scurrying for the life boats on the decks of the world's biggest Titanic.

Many thanks for the Bush Paraguayan paradise segment go to D.K. Raed, who alerted me to this over two weeks ago, and Nona over at Fish Wars on Cars who blogged about it, 11/1/06.