One Last Kick ...

... Because he deserves it. President Bush went on television last night to parade his delusions in front of America one last time. There's no point in chewing on all of them because it's been done enough, but one last thought because it's a big one. He said:

The battles waged by our troops are part of a broader struggle between two dramatically different systems. Under one, a small band of fanatics demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology, condemns women to subservience, and marks unbelievers for murder. The other system is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace.

Beside the white hats/black hats mentality that has shaped all of his rhetoric, foreign and domestic, this is of interest because it's the final evidence we're going to get of what I've believed for the last eight years - that he's a religious extremist who has seen everything in terms of Holy War. Class, race and economic interests have all been folded into his war crimes, but it seems pretty clear that the vision that motivates him is one of the Holy Warrior. Frankly, it's a miracle we're not in a worse mess than we are.