I nearly lost control of my car on the way into work today. On NPR, a story about the miners trapped in that mine (of all places for miners to be trapped, eh?)

First of all, as I predicted, they've gotten a movie deal. Disney's bought the rights to make a movie about them (hopefully animated, with talking chipmunks and cave trolls) a deal which is going to make each of the 9 men $150k. The story has all the earmarkings of a great drama, and hell, these guys ain't ever gonna go down underground again (I wouldn't...) so you gotta be happy for them in that regard.

But then George Bush comes on. He praises them, their courage, the courage of the folks who lead the rescue effort.... And then this is when I nearly crashed (I'm paraphrasing here...):

"It is that sort of teamwork that is going to help our nation get past the obstacles that we face....is going to give us the tools we need to hunt down every terrorist out there...."

This is me, laughing my damn fool head off. Holy shit! He can turn ANYTHING into a terrorist hunt pledge drive. I understand where he's coming from but it seems real desperate. Figure that the terrorist hunt has largely fallen out of the public eye. The main actions in Afghanistan are long over -- the US people are focused on mass violence in Israel and who's left on Making an American Idol...or whatever.... It's a pathetic cry of "Remember what I'm doing here? I'm protecting the American people!" I know it might not be true, but I like to think that some of our recent presidents (even this one's father) wouldn't have made the ridiculous leap from rescuing 9 trapped miners to hunting Bin Laden...

I can just imagine the number of quizzical looks, confused faces around the room when he said that -- "Did he say hunt down terrorists?" "Are we going to have to go dig them out of flooded mines?"

Of course, he didn't stop there. He went on to praise God. (Again, a paraphrase:)

"Everyone was praying for these men to an Almighty God and thank God, our prayers were answered."

I...eh....feh.