Every Television Channel I surfed Friday night I was confronted with Dubya's attempt to remove, without any trace, the notion that he is not actually the President of these United States. On his candid tour of the oval office, which appeared to be pristine, as if no one worked there anymore, Matt Lauer of NBC asked him: "Is this your desk, where you work?" His finger seemingly pointed to the underneath opening of the desk, which was polished clean and devoid of papers, his stunning reply, in front of tagging cameras, was: "It's the President's desk but I actually work in the backroom. That desk is always piled high with papers."

Did Clinton work in that same back room? It seems that I recall many television images of him seated and working at an oval office desk. Of course, we can't discount the historic work he did underneath the desk, where JFK's children romped.

On that note, Dubya gave himself high marks for successfully increasing 'civility' in Washington. The Random House Dictionary defines civility as courtesy, a polite attention or expression. 'Civility', in its archaic meaning, is a civil word for expounding the snobbish recognition of what used to be called 'good culture and breeding', the only acceptable forms of human value.

So, while everything around us is crashing, Dubya claims that, in addition to increasing 'civility', he has gotten off to a good start on domestic and foreign policy. What, I cry! In his questionable administration's first "100 Days", which I say, "will live in infamy", we have been faced with a domestic energy crisis never before seen in our history. Power and gasoline prices, life's necessities, are stratospherically high, beyond the consumer's ability to afford. He refuses to address these issues clouding them with a promise to assemble a plan that acts in a common-sense way to defend the environment. Using double-speak, Dubya says, "We are adopting new, scientifically sensible rules to discourage emissions of lead, to protect wetlands, to reduce the amount of arsenic in drinking water, to curb dangerous pesticides and to clean the air of pollution from on-road diesel engines. All these are national energy emergencies."

In his weekly radio address, he reiterated his disdain for the traditional first 100-day measurements, calling the milestone a ``media marker'' taking the opportunity to remind his radio audience of his priorities, and to claim his "100 Days" 'successes'. "I have defied the skeptics who have advocated that there is no appetite for tax cuts," he said. Claiming that the House and the Senate have now both endorsed significant tax relief and are headed toward a final vote, he neglected to mention that the Senate's tax cut is $400 billion smaller, over the next 10 years, than his original proposal. To add to all of our domestic calamities, our once highly driven economy is skidding downhill in such a steep path that it can't return to what it was these last eight, prosperous years -- not in my lifetime anyway.

As for our foreign policy, we have none. Like a volcano, The Middle East has erupted and we have come to blows with China, a country tottering on the edge of eruption and a formidable threat to world peace. Ignoring the Middle East's explosion, he touched on what he called his greatest foreign policy challenge to date, the detention of 24 U.S. surveillance plane crewmembers on China's Hainan Island, saying, "Our relationship with China is maturing. There will be areas where we can agree, like trade, and areas where we won't agree, like Taiwan, human rights and religious liberty. Where we disagree, I will speak frankly,'' Dubya promised his audience.

What, I say!

So, back to the ranch -- oops, I meant to say Washington. Dubya has called on lawmakers to cooperate with him as he tries to advance his agenda. Again, using his penchant for double-speak, he expounds on his administration's first "100 Days". "We have made a good start. But it's only a start. Now we need to turn a good start and good spirit into good laws. We're making progress toward changing the tone in Washington. There's less name-calling and finger pointing. ... We are learning we can make our points without making enemies.

Ho hum, I say. We are back to square one. Has anybody here seen Dick or Colin?

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