I don't really believe that Bush thinks we're in a holy war, at least from our side. He undoubtably believes God is on our side, but that's not quite the same thing.

A holy war, as I see it, is fought to either free holy lands or convert the conquered, and we're clearly not doing either. The other side, however, is a different matter entirely.

I do not begrudge Bush his religiousity. Sometimes I feel his mention of the Lord is a little unseemly, but I gather he's much more restrained about it than Jimmy Carter was. But if he feels that praying gives him insight, fine. Indeed I would be concerned for the Country if Bush suddenly became less ardent in his faith -- remember that the man is an alcoholic. Recovering addicts often need religion. A powerful external force ruled over his life before, and another external force fills the void. Jesus stands in for Stolichanya. (That last sentence is a little too pat, and probably offensive to boot, but it's too cute for me to delete.

Excepting his lamentable stance in the cloning debate, I haven't seen much sign that his religion keeps him from being flexible when necessary.

On the contrary to hubris, Bush often mentiones how humbled he is by his office. I believe him. To rephrase a famous quote; he's a humble man, with much to me humble about. (Yes, I know - it was originally "modest".)

Bush's default setting is to defer to his "expert" advisors. Bush, unlike, say, Reagan, does not have a strong intellectual curiosity - he doesn't like to delve deeply into different ways of thinking, or new ways of looking at a problem. Now, this is a virtue in some respects - he gets stuff done and on time, because he doesn't become bogged in details. But it often causes his administration to execute bad policy, because his certain of his lieutenants tend to run wild, because he gets bad information, etc.

I agree on Ashcroft. I wouldn't really care about it if he was head of one of the joke cabinet posts, but he's the Attny General. I'm tired of seeing news stories about the FBI cracking down on brothels and internet bong sales. The US AG ought to focus on interstate crime and especially terrorism and organized crime. Even beyond that, Ashcroft seems to have little understanding of legal concepts and constitutional law. I believe there ought to be fewer lawyers in government, especially in the legislature, but if there is a position for a lawyer in gov't, it's the AG.

Bush has allowed this FBI-as-vice-squad behavior to continue, but again I see this as Bush's MO. I doubt born again cronyism is the motive here. No heads rolled at the CIA after 9/11, no heads have rolled at the CIA after its awful performance during the Iraq war, or Defense during post-war Iraq, nor any has anyone at the State Dept been held to account for their persistent shielding, babying, excuse-making Saudi policy. The only man Bush has had the gumption to fire is the particularly abysmal O'Niel, who thought touring Africa with Bono was a good use of his time, and allowed himself to be drawn into a disgraceful exchange with the Imperial Wizard of the Senate.

>>And if they didn't all the weapons in the world, maybe it wouldn't be so frightening. << Huh?

>>And you know what? They might just keep going on their self-righteousness until the real gods have to step in and foul up their plans. Wouldn't put it past them. <<

Yeah, you know how those gods can be, thwarting plans.