"I PLANTED THE FLAG OF LIBERTY"

Bush at yesterday's press conference: "An upbeat president at his news conference on Wednesday as he declared, 'I firmly planted the flag of liberty.'"

Where would that be, I wonder. Certainly not in the U.S., where the Resident has presided over the greatest backslide in civil rights, workers' protections and freedoms in the past century; surely he didn't mean in Iraq, where the people are experiencing liberty from water, electricity and security. Perhaps he was referring to Afghanistan, where Kabul is now reported to be a bustling city but the rest of the country is pretty much subject to the warlords, and women are still imprisoned for running away from home.