Poor old Dubya Bush. I guess when your propaganda power runs out, and even your replacement candidate knows the best way to win points is from ripping you to pieces (Mc Cain, on his New Orleans visit, criticised the infamously indifferent Bush response to the crisis as "disgraceful"), dignity is a useless ideal. Certainly, there was little of it in this week's cameo on Deal Or No Deal, where George dropped in to boost approval ratings with a bit of good old war-association patriotism. While our own country spends the weekend in a sentimentality that dangerously poisons our concept of war (it's really not romantic, and it's nothing to celebrate), I thought, instead, I'd show you the extreme end of what government has always known to use war for, in the hope that we generally are more able to see "the other" with greater clarity than we can see ourselves. And there's no greater extreme, after all, than this horrific blend of marketing and politics. Take it away, Georgie...   

But the beauty of this? The cameo was, naturally, no surprise, and had been plugged and promoted to oblivion, all week. And it's even sweeter, considering George's wonderfully comedic copy (he certainly didn't write it, himself); "I'm thrilled to be anywhere with high ratings, these days". The ratings result for this star-studded show?

 

The episode was down 27% on ratings, and tied for the Monday night's worst rating episode ever. God bless America.