I've started to feel strange lately about the next 4 years. I'm no fan of the president, so it's a normal feeling, right? No, it's worse. The problem is I've started to feel like what this president chooses to do is beyond the usual liberties taken (no PATRIOT Act pun intended) by a president and his ruling party.

Here we have a president who had a gut instinct we'd suffer few casualties in Iraq. A man who has little concern for huge budget deficits. A man who seems to show little concern that his plan to save Social Security wouldn't save Social Security. He runs a staff that failed to find questionable business dealings in the background of his Homeland Security Secretary nominee, Bernard Kerik, leaving the job to internet bloggers. When the question finally got loud enough, "Why nominate a guy with such a questionable background?" The best answer given was the president admired him. Admired him? Was it the mob connections? Everyone loves to brag about their distant Italian relatives who "know people." But would I hire them to run The Department of Homeland Security? I'm going to venture a big N-O.

And thus, begins our second 4 years of Bush-dom. They pay journalists to plug their propaganda. They allow faux-journalists into the White House press corps to toss candy-canes to Scott McClellan and Bush. Considering that some reporters have been told they had to have a Secret Service background check to get in, I guess having nude pictures of yourself on HotMilitaryStud.com doesn't make you a questionable journalist. And in further consideration, I don't think that alone should keep you out. My issue is when you basically work from GOP talking points, plagiarize them in your own "news" articles and phrase your questions based on the previous day's Rush Limbaugh radio program. I believe the appropriate word for that type of person is operative, not journalist.

But that is what we've come to expect from this White House. Nothing is too outrageous for the Bushies. And nothing the Bushies do is too outrageous for FOX to defend. Welcome to Bushworld. If you've ever seen one of those caught-on-home-video shows where some hapless couple is trapped upside-down on a roller coaster, you know what Bushworld is like.