Well, with the nine Americans(!) killed in Iraq today, we’ve gone over the 600 dead mark(!), and enjoyed the second-deadliest month(!) since the end of major combat eleven months ago.

As I saw the AP photos of the four charred American bodies (all civilians!) being hung from a bridge in Fallujah, I was struck by the complete and utter absence of rose petals at what was once their feet.

I was depressed about this, but then I thought about that knee-slapper of a joke Bush told the other day — you know, the one where he showed slides of himself crawling around looking for the WMDs? Hee hee hee! Took those blues o’ mine away! Gosh, it’s so darned refreshing to have a President — no, a compassionate President — in the White House to make us laugh on days like today. Har har har!