Bungling bureaucrats and crazy conspiracy theories.

It is looking like the federal government is going to delay their attempt to force Americans to purchase passports in order to visit Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. This plan of King George is party of his fortress America mind set where he strips Americans of civil liberties on the premise that by attacking his own people he will prevent terrorists from doing so.

But don’t assume any of this was done out of a concern for freedom. They are coming. Already these requirements are in place for air travel and the result has been utter chaos. The issuing of passports under the Bush administration is about as efficient as their handling of Katrinia. Disastrous.

People who have filed for passports months ago are still waiting. Money spent on vacations, hotel books, air flights, etc., have gone down the toilet due to the chaos that is imposed on everything George Bush tries to fix. Surprised? Why? After all this is a man who mismanaged every business enterprise he ever touched. Bush is the Peter Principle in action.

That says that an individual is promoted to his level of incompentence. So naturally with someone as incompetent as George Bush he became president of the United States. And, by his actions, dreams of even higher levels of incompetence.

The State Department still is forcing Americans to get their government papers permitting them to travel. They are only delaying aspects of it. Every American still has to have state permission to get on a flight out of the United States. But those who applied months ago and haven’t received their permits can now fly out but ONLY if they show the travel Nazis a receipt proving they applied for permission. But even this “relaxation” is temporary with the original new regulations going into effect on October 1.

The real problem was going to hit when the passport requirements to drive into Canada or Mexico came into effect. Land and sea travel traffic is far heavier. If the bumbling bureaucrats can’t cope now that regulation will be an even worse disaster.

I’ve crossed over into both countries numerous times myself. I’ve never been able to come into the US with less than a two hour wait at the American border. And the way Bush is handling things it would appear that people will need to put aside half their vacation time just trying to get back into their own country -- though it causes me to wonder why they bother coming back.

This is all part of that bait and switch tactic of authoritarianism used by Bush. It’s going to make America safe! 9/11 you know. Never mind that not a single one of the men involved in 9/11 crossed the US border from Mexico or Canada. Never mind that every one of them passed through US passport control. Somehow this is supposed to be related. Just trust the Fuhrer.

A similar bait and switch was used for his disastrous war. A small group of men connected with Osama bin Laden committed grotesque criminal acts within the United States. Bin Laden was headquartered in Afghanistan. But somehow, and with some process of convoluted Bush logic, that means the US has to go to war in Iraq. The net result is that Bush more than doubled the number of American dead. Great move moron! And that’s only the beginning. He’s made an unstable region of the world even less stable. And that bin Laden fellow? No worries, the US is so mired down in the march toward fascism that he’s still free.

Personally it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to discover bin Laden has been dead for a couple of years. But you need the Bogey Man to scare the children into taking orders. Don’t forget 9/11. Shred the Bill of Rights. Don’t forget 9/11. End your freedom to travel. 9/11 you know. Just keep saying it over and over and kiss liberty good bye.

One last point about this lunacy, and that is to deal with lunatics on the other side. Just because Bush is a dangerous moron doesn’t mean everyone who opposes him has a lick of sense. There are some real daft opponents of Bush.

There is circulating a lot of nonsense from fringe Far Right anti-Bush crazies. Some even oppose Iraq. Their insanity is not due to opposing Bush but due to their delusional obsession with conspiracy theories concocted by people who are neither smart enough nor honest enough to understand reality.

At the top of the list is the absurd rumor that there is an attempt to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into one larger nation -- a North American Union with a common currency, the Amero.

The far Left doesn’t have a monopoly on fools.

One hallmark of such a union, such as the European Union, is the ease to cross borders within the Union. But Americans are finding that harder and harder to do.

This passport debacle clearly shows the US is not moving toward a North American Union but is actually moving further and further away from anything remotely resembling one. Of course that is logic and I’ve yet to meet a conspiracy advocate I thought was being logical. Most just strike me as mentally unbalanced and intellectually challenged.

Most Canadians would rather eat glass than join the United States. And the politicians can’t even agree on what to do about the Mexicans who already live in the United States. Then we have THE WALL that is being built to keep Mexicans out, or Americans in, take your pick. And yet the loony fringe is breathlessly telling us that its part of the One World plot by.... Well, just insert your favorite scapegoat there.

Here’s a hint. If you hear someone going on about the North American Union, the Amero, the NAFTA Highway, the globalists, the international bankers, etc, then you are dealing with someone whose eleveator doesn’t quite reach the top floor. Most of them are harmless so just nod knowingly and look for the nearest exit.