In a moment of madness a few months ago, I signed up for a six-months subscription to Vanity Fair Magazine. During the 1920s and '30s, it had been a lavish and smart (not to say smart-alecky) periodical that monthly erupted in a surge of photos and witty stories of Hollywood glamour girls, Broadway and political notables, and inside stories of all the celebrities (before the age of huge celebrities had officially begun) those particular decades had set before the American reading public.

These days, in its modern incarnation, despite its focus on young Hollywood stars (its cover is invariably a color photo of a nubile new Hollywood star), there's occasionally a story of substandard work on the political scene (a rich harvest these days, heh?) On page 58 of the February 2006 issue, Vanity Fair's chief editor Graydon Carter has a short article, "If you Have Nothing To Hide," that introduces and discusses President Bush's recent misconduct of the war in Iraq. Carter contends that George, Jr., has lost interest in the disaster in New Orleans, which he, of course, partly exacerbated by neglecting to pay particul! ar attention to FEMA and failing to oversee the post-flood reconstruction effort. For example, Carter claims "fewer than 1 percent of the city's public schools are open. It can fairly be argued that Baghdad is in better shape than the Gulf Coast. It's certainly getting more attention from Washington.."

On the war front, Bush, Jr., as CEO of the most powerful state on earth, has to take full responsibility for the horrors that apparently go on in Iraq. Carter writes, U.S. troops fired "massive quantities of white phosphorus" in a battle against the Iraqi resistance. Mention "white phosphorus" to a chemist and watch his face contort to a horrified look. In Iraq, "the apparently reckless use of the chemical in a civilian area-- in Fallujah it burned bodies , including those of women and children, carmelizing their flesh down to the bone, according to The Independent -- the title seems self-explanatory -- is evocative of Saddam's gassing of the Kurds 16 years earlier."

Carter concludes, "The administration's own desire for privacy is in complete contrast for its position that in its crusade for freedom abroad it must diminish everyone else's freedom at home."

Every time I read something like this, that makes me ashamed of my own country, I remember the grade school years when I read and was told, by my teachers, how much we all had to be grateful for our political freedoms and democratic way of life. And today, as I read the newspapers, I wonder if our President is fully cognizant that he‚'s the legitimate (or illegitimate?) successor of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman.

I have a suggestion for the inscription on George, Jr.'s tombstone:

Shame, Shame, Shame.