Just about the only thing the Left and Right agree on in America today is that we can't leave Iraq but we can't stay there, either. Anyone got any ideas? Because the folks who got us in there sure don't. The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld braintrust will have to pick its poison: a long, slow drip or a quick, massive bloodletting. Neither will be pretty. 

Remember Social Security?

It looks like Bush has finally found an exit strategy from his Social Security fiasco: having it overshadowed by a complete disaster in every other aspect of his Presidency. How do you spell "hubris?" (Hint: It has a "W.") I guess he thought he could safely alienate everybody over 65 -- and everybody who would one day be over 65.

The ticking time bomb

Oh, yes. Just a little thing called "massive deficits." The question isn't whether we'll pay a price, it's when. Up to now, George has apparently assumed it wouldn't happen on his watch -- but given his luck lately, we can probably count on an economic meltdown before he leaves office (unless he's forced to resign soon). 

What's next? Conspiracy indictments in the Plame case? War with Iran or Syria? Natural disasters caused by global warming? Outbreaks of bird flu or mad cow disease? Attacks by extraterrestrials? The imagination barely keeps pace with the possibilities.

Unfortunately, while I can't help but enjoy a measure of schadenfreude, my guilty pleasure is tempered by the knowledge that we'll all pay the consequences of these "interesting times" for many years to come.