It could have been worse; much worse. Bush could have been smart.

Much of the world holds seething contempt for Bush and his neo-con design to take over the world. What is emerging today is some light at the end of the tunnel. Not so long ago the neo-cons appeared to be ready to really take over - but not anymore. The best side of this is that it may well happen, eventually, that another age of Keynesian-like politics and economics will result as a reaction to this present age of neo-con insanity. Everything 'rightwing' is coming out and showing itself for what it is. On the other hand, monopoly capitalism itself matures with or without Bush and to a large degree it is what dictates to Bush. It demands him to be imperialistic.

But still, there’s room for a shade of optimism because as powerful and mighty as W. Bush is, he doesn’t get much respect. The Europeans and the Canadians have stood up to Bush. When the madman was screaming for blood in Iraq, he was given the diplomatic version of the finger by all those that could afford to do it. Canada recently waved Bush away regarding the space wars scam that had a large portion of Canadian tax dollars earmarked for the rich playboys in the War Party. The Europeans and the Canadians have lost much of their traditional unbridled enthusiasm to bow and scrape to the President of the United States.

Heads of state, diplomats, media insiders, as well as taxi drivers, barbers and school teachers have taken to whispering about Bush behind his back. Bush and his cabal are widely seen as an aberration, a summer dust devil that will soon spin out and disappear. In the meantime, people watch in annoyed amazement as the dust devil grows – too big. Too big and out of control – yes, but Bush has spent his political capital. He can’t get respect from anybody that is not on the payroll

Bush pressures the Europeans not to sell arms to China - they sell arms to China. He tells the Russians not to deal with Iran, they deal with Iran. He tells them not to sell military hardware to Chavez in Venezuela (who repeatedly thumbs his nose at Bush), and they sell to Venezuela. Germany, Britain and the French are also dealing with Iran against the whine of an increasingly alienated and secretly ostracized Bush.The Iraqis Shiite religious leader, the Iranian Sistani, has called the shots over the timing of the recent Iraqi election against the wishes of Bush. Bush's hit man, Allawi, managed to buy about 14% of the vote. Not to be outdone by democratic processes, Bush’s neo con man, Chalabi, has wrestled key posts (the Oil Ministry and a deputy Prime Minister seat) away from possible control by ‘real’ Iraqis. Another Allawi, the cousin of the previous Mafioso (Fourteen Percent) Allawi and also a cousin of Chalabi, has also slid into the top political layer of Iraqi politics. Although this kind of open gangsterism was widely expected, it doesn’t serve to buy Bush or any of his accomplices much ‘political capital’.

Bush wants to make war on Iran and Syria and at the same time is saddled with Shiites gaining a degree of political power in the same country they spent many billions of dollars to take control of. It’s a bit of a conundrum. It may be difficult to make war with these countries with Sistani lurking over their shoulders. Kim Jung Il of Pyongyang is telling Bush, 'you want weapons of mass destruction - I got weapons of mass destruction; c'mon and take them'. Noticing the gleam in Jung Il's eyes, Bush screams to make war on puny Syria and he can't even do that as American tanks spin their threads in the sands of Iraq. Meanwhile, the Russians are flirting with the Chinese, the Chinese are flirting with the North Koreans who are flirting with the South Koreans, The Europeans are flirting with Iran as is everyone else. Chavez is flirting with Castro and telling Bush to back to fuck away or he'll cut off the oil. Condolences Rice recently went to Latin America to try to seduce the kings to no avail. And Bush, he can't even get a date with Canadian quisling, Paul Martin.

The Bush that was there before 9-11, the Bush that was a stunned version of Gerald Ford, is still there behind the deranged mad-man mask. He is the goofy puppet we see dangling from those strings. Although he is involved in an orgy of mass murder, it’s still ol’ Dubya; the rich redneck that can can’t track or follow particularly well.

Although there may be room for optimism, there are a few wild cards out there. Bush himself may be the wildest card of all and who knows, he may force respect from world leaders after he returns from his Creationist Bible School classes in Kansas.

While there may be room for optimism, it is compromised by the assortment of hawks and psychopaths (Wolfowitz, Bolton, Negroponte, Gonzales etc.) that Bush has appointed in key positions.

Following 9-11, the world seemed to hold its collective hand out to America. Ordinary Americans lost their lives in those horrific attacks and it not only affected Americans in the gut, it affected everybody viscerally. America and Bush had not only respect but genuine sympathy from all corners of the globe at that time. But there isn’t much left of either at this point.

The War Party is looking less and less to be something to respect than to fear. It looks like all over the world people are waking up to the fact that Bush and his gang are crazy.