Petroleum Plutocrats Pamper Pusillanimous Prevaricator

While Dim Son flits about the middle east on his desperate-for-my-nonexistent-legacy tour, anxiously trying to sow the fear of invisible Iranian nukes, despotic monarchs really know how to lay it on thick for their fellow would be tyrant:

"Think of a suite the size of a basketball court, with the ceiling high enough to permit a 3-point jump shot. In the more plebeian rooms, it would be tough to get off a shorter foul shot. But you do get a bathroom floor -- marble, of course -- decorated with red and yellow rose petals arranged on a towel.
(...)
Even before the president arrived at Hotel Bling, Khalifa presented Bush with genuine bling: a necklace with a medallion of 18-karat gold featuring a hand-enameled U.S. flag, set with rubies, emeralds and diamonds."

Meanwhile, arabs on the street have other feelings about the visiting mass murderer:

"Saudi Arabia's warm official welcome for President Bush, the scion of a family with close ties to the kingdom's ruling family, masks his deep unpopularity among ordinary Saudis."


wishing he had worn his hipboots