I tend to feel the same, McGrath. He's not very popular here, to say the least, and all this traffic disruption and the offensive walls everywhere are getting a lot of people even more offside. We feel as if our city has been taken over and we are not welcome in it. We're being told it's for our safety as well as the APEC participants, but we know Bush has made himself so unpopular, especially with the war in Iraq, that they feel the need to protect him from possible attack. That's what they are scared of.

I suspect the announcement of an election date is not far away, and little johnnie is probably hoping to improve his popularity by associating himself with all this nonsense. But I think it will backfire on him. If he thinks all this is going to improve his chances in the next election, I think he is going to be sadly mistaken. Being GWB's lap dog is not a good look.