Your President: Petty or Stupid?

If I can't have it, nobody can!

Why not both? Apparently, according to Sidney Blumenthal's new book, George Bush is both petty and stupid. I know this comes as a shock to no one, but check this out.

In "How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime," former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal recounts a November 2004 visit by Bush and his political guru Karl Rove to the William J. Clinton Library in Little Rock, Ark., on the banks of the Arkansas River.

"Bush appeared distracted and glanced repeatedly at his watch," Blumenthal writes about a presidential tour during the library's dedication. "When he stopped to gaze at the river, where Secret Service agents were stationed in boats, the guide said: 'Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there.' Bush replied: 'A submarine could take this place out.'"

The author muses: "Was the President warning of an Al Qaeda submarine, sneaking undetected up the Mississippi, through the locks and dams of the Arkansas River, surfacing under the bridge to the 21st century to dispatch the Clinton Library? Is that where Osama Bin Laden is hiding? Or was this a wishful paranoid fantasy of ubiquitous terrorism destroying Clinton's legacy with one blow?"

And this guy is in charge of the US military? What kind of submarine could get all the way to the Little Rock riverfront, anyway? None that I know of, that's for sure. Maybe this guy could get it done:

Ha ha! Now I got you, Klin-ton!

Christ. Bush musing about terrorism, submarine capabilities, and revenge fantasies all at once. It's enough to make the blood run cold. Here's something that he needs to take a look at, but it might be a little over his head.

In other submarine-type news, the USS Dolphin only has a few more weeks as a commissioned vessel. If you don't know what the Dolphin is, then it's my duty and pleasure to tell you that she's the last diesel-electric submarine in the US Navy. She's had quite a career, and it's sad to see her go. But a 38-year career is pretty impressive.

Fair winds and following seas.

Note that she only draws 18 feet of water (surfaced), which gives her capabilities that the nuclear boats don't have in shallow water. A 688-class boat needs ten more feet of draft. The Seawolf and Virginia class boats need at least 28 feet (surfaced), I believe, if not more.

The DoD needs to get cracking on some new diesel-electric boats. But good luck finding the money.