Bush and Republican do-nothings embark on PR offensive (or offensive PR) tour.

We're often told that Bush is a "bold leader" and a real can-do kind of guy.

Then why is it that whatever the problem, he thinks he can address it by pulling the wool over the American public's eyes? The only thing that ever gets done is that he goes on a speaking tour which costs the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. This is what is considered solving a problem

The people want the corporations controled, they want the money Bush is putting in millionaire's pockets to be put into services they need. The public, in general, strongly disagrees with nearly everything Bush and the Republican party is doing, and they're FINALLY feeling the effects of their bungling and graft.

So now, with crisis, controversy and scandal breaking out around him on a daily basis, how does Bush react? He STILL thinks that all he needs to do is lean over a podium, talk to people as if they're first graders, giggle that stupid giggle of his in the most inappropriate places, act tough, and then go back on vacation.

He truly feels that he can fool all of the people, all of the time.

Now people are realizing that Bush's closest allies, Big Oil, has been screwing them big time. They're wallowing in billions of record profit, while gas is going up on a steady and steep path. Poor oil companies. Poor Bush. Pity the Bush administration's biggest allies.

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported $8.4 billion in first-quarter profit yesterday, as members of Congress outraged over high gasoline prices hastened to propose measures that would boost taxes on oil firms, open new areas to drilling and provide rebates to taxpayers but would not necessarily alter prices at the pumps.

The earnings outstripped the oil giant's profit in the first quarter of last year. Given current oil market conditions, analysts said, that puts Exxon Mobil on track to break the $36 billion record profit it made last year.

The country has a problem. So what does Bush do? As always, this "bold leader" flies somewhere and does a photo op and brief speech in front of a hand picked crowd, his solution for everything. The Bush boy recently went to a gas station in Biloxi and said a few words about the problem.

Of course, a presidential appearance is a big deal and provides worldwide publicity. Which gas station did the White House pick to appear at? Why a BP station. BP as in BRITISH Petroleum. But that's fitting, seeing as Bush just approved the sale of the only company which makes an essential part for the engines of U.S. tanks to a company owned by the rulers of Dubai.

Meanwhile, President Bush sought to show that he was responding to calls for action in the face of rising gasoline prices. While visiting a gasoline station in Biloxi, Miss., Bush renewed his call for Congress to give him the authority to "raise" mileage standards for all passenger cars. White House officials said later, however, that they didn't know when or how the president would use that authority.

Another instance of Bush saying any crazy thing that pops into his head without the slightest intention of actually doing anything, leaving the White House to essentially say he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about later. This is the administration run by "grown ups", remember?

Congress has the authority to approve changes in mileage standards for passenger cars, and the executive branch can set them for light trucks without approval from Congress. But neither Congress nor the administration has shown much interest in raising passenger car standards, which were set in the 1970s and haven't changed since 1985. In March, the Bush administration said it would raise average fuel economy standards by 1.9 miles a gallon for sport-utility vehicles, pickups and vans for models in 2008 through 2011, a long-awaited move that environmentalists said was too modest.

Politicians, as usual, are quickly trying to appear to be doing something about the crisis du jour. Skyrocketing gas prices amid record profits has prompted them to do what they do best. Nothing.

Nothing to actually address the problem, but plenty of PR crap to appear to be doing something, or at least thinking about talking about doing some studies in order to debate coming up with a "roadmap" to do something. Maybe.

Randi Rhodes, the Air America radio talk show host, suggested that if anyone sees Bush at a gas station, they should bend over and yell, "Fill 'er up!"

Since Bush, aka Chimpy McFlightsuit likes to play dress-up and pretend to be an action hero or a guy who actually works, Rhodes suggested that for the gas station photo-op they should have dressed him up in grimy overalls holding a greasy rag ala Goober from the filling station.

Since he was at a gas station, she thought maybe someone could ask him for a roadmap to peace in Iraq as well.

Republicans are trying hard to pretend the problem doesn't exist.

Despite record high gas prices and obscene oil company profits, the Republicans attempted to pass a bill containing, get this...a THIRTY FIVE BILLION dollar subsidy for the oil companies. That's YOUR money we're talking about.

When you filled up the tank last time (IF you could afford to fill it up) did you feel like giving a huge chunk of your tax dollars to the oil companies?

When the Republicans tried to push through this bill, it was a Dem, Ron Wyden, who fillubustered on the floor to block it's passage.

In Congress, anger over gasoline prices brought action in the Senate to a screeching halt yesterday, with Democrats interrupting debate over an emergency military spending bill to protest a key oil company subsidy. In a highly unusual move, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) waged a solo filibuster on the Senate floor in an attempt to force a vote on a provision that would halt support for what Wyden said was about $35 billion for oil and gas companies. "This is the big one, folks, in terms of energy subsidies," Wyden said during the five-hour standoff. "This is the one where there is no logical case . . . when oil is $70 per barrel."

The Republicans predicably came up as well with an utterly useless band-aid measure designed to be popular among the dim-witted but does exactly nothing to address the source of the problem.

Senate GOP leaders rolled out a fat package of energy measures, including a $100 rebate to most taxpayers, and reaffirmed authority for state and federal officials to fight price gouging. The proposal also would allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska; Democrats called the controversial idea a deal-killer for the rest of the package.

And a new entry in the "phony as hell" files is a group of legislators who rushed to stage a photo op at a gas station in the DC area where they posed around a Hydrogen Alternative Fuel vehicle.

Here's that lovable loser, Denny "Neckless Wonder" Hastert. After the photo op where he had to squeeze his ample ass into a Hydrogen Alternative Fueled vehicle, Hastert drove off in the ultra efficient car. Photogs followed him a short distance and got a shot of him huffing and puffing the few steps between the energy efficient car and the multi-ton gas-guzzler SUV that took him the 1/2 mile back to his office.

Dems held a similar presser at a station and were seen taking SUVs back the short distance to their offices as well.