Last week when Newsweek screwed up and ran the item about the Koran being run through a blender to make margaritas, or whatever the particulars were, the White House was all over them like stink on camel crap. A Bush spokesman called the story irresponsible, especially since people died in the resulting riots. So obviously the White House has pretty high standards for others. And by extension, these high standards would also apply to its own people as well, right?

No, of course not, you silly infidel! We're talking about the Bush White House, where hypocrisy rules!

In fact, you remember the thing with the aluminum tubes from before the war? The ones that I was going to use to develop nuclear bombs and blow up the world? The ones that were used as one of the primary excuses for invading my peace (usually, at least, unless we were busy invading a neighboring country) loving nation? The ones that actually turned out to be for rockets, which were legal for me to have?

Yes, those aluminum tubes!

What do you suppose happened to the intelligence analysts responsible for that particular screw up? Were they fired? Executed? Demonized for the death and destruction they caused? Billed for the hundreds of billions of dollars in damages that resulted from their incompetence? Assigned to study migratory walrus routes in Alaska?

If you guessed any of the above, you would be wrong, dear readers. But if you guessed that they have been honored with job performance awards, well, you'd be right.