I try to keep up with the news the best I can, and one of the ways I do that is to read Iraqi newspapers. There's a lot more of them since this freedom of the press crap has taken hold around here. But don't worry: Once I return to power, I'll personally cure them of that disease.

One thing I have wondered about, though, is why so many of them have been running pro American stories. It's very disturbing, and it's been very distracting during my training for the upcoming intraprison naked human pyramid building championships.

But now it seems we've solved that little mystery: Apparently the U.S. military has been paying local newspapers to print articles favorable to the Americans!

This really shouldn't surprise anyone. As I recall, several cases have surfaced over the last few years where Bush Administration officials were paying off American journalists. First, there was columnist Maggie Gallagher, who was paid to defend Bush's plan to encourage marriage as a way of strengthening families.

Then over in the Agriculture Department, government officials paid a guy to write articles for hunting & fishing magazines praising the department's conservation efforts.

Finally, there was also the case of columnist Armstrong Williams, who was paid by the Department of Education to write favorably about some Bush backed initiatives.

And Bush says this story about Iraqis journalists being paid off threatens to undermine the credibility of the United States?!? HA!!!

One has to have credibility to begin with before it can be undermined.