If I don't die by Thursday, I'll be roaring Friday night.

In testament to just how much the neocons control Washington policy and the Texas SageBrush, Shrub's nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as the next president of the World Bank was met with surprise, little enthusiasm and outright opposition, if not fear and loathing, in Europe. I couldn't have written a better farcical AP piece if I tried.

Coming on the heels of Dubya's lame "let's mend the fences" trip to Europe, the nomination of one of the primary architects in the vastly unpopular in Europe war in Iraq as the president of the World Bank belongs in the Phantom Tollbooth, not the New York Times or the Washington Post. Sorry Condi, any goodwill you might have generated on your trip just flew out the window.

I always thought the World Bank was in place to raise poor people of impoverished countries out of poverty, not saddle them with loans they can never repay, but given Wolfowitz's role in the Bush administration's stunning reversal of a record budget surplus to a record deficit in just one term, I have no doubt that he'll help US corporate interests bankrupt the world just as effectively as they have the US government.