I’ve been trying so hard to ignore him. When he took Labour Day, and then the rest of the month of September, off–possibly in emulation of a growing number of unemployed Americans–I let it just roll off my back. When he could hardly be bothered to widen his eyes after someone on his staff outed a CIA operative in a fit of pique, what business was it of mine? And then, when he asserted (without a trace of irony) that creeps who attack innocent civilians with their explosives should not be allowed to rule countries, I may have ground my teeth for a week, but you didn’t hear a peep out of me.

He’s the US president. Let him stay there and be their problem, I thought, and I’ll stay here in Canada and mind my own business.

Sigh. George W. Bush, what a guy. Does he ever stop? Sadly, "no" is the answer, but the news is worse than even that. No longer content to only erode civil liberties, poison the well of public discourse, and run his own country into irreparable debt, the heretofore uncurious George Walker Bush has accepted Tony Blair’s invitation for a social call–actually, the first state visit by a US president to Great Britain since Woodrow Wilson’s in 1918–and has ventured out of his yard. Pip pip!

What’s he doing there? Well, he’s visiting all his British friends, of course: Tony B. and Jack Straw, the guys who helped him lie about Iraq and bomb all those little non-Christians. And there’s the queen, the unjustifiably rich lady at whose house he’ll be staying. And besides them, there’s the invitation-only crowd at the Banqueting House in Whitehall, to whom he will deliver the only formal speech of his visit. Wondering if anybody from the Stop the War Coalition got one of those invites? You needn’t bother, really.

What else is he doing? Well, in effect, he’s canceling leave for the 3,800 British police officers whose efforts will be required in an unprecedented security operation, one that will see a significant portion of London proper shut down in order to protect President Junior from confronting the demonstrations protesting his presence in the country. He’ll turn 700 armed US security staff loose in the streets, with clearance to shoot anyone who clearly threatens his life. That might even seem like a reasonable precaution when you’re talking in the abstract about protecting the most powerful man in the world; but if it’s the Little Creep you’re turning loose with the definition of "clear threat," those protesters better be extra-careful.

Let’s see, with a cost of something akin to $47 million in total, there’ll be a no-fly zone over London, no ride in an open carriage (probably no avalanche of rose petals, either, like the one that greeted Wilson), no discussion of the Britons currently held in Guantanamo Bay, or of US tariffs on European steel. There will be no speech to British Parliament, either, for fear of heckling. As for Mr. Blair’s obsequious remarks regarding the lying little Texas rich boy–like, "I believe this is exactly the right time for him to come," or, "Without [the decision to go to war], those Iraqis now tasting freedom would still be under the lash of Saddam, his sons and their henchmen"–they will continue to flow, gratis.

Stay tuned. This is what it costs long-time friends to host Bush these days. How much do you think it’ll cost our new Prime Minister to make good on his pledged to patch up relations between Canada and the Little Creep?