Lots coming on the SOTU speech later tonight or tomorrow. For veteran BushWatchers, there wasn't a whole lot new, but then again BushWatchers find the most meaning in the ebb and flow of repeated phrases floating through George's substance-abuse-enfeebled consciousness.

As a teaser, though, there's this:



I must admit that the threat of human-animal hybrids wasn't high on my list of worries, but I'm grateful to the President for pointing it out. (And what if these human-animal hybrids allied themselves with bin Laden? Radical Muslim lemur-men? A suicide bomber with the regenerative abilities of a gecko? Gosh! I might have to rethink my opposition to warrantless wiretaps in light of this new threat.)

Here's what I think happened. Inexplicably, the president has shown commendable taste in television science-fiction, reportedly being a fan of the excellent Babylon 5. If this holds, he's probably watching the (possibly even more excellent) Battlestar Galactica, even though it's on past his bedtime.

A couple weeks ago, the character of the President on that show advocated terminating the gestation of a Cylon-human hybrid. After there were objections, she said, "The interesting thing about being President is that you don't have to explain yourself to anybody." This is an almost direct quote from Bush, as quoted in Woodward's Bush at War: "I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president."

I'll bet Bush was so enthused about being quoted on Battlestar that he resolved to work something into his speech about protecting us from genetic hybrids.

Well, it could have happened like that...