It is barely mid-morning, and the jokes are coming hard and fast.

The president is on TV, giving a speech to a gathering of the National Guard, and saying that small businesses are the key to America's economy, so we must support them. Would that include, I wonder, putting them in a position which forces them into closure and bankruptcy, as this administration has done?

Joke of the Day: On the handling of Iraq: "I acted because I was not about to leave the security of the American people in the hands of a madman."

But wait--there's more! The FBI has bugged Philadelphia mayor John Street's office, just prior to the mayoral election. The FBI maintains that the bugging is, of course, in no way related to the upcoming election.

Yesterday morning, federal agents raided a small financial firm run by two of the mayor's supporters, including one of Philadelphia's most prominent Muslim leaders. According the FBI, the firm got a no-bid city contract to collect delinquent taxes.

So here is a big fat obvious question: Are there FBI bugs in Dick Cheney's office?! Because what Halliburton and its subsidiaries--plus several other companies--obtained in Iraq are no-bid (and in some cases, unnecessary) contracts for billions of dollars. Where, oh where, are the little listening devices in the bunker, or wherever the hell Cheney lives?