Two great pieces in the news this morning. George Bush and Bob Mugabe. Enough said!

Firstly, the New York Times reports that Dubya was given some interesting legal advice last year. And I quote "A team of administration lawyers concluded in a March 2003 legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security."

Two things. One, I guess that puts paid to his assertion that Abu Ghraib was such a huge surprise for the President and his executive. Oh, and by the way, guess who requested the legal advice. Rumsfeld takes the line again...

Secondly, surely this legal advice is a moot point. As the leader of the much heralded world's only superpower, surely the man can see that if he is caught with that knowledge, and that the paper trail of torture led back to him, he would not be able to put out the flames of world opinion with a paper stock of legal advice?

And then on to Bob. I suppose it was just a matter of time. Once you've destroyed any semblance of a democracy in the electoral process, why not rip out the cornerstone of democracy and freedom - property rights. Independent Newspapers quotes Zim land minister John Nkomo as stating "In the end all land shall be state land and there will be no such thing called private land. We want a situation whereby this very important resource becomes a national asset. The state should not waste time and money on acquisitions. Ultimately, all land shall be resettled as state land," Nkomo said.

Forgive me for being trite, but sure, I suppose it wouldn't be too out of character for old Bob to build a statue of Lenin in Harare, revive the Cold War, join up with North Korea and China and atack the 'free' world. "Screw Iraq, check out our Axis of Evil", he'll rant! Aah well, maybe that'll incite Dubya to another regime change and put his new found "above-the-law" status to some good use for once...