Speaker Dennis Hastert is a fat, pompous windbag. There: I feel better already. Hastert said today that he wasn't sure rebuilding New Orleans was a good idea. Gee, that's funny. I think pretty much the same thing every time I have to drive through some souless exburb of an American city. Invariably, I scream outloud: "You mean we intentionally keep building this crap?"

Hastert's idea of a great city is probably an endless shopping strip where everything has drive-through service. I wonder if Hastert has ever been to New Orleans. He reminds me of Dick Armey, the Texas Republican who was House Majority leader in the 1990s. He said of Europe, "I've been to Europe once, I don't have to go again."

This, America, is your government. And some people wonder why othe countries increasingly hate us?