64%

Welcome to the new map, my friends. After all the gloating over John Kerry's narrow (and questionable) loss to the chimp, all the county maps and the crowing about a nascent new permanent R majority, this is where the country stands today - on the cusp of freedom. The percentages correspond to the chimperor's approval ratings.

But it gets better.

"A majority of U.S. adults believe the Bush administration generally misleads the public on current issues, while fewer than a third of Americans believe the information provided by the administration is generally accurate, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds."

Overall, 64 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration "generally misleads the American public on current issues to achieve its own ends" -- including 91 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 28 percent of Republicans.

That's not on Kos - it's from the Wall Street Journal via the Washington Post. Two out of three Americans believe R's, as a rule, lie. Maybe it's time to rethink all that talk about "freedom is on the march" and "the insurgency is in its last throes" or perhaps even "Mission Accomplished".

You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. America is ready for the post-Bush era, and one way or another, we're going to get it. There is no recovery from these numbers; the only question now is how deep the earthquake will go, and how fast and far the R's will be runnng from their erstwhile standardbearer. George Bush is destroying his party before our eyes.

Freedom is on the march - right here in America. Our long national nightmare is nearing an end.