Obscenity

George W. Bush plans to place flowers on Gandhi's grave on his tour of India.

Arundhati Roy writes on it here. Some useful background on the political context and possible repercussions of Bush's trip to India here.

After the fact:

Turns out that Bush's security team had sniffer dogs go over the Ghandi shrine, to the dismay of the priests who attend it. They had to purify it.

Lacking cable, I usually don't get to see Bush's speeches, but it happened I was wide awake and channel surfing through the wasteland when Bush's press conference in Pakistan aired. It was fascinating to watch -- I've never gotten to see Bush's arrogance in such detail, or the surreal ambience of a press conference where the only people who get to ask questions -- or indeed, are in attendance -- have been hand-picked based on their willingness not to ask or say anything that might embarrass anyone. President Musharraf looked like he was straining from the discomfort of having Bush's hand up his ass, but it didn't stop Bush from using him as a ventriloquist's dummy... It was a fascinating, disturbing experience.