Another example of the strange bedfellows of politics will be on display in all it's glory today in London. Former US president Bill Clinton, will speak at the Labour Party conference in hopes of pulling off an act of political prestidigitation.

The idea is to capitalize on the star power of the 21st Century's new global spokesperson (Can't you just see/hear the royal trumpeters heralding his entrance to the stage?) to thwart British union bosses, furious over Tony Blair's "headlong rush into the marketisation" (known to us Yanks as privatization) of the National Health Service.

The speech will precede a vote by union members stirred to take the bulldog by the collar over the outsourcing of their jobs to (drum roll please) DHL, a private German—owned company. Ah, hello! Isn't that what the "EU" is all about!?

You got all that? Bill Clinton, national—healthcare—Hillary's husband, is going to man Britain's Labour Party ramparts to help defeat the National Health Service unions! My analytical, logical self, although somewhat incredulous over this, is busy updating it's cerebral "now I've seen everything" files. But the realist in me is rolling on the floor laughing.

Joe Crowley   9 27 06