President Bush declared a national emergency last Wednesday so that he could deal with "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States." This threat is so unusual and extraordinary that, based on a Google News search, it received almost no mention in the U.S. press. An article appeared in the New York Times, and it was excerpted in a Christian Science Monitor story about Syria's role in upcoming Middle East peace talks.

The executive order declaring this emergency allows the Secretary of the Treasury to freeze the assets of anyone thought to be acting to "undermine Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government or democratic institutions, to contribute to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Lebanon, including through politically motivated violence and intimidation, to reassert Syrian control or contribute to Syrian interference in Lebanon, or to infringe upon or undermine Lebanese sovereignty contribute to political and economic instability in that country and the region."

Run for the hills!!!