"Sometimes what I did wasn't popular. But that's OK. I always did what I thought was right. It is a great day because we got to come home once and for all. I come home with my head held high. The presidency was a joyous experience, but as great as it was, nothing compares with Texas at sunset. Tonight I have the privilege of saying six words that I have been waiting to say for a while: It is good to be home."

-Former President George W. Bush
in his homecoming speech in Midland, Texas

from, of all people, my grandmother...

Subject: BACK IN SERVICE



Subject: Message to the world



Dear World:

We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.


Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA