Above you see a picture from The Washinton Post of President Bush at a polling station in Crawford, TX. Like all good Americans, Bushie's casting his vote for the people he thinks will best run the country (read: straight GOP). Like a good woman, Laura Bush walks a few steps behind.

We've reprinted this picture for two reasons. First, the "Vote Here" sign's pointing right at that man's crotch, a visual accident which beautifully symbolizes America's cultural divide. The second reason goes along with the first: we think it's a great headline image for a Bernard-Henry Levi essay in Britain's The Times we found via UK Gay News.

In it, the famed French philosopher, author, stud muffin explores the absurd reality of how America's local votes affect international politics. He writes:

...[E]verything will be decided according to local squabbles. Yet these are the only elections of truly global importance in the world. This is the only electoral battle that we know of on which, in a strict sense, the fate of the planet hangs.

Consider Levi's opening line: "The Paradox of American democracy and especially of these midterm elections: both are local, even provincial."

Although, perhaps it would read better if "local" were replaced by "country", the word Britney Spears used to explain driving with her baby on her lap...