President: Nice Shades, Blindy

Remember last month when President Bush was in Florida and he spoke at an event and afterwards told a man in a wheelchair "You look mighty comfortable"?

Well Mr. Observant topped himself this morning when he chided Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten about his sunglasses. (video via Crooks & Liars)

Lots of laughter, but what's not so funny is Mr. Wallsten is afflicted with a rare hereditary disease called Stargardt's "which consists in progressive lost of cones in fovea of both eyes, leading to variable levels of central vision loss." So... um... yeah... he sorta prefers those "shades" Mr. Bush, and good luck with those approval ratings. By the way, Wallsten has been covering the President for quite some time, so his "look" shouldn't have been new to the Commander-in-Chief.If the President wants to make amends for his ignorance, he could always make his way over to Children's Hospital, where they are currently in the midst of separating two conjoined twins, Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros.

The operation, which started at the crack of dawn this morning, is supposed to find both of the little 10-month old girls separated at around 6pm, but the procedure won't be totally complete until early tomorrow morning.

The Times reports that over 80 doctors and nurses are working on the procedure, which will get tricky when the surgeons decide whether to let one of the twins have the entire large intestine, which they both currently share, or if there is enough of it to split it up for both of them.

As LAist was driving down Sunset Blvd. we saw the trucks of every major LA news station parked outside of Children's Hospital. If the President would like to make a surprise visit, we understand that the hospital is equipped with a handy helicopter landing facility on its roof.