President Bush and a giddy Jacques Chirac shake hands on the deal.

BATON ROUGE, LA. - The White House announced today that President Bush
has successfully sold the state of Louisiana back to the French at more
than double its original selling price of $11,250,000.

"This is a bold step forward for America," said Bush. "And America will
be stronger and better as a result. I stand here today in unity with
French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who was so kind to accept my
offer of Louisiana in exchange for 25 million dollars cash."

The state, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, will cost hundreds of billions
of dollars to rebuild.

"Jack understands full well that this one's a 'fixer upper,'" said
Bush. "He and the French people are quite prepared to pump out all that
water, and make Louisiana a decent place to live again. And they've got
a lot of work to do. But Jack's assured me, if it's not right, they're
going to fix it."

The move has been met with incredulity from the beleaguered residents
of Louisiana.

"Shuba-pie!" said New Orleans resident Willis Babineaux. "Frafer-perly
yum kom drabby sham!"

However, President Bush's decision has been widely lauded by
Republicans.

"This is an unexpected but brilliant move by the President," said
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. "Instead of spending billions and
billions, and billions of dollars rebuilding the state of Louisiana,
we've just made 25 million dollars in pure profit."

"This is indeed a smart move," commented Fox News analyst Brit Hume.
"Not only have we stopped the flooding in our own budget, we've made
money on the deal. Plus, when the god-awful French are done fixing it
up, we can easily invade and take it back again."

The money gained from 'The Louisiana Refund' is expected to be
immediately pumped into the rebuilding of Iraq.?

New Orleans Mayor Nagin could not be reached for comment.
The Governor is said to be in seclusion.


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