Recently in George W. Bush Category

Be very afraid.

God, I am so glad this man is no longer in charge. For eight years all George W. Bush did was cry "Be Afraid." Give him a national microphone, and he resorts right back to crying "Be Afraid."

I agree with the Heritage Foundation: President Obama should call Miserable Failure and ask his advice. Then do exactly the opposite of what MF suggests. No doubt there will be complete and utter success.

(Salon.com) While I'm loath to write a top-10 list, if only for fear of falling short of Dave Letterman's legendary bit, I'm making an exception in this first week of 2010 -- a moment when we get to not only make New Year's resolutions, but resolutions for the new decade. As we make those prospective pledges, let's take a moment to look back at the top 10 quotations from the last 10 years -- the ones telling us some painful truths about our country, society and worldview; the ones that might inform us of what we need to do as we move forward.

10. "They frankly own the place." -- Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in 2009 admitting the taboo about banks' influence in Congress.

9. "Haven't we already given money to rich people ... Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?" -- President George W. Bush in November 2002, acknowledging to advisors that he knew his tax cuts were giveaways to the super-wealthy.

8. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." -- Anti-healthcare protester at an August 2009 congressional town hall meeting in South Carolina -- the single most succinct sign that our country has become an idiocracy.

7. "We did this for the show." -- Falcon Heene on Oct. 15, 2009, telling CNN that the Balloon Boy chase was a hoax. The declaration demonstrated that the media's 24-7 knee-jerk sensationalism is irresponsible and proved that America's culture of celebrity aspiration is completely out of control.

6. "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know they're some things we do not know. But there're also unknown unknowns; the ones we don't know we don't know." -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Feb. 12, 2002, effectively telling us that the government had no idea what it was doing by invading Iraq.

5. "Bring 'em on." -- President George Bush on July 2, 2003, daring al-Qaida to attack U.S. troops -- yet more proof that the elite defines "toughness" as politicians flippantly sacrificing young American lives for Washington's hubristic ideologies.

4. "The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn't earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don't want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown." -- Daniel Fass, chairman of Obama's financial-industry fundraising party on Oct. 19, 2009, insisting that despite wrecking the economy and then being handed trillions of bailout dollars, Wall Street is a victim.

3. "$500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus." -- Wall Street compensation consultant James Reda on Feb. 3, 2009, giving the New York Times a good example of just how totally out of touch the super-rich really are.

2. "I didn't campaign on the public option." -- President Obama on Dec. 22, 2009, expecting the public to forget that his presidential campaign platform explicitly promised to pass healthcare legislation giving all Americans "the opportunity to enroll in (a) new public plan."

1. "It doesn't matter." -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Nov. 5, 2006, referring to polls repeatedly showing the majority of Americans oppose the Iraq war -- a sign the ruling class truly does not care about the demands of the public.

These epigrams expose a nation that has internalized and accepted the forces of avarice, corruption, dishonesty, incompetence and insensitivity. Some of them are darkly funny, some of them are gut-wrenchingly sad -- but all of them are warnings. Whether we listen to them or not will be the difference between repeating the last decade's folly or learning from it.

Here's to resolutions for the new decade that finally choose the latter.

These two post really suggest to me that we are seeing a swing in the mindset of our nation. We are moving away from fear, and starting to recognize a need for personal bravery in our everyday life.

About 10 years ago -- before the day that everything changed -- at an AA meeting I said our children are far stronger than we give them credit. I was personally attacked by several of the members that day for having the audacity to trust the safety and well-being of my children. I shook my head in amazement and left it alone, believing they would eventually learn to move away from fear. Little did I know that this was simply a symptom of the fear and cowardice that has already inflicted our nation.

Without the attacks on September 11, 2001, George W. Bush would have been a one-term president, just like his father. But after decades of fear-mongering by the conservatives in the Republican party, and a lack of personal bravery by the conservatives in the Democratic party, the attacks only strengthened the already perceived danger of life. Fear became an overwhelming force in this country. Where rational thought once was the hallmark of facing life, it was wholeheartedly abandoned that day, and our hopes and desires for safety were handed to a man completely unprepared for leadership during unremarkable times, let alone extraordinary times.

However, in terms of fear being a motivational force in electoral outcomes, George W. Bush was the pinnacle of success. Today, the majority of people will simply not vote out of fear. As a populous, I think we have learned our lessons in that regard. Like it or not, the idea of Iraq as a mistake is more or less established, with only hair-brained future conspiracy theorists making any claim to the opposite; dead-enders hanging on to that last little hope of re-establishing relevance and power through belief in fear and cowardice, a legacy of failure handed to them by their elders.

Now, the Hullabaloo post is an example of the media pinnacle of success. At least for Fox News. In more ways than I can really due justice in describing, Glenn Beck's show is a self-parody of the Fox News mind-set. It is paranoid schizophrenic thinking laid bare for all to see. If there is one thing to be grateful about, it is that this is occurring mostly in the media, and not on the floor of the congress, as happened in the 1950s with McCarthy. None-the-less, Glenn Beck is pulling on the last, lingering, strings of fear that are entwined around a small, but extremely vocal, percentage of the populous; elders of the hair-brained future conspiracy theorists. 

NOT!

(NYT) WASHINGTON -- Thousands of pages of internal e-mail and once-secret Congressional testimony showed Tuesday that Karl Rove and other senior aides in the Bush White House played an earlier and more active role than was previously known in the 2006 firings of a number of United States attorneys.

Like anyone who has been paying attention for the last eight and a half years didn't already know this.

Oh, and previously known? How about; than Karl Rove publicly testified before congress.

Can the Legacy Media be any more gutless?

MN Progressive Project has a post up about Minnesota Republican infighting that has gotten ugly. It is the usual personal attacks on character that we have come to expect from today's Republican party. It is reminiscent of the attack George W. Bush's campaign made against John McCain back in 2000

Now, don't get me wrong. I have no doubt that Democrats of days gone by have engaged in the same personal attacks and will do so in the future. Currently, though, it appears to be a Republican trait. If anyone has done any reading on Karl Rove's past, you learn that he started his dirty, character assassination tricks at a young age, and at a local level.

I know, for myself, that in the past I never paid attention to these kind of low brow political attacks. I considered myself above them, or just felt it was not important enough for me to take into consideration. But I have come to learn that it is important these types of antics be exposed and brought to the attention of the electorate, and at a local level. Just imagine a world where Karl Rove's sleazy campaigning were exposed when he first started out, and had not been at the helm of George W. Bush's campaign, and by extension, his administration.

Eight years of George W. Bush in the White House has taught me that all politics is local. Any and all personal attacks, whisper campaigns, and other Lee Atwater dirty trick antics, whether by Republicans or Democrats, must be exposed early on at the local level, or else we can look forward once again to an incompetent and immoral presidency.

But when a President does it, it's suddenly a big deal?

All cynicism aside, this is ridiculous. All it really does is prove the lie to the concept "a man you'd want to have a beer with" floated when Bush was running for President. Obviously, considering the media circus around this "beer," I'd never want to have a beer with anyone who's going to be President. I just don't want to have to deal with all the bullshit.

This is what Sarah Palin meant when she said it:

I've been struck by this since the beginning. If it is the case that the president can designate an Office of Legal Counsel functionary to immunize government officials and employees against criminal behavior, then it is true, to all intents and purposes that "if the president does it it's not illegal."

And, from this article, we also learn that Cheney, who developed his executive beliefs and values from the Nixon White House, ordered the CIA to not inform Congress about the secret wiretapping programs.

(NYT)The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

Next week sure is going to be an interesting news week.

Honestly, have our conservative brethren deteriorated to a state of second childhood? This age old cry of "tattle tail" is right out of noon recess at the local grade school playground.

Smith: Some of the critics are really labeling this 'Abu Ghraib Part II.'

Herridge: Well, you remember that after Abu Ghraib there was worldwide condemnation for these images of humiliation. And I learned in my research today that there was also a military report in 2008 that concluded that there is a connection between these images and also suicide bombers. Forty-eight bombers, or potential bombers, were interviewed, and they said that these images were a big factor, a big motivating factor, in the decision to become a suicide bomber.

The suggestion by Herridge is that by releasing the photos, we are endangering the service members of our armed forces. However, I think David Neiwert makes the more intelligent, more mature, point:

If anyone thought that photos from those centers would not eventually leak out to the public -- or at the bare minimum, be forced out eventually by the inevitable lawsuits, as was the case here -- they were fooling themselves. Or at least gambling that they'd be out of office by then and could lay the whole mess in the laps of whoever had the misfortune to succeed them.

Indeed, the Obama critics are now out in force shouting that the pending release of these photos will hurt soldiers in the field, including Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham. Bill Kristol is claiming that "this would be a gratuitous assault on the well-being and the reputation of our fighting men and women."

Imagine my surprise when I see the names of Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and Bill Kristol leading the battle cry from the playground. For Christ's sake, they're supposedly grown men. Instead, we are subjected to hearing excuses I expect from a 4th grader.

President Bush allowed torture to occur under his watch. Torture of which the Great Republican/Conservative God Ronald Reagan himself strongly rejected, as proven by his signing the Geneva treaty banning torture. Now, we are reaping the benefits of torture. Well, actually, al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations are reaping the benefits of torture.

The Bush administration lied about the rational for invading Iraq, then tortured terrorists to acquire proof of a tie between al-Qaida and Iraq (which failed miserably) and now we are faced with this misbegotten horror of a news story.

Some days, I really don't like the human race.

Earl was right; This so rocks

Unless I am mistaken, tomorrow is BushCo™'s last chance at pardoning all the villains responsible for making torture a policy of our country, and for breaking the cover of a CIA operative. I am wondering the odds. Because, quite frankly, I believe there will be no pardons. Bush, along with Cheney, have been coming across as arrogant and cocksure of themselves, believing they have broken no laws. As such, they do not see the need to pardon anyone.

Or, the other way to look at this; A pardon would basically remove the self-preservation instinct. They do not want to pardon anyone so that people will not be willing to testify against them.

Honestly, though, the two of them are no different in attitude and demeanor than Gov. Rod Blagojevich. So, I am sticking with my belief of no pardons because of their arrogance.

CNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The Taliban insurgency is widening its presence in Afghanistan and "closing a noose around Kabul," an international think tank report says.

The report -- issued Monday by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) -- said the Taliban movement "now holds a permanent presence in 72 percent of Afghanistan, up from 54 percent a year ago."

NATO, which commands about 50,000 troops in the country, disputes the figures.

MSNBC

The measure would rush bridge loans to Detroit's struggling Big Three but would also demand that the auto industry restructure itself in order to survive and would put an overseer chosen by President George W. Bush in charge of monitoring that effort, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press.

Yeah! I got up early enough to write a quick blog post. I've checked the news. It damn near put me back to sleep. What news that is out there is being pressed into service as the next worst thing to ever happen in our nation. It's a shtick that right wing radio has had down pat for decades, but now it seems as if the Legacy Media and the various blogs are flagging that old approach well past it's death.

Yeesh. It's just a slow news day. Seriously. After 7 plus years of BushCo™, I suspect we are going to find ourselves bored with the lack of sensationalism. No one, and I mean no one, is going to displace BushCo™ as the most controversial United States administration in modern times.

We are all going to be like drunks looking for that elusive intoxication. Try as we might, we will never feel that exhilaration we first felt as we published a post about the latest outrage from the impertinent son of a misplaced New Englander.

Our drug of choice has actually been gone for quite some time. He's gone into hiding now that his popularity has sunk lower then Nixon's.

So, like any good addict, we've switched; thus lies the explanation of our fascination with Sarah Palin. In my using days, if I couldn't get pot, I got drunk. In today's blogging milieu, if we can't have our BushCo™ story, by God, we've got Sarah to take it's place. It's the same cheap, tawdry content, only with a feminine label.

Soon, though, she'll be empty. Then what? Write outrage over Obama? Does anyone really think that Barack will be as incompetent, as amoral, as ignorant as George W. Bush? If anyone out there thinks that; put down the pipe, back away, and check yourself into treatment. Or the psych ward. Because, DAMN, your either high or psychotic. Or both.

CNN Political Ticker

WASHINGTON (CNN) - New polls suggest that John McCain is on defense in four of five states that President Bush won in the last election. CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corp. surveys released Wednesday afternoon indicate that Barack Obama has a small advantage in Ohio, Nevada, North Carolina and a large lead in Virginia, with John McCain ahead in West Virginia.

CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 900 Christian families have fled Mosul in the past week, terrified by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, officials said Saturday.

Hate to say it, but under Saddam, the Christians were safe. Again, just another fine example of the failure of George W. Bush.

I woke up this morning to a very interesting thought: Innocent Until Proven Guilty. This thought worked it's way into my very thick morning brain while I contemplated the Washington Post story about the 75th Exploitation Task Force. I can already imagine the renewed cries of "Impeachment" coming from several different blogs. My problem with this whole scenario is-can we prove that President Bush and the administration knowingly lied about weapons of mass destruction in an effort to deceive both the American people and the rest of the world? Look, former President Clinton lied under oath. It was proven he lied under oath. As a result he was impeached. As much as I loath to admit it, he was properly impeached and for good reason. Had he simply told the truth; "yes, I received a blow job in the oval office while talking to a senator on the phone" there would have been no grounds for impeachment. That he was the focus of a witch hunt is no excuse. I expect my President to be able to handle that kind of pressure with character. To borrow a line from the movie The American President; "being President is all about character." Let's remember something my fellow Americans: innocent until proven guilty. That we (as much as I hate to admit it-the current administration of the United States of America is my government and it does work for me) did not appear to follow this fundamental, constitutional belief in pressing it's case for invasion. And before I hear screams of "Saddam is not American" The Declaration of Independence states "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" not "that all American's are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." If the administration is going to claim God is on our side (which I do believe) then we (my administration) needs to act in a Godly manner. That means living and behaving by our beliefs towards all men, regardless of their nationality. We need to be good role models for how decent democracies behave. Let us now look at current President Bush. Did he knowingly lie and mislead the American people in an effort to justify an attack of Iraq? If an investigation proves beyond doubt that he did, then I am all for impeachment. But if, as this article, and this article, seems to indicate, he was simply misinformed, then no, I am not for impeachment. As much as I agree that Clinton was properly impeached, I loathed even more the cost of the witch hunt investigation. And before the hawks start screaming about my being a dove, I whole heartedly believe that we needed to go into Iraq. I'm not opposed to the ends, just the means. I don't agree with the dishonest, manipulative nature of our Administration as it went about trying to justify the war. You know what? On second thought, let's go ahead and impeach current President Bush. We can do it on November 2nd, 2004 with no additional costs to the American tax payers. He's already cost our nation, and our world, enough. Besides, "being President is all about character" and I have decided I don't like his.