Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Adios Bush

As we say farewell to the Bush administration let us summarize the way he has ruined our country. And let us remind the future voters to pay more attention to their government and those governing from now on. For the responsibility of this terrible fiasco lies directly on those who voted this charlatan in. Bush and his Rasputin, Cheney, have done so much damage it's really hard to fathom how we let them get away with it. Our founding fathers gave us the tools to avoid this kind of governance, but Congress was complicit in this disaster and ignored the coming failure.

It is disheartening to know that Bush and Cheney will retire to their mansions and not have to suffer the consequences of their actions. They should be taken to the Hague for crimes against humanity. At the least, they sould have been impeached. Justice? Hell, there is no justice.

I realize that most of my followers read the NYT and have already seen this editorial by Bob Herbert, but for those who may have missed it I am copying it for your perusal.


Add Up the Damage

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?

You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.

We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.

But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.

When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.

This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.

The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

Exploiting the public’s understandable fears, Mr. Bush made it sound as if Iraq was about to nuke us: “We cannot wait,” he said, “for the final proof — the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

He then set the blaze that has continued to rage for nearly six years, consuming more than 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. (A car bomb over the weekend killed two dozen more Iraqis, many of them religious pilgrims.) The financial cost to the U.S. will eventually reach $3 trillion or more, according to the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.

A year into the war Mr. Bush was cracking jokes about it at the annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association. He displayed a series of photos that showed him searching the Oval Office, peering behind curtains and looking under the furniture. A mock caption had Mr. Bush saying: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.”

And then there’s the Bush economy, another disaster, a trapdoor through which middle-class Americans can plunge toward the bracing experiences normally reserved for the poor and the destitute.

Mr. Bush traveled the country in the early days of his presidency, promoting his tax cut plans as hugely beneficial to small-business people and families of modest means. This was more deceit. The tax cuts would go overwhelmingly to the very rich.

The president would give the wealthy and the powerful virtually everything they wanted. He would throw sand into the regulatory apparatus and help foster the most extreme income disparities since the years leading up to the Great Depression. Once again he was lighting a fire. This time the flames would engulf the economy and, as with Iraq, bring catastrophe.

If the U.S. were a product line, it would be seen now as deeply damaged goods, subject to recall.

There seemed to be no end to Mr. Bush’s talent for destruction. He tried to hand the piggy bank known as Social Security over to the marauders of the financial sector, but saner heads prevailed.

In New Orleans, the president failed to intervene swiftly and decisively to aid the tens of thousands of poor people who were very publicly suffering and, in many cases, dying. He then compounded this colossal failure of leadership by traveling to New Orleans and promising, in a dramatic, floodlit appearance, to spare no effort in rebuilding the flood-torn region and the wrecked lives of the victims.

He went further, vowing to confront the issue of poverty in America “with bold action.”

It was all nonsense, of course. He did nothing of the kind.

The catalog of his transgressions against the nation’s interests — sins of commission and omission — would keep Mr. Bush in a confessional for the rest of his life. Don’t hold your breath. He’s hardly the contrite sort.

He told ABC’s Charlie Gibson: “I don’t spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don’t worry about long-term history, either, since I’m not going to be around to read it.”

The president chuckled, thinking — as he did when he made his jokes about the missing weapons of mass destruction — that there was something funny going on.

9 comments:

Sylvia K said...

I love your rants, Darlene, because they are the same as mine and I was going to post Herbert's column myself because he says it so well! may still do it, just to make sure as many people as possible read it and hopefully pay attention. I don't want to see this happen to our country again. Bush and his pals are a disgrace to our country and have been for 8 years! Thanks for your post today!

Rain Trueax said...

I read that column also and thought it was good as his always are. What we have to do, those of us who supported Obama, is not do the same thing as he comes into office. No expecting miracles but if he does not head the directions he said he would in the primary and campaign, we should hold him accountable. I am still irked at republicans who didn't do likewise but defended bush as their guy no matter what he did. They showed none of the ethical standards they bragged about.

Darlene said...

Sylvia, I guess there is no rest for the wicked. I wanted to forget politics for awhile, but it just isn't possible.

Rain, You are, as usual, so right.

Anonymous said...

Hi Darlene,
My friend just sent me Herbert's column for fear I might have missed it. I wish we could put the past eight years behind us, but just too much has been lost.
How did we as a country allow this to happen?
Anyway, enough about "him"...It's great to have you back online...

Betty said...

I can understand how Bush got elected the first time (I should say, selected, I guess), but the second time? I think the voters must have had what my son would so delicately describe as a collective brain fart. As to your question, "Where is he?" Well, he took early retirement about six months ago. He pops up every now and then to spout some malapropisms and then disappears into his "teapot" like the doormouse in Alice in Wonderland.

He's sure to do something reprehensible on his way out.

lilalia said...

I do hope they managed to oil those hip joints extra special and you will be up and going soon. May this New Year be one filled with blogging, family, friends, and improved and courageous political activity. I wish you all the best.

Tabor said...

When the media asked Pres-elect Obama about his the illegalities of his Aunt he replied that we are a 'country of laws' and that should deal with it...I wonder if he is going to be so firm on laws that have been broken by this current administration?

Darlene said...

Claire Jean - thank your for your nice welcome back.

Betty, I love your Alice In Wonderland analogy. I can just see Bush slithering down the teapot spout. Very funny!

Lilalia, Thank you for wishing me all the best. I am using that hip as much as possible to keep it well lubricated.

Tabor, We can only hope.

LadyLuz said...

Hi Darlene and Feliz Año Nuevo to you. Thanks to you I got to read Herbert's great article, which I shall save.

It's good to have you back and I hope you go from strength to strength.