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Just One More Year! Good Riddance to George W. Bush
Arabia is the land of illusion and desert mirages. And as he jetted last week from kingdom to sheikdom, to be regaled with feasts and falcons, jewels and ornamental swords, George Bush might have imagined that all was well with his presidency. But this, his longest and most ambitious trip to the Middle East, will surely be remembered - if it is remembered at all - as a gaudy, irrelevant footnote to a presidency that has long since failed.
Today is a sombre milestone, marking the start of the last of Mr Bush's eight years in the White House. This being a leap year, exactly 366 days remain until 20 January 2009, when his successor will be sworn into office. It is a time when incumbents look to their legacies. And for this President the view could scarcely be bleaker.
Is he the worst President in US history? Mr Bush faces stiff competition from the likes of James Buchanan, who watched as America slipped towards civil war, or Warren Harding with his corrupt administration, or Herbert Hoover, who failed to halt the slide into the Great Depression, or, more recently, Richard Nixon, the only President to be forced to resign. But in terms of dogmatism, incompetence, ignorance and divisiveness, Mr Bush surely compares with any of the above.
His first, albeit far from most important, bequest is seemingly inevitable defeat for his own party in November, ending almost 30 years of Republican dominance since Ronald Reagan took power. As David Frum, a one-time Bush speech-writer, put it the other day: "I fear the Republicans are heading to an epochal defeat, 1980 in reverse. Every gain we have made since then has been wiped out since 2002."
That, it should be noted, is a Republican speaking. But Frum's evidence is overwhelming, from the President's consistently abysmal approval rating, to the 70 per cent of the population who believe the country is "on the wrong track" (a level not seen in two decades, and that before all-but-certain recession began to bite), to the 51 per cent of Americans who identify themselves as Democrats. By contrast, just 36 per cent of Americans call themselves Republicans - the widest such margin in two decades. Even on the Republicans' signature issue of national security, Democrats are at level pegging. All other things being equal, it is hard to see them losing in November.
In politics, of course, all other things are not equal. The chances of Bush ordering military strikes on Iran may have receded, after last month's report by the US intelligence community that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003. But some other foreign calamity, a lethal domestic terrorist attack or even a scandal could reshuffle the electoral cards.
Pace the result of last night's primary in South Carolina, the Republican with the best shot at victory is John McCain, the veteran Arizona Senator and a candidate with genuine appeal to independent and centrist voters. He has a chance precisely because he doesn't come across as a standard-issue Republican. But if elected, even he will have to set about cleansing a political version of the Augean stables.
In Greek mythology, Hercules washed away that mess by re-routing the rivers Alpheus and Peneus. Whoever takes the oath of office next 20 January will face a similar task in repairing America, both at home and in the eyes of the world. By almost every yardstick, the country is in a worse state than seven years ago - a state virtually unimaginable when the new century dawned.
Mr Bush cannot be blamed for some of the difficulties. On illegal immigration, among the biggest concerns to voters, the reform he proposed, offering a legal path to citizenship, was sensible. Alas, by 2007 he was too weak to push it through.
Much the same goes for the economy. Presidents are the first to claim responsibility for the good times, but in fact have little power to influence events. The recession that now looms is not his fault; if anyone is responsible, it is the once-lionised former Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, and the central bank's over-lax policies in the aftermath of 9/11. The accelerating downturn also proves how, contrary to assertions, the business cycle has not been abolished by the wizardries of hi-tech econometrics.
That said, the Bush era leaves its own nasty odour. Corporate cronyism has been rife. Globalisation and cuts driven by ideology have turned the wealth gap between rich Americans and the rest from an embarrassment into an obscenity. Since 2001 the real income of ordinary Americans has stagnated.
And the mind-boggling losses suffered by such pillars of the financial establishment as Merrill Lynch and Citibank, followed by humiliating foreign bail-outs, suggest something is fundamentally amiss with capitalism, American-style. Like Enron and WorldCom, these colossal financial shipwrecks will forever be associated with Bush's tenure.
A cartoon last week in The Washington Post caught the mood of laissez-faire drift. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?" asks a voice from Air Force One as the President's plane flies over Manhattan on the way back from the Middle East. Below, a giant sign dangles from the skyscrapers of America's financial capital: "USA - Now a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Foreign Investors".
Of even more immediate concern will be the surge in inequality that affronts America's inherent sense of fairness. Nowhere is this more evident than in healthcare. As Mr Bush has fiddled, the sickness of the existing system, which leaves a sixth of the population without coverage while consuming a similar share of the country's entire GDP, has become near terminal.
Even more corrosive has been the damage inflicted on the US system of governance. This President may have blithely ignored mainstream science, pretended global warming was not happening and only belatedly grasped the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In one domestic activity, however, Bush has not tarried: that of perverting and undermining the constitution in the name of expanding the President's power to fight his "war on terror".
To that end, what everyone else considers torture has been sanctioned, the basic legal right of habeas corpus has been denied to designated "foreign fighters", illicit eavesdropping on US citizens has been authorised and fear-mongering has been turned into a political strategy. Somehow, the next President must restore Americans' faith in their own institutions.
In foreign affairs, the story is the same. The Iraq invasion may not be the greatest foreign policy blunder in US history. But it is among the greatest, utterly discrediting the country's intelligence services, hugely straining relations with key allies, handing a massive strategic victory to Iran and stretching the country's military close to breaking point.
Belatedly, the President has learned the virtues of diplomacy, and his troop surge has at least reduced the violence in Iraq. Even so, he has bequeathed a no-win dilemma to his successor. It is too late for victory. His successor must decide how to withdraw US forces without plunging the region into new chaos.
In the meantime, familiar issues such as the Israeli-Arab conflict have festered amid years of neglect, which this one trip to the region will not expunge. Soaring Bush promises of a democratic Middle East now sound like a bad joke, as Washington again embraces the ruthless autocracies it knows. US policy in Pakistan is in ruins, Osama bin Laden is still at large and the Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan. Not only has America lost confidence in itself, but a great tide of anti-Americanism washes across the Muslim world.
And that may be the greatest challenge of all facing a President Obama, Clinton, McCain or Romney. America, as Bush never tires of insisting, must lead. But it must lead by example, not just by military force. Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, secret CIA camps, waterboarding and "extraordinary rendition" have all combined to give the lie to the US as champion of human rights.
The new occupant of the Oval Office can but hope today's dislike for America is directed at a leader, not at a country. That may well be, but one thing is for sure. Never again will the US occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral and economic - that it held in the interlude between the demise of Communism and the attacks of September 2001.
To the 44th President falls the task of explaining that truth to the country, as well as dealing with the concrete day-to-day problems left by George Bush. Indeed, one wonders, why would anyone want the job?
© 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
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65 Comments so far
Show Allthe NSPD 51 says we'll be putting up with bush for a long, long time.
google it
"Never should these two men be allowed to walk out into a quiet, somber retirement. I am also hoping that the media is up to the task at hand." pennerblu, surely you jest. The words Hope and Media do not belong in the same sentence.
lizard, our educational system is too busy teaching kids to pass standardized tests to teach them anything meaningful. Like critical thinking, the constitutionally intended role of the media, our real history (never did teach that anyway), what we're actually doing out in the world.
When my oldest son was twelve, he picked up a Reader's Digest, read it, and threw it down, saying it slanted and distorted information. How many adults today can recognize that happening? The Associated Press actually puts out some hard hitting stories about events in addition to the "charitable" versions, but I've never seen any of them in our newspaper, the Eugene Register-Guard. We live by censorship from the press. You know, all the news that's fit to print.
kathyodat
The "Republican Bush Boot Lickers" love to preach that: "It is no accident that America hasn't been hit again since 9/11!"
Of course it isn't!
The loss of political power will lead to the next "9/11 Product", leading Demon Seed Dubya to declare martial law, suspend the elections, the Contitution and thus retain Republican control of what is left of this once great nation to be sold off by and for his cronies.
It's not over!
The last 8 years have simply and painfully been the beginning of the end.
Just One More Year?
Hardly - the damage done to America and the American dream will be with us for many many generations.
The Dems keep spreading this nonsense that its all Bush's fault. Its him, personally. If we can just get Bush out of office, then suddenly the world will be happy and peaceful and birds will sing and we'll all live happily ever after.
Of course, most people recognized that Bush was just a puppet when he was elected. He certainly didn't have an ideology or plan of action that he'd been working on his own to develop for years. He'd basically been a drunk who ran businesses into bankruptcy until he suddenly became the figurehead, puppet and frontman for corporate power.
So, if Bush was always just a puppet, why would anyone think that anything will be better or different if he's just replaced with another puppet? And all of the frontrunners in both parties look like puppets right now. They are all more cases of them aligning their so-called platforms with the needs of those with power and money. They all vow to keep troops in Iraq. There's no hint that the trade agreements and policies that are sending our jobs overseas will end. They create phony differences between themselves that they can debate noisily about. But its mainly a question of whether you want coconut sprinkles or sugarcandy sprinkles on the same ice cream.
Unless we elect someone who is completely disconnected from corporate power and money, all we are doing is electing a different puppet. And, no one in their right mind would think that replacing the puppet but continuing to let the same people pull the strings would result in any substantive change at all. This is all just BS from the Democrats to try to con us into thinking that their puppets will somehow be better than this puppet.
How can you be so sure that the bush-Cheney junta will give up the ghost? And although, the author is right in saying that hoover could not forestall the great depression, he saved much of France and Belgium during the first World War, which is far more than Bush has ever done. Moreover, hoover wrote 6 books in the last 5 years of his life (from age 85-90, he died in 1974), and I doubt that Bush will read six books during the remaining years of his sorry life.
As for the economy, yes, greenspan deserves much blame, but bush's tax cuts, his $1-2 trillion thrown down the sink hole of Iraq and related wars, a deficit approaching $10 trillion, I'd say his economic policies have been as successful as his many other ill-fated notions.
I hope the Replutocrats never gain power again. Wreckononics has always translated into kleptonomics; if you would like a good source, read David Cay Johnston's latest book, _Free Lunch_!
PS ... there's not a chance elections will be cancelled. I keep seeing this nonsense. Here's some reasons ...
a) The elections are so tightly controlled and managed that the powers behind the scenes are perfectly confident that the next President and Congress will follow their policies as well as the last. We've already seen the null effect of a replacing a Rethug majority in Congress with a Dem majority. Having the Dems stay in power with a pro-war, pro-corporate power Dem President is no threat at all to them.
b) Cancelling the elections would actually entail some risk that it might wake up the American people. Right now the American people are sound asleep with the myth that they live in a fully functioning democracy. Keeping the myth alive and well is far more important to the powers that run this country than making sure the Bush puppet stays in the White House.
c) Bush wants out. You can constantly see it on his face. Even with all his vacations, this is as hard as he's ever worked in his life and he's obviously been sick of it for at least a year now. Bush is about the last person who'd want Bush to be President for four more years. He can't wait for this to be over.
Another "beat around the Bush" BULLSHIT article. What don't these fucking authors understand? Of Bush is bad but can these fuckers prove that the candidates in both political parties save Kucinich and even Paul and Gravel are any better ?!?
"...Never again will the US occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral and economic - that it held in the interlude between the demise of Communism and the attacks of September 2001".
That's the lasting legacy of Bush. This man had it all and threw it all away. This, in short, is the beginning of the end of the US as we've known it. Until his dying day, Bush's name is MUD.
The author of this article muses: Indeed, one wonders, why would anyone want the job?
Because they have a legacy to continue. Bush has successfully concentrated US power into a single office. That makes it easy for future dictators to both explain why reversal is complex, and why "status quo" must be maintained. Havn't you been paying attention?
Merry Merrill Lynches' misery is far from over, because the Monolines are crashing. The Monolines are the firewall of last resort. They under-wrote insurance on Bank's investments, but are going down like lead ballons because they were grossly under-funded. Why? because NO-ONE thought it could ever come to this...that they would ever have to actually cover the staggering number of failing banks and brokerages that are hemorrhaging billions. The Bush administration's IGNORANT HUBRIS was the perfect Kerosene to mix with the Wall Street Fertilizer of GREED to make a bomb large enough to bring down the world economy A LA THE WORLD TRADE CENTERS.....AIN'T BLIND JUSTICE AN IRONIC BITCH????????
Bush Fiscal policy = Kerosene
Wall Street Greed = Fertilizer
Resulting Explosion = US & World Economy
You wanna' talk terrorism??????
You wanna' talk what REALLY damages America's National Security??????
WELL....I TELL YOU WHAT......GO TALK TO THE US CONGRESS......THEY DROVE THE GODDAMN GET-AWAY CAR.
COMarc,
your analysis of the non-difference between your parties is accurate to the extent that it is domestic. That your ruling elite will have factional differences is a given. As a member of the 95% of the worlds population that is affected by this exercise in corporate struggle, but has no influence apon its outcome, is to know pointlessness.
That said, the difference between one corporate whore and another makes a huge difference in life expectancy for us.
Rather have neither, mind.
and then someone can write his biography. here are some imagined titles:
the book of bush
war and war
brave new world order
uncle george's cabin
bush in wonderland
great explanations
macbush
COMarc,
You make some real clear and truthful points.
"Unless we elect someone who is completely disconnected from corporate power and money, all we are doing is electing a different puppet. And, no one in their right mind would think that replacing the puppet but continuing to let the same people pull the strings would result in any substantive change at all. This is all just BS from the Democrats to try to con us into thinking that their puppets will somehow be better than this puppet."
We must act independent from the media, party politics and even fellow Democrats in order to achieve the goal of a President who is not connected to corporate power. The process starts with killing the cynicism in our hearts which took root due to a continued and historical lack of accountability.
My own path to realization of the power that I hold as a citizen has taken an entire year to sprout and was done through investigation, education, participation and a conscious effort to maintain hope.
It is our perspective that needs to be changed. There are those in the world that do not have the liberties that we take for granted that still consider the U.S. to be the promise land while many of us don't participate due to cynicism or plain disinterest.
Perspectives can be changed, but we are battling generations of American style corporate propaganda and must commit to the long vision despite losses.
Different man (or woman) next year, but same murderous policies by Washington and Wall Street.
Voting makes no difference.
This author is much too comfortable. The view is superficial. Buchanan let the country slide into civil war. And Lincoln? Hoover is responsible for the depression. Was he? Was Bush a bad President because the economy is suffering right now? Since the author mentions misdeeds, should the comparisons not be made rather to liars and constitution violators like Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Lincoln and Truman? These were war Presidents who all behaved very badly. All are guilty of the most serious crimes. This article leaves everything wrong with Bush and America untouched. Not impressive.
Likewise for Iraq where, according to him, the surge has brought less violence. This is the view of the people but not of those informed. The decline is due to withdrawal of American risky operations, paying for a truce with Sunnis, and a behind the scenes deal by Iran that caused Sadr to call a truce.
Whatfools, we just need to drop the "D" from "American Dream" and the truth is there to be seen!
***** AMERICAN REAM!! *****
Great post, PrestonDigitator. Made me laugh, even if it isn't funny.
CoMarc, as usual, you're right on the mark. It's true, all we can get is cosmetic changes. The corporatocracy stays in power, and the propaganda arm (fourth estate morphed into fifth column) will continue to sedate and delude the electorate.
I do wonder what the public reaction (can't call it a response, that implies reason, which is missing) to the coming economic meltdown will be? I know one thing, Blackwater is making me very uneasy.
kathyodat
How can anyone in congress let him stay on another day, let alone a whole year? He does more damage in a minute than most presidents do in 4 years.
"I do wonder what the public reaction...to the coming economic meltdown will be?"
That's what's got me the most worried of all. No Americans under the age of about 90 have any cognitive memories of the Great Depression. What is going to happen when it begins to dawn on tens of millions of formerly middle class people that not only they, but also their offspring have no realistic hope of ever again enjoying the high standard of living they've come to see as their right?
We need a new FDR. Instead we've got Hillary, Obama and lukewarm bathwater centerism.
The only thing that will happen on 1-20-09 is that the bastard will leave. Tell me he's been arrested. Then and only then will I have cause to rejoice.
Before Jan. 20, 2009 I am hoping I see news everywhere that Bush and Cheney have been Impeached! Never should these two men be allowed to walk out into a quiet, somber retirement. I am also hoping that the media is up to the task at hand.
"Never again will the US occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral and economic that it held between the demise of Communism and the attacks of 2001"
I guess the anonymous author is forgetting the desert storm massacre perhaps an economic boom for the MIC .....depleted uranium....the highway of death...cluster bombs a moral high point?!
Come on common dreams how common are we?
Voting WOULD make a difference if we as a people had the intellegence to vote for candidates who would actually serve us. And don't bother to whine they are never on the ballot, Dennis Kucinich is available, ready and willing to serve us. America it seems, is not ready for anything but more of what we've been getting since Reagan was so disasterously elected.
I've said it before and I'll say it again:
From the perspective of a professional politician,
an electorate this gd ignorant, serve only as convenient leprechauns to mark the location of the pot of gold.
drube---would you believe me if I told you that much of the left at the time of FDR's initial run for president did not support him, saw him as a wealthy conservative. It was the wide labor-led people's movement that auccessfully pushed him in a progressive direction.
Likewise, most activists in the abolitionist movement did not support Lincoln inititally. Lincoln, and his new party, stood only for opposing the spread of slavery to the new western states. Their official postion was that they took no position of slavery 'where it then existed.' The conflict, and the strong people's movement of that time, forced him to take a much stronger position, ultimately ending slavery and winning the civil war.
I very strongly feel that many of the folks posting on this blog need to have a more objective understanding of how social forces work. I don't mean any disrespect at all, merely that we need to have a sober realistic analysis of the horrible situation we're in, if we are to be successful in changing it.
Our nation has a rigged electoral process, with two corporate parties institutionalized into the system. But those two parties are NOT the same. They represent different sectors of the ruling class. Bush/Cheney and the ultra-right neo-cons that have completely taken over the Republican Party are our MAIN ENEMY!! They are privitaizing all public services possible, all destroying the democratic rights of the nation, are driving us into permanent wars, broken unions and as destroyed the govt struture of labor laws, broken the tax structure so only working folks pay taxes, and are driving our nation in a fascist direction. THEY MUST BE STOPPED!
The only way possible to defeat the ultra-right, at time is in the '08 elections. The Democrats are the only party possible that can defeat the GOP. They are a corporate party, but they represent a sector of that class that is more willing to grant concessions to the people. We absolutely need to change that system, build a new, strong political party that is based on working class, minorities, women, as well as small business folks. However, we are NOT at that stage of struggle at this time. What we can, and must do now is DEFEAT THE ULTRA-RIGHT! That will not guarantee any basic changes, but it will make it possible for the strong people's mvoement to win needed changes, such as Natl Health Care, ending the war, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to again join unions without corporate interference, defence of women's rights and rights of minorities, creation of public jobs programs to rebuild oour infrastructure, etc. None of that is guaranteed by defeat of the ultra-right, but it is impossible without it! What defeat of the ultra-right does is gives the pople's movement the ability to win.
If we are able to win in '08, we will be in a position to make the fight to change election laws and build a new political party something possible.
Bush and our pitiful Congress have ignored and neglected necessity and it will be the root cause of our demise as a powerful and should be leading nation.
"A wise man NEVER refuses anything to necessity".
(Necessitati sapiens nihil umquam negat)
~Syrus~
Unionguy, sounds good, but we tried that in 1992 with Bill Clinton making all of the above promises and instead we got NAFTA, Gatt, corporate takeover of our airwaves, welfare "reform" (abandonment of poor kids), and a massive increase of upward migration of nation wealth.
My son has been sending http://glassbooth.org/ to his conservative friends to see how their political views converge with the presidential candidates, and they are startled to find that they agree with the policies that Kucinich advocates. A Propaganda Ministry well-kept secret. Even Edwards has landed on the media manure roster.
I believe that if Hillary manages to buy and bully her way into the Democratic nomination, McCain may well be our next president. His proposed solution to the recession? A corporate tax cut! Corporations paying 6% - if at all - of our national tax is obviously too excessive according to McCain. Before the Reagan revolution, they paid 40%.
kathyodat
The corporations have found a better way to avoid paying taxes. They pay lobbyists instead. Now they're getting their money's worth.
kathyodat
One more year??? It will only take him a few minutes to start a nuclear war.
Shove a Kucinich vote up their bidness-as-usual
We should NOT be rejoicing, because once the Imperial Sceptre is passed to Billary, we will by dreaming of these halcion days. Much as the population of Iraq dream of the days of Saddam.
The dreadful policies of this unelected zealot president, which include unprecedented environmental sellouts to special interests that have resulted in immeasurable damage to our planet dreadful foreign polices, and a matching arrogance on scales we have never experienced, easily qualify him as the worst.
However your analogy to Herbert Hoover as one of the worst, deals this humanitarian a great injustice, since it is unlikely that any other president would have been able to mobilize the resources to avoid the world wide depression, which was finally ended by Adolph Hitler. Warren Harding despite the mis-applied trust of his corrupt friends never would have caused the destruction that this president has. Even Nixon achieved several positive accomplishments.
Instead a rational review of the destruction from Regan's policies would qualify him for the runner-up position. The unraveling of the Carter environmental gains and reckless economic polices of this serendipitous communicator have been the prelude to this administrations dreadful policies which will haunt us for many years.
I agree with ezeflyer...I hope we all survive this year!
George Bush will not be president after 1/20/09. But I don't expect him to be "quiet." His Mom and Dad are still living, he has long-life genes, and he will be a vocal force (or is it farce?) for "conservatism" for a long time to come.
Let's just hope he doesn't have a new like-minded Republican president to "publicly agree with" all the time with that good ole Texas drawl. A couple of decades of that could finish some of us off altogether.
George W. Bush is the American Pharaoh, the King of Denial. "The United States does not torture...by the way, that [snooping on Americans] requires a warrant...the economy is sound and in good shape..." All politicians lie, but if there were a Nobel Prize for lying Bush would surely win it.
would you please just shut up alreaady with this one more year stuff? maybe it sounds good to you but think about if you are Iraqi. Just one more year and the bombs will stop and you won't have to worry about getting shot every time you step outside your house- just 365 more days of this hell how lovely what happiness
If the people really wanted what one would think they would want, they would want a candidate who says he will do the following:
1. Drastically reduce the defense budget, withdraw from Iraq.
2. Provide one payer universal health care.
3. Prosecute any member of the Bush government who willfully broke the law.
4. Reform the banking system and Federal Reserve Board. Prosecute where applicable.
5. Invest in infrastructure repair as a way to help the economy. .
6. Call a constitutional convention, or Article V convention
7. Electoral reforms requiring ammendments to the constitution
8. Change foreign policy toward soft power.
9. Switch from income tax to land and sales taxes.
10. Invest heavily in developing the tools to obtain energy from non carbon sources, and halt the march toward ethanol use in cars.
11. Create an electrical society.
12. Educational reform. Teaching the true history of the U.S.
Such an incomplete platform, which I believe is essential for the well-being of the US and the world ,would get the support that Gravel, who has better ideas than I do, gets. He gets less than 1%.
Lizard, the one thing that amazes me about Mike Gravel is that so few people actually know who he is, even those who consider themselves liberals. Have they forgotten? The Pentagon Papers? The filibuster that ended the draft?
Why is it that so few people know who Mike Gravel is? He's in the history books, or at least he should be. Any time kids in school are taught about the Vietnam War they should be taught about Mike Gravel. I guess they're not, because he's even less of a household name than Kucinich is.
George is not the problem. Every candidate acceptable to the people accepts the following principles:
1. We have a right to defend American interests anywhere in the world, even illegally.
2. We will be number 1 militarily at all costs.
3. Nothing that resembles socialism is acceptable.
4. Taxes must be lowered, not raised.
5. Israel must be supported
6. Public surveillance and identification networks are necessary and inevitable.
7. There is no need to worry about the electoral system, and no need to seek changes to the constitution.
8. We have always acted defensevily. We were always the ones attacked.
9. God's existance and importance are unquestionable
George is a product of the people. They chose him because he is one of them.Those people are descended from the Puritans who burnt down Shakespeare's Globe Theater as sinful. Unable to find acceptance in Europe they came to America seeking and finding acceptance from the Indians whom they then ate. With consummate devotion to themselves, and their true and only acceptable way of life, they then proceeded to annihilate all that which did not resemble them. With an ineluctable belief in their own goodness, they saw all those not like them as evil, or filthy, or unworthy, and isolated themselves, within the evil world, like pearls in an oyster. Curiously, the jews,people of its now only ally, and co-conspirator Israel, are the same. To change this character, resilient over 400 years requires a revolution, and there will not be one.
George, like Jesus, is simply one manifestation of God.
The next one is Mclinbama
"George is a product of the people. They chose him because he is one of them"
They did not choose him. Gore won the popular vote but was too chickenbleep to do something "divisive" in 2000 when the Supreme Scum pimps decided to foist the Chimp upon the globe, and even the lackluster Kerry beat him according to the exit polling, according to the faces of the Fox shites, and even according to reports early in the evening when he was informed he was beaten. But a few vote flippers changed the result, and Kerry quietly tucked tail between his legs, having done his duty in pretending to present a choice.
With 40% of the electorate declining the ordure offered by the A**hole Party during presidential years, and 70% or more turning up their nose at the off-year elections, it's evident that the primary characteristic of the populace on the whole is not apathy, but Despair.
A sobering missive but one or two points:
You write "The recession that now looms is not his (Bush's) fault ..." He may not have been technically responsible but PLEASE! He enabled it with the sh*t-eating grin and the deaf ear he gave to all but his wealthy base regarding the turmoil and suffering that resulted from it. You can equivocate and split hairs if you like, but any sensibe person lays a lot of blame at his feet.
You write: "The new occupant of the Oval Office can but hope today's dislike for America is directed at a leader, not at a country." Dream on. I work in Europe and here people do not seperate the two. They believe (1) that we are a model, functioning democracy and (2) we elected Bush. They don't know, nor want to know about hanging chads or the "cooked" Supreme Court. Whatever we'd like to believe, Bush and all he's wrought is our legacy too.
I don't think any myths are really being kept alive. The People see through the shenanigans. In my humble world, everyone I know realizes that our governments and legal systems are a farce - never mind the politicians who will take advantage of this. We all know that accountability is the problem.
What people have given up on is A VOICE that actually gets heard - A VOICE that demands an answer. A VOICE that receives an answer if even from no answer, and A VOICE that calls more voices to demand an answer. This is all we can do. We know that when many people are united, it is impossible to silence them.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that the folks in the Bush Administration believe that no one can rise above them, and have taken a sloppy attitude of caring less what people think. "So we torture – we don't care if you are opposed."
The old guard will not be changed overnight, but change must begin somehow, somewhere, and soon.
It's not the things we currently can broadcast that will bring change - it's the things that we currently cannot broadcast.
Bye, bye 43 - at least in formality...
Oh Rupert you silly Brit, "good riddance George Bush" and hello who??? Now go wipe that simpering smirk off your face and realize that (like your own country after they got rid of "Toady" Blair), Americas and by extension the world's p[roblems go far beyond George W. Bush.
Bushco is wholly and completly responsible for the social and economic meltdown that is nicely underway.
And the world will only be free of Bush's evil, vacant stare after he has been cremated, his ashes ground to powder, mixed with flour and baked into loaves that are the last meal fed to Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowicz, and Rice on the day before their executions for crimes against humanity...
There are a few consequential items to consider:
1. You have a right to go to jail for anything done illegally.
2. The cost of being number 1 militarily is to make ourselves the number 1 fool in the world, and not acceptable.
3. Socialism and capitalism each only work when they are used together.
4. Taxes are not the issue. How we spend our taxes and who we tax are more important. No person needs to earn or spend more than 400 times what another person earns or spends. A large percentage of the remainder can certainly be taxed, and with no loopholes.
5. Israel is an illegal state and must be replaced with a new state of Palestine which welcomes all persons equally.
6. Public surveillance must be open or not used, and identification is not necessary. No one wants a police state like the one we now have.
7. The electoral system and the congress are disfunctional, and only with a constitutional amendment which prohibits private finances for elections including from the candidate will we have a democracy.
8. We have always lied about being attacked first, from the Maine to Pearl Harbor and the Tonkin Gulf. The correct response however is to turn the other cheek, not to strike back; for if everyone followed an eye for an eye the whole world would be blind.
9. All persons and every government must respect all religions and lack of religion. Whether it is important to any one person is inconsequential to every other person.
Lets also not forget it was under Bush's watch that TASERS became the police weapon of choice to force public compliance with their orders, along with the development of the Microwave Area Denial System, which has very little battlefeild usefulness, but works just dandy in urban environments against an un-armed population.
This author is WAY too polite. Come on, do you think they will come and get you if you just state he obvious ?
"Since 2001 the real income of ordinary Americans has stagnated."
Make that, "Since 1981...."
Honesty is important.
If you think the bad days for the US is over when Bush leaves office I've got a nice bridge to sell ya.
Only if Kucinich (Gravel) or Paul get elected will things really change in the US.