As so many have pointed out in this forum, Bush & Company have NOT failed in what they actually set out to do.

Bush was brought in to baffle the nation with B.S. while the puppeteers in the background raped a nation... ripping the rights and personal wealth away from individual Americans, while they stuffed their pockets as fast as they could.

I am often reminded of that picture of the old Jewish guy dressed as an indian on horseback, "crying about what the white man has done to his land"...

REAL Americans are looking over their ravaged land with tears in their eyes, while the Bushes, Murdochs, Gates', Limbaughs, Hannitys, Robertsons, Coulters and Kristols dance with glee.

Dear Bob,
As many on this stream have argued, you have it upside down.

Failure is only in the eyes of the beholder.

He did what THEY set him out to do -
cripple the Constitution, create and militarize a culture of fear, stake-jump the oil supply, weaken the social safety net and pave the way for increased corporatization.

America Inc.

Indeed his "backers" might confidently say "Mission Accomplished"

"Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsetter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy's spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold-hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right,
And which is an illusion." The Moody Blues

No, Bush hasn't been a failure. He has accomplished exactly what he set out to do, turn the mighty engine that is the United States off course and make it work for his friends and himself. He had no other aim than that. That is why he grins and smirks. You say, doesn't he realize what a failure he is? Quite the contrary. He has succeeded in every way possible, and what's even better, gotten away with it. I'm sure that surprises the hell out of him.

AlexLawyer, you're on to something:

"This article's premise is wrong. Bush has not failed; he has caused others to fail, and always come out smelling like a rose. He drove businesses bankrupt, but was rescued with cash from family friends, including the bin Ladens. His family, and Cheney, have profited handsomely from these wars, as have many of his most generous donors. He has broken the laws and violated the Constitution without fear of accountability and will strut off into the sunset on 20 January 2009 to collect six-figure honoraria for inane speeches full of brazen lies. America, the world, and a fortiori Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to suffer, but the adverse consequences of his military, foreign policy, constitutional, economic, healthcare, environmental and ethical debacles will fall on everyone else. Protected by spineless Democrats, cynical Republicans, servile judges, craven media and an apathetic public, he has succeeded brilliantly in what he set out to do."

i keep thinking that everyone else is missing the point. bushco's efforts have not failed in any measure; lots of people have made lots of money, while decreasing the power of the average american, thereby further separating the rich from the increasing numbers of the poor. remember the "Project for a New American Century?" it seems to me that they are right on track. i can only guess that even brilliant minds like Rebecca Solnit cannot fathom that these folks are as evil as their actions.

Neoconservatism (read despotism) isn't working because it's not an empirically-based worldview. It just insists that its postulates must be true and cherry-picks data to support them. And there isn't much data of this kind coming in these days. So they make it up and fudge the numbers and stage events until the people are in a stupor. So they just turn away and find something else to think about.

karlof1 March 19th, 2008 3:58 pm
"Bush is Borg, and it is winning. McCain, Clinton and Obama are also Borg, so it will continue to win."

Were I not assimilated I would resist but I too am Borg as are almost all other people in this country. Resistance is futile. We are Borg.

One of the sad facts about money is that the more you have, the more you can gain by an "economic downturn".

Neither inflation or a recession is going to hurt the very wealthy, in fact, it provides them with many opportunities to FATTEN their coffers!

BIG MONEY has been selling short, buying up assets at deflated prices, investing in gold and Euros and getting richer and richer on the backs of the Middle Class American taxpayers.

While some of us have been screaming bloody murder about the criminal activities of Bush and Company for years, his propaganda pals like Hannity, O'Reilly, Kristol and Scarborough have been calling us "terrorist sympathizers" and "crazy liberals" and telling us that "everything Bush does is for the betterment of America". Yeah... right.

Don't pay any attention to lies about WMD and Saddam's nukes... gearing up to attack Iran... the sad health of the economy... the phony employment figures... our porous ports and borders... your jobs being shipped overseas to be done at 30 cents an hour... or the Chinese Communists making fools of Wal-Mart and our Pentagon...

Just go watch your NASCAR races and discuss the foibles of Britney and Lindsay... THAT'S what is important!

Mr G W Bush was the best thing that could have happened to the US of I. No one else could have brought on so swiftly the forces that could start the crumbling of the short lived but spectacularly wasteful and destructive empire of the US of I. For a nation so recalcitrant on limiting greenhouse emissions, at least the oil components soon will become un-affordable, thanks to the worthless dollar. With the economy in a dive, perhaps electricity will become un-affordable to many. Healthy food, water and shelter will be a premium. Economic growth in terms of GDP waste and debt is now unmasked, but not defeated. Capitalism will finally get to meet its true master of cost benefit, Nature's capitalism, which is what us inhabitants of planet earth have to learn to live with, and with each other, within limits of our numbers, or perish. For mutual survival in such large billions, requires a drastic cut in total energy consumption. It takes a real idiot to bring down the system whilst attempting to be doing something else. The legacy is a pitiable waste of lives, loss of sense and good will, to the degree of massive self harm. Try a civil war again next time, and do not bother the rest of the world.

Why hasn't Nancy Pelosi filed articles of impeachment. That bitch deserves a kick in the teeth.

ittaskforce March 19th, 2008 11:13 pm

surrender what?

Off topic in some ways, but, if you could compare a picture of Bush Jr. at the beginning of his takeover of the US to the picture of him now, you would see the ravages of cognative dissonance in his appearance. I do not think that he is unaware, just unwilling to accept reality. I wonder how that would compare up to the facial appearances of his presidential political forbears at the beginning of their tenures to the end? Especially those who presided during hard times such as FDR. Bush is degrading physically as he continues to ravage and degrade the American image globally.

One day, the Americans who have been sleeping will wake up to some harsh truths and I will not pity them for their ignorance or pain.

Some critic of G W Bush want Americans to submit to all kinds of terrorists. They want American soldiers to go to sleep and receive hefty salaries each month. They want US leadership to surrender to pressures applied by trouble makers like Ahmedinijadi, Castor and Chavez. I wonder why they want USA to be toy country. I hate American media that betrays democracy by projecting people like Saddam and Osama as innocent victims . If America fails it will be due to American media and not due to its army or political leadership.

It is kalia we referred to in its speech above. It is a fascist asp.

Why has Bush not been impeached? Because he did not tell one lie under under oath, he told many of them and never under oath. The only time he was under oath was when he took the oath of office and promised to uphold the Constitution.

Also, he did not ruin a blue dress, he has ruined everything he touched, including Iraq, Afganistan, and the USA. So obviously, he has not done anything requiring impeachment. In this country, everything makes good sense so we can feel good and enjoy ourselves.

Pay no attention to the previous author; it is a Middle Eastern fascist who sucks the blood of others.

I'm not so sure the failure is Bush's. It seems to me he's been pretty darned successful. After all, he has, aided by a handful of cronies, killed more than a million people, made millions more homeless, caused the US to incur a three-trillion dollar debt, trashed the Constitution, enriched his oil cronies beyond their dreams, and destroyed the reputation of an entire nation.

It seems to me that the failure is ours, and not Bush's. After all, there's only one of him, and there's 300-million of us, and we can't seem to do anything to stop him.

All this article does is that it succeeds in demonstrating succinctly that in the long run people like Sheer are bound to fail in their opposition to bush policies.

Where Mr. Scheer misses it is that Bush is not a failure to his peers and cronies, in fact, he is a huge success.

As many people have mentioned, success or failure depends on the viewpoint. He has been very successful at destroying our country far beyond bin Laden's wildest dreams, but he has made his real "base," not the fundies, obscenely rich and powerful. He is merely following the pattern of all his life, from his oil companies to his governorship of Texas where he drove the educational system into 50th place (We no longer say "thank God for Mississippi") and also made Texas the most polluted state in America.

Molly Ivins said that she didn't think that Bush was intrinsically evil, just a product of his social class. I disagree because the majority of his social class do not indulge in the kind of behavior that he wallows in. The man is intrinsically evil and you can't blame Barbara for all of it.

There is an excellent analysis of his psychological state that was first published something over a year ago, but further experience has shown it to be on target. Look it up in Truthout. It looks at how he never was able to deal with his total inadequacy and how he grew up compensating for the fact that he is inadequate while his father, while not all that great, at least was successful in most of what he did. Everything he does and says is geared toward denial of his worthlessness, and is a reaction to events that prove him to be less than useless.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Write, E-Mail, Call up...all of your U.S. Senators, and Representatives and tell them, in clear terms, ... Either IMPEACH both BUSH and CHENEY....NOW, or they will be voted out of office, this November 2008, or next November 2009 , or the following Noverber 2010.

Either due your sworn duty to unhold and defend the U.S. Constitution, or be unemployed in disgrace........

JConrad; THANKS! What a link-From Geronimo's Skull to Nazi blood money to Eugenics....

I understand now how a million deaths leaves George laughing, how torture is appealing-it was table-talk growing up.

Let's hope a stroke or cancer visits him/them soon.

Bush is raising money for more-of-the-same-insane-McCain...because he needs him to bury any investigation into the stellar legacy (eh...reign) that lasted 8 years! He needs someone of his cloth in the oval office to issue all necessary pardons.

This article's premise is wrong. Bush has not failed; he has caused others to fail, and always come out smelling like a rose. He drove businesses bankrupt, but was rescued with cash from family friends, including the bin Ladens. His family, and Cheney, have profited handsomely from these wars, as have many of his most generous donors. He has broken the laws and violated the Constitution without fear of accountability and will strut off into the sunset on 20 January 2009 to collect six-figure honoraria for inane speeches full of brazen lies. America, the world, and a fortiori Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to suffer, but the adverse consequences of his military, foreign policy, constitutional, economic, healthcare, environmental and ethical debacles will fall on everyone else. Protected by spineless Democrats, cynical Republicans, servile judges, craven media and an apathetic public, he has succeeded brilliantly in what he set out to do.

The Mark of the Beast

Mc Cain Do you have the Mark
the corporate mark the mark of the beast mark
flip the W to show the M
and you'll know it's you
do you have the mark?

Like Dubya do you know what to smite
claiming voices from a higher father
will you have a VP who knows how to shoot
and favor a pope with a ceramic dove
Just flip the W to show the M
and you'll know it's you
do you have the mark?

Mc Cain do you know of Abel?
Are you still able
to bomb from on high
or would you prefer a knife
what mission did you accomplish
when your bomber hit the blue?
who saved you when your bomber hit the blue?
Did the villagers do unto others too?

A hundred years of non stop wars
that's quite a mark
Johnny do you have the mark?

p.s.: For what is W collecting money at this point? Is he running for office? Needs a diamond-encrusted, first-edition copy of "The Pet Goat" for his library? Why the hell are people shoveling this clown money?

From the Assimilated Press article linked above by bughunter (4:00 p.m.):

"To talk about the nation's economic troubles, (Bush) chose an audience of wealthy leaders from the corporate and financial industries who are largely immune to the worries of average Americans. And he went directly from that speech to a fundraising reception in an A-list apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side where he collected $20,000 apiece from about 70 GOP donors."

Disconnect from reality?
You decide.

are we doomed?

7 PM nightly Iraq war report:

Things are going well. Freedom is on the march. Less bombings and killings but we still have a long way to go since the country is in ruins, there are no jobs, soldiers get blown up regularly and a few stray rockets always seem to go off in the wrong places. Overall, the Pentagon says: "we're cautiously optimistic; what we're doing seems to be working."

Repeat over and over again for the next 50 years (which is what the British did before they finally left) or before the oil runs out.

But let's have a reality check here! Bush is not to blame. Yes, you read it right: Bush is not to blame!

It's the political system which allowed a moron like him to enter the White House. And it's also the corporate economic system which controls the political system which is to blame.

And since the disaster of Bush has the political system or the economic system been changed to make sure that another Bush can't be elected?

NO, NO, NO! THAT'S TOO F%#@king INTELLIGENT!

No, the same circus and the same media and the same people that elected Bush are back in town and the same result is a foregone conclusion.

It defies belief!

www.dangerouscreation.com

I've been reviewing the history of the Bush administration after awakening from a 5 year nap. Someone help me out: why aren't these hideous people impeached yet?
R. V. Winkle

bughunter--The Zionists are Borg too. See George Seldes's very complete description of Fascism and Fascists here, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x242627

More on Leo Strauss and his impact on the current state of US policy, and coincidentally, also by Jim Lobe:

- http://www.alternet.org/story/15935?page=entire

Bush to hail prospect of Iraq "strategic victory"

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1825153620080319?feedType=nl&feedName=ustopnewsearly

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will acknowledge on Wednesday the Iraq war has been fought at a high cost but will insist a U.S. troop buildup has opened the door to a "major strategic victory" against Islamic militants.

"The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable," Bush will say in an upbeat assessment of the U.S.-led campaign in a speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, according to excerpts released on Tuesday.

Let us not be so naive as to delude ourselves that this administration has "failed" in its' goals. To the contrary, every action by this administration speaks to the ideological underpinnings of a neo-fascism forwarded by Leo Strauss and, to a lesser degree, his mentor Friedrich Hayek, 9/11, the opportunity and Iraq the test tube.
A brief background of Stauss'philosophy is necessary to appreciate both the goals and means by which this administration has diabolically "succeded" beyond their wildest dreams.
1. The populace are idiots and easily manipulated.
2. Consolidate power with "values voters" and the ruling class.
3. Use the children of "values voters" and the poor to fight your wars.
4. Control the media through the spread of miss and disinformation
5. Consolidate power through an imperious presidency
6. Use a superior military to extend imperial influence and control.
7. Create anarchic failed states through military intervention
8. Create puppet governments dependent on both military and economic support
9. Consolidate power in the failed state through corporate control of the economy

Does this sound familiar? It is narcissistic to believe that this administration is composed of idiots, no matter how well Bush may play the role. This administration knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, Kamel, Saddam's son-in-law, told the world this very fact upon his defection to Jordan. This administration knew they lacked the troops both to occupy and maintain the peace. They knew that in promoting Shia interests while punishing the Bathists they would unleash a sectarian insurgency that, as in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, would attract radical Sunni's from neighboring countries. They knew that by "branding" these outsiders as Al-Queda, they could use 9/11 as a marketing opportunity for endless occupation, and they knew that they could spread this fear of Al-Queda to consolidate power for a generation.
Like Vietnam, (Google VIETNAM OIL)this war is about oil.ost This administration knew that in constructing the oil revenue "sharing agreement" for the Iraqui parliment, based upon antiquated and rapacious "profit sharing agreements"(profit sharing agreements only have a utility for difficult to access reserves. In Iraq, you can stick a pipe in the ground and find oil), America could break the back of OPEC and suck Iraq dry, and, most profitably, for the oil companies.
Prior to the war, at least 6 countries major oil companies, none of which were British or American, paid Saddam billions for oil leases to be executed after sanctions were lifted, and sanctions would have eventually been lifted. The American and British invasion circumvented that possibility.
Failed? Hardly! This administration has consolidated wealth within the ruling class, stripped constitutional freedoms, furthered Clinton's deregulation of the financial community, rewarded outsourcing destroying our manufacturing base, breaking the backs of unions and "reemploying" the middleclass in low paying service jobs, stacked a pro business Supreme Court, gutted environmental, food and drug safety laws, promoted White/Christian superiority unleashing race, gender and sexual hatred, and have increased both military spending and the national debt to squeeze the economic entitlements instituted by FDR. The servicing of the debt, and the demise of the dollar will keep interest rates on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards artificially high for a generation or more.
Failed? Yes, for us who respect life, embrace peace and who look toward an equaniminous world. For these lying pricks who have violated everything we hold dear, they have been wildly successful. It puts the Democractic Party and its' triangulating DNC philosophes as complicitous as Republicans.

So, I have a question, if the Walker and Bush families were so deeply in bed with the antisemitic rulers of WWII Germany (as posited by JConrad's link at 12:45 pm) then why is Bush42's presidency so single-mindedly pursuing the neoconservative agenda that is (according to Jim Lobe's editorial in CDNC today) so intimately intertwined with Zionist Israeli goals?

The only real answer is that the Walker/Bush family and their spawn (which includes two US presidents) have no loyalties to anything but money... Massive wealth, and more of it.

According to that measure, Bush42 has been a huge success.

The cynic in me is not surprised or shocked in the least.

Here is the picture that Scheer references, part of an AP story with a classic headline and a nice reminder that homeowners aren't getting crap while the Wall Street Bazillionaires get billions in welfare.

Bush is Borg, and it is winning. McCain, Clinton and Obama are also Borg, so it will continue to win. Yet as seen before, the Borg is also predatory of itself. The previous time this ocurred, 1929-1940, the Borg was allowed to survive and resurrected itself. It will soon collapse again, and during this time of weakness, it must be liquidated at once and for all time.

"There could be no more dangerous threat to the new status quo than a citizen army of Americans armed to the teeth with information and the right to vote, paying active attention to the ways and means of our governement and economy" --- William Rivers Pitt

Little Gorgie's lengthening trail of failures should not come as serial surprises to anyone. The late Molly Ivins predicted much of it in her 2000 book "Shrub."

...which makes me think of a variation on an old actum: greed corrupts and absolute greed corrupts absolutely. Greed is the bad seed, the weed that takes over civilization. I agree with the blogger who mentioned abut the indoctrination of children into a corrupt system. Bu$h is just a symbol of this ethos uber everything in our nation. How sad that such a great, innovative, daring experiment in democracy (created by men of great character and intellectual brilliance) is being sullied by such low-level human beings with lizard brains.

Failure is just a minor part of the problem with George Bush. He is also evil, a criminal, liar, etc. Tell me, would it have been better if we had won the war on Iraq? If, instead of massacaring 1.3 million innocent Iraqi civilians, we had massacred 10 million Iraqis? That would still have been a moral failure, an even greater one. Perhaps it is a blessing that Bush is a failure.

Bush is a happy man just as long as the Neocons keep telling him what a wonderful job he's doing.

[ and 30,000 U.S. injuries in a war the administration had promised would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues.]

Thirty thousand??????
That's the same number mentioned at least two years ago.

It's really America's failure just as much as Bush's. America sat back and allowed Bush to run rough shod over the US Constitution. Suckers!

Mr Scheer, you seem to have forgotten the million plus Iraqi's killed or is that just your way of saying they don't matter, only 'merican deaths are significant?

Well, when you vote for a guy who looks like you'd want "to sit down and have a beer with", you can count on him being like the other guys you have beer with. Do you think any of the other guys you drink beer with should be president?
Generally, people don't evaluate or remember what the president said yesterday so he is free to contradict himself tomorrow and nobody notices the difference. We voted for him; we deserve him.
keith in denver

Legacy of failure?

The rich are obscenely richer and own a heinous amount of our wealth, the government is all but drowned in the bathtub, the justice system is completely warped, and corporations are above the law.

Only normal humans would see that as a legacy of failure...

I don't buy the "frame" that Bush is a failure.

GW's job has been to stand in front of us and tell us everything is OK while the uber-rich secure themselves places in the LifeBoat Earth.

They've understood since the late 1800's (Malthus anyone?) that the human population explosion would eventually result in a MASS DIE-OFF, and it's been their intention that they and their offspring be the ones left living.

The only hope I see for the rest of us is that we help one another through the coming hard times, and that after the antiquated dinosaur of industrial "civilization" collapses, the meek SHALL inherit the Earth.

Incompetence is a relatively effective word for describing Bush, but I tend to think that what is happening is a more generalized decline of our cultural state of mind.

"W" is simply a manifestation of America being an appointed CEO of a larger pathology.

The American business and political worlds are dominated by a criminal mindset lacking the ability to see, or to be concerned with, the inter-related consequences of their actions.

This "business" attitude has become pervasive and the criminals also have control of our educational systems forming the young and a media that keeps the masses in the dark or off balance. Most of our "religious" organizations are passive or complicit with this corrupt system. In a sense it is a late Roman sort of decadence of the mind, heart and intellect manifesting in a physical or financial form. "They" have been weaving this paradigm for decades and have created an elaborate set of controls designed to make a small percentage of the population wealthy at the expense of the majority.

America has become a delusional asylum and the freaks who are running this deranged institution are sicker than the inmates they are abusing.

As the old saying goes, "It is all a state of mind".

And of course the only way to know for sure why "W" is still smiling would be to audit the Bush family investments, including the Carlyle Group, and see what sort of profits they have reaped through defense and oil "business" profits enhanced through Whitehouse war crimes. There is nothing new about the Bush family profiting from tyranny and death as Prescott had financial ties with the Nazis.

article:

" A Nazi in the (pocket) is worth four in the Bush (family)"

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3255.htm

Approval ratings, don't matter, to them.

Name calling, doesn't matter to them.

Blogs, articles and newspaper stories...don't matter to them.

Your vote, doesn't matter to them. (They win either way and the media makes billions on the process)

They don't care. They don't have to. They are totally and absolutely, immune.

They now have it all.

Bu$hCo has raped the country for WAY LONGER than the last eight years.

Dubya's daughter's 2007 spin thru South America included buying even more of the Paraguayan land over the fresh-water aquifer upon which the world depends for the future of humanity. There are too many of us for the declining resources. The uber-wealthy will continue to control us and that which we Need.

Selling Americans water in a bottle? Training for when the taps run undrinkable inadequately treated wastewater. Not too far into our future if we continue our current path.

Great article, Robert Scheer. "Failure suits him". That's what he does best. He's like a tank mowing down everything in his path to get what he wants, and has gone through life never noticing the wreckage he creates. Not his problem, Daddy trots along behind, patching up his messes. And yes, the people pulling his strings have gotten what they want, and the American people have gotten the shaft. And with the Federal Reserve board printing paper at top speed, ruining the value of the dollar, we will all suffer. True conservatives must be freaking out right now.

kathyodat

Scheer sez: "Once again there was our president (sic), presiding over disasters in part of his making and totally on his watch, grinning with an aplomb that suggested a serious disconnect between his worldview and existing reality."

Suggested? There is ample documentation that this psychopath's entire wasted life has been untainted by "existing reality."

But I quibble. Great article, overall.

Bush & Co. has been looting the store (the country) for eight years. They are surprised no one has called the cops. Yet other people are standing in the checkout line waiting to pay for their goods. Interesting.

Bush has a legacy of success
in the eyes of his supporters.

He has our military
sitting on top of huge oil reserves.

He has our economy
rigged for the rich.

He has our democracy
working against the people.

But Bush and his supporters
are losing power.

His approval rating is in the toilet.
His tax cuts for the rich are expiring.
His party continues to lose power.
The Carlyle Group is losing billions.
The internet is revitalizing our democracy.

We have the ability to live in peace.

Failure? Uh, no. He did exacly what he set out to do, on many fronts, at the behest of his "base" - family and friends who have amassed great money and power. The only people who have suffered a failure were those who believed what he said, and those who opposed him. Which, in case I'm being too vague, is just about everyone.

Mr. Scheer,

Again you have written a formative column that describes exactly what these fools are doing to our country. You are right when you say they take care of their own, and it being the reason "Georgie Porgie" is so happy. He knows, as do most Republicrats, that after they screw America over, the 'other party' will come in and recoff the Treasury. It's been the same cycle for the last 40 years.

James Matson
Philadelphia

The War on Terror is a crock. Why are we still putting up with this? Why aren't we stopping him? I just don't get it. I fear it will never change. McCain will just be more of the same.

Vote Obama, it's our only hope.