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TechnoratiNowhere Man: A Farewell to Dubya, All-Time Loser in Presidential History
"Forgotten but not gone" was the way in which the supremo of Boston politics, Billy Bulger, liked to dismiss the human irritants he had crushed beneath his trim boot. The same could now be said for the hapless 43rd President of the United States as the daylight draws mercifully in on his reign of misfortune and calamity. How is he bearing up, one wonders, as the candidate from his own party treats him as the carrier of some sort of infectious political disease? How telling was it that the most impassioned moment in John McCain's performance in the final debate was when he declared: "I am not George Bush."
Where, O where are you, Dubya, as the action passes you by like a jet skirting dirty weather? Are you roaming the lonely corridors of the White House in search of a friendly shoulder around which to clap your affable arm? Are you sweating it out on the treadmill, hurt and confused as to why the man everyone wanted to have a beer (or Coke) with, who swept to re-election four years ago, has been downgraded to all-time loser in presidential history, stuck there in the bush leagues along with the likes of James Buchanan and Warren Harding? Or are you whacking brush in Crawford, where the locals now make a point of telling visitors that George W never really was from hereabouts anyroad.
Whatever else his legacy, the man who called himself "the decider" has left some gripping history. The last eight years have been so rich in epic imperial hubris that it would take a reborn Gibbon to do justice to the fall. It should be said right away that amid the landscape of smoking craters there are one or two sprigs of decency that have been planted: record amounts of financial help given to Aids-blighted countries of Africa; immigration reform that would have offered an amnesty to illegals and given them a secure path to citizenship, had not those efforts hit the reef of intransigence in Bush's own party. And no one can argue with the fact that since 9/11 the United States has not been attacked on its home territory by jihadi terrorists; though whether or not that security is more illusory than real is, to put it mildly, open to debate.
Bet against that there is the matter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties, more than 4,000 American troops dead, many times that gravely injured, not to mention the puncture wounds and mutilations inflicted on internationally agreed standards of humane conduct for prisoners - and on the protection of domestic liberties enshrined in the American constitution. If the Statue of Liberty were alive, she would be weeping tears of blood.
If Bush himself has been largely kept out of sight, his baleful legacy has been visible in the McCain campaign. McCain has made much of his credentials for independence of mind, a claim which once was credible given his support for immigration reform and opposition to Bush's tax cuts. But somewhere along the road to the Republican nomination, all of this became less important than the lessons of the Reagan-Bush-Rove political playbook which, with the exception of the Clinton election of 1992, seemed to have a track record of unbroken success.
McCain knew this from bitter personal experience, having been on the receiving end of Bush lowball politics in the South Carolina primary in 2000. Coming out of a convincing win against George Bush in New Hampshire he was stopped in his tracks by a smear campaign conducted through push-poll phone calls in which people were asked whether they knew that the daughter McCain had adopted from Sri Lanka was in fact the illegitimate child of an affair with a woman of colour. Now you would think McCain could never reconcile himself to a politician capable of those kinds of tactics. But there he was in the campaign of 2004, stumping the country for the incumbent, ingratiating himself with the conservative base he knew he would need, even as his old Vietnam buddy, John Kerry, was being coated in slime by the Swift Boaters.
Whatever misgivings McCain might have had about adopting the hardball tactics of his 2000 adversary have long since disappeared before the blandishments of classic Bush-style operatives like Rick Davis and Stephen Schmidt. "Do you want to be pure, or do you want to win"? they must have asked right after the nomination. Ditching Joe Lieberman as a running mate and unleashing pitbull Palin was his answer.
So even while George Bush is kept at arm's length from the campaign, his campaign style lives on as Obama is stigmatised as a terrorist-friendly stealth-socialist, too deeply unAmerican to be let anywhere near the Oval Office. "He just doesn't see America as we do" says Sarah Palin trying to wink her way into Dick Cheney's seat. McCain is betting the house that this way of doing politics has at least one more hurrah left in it, and we will find out on in the early hours of Wednesday morning whether he is right.
The Bush presidency is the spectre haunting the feast in more than tactics. Although every conservative administration since Ronald Reagan has promised to deliver, through supply-side stimulation, economic growth without bloated deficits, they have never been vindicated in their blind faith in what Bush senior once rashly called "voodoo economics". Consistently, they have brought the US Wall Street crashes and recessions along with massive deficits; and yet somehow, the stake that history attempts to drive through the heart of their economic theology never puts the ghoul away.
No weight of evidence to the contrary has ever shaken the totemic belief that tax cuts can grow the economy robustly enough to compensate for drastic shortfalls in revenue. George W Bush clung to this belief even as the Clinton budget surplus was converted into a mountainous deficit, and John McCain continues to parrot the same belief with the shining face of a true believer.
Not even Gibbon could supply a story as fatefully bizarre as the ultimate consummation of Reagan-Bush conservatism, its last act: the most massive shift of financial power from the private to the public sector since the New Deal. Rather like the Pope deciding that all along he really wanted a barmitzvah.
If you look at this saga as the history of a dynasty; it's come full circle. For, believe it or not, there once was a time when Bush politics was about centrist moderation. Dubya's revered granddad, Prescott Sheldon Bush, son of an Ohio railroad executive and senator for Connecticut from 1952 to 1963, was punished in the Catholic towns of industrial Connecticut for his connection with Planned Parenthood. Not only that, but he was a trustee of the United Negro College Fund, the kind of institution that made the eventual career of Barack Obama conceivable.
But the Bushes have always been selective about idealism. And even at the height of the Kennedy-Johnson apogee, Prescott and George Herbert Walker Bush were turning the pages of Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. They could smell the wind direction changing. The future of Republican money and Republican power lay elsewhere; with Texas oil. Hence the migration to Midland Texas of George Herbert Walker Bush and his makeover into a Texan who knew the ways of the corporate world; and how to bring about the Great Cosiness between government and business that seemed like the perfect feedback loop: money to power, power to money; tax breaks for the corporations; donations to those who might command the heights.
This is the politics George W Bush inherited, and he has been its faithful disciple; to the point of purging it of any remaining traces of pragmatism. It is astounding to hear rightwing talkshow bloviators rant about the predicament of the Bush administration being caused by its failure to carry out the true conservative agenda. For there never has been and never will be a more doctrinally faithful instrument of the creed. Never mind the hanging chads of 2000, the Cheney-Bush administration seized the moment to bring on the Goldwater-Reagan Rapture in which government was once and for all got out of the way of business.
So it hasn't really been all George Bush's fault, the stupendous American fiasco. He came to power armed with an ideology that was about to crash and burn; that was, years before the present tumult, already fatally disconnected from historical reality. It was on his watch that American government needed reinventing. It was responsible government that was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan; government that was desperately needed in New Orleans after Katrina, while all George Bush could manage was a fly-by. It is government that this most anti-governmental of all American administrations is learning that is needed now to save the United States from a second Depression.
In his heart of hearts I actually think the shell-shocked Dubya, somewhere in the bowels of his presidency knows this. But he is nowhere to be found, and so on goes the mad rant that health care reform and progressive taxes are the Trojan horse for socialist revolution. To which those who have another view altogether might want to say, fear not, for yours, as a Republican president once said, is a government of the people, by the people. And really it will not perish from the earth.
Audio link: Simon Schama: 'The deciding was very much done by Dick Cheney'
136 Comments so far
Show AllRe: America releaves itself of the Bushwacker curse that has been eating at it for 8 years now.
Like a tapeworm that has been eating at you from the inside out and you've not been able to find anything that would make you defecate the damned parasite - But, today you awaken and find a bloody glob on your sheets where you slept last night and you realize that through some miracle of God the little bastard is dead - dead - dead, and can do no more damage to you and yours!
The bastard is dead - long live the bastard!
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
Bring America Back !!!!
**Just a minute==Simon the Brit===You claim "W" is hiding out somewhere in
the bowels of the remnants of his Administration !
**Word here in the states is he invited your good friend Tony Blair to the
Mountain Retreat at Camp David, for relaxation and some feverish games of
badminton , lawn darts, and royal croquet. Then the two families plan to
winter on the Riviera over on your side of the Atlantic.
**If that's hiding out, then I'm a progressive horntoad jackbooter !!
In fact, Brit Brain, word is "W" and crew are extemely proud of their reign
of terror for the past 8 years ! All the destruction was well planned and
carried out. The murders were carried out--the evidence was destroyed==
and the whole Neocon Team got away free and easy ! Iraq was payback to
Saddam for his evil threats against Daddy "H> W> " Sept 11 was paybacks
to innocent Americans & Collateral Bystanders for not electing Daddy "H. W."
to a second term of Office==for making fun of Daddy's 'read my lips', 'I hate
Brocccoli', 'no new taxes,-==and for electing that Upstart Womanizer named
Bill Clinton; remember him ?
**Your Tony Blair was of great assistance to "W" all during his reign, and
the retributions against America were fulfilled in every measure. No need
to hide out from all those planned and missions as accomplished That will all
serve to teach America not to interrupt the Bush Dynasty, "W" was next, then
Sonny Jeb==who was waiting in the wings for a cushy McCain appointment !!
**So Mr Simon Shama, there is no reason for our 'Bush' to hide out or take all
the credits you give him, when the Downing Street Memos prove that Tony Blair
wanted in on the Iraq Action every bit as much as "W" !! And they are both
having a blissful, celebretory retirement at their mountain retreats, the
French Riviera, and their cattle ranches. !!
Maybe what we should remember from Dubya are his most famous and most important quotes:
"A dictatorship would be much easier"
"There ought to be limits to freedom"
"If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning"
"This is an impressive crowd: the haves and the have mores"
"Some people call you the elite, I call you my base"
"Do not fight for a dying regime, that is not worth your own life"
Sioux Rose
WINNETOE: I'd add:
"Mission Accomplished! (so not)
"Catapulting the propaganda"
and the scene where he pretends to be searching for the WMD under the desks and seats of the Press Club in D.C. "They must be here somewhere..."
My biggest problem with this essay is that it is far too charitable towards a vicious war criminal, a stupendous fraud, a vile mass murderer and corporate profiteer.
The very idea that this mega-criminal's draconian, repressive and illegal actions in the name of a phony "war on terror" has prevented acts of terror on U.S. soil is utterly illogical, lacking in any objective judgment, and somehow needlessly offering a few plaudits to a mafioso zealot.
As several have pointed out, individuals or groups planning to "get even" with the U.S. (or any other country, for that matter) for perceived wrongs inflicted upon them- conduct their actions over relatively long periods of time. This is not a day-to-day, or month-to-month deal.
Moreover, the terrorist actions of the U.S. (that's how I view the despicable attack upon Iraq- a sovereign nation that never attacked nor threatened the U.S.) in response to 9-11, worldwide- have directly led to untold violence in so many places around the world. In my view, these have been a direct consequence of the bully-tactics of the U.S. in defiance of international counsel, wisdom or even common sense. The bombings in Madrid, London and elsewhere; the never-ending violence in Pakistan; the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and many decent scholars, diplomats and journalists- these all have been a result of the mafia-government's defiant, shameless, and devious war-games.
So, I do not believe for a second that this criminal outfit has brought stability and security to this country, its people, or any place on earth.
The only right thing to do, post-November 4th, is to hold accountability trials of these thugs, if possible Nuremberg-style (at which the likes of Tony Blair and John Howard need to be indicted as collaborators). Enablers such as Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein must also, at the very least, be cited as participants in the ruthless genocide we have witnessed- and rebuked in no uncertain terms.
I simply cannot imagine how, even at one's most charitable, one can come up with anything redeeming to say about this vile and notorious gang. Should we just be thankful that they did not wipe out all life on the planet, except those of their cronies? This soft-pedaling essay just does not go far enough.
Bush was a success, the democrats were the failure.
Bush the smirking human.
So typically human.
If he was a chimp we would all be better off.
Although chimps have exhibited human like behavior(which is bad of course) they still are way better than humans.
All the idiots who think they can pretend Bush wasnt human might eventually remove their heads form their rear ends in self adulation to see the world as it really is.
The Rethuglicans added insult to injury by stealing the election not once but twice and putting in an evil serial killing war profiteer who has trashed this country. Let's put George in the trash bin of history but never forget how such a person can be placed in the White House.
For all the reasons You are right about the theoretics, there is this uncomfortable twitching
around the belly button that tells me not to praise the evening before the day is over. What
if we plainly have no idea how far the people of and behind this administration are willing to
go? At one time it was inconceivable to me, why a despot that has stolen two elections, would
let go of his chair, just like that?
Those people know that there is nobody to stop them. They have all the money there was, all
the Red Buttons You can push and besides, who will stop Bush from staying in 'office'?
'War Inc." shows the truth. It has to come as a satire, because You couldn't digest the truth.
Despite all these omnipresent political B-Pictures that saturate the collective mind nowadays, a clear force has established a good grip on Homo Sapiens' brain box. The force is called Karma, or Law of Attraction, or yet Source Energy, as in Quantum Physics.
With the incomprehensible nightmare of a drastic global climate change through the impending, or already induced malfunction of the so called 'Great Ocean Conveyor', Earth's 'Air-Condition', we are ought to come up with solutions very quickly.
Militarism is the mother of extinction. For the money we waste on killing, we actually
could have changed some things to prevent the worst of the coming cataclysm, but for some sinister reason a vision keeps coming to my mind. A vision of a grey and dark
time, the worst of human mankind yet, perpetrated by more than 6.5 Billion individuals
of species mankind. Actually choke Australopithecus.
This is the single most important event in human history since the discovery of fire and
the invention of printing money. Either we abandon Militarism on a global basis right now, right where we are, or Militarism world wide will be stopped through the extinction of 'Homo Not So Sapiens'
May all Beings be blessed. Specifically the weak and ill minded.
"Either we abandon Militarism on a global basis right now, right where we are, or Militarism world wide will be stopped through the extinction of 'Homo Not So Sapiens'"
You are right, so right. The way for ordinary people to help this process along is to abandon the consumerist economic system that enables militarism politically.
Quit consuming, except for the essentials. Bring on the depression. The Great Depression was the birthplace of the current militaristic system. As a culture we need to go back and start over from where we went wrong. We need to trash the status quo and build something sustainable from the ashes.
It is the sad irony of life that biggest criminals always get away. So much for Karma.
Bush and Cheney,
Thanks for the horrible times.
Simbelmyne
Actually they don't get away with it. Nobody ever did. That's what they want us to believe.
They want us to accept everything they come up with and sigh, accepting that the bad/'big'
ones always get away with their crimes. They never do. They all have to die. Some may drift away in delusion, others get it to the hilt. Karma follows/is Energy.
Who wants to be George W. Bush nowadays?
That's Karma Right There.
May all Beings be blessed. Specifically the weak and ill minded.
Let's not forget so-called VP, Richard, Dick, Dickie, Cheney! He's not to be forgotten.
He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody.
Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.
He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?
Nowhere Man don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else,
Lends you a hand.
Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere Man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.
He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody.
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody.
Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody.
-The Beatles, Rubber Soul, 1965
Kind fits Bush, don't it? Funny, I've been referring to him as Nowhere Man since the beginning, with this little jingle jangling through my head. Perfect!
~Moondog
Right on Moondog. An accurate comparison.
One would think that Bush's abysmal reign would have put paid to the right's certitude that idiocracy is the ideal form of government, but its gleeful embrace of Sarah Palin proves otherwise. Christian conservatives' love of warmongering, enrichment of the rich, further impoverishment of the poor, corruption, greed, pollution, global warming, science-bashing, moralism, hypocrisy and totalitarianism continues unabated--indeed enhanced by their taste of domination for the past 8 years. And while their influence may have waned a bit, they're far from a spent force. They will continue to be a danger to civilization as we know it, against which we must always and everywhere be vigilant. They still dominate the judiciary and many, probably most, state legislatures, not to mention local bodies and school boards.
Alex
Grappa
Do not think this is goodbye. Somebody needs to account for the crimes against our republic.
Bush is evil.
… his _ o.n.l.y _ regret :
"so many frogs … so little time,
I shud've kill'd more frogs … with
■ ☠ ■ _ W_eapons of
■ ☠ ■ _ @_ss
■ ☠ ■ _ D_isintegration"
Namaste
And don't forget, he's going to suspend the election too, right on schedule.
No election tomorrow???
Taking JAKE seriously, about anything
__ is always a mistake.
He's really just a wanna be comic, w/o anywhere to stand up but here.
Namaste
"He's really just a wanna be comic,"
I just think it was comical how so many here predicted suspension of the election. You don't deny all those posts do you?
___ PSYOPS is as
___ PSYOPS does
Namaste
*blush*
After eight years of an OBSCENE, GENOCIDAL administration, YOU considered MY post too RACEY? KEERICED!
Where's George Carlin when you need him!!
Let me try again...Bush, go screw yourself and die!
Here is my summation of the Bush presidency:
The Speech We Wish He Gave
Do you remember the movie "Crazy People," in which an advertising executive loses his mind and starts creating ad campaigns that actually tell the truth ("Buy Volvos. They're boxy, but they're good")? Can you imagine if George W Bush had suffered the same affliction during the 2000 presidential campaign? What if he had simply told the American people the truth about what he was going to do to the country? How many people would have voted for him? Here is what I imagine his stump speech might have sounded like (note that I've translated this into relatively normal English for ease of understanding):
George W Bush: My fellow Americans, today I stand before you today to ask you to elect me your president. I am not going to bore you with empty slogans and promises I cannot keep. Instead, I want to tell you exactly what I will do if I am elected.
When Ronald Reagan was campaigning against Jimmy Carter in 1980, he asked the question: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" When I am done with my terms in office, you will ask yourself a different question: "What happened to my country?" or, perhaps, "Can I even recognize my country?" You won't be better off than you were four or eight years ago, you'll be struggling to keep your head above water.
If I am elected, I will do to this country what all the enemies of this great nation have tried and failed to do: I will bring this country to its knees. Future historians will point to my presidency as a turning point in the nation's history, the start of a long and perhaps irreversible decline in our fortunes and our prestige.
The article continues here: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/18410
He did tell the truth, in 2005, while signing the "Defense" Bill
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking of ways to harm our country and our people and neither do we."
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/opin/as_mca.html
GOOD RIDDANCE TO FASCIST RUBBISH!
Nate W 3:02;
When you include expressions in Latin on your posts,would you please insert the English translations? It's been 50 years since I studied Latin and I just don't remember it.
I like to use three Juvenal quotes when appropriate, they are: "Probitas laudatur et alget" (Truth is praised and starves), "Difficile est saturam non scribere" (It is not difficult to write satire), & his classic "Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (But who watches those who watch?). These quotes are available on Wikiquote.
"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Most assuredly the best of all.
With all due respect to Schama's credentials as a historian, this piece, despite its occasionally correct assessment of contemporary American maladies, is mostly fluff and scarcely gets to the root of the horrors of Bush II's reign. Worse, the article reveals some disturbing underpinnings, which I shall attempt briefly to deconstruct. For one thing, the very use of the term "loser" implicitly accepts the tough-guy division of humanity into "winners" and "losers" (presumably Schama counts himself among the "winners," since anyone who uses such language in this manner clearly doesn't identify with the negative end of the dichotomy). The term is, moreover, a favorite of Republican neanderthals and should be struck from the vocabulary of serious thinkers. Secondly, Schama makes it seem as if the scourge upon mankind that is W was actually somehow legitimately elected. "Swept to re-election four years ago," says our distinguished historian, as if unaware of the welter of lawsuits, recorded testimony, and convictions--to say nothing of the books, documentaries, and articles--bearing witness to the vast campaign of fraud that gave us four more years of the goon. But worst, I think, is Prof. Schama's implicit exoneration of Bush and cohorts in 911, where their role was one of malign neglect at best, and probably something darker than that. The good professor seems to be watching too much TV and not doing his homework.
Excellent post. Please see my post further up (Nov 4th).
Tom Edgar
Not all Texans are dumb. (about GWB).
My Physician . George Bush from Dallas Texas and yep! the other guy's first cousin. said to me when I enquired ."What is he really like?" Being involved in politics I realise the private personae and the Political can be totally different.
"He was always as thick as two short planks end wise." was the answer. Now my friend and Physician was a totally different person sadly died recently. Got the wrong George.
tomedgar@halenet.com.au
????????????????????????
Here down Texas-way, all eagerly await the opening of the Bush LieBerry and Freedumb Institute. No, seriously, so many still luv the schmuck it's scary. You know how painful it is to drive the George Bush Turnpike everyday? Can't wait for the Other George Bush Turnpike - you know, the one that will end in a giant, dung-filled ditch... er, I mean, freedom hole of democracy...
Prescott Sheldon Bush
Wasn't he the traitor who was intent on unseating FDR (by armed insurrection) and supported Hitler when most other Americans were fighting him? I would suspect that any connection he had with decency was engineered to present an acceptable public persona.
The crime here is that Bush and Cheney were never impeached and then prosecuted for war crimes once out of office.
Lobo Gris
Never forget that they can be charged and prosecuted after they leave office.
Do you really think the Obama administration will even try? He looks more like Bill Clinton who let the Raygun/Bush scums of 1980-1992 go "free". Obama will probably fold like a tent yet again and issue stupid pardons to the Bush/Cheney rogues. I don't know about you but I have a sad feeling that Obama or Mccain this country is drowning faster into permanent LOSERS' status. Besides, it would have been easier to charge and prosecute them while they were in office. Richard Nixon knew that or he wouldn't have resigned in 1974.
FrederickJohnson
"Do you really think the Obama administration will even try?"
I really don't know. I would hope so. He's got two years to get things going and its not going to be easy.
Remember Nixon was pardoned by Ford....I don't think Obama would grant that privilage to Bush.
McCain is history and as I said before, I don't know what Obama is going to do. But I'll be watching him like a hawk.
I thought that Bugliosi was giong to try to charge him with murder...
He is. There is that panel of attorneys (very well known and competent) that has formed specifically to prosecute Bu$h and the high level officials in his regime. Bugliosi is being appointed Special Prosecutor.
Sioux Rose
CUERVO: Be careful with the use of this pervasive "THEY" or "WE" for that matter. The elections have been fraudulent so Bush was NOT really elected. Read what Greg Palast had to say today about the various states that have seen many thousands of names purged from the rolls... (It's on Truthout.org) Or check out what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr revealed about Ohio. Bush was selected and PUT in place by the Supreme Court. Although perhaps 40% of voters did vote for him, they are largely the ones who either: 1. benefit from war/ the military industrial complex 2. Have very limited IQ's and watch "fox news." 3. Attend evangelical churches and have been taught to UNQUESTIONABLY obey authority figures like their pastors, scum who tell them "God" is in the White House, that Bush is the fulfillment of GOD'S Will and/or END times 4. Those who make out like bandits in terms of tax benefits when pro-capitalist elites are favored by twisted Republican policy sold to everyman as his great break, when in reality, it's not all that different from organized crime breaking his/her legs. I am certainly not part of the "they" or the "we," a status probably the case for 85% or more of those who post on C.D.
ive always hated bush's policies, but i just read this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/01/AR2008110100850_pf.html
and I SHITT U NOTT, i wanna have a beer with the guy..sooooooo bad.. and wat? i like him.. i like the man. something must be wrong with me. i read it, and i like the man.. im not gonna kick this bush dog on the way out, although karma will prolly take car eof the "lynchin" since impeachment didnt.. dude, bush, if u wanna have a beer and a game of horshshoes call me. obama will be the war president now, so u should have some free time.
So I read the article and I didn't have the same reaction.
Have a beer with the guy? He's supposedly on the wagon, as he says in the article. Are you inviting him to go back to the drunkard he once was?
He's just a nasty, clueless frat boy who never grew up. And he has a lot of dead bodies on his hands.
He should be prosecuted and go to prison. There are over 2,000,000+ Americans in prison now. Not one of them have as much blood on their hands as George the Decider and his Puppeteer Cheney.
"On the wagon", my ass. Did you catch those pics from the Olympics? He had three.... what appeared to be ....Secret Services guys lifting him up bodily from his seat, unable to stand on his own. Oh yeah, maybe he was having a seizure....right! The man is a master liar and deceiver.
Well, I didn't see the pictures, but I really don't care if he's on the wagon or not.
Like I said, he belongs in prison, where he'll be forced to make bootleg alcohol.
armchairanalyst November 3rd, 2008 5:32 pm
"ive always hated bush's policies, but i just read this article:
and I SHITT U NOTT, i wanna have a beer with the guy..sooooooo bad.. and wat? i like him.. i like the man. something must be wrong with me."
You're right, there's something wrong with you.
Lobo Gris
To George,
Good bye, good riddance and up yours.
George W. Bush? See the movie 'Giant' starring Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean and you have George W. Bush nailed sans the oil well gusher. Bush majored in drilling dry holes in west Texas. Other than that he's Jett Rink to a T.
Bush got everything he wanted and even with the Democrats in control of Congress, Bush was and still is winning big time. Sorry folks but Dubya is unfortunately the winner while we the people are the LOSERS for writing off excellent leaders such as Ralph Nader. The electorate treated him badly and kicked him to the curb and GOD PUNISHED the USA with the worst of both parties ! If you think Obama's gonna turn anything around, expect it only after monkeys fly out of our butts !
I voted for Ralph Nader. Not all the peasants are idiots.
Crafty
Except for those of us who voted Nader of course. Or for that matter any 3rd party at this rate. Sorry, I meant to say the vast majority of the electorate getting hooked on choosing between Mccain and Obama. I thought last election was depressing enough seeing all the 3rd parties put together only amassing 1%. Let's see how this one goes.
.
I also very proudly voted for...
(drumroll...)
44th PRESIDENT RALPH NADER ....YEAH....
.
WHY can we NOT get someone to impeach, sensure, or prosecute Bush & Co??
I just do not sese how this could be a loser issue for anyone!
It would certainly make alot of peopl e(like me) feel that, at aleast there was SOME justice!!
KDelphi, I second that. How could the democratic majority in both the House and Senate fail to hold the most openly criminal adminstration in the history of this country, an administration that seems the impeachment clause was custom written for, responsible? Well, I can answer that at least partially.
Nancy Pelosi, in 2002, was in a closed door meeting ith two other congress persons and CIA Director George Tenet. They were discussing the use and legality of torture on top Al Quaeda and Taliban suspects, including the use of waterboarding. Nancy Pelosi strongly endorsed the use of torture, including waterboarding. It was in fact brought up in this meeting, by a couple of members of that discussion, as to whether waterboarding was severe enough to extract needed information. It is however unknown if Nancy Pelosi was one of those questioning the severity of waterboarding and whether was severe enough. If she were to attempt to impeach Bu$h/Cheney, she would be putting her own guilty neck in the noose and also be charged with war crimes.
So many of our Senators and Representatives are complicit with Bu$h's illegal conduct that if they tried to impeach Bu$h and Cheney for the crimes they have committed, they would wind up being implicated (and subsequently indicted) for many of those crimes also. If Bu$h and Cheney were impeached, they would certainly sing like a bird and have the proof to back it. So what it boils down to is our legisative branch that is supposed to be a check on executive abuse of power or illegal activities is covering their ass for the same criminal activity and power abuse.
I hope the committee that has been formed by the panel of attorneys in Massachusetts (?) specifically to prosecute Bu$h, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, and other high level Bu$h administration officials is successful. Last I heard, they were planning to appoint Vincent Bugliosi as Special Prosecutor. I wish thm the best in their endeavors!!! I'm not sure at this point, that we don't have the most corrupt government in the entire world! Pathetic.
Nations can never acknowledge that their leaders are war criminals,and US citizens depressingly do not escape this willful blindness Either the world court at Le Hague or El Rancho Bush in Paraguay will conclude the problem, but not any future administration.
KDelphi November 3rd, 2008 4:44 pm
"WHY can we NOT get someone to impeach, sensure, or prosecute Bush & Co??"
Because Pelosi knew about the crimes Bush was committing as he was committing them and did nothing about it. By not doing anything about it she would open herself up to impeachment, and trial after leaving office, if she allowed it to happen to Bush. That is why she took impeachment off the table even before she was speaker. Out with the crooked Dems and the Repubs.
Lobo Gris
The entire Bush administration, and the high Command/ Military----down the chain of Command are subject to indictment for their War Crimes and Crimes against humanity.
The American People ---have gone from the "most honored nation to the most feared and loathed" just since WWII (frankly the Native American People never held them in much esteem but that is another story)---
If the American People do not see that these International Criminals are brought to trial----in the Hague----for War Crimes, they most likely can start counting down the days when the rest of the world starts to move to eliminate the USA---at least in it's present form for one immutable reason----"self preservation"----
The World can take a brief look at the history of the past fifty years and see that many who have been the "friends " of the USA are now either dead, or in Prison (i.e. Noriega of Panama) or in exile. They have raped and plundered one small country after another, leaving behind death, destruction, disease, and environmental devastation. The USA is a rogue nation, which presents a clear and present danger to the world at large, as well to themselves, since the world will take note that GW Bush was elected president TWICE----To prevent this from happening again the need is urgent that these criminals not be allowed to remain free.
Most Americans being unable to think outside of their own (usually small) realm, or sphere of interest, fail to imagine themselves a citizen of another country, who could, with a mere whim of the election process, find themselves in a state of absolute disaster as with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, ----- and with the only question-----who's next?
If the USA hopes to survive the twenty first century, showing the world that they are willing to live up to their own standards have no other choice but to take these previously mentioned international criminals---scum of the human community, no less than the tyrant Hussein, or Hitler or others they have stood in trial over in the past; and bring them to justice---by popular vote/action.
In the end---only you can save yourself. You have shown the world that you cannot live without your "infrastructure". The "cat is out of the bag" after 9/11. The lunatics who committed that crime spent very little to inflict billions of damage to your financial and social infrastructure. Instead of rising to the occasion the USA crawled down into the muck and mire and filth----and made the terrorists look like amateurs. You used your tired worn out old God, your tired and worn out "patriotism", you used everything you could get your hands upon "those who committed such crimes" and you failed, then you failed to convince the world that you are any better than those you condemn---and all of the evidence when collected will show that you most likely are worse.
The world fears you America---and for good reason. Anything short of a popular move by the "people" ---and the world will most likely continue to fear and loathe the USA.....
When the world has had enough of that------I you might consider an old WWII era piece of advice.
"After all measures fail, place your head between your knees and kiss your ass good bye".............
Native Son:
I appreciate what you have to say. I hear many people say that "we need to repair our image!" No, "we" need to change our actions, the image will follow. The fall of the American Empire would be a good thing for the whole world, but, especially Americans!
Sioux Rose
NATIVE SON: You are the voice of conscience for America's past, and I agree with most of your observations and recommendations. Implementing them may prove another matter... for now.
Thank you for your kind words. But after a lifetime as a prisoner of war in a country that my ancestors inhabited before Rome or Paris or London and so many others even existed-----I do not believe that America has a conscience------
But the people of the world care little who is president. Instead they want to hear that the "people" of the United States refuse to allow the behavior of this administration---and all of the followers who failed to use intelligent discretion in their own involvement, go unanswered. Nuremberg, where the USA stood in judgment over others for the same crimes they now stand before the world having committed----will stand as a mockery to the world----and I do not think that the world will allow it----for much longer.
The world will care little if just a few honorable people here objected to what has taken place. They instead will, just as anyone else would, look to the people to take control of their "Democracy". Allowing GW Bush and his cabinet, as well as the Military Officers from top on down to the bottom, to "retire" whether in disgrace or not is not enough.
If more people would think of it this way: If some other rogue nation were to have behaved as the USA, how soon would the USA mount a military action against them to "save the world FROM Democracy "? How much time does the USA have now? Are there really those out there who think that the USA could stand against the world?
How many of these readers would survive such an intervention? How many of their descendants, even their pets?
Many object to my posts. My words are often harsh, I may not pick them well, they often offend----- I do not speak with a forked tongue---but from the heart----and this I know from my own study of History-----the world will not tolerate the USA much longer.
Even the world cannot suffer a fool at their own peril for very long.
The people of the world may object to American imperialism, but the ruling classes around the world seem to go along with it just fine. Oh, there are occasional disagreements, but on the fundamentals, they stand strong.
I don't think that "the world" will try to stop America unless America interferes with some other strong country's vital interests. Then we may see a war.
And the US may be provoking a war to get out of debt and recession.
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2008/10/if-you-have-hammer-everything-must-be.html
Nowhere Man: A Farewell to CheneyOilCo's monkeypuppet
&YYY&
The role of puppet president has always been for republican religion,
And now raging McCain and idiot Palin vie for being chief Pigeon.
That can only be done if millions are prevented from voting.
and exercising your democracy may be punishable by gaoling.
Already the financial giants so close to power,
have schemed lose people their homes before the hour.
The voting machines might not turn up, or are rigged.
And surely when in doubt , decisions by judges are jigged.
So voter turnout is so far away from true democracy.
It might as well be called rule by plutocracy.
Sioux Rose
As a parting "tribute" I'd like to quote the I ching as it's so very prescient on this presidency. Equating Bush's status as 43rd president, with the I ching message for hexagram 43, note the correspondences. (By the way, Obama's as 44 = temptation and indeed carries very seductive powers.)
43: Breakthrough:
"Even if only one inferior man is occupying a ruling position in a city, he is able to oppress superior men. Even a single passion still lurking in the heart has the power to obscure reason. Passion and reason cannot exist side by side. In a resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are definite rules that must not be disregarded, if it is to succeed." (Few of the I ching messages so directly speak about evil, and note that was an OBSESSION with Bush.)
"First, resolution must be based on a union of strength and friendliness. Second, a compromise with evil is not possible. Evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited, nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over. Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force." (That is the key to the whole Bush mess... ) "IF EVIL IS BRANDED, IT THINKS OF WEAPONS, AND IF WE DO IT THE FAVOR OF FIGHTING AGAINST IT BLOW FOR BLOW, WE LOSE IN THE END BECAUSE THUS WE OURSELVES GET ENTANGLED IN HATRED AND PASSION."
When the Bush regime bombed a country, destroying a likely MILLION persons--destroying the village to save it style--it became the evil is purported to fight. And of course there were the offshore torture chambers, product of a tortured set of souls imaginations.
The I ching ends this discussion with: "Therefore it is very important to begin at home, to be on guard in OUR OWN PERSONS against the faults we have branded. In this way finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil become blunted."
BUSH epitomized the lessons depicted by this Oracle and its timeless grasp of the universal laws and their applications to human nature.
Regardless of whether the origins of this are mystical as you suspect:
""IF EVIL IS BRANDED, IT THINKS OF WEAPONS, AND IF WE DO IT THE FAVOR OF FIGHTING AGAINST IT BLOW FOR BLOW, WE LOSE IN THE END BECAUSE THUS WE OURSELVES GET ENTANGLED IN HATRED AND PASSION.""
is a damn accurate picture of the U.S. post 911, so good show and a good comment. I may not believe in mystical energies but I do think there is a good case of archetypal personalities, and those archetypal personalities can become leaders in hierarchical societies that lead to recurrences is history, and that rhe iChing cards may by accident match the correct archetype to the historical circumstance we are in.
Anyway good to see me can more or less agree on something for a change. :)
Sioux Rose
Okay, Hoot Owl, that's fair enough. Jung sees it as synchronicity, that these energy imprints (you can call them archetypes) are so much a part of the human puzzled that they MUST recur. And another one of significance was the I ching (the numerology of that day 9 + 11 + 2001 = 23) was splitting apart on 911. Since the past 7 years have been inordinately karmic, and after the HIT on Wall st, due to US foreign policy (and its callous disregard for numerous situations--like Katrina--here at home) Wall St got the 2nd hit, to split apart, in the form of one huge downturn after another of the stock market, the temple of mammon.
IF things remained stable, IF the center had held, the types of behaviors we pass off as normal, described as the banality of evil, would be allowed to continue. Instead, the trifecta of militarism, global warming, and the fiscal tsunamis rolling will not allow what had been business as usual to continue. We can call it End Times, The Great Turning, Another World is Possible, the astrological shift of Ages, the Mayan Calendar finale... or any OTHER name, CHANGE of enormous magnitude is upon us.
Hi _ S I O U X R O S E _,
So sagely resonant of his despicable wickedness, that only fronted for that which is heinously even worse and hidden w/o name behind the SMIRKING chimp's duplicities and feigned homeyness -- { grimace }^ ∞.
May we all breakthrough to the "other" side !
Namaste
Sioux Rose
ENLIVEN: I was thinking of She who spawned the wicked seed this evening... the woman so cold-hearted that maybe the old families of wealth truly do have blue blood? And I pictured Bush's father and how difficult it was for him to really smile; that he, too, had this uncomfortable smirk that was all he could muster. How do people live with such clamped shut hearts? (I know Cheney's is battery-operated for the most part.)
¿ Surely that Siberian cerulean sanguinity is worse than can ever be fully imagined ?
… is beyond depth and measurable temperature, as the distant Öpik-Oort Cloud, while Dopplering to further blue-shiftyness while kicking away from and speedily trampling humanity -- especially considering that the world's most depraved Alesiter Crowley -- was Barbara's likely illegitimate father ?
Namaste
Sioux Rose, I love this as an epitaph, an admonition & wise counsel, though it is pure coincidence & has no other meaning as a portent. If we believe that the office, and not the individual, is what counts, then we ought to designate two-term presidents by two numbers, in which case Bush 1 would've been 50, Clinton 51 & 52, and Bush 53/54.
Sioux Rose
SAINT: You're being too linear... they are the number that they are! Just as people fit their numerology, their birth dates, etc. These imprints hold power... the reasons defy logical explanation. Having worked with Oracles for almost 40 years and SEEN them demonstrate, I recognize that understanding requires respect for the mysteries that abound, everywhere. "There is a divinity that shapes our ends..."
Bush the worst president ever?
It depends how you figure it. Certainly by his own lights Bush has done marvelously for his base. Has any president ever managed to steal so much from so many and give it to so few? Especially that last trillion dollar coup was amazing. The man can suck blood from a stone.
The standard definition of a great president usually involves how well the nation did which as an anti-nationalist I would reject. Abraham Lincoln for example totally destroyed the concept of popular consent of the governed in favour of the idea that once in the union, always in the union. No doubt a decision that was good for nationalism while bad for the nation which had to go through the bloodiest war in history.
Again greatness seems to have more to do with outcomes than with what was smart. JFK nearly nuked the entire planet (we didn't even realise how close to nuclear war things were till years later) but he gets called great because he didn't roll snake eyes.
"Abraham Lincoln for example totally destroyed the concept of popular consent of the governed in favour of the idea that once in the union, always in the union. No doubt a decision that was good for nationalism while bad for the nation which had to go through the bloodiest war in history"
Despite his claims that his sole goal was to preserve the Union at all costs, Lincoln could never accept the continuing expansion of slavery into new territory, which was, as the secessionists knew, the only way that they could keep their slaves at all. The true principle of Lincoln's political activity was that the country could not continue half-slave and half-free, and that secession must, by that fact, be an attempt at complete overthrow of the United States. The contrary assertion, that Lincoln "destroyed the concept of popular consent," last served segregationists in their militant fight against the use of federal power to destroy the impediments to the civil rights of african-americans. Whites have largely forgotten, but blacks certainly haven't, just how violent the racist mobs asserting "states' rights" were in trying to preserve oppression & murder. Goldwater and the early conservative movement were enthusiastically segregationist -- Buckley was against desegregation -- and Goldwater even denounced the protection given to James Meredith as a federal assault on American schools.
So it was NOT Lincoln who "destroyed the concept of popular consent," but those who always twist the idea as the secessionists and their spiritual descendents, the segregationists, who are the destroyers.
"Lincoln bad - cannot compute - must - negate - comments"
That about it?
This logic that because a bunch of racists believed X therefore X must be false doesn't really work out too well in the real world. Let's try it with gravity shall we? "Segregationists believed in gravity so if you believe in it then you must be racist"? For god's sake it's been over a hundred years. Let the hero worship go.
Lincoln destroyed the idea of popular sovereignty by starting the most bloody war in history. If you want to pretend to yourself it was all about the slaves (by completely disregarding actual history) then why didn't Lincoln free the slaves and then march back out of the Confederacy with a backward, "Good luck with your new country guys"?
For that matter why didn't he outlaw slavery in the North?
The most bloody war in our country, certainly, if you don't count the Indian massacres.
I have been reevaluating Lincoln myself, lately. Why was it so important to keep the South?
They're the most religious, bloodthirsty, war mongering, racist part of our country. When a nasty relative walks out of your house after you've had a fight, how many people go chasing after them? We should have let them go.
I meant the most bloody war in history up til that date.
It held the record until World War 1 I think.
No doubt there are ways and ways of measuring these things.
Don't count all the Indian wars added together as if there was only one nation of Native Americans or as if they were all alike.
OK. Since I've never seen an accurate count of how many Native Americans were killed in total, I guess I can't compare it to the Civil War.
I just meant that the calvary going in and slaughtering whole tribes, including women and children, was pretty bloody. I know it was done at different times and to different people, but it adds up to a lot of people. I guess that's the most accurate way to put it.
Note: it's CAValry, not calvary. What do so many people get that screwed up?
On a hoss, not on a cross.
We have to let kids fail so they can learn from it. Unfortunately, they took all the toys and got away with it.
"Forgotten but not gone" is the elites' class war aggression against the people. It's buried under the bipartisan media messages, but Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan don't forget. One of the many great reasons to vote for these fine progressive candidates.
Gore failed to recognize the murderous nature of the thugs he was dealing with in the month following the 2000 election, whether from a fundamental failure of imagination, a basic inaptitude for grasping the nature of a crisis, or from being swaddled too long by consultants & handlers.
Paul Krugman was the earliest of mainstream columnists to sound the alarm in his book "The Great Unravelling", which should have won him the Nobel Prize for prescience for scrying that the admin was rooted in a radical rejection of both legality and consensus.
The junta years ought to teach us that the United States as a political community is not a trustworthy repository of military power of any sort, conventional or nuclear. Imagine the horror the cons would feel if a president ever went to the UN and gave up the keys to the arsenal & had the murder toys placed under international control for dismantling. That's the only SAFE course for s planet which will continue to be threatened by the cult Palin represents this time around, the "Apostolic Reformation Movement," which takes Dominionism even further.
It looks as if the Bush crowd was incredibly successful! What have they wanted that they haven't gotten? Even with about a 20% approval rating, Bush got the 'opposition' party, including and especially its presidential candidate, to hand his buddies a trillion borrowed dollars. By any reasonable measure this is fantastic Realpolitik skill.
For starters, they LOST in 2000 and were still handed the presidency! If that isn't lunatic right winger success, what is? How about a solid 7 years of war crimes and constitution shredding, yet leaving the White House with formal immunity from prosecution? How about being a lame duck with Congress firmly in the hands of the other guys, and still jamming your agenda through?
"Liberals" and/or the Democrats have been the horrific failures for the past 8 years.
The Consultancy Culture is invisible except during presidential elections. The consulting firms are polymorphously perverse, and they lack civic interest. Behind the general strategy of destroying the red state-blue state gospel, the Obama campaign was quietly aiming as well at the consultancy establishment which designed the myth to begin with.
James Carville's ascent as the guru of consultants was foisted onto the Democratic Party as a whole after 1992. It was Carville who pointed Clinton away from the traditional Democratic strengths to "It's the economy, stupid," to the denouncing of Sistah Souljah & the execution of the inmate, whose name escapes me at the moment, to demonstrate "toughness".
Kerry remained entirely the creature of his mercenaries, which had detsroyed whatever good instincts he had; and Hilary Clinton remained committed to the same parasitical culture with Mark Penn, who helped prompt her to her uglier moments of the primaries.
What good instinct did Kerry ever have?
We are talking about the Kerry that wrote part of the PATRIOT Act, who voted against raising the minimum wage every time it came up for two decades, who advocated what would be known as the 'surge' in Iraq, who voted for the war multiple times, who speaks out against gay marriage, even just in his home state, to this day?
What's the 'good' instinct here..?
Farewell W
Farewell..... W ... farewell
from the compassionate ‘commander in chief’
to the Crawford Texas ranch
which brush needs clearing first?...decider
Your farewell brings a breath of relief
that will be so wide spread
the homeland will be color coded green
with category high five sighs
Say W,... I thought your father led smites
might get more bites.
You’ve had the world in quite a fright.
What did we learn
before the expiry of your term?
Are we winning in all the occupations?
You said we weren’t out to build new nations.
W were those wars based on some lies?
Have we been spreading democracy or terror?
or extending fear that ain’t topical
and depressions that ain’t that tropical?
You know W your Enron friends
look like small time hustler slackers
compared to the new Wall street backers
and all that deregulated red that’s clogging up the Fed.
W your swagger has lost it’s bounce
but double talk is still in vogue
Have you listened to the newborn GOPs?
The top gun one really knows how to bomb
and the VP is cute and knows how to shoot
Now that’s real change...... W.
Simon Schama is overdue for another television special where he explains history in his own unique style. As the above piece elucidates, Dubya, Cheney, & Co. will be a rich topic that is tailor made for him. I would even order it on pay-per-view.
"Difficile est saturam non scribere," Juvenal