George Bush In Perspective: Part I

Remember when George Bush wanted to privatize social security? You know, put it in the market. As in the stock market. You know, the market that has rapidly been destroying American wealth all week?

Thank God that never happened.

Remember, too, when George Bush ran for president in 2000 as a "compassionate conservative" who would be a careful, prudent steward of the econony who would not balloon the deficit and who promised a "humble" foreign policy.

No need to thank God, cuz that never happened.

George Bush in Perspective: Part II

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Bill Clinton's last day in office: 10587

Stock market low today as of 30 seconds ago: 10459

Are you better off than you were 8 years ago? My mutual funds aren't.

Meow!

Extraordinary, but not shocking. Doesn't it just confirm what many of us already knew?

State of the Union

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you."
-- Gomer Pyle

This quote has both nothing and everything to do with a very tired looking George Bush's State of the Union address last night.

Thanks to the folks at Think Progress, here's some fact checking from the address.

SIDE NOTE: I don't believe Gomer ever
opined about being fooled 935 times.
He wouldn't be pleased.

State of the Union, Part II

"It was such a riveting speech, the State of the Union speech. Senator Larry Craig only took two bathroom breaks."

-- David Letterman

Good Judgment and Gut Feelings

GUT FEELINGS, PART ONE

In 2003, I and a minority of Americans had a strong gut feeling against the war in Iraq, at a time when the vast majority of the country was cheering it on, and most TV journalists were going ga-ga over wearing American flag pins. You weren't considered a Patriot, or a good reporter, if you remained more objective, like the late Peter Jennings and ABC News reporters, who didn't wear pins, opting instead to report news.

Remember all those splashy and subtly pro-war "Operation Iraqi Freedom" cable news graphics (MSNBC and CNN joined the party just as eagerly as Fox News Channel) that pretty much presupposed that 1) the war was just, 2) the war was necessary and 3) the war was actually about freedom? At times Dan Rather and the supposedly liberal CBS News operation were among the worst offenders and, in my opinion, biggest cheerleaders.

Many of us in the anti-war camp were not fooled -- nor were we shocked and awed -- by snazzy graphics or Republican sophistry -- including Colin Powell's U.N. testimony regarding weapons of mass destruction.

GUT FEELINGS, PART II

In 2007, I have another strong gut feeling regarding the presidential election. Any of the Democratic candidates will be an improvement over Bush, and I think that just about any of the Republican candidates would be an improvement over Bush, too.

But there's one candidate that gives me a strong gut feeling. That this candidate is the right person, at the right time, with the right message.

I'm voting for Barack Obama, and I'm not changing my mind.

Obama also had a strong gut feeling against the War in Iraq way back when, and unlike other leading Democratic candidates he was a vocal opponent of it as an Illinois state senator. (Remember, at this time he was a man with higher ambitions, such as the job in the U.S. Senate, so taking such a stand was not motivated by political polling, just inner conviction.)

How can you describe such opposition, this public disapproval of a popular war from a politician with goals beyond being just a state senator?

It's called "terrible politics" if the year is 2003, but "good judgment" in any other year.

God Bless America. Vote Obama.



TODAY'S MUST READ: Frank Rich's Obama column in the New York Times.

Memo to the New York Times: Enough Already

John Kerry was unfairly labeled a flip-flopper during the 2004 presidential campaign, and it stuck. Americans seemed to believe this to be true, and subsequently the worst president in the history of the United States was re-elected, with a little help from the media along the way.

This photo at right appeared last Sunday in the New York Times. It ridicules John Kerry as being a flip-flopper.

Isn't this just awful, running this in 2007?

Isn't this just awful, dredging up this old photo, and reinforcing the bullshit stereotype of Sen. Kerry that Rove and the chicken hawks created?

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George Bush said he'd be a "compassionate conservative." George Bush also said he'd be a "uniter, not a divider." And Bush said he was a fiscal conservative yet has spent tens of billions of dollars on a war we didn't need to fight.

These aren't merely flip-flops: They turned out to be outright deceptions.

Bush is the quintessential flip-flopper. Where's the photo of him in a dolphin suit, and why isn't it on the front page of the New York Times "Week in Review" section?

George Bush -- worst president in the history of the United States. Yeah, that's the ticket.

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Veteran's Day is next Monday. I salute all veterans.

I salute John Kerry, and I salute John McCain, and I salute Max Cleland, and Al Gore, and George McGovern , and George Herbert Walker Bush.

But I can't salute service-dodgers like George W. Bush, chicken hawks like Dick Cheney and Tommy Flanagans like Karl Rove.

Blogger Poll

Blogger Poll is a new feature that I added to TCOJ last week; it's in the sidebar. It's been a little unreliable, though. For example, on the first day of voting there were already three votes for Howie Mandel. Then, the next time I checked, Howie had zero votes.

I don't know what the problem is, but this strikes me as intensely unfair to the legions of Americans who'd like to see Howie Mandel as our next president.

Looks like the Blogger Poll works about as well as the Florida Secretary of State's office when it comes to counting votes.

Here's this week's poll question, but I won't be using the polling feature. Rather, please reply with your answer in the comments. All you need to do is give the letter of your answer, but feel free to expand your thoughts:

PLEASE RATE THE PERFORMANCE OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH.

A. He's the worst president in the history of the United States.

B. He's the 43rd best president in the history of the United States.

C. He's an accomplished president. He leads with wisdom and courage. He is a uniter, not a divider. He has improved the life of the majority of Americans (and citizens of the world) because of his magnanimity, his resolve, and his unlimited belief in the resiliency of the human spirit. Also: I haven't read a newspaper since 1985.

D. I thought Dick Cheney was president.

Quote of The Day

From Salon.com:

On The Tonight Show Wednesday night, Jay Leno asked Barack Obama if he found it "discouraging" that Hillary Clinton "appears to be a shoo-in." Obama's response: "Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare 'mission accomplished' a little too soon."

George Bush: An Even Worse Historian Than He Is President?

George Bush recently compared Iraq to ... Vietnam.

He said that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would lead to widespread death and suffering, as it did in Southeast Asia three decades ago. Here's the Washington Post story.

Bush may not have noticed it, but there's already widespread death and suffering in Iraq.

And is this the only lesson Bush learned from Vietnam? That we got out too soon and should have stayed longer?

Remember that Bush (unlike John Kerry and Al Gore) did not bother to serve in the Vietnam War, preferring instead to skip out on his National Guard service -- as only the spoiled grandson of a U.S. Senator could -- so he could concentrate on beer bongs and God-knows-what-else.

Memo to Bush: This may be a good time to reflect that as many as 700,000 innocent civilian Iraqis are already dead because of this unnecessary war in Iraq.

A study that appeared last fall in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that the War has led to 500 Iraqi deaths a day, or 655,000 souls as of last October.

Nobody knows the exact number of Iraqi deaths, but even if this were half the amount, say 325,000, it still amounts to the entire population of, say, the city of Cincinnatti, and is 10,000 times greater than the number of souls lost on 9/11.

This is tragic. The deaths aren't American lives, so for some reason it doesn't outrage the large masses of American fundamentalist conservative christians, but can God-fearing Americans really think that God differentiates between American and non-American lives, or prioritizes one race/nationality as greater than others?

America makes up only 5 percent of the world population. I want born-again American Christians to repeat that 10 times: America makes up only 5 percent of the world population. I also want these Christians to repeat (also 10 times) the following phrases:

• Jesus was not an American.
• Jesus had dark skin, just like those 700,000 dead Iraqis.

It would be unreasonable to say that, in God's eyes, American lives are more important the lives of non-Americans, right? Right?

I wish born-again Christian George Bush, back in 2002, had been more concerned with "saving the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians with the same skin tone as Jesus" as he was about "oil profits" before starting this disastrous war in the middle east.

A battle-tested man like John Kerry -- who knows what it's like to kill a man in combat, a man who saved lives in combat and "accomplished missions," a man who withstood the pressures of enemy fire -- knows the true lessons of Vietnam, in a way that George Bush -- who cut and ran from his military obligations -- never bothered to learn.

I Don't Give A Crap What Iowa Thinks

Iowa went Democratic in 2000, with Al Gore winning the state. Then, after four years of George Bush, the good people of Iowa decided that Bush the Lesser wasn't a complete disaster/dimwit and concluded that he deserved re-election for failing to capture Osama Bin Laden, for dividing the nation over wedge issues such as gay marriage, and for being asleep at the wheel on 9/11 after ignoring intelligence warnings. The state's 7 electoral votes went to Bush because, in the minds of Iowa voters, his record made him deserving of re-election and they were afraid that John Kerry would institute taxpayer-funded gay marriage on demand.

Now, with Iowa again taking centerstage in the presidential election process because, well, because it's Iowa, and that's the way we do it here in 'Merica, let me just say that I really don't care what the people of Iowa think. Now, I've never met a person from Iowa I didn't like, but because they helped to re-elect the worst president in U.S. history in 2004, I just don't trust the state anymore. Iowa's political instincts are dead to me.

The 2008 presidential candidates continue to be engaged in a feverish multi-year process of trying to kiss as much collective ass in Iowa as possible -- including this morning when eight Democrats "debated" from the state on This Week With George Stephanopoulos. My basic reaction to most of the candidates during this morning's debate (and I've never voted for a Republican presidential candidate) was to roll my eyes, particularly when *that one guy* who is supposedly in the top three spoke, who strikes me as phonier than a FILL IN FOLKSY WITTICISM HERE.

The highlight of the debate was when a bug flew in Chris Dodd's hair. Dodd, by the way, was not one of the candidate's who made my eyes roll. That would be the other candidate with the great hair.

As for Dodd, I'd have a pint with this guy any day. However, while at the pub we'd just have to drink from covered steins since insects seem very attracted to his "candidacy."

A Peek Into the Future?

"In the Year 2000: George Bush will no longer be referred to as America's dumbest president, but rather as America's most successful retard."
-- Conan O'Brien

Will Country Turn to the Left?

For 20 out of the last 26+ years, this country has had a president who is left-handed: Ronald Reagan (1981-89), George Bush (1989-1993), Bill Clinton (1993-2001). The one president since 1981 who was not naturally left-handed has been George W. Bush, the worst disaster in U.S. presidential history.

Maybe it's time for another left-handed president to lead the country?

I guess I should also point out that Barack Obama is left-handed.

2009-2017? Anybody?

Two Who Sanction Torture

Dolores Umbridge, Hogwarts High Inquisitor, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

George Bush, president of the United States.

Public Health Bashing

The Former US. Surgeon General told Congress yesterday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of ... political considerations. Full story here.

I'm not sure what the best words are to describe this kind of behavior, but the first one that comes to mind is "immoral."

People Don't Change

Frank Rich's column this morning in the New York Times was called "A Profile in Cowardice." If you haven't guessed, it was about President George Bush.

Rich points out, as we all grow to learn as we get older, that people don't change, and he draws a parallel between the younger George Bush who skipped out on his service in Vietnam and the older George Bush who unfortunately is now the commander in chief of the world's most powerful military force:

Mr. Bush’s failure to have the courage of his own convictions was apparent early in his history, when he professed support for the Vietnam War yet kept himself out of harm’s way when he had the chance to serve in it. In the White House, he has often repeated the feckless pattern that he set back then and reaffirmed last week in his hide-and-seek bestowing of the Libby commutation.

Rich's full argument about the Bush cowardice is here. And it's worth reading.

Breaking News: Bush Mandate Drops From 51 Percent to 26 Percent

THINGS I FIND IN MY BASEMENT: PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES.

Three newspapers. USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, each dated Nov. 4, 2004, just two days after George Bush won his "mandate" with ... 51 percent of the vote? His mandate (as in approval rating) now stands at ... 26 percent.








One more thought, after reading the Wall Street Journal lead above: I'd have been a little more "convinced" about Bush's "convincing" election win following his "momentous" first term if people in the poorer districts of Ohio had less than a 3 hour wait to vote, courtesy the Republican Secretary of State.

Five Ways to Get Ralph Off The Radar

Ralph Nader, the man who helped ensure that Al Gore was not president on 9-11, and the same man who effectively helped to ensure that George Bush (in one of his first acts) would reverse everything Al Gore did as vice president on global warming by pulling out of the Kyoto accord, is considering running for president again.

Ralph seems to have a fun hobby: siphening off votes from Democrats so Republicans who are even further away from his ideals get elected and screw up the world. You know, as George Bush has.

We applaud Nader for his past triumphs and activism during, say, the 1970s; now, we want him to go away.

Here are five suggestions for what Nader can do in place of running for president and helping to elect another Republican:

1. Join the cast of Big Brother 8 this summer as the old guy that everybody likes.

2. Participate in board games with friends, family and loved ones.

3. Write a book detailing how Al Gore would have been a much better president than George Bush.

4. Write a book detailing how John Kerry would have been a much better president than George Bush.

5. Take up gardening.

People I Don't Feel Sorry For

1. Paris Hilton.

2. Scooter Libby.

Nobody feels very sorry for Paris, I have to say, except for Paris herself, and whoever it was who decided to free her from Lynwood Century Regional Detention Center.

The same can't be said for Scooter Libby. For example, in today's Wall Street Journal, there's a maudlin piece on Libby called "Fallen Soldier" in which the writer basically pleads President Bush to give this patriot, this hero, this all-star American, this genuine mensch, this "fallen soldier," a pardon. The author writes:

In "The Soldier's Creed," there is a particularly compelling principle: "I will never leave a fallen comrade." This is a cherished belief, and it has been so since soldiers and chroniclers and philosophers thought about wars and great, common endeavors ... Scooter Libbry was there for the beginning of that campaign. [The Iraq War]. He can't be left behind as a casualty of a war our country had once proudly claimed as its own."

I'm offended by this on about 20 different levels. But those who truly should be offended are the families of the 3,504 dead Americans who truly are "fallen soliders" in this war, not to mention the women and children Iraqi civilians who also are dead.

To compare their ultimate sacrifice with Scooter Libby is, to me, nothing short of obscene.

Scooter Libby, the man who helped sell us on a disastrous war that never should have happened, is no "fallen soldier."

Scratching Bush: Conservatives Get The 7-Year Itch

What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom -- a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks.

The first thing I always read in the Saturday Wall Street Journal is Peggy Noonan's column. Noonan is the conservative and former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan who writes so beautifully, even at times when I find her thoughts and conclusions (draped in such a lovely use of language) kind of horrifying.

But we have found a point of agreement in her column yesterday, dubbed "Too Bad."

Noonan, the staunch and predictable conservative, uses extraordinary words in "Too Bad" in which she essentially bitch-slaps President George Bush, slamming Bush in even stronger terms than what Jimmy Carter used a few weeks ago in calling Bush the worst president in history. But she doesn't just stop with W, or Bush the Lesser. She also has to throw in how the President's father -- Bush the Greater -- also was, well, a fuck-up who betrayed conservative principles.

In her column she admits she started growing weary of Bush in January 2005, she writes how "this White House thinks its base is stupid" and compares conservative Bush supporters to battered women:

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad!

And what I also think is "too bad" -- tragic, really -- is that it took some conservatives seven years to figure this out.

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