BushCo: An Umpteenth Evaluation

If one were to evaluate -- for the umpteenth time -- George Bush's presidency over the last eight years, it would most likely be graded with a colossal, red, angrily scrawled F, the presidency along with an overarching American policy having been remade in Bush's own fatally imperfect, inconceivably incurious and maddeningly mediocre image.

And -- for the umpteenth time -- any critique of Bush and his illegitimate legacy is not necessarily an attack on Republicans or conservatism or rampant, unchecked capitalism. However, due to their complicity in his ruinous and divisive two terms it comes damn close.

In fact, any and all appraisals that conclude with BushCo having critically devalued America and all it ever stood for are in actuality well-documented and fact-based assessments. They recount the tale of a country which allowed its essential morality to be wrested away by a series of vainglorious, smooth-talking hucksters, its national identity enslaved and ignominiously pimped out. With billions of dollars made, millions of people shackled to erosive economic policies and thousands of innocents crippled or killed in an illegal war, it could probably be viewed as the largest and, given that prosecution of those involved is improbable, most successful criminal operation in history, and not merely a series of tendentious rants spewed from liberal pantywaists.

Of the situation in Iraq alone, throwing up a smokescreen comprised of young, principled conscripts engaged to fight an enemy forged as if out of a child's night terrors, all to conceal his tumescent, neocon machinations, qualifies him for a life sentence of clearing brush on the grounds of a federal penitentiary.

Of its all-consuming "war" on terrorism, BushCo huffs out its chest and flourishes the flag, bamboozling the sentimental suckers with Three Trillion Card Monte, scrambling their senses and blunting their intuition, forcing them to behave in such a way that proves once and for all that reckless patriotism is nothing if not Pavlovian.

Of its overtly oligarchic economic policies, BushCo has thrown prudence, balance and caution to the winds and left the remaining non-millionaires in the United States to forage among the outsourced and underfunded scraps for fiscal stability.

Of its brazen disregard for science and reason, BushCo stalled for as long as it could to acknowledge what anyone possessed of sense already knows: human beings, beguiled by seemingly unlimited wealth, with all their greed and lack of both foresight and care, are crapping up the planet. And that the Earth is not the one that will suffer, it is her inhabitants.

Of its universal arrogance and disrespect not only for the Constitution, for our natural resources, for patience, for wisdom, for liberty, for its clear disdain for citizens everywhere and its use of them as fodder for their profiteering, no penalty would be too severe.

Of its highjacking of the Republican party and conservative philosophy thereby rendering any future champion falling under those respective banners suspect, the memberships of those institutions should appoint ombudsmen faithful to the foundation of a free, democratic society to help ensure that BushCo and its ilk will never find purchase among them again.

And lastly, of its smearing of the American legacy as a bulwark of liberty, a country that is not merely a symbol or an idea but a living, breathing example of the highest in human endeavors, of this is BushCo most egregiously offensive. Its unchecked power has been an affront to every one of the original founders who lent their signatures to the document declaring independence from a tyrannical monarchy and as such should be labeled as the greatest act of treason in America's history.

It's almost time for the final evaluation. BushCo has failed. Will we?

Comments

[not one of the sheep]

The insane hate train has left the station and Steven is the conductor. Bush is a screw up but we changed the control of congress two years ago to counter this and they haven't done ANYTHING but provide lip service. The fact is DC is broken, BOTH parties are worthless and we have to fix it through the electoral process by replacing ALL of the idiots in congress and the white house. If you're blinded by the "party" hatred then you are part of the problem. Let's see if I get Stevens point, you hate Bush, and then again, you hate Bush, and oh yea, you hate Bush. Next stop, blind rabid hatred, all aboard!

[PierreLeClerke]

This is not hatred of a man, be clear and true to yourself. It is the deeds of this crew that are undeniably criminal from which this thought comes forth. Stop talking foolish and open your eyes.
There are only two kinds of people that continue to deny the truth; Those who's pride prevents them from admitting to themselves that the have been mislead, and those who continue to be profiteers.
Pick one.

[not one of the sheep]

We changed the leadership 2 years ago in congress to counter this poor leadership and what did we get, more poor leadership. To not see the big picture and admit that BOTH parties have sold us down the river is true foolishness. BBackSoon is right, but we should be pissed off at ALL the turds in DC. Viva la Revolution brother, vote all those dirtbags out!

[BBackSoon]

I sort of agree with your premise but you lost me about half way thru. I for one do hate the Shrub; I hate what he and his cronies have done to our country. But you are correct that we should hold the other party at least partially responsible as well as our corporate Media. But I am not sure this was JUST a Bush-Bashing piece. This post illustrated that we have stood by and watched our country be hijacked, piece-by-piece. We are pissed off and need to take action. Will we? Who knows? Even if we do they will put the protests 3 blocks away and give each group an hour to protest.

Excuse me; I need to sharpen my pitchfork.

Viva la Revolution.

[LeftRight]

Okay, I will grant that the Congress hasn't done what I wanted them to do, but to blame them for bushco(tm) is just insanity!

The war: They didn't stop the funding, granted, and they SHOULD have made the rethugs filibuster every time, BUT they STILL wouldn't have enough votes to overcome the filibuster OR the veto!

[castlerider]

What an idiot thing to say. He titles himeslef "not sheep" but that is exactly how he talks. Like a sheep.
Understand, not sheep... Nobody hates anyone. A boss who catches his worker goofing on the job or ripping off the store, doesn't hate this person, they just won't tolerate the lie or incompetence. This person is an idiot, because he could not perform and got caught in a lie. Bush is incompetent, and a resounding liar. We want to fire him, and now, for the good of our world, and for the good of America. We can't fire this idiot, and this is what we hate. So stop defending this idiot, because it only makes you as stupid as him.
The Dem congress has truly failed in many ways, but it's also the fault of the media and corporations that protect your little chimp who hid behind his daddy's trousers so he wouldn't have to go to Nam.
You call yourself "not sheep" but I'm sorry, you talk like you're one of this coward Bush's -sheep.

[krocklin]

It should be interesting to see if spin can continue to win the day. To see if McCain can continue to make specious pronouncements that are contrary to fact and get away with it. To see if Bush, Cheney and Rove et. al. can ultimately escape prosecution. If not, some other Republican will rear up and carry their toxic mediocrity to the next level.

[Poboy]

I think you give conservatives and Republicans too much credit.

They were down with Bush EVERY step of the way. In fact, the Bush Presidency, the Republican Congress (both House and Senate) and the Republican Supreme Court gave the complete government to the conservatives for the first time since after the Civil War in the 1860s, if then, if ever!

They showed their complete hand. If you are not convinced, now, that they are a bunch of FACISTS you will never be.

[JosephP]

Absolutely. We certainly can and should attack and condemn the Republican party for enabling the tragedy that is the Bush presidency. The Republicans gleefully supported him every step of the way when they controlled everything. And now that the disaster is evident to everyone, instead of admitting their errors and trying to regain some credibility, they frantically circulate revisionist stories and try to distract with abstract concepts like "Conservative Values."

[nippersdad]

Don't forget the Vichy Dem caucus' complicity. They are no better and deserve to go down in the Republicans vast, sucking whirlpool of failure as well.

[hopeless277]

I can only say one thing: anyone who is a member of the Republican party at this point is IN ON THE CRIME. They have no excuses. Even Hagel who has been very vocal in his criticism, is still a member of the criminal enterprise that Nixon started and Cheney perfected. So you are correct, Steven, anyone who calls themselves a Republican is not suspect, they are known. Known criminals who will do anything and everything to undermine all that this country has stood for in order to rape and pillage the planet. To me, they are akin to Nazis and must be defeated and destroyed forever. If not, we will find ourselves right back here the next time one of them manages to steal another election.

[CarolinaDem]

Well said but think about the common thread, apart from apparent criminality: they consistently seek to keep the control and profits from bigtime global resources like oil away from any kind of populist amelioration of the state of the poor because they fear the political corruption and stagnation of seriously important recovery of new sources. Communist, Islamic, Nigerian, Venezuelan it's all the same to them: justice drives leaders toward nationalizing of resources, and they have to be stomped. They think efficiency is a higher value than charity or justice or brotherhood or sharing. And they get paid well for their services. But we are all benefitting from their machinations until we don't need anybody else's stuff.

[aleco]

Thank you, Steven, for having the courage to tell the American people the truth about the Bush administration. No one wants to believe that the president of the United States could possibly be evil when people like you know that being president is a license to steal. Bush and the Republicans have ruined this country and yet McCain still has substantial support. I will never understand the American mentality. I grew up really believing in American values--truth, justice, peace, respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. Bush and the Republicans don't believe in any of that stuff. It's very dishearting. With articles like yours maybe the people will realize that the modus operandi of the Bush crime family is to convert U.S. assets into personal assets through corporate conduits. And the rest is just bullshit.

[FreedomsEpitaph]

Just remember this

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, No Bad Deed Goes Unrewarded

[CatfishJohn]

...Mr. Weber, you are a wonderful wordsmith and your essays do a superb job of integrating fact with broad perspective on this abomnation of a presidency. it would be great to see this kind of essay - bold, fact-based and apprpopriately accusatory in the MSM or even ostensibly liberal papers like the Washington Post or NYT, alas, all we get are milquetoast moderates maquerading as liberals juxtaposed against right wing zealots like Kristol and the misanthropic Kauthammmer...i'd also like to add to your "indictment" bushco's treatment of americas veteran during this war...
1. walter reed- maintenance disgrace due to outsourcing of this service to Halliburton spinoff
2. cuttign overall v.a. medical funding right after 2004 election after flatlining it initially during this war at a time when WWII vets are in their most infirmed years
3. willfully slow-rolling vets compensation claims
4. denying services to vets making more than 40K or so not yet enrolled in VA system
5. limiting medical services to returning war vets intiailly to ONLY 2 years (!)- it has been..ahem.."generously" increased now to 5 yrs. WITHOUT INFORMING VA DOCTORS of the time limit put in place for the VA's health care rationing towards their patients
6. in 2008 budget, cutting prostehtics research funding for VA
7. after visiting a Texas war amputee rehab hospital in 2007, bush actually said that day publically, " I got some wounds myself on my arm here cutting brush the other day"....

[anon004]

Have you ever seen Lewis Black's take on that visit? He reads an article that quoted Bush's remarks at the hospital, and what he said was so surreal that Lewis can actually wind up the segment by saying, "I'm of the firm belief that if you're the President, you absolutely have to know where you are in the time-space continuum." Steven, you missed the one upside of the Bush Administration -- outrageous behavior provides superb fodder for comedians and late night talk-show hosts. I don't care who the next president is, he/she just won't be able to compete on the outrageousness scale with this bunch. Oh, Steven, something else you didn't mention (maybe because the actions themselves aren't criminal, even if the impact on people's lives is) is the preverse and incompetent way this administration has choosen to run the federal government, filling it with incompetent cronies and subverting pretty much every agency by having them engage in behavior that is the exact opposite of their actual missions. Ministry of Truth, anyone?

[Rule Of Law]

When he and his handlers consider all of those who are not part of the one percent to be less than human, It seems obvious to me that they truly believe that we deserve the poor treatment we get from them. I mean, what moron joins the military and allows himself to be sent off on an illegal mission and risk his life and limbs? That is their thinking. "What a bunch of dummies those guys are...they think we're gonna give them the treatment, respect, reward they deserve, for what? Letting us use them like we have for centuries, making fortunes while we do, and getting f'n away with it? They're all retards!" (No offense meant to the mentally challenged)

The Amazing part is that these people still sign up, go over then and then wonder when they get hit in the face with a pie! If you play on the freeway, you're going to get hit by a car. If you believe Anything this Administration tells you, you will wind up just as dead!

[KarenZipdrive]

I know we like to throw words around like treason and war crimes, but in Bush's case I think he should be tried for both crimes and face the ultimate penalty.
It would be the perfect deterrent for future presidents who might want to use the Constitution as toilet paper.

[nippersdad]

Hear, hear!

[MNinWI]

I 3rd the motion!!

[LeftRight]

I 4th the motion! The motion carries!

[darcy]

This was a great article, but I don't agree with the conclusion that bush is a failure. He set out to destroy the American middle class so he could enrich the corporations that own him and give vent to his own love of power and violence. He has succeeded completely, and I don't see that Americans have learned much from the experience. They hate bush, but half the country is ready to vote for mccrazy.

[kellygrrrl]

I certainly hope "middle America" is over the whole "one of the boys" for President deal.
Gawd Forbid we actually elect the Intellectuals into office.
Al Gore and John Kerry are two of the most intelligent politicians of my lifetime. That they could lose the WH to this buffoon says many things about America.
I hope those things are changing.

Have you had enough "beer on the porch" yet Voters?

[whimsicalpig]

If McCain is running neck and neck with either democractic contender, then things haven't changed.

It utterly amazes me that he could have found any support for his second term yet middle america turned out to "rehire" him.

maybe, after they endure the coming recession, they will think a little differently about the republican platform in 2012.

maybe they will re-evaluate just what being middle america truly means and that the republican agenda has little to offer them once they realize that they are not on their way to becoming millionaires via the stock market and real estate investments,.

[tea in the harbor]

In the interest of an honest evaluation, there is a statistic that none of the press seems interested in highlighting. The orders and actions of George Bush have now, in the space of five years, resulted in the deaths of more innocent people in Iraq than did the tyrannical rule of Saddam Husein in over thirty. Perhaps the press thinks that would make us uncomfortable, but to me results are the bottom line, and this is our result!

[Chavez08]

Excellent blog! However....

Aren't average Americans are the biggest problem? We are so afraid and overly obedient we have surpassed even Orwellian standards. We will obey any order or social directive as long as it is given buy a guy in a suit with a news ticker scrolling under him or a DJ who can influence college girls to degrade themselves for ratings

How pathetic are we???

We can't think for ourselves
We are apathetic
We are greedy, selfish, hateful.
Ignorant of the cultures and religions of a world we are trying to colonize (illegally, immorally).
Afraid of our own shadows and our own neighbors while, ironically, while being fixated on violence and aggression.

I believe that we have to decide WHO WE ARE as a country and follow that direction before we decide appropriate justice for Bush and his cronies.

As much as I hate to admit it and although I didn't vote for him, - I feel I helped create the George W. Bush empire.

[tea in the harbor]

BINGO! But you forgot cowardly. I've been doing a little experiment, I have a copy of an old document authored by one Thomas Jefferson. It contains a list of charges against a tyrant from the past, a King. I have been studying those charges and trying to put them in the context of today, crossing off the ones we have still kept at bay. There are none! So if we have returned to that state again, and have done that under the current system, what is our duty at this point? Is it to vote? Or is it to act? Had our founding fathers possessed the level of apathy we exhibit, we would be spending pounds sterling! I do not propose war, but a Constitutional Convention, one starting in small groups, perhaps counties, and working through election and referendum to the national level.Two parties with a vested interest in the status quo will not repair the damage they have done. We must act, or we must tell our children why we let the their birthright die!

[PierreLeClerke]

The only way forward is the Constitutional Convention set for April 19th in Philadelphia at 9am Independence Hall. We will ABOLISH this government and grant temporary authority to the sitting Governors of the States, Districts and Territories. Join U.S.

[Chavez08]

..but the Revolution really wasn't started by guys like us, - the Framers were renowned politicians, business leaders (a, to-date, un-rivaled genius inventor...)

Based on what I've read so far, the Framers manipulated, circumvented, politicized, vandalized as well as debated and scribed. The status-quo in this empire would undoubtedly refer to them as terrorists as sure as they love monopolies.

As strange as it may sound, - I believe Al Sadr has more in common with the Framers than anyone in high profile in the U.S.

I think we forgot how to fight (back) in this country. We allowed "Daddy" to give us the illusion of safety for so long we are on auto-pilot and can do nothing but blindly obey every order given regardless of constitutionality or morality.

I think we need a leader who will teach us to fight back against the status-quo and their henchmen but I believe we first need to have the courage and the intelligence to follow him/her in-spite of any social, penal or economic consequences.

The man was right about one thing: "Freedom isn't Free"

[TakeNoNeoConPrisoners]

Steven. you are brilliant. While I don't agree with everything you say, I agree with most of it. And you have such an elegant way of expression. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Wings was one of my favorite programs and I am sorry it went off the air too soon.

[whiz]

If you really want to read some hate from the right, check out Lone Star Times......

[stellanoir]

I do so long for the good old days when the Magna Carta was still in effect.

Under the guises of executive privilege and national security the executive branch has looted our treasury and trashed our Constitution with impunity. Considering NIxon was KOed due to a third rate burglary, what these criminals have pulled off since their coup is truly mind boggling. There is nothing remotely conservative about these extremists.

With a DOJ only having selective amnesia as a prerequisite for employment, there is little to none scrutiny or accountability.

Meanwhile, McSame with his antiquated ideology and early dementia longs for yet another costly and illegal preemptive conflict.

Still I am hopeful. They won't be able to get away with this crap for much longer.

The truth will come out in the end.

[whimsicalpig]

"that they have pulled this off", while being mind boggling, has happened ONLY because the republican party has run interference for them for these 7+years, and are still doing in as we speak.

Bush is what he is, a small minded little petty tyrant with delusions of grandeur.

It is the individual republican members of congress who are truly reprehensible in their culpability in this disaster.

they are the enabler, like the drug dealer, who provides the means for the addict.

each and everyone of them should be run out of office simply for their unquestioning support of this administration.

[stellanoir]

I wish Pelosi would just set the damned table and take it to the floor.

Some speculate that so many in both parties were well aware of the torture memos. So much so that they can't prosecute because it would implicate far too many of them. Yet who knows. . .?

Still, though I agree that the corruption and malfeasance has been stunningly blatant for the last 7 years, this "interference" has been plotted since Nixon, if not Goldwater's defeat.

I wish it was just the Republicans. However I'm sadly not seeing a whole lot of genuinely representative leadership in action these days.

I'll cling to hoping for a far better reality for my son.

[mommadona]

I would urge anyone wanting to know who funds BUSHCO and its enablers to immediately read:

BAD MOON RISING: How Reverend Moon Created the Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom (Hardcover)
by John Gorenfeld (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Moon-Rising-Washington-Religious/dp/0979482232/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207825141&sr=8-1

YOU WILL NEVER ORDER SUSHI AGAIN.

[anon004]

With all due respect, I'm not sure I understand the Sushi reference. Sushi is Japanese food and Rev. Moon is from Korea. Perhaps you meant to say that we would never eat Kim Chee again.

[mommadona]

Well - a fact:

The companies owned by Reverend Moon provide 90 PERCENT OF THE SUSHI GRADE SEAFOOD in the world.

That's why it's a good read and a very very good wakeup call

"SUSHI AND REVEREND MOON
How Americans' growing appetite for sushi is helping to support his controversial church

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0604sushi-1-story,0,3736876.story"