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?
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The good point is, there is still something like INTERNATIONAL LAW. If Bushco should EVER make a misstep in visiting a country which has occasinally signed and ratified the treaty regarding prosecuting crimes against humanity and, the installation of the International Court For Crimes Against Humanity in The Hague, The Netherlands, he and his like will suddenly find subponaed, arrested and brought to justice - UN-style.
Hehe - even PARAGUAY has signed and ratified that treaty...! No place to hide, Dubya! 8-)
Rumsfeld had to flee France head over heels already for that matter, only a year ago. Remember? Just wait and see. We shall bring all of them to justice "Milosevic-style", sooner or later. Mark my words.
I wish I could agree with you that justice will be served. Unfortunately, those of us reading editorials like Steve Weber's are in a very tiny minority. Yes, millions of Americans are disatisfied with Bush Inc. and the condition to which they have brought the country, but the vast majority of these people will not connect all the dots that Weber just did. They will go back to their TVs and beer (booze, tranquilizers, prozac, etc.), and roll over for whatever looms on the horizon for our country. And don't forget, there are still millions in this country who support Bush and the rotted Republican Party without question. They will never connect the collapse of America with anything other than what they're fed by Rush Limbo, Bill Krystol, O'Reilly, etc. That is, they will find a way to link the hard times to come to Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and especially the next Democratic President. They will remember Bush years from now in the very same way that they remember Ronald Reagan today, through a foggy, fabricated haze of sentimental nostalgia. Their crappy jobs, declining quality of life, reduced prospects for their children, abysmal healthcare, loss of freedom of expression, erosion of education, etc, will all be the fault of libruls, not of years of unchecked profiteering that they themselves helped make possible.
John, The duty and responsibility falls to U.S. We the People are the seat and source of all authority in our Republic. Join U.S. in Phil;Philadelphia on April 19th. ABOLISH this government!
Wait, didn't the US sign and ratify that treaty?
Doesn't matter. If any of Bushco will ever be caught on a country's soil, which DID sign and ratify the UN-treaty, they're DONE.
This goes for Paraguay, too! 8-)
BushCo as you call it has given their party the chance of a life time to show that so called superior mind of the Capitalist and how they would make the world better for all.
Well here we are 8 years of little law enforcement on financial markets, no supervison of no bid contracts, little supervision of the food industry, an exhausted military, historic profits for the Oil Companies, the only valuable natural resource of the country we invaded, and tight oversight on Single Mothers who receive Welfare.
Billions of Dollars dumped into the laps of Government Officals in Afganistand and Iraq. Trillions of Dollars dumped into the laps of Realeastate Investors. Homeowners screwed with laws that allow the industry to cheat them while protecting the industry from lawsuits.
How do you like it. The closer you get to Pure Capitalism the clearer you see Economic Slavery for what it is.
Enjoy! Make another Ollie North a hero for allowing Cocaine to be smuggled into your country and sold to your children to buy arms for some rebels somewhere in a jungle.
That is what stands out the most for me about the Republican DOGMA.
If American citizens will take ONE WEEK and go to Washington and stand in an honorable civil disobedient display to surround the nation's capitol that we love dearly in declaration that OUR TROOPS BE BROUGHT HOME, THAT OUR TREASURY SPEND NO MORE MONEY ON IRAQ and THAT the policies of this Whitehouse shall not incur against our U.S. Constitution another day!
America, the 'home of the brave'....
Unfortunately we are busy trying to keep our heads above water in the economy that bushco(tm) has created...
Dansden, The DISOBEDIENCE is not from the citizenry. This government has long passed the point of violating the Public Trust by it's innumerable criminal and immoral acts. We have foolishly granted temporary stewardship of our Nations agencies to a an arrogantly disobedient cabal that has intentionally cast aside and forgotten that they SERVE and are granted temporary AUTHORITY from the supreme Authority, We The People. The Preamble of The Declaration Of Independence makes clear our course for public servants that have forgotten whom they serve. ABOLISH this government on April 19th in Philadelphia's Independence Hall at 9am. This is not civil disobedience, This is our responsibility to our Constitution, our Forefathers, our Nation and our seed!
ONE WEEK protest by all of the citizens. Righton. It will work. If millions spent one week in Washinton dc and were willing to spend more time, we could take back our country from the fascist infidels.
http://www
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
Lawerence Britt, Fourteen Tenets of Fascism
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
Thorough review, excellent evaluation but lenient grade...wh
Whining words and rambling rants mean nothing to those who do not live in the same reality as most Americans. America is the land of the free but certainly hasn't been the land of the brave for all these years that Americans have sat back and allowed this 'braggadocio bully' in the Whitehouse to intimidate and incur his destruction of our economy, our military, our Supreme Court, our national public lands and our national resources.
Words mean nothing! If one million citizens who have lost their jobs because of Bush's policies, one million students who have lost their loans and grants because of his economic downsizing policies and one million citizens who work for the government take ONE [ps are brought home, that our government treasury will spend NO MORE MONEY for this wretched invasion and civil war referee
Enjoyed Wings..BUT Who would have known you were however this smart!
Regards
How can one be so stupid as to think he speaks for everyone? That his judgments have any bearing on reality? He is correct that this is a "tendentious rant spewed from a liberal pantywaist. And he doesn't know what definition of a conscript is.
You are out of your league here residentchimp. Weber speaks for himself and does it very, very well.
Because as long as he is the president and has the authority to actually DO things on a world stage, he DOES speak for all of us. We may not agree with what he says, but he STILL uses our voice for it!
That's pretty funny. A resident regressive rightwing talking point spewing troll mentions "reality". As if he has any idea what reality is anymore, after swallowing years and years of brainwashing propaganda from screeching repeato-bots! Yeah- you're a patriot because your beloved Fox "News" tells you so. Maybe you should head on over to your Dear Leader's Iraq and take a gander at some REAL reality.
See Steven Weber's Profile
oops!
Great post, as always.
It's BushCo
Apply directly to the forehead.
Apply directly to the forehead.
Apply directly to the forehead..
... Some cases may require pretreatment with meat tenderizing hammer.
.....Side-
The truth and nothing but the truth! LOL....LOL
Treason is to good a word. After having weathered the unimaginable ordeal of living within 45 minutes of nuclear vaporization, we now have the people at the forefront of producing the button that would start that annihilation trying to conjure another global annihilation. Only a word that could encompass treason to people of all nations and colors and creeds and ages and sexes could describe what Bush has done. Bush is a traitor to mankind.
And for what has he sold our futures? Money. Yes, but probably not a lot of personal wealth by today’s standards of 900 billionaires world wide. Prestige. No, that part did not work out. Then what, the love of a good dog?
I believe it goes deeper and to a more strange and pitiful place than has been considered. His insistence that history will redeem him is a clue. But it is not the history of you and me, it is the history of the religious cult to which he belongs. It is bound up in the Biblical interpretations of the 19th century cultist, John Nelson Darby. Darby’s ‘work’ is at the core of the evangelical belief system. Suffice to say that germinating the end of the world is a good thing to them.
Premillenial dispensationalist psychosis: The motivating force behind much Anglo-American conservatism for the past century. Yes, indeed. However, what many in this cult fail to acknowledge consciously is the way their Calvinist work ethic is no different from Social Darwinism: Cruel, inhumane, and violent, with absolutely no empathy for "the other." How many millions must die before this psychosis ends? Or, will we all have to die before it ends?
"How many millions must die before this psychosis ends?"
Lots I'd say, because that is the passive hope of Premillennial Dispensationalism. To say that people are trying to help it along is not an exaggeration. Evangelicals support the existence of Israel because its existence corresponds to apocalyptic prophecy. And to the evangelicals, the more mid east strife there is, the sooner the second coming and end times.
And the whole Dispensational movement is based on an argument that equates, in merit, to how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. The public has no idea how thoroughly dangerous, intent on destruction, the Falwells and Robertsons are.
"But it is not the history of you and me, it is the history of the religious cult to which he belongs."
You are on to something here. I wish more people could see this. I know of many people here in the evangelical south who view the world through this sick prism. They can easily overlook the failings of the Bush government, and more importantly their own, as long as they keep in mind that it will all end soon with the coming of Jesus, who will of course redeem them and incinerate all those who oppose them. I see this kind of self-comforting rationalization at work every day, as people watch their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children evaporate, as they lose their houses, their higher paying jobs, their marriages, their health, their children's chances at a better future, etc. Something tells me that this 'dispensationalist psychosis' has probably been around for a long, long time through human history.
Imagine Bush as a monarch and ruling this country for his lifetime.
If you can, I think it allows us to understand and sympathize with people who rebel against their governments. Not just revolutionary France of the 18th century, but also current political situations, like Nepal.
We should count ourselves lucky we only had to endure Mr. Bush for 8 years. Thank goodness we don't live in North Korea or Zimbabwe.
I'm sorry to say that the effects of this administration may well last a lifetime.
I agree. I just hope that he acknowledges that the Constitution requires him to LEAVE come January 20, 2009!
I agree and will even say that I believe the effects of BushCo will never completely go away. It's sickening and sad ---how I wish it had been President Gore!
and your childrens and grand-childrens lifetimes as well!
Perhaps he will go away. But I still think there is a very real chance that we will have some kind of ‘Terrorist Incident’ that will require martial law and the suspension of the election.
I know I am being paranoid but like they say, just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t coming for you!!!
So many have known for so long that Bush and Company were a bunch of crooks that it seems the knowledge has just come back around finally.
Bush and his cronies did the same crap to Texas as they have done to the present United States. The same vile, ugly crap.
You were right about these criminals never coming to justice. They wont, they can't. They don't dare.
My suspicion is that Bush will do all he can to not even leave office how can any of this administration, leave and allowing any following administration to examine the books? NO Bush will not be leaving office if he & his cronies covered by that Presidential order making him sole leader and Fatherland Security as his internal security arm. Here comes Sept. 11 Part 2 .
The upcoming elections may or may not even happen. My suspicion again is that neither Obama nor Clinton have the nerve, the need, the desire to uncover the truth, expose the lies, bring Bush and Cheney to justice for high crimes, misdemeanors, and treasonous acts to numerous to discuss here.
Why has Palosi ignored IMPEACH.CO
Bush is on a hook & Cheney with his two full safes of secrets don't want anybody looking in there private books, closets
I think if they can finagle (through whatever means necessary) a win for McCain, they would gladly hand over the keys to the WH. After all, McWarmonger truly is Bush on steroids. He will give the Regressives anything and everything they want. If, however, a Democrat manages to win the election - then we all better look out. As far as a possible part 2 before the election to terrify the sheeple into voting Regressive - once again against their own interests - that's another scary thing to consider.
Dear Steven,
This one made my eyes well up, enough said. Agape.
Well said as usual, Mr. Weber.
We WILL fail, if the wrong candidate is elected as our next President.
I believe strongly that Barack Obama is the one to begin the process of lifting us out of the sewer into which BushCo. has cast our country.
His ability to cross party lines and bring people together will translate very well on a global scale, and begin a healing that will take longer than he can legally serve.
Obama will be the best candidate to inherit the wind. Whether he can rescue and rehabilitate our nation as the empire crumbles is yet to be seen...
Your belief is B/S! Obama may be better than Clinton, I'm not sure either way. But Obama most certainly can't cross party lines....h
Who says the pugs will be significant?
Your knee-jerk response to insult rather than actually present your case in an adult manner, doesn't lend much credence to your argument.
Obama was, and is widely known as one of a very few politicians capable of brokering bi-partisan compromises.
His ease at working both sides of the aisle have been complimented repeatedly.
Next time, do a little research before making a fool of yourself.
You had to know it was coming. You ought to read history well enough to know what will come.
With enough criminals to permanently prevent prosecution of any of their number, and enough ballot box stuffing (by computer) to guarantee whatever imperial succession they might name, well, Bush wasn't kidding when he said that "the U. S. Constitution is just a blankety-blank piece of paper."
History will only delay the turning of the page for so long; then the page will turn and ... it is blank.
Each World War begins where the previous World War ended ... opening with the technology that forced the stop of the previous episode. This war will be fought for the ultimate prize of the ultimate stash of oil, and it will be fought with nuclear weapons ... probably starting in a matter of weeks.
No, I am not exaggerating to the slightest degree. Not anymore.
The War. The Oil. Nothing else matters... nothing. If the Iraqis will not yield, they must be crushed, and a half-million young conscripts is a small price to pay for world domination.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Afraid enough to DO what must be done.
Half billion Muslims aren't too high a price to pay for the West's need for oil. If the war starts in a few weeks it won;t be by the US. If India believes radical Muslims could gain control of Pakistan's nuclear capability, they might conduct a preemptive attack since they've been looking for an excuse to blow Pakistan off the map for 40 years: This would not necessarily cause wider war...Who would care? China? Russia? West? Not likely.
I agree anyone expecting America to abandon 25% of the world's oil is dreaming. It doesn't matter who gains the White House. If one reads Clinton's/Obama's statements they are more circumspect that McCain's, and, less threatening and expansive but neither Democrat is promising to withdraw. They would draw down troop levels but keep many in Iraq in "support capacities
The present situation is as dangerous and in some respects more so than Cold War at its height. It I think require a major direct attack on this country for a wildly unpopular draft to gain political traction. Bush might have been able get a draft after 9/11 but he believed his wars would painless and fortunately squandered this opportunity. If conscripts were coming home in body bags the general public would be far angrier than they are today.
The key issue is not whether World War Three will start, nor under what convenient pretenses, but at this point merely "when." The time for delay is finite; a six-year opportunity to recognize and to interdict an obvious and corrupt lawlessness has all but come to an end.
You must recognize the enormity and the infernal majesty of this enterprise, and the dozens of years it has been planned and slowly put into place. Also recognize the absolutely uncaring indifference with which, say, Nancy Pelosi casually brushed law-enforcement "off the table" and has pursued "super-del
So, prepare to offer up your sons and daughters, and if you are between 18 and 42 years old, quite probably also yourselves to the hungry maw of nuclear .. yes, nuclear .. war. If you could have stopped it through impeachment, you would have found a way to actually "get it done" before now.
The lines that were drawn in the sand in 1920 will be re-drawn. The Persian oil-sands were always an "unspoken target" of the previous two World Wars and it will be so again. Corporations with allegiance to no country in the world will have their feast of blood from all, and the America that we knew will be no more.
Will there be eleventh-hour impeachment? This is the eleventh hour.
Sen. McCain will win the "third BushCo term."
He will TRY! But I can be pretty sure that it won't even be close enough to steal!
It won't be easy to recover from this, it might not even be possible. Consider that even after these idiots are out of office, the neocon fanatics and their followers will still be spewing. And the military industrial war profiteers aren't going to just go away. They'll keep trying to scare the bejeesus out of people, and they'll succeed to an extent worth worrying about. This will be tremendously difficult. Maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps, after such a close call, more people will realize how fragile this country has become.
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