Bush The Arrogant — George Bush promised humility and delivered Ignorance and Arrogance. The legacy of this grim epoch, should be equally offensive to conservatives and liberals. President Bush’s latest permutation of crisis management is the last straw. But who best to roll back the excesses?
As the Bush administration attempts to stabilize the nation’s economy, we are witness to the final chapter of a period of perverse and dishonest leadership that has used its own crises to justify the expansion of its own power. This was a president who came to office on promises of modesty — who championed a “humble nation,” scorned nation building and promised a more limited role for government in the lives of its citizens. Then he presided over a six-year attempt to tear down and rebuild the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and now has embarked on the most profound expansion of the federal government’s role in the private economy since the Depression.
In both cases, the pattern is the same. Ineptitude led to crisis; crisis then became the argument for the radical expansion of executive power. The administration insisted that it exercise its new authority with a minimum of scrutiny by Congress, the courts or the public.
In the so-called war on terror, that has meant the abdication of our most basic American principles. We have forfeited privacy and honor — the administration has monitored phones and e-mails without warrants and has secreted prisoners in foreign lands, arguing that they deserved none of our protections even while in our custody. As a nation, we have stooped to torture (while debating the meaning of the word) and refused to recognize one of our most basic Anglo-American notions, the principle of habeas corpus (thankfully, the Supreme Court, seven of whose members are Republicans, drew the line at that abomination). We have held prisoners in detention without trial, without charge, without end. In so doing, we have antagonized the world and debased America’s moral authority to lead.
The same administration responsible for these catastrophes has over the last month nationalized the largest source of funding for mortgages and the largest insurance company on the planet. And it proposed to intervene even more dramatically in the nation’s economy by having the Treasury Department — with no court, congressional or public oversight — relieve financial institutions of the troubled mortgages and related securities that have locked up the lending system.
There is no doubt about the depth and range of the crisis that provokes these calls for government action. The gyrations of the stock market have been dismaying, and the threat to the country’s financial institutions — and everyone who borrows from or invests in them — is real. Still, the audacity of this administration demanding expanded powers and curtailed accountability is a wonder to behold. The bitter irony is that this crisis warrants dramatic intervention, but President Bush’s record makes him difficult to trust even when he’s right.
These troubles are about more than a president who is unfaithful to his word. Bush has transformed the balance of power in our government. We are seeing the erection of an imperial presidency, immune from oversight when it fights terrorists and when it rescues banks.
Politically, these developments raise two questions: Which candidate to succeed Bush benefits most by the events of recent weeks? And which candidate, if either, would have the strength to roll back these expansions of presidential power if elected?
To the first question, the answer seems to be Barack Obama, though only modestly. Obama’s poll numbers have inched up in recent days as voters have taken stock of a frighteningly complex economic meltdown and been left to wonder what to think of John McCain’s abrupt, halting responses — as McCain saw it, the “fundamentals” of the economy were sound one moment, at risk the next.
Questions about McCain’s judgment in recent days have only been deepened by the performances of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She has struggled in her rare public appearances, and her selection risks appearing all the more reckless and cynical when held against the seriousness of this financial crisis. Even McCain’s campaign “suspension” seemed like gamesmanship. He said he was rushing to Washington, but took his time, and the talks derailed soon after he arrived. He proclaimed that the situation was so dire he would not return to the stump until an agreement was reached, then did precisely what he said he wouldn’t. It was not an impressive week for the Straight Talk Express.
Still, Obama has hardly run away with this issue, and the economic news exposes his weaknesses as well. He is, after all, untested by executive crisis and a freshman senator of limited achievement in government. Voters may well blanch at his relative inexperience, given the gravity of these times. Indeed, it is telling that in a week when his opponent flailed, Obama made scant headway in the polls.
On the matter of which candidate could be trusted to roll back the excessive powers that Bush has aggregated, Obama is vague and McCain is exasperating. McCain has properly condemned the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and said he would close it, but when the court granted detainees there the rights of habeas corpus, McCain denounced the ruling as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” He condemned torture, but then, with the campaign underway, voted against legislation to limit the CIA’s use of coercive interrogation. Those oscillations do not reassure.
Obama, meanwhile, is more consistent and encouraging but offers few specifics. He pledges to close Guantanamo, restore habeas corpus and end the invasions of privacy undertaken in the name of fighting terrorism. Those are welcome positions and provide some hope that he would roll back Bush’s excesses. But while he pledges allegiance to the separation of powers, Obama has said little about how to honor that pledge. Rare is the politician who willingly cedes authority, and we have not heard enough from Obama to be convinced he’s that rare person.
These are not abstractions. They are the legacy of this grim epoch, one that should be equally offensive to conservatives and liberals. George Bush promised humility and delivered arrogance. The next president must not.
The hypocrisy of U.S. democracy and self-righteous foreign policy is troubling the world.
The U.S. Dept of Defense, the world’s largest landlord, operates 737 military bases in 63 countries with military personnel in 156 nations.
America is ready to strike any country to procure natural resources to extend its empire, keep the dollar afloat, and ensure its utopia.
The military-industrial complex has put over 80,000 innocent Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops in an early grave, while putting itself in $9 trillion in debt.
Alienating humanity and creating new terrorists daily, American foreign policy is a nightmare!
Sexually abusing and raping in Abu Ghraib, using chemical white phosphorus (its own WMD) in Fallujah, destroying homes, ransacking mosques, and killing innocents across Iraq–America is winning the war of terror.
Unprecedented soldier suicides attest to a disenchanted military.
At home the FBI violates civil liberties, while the FDA approves deadly drugs, and CIA concocts phony “slam dunk” intel for war.
Sixty seven percent of Republicans just helped reject the bailout plan by a vote of 228-205. And, wall street is responding accordingly — the markets are tanking.
The situation is so bad that GAY Democrat Barnett “Barney” Frank, offered to be “uncharacteristically nice” to those Republicans who voted against the bailout — because they didn’t like the “partisan speech” by the speaker of the house — Nancy Pelosi.
One of these despicable ReTHUGlicans, representative Darrell Issa, said he was “resolute” in his opposition to the measure because it would betray party principles and amount to “a coffin on top of Ronald Reagan’s coffin.”
Yes …that long dead Ronald Reagan — the SERIAL LYING REPUBLICAN GOD, who still tickles GOP politician’s up the ass!
Just in case you are wondering, here are Ronald Reagan’s (the president of “sunny optimism“) Top 10 Greatest Achievements.
Even the “erratic and confused” John McCain, who just moments before the vote pre-maturely pro-claimed a vote success (due to his hard work) — while at the same time blaming Obama for inaction, must be stunned!
After “suspending” his campaign to provide “leadership” in Washington during this financial crisis — McSAME’s erratic politicking has failed once more, and Obama looks a lot more presidential.
What a shame!
It is the same Republicans who stymied the immigration bill last year, led by racist NAZI radio/TV talk show hosts, syphilitic maggots like Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean “Mahoney” O’Hannity and a host of others, who incited an avalanche of “Working Class Whites” to “SPAM” congressional phone lines with NATIVIST rage, scaring the bejesus out of their elected officials.
Almost instantly, stocks plunged in wall street and the Dow lost nearly 600 points. It came in stunning defiance of President Bush and Congressional leaders of both parties, who said the bailout was needed to prevent a widespread financial collapse…..[MORE]
“An Internet ad launched last week by the McCain presidential campaign has attracted more than one million hits by appearing to mock Barack Obama for presenting himself as a kind of prophetic figure.
The ad has also generated criticism from Democrats and religious scholars who see a hidden message linking Sen. Obama to the apocalyptic Biblical figure of the antichrist.
The spot, called ‘The One,’ opens with the line: ‘It shall be known that in 2008 the world will be blessed.’ Images follow of Moses parting the Red Sea and Sen. Obama telling a crowd, ‘We are the change we’ve been waiting for.’” — Quotation from the Wall Street Journal
True believers see Obama as a Messiah figure, a visionary who will cleanse Congress and the White House of all iniquity.
Cynics and comics mockingly refer to Obama as a Messiah, because of his healthy ego and the excitement he generates.
The McCain campaign is subliminally suggesting that Obama is not the Messiah, but the Antichrist. The ad in question refers to Obama as “The One”, and uses Biblical imagery and Biblical-style language. This ad sends a clear message to fundamentalists Christians: If Obama is not the Antichrist, at the very least he embodies the spirit of the Antichrist.
Most Americans will dismiss the ad as beneath contempt, but more than a few gullible fundamentalists will be led to think that Obama is an Antichrist. A few votes can be the difference between winning and losing the general election.
It shall be known that in 2008 the world was blessed, the multitudes realized that John McCain resorted to ridiculous ads in a vain attempt to deceive God’s chosen.
…… Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad! — Know-Nothing Politics. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.
What I mean is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy.
The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.
Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French…..[MORE >>]
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 17
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a liberal icon of the Senate and one of its longest-serving members, suffered a seizure at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., and was rushed by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston today, hospital officials said.
The 76-year-old senior senator from Massachusetts apparently suffered a second seizure en route from Cape Cod Hospital.
Kennedy’s office released a statement saying that he was resting after undergoing a battery of tests. Further information on his prognosis is not likely until Monday….[more]
The hypocrisy of U.S. democracy and self-righteous foreign policy is troubling the world.
