A COUPLE OF GOOD ANTI-BUSH RANTS

Both by Seattle Weekly columnist Geov Parrish, both from Working For Change:

Forget Dubai Ports; look at the rest of Bush's record

So it has come to this. After two stolen elections, a secret energy task force, Enron and assorted other corporate scandals, massive tax cuts for the rich, the largest federal debts and trade deficits in world history, blowing up the ABM treaty, killing stem cell research, laughing off global warming, allowing 9-11 to happen, stonewalling its (and every other) investigation, failing to catch Osama bin Laden, the PATRIOT Act, still-unsolved anthrax attacks, launching a secret prison system, denying due process to both foreigners and Americans, engaging in torture, monitoring Americans' phone calls, e-mails, and faxes without a warrant, launching unprecedented foreign and domestic propaganda campaigns, blurring the line between church and state, trying to overthrow Hugo Chavez, using lies to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq, badly mishandling both the occupation of Iraq and the resulting insurgency, outing Valerie Wilson (and lying about it), grandstanding on Terri Schiavo, pushing through a miserable Medicare prescription drug law, privatizing public lands, trying to privatize Social Security, securing CAFTA, appointing two reactionaries to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Abramoff scandals, and botching Katrina's aftermath as well as its rebuilding, among many, many other things -- after all that -- the tipping points that bring Cheney and Bush to this abysmal public standing are shooting a lawyer and defending an ordinary transnational corporate deal.

Click here for the rest.

New Orleans drowned, and Bush really didn't care

Does George Bush have any ideas? Does he care about anything other than power and his own political fortunes? (And, of course, the less ethereal fortunes of the backers who have made his power possible?) Forget ideology. Has there ever been this inept a president in this country's history? Has there ever been this negligent -- criminally negligent -- a president in this country' history?

When the head of FEMA is bracing for "the Big One," he doesn't call the mayor and ask, "Ray, everything under control?" He calls the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the universe, the man who with a few orders and signatures can mobilize unimaginable resources in a matter of minutes.

Bush didn't. And for agonizing days, while New Orleans flooded and thousands drowned and many thousands more begged the world, on camera, for shelter, food, water, and safety, the entire federal apparatus under the command of one man went about its business and then went home and watched the disaster unfold on the evening news.

And then, not only did Bush try to shuffle off blame with his levee comment and the White House insistence that it was really the fault of local (Democratic) officials, but for the next six months all that promised federal relief and assistance has turned into a quagmire of Republican cronyism and broken promises. Everything, to these people, is about sound bites in service of power and enriching friends.

Click here for the rest.

When I first started blogging, I spent a lot of energy trying to make it clear that Bush was a bad guy, either evil or incompetent. Or both. Back then, late 2002 and through the Iraq invasion in 2003, I was amazed at how insane our country seemed. The whole 9/11 narrative about how Bush was a strong leader going after the "evil doers" simply blew my mind. For anybody with an open mind it was just as obvious then as it is now: George W. Bush is the worst President this country's ever had. It's strange how things change so quickly. Bush was a superhero only three years ago; now he's polling as badly as Nixon during Watergate. I'm really happy that most of the country has finally figured it out. But it's all still so strange. We go on with our lives, go to work, eat, hang out, etc., while America continues to face perhaps its biggest crisis since the Civil War. I don't feel like I'm in a crisis--okay, Katrina felt like a crisis, but I'm talking about the overall picture, about how Bush is running this nation through the sewers with virtually every move he makes. Anyway, I figured it was time for some plain old fashioned Bush-bashing. Go check out Parrish's essays; they're very satisfying.

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