The Bushies Stole Us Blind ... So, How'd You Like Your Beer?
By David Michael Green, AlterNet. Posted January 19, 2009.

The eight years of national suicide known as the Bush administration is at last coming to an end.

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/120750/

... This was a ride that beggars belief. Even after McCarthy and Nixon and Reagan and Gingrich, nothing prepared us for the last eight years, and I for one have difficulty finding the words that could begin to do justice to describing this historical folly of epic proportions. ...

... Most people have completely failed to perceive the magnitude of the Bush crime, because they see it as limited to "merely" dumb policies, poorly implemented, by incompetent stewards of government. Would that that were so. We'd be so much better off as a country and as a world had it been only that.

Instead, this was an American Stalin, seeking to use military power for purposes of overrunning and raping other countries. Instead, this was an American Mugabe, seeking to steal power by any means, in order to plunder the wealth of his own country per the interests of a narrow band of cronies.

Excellent

Strong editorial without any citations or specifics...

Fail.

Research papers, academic papers, white papers and gray papers need citations, editorials are just that, one person's thought.

And sad to say, and sad for all of us, I'm afraid there is more then a speck of truth when he said:
Instead, this was an American Stalin, seeking to use military power for purposes of overrunning and raping other countries. Instead, this was an American Mugabe, seeking to steal power by any means, in order to plunder the wealth of his own country per the interests of a narrow band of cronies.

I guess it's a testimony to democracy that we are leaving that hell.  That's a good thing.

So obvious even a monkey knew it.

Quote from: Rebis on January 20, 2009, 08:25:30 AM
I guess it's a testimony to democracy that we are leaving that hell.  That's a good thing.

I'm not so sure its a testament to our "democracy." I think it's probably more to the level of "ok, not maybe the best choice, we'll run a better one, more like Reagan in 2012 and get this all back."

Evidence you say? Ya mean like the Cheney justifications for presidential imperial power? Or the fact that this lot have basically dismantled the government, the economy and the constitution for almost all of the past eight years while even in the past four months taking the opportunity to fill banking coffers with $1 trillion of untraceable and unchartable funds to prevent a "crisis" that never materialized anyway for reasons that were never established as reasons?

Would that be "evidence?" I dunno, in the four pages of reading I found in the linked post there seemed to be a rather lot of evidence brought forth. Perhaps a reading of the entire article would make the evidence clearer than this blurb does?

Nichole

Most Americans are hypnotized by the party line and do not ask rational questions just as long as they have a good party to attend. The lowest prices and approved by the church marketing has won the majority. Democracy requires people to do their own research and make personal decisions that effect the world. Most rather just think about themselves and only for the next 30 minutes.

Quote from: lisagurl on January 20, 2009, 10:40:56 AM
Democracy requires people to do their own research and make personal decisions that effect the world. Most rather just think about themselves and only for the next 30 minutes.

No, democracy requires one just to watch CNN primetime every night and get brainwashed.
Republicans get their brainwashing in church.

Both parties have a few followers who do their own research and thus support the party validated through educated opinions.

Both parties also have people who are just holding strong opinions because well, they picked one randomly and stuck with it.

I'm pretty sure that few people this last time around made a random decision.  They might have decided that more of the same was way too much, and any change had to be better.  But who's fault is that?

Quote from: Nichole on January 20, 2009, 08:50:29 AM
Or the fact that this lot have basically dismantled the government, the economy and the constitution for almost all of the past eight years while even in the past four months taking the opportunity to fill banking coffers with $1 trillion of untraceable and unchartable funds to prevent a "crisis" that never materialized anyway for reasons that were never established as reasons?

Make that $1 trillion of untraceable funds not required to be documented that went to banks (who are hiding profits overseas) for a crisis that said banks brought upon themselves with greedy management practices.

Oh, I might not should mention the corporate "meetings" that they have at expensive resorts.

The money is easy enough to make back, or get some of it back, hell legalize  pot and tax it, stoned hippies would be ripping their underwear reaching into their pants to give the government money.  It is possible for the feds to track some of that money, and hey if they don't want to give it back, we don't need to give them a charter to do biz anymore.  See ya.

What is harder to get back are things like the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, the lives lost.  That kind of stuff.

Quote from: tekla on January 21, 2009, 09:14:03 AM
The money is easy enough to make back, or get some of it back, hell legalize  pot and tax it, stoned hippies would be ripping their underwear reaching into their pants to give the government money.  It is possible for the feds to track some of that money, and hey if they don't want to give it back, we don't need to give them a charter to do biz anymore.  See ya.

What is harder to get back are things like the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, the lives lost.  That kind of stuff.

I am liking your punk rock attitude, Tekla  ^.^, and I've been enjoying reading your posts .  That said, I have to disagree with you about how easy it will be to get the money back.  The US has been headed for insolvency since ..well at least as far back as Nixon.. and what has happened the last 6 or so years was effectively like, instead of putting on the brakes as the edge approached, stamping on the gas pedal and rocketing into the abyss.  This economic hiccup we're experiencing now is nothing like what's gonna happen once people realize the dollar is trashed.

I can think of ways to fix things, but they would never work politically and I certainly am not a fan of what I see happening in Washington.  Obama is prolly gonna be too little too late I'm afraid.  We shall see.

If any of you all are interested in the topic, I feel this video is well worth 3 hours of your time:
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
(non-partisan for the most part)

Quote from: Jen on January 28, 2009, 07:42:13 PM
... That said, I have to disagree with you about how easy it will be to get the money back.  The US has been headed for insolvency since ..well at least as far back as Nixon.. and what has happened the last 6 or so years was effectively like, instead of putting on the brakes as the edge approached, stamping on the gas pedal and rocketing into the abyss.  ...

Jen, I agree, although I didn't spend three hours checking out the video you cited.

I think what's been missed here is that the Dubya folks were just more blatant about the way they pushed the Republican line that's been in effect since 1980. The idea is to bankrupt the government to such an extent that there's no choice but to dissolve it leaving only the so-called 300 families to run the show.

And if you look at facts instead of rhetoric I think you'll find that in spite of the "balance the budget" rhetoric of Reagan, Bush I, and Dubya you'll find that deficit spending, far from being curbed in any way, spun into stratospheric reaches for the entirety of those 20 years.

Ironically, the only time budgets were balanced was during the admin of a "tax-and-spend" Democrat. Hmm, what could be going on with that? Perhaps the reality that the Pubs have no intention of balancing any budgets ever. Their goals since the 1980s have been based on destroying the very governmental framework they claim to serve.

And Toni, any citizen who really takes a look at the facts and researches on her own will find exactly that borne out by every measure except ideology and a jerk-knee support for so-called "conservatism." These muckers are not conservative, they are plutocratic oligarchs who in this final run desired an autarchy. Cheney, for one, is entirely unapologetic about it.

I'm cynical about a lot of the USA posturing I have seen in my life and my cynicism comes through watching and studying the betrayal of republican democracy and the unmitigated gall of the people who do so and the unmitigated stupidity of those who froth to serve the interests of people who will make them even more unfree and unimportant than they already are.

Nichole

Quote from: Nichole on January 28, 2009, 11:55:17 PM
The idea is to bankrupt the government to such an extent that there's no choice but to dissolve it leaving only the so-called 300 families to run the show.

Nichole

They can all burn in hell as I shovel the coal.

Good luck

Quote from: Rebis on January 29, 2009, 07:21:55 AM
They can all burn in hell as I shovel the coal.

Good luck, darling, they OWN all of the coal, even that formerly acquired by Shaitan to run the furnaces in Hell!!

Nichole