That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

It's easy to make fun of President Bush. In fact, it's our patriotic duty to do so. He's been a complete and utter failure of a leader, a fool. A bumbling idiot, even. But at a certain point he stopped being funny. Just look at the litany of domestic disasters he's overseen and/or been directly responsible over the course of the past 8 years:

-9/11

-War in Iraq and Afghanistan

-North Korea and (maybe) Iran going nuclear

-Katrina and the knee-capping of New Orleans

-Geneva Convention flouting, torture, constitution-bending spying, and other human rights violations

-The stacking of the Supreme Court with justices inclined to make much of his religious and political extremism permanent

-The deepening of the national debt (which began as a surplus when he came into office)

-And now, the total and utter collapse of the U.S. economy, thanks to years of deregulation and an almost fanatical dedication to free market capitalism

Is it all his fault? No, not really. But has he helped at all? No, not really. And that's why he's failed totally and completely. At the end of the day, the president's role is to lead, and in this regard Bush has been an embarrassment. He's no leader. He's a follower, following his ill-devised instincts down numerous dead ends and wrong turns, leaving the rest of the country in the lurch as if his mere conviction could excuse his actions.

P.S. On the plus side, Bush may preside over the Cubs going to the World Series, so there's that. But at the same time, that just underscores how topsy-turvey his presence is. Had he done anything right, the Cubs would certainly be out by now. That's just the natural order of things.

Unpatriotic Act

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Facing a global threat of unprecedented scope and danger, the Bush administration requests an immediate virtual blank check and expansion of powers, with minimal transparency, that ultimately supports and otherwise bolsters corporate interests at the expense of tax payers. And time is of the essence!

Except that this isn't the Patriot Act or anything to do with the "war" on terror but that $1 trillion dollar bill to assuage the collapse of various financial institutions. It's the administration's attempt to prop up companies undone by their own greed and irresponsibility, giant banks and investment houses to be relieved of their own bad investments at the expense of the poor folk they took advantage of in the first place - with lures of low or no interest - the end result of a steady erosion of Depression Era stopgaps put in place to limit just this kind of exploitation of economic loop holes.

Congressional critics will eventually cave and sign something, but there's absolutely no proof that the bill will do anything to staunch the ongoing collapse. Yet isn't that President Job's M.O.? Why deal with problems today when they can be postponed until tomorrow? It's still more arrogance and idiocy from the same people who have basically cornered the market on such things, and no matter who wins in November, thanks to these chumps, America is essentially screwed, for decades to come, on multiple fronts.

President Job is worried about his legacy? Well, we're watching it come into shape, one disaster at a time.

Golfing in Hell

President Job, jackass that he is, claimed the sacrifice he himself made in light of all the men and women losing their lives in Iraq was to give up golfing. No, really. He actually said that. But like just about anything that comes out of Job's mouth, don't believe it. Indeed, apparentlyPresident Job couldn't quite resist the call of the clubs.

Could he be the worst President in U.S. history? Quite likely. Either way, the best thing about enduring eight long years of this destructive, divisive asshole is that I'll live to see his long descent into a sort of private hell. After all, his mistakes have already been more than adequately documented, yet obviously more and more mistakes, malfeasance and malicious activity will be unearthed once he leaves office and that shroud of arrogance and secrecy falls down around his ankles. Then the knives will come out. You think Nixon had it bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. This guy will have decades of shit dumped at his feet - if not on his head - again and again and again.

Global Moron

So, California and over a dozen other states passed laws to reduce greenhouse emissions, specifically those created by cars. And what does President Job do? He (and, one presumes, the auto industry) pressures the EPA to block California and those other states from enacting those laws, which, whether based in California or anywhere else, benefit everyone except the auto industry and, if you're talking pride, the EPA.

Blows the mind, really. It's one thing to use your horrible administration to mess up the world. It's another to actively use your power to undo solutions enacted by other parties to counter your own incompetence and inefficiency.

Keep Pleading the Fifth

So why did President Job commute Scooter Libby's sentence but not offer a full pardon? Because a full pardon would free Libby from one side-benefit of criminal scrutiny: pleading the Fifth, which means he can't be compelled to testify against, say, President Job and Cheney. It's clear as day and all the more disturbing for it.

Such audacity. Such sleaze. This administration will be remembered about as fondly as Nixon's. The biggest difference is that this time they're an embarrassment to the entire world.