Our New President
I know it is customary to wait 100 days before commenting on how a President is running things, but I think it’s been more than 100 days since he declared himself President. He told us that how he ran the transition would be how he would run the country, and his first two weeks in office have given me a good idea of what we are in for. Besides, with my limited attention span, if I don’t write something as soon as I think of it, I’ll be distracted by my computer screensaver and never come back to the topic again
As the election of 2000 went into overtime, and the new tradition of politics through legal action began, we saw just how the honest, clean-cut, newly minted George W. Bush would run things. He ran to court a week before Gore, charging that he hadn’t set the lawyers loose until Gore had, and having the Usual Suspects go on talk shows and such saying that Gore had gone to court first.
Sure. Gore went to court first, even though his lawyers filed the first suit 7 days after Bush’s and it was in response to a Bush suit. I guess that if you are flying around the sun to bring Lois Lane back to life time runs backwards and Bush is correct.
The Score Now Stands at: Truth 0, Bush 1
Bush brought in his father’s old hatchet man, James Baker, to run the Florida mess after it became the latest way for Jay Leno to get out of working. Amazingly, every court decision for Bush was trumpeted as a Blow for Truth, God, Fairness and Democracy, much like the battle to get science out of Kansas science books. Every court ruling for Gore was evil, shameful, politically motivated and a serious blow to our democracy which could plunge us into chaos unseen since they tried passing out blame for the movie "Little Nicky." There’s been more than enough written about how the courts have shown that they are just as partisan as everyone else in Washington, so I won’t beat that dead horse. I prefer beating new horses to death, thank you . Let’s face it, the Supreme Court was as good as calling this one right down the middle as a referee hired by Don King would judge a Tyson fight. They got their jobs from Bush’s daddy and Bush’s daddy’s boss, and just made sure the boy got into the college of his choice.
If you read the ruling, you’ll find three things. One, the Supreme Court is getting paid by the word. Two, they pretty much said that there was no law to uphold their decision, and the decision is only good for this election. Sounds like the rules my sister would make up in Monopoly when the only properties she has was Baltic and Mediterranean Avenues and was down to having a Get out of jail card and $17, rolling to land on Park Place. No matter what the court says, Gore won the popular vote nationwide by over a half million people. Not that you’d know that from watching the Bushies talk about how he won and everyone else needs to get over it. Oh, and the third thing is that Clarence Thomas was unable to ask any questions during the open session because Chief Justice Renquist was drinking a glass of water.
Yeah. Bush won. Milosevic won the election too if you only listen to him.
The Score Now Stands at: Truth 0, Bush 2
I don’t think you have to be political to see the sheer naked manipulation that was done to try and get public opinion behind His Fraudulence George W. Bush. His henchman (yes, I know that is a charged word, but I’m writing an opinion. I have the right to do that. I’m trying to convince you of something. Don’t know WHAT yet, but still, I like how Henchman sounds.) Baker has continued in the old game of "If we break a law, it’s a technicality, if they do it, it’s the purest evil that much be punished to the fullest." For all the bleating you hear from the dogmatic right about how the liberals control the media, you have to admit, they get to say that on FOX News, CNN, Nightline, MSNBC, CNBC, The Sunday Breaths of Hot Air shows like This Week and Meet the Press, 24/7 on AM talk radio, and most newspapers. I think if the media is controlled by one group and the other group isn’t allowed to speak, you’d never hear about it. Of course, that’s logical though, which has no place in politics.
Gore lost because he didn’t hire Simon BarSinister to run things like Bush did after the election. I was sent poll after poll from people on the Republican Payroll showing that the people wanted Bush after the election...but all the polling companies that did the polls had no history before November 2001. We all saw the "spontaneous" protests from "average voters" saying to stop counting votes and just give the thing to Bush. Funny how we found out that it wasn’t spontaneous at all, but a bunch of people hired by a Republican PR firm shipped in from out of state and told what to protest. So, these average citizens were really paid extras in a made for TV movie on all the networks possible called, "The Man Who Would Be King."
The saddest thing is that, except for a few brave souls who went to Washington to say they were mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, we sat on our nicely upholstered asses and watched it as if the right to choose our own leaders was voted off the island.
The Score Now Stands at: Truth 0, Bush 3
Thankfully, after the Supreme Court ruled, we went back to business as usual. Raising money in exchange for political gain and raising more money for political gain. Vice President Dick Cheney in his speech thanking the Supreme Court said, "We have set up a way for people to contribute to the transition as well as the inauguration." And here I was worried that they might not have the money to put on the big party and event for me.
Oh, wait, I wasn’t invited.
And neither were any of you.
But they did have a few limited access tickets for sale on eBay for around $17,000 for "average Americans."
Thank God they got the coffers open in time so that people could contribute. However, People couldn’t possibly compete with businesses who wanted to contribute. You know how Bush said he wanted to open up the Alaska Nature reserve to oil drilling to help with California’s power problem? The company that would be doing that gave over $300,000 to the inauguration so that there would be a real nice party for other rich business owners to get quality time with out new President. Around $25 million came in to the bank account in less than three weeks. Think the people gave that much money out of the kindness of their hearts and wanting Bush to have a second Prom with his wife?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I couldn’t raise $25 million without doing something illegal, immoral or against the laws of science. Bush is also doing everything he can to kill John McCain’s campaign finance reform bill, and looking at the numbers (raising over $100 million during the primaries, much more than that during the campaign, outspending Gore almost 2 to 1) I can see why he feels that making sure that bill doesn’t get to his desk is the highest priority. You thought Clinton was a money machine? Bush and his people are going to be going through cash like Keith Richards goes through the blood of virgins to stay alive.
Bush said he wouldn’t even allow the appearance of impropriety while he was President. The reason for that is because all of the impropriety happened BEFORE he took office
The Score Now Stands at: Truth 0, Bush 4
Now he’s in office. I don’t buy into the "Bush is stupid" stuff being rammed down our throats by Leno, Letterman, CNN and anyone else who gets to stand on a soapbox a little more elevated than me and tell you "What’s Really Going On In Washington." Maybe it’s because I grew up in a house where my father had a copy of every conspiracy book published, but I don’t think that someone as dumb as they say Bush is can walk upright, let alone get to a position of power.
I do think, however, that Bush knows that Reagan got away with murder because everyone thought he was a senile old moron. Reagan skipped on everything that happened under his watch by saying, "I don’t remember," including selling arms to people shooting at us, running a "Coup R Us" franchise in the basement, "joking" that he was bombing Russia in front of a live radio mike, and foisting an anti-drug campaign on us so the price of drugs can shoot up and the rights of citizens can be shot down. We believed it because he was just so damn likeable and goofy, just like Don Knotts on the Andy Griffith show.
Clinton, on the other hand, wanted to be seen as intelligent. He learned the hard way that we, as a nation, don’t like smart people and the heads of corporations pretty much shoved him down for his milk money for 8 years. He also learned that if you are smart guy, "I don’t remember" doesn’t work as well for you as it does the retarded kid who gets an A for showing up and not eating paste.
So Bush comes in with his stories of getting time off for video games (just like Reagan’s naps) and not being able to speak English as well as the last busload of Mexican we shipped across the border, and we buy it. Any misstatement is forgiven because, well...he’s slow, you know.
The latest was about the very first executive order he singed taking funding away from Family Planning group in third world countries. His reason, as explained by a spokesman, was that he didn’t want Tax Money going toward funding abortions. Nice sentiment.
But it’s a lie.
The groups are telling people in impoverished countries how to keep from having more children and how to obtain services, abortion being one of them. It’s a program run by Scandinavian countries to try and bring down the birth (and for most people infant mortality) rates. They don’t give out birth control. They don’t give abortions. They take the $270 million (more or less) the US gives and pays people to teach people how not to have kids. But since they aren’t run by an anti-abortion group, the radical right wing of the Republican Party wants them to be shut down. So, Bush pays them back for shutting their mouths and not scaring off women during the campaign and feeds the rest of us a freshly minted lie to justify his action and make it seem like he’s doing a wonderful thing for America and saving us untold money. $270 million? Hell, the country will spend more than that on press releases to say that Bush didn’t mean to call Canada one of our finest states next time he speaks off the cuff.
Maybe he’s paying back the business owners as well, since they do need new children to work for $1.25 an hour in those countries making our Nike shoes and Wal-Mart blue jeans.
Bush gets a buy, no one much looks into it, since he isn’t all that bright, and he wouldn’t lie. He just doesn’t quite understand what he’s doing.
And at the final buzzer, the Score stands at: Truth 0, Bush 5. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
And if you think about it, isn’t it a little more comforting to think that the President is a devious, manipulative bastard like his father? I know I’d sleep easier at night thinking that than knowing in my heart that he’s got the mental acumen of a wallaby that’s been tranquilized by the Crocodile Hunter?