1.14.2009

The last hurrahs

Dick Cheney called in to Bill Bennett’s radio show to let America know the grim outcome of closing Gitmo: turning people “who want to kill Americans” loose to wreak more murder and mayhem. He didn’t bother to explain that many prisoners there have been held without habeas corpus, due process of law and legal representation. He merely delivered the verdict, “murderers.”

Those of us who have closely watched this administration have lost count through the years of how many times Cheney has lied to Americans. In my opinion, Cheney is not immoral: he is amoral.

Moving up the food chain only a notch, George W. Bush is “a horse of a different color.” He has lied to Americans, but I honestly don’t believe the man knew he was lying. His pathetic performance at his last press conference a couple of days ago brings to mind words like “desperate,” “delusional,” “in denial,” and simply “dimwitted.”

Once more my favorite online newsletter – THE PROGRESS REPORT from the Center for American Progress - comes through. In the 1/13/09 edition titled Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview,’ the editors fact-checked his final remarks to the gathered White House Press Corps – and posterity.

READ Bush’s ‘Ultimate Exit Interview.’

As I sat and watched this beaten man make an effort to salvage his so-called “legacy,” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He worked really hard to screw this country – and the world – and I only hope he can find some semblance of peace as he exits the world stage and fades into a Texas sunset.

Cheney. Now that’s another story.


***

Don't miss the "comments party" on the next post!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

As former Texas Gov. Ann Richards would say, "Poor George. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." That probably kicked his brains out! LOL

Truth be known: I feel pity for him "for he knoweth not what he doeth to himself and the world." His wife seems to be equally in the dark.

airth10 said...

" I only hope he can find some semblance of peace as he exits the world stage and fades into a Texas sunset."

BJ, you are a nicer person than I am. I hope he doesn't find any semblance of peace and is haunted for ever for his arrogance, hubris and incompetence in managing the country and the War.

B.J. said...

Airth:

For years I have begun my Daily Journal thusly:

Thursday, 15 January 2009:
(5 days left in the Bush presidency.)

***

I have counted down the days and prayed I live long enough to see the day when Bush is no longer president.

For years I have yelled profanities at the TV when the Bushies appear. Pofanity that, well, as Mammy said to Miss Scarlett: “It ain’t fittin’, it just ain’t fittin.” I am truly looking forward to a little personal peace.

I have begun to see Bush as having a Shakespearean tragic flaw. (“The evil that men do lives after them …”) Pity can kill erotic love, and I suppose it can kill hate, too.

If I had NO tragic flaws, I would be more judgmental as this presidency winds down.

I will never forgive the wrongs. And, I believe Dick Cheney is the most evil person to ever hold a leadership position in this country. He can laugh at the “Darth Vader” jokes if he wants, he will know his legacy when he crosses the River Styx.

BJ

Anonymous said...

Great post! I saw the embarassing press conference as well. He is probably trying to protect his psyche. He would end up killing himself if he came to terms with his actions as president. I like the "amoral" description of Cheney.

GSM from itouch.

Anonymous said...

Frodo takes no pleasure in Sauron's fate. He is only grateful that no more need die because of this blithering nincompoop. Those who have served him, in whatever capacity, deserve the swords on which they fall.

Anonymous said...

The psychobabble of the mentally deranged will echo throughout history no matter the twisting of reality in their minds.

Get them back to the institution from which they escaped and give them their medicine. Perhaps they will become docile enough to herd back from the cow piles from which they emerged.

B.J. said...

Anyone who watched Bush’s final message to Americans Thursday night can have no doubt that he is a tragic figure. He really believes what he said. BJ

airth10 said...

A lot of people think that the financial crisis America faces today started before Bush, that the seeds of it were sown before. But really, it took on life after 9/11, when Bush told Americans to go out and spend, spend, and make happy, because otherwise - in his words - the terrorists will have won. Allen Greenspan obliged by making credit as cheap as possible, enabling the subprime and the financial derivatives that are sinking America.

The terrorists were hoping to disrupt and upend the American way of life, as America had disrupted and upended the Islamic world. Well, in a way the terrorist have won because of the financial turmoil the US is in today. With Americans heeding Bush's words after 9/11 they spent and spent, putting it into obscene debt and thus bringing it to economic brink like the terrorist hoped. (The terrorist couldn't have hoped for a better calamity to strike the US.)

Also, the terrorists managed to draw Bush&Co. into two wars that have caused a financial burden that has put the US at risk of loosing its status as the mainstay of the world. And it didn't helped that Bush didn't ask American's to sacrifice anything for the war effort.

But on refection, perhaps Bush did get Americans to sacrifice for the war on terror, more than he could have expected, by putting them and the country into hawk for years to come.

I think Bush already has dementia, thinking that history will be kind to him by giving him a decent legacy.

Anonymous said...

Airth, in fairness, by his own admission, Bill Clinton takes a measure of responsibility for the subprime mortgage issue. The Community Reinvestment Act did result in the issuance of a lot of bad loans, which were then "bundled," and sold on the secondary market. The Incomparable Moron did specifically endorse the CRA and advocated its expansion in 2002.