JLF: Why I Won't Miss Bush
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm spoon feeding you...
I've been vocal about my dislike for Bush's reign as president of these United States, but never have I felt inclined to justify my opinion... I mean you guys are lucky to get my opinions at all. Now I'm going to spoon-feed you justification. You, too, will see the flaws of Bush's 8 years.John, in his endorsement of Obama, pointed to Obama's capacity to think in ways that Bush and his team haven't used. I commend John's insight, because Bush's view of the world has been incredibly narrow, but there is still room for analysis here. There is still an important reason we're going to be affected for decades because of Bush's years.
In the history of man, there is a steady evolution of things, like how we see ourselves in the universe, how we treat each other and how we a government treats its people. For example, pillaging isn't condoned. One can't sacrifice a virgin to a god. Every adult citizen has the right to vote, not just whiteys. We don't debate that the world is flat. We don't question that the world spins around the sun. Everyone has accepted gravity and evolution (welllllllll... that's where things start getting fishy in Bush's world). We move forward with this progress. We know what pollution will do to a river. We know these things.
This progress has been spinning forward for millennia, rolling along like a snowball downhill... piling mass onto itself. George Bush, for eight years, stopped that progress. He brought a heater to this snow party.
What do I mean? I mean, the Bush administration jumped back decades with their policies, ignoring this progressive momentum. Not only did they retard our progress as a nation, but it blew back global progress. (That's what you can expect when the most powerful country in the world changes directions.)
Let's start with Bush's first 100 days where he walked away from the Kyoto Protocol. This was a global, environmental initiative that would drop pollutant emissions over time. It put the brunt of the burden on the most developed countries with the most resources, like the U.S. (Rightfully so.) Bush thought this was unfair to American industry, so he walked away. He walked away from a global initiative that had been in the oven for eight years. Just like that, Bush said, "I take these 8 years of progress, and I walk away." Melt that growing snowball. This was the U.S.'s message:
Green means that country signed the Kyoto Protocol and its ratification. Yellow indicates signed Protocol with ratification pending. Red means signed Protocol and denied the ratification. Essentially, the U.S. is the only country in the world that has walked away from the Kyoto Protocol. The only one.
I took my time with that example, because it's a strong sign of things to come in this post.
Bush ignored scientific fact about global warming, pulling a true Medieval-Europe move. While scientists around the world resoundingly agreed that our actions are impacting the world's climate, the Bush administration found a list of scientists who said the issue still needed to be studied. They clung to that list as justification for not addressing our pollution and its link to climate change. It still had to be studied! (It turns out lots of scientists on the list have come out saying they don't know how they were included in Bush's list-o-justification-to-favor-American-energy-companies.) Bottom line: basic scientific knowledge was ignored.
Science was also left behind when Bush allowed states to waste money and resources considering if creationism should be taught in schools. At some point Bush should have said, "Stop. Spend state's resources and money on useful things. Evolution is a global standard that should be a part of every child's education. There are no viable competing theories." But he didn't, and not just because he could never aspire to such eloquence. He let religious shenanigans live in the same world as general scientific principal. (If you think creationism should be taught at school, I hope you took offense to that. You can be offended as you close this page and block HAWTaction.com in your browser. We don't want your eyes on this blog. EDITOR'S NOTE: That is JLF's opinion. As head editor of HAWTaction, I must say we want all eyes on HAWTaction. John de G.) This request should have had a 2-minute lifespan as the President, the leader of the Republican party, told them to just leave it alone. But he didn't.
Bush ignored the potential of stem cell research where scientists could unlock unimaginable solutions to diseases and genetic conditions, arguing fetuses have a soul and his God doesn't want these "souls" to be used for science. (Again, Medieval crap.) What Bush ignored was that these souls were, literally, thrown in the trash instead. Hundreds of thousands of "souls" were (and are) killed every day at fertility clinics, regardless. His God seemed to think their slaughter (which is what he should see it as) was acceptable... just not in the name of science. Mind-blowing. (If we're going to keep arguing how insane this point is, I don't think his God should approve of fertility clinics that make thousands of babies, then freezes them, then throws them out when they aren't needed anymore. That doesn't sound very... Christian. Apparently, though, they've embraced some science.) Bottom line: the most promising technology to find the medical community was shut down.
Let's move away from his turning-the-dial back on science. There has been a steady progression of citizens having access to the government's operations. We call it "transparency." For example, Americans worked for decades to pass the Freedom of Information Act of 1996. Transparency is an inevitable evolution of government. Egyptian Pharaohs' wills were those of the Gods... - > The British Prime Minister answers the people's questions on a daily basis. Bush has melted this growing snowball of progress as well. I've never known a more secretive administration than this one. Documents aren't admitted to, much less released. Policy is never discussed in public. In some cases, some policies aren't even revealed, yet they are secretly enforced (like torture). Environmental reports, when released, became scores of black lines that obscured content. Reports of the war are still hidden. Images of U.S. soldiers' caskets coming home are still forbidden. Just last week, Cheney argued that his files shouldn't be handed over to the National Archives because he isn't, technically, part of the executive branch. In fact, I can't think of a part of Bush's government that hasn't operated behind a thick cloak, hidden from our eyes. Bush, himself, barely held press conferences. I think I could count them all on my fingers and toes from his eight years.
In the Art of War, Sun Tzu said, "If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself." This was back in the 6th century, Current Era. No one can argue the value of knowing your enemy, but Bush could care less about it. In fact, he even morphed America's true emeny in the "War on Terror" from Al Qaida to Arab nations with dictators. There's a world of difference there. In addition, he over-simplifies the definition of the U.S.'s enemy as people who hate American "freedom." The truth is the situation's much more complicated than that, but Bush has melted the snowball of... well... educating himself. He's never wanted to educate himself. He proudly admits to not reading the newspaper. He never wanted to learn about global warming or the issues between Shi'ites and Sunnis. He's taken a simple rule, know the enemy, and disregarded it.
My examples continue to spill out before you. You continue to drool at my brilliance.
I'm going to keep this one short: Bush invaded a country. In 2003, the world was clamoring for proof that the Iraqi situation was dire enough to require Bush's proposed actions (invasion and dismantling of government). Bush's response? He and Rumsfeld told the U.N. and the rest of the world to shove off and did what he wanted, anyway. Their actions pissed on the spirit of the U.N. and all it stands for. (Kind of like him appointing John Bolton as U.S. Embassador to the U.N. when Bolton's is on record saying the U.N. should be dismantled.) Isn't that the epitome of what the global community is against: unjustified invasion of other sovereign states? I mean, didn't we put that to rest after WWII? Isn't that why we went to war in Vietnam, Korea and Kuwait, to defend these invaded countries? And yet, here we were, charging through Iraq, doing what we were dead set against. That snowball of progress, not invading other countries, melted as if it was dropped in a deep fryer, complete with explosion.
And it continues.
In a tremendous insult to the public servants of this country, the Bush administration gave less attention to the outing of a CIA agent than it did to a Dixie Chick who said she wasn't proud of her President. I imagine any other administration would have torn apart their offices to find the answer to who outed Valerie Plame? Not Bushie. They continually downplayed her outing. How was this possible? The administration spent years investigating Plame's outing, though they never seemed to feel comfortable commenting on it. Dick Cheney ignored his subpoena to come before Congress. He tried to keep his staff from coming before Congress, citing executive priviledge... even though he also argued he wasn't part of the executive branch at other points (see above). Eventually, it was revealed that the leak came from the office of the Vice President. They found a scapegoat to pin it on, clearing Mr. Cheney, himself. The scapegoat? Scooter Libby. He was sentenced to jail time for being a traitor to this country, and Bush commuted his sentence right when it came down. Unbelievable. Could you expect more from an administration that took care of the military's veterans with an institution like Walter Reed Medical Center?
It continues.
Bush killed habeus corpus, a legal right where the prosecution is required to present evidence supporting a legal claim. It's the most basic foundation of our legal system. In other words, I can't just sue Coca Cola because I claim their cans cut my arm off. I need to present some type of proof to substantiate my claims. (Like an arm and cans that came to life and sawed it off.) So, when the government says someone is a terrorist and arrests them, they need to have proof of this... like, phone calls of them planning an attack. Instead, Bush's government has been saying that proof isn't necessary. They killed habeus corpus. In turn, they granted themselves the option to hold someone and never charge them with anything. (To charge them, they'd actually have to have some proof...) And so, they held men for up to 7 years in Guantanimo, with no plans to grant them basic legal rights. The behavior is barbaric. Barbaric.
Bush's spinning-back-of-progress only gets worse. Worse than compromising the very basics of our legal system? Yes. They compromised the very basics of our humanity. They melted the Geneva Convention snowball by endorsing torture. Breathless. Our government really did this. Yes. Inexcusable. It's impossible for history to judge these 8 years and ignore that blemish. It will go down as one of the most inept and embarrassing policies ever in this country... on par with slavery, denying gays the right to marriage and Asian-American internment camps.
I have more. There's a deeper undercurrent here beyond breaking our basic legal and civil rights. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was facing the scariest time in our country since the Civil War. The Depression was kicking everyone's ass, and in his inauguration speech, FDR laid a calming hand on our tumultuous country:
Well, Bush has done McCarthy a million times over. He shattered FDR's calming hand. Fear is all he ruled with. Fear Muslims. Fear the airlines. Fear your neighbor. Fear Wall Street. Fear your vote and who you might pick during elections. Fear who's listening when you make a phone call. Fear the subways. Fear hurricanes. Fear not supporting every piece of this government's platform. Fear questions. Fear the media. Fear the stock market. Fear the housing market. Fear not supporting the war. Fear terrorists over there. Fear terrorists over here. Fear Kerry's military service. Fear gay marriage. Fear stem cell research. Fear God. Fear the end of days. Fear scientists. Fear big cities. Fear imigrants. Fear taxes and rolling back tax cuts. Fear government oversight. Fear environmental initiatives. Fear not drilling. Fear not supporting economic stiumuls plans. Fear democrats. Fear independents. Fear social security. Fear the French. Fear losing America's freedom. Fear the 1st Ammendment. Fear losing the 2nd Ammendment. Fear for the children. Fear profanity on TV and radio. Fear Sirius/XM merger. Fear Enron. Fear not having Enron. Fear Dick Cheney. Fear sacrifice. Fear better gas mileage. Fear bin Laden. Fear WMDs. Fear dirty bombs. Fear diplomacy. Fear patience. Fear losing our military power. Fear not doing a surge. Fear pretzels. Fear... Fear.... Fear... everything.
As FDR predicted, this fear -- "this nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror" -- has paralyzed us under Bush. It has caused us to retreat, not advance, on every front: civil liberties, environmental policy, scientific advancement, international policy, legal rights, patriotism, country unity, peace, understanding... We've been retreating for years. Other countries are 8 years farther along with stem cell research (an eternity in science). Other countries are years ahead of accepting gay marriage. Other countries have maintained diplomacy as an option for international relations. Other countries... aren't 8 years behind in progress.
Let's hope they are patient and generous with us, because we have a lot of catching up to do. Most importantly, we have almost a decade of fear to crawl out from under...
That is why I won't miss Bush: his retardation of human progress.
Always your pleasure.
- JLF
Let's start with Bush's first 100 days where he walked away from the Kyoto Protocol. This was a global, environmental initiative that would drop pollutant emissions over time. It put the brunt of the burden on the most developed countries with the most resources, like the U.S. (Rightfully so.) Bush thought this was unfair to American industry, so he walked away. He walked away from a global initiative that had been in the oven for eight years. Just like that, Bush said, "I take these 8 years of progress, and I walk away." Melt that growing snowball. This was the U.S.'s message:
Green means that country signed the Kyoto Protocol and its ratification. Yellow indicates signed Protocol with ratification pending. Red means signed Protocol and denied the ratification. Essentially, the U.S. is the only country in the world that has walked away from the Kyoto Protocol. The only one.I took my time with that example, because it's a strong sign of things to come in this post.
Bush ignored scientific fact about global warming, pulling a true Medieval-Europe move. While scientists around the world resoundingly agreed that our actions are impacting the world's climate, the Bush administration found a list of scientists who said the issue still needed to be studied. They clung to that list as justification for not addressing our pollution and its link to climate change. It still had to be studied! (It turns out lots of scientists on the list have come out saying they don't know how they were included in Bush's list-o-justification-to-favor-American-energy-companies.) Bottom line: basic scientific knowledge was ignored.
Science was also left behind when Bush allowed states to waste money and resources considering if creationism should be taught in schools. At some point Bush should have said, "Stop. Spend state's resources and money on useful things. Evolution is a global standard that should be a part of every child's education. There are no viable competing theories." But he didn't, and not just because he could never aspire to such eloquence. He let religious shenanigans live in the same world as general scientific principal. (If you think creationism should be taught at school, I hope you took offense to that. You can be offended as you close this page and block HAWTaction.com in your browser. We don't want your eyes on this blog. EDITOR'S NOTE: That is JLF's opinion. As head editor of HAWTaction, I must say we want all eyes on HAWTaction. John de G.) This request should have had a 2-minute lifespan as the President, the leader of the Republican party, told them to just leave it alone. But he didn't.
Bush ignored the potential of stem cell research where scientists could unlock unimaginable solutions to diseases and genetic conditions, arguing fetuses have a soul and his God doesn't want these "souls" to be used for science. (Again, Medieval crap.) What Bush ignored was that these souls were, literally, thrown in the trash instead. Hundreds of thousands of "souls" were (and are) killed every day at fertility clinics, regardless. His God seemed to think their slaughter (which is what he should see it as) was acceptable... just not in the name of science. Mind-blowing. (If we're going to keep arguing how insane this point is, I don't think his God should approve of fertility clinics that make thousands of babies, then freezes them, then throws them out when they aren't needed anymore. That doesn't sound very... Christian. Apparently, though, they've embraced some science.) Bottom line: the most promising technology to find the medical community was shut down.
Let's move away from his turning-the-dial back on science. There has been a steady progression of citizens having access to the government's operations. We call it "transparency." For example, Americans worked for decades to pass the Freedom of Information Act of 1996. Transparency is an inevitable evolution of government. Egyptian Pharaohs' wills were those of the Gods... - > The British Prime Minister answers the people's questions on a daily basis. Bush has melted this growing snowball of progress as well. I've never known a more secretive administration than this one. Documents aren't admitted to, much less released. Policy is never discussed in public. In some cases, some policies aren't even revealed, yet they are secretly enforced (like torture). Environmental reports, when released, became scores of black lines that obscured content. Reports of the war are still hidden. Images of U.S. soldiers' caskets coming home are still forbidden. Just last week, Cheney argued that his files shouldn't be handed over to the National Archives because he isn't, technically, part of the executive branch. In fact, I can't think of a part of Bush's government that hasn't operated behind a thick cloak, hidden from our eyes. Bush, himself, barely held press conferences. I think I could count them all on my fingers and toes from his eight years.
In the Art of War, Sun Tzu said, "If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself." This was back in the 6th century, Current Era. No one can argue the value of knowing your enemy, but Bush could care less about it. In fact, he even morphed America's true emeny in the "War on Terror" from Al Qaida to Arab nations with dictators. There's a world of difference there. In addition, he over-simplifies the definition of the U.S.'s enemy as people who hate American "freedom." The truth is the situation's much more complicated than that, but Bush has melted the snowball of... well... educating himself. He's never wanted to educate himself. He proudly admits to not reading the newspaper. He never wanted to learn about global warming or the issues between Shi'ites and Sunnis. He's taken a simple rule, know the enemy, and disregarded it.
My examples continue to spill out before you. You continue to drool at my brilliance.
I'm going to keep this one short: Bush invaded a country. In 2003, the world was clamoring for proof that the Iraqi situation was dire enough to require Bush's proposed actions (invasion and dismantling of government). Bush's response? He and Rumsfeld told the U.N. and the rest of the world to shove off and did what he wanted, anyway. Their actions pissed on the spirit of the U.N. and all it stands for. (Kind of like him appointing John Bolton as U.S. Embassador to the U.N. when Bolton's is on record saying the U.N. should be dismantled.) Isn't that the epitome of what the global community is against: unjustified invasion of other sovereign states? I mean, didn't we put that to rest after WWII? Isn't that why we went to war in Vietnam, Korea and Kuwait, to defend these invaded countries? And yet, here we were, charging through Iraq, doing what we were dead set against. That snowball of progress, not invading other countries, melted as if it was dropped in a deep fryer, complete with explosion.
And it continues.
In a tremendous insult to the public servants of this country, the Bush administration gave less attention to the outing of a CIA agent than it did to a Dixie Chick who said she wasn't proud of her President. I imagine any other administration would have torn apart their offices to find the answer to who outed Valerie Plame? Not Bushie. They continually downplayed her outing. How was this possible? The administration spent years investigating Plame's outing, though they never seemed to feel comfortable commenting on it. Dick Cheney ignored his subpoena to come before Congress. He tried to keep his staff from coming before Congress, citing executive priviledge... even though he also argued he wasn't part of the executive branch at other points (see above). Eventually, it was revealed that the leak came from the office of the Vice President. They found a scapegoat to pin it on, clearing Mr. Cheney, himself. The scapegoat? Scooter Libby. He was sentenced to jail time for being a traitor to this country, and Bush commuted his sentence right when it came down. Unbelievable. Could you expect more from an administration that took care of the military's veterans with an institution like Walter Reed Medical Center?
It continues.
Bush killed habeus corpus, a legal right where the prosecution is required to present evidence supporting a legal claim. It's the most basic foundation of our legal system. In other words, I can't just sue Coca Cola because I claim their cans cut my arm off. I need to present some type of proof to substantiate my claims. (Like an arm and cans that came to life and sawed it off.) So, when the government says someone is a terrorist and arrests them, they need to have proof of this... like, phone calls of them planning an attack. Instead, Bush's government has been saying that proof isn't necessary. They killed habeus corpus. In turn, they granted themselves the option to hold someone and never charge them with anything. (To charge them, they'd actually have to have some proof...) And so, they held men for up to 7 years in Guantanimo, with no plans to grant them basic legal rights. The behavior is barbaric. Barbaric.
Bush's spinning-back-of-progress only gets worse. Worse than compromising the very basics of our legal system? Yes. They compromised the very basics of our humanity. They melted the Geneva Convention snowball by endorsing torture. Breathless. Our government really did this. Yes. Inexcusable. It's impossible for history to judge these 8 years and ignore that blemish. It will go down as one of the most inept and embarrassing policies ever in this country... on par with slavery, denying gays the right to marriage and Asian-American internment camps.
I have more. There's a deeper undercurrent here beyond breaking our basic legal and civil rights. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was facing the scariest time in our country since the Civil War. The Depression was kicking everyone's ass, and in his inauguration speech, FDR laid a calming hand on our tumultuous country:
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."That speech set a tone for the U.S. that resounded far beyond the years of the Depression. It has lingered in the background of our country's fabric, supporting us when we aimed to get to the moon. It supported us when we fought WWII. It supported us when we fought the cold war... and embarrassed us when McCarthy took control of the country, using fear, in 1950 with the red scare. The country forgot Roosevelt's words, and the country faltered.
Well, Bush has done McCarthy a million times over. He shattered FDR's calming hand. Fear is all he ruled with. Fear Muslims. Fear the airlines. Fear your neighbor. Fear Wall Street. Fear your vote and who you might pick during elections. Fear who's listening when you make a phone call. Fear the subways. Fear hurricanes. Fear not supporting every piece of this government's platform. Fear questions. Fear the media. Fear the stock market. Fear the housing market. Fear not supporting the war. Fear terrorists over there. Fear terrorists over here. Fear Kerry's military service. Fear gay marriage. Fear stem cell research. Fear God. Fear the end of days. Fear scientists. Fear big cities. Fear imigrants. Fear taxes and rolling back tax cuts. Fear government oversight. Fear environmental initiatives. Fear not drilling. Fear not supporting economic stiumuls plans. Fear democrats. Fear independents. Fear social security. Fear the French. Fear losing America's freedom. Fear the 1st Ammendment. Fear losing the 2nd Ammendment. Fear for the children. Fear profanity on TV and radio. Fear Sirius/XM merger. Fear Enron. Fear not having Enron. Fear Dick Cheney. Fear sacrifice. Fear better gas mileage. Fear bin Laden. Fear WMDs. Fear dirty bombs. Fear diplomacy. Fear patience. Fear losing our military power. Fear not doing a surge. Fear pretzels. Fear... Fear.... Fear... everything.
As FDR predicted, this fear -- "this nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror" -- has paralyzed us under Bush. It has caused us to retreat, not advance, on every front: civil liberties, environmental policy, scientific advancement, international policy, legal rights, patriotism, country unity, peace, understanding... We've been retreating for years. Other countries are 8 years farther along with stem cell research (an eternity in science). Other countries are years ahead of accepting gay marriage. Other countries have maintained diplomacy as an option for international relations. Other countries... aren't 8 years behind in progress.
Let's hope they are patient and generous with us, because we have a lot of catching up to do. Most importantly, we have almost a decade of fear to crawl out from under...
That is why I won't miss Bush: his retardation of human progress.
Always your pleasure.
- JLF
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JLF, you are the best blogger, ever. This is some article. Good insight, my man.
Give me a raise.
I'm the best blogger, ever.
- JLF
We don't have any revenue on HAWT yet. You saying it's time to put up ads, JLF?
Yes. Anything. Make me rich.
I'm the best blogger, ever.
- JLF
Fear grammar. Fear working. Fear decision making. Fear teachers. Fear the internet. Fear juris prudence. Fear sex education. Fear poor people. Fear middle class people. Fear history. Fear the northeast corridor. Fear anayltical thought. Fear responsibility.
He should fear revenge.
Don't I get a cut of the Ad Revenue?