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Founding Fathers' Truths Loom
Over America’s
Worst President
As George W. Bush carries his candle into the dark night at the end of his
presidential day, searching desperately and vainly for the belated Christmas
gift of a legacy, the powerful ghosts of the Founding Fathers and their
imperishable words loom over him and stand to thwart his final efforts to
misrepresent and twist history.
It’s now been proven through two non-profit
journalistic organizations, the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for
Independence in Journalism, that between the time of the 9-11 attack in 2001 and
2003 George W. Bush and other administration officials issued 935 false
statements, the bulk of them asserting that Iraq had Weapons of Mass
Destruction. According to the study, the lies “were part of an orchestrated
campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the
nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
Of course, as everyone knows, there were no
WMD’s.
Iraq became the first example of the Bush
Administration’s concept of pre-emptive war, a first-ever official policy so
ignominious that it has effectively destroyed America’s reputation around the
world and greatly strained relations among its allies.
As of February 8, 2008, the official count of
American dead in Iraq is 3,959, with 29,092 wounded. The count of the wounded
may be somewhat skewed depending on whether certain types of war injuries, such
as brain injuries, are included in the numbers, so the total may be considerably
higher. However, it is at least approaching 30,000. The official estimates of
the Department of Defense, DoD, and other agencies indicates that there were
1,173,743 Iraqi deaths since Mr. Bush’s war began. He has much to atone for.
Mr. Bush and his Vice President, Richard
Cheney, and the coterie of neo-conservatives with which they surrounded
themselves, have repeatedly shown little interest in funding services for
wounded veterans, despite rhetorical lip service, and act to improve conditions
only when situations such as those at the famed Walter Reed veteran’s hospital
are publicly revealed.
George Bush and company thoroughly wrap
themselves in asserted patriotism while sending regular and National Guard
troops on repeated tours of duty, showing again a willful ignoring of history,
including that of the Vietnam War. Expediency in the execution of their policies
seems to be all that matters.
This same expediency, and a very deep cynicism
regarding American principles, has been illustrated in the constant domestic
fear mongering the Bush Administration has wallowed in, resulting in
self-justification for illegal and covert wire-tapping and other surveillance of
large numbers of Americans. In the open, and with the aid of the GOP majority in
Congress during his first term, George Bush orchestrated the creation of the
Patriot Act and the development of a huge, umbrella government department called
“Homeland Security,” which has a frighteningly similar sound to the term,
Fatherland.
As anyone who has actually read the Patriot Act
realizes, it is a substantial and calculated attack on American civil liberties
cloaked in the guise of patriotic security.
The thorough radicalism of the Bush
Administration is revealed in this huge expansion of government bureaucracy, so
contrary to traditional Republican values, yet when viewed from a radical
perspective, it makes perfect sense; that is, a presidency bent on accumulating
power brings together disparate but powerful government departments under one
roof and commanded by a Homeland Security Tsar appointed by the president, and
who therefore reports only to the president.
And of course the other obvious proof that this
“Republican” president and his administration is radically different than the
GOP of old, which held fiscal responsibility as a primary value, Mr. Bush and
Mr. Cheney moved the nation into what is rapidly looking like financial ruin.
The Office of Management and Budget projected,
in 1993, the national debt to be $6.4 trillion by fiscal year 2001, but through
the efforts of President William Clinton the OMB later revised the numbers and
expected the debt would be $3.2 trillion in 2001. This was a result of Clinton’s
building budget surpluses that were used to pay down the debt. It was expected
that if his policies were followed, by the end of the first decade of the 21st
century – this decade – the national debt would be paid. To anyone familiar with
economics, what this would have meant in terms of overall U.S. prosperity is
astounding.
The $127 billion budget surplus Clinton left
available to the next president would have been the start of the continuing
pay-down of the debt had Al Gore, who won the popular vote by half a million,
been elected. But of course the Supreme Court, led by the hard-core Republican
activist William Rhenquist, intervened and took over the process, electing
George W. Bush.
Now, in 2008, instead of nearly
having paid off the national debt, the total debt held by the American public,
as of February 10, is $9 trillion and rapidly climbing toward $10 trillion. This
is the clear result of the policies and actions of George W. Bush and his
radical Republican administration, aided for four years by an equally radical
GOP Congress.
It might be well, in this context, to remember the clear words of one of the foremost of the
Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, who declared: "I place economy among the first and most
important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared. To preserve
our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
But the Bush Administration’s crippling of the
nation through debt is only one major part of the harm that these GOP radicals
have done to the nation.
The elimination of Habeus Corpus at
presidential whim is a major blow to a free nation. Known as ‘The Great Writ,’
Habeus Corpus is one of the founding fathers' pillars of law, taken from hard
European experience. In practical use, Habeus Corpus is, in effect, a summons
with the weight of a court order directing policing authorities to bring forth
the prisoner or prisoners; in short, produce the body of the prisoner so that
the person can be brought before a court of law, which can then determine if the
prisoner is held legally or not.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising
that discarding writs of Habeus Corpus would be illustrative of an
administration that, for the first time in American history, has condoned
torture techniques, including those outlawed by the Geneva Convention. The
Geneva Convention accords, it should be recalled, were largely the result of
American efforts following the monstrous war crimes of the Germans and Japanese
during WWII.
George Bush, Richard Cheney, and a host of
their minions, many of whom were placed in high positions in the U.S. Attorney
General’s offices, showed absolute and constant contempt for Habeus Corpus.
This same contempt has been illustrated by
George Bush through his twisting of the concept of ‘signing statements’ into a
method by which he can set himself above the law and mock Congressional
legislators. The original concept of a ‘signing statement’ was to afford a
president the opportunity to mark new legislation whenever he thought some
aspect of it was unconstitutional. It was a method by which the president could
indicate, by a signed statement, that he would not implement a section of a new
law until it had been thoroughly reviewed by the courts.
Mr. Bush found this a convenient tool to expand
presidential authority. He has done this by asserting that his ‘signing
statements’ have permanency; that is, once he has declared a section of the law
is not applicable, that is the end of it. In essence, he has asserted that by
executive fiat he can cancel legislation without court review and without even
the need to justify the action. This obviously is in the mold of dictatorship.
Showing similar contempt for
Congress, particularly since his radical Republicans no longer control it, he
has made it a practice to make appointments to key federal positions, including
the judiciary, when the Congress is not in session. This, along with his proven
willingness to allow an evangelical Christian litmus test for hiring in many
federal departments should also be cause for alarm.
The Bush Administration has vastly expanded the
long famous ‘military/industrial complex’ while attacking government agencies
that provide services for and protect the individual American. The Food and Drug
Administration, FDA, has been vastly weakened and giant pharmaceutical companies
have been given carte blanch, and budget cutbacks have severely limited
inspection programs and regulation of meat packing and other food industries.
In media, the Federal Communications Commission
has become so ideological that it holds sham hearings for the public and then
ignores all input that is contrary to predetermined positions. The most recent
and blatant example being the FCC decision to allow joint ownership of
television, radio and newspapers; that is, one corporation can now own all
media in a given market. The decision was rendered by the Republican majority on
the FCC despite all public comment and even despite requests by Congress to
delay implementing such a change.
Portions of the national parks now have to be kept closed because budget
cutbacks have reduced Ranger and maintenance staffs, and efforts are constantly
made to turn federal lands over to commercial interests. The list can of course
go on and on, including such things as the fact bridges across the nation are
not being inspected, not only because federal monies have been cut, but because
federal watchdogs aren't watching any more, and state authorities know it at the
same time they are often faced with impoverished budgets due to eight years of
Bush cutbacks and reductions in federal tax funds returned to the states.
Other infrastructure, such as roadways, are similarly affected.
There
will be no belated Christmas present of a positive legacy for Mr. Bush, no
matter how hard he
struggles to find one in his self-created darkness. No positive legacy will ever be discovered because
one doesn’t exist. The legacy of George Bush will be that of the worst president
in American history, a president who became known as a consummate liar, where
the truth of his public comments could be found by determining the exact
opposite of what he stated. A fine example of Mr. Bush's double-speak is the
rhetoric and policies employed to cover the amazing price gouging of the oil
industry.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, oil men themselves, have facilitated and allowed
companies like Exxon Mobil to rack up profits unheard of before in history. The
Associated Press reported that Exxon alone posted $40.6 billion as it annual
profit, the largest by a U.S. corporation. This February the oil company posted
a quarterly 'net' profit of $11.7 billion for the last three months of 2007. Is
it surprising that Texas is enjoying vast prosperity, and even the little
community of Mid-Land, Mr. Bush's hometown, can't seem to build Cadillac and
Mercedes dealerships fast enough.
Mr. Bush made the rich richer,
emboldened and empowered the right-wing, and beggared the rest of the nation.
That is his legacy.
MB 2/08
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