October 31, 2008
by Paul Kemp

A couple of things still bug me about the Bush presidency.  Now, now that he's almost history, while I'm tempted to say "Thank God!!" that he hasn't done any more mischief,with only three months until he leaves office, I'm wondering what was the Bush the Second Presidency all about.
 
Can the man really be that stupid, or is it just an act?  Or was he chosen for this believable quality about him, so that - in the shadow of his incompetence - the really devilish people like Cheney, Paulson,  and all the uber-Neocons in the Office of Special Plans (a wonderful name!) and elsewhere tucked away in the cubbyholes of bureaucracy can do their serious work of looting and dismembering what was once a great country. 

Just look at what Bush has done!  I realize he had help from Congress, especially in his second term, to accomplish all that he did.  I mean, of course, that they basically did nothing to stop him from openly dismantling our legal system that was perfected over centuries to protect citizens from just this.  Does "separation of powers" mean anything to you lawyers on Capitol Hill?  How about "Habeas Corpus"? 

Here is a short list of amazing Bush administration accomplishments:

It ignores repeated warnings about a 9/11-type incident reportedly in the planning stages.  Bush himself, sits there reading a children's story while it happens.  (We won't go into the unlikely events of three skyscrapers neatly collapsing and falling into their own footprints, when only two of them were hit by jets commandeered by amateur pilots...)
 
Bush begins war on the country of Afghanistan for failing to turn over the mysterious Osama bin Laden - a Bush family friend.  Pursues bin Laden doggedly, then just at the point of being able to capture him, loses interest and starts another war, with a country we knew all along had nothing to do with 9/11 - and had no capability of endangering the U.S. after ten years of sanctions and bombings and a disasterous war against neighboring Iran.
 
It manages to keep two wars going at a huge cost, in spite of a Democratic victory in the 2004 elections that we thought was supposed to end the Iraq war.  (Thanks to Senator "Impeachment is off the table" Pelosi!)
 
Just a side note: Afghanistan under US/UN occupation goes from almost eradicating opium poppy cultivation under the Taliban to being the number one producer of not only opium, but 94% of the world's heroin, while our army has supposed control of the country!  Now, somebody is making money off of that!  And, no... it's not being smuggled out on camelback.  Tons and tons of chemicals have to enter the country and the tons of finished heroin must leave by trucks on the few roads going through the mountain passes.  Or maybe it's airlifted out?  Hmmmmm!  A job for Air America, no doubt. 

Finally, for the coup de grace, our war-weakened economy needs to be nationalised and Bush gets the cooperation of MOST of Congress, including two battling presidential contenders, to come up with a down payment of $850 Billion to GIVE to the very people who have defrauded investors and stockholders.  We don't want those businesses to fail! 

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And the stock market keeps going down, but the dollar is going up as the trouble our Wall St. masterminds created now has infected the world's capital markets with fear of a global Depression and credit panic.  (Some few dissidents claim there is really no credit crunch: like the authors of this and this)
 
I am in awe of a man who could lead the country to its demise with such confidence!  I am amazed at the general stupidity of Congress - and, must I say it? - the majority of the American people who docilely let this happen.

(It works like hypnosis - just repeat the magic words, "But we must support the troops...in harm's way...fighting for our freedom."  Hahahahahaha!  What freedom?  The freedom to spend more than we earn?  The freedom to drive to the store when we could walk?  The freedom to live in houses we can't really afford?  The freedom to earn big bucks when we don't do anything really useful, just be a Celebrity on Reality TV or a ballplayer?) 

What a leader!  Who else could have pulled this off?  But, looked at objectively, isn't it rather remarkable how quickly this country has been disassembled and prepared for what comes next?  It was all too easy, or so it seemed.
 
Was it all a trial run to see how well the corporate-funded Congress could cooperate with the Administration and the so-called Justice Department?  Would the corporate-owned Mainstream Media cooperate and promote the Administration talking points to keep the American people in line?  Well, now we know.  It all worked like a well-oiled machine.
 
The final test of the Media was: Would they uniformly report a war initiated by Georgia (with U.S. and Israeli advisors, weaponry, and funding) as a Russian invasion?  Check!  Ministry of Misinformation fully operational!
 
Where is this administration's Pentagon Papers?  It's been published in the "Free Speach Zone" where good folks know not to go.  You might get tased over there, beaten up by blackshirted thugs, or have your picture put in a file somewhere.  You didn't think torture and "extraordinary rendition" was only for foreign citizens, did you?
 
Only the dissidents read anything questioning the Administration.  Now the FBI, NSA, and Homeland Security now has their IP addresses and a complete record of their communications.  All set for the final roll-up of "conspiracy theorists".

But it's not over yet.  There is still time to start one or two more major wars.

If the past eight years were packaged into a movie plot, no studio would buy it.  Too unbelievable.

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Paul Kemp awoke to the realities of American politics as a Conscientious Objector and war resister during the Vietnam era.  He is an entrepreneur and writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He welcomes feedback through his website, http://defending-your-retirement.blogspot.com/. 

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