Mission Accomplished

[filkertom]

It's all over the blogosphere, and even the mainstream media, so I'm not even gonna bother with a link: Today is the fifth anniversary of Dubya declaring "Major combat operations in Iraq are over".

Our entire country has been broken because of these bastards. Military, economy, treasury, reputation, etc., etc., etc., etc. The only thing BushCo has ever cared about is money and power for its loyalists -- a sick dream of American empire on the broken bodies of anybody stupid enough to get between the neoconservatives and their "rightful" plunder. And they're likely to get out of office, if they don't finish suspending the Constitution before the election, with their money and their power and the huzzahs of a fawning mass media and adoring punditry, rather than the criminal charges and war crimes trials they deserve.

Unless, of course, you think we're better off than we were eight years ago? Four years? One?

Anybody here still think anybody in the Bush administration has done anything right? Please provide links.

Comments

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Maybe President Obama will have them rounded up and sent to the Hague next year. A man can dream.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

Unlikely; they'll probably be in Paraguay by then.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Word.
The sad part is that I suspect they aren't even any good at looting and plundering, at least in the sense of getting away with retiring on some remnants of the loot after your piracy days are done.
I think all that misappropriated $$ has ended up in the pocket of third world warlords and smugglers, scattered to the winds, not even of use to the guys who stole it. (Halliburton, dumb schmucks of Wall Street...)
Further, IMHO they're really not very good at power, either. If they were, we'd never notice what they were doing, it'd be a done deal and no shouting, things would just continue to run smoothly while pumping just the right amount of lolly into their pockets, not too much, not hogging so much that it breaks the whole con game. Again, dumb.
The fact that they gum up the works so badly and make the rest of the the whole machine break down is just a little-discussed part of what's so infuriating.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

I think Halliburton's no bid contracts and the amount of money Georgie Boy still probably has invested in the oil industry have assured that they do indeed know some things about looting.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Anybody here still think anybody in the Bush administration has done anything right?

Some of them have resigned. Does that count?

[hanabishirecca.livejournal.com]

Heh. I must admit you are correct.

[hanabishirecca.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I'm about to say this . . .


I don't blame Bush for the economy tanking. It is often attributed to his fault because of the war and other factors. The fact is, the circustamces that attributed to the war (something I went into depth into on one of my last three LJ entries if your curious) have been around for some time. The economy is a beast of its own nature.

However, I do blame Bush for not doing anything about it. The warning signs have been around for long enough that action could have been taken on it. The war has also tied most of Bush's hands when it comes to the economy as well. You can't improve the economy if you have every cent you don't have going to a pointless war. Bush has turned his back on Americans and favors corporations. They get bail outs and tax cuts, we get jack. I'm also sure that somehow Bush is raking a fortune off of the oil thing but the "follow the money" principle.

I don't really blame Bush for causing the economy to tank. I blame corporate greed. It just happens that Bush is a product of corporate greed and happens to be best buddies with them. That is almost as bad.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Throwing three trillion dollars and the country's reputation down the drain didn't exactly help.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

The best comment on the whole sorry mess I've seen was on a bumper sticker plastered on a lamppost in downtown DC:

The Emperor Has No Flight Suit

[delazan.livejournal.com]

When Bush was appointed pResident, he did only one right thing: he appointed Tommy Thompson to his cabinet, thus getting Thompson out of the governor's mansion in Wisconsin.

Other than that, no, Bush has done nothing good.
-L.

[gavroche42.livejournal.com]

Well, in the same vein, he took Ashcroft out of Missouri Politics. Even after losing an election to a corpse, he could have come back I think, until the entire country saw how horrible he was. Missouri is probably (hopefully) too embarrassed now to elect him dog catcher.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I actually did find myself agreeing with BushCo about two weeks ago when they went up against Jimmy Carter for meeting with Hamas. And after Carter came out of the meeting making all sorts of claims that Hamas immediately denied, it just cemented that BushCo was right and Carter was wrong.

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how well it worked, since you could drive a truck through the loopholes, but I suppose that if I'm being entirely unbiased, I can at least give them the No Call List in their "good" column. That's about all I can think of, though. Warren G. Harding is lookin' pretty admirable right about now. Even Andrew Johnson seems more like a pest than a real villain, though I suspect he could've given W a run for his money if he were alive today.

[jss]

> [...Are we] better off than we were eight years ago? Four years? One?

On a purely personal level, despite what this administration has done, I might actually be better off (looking forwards) now than 8 years, 4 years, or 1 year ago:

• May 1, 2000 — My company was going through round three of layoffs and like Donna Summer I managed to survive. I got hit in round four in October and spent the next 9.5 months out of work.
• May 1, 2004 — In my fourteenth or fifteenth month of unemployment since the January 2003 layoffs (not counting the 1- and 2-day consulting gigs or the 5-week backfill). I do get a job at month-end, though.
• May 1, 2007 — Employed by a bank as the economy begins to tank noticeably and the subprime lending debacle begins to make itself known. Wind up getting let go 4 months later and spend about 8 months out of work.

Now, despite having to go into the hole on the calendar year (most of which amounts to the jobhunting expenses of the CA, IN, MI, and NY trips and the unreimbursed part of the moving expenses, all of which can be deducted from my 2008 taxes next April), odds are I'll be in a more stable IT job (it is in an educational institution instead of corporate Amerikkka, after all) with a certain degree of layoff protection, at least after the 6-month probation is over with.

I WIll Survive

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

It wasn't Donna Summer, but Gloria Gaynor. (I have worked as a commercial musician for most of the last 40 years and tend to track these things.)

Nate

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

That flight suit was the funniest thing ever - like he just blew up the death star or something.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I believe his disapproval rating is about 70% His actual circle of cronies can't be bigger than, oh, let's go mad and say a hundred glutted multimillionaires.

That means that 30% of the country is not paying attention.

No, the administration has never done one good, right, or moral thing. I long ago said that Chimpy is way past Warren Harding bad and well into Nehemiah Scudder bad.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Well, consider that logically, half the country is below average intelligence, then consider just how dumb that bottom 30% must be...

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

There is one thing I can point to that Bush did right. On 9/11, when advised of the attack on the Twin Towers, he did not immediately bolt out of the classroom. Rather, he waited a few minutes for the book to be finished, then left calmly, coolly, and collectedly. That, to me, is exactly the right thing to do with a class of kids that age, especially when, in that few minutes, more information can be gathered for you to be advised of and you will still be right on top of the situation. That is the *only* thing I will give Bush credit for.

I will agree with hanabishirecca, but only to a point. The deficit, when Clinton left office, was $0. That's right, zero. There was a surplus. Not saying the national debt was gone, but it was declining for once because the budget had a surplus. Look where the deficit is now. I point to Bush's illegal war on this one, and to corporate greed.

Am I doing better? Oddly enough, at this moment, signs are positive, but only because I moved to a lower cost-of-living area of the country, cut my monthly rent to under half of what my mortgage was, and still managed to find a job that is near enough to parity with my previous job in pay that the difference doesn't really matter. tarsa and I might actually have a small budget surplus ourselves every month. I am overall *far worse off* than I was eight, or even four, years ago, and my credit is gonna suck rocks for the next seven years, but I truly believe I'm now on the upswing.

No thanks to BushCo.

(Edited to get hanabishirecca's name right, and to clarify one sentence.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

A small thing, but when the government of Iraq was handed over to the Iraqis, the date was moved up. This probably prevented terrorist attacks, but if the whole thing weren't a mess, futzing with the schedule wouldn't have been necessary.

You may not think it was worth the cost, but the Kurds are a lot better off and the rescue of the marshes that Saddam Hussein had drained was a tremendous ecological win.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

The Kurds are better off than when Hussein had control of the area, but they were semi-autonomous for several years of the Clinton administration and the first two years of the Bush administration (see the Do Not Fly Zone) and, I believe, things are not as good for them now since they have the Turks coming in from the North to try to do to them what Hussein previously tried to do to them.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Two years ago today, I was 15 days away from being laid off (my job was moved to India). The following year was hell on me, stress-wise. One year ago today, I was struggling in my new job that I was in for 2 months at this point, worried I could make it at this company. The new job pays more than the old one, so I was really hoping to keep it. Today, we found out last week that a new India office has been opened and all new positions will be filled there for the forseeable future (including replacing anyone who leaves here). So I think things are on another downturn here, and I will not have a job here by end of year again. So this past year has only been a break between unemployments.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

The only thing Bush has gotten correct was his announcement of an intention to land manned missions on Luna and Mars. Of course, considering that he's since cut NASA's budget and placed political operatives in charge, I'm taking that intention with a grain of salt comprised of all the minerals in the Pacific Ocean.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

George H. W. Bush made those same promises.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

And yet, somehow, it's STILL the liberal's fault.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Then: Broke but happy.
Now: Broke and miserable.

Nope, can't say is better, really.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly better off than I was eight years ago. But I'm not American :)

Although we have only just come out from eleven years of the same conservative government (and the same guy in the hot seat), which is a relief. At least your lot gets to boot idiots out of the hot seat after eight years.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Unless, of course, you think we're better off than we were eight years ago? Four years? One?

Better off than 8 years ago? No way
4 years ago? Only because my DH, who was unemployed for 3 years thanks to the tanking of the U.S computer programming industry, started his own business, at which he works at least 60 hours a week.
One year ago? No, not really.

Anybody here still think anybody in the Bush administration has done anything right? Please provide links.

. . . . *crickets*

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I can think of two moderately-important areas where I think Bush should get some partial credit. I believe the initial invasion of Afghanistan was the right thing to do at the time, though the handing of that war after the public push to war on Iraq started is one of a horrifyingly long list of complete fuckups. And I believe that the policy he was trying to advance a year or so on immigration, that the Repubs in Congress blocked, though imperfect, was enough better than the mess we had at the time that he deserves some credit for trying, though again what the administration has done with executive power on the issue since just goes on the list of complete fuckups.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

Giving credit for invading Afghanistan after they refused to hand over bin Laden is like giving credit for putting his pants on right way front -- it's simply the minimum to be expected from anybody.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Better off that 8 years ago... nope.
more money, perhaps, just, but then the cost of living has gone up, so more or less the same place.
less hope, more cynicism, less dreams, more wisdom, less faith, more knowledge...

Overall... older, maybe wiser, and certainly less faith in humanity. [but then I've met more humans].

[hanabishirecca.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that I am doing better than I was when Bush came into office. But, at the same time, I'm not better because of him and I'd certainly would be doing leaps and bounds better had he not been there.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

One thing they've done right is tightening up on the amount of sulfur that can be in diesel fuel. It's a small thing in the grand scheme, but it's really helped air quality in cities with lots of trucks.

If I think about it for a while I may be able to come up with a few more. They're all down in the weeds, and they're nowhere near the magnitude of the fsck-ups, but even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn.

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I rise to these challenges, because all I get is grief, but here are some things I don't think the Bush Administration has gotten totally wrong:

I think the estate-tax repeal was a good idea (although it has its downsides). The tax comes back in 2011 anyway.

Medicare Part D is horribly flawed, but some people have prescription drug coverage that didn't before.

They managed not to get into a war with Libya (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12799651/), although that was probably largely because of British and French pressure.

Their AIDS program in Africa might actually be accomplishing constructive things (http://cl-bloggers.blogspot.com/2008/02/bush-administrations-success-story-in.html).

As profoundly as they bungled Katrina, the Administration has done some good with international food aid -- for example, after the earthquakes in Indonesia and Pakistan (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7543055).

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

IMHO, estate tax repeal wasn't necessary. All we needed to do was raise the exemption so that only large estates were affected.

[the-yoyogod.livejournal.com]

Anybody here still think anybody in the Bush administration has done anything right? Please provide links.

Well, there is that $600 tax rebate check thing. In my book, anybody who gives me 600 bucks isn't all bad. Of course, the way the economy's going, most of it will be going to pay bills or stay in my bank account for a rainy day. Really, I'll be lucky if I can even spend $100 of it on anything cool.

But that's the cheeseball

[capplor.livejournal.com]

who put you in such bad financial shape in the first place, by letting the oil companies gouge us, deregulating the banking industry (thus allowing the inevitable mortgage crisis), and continuing the Republican obstruction of alternative fuel research.

At one time I was hoping that Bush would be the president who fixed the immigration mess (the one area where he broke with the standard party line.) But alas.

I'd rather have a stable economy and my original California job, instead of the "tax-rebate-can-we-buy-the-election" sop.

[veritropism.livejournal.com]

They've encouraged some truly moving, if verbose, mainstream journalism. (http://www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him)

I'm having to read that one in small chunks because I'm at work and it's both pissing me off and making me cry. Mostly because so many genuinely good people have to clean up the mess Dubya's making without any good coming of it.

and, noted in that article...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

HERE (http://www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him-5) (part 5, dealing with flying the body back):

After lodging a complaint with the Army and receiving help from California senator Barbara Boxer, the Holleys saw their son met by an honor guard instead. Still angry, they began a campaign to change the way all military dead would be delivered. California representative Duncan Hunter, then chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote legislation that eventually became known as the Holley Provision to the 2007 Defense Authorization Act. It directed that the bodies of fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines would no longer be booked passage on US Airways, Delta, Northwest, or Continental but would be flown on military or military-contracted flights and met by honor guards.

Meaning, the military dead would no longer be freight on commercial airlines, but transported with more than a modicum of respect.