The Bush Legacy and "His Fraudulency"

     I suppose one of the best ways to look at the Bush administration is Southern vengeance over what the Northerners did in 1876.  The night of the election, Rutherford B. Hayes, soon to be known as "His Fraudulency," went to sleep thinking he'd lost.  The Chair of the DNC was poring over the numbers, and realized Hayes was down by only one electoral vote.  At this time there were still three Reconstruction governments in the South.  (Northern) Federal Troops, numbering in the thousands, controlled a few square blocks around the capitols of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana and kept a Northern-installed government in power.  The Chair of the DNC called these occupation Governors and told them to prevent their States from being called, and then worked to disenfranchise as many Southern-sympathetic voters as they could.  The tactic worked, and eventually all three Reconstruction States were counted for Hayes, although, it should be noted, this process took nearly four months.

     Not that Illinois Democrats were blameless!  The only atheist ever appointed to the Supreme Court, Davis, had been selected as the "non-partisan" member of the Electoral Commission to decide what to do.  The Illinois State Congress appointed Davis, a Republican appointee to the Court, as Democratic Senator from Illinois to curry favor for their side.  Instead, Davis used this as an opportunity to recuse himself from the "non-partisan" slot, which was later filled by a Republican. The votes, the votes by the Commission on whether the three states would go to the North or the South split along party lines in all three cases.

     There has not been, nor likely should there be, an "Electoral Commission" again. 

Sanity Makes Me A Bit Teary-Eyed

     I watched President Obama speak about Energy today.  I know, I know, all the Conservatives are saying this recent economic downtown is really the result of Bill Clinton's economic policies, and if it wasn't for the Bush tax cuts of 2001, 2002 and 2003 (widely trumpeted as being good for the economy) this would be worse than the Great Depression.  Personally, however, I am glad that we have a sane President.

Bush Trying to Usher In Rapture

     Legacy to include unqualified support for one more war, this time in the Holy Land.

     which really sucks, because I have just moved into this apartment and am cleaning it up sweetly.

The Job of the Presidency

     Was George Walker a front man for shadowy interests?  When asked if Obama's election was a repudiation of him, he couldn't say yes, but he did say it was a "repudiation" of the Republican Party (it was a fairly close election, actually).  Bush then explained

I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy. In other words, they made a conscious choice to put him in as president. [emphasis mine]

These were not scripted answers, and Bush's understanding of the job of President appears to be revealed here, explaining what other people have decided.

Me and the Government During the 110th, A Perspective

     I have contacted the government three times in the last two years, although just now I can't recall the precise order.  When it was announced the Bush administration would be seeking the death penalty for Gitmo prisoners, I called the Presidential Comment Line and told them the turning them into martyrs would be a bad idea.  Later, during hearings on FISA, I spoke to a staffer of Senator Feingold's in person.  I had printed out this for them, to help them understand what was going on.  And then, more recently, I contacted the State Department after Secretary Rice spoke in support of the former government of Mauritania.  The President was an Islamist who favored clerics who praise Osama bin-Laden.  That's the guy America, the UN, the African Union, and most other international bodies supported.  There had been a coup after he tried to fire the head of the Army, who led the coup and replaced him.  He is not an Islamist, but relatively secular.  The only people who supported him... the Arab Maghreb Union and the Arab League.  Arabs and Muslims support the guy against al-Qaeda, America supports him.  I tried to use the logic of my language and conflict theory to sway them.

Saying Farewell: Remembering the Bush Administration

     This, a link I (re?) found via the Daily Howler who linked to Media Matters who liked to other Media Matters stories, is Ron Suskind's Without A Doubt.  I read, soon after it was published, Suskind's book about/with former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, The Price of Loyalty.  The money quotes from the very long article follow:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." [emphasis mine]

The word "reality" comes from the word "royalty." 

Malek approached him [Rubenstein, on the board of the Carlyle Group] described that time to a convention of pension managers in Los Angeles last year, recalling that and said: "There is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. . . . Needs some board positions." Though Rubenstein didn't think George W. Bush, then in his mid-40's, "added much value," he put him on the Caterair board. "Came to all the meetings," Rubenstein told the conventioneers. "Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years: 'You know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.' He said: 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I said thanks. Didn't think I'd ever see him again." [emphasis mine]

We all wish Rubinstein had been right.

And for those who don't get it? That was explained to me in late 2002 by Mark McKinnon, a longtime senior media adviser to Bush, who now runs his own consulting firm and helps the president. He started by challenging me. "You think he's an idiot, don't you?" I said, no, I didn't. "No, you do, all of you do, up and down the West Coast, the East Coast, a few blocks in southern Manhattan called Wall Street. Let me clue you in. We don't care. You see, you're outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don't read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it's good for us. Because you know what those folks don't like? They don't like you!" In this instance, the final "you," of course, meant the entire reality-based community. [emphasis mine]

This is the Republican Party that elects actors, and hopefully the Party that will nominate Sarah Palin in 2012, to bear the biggest loss since Dukakis.

So damn...

AT LEAST GEORGE WALKER ACTS SO DAMN HUMBLE AFTER HE'S FUCKED UP (virtually) EVERYTHING

Nothing Fucking Accomplished

Murderous, Satanic Bastard Rules America.

Russian Tanks Leave S. Ossetia for Georgia

Reportedly near town of Gori, not firing.

America, through UN Ambassador Khalilizad, said Russia must accept the "territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia."  Now, America, just a few months ago, said "UP YOURS, SERBIA!" and supported the secession of Kosovo.  Why can't it support the secession of South Ossetia or Abkhazia? 

To the best of my limited knowledge, the secessions of Kosovo, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are wanted by super-majorities of Kosovars, South Ossetians and Abkhaz people, respectively.  Isn't that what's most important, rather than what Bush or Putin or their advisors want?

Russia Today reports Georgians re-enter parts of S. Ossetian Capital

I really wasn't expecting any Georgian advances.

Bush Calls for Halt to All Violence

Apparently "all" does not include Iraq or Afghanistan.  Sorry, distant cousins!

Bush was only talking about Georgia, while Saakashvili has requested in the last hour that Georgia's Parliament declare war on Russia.  It's a war they can't win.  I hear most S. Ossetians like the Russians, more, so it would be like forcing themselves on an unwilling population.  Hmm, maybe that's why George Walker is behind them?  No, seriously, if America had spare military capacity, and it turns out Georgia's claims about how the violence started (very important to me) are true, we could do a little dance.  Now we can do next to nothing.  Realist speaking, Russia still has the 2nd most nukes in the world.  Economy and trade speaking, Russia has industrial workers and a large industrial base, and tons of natural resources.  McCain, though, wants to boot them from the G-8.

Will anyone ever clear up who actually started this incident?

Language and Conflict: In the Whitehouse

Hu Jintao has been very open in many ways about his concerns and the pressures he feels, as have I. And I feel comfortable. And by the way, that's not easy when there is a language barrier. And yet, I can report to you that we do have cordial, relaxed conversations -- in spite of the fact that we both have interpreters. It's much easier when you are dealing with a person that speaks your own language. Since the only one I speak is English, it's important to have English speakers. -- President George Walker in the Roosevelt Room, July 31st, 2008

Many thanks to WIIIAI, who reads Bush speech transcripts, and sent this in.

As They Stand Up, We'll Stand Down

Remember that mantra of Bush's?  I'm sure, if you watched the television news, you heard them repeat it, too.  It was, like so many other Bush predictions about Iraq, not what happened.

Do Iraqi troops count?  I know I am supposed to say "Don't Forget Poland," which means Polish troops count, but do Iraqi?  Well, if their standing up lets us stand down then, I guess, they must.  Maybe not 1-to-1, but maybe 100 to 1?  Iraq has added over 400,000 Soldiers, National Guard and Police, but America still has about as many troops as the day we entered Baghdad.  It also makes the October, 2006 call by McCain for 20,000 troops look even more silly.

If we count Iraqi Troops, McCain's proposal amounts to less than one half of one percent of the combined troop totals when he made the proposal, in late October, 2006.  By the way, in the graphs below all the lines are, when pixel length choices are being made, changed in favor of John McCain.

Understanding Impeachment

Impeachment is a political trial.  No one needs be impeached for violation of a law or statute on the books.  No one needs to be impeached while they are in office.  I think it is unwise for Dennis Kucinich to push, further, with impeachment proceedings, simply because we already know the effort will fail.  I believe Cheney and Bush should be impeached, and I thought so since the very start of the Iraq War.  But I don't get a vote in impeachment proceedings.  Counting the votes shows that Kucinich will lose. 

War Criminal Carnival!

The Hudson Institute is hosting Paul Wolfowitz talk about Doug Feith's new book.  Neither Paul nor Doug, psychotically, are at all repentant or sorry.

Wolfowitz closed his remarks with the kind of historical ignorance which dominated his entire sheep-in-wolf's clothing existence.  He said he'd never heard of an insurgency where foreigners were brought in to kill locals.  Does he smoke crack?  I don't think he does.  I think he was just born stupid.  Can you picture this "Look, we'd like your help overthrowing our oppressors, but you aren't a local, and if you killed one of the overlords, it would be a case of us bringing in outsiders to kill locals."

Were any Chechens killed in the First Chechen War?  My research shows "1,500 Dagestanis , 1,000 Georgians and Abkhazians , 500 Ingushes and 200 Azeris , as well as 300 Turks , 400 Slavs from Baltic states and Ukraine, and more than 100 Arabs and Iranians" were involved.

The French were brought in to help fight the American Revolution, and undoubtedly Americans fought with the British against them, perhaps 50,000.

I charge George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith with a million counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Bush's "Champagne" Service

     Molly Ivins, in her book Shrub, lists the son of Texas Governor John Connally, the son of Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen, and the son of Texas Senator John Tower, along with members of the Dallas Cowboys football franchise (the only blacks) as members of Bush's "Champagne Unit" in the Texas Air National Guard. 

The 111th was where GW Bush met James Bath.  If you want to look at Bush's dereliction of duty, Paul Lukasiak's pages are still best.  If you want a detailed, in-depth history of the F-102, where I got many of the facts for this post, Mr J Baugher is the source.  Wikipedia hosts this timeline of Bush service.  This post is about the life cycle of the F-102A Delta Dagger and how it kept GW Bush, a young lieutenant in the US Air Force, as far as possible from danger during the Viet Nam War, while making him appear to be a fighter jock. 

Short History of the F-102A

     After the Soviets unveiled the Tupelov-4 long-range, heavy bomber at the October 1947 Moscow Air Show, the top brass of the newly formed US Air Force decided to create an "interceptor fighter" to deal with the threat.  The interceptor waits until the Soviets launch a bomber attack, flies as fast as possible to meet them, and then fires missiles to destroy them before they reach allied territory.

     Convair eventually got the contract for what turned out to be the first super-sonic and first delta-winged aircraft in the Air Force. 

     As an "anti-bomber" aircraft, the plane saw very little service in Viet Nam, although since the Air Force had so many of them, a few did see some action.  Only two of the more than 800 hundred produced are known to have been destroyed by enemy fire, namely, ground fire from the North Vietnamese.  In Viet Nam, all told, four others were lost on the ground, and eight were lost in operational accidents.  I have heard the plane described as the "safest plane in the Air Force."

     A couple explanatory notes for the image I made above.  Please ignore the rounded edges of the bars, they are just for appearances.  I removed them from the last two lines to show that the F-102A was completely removed from the Pacific Theatre in December, 1969, and Bush didn't start training in the F-102A until Decemeber 29th, 1969.

     One further note.  In the run up to the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, RM Nixon and the Air Force put the 111th briefly on "alert" status.  However, GW Bush was no longer qualified to fly the F-102A.

Upcoming Talks on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK)

We are sending Asst. Sec of State James Kelly (note: these are the biggest international talks arranged outside the UN, or regularly meeting group (e.g. G8 Nations) that the Bush adminstration has taken part in, and they are not sending Bush, or Powell, or Armitage, but Kelly) Kelly was called "arrogant and high-handed" last time he was in the DPRK Kelly is accused of sucking up money from secret slush funds in Taiwan. Smirking Chimp covered this a while ago. Japan plans to bring up the issue regarding abductions. I think this is guaranteed to prevent any progress. It is likely that David Horowitz believes that progress could be made, if it were not for liberals like me. He argues that we didn't beat the North Vietnamese, after TWENTY SEVEN years of attempts to do so, because the North Vietnamese were counting on activists to stop our soldiers from winning. The first I say he is a drooling lunatic. Sending corrupt officials to important talks, sending low-ranking officials to monumental talks, is what causes failure. How about Nixon, in a way that to my mind makes him a traitor to the United States, for dealing with VietNam behind the scenes before he had the authority to do so. Or how about the plain and simple fact that we should not have won? To win in Vietnam would have been the most anti-Republican effort in US History.