The Worst President Ever?
TOM MAERTENS
People occasionally ask me how it came about that a former official in the Bush White House became a critic of that administration.
Let me count the reasons:
George Bush misled the country about WMD in Iraq and, along with Dick Cheney, repeatedly and deliberately misrepresented Saddam's connection to al Qaeda and 9/11 to lead us into a war that has already put us in hock for a trillion dollars (counting veterans' costs, debt interest, and rebuilding). He then monumentally mismanaged Iraq so that a trumped-up war has become an unwinnable war.
Because of his Iraq obsession, Bush bungled the real War on Terror, allowing bin Laden and al Qaeda to remain at large.
That didn't stop him from manipulating the War on Terror during the election to frighten the populace with phony terrorist warnings.
He then used terrorism as a pretext to circumscribe the civil liberties of critics, authorizing the NSA, the military, and the CIA to engage in domestic spying. Predictably, they immediately began conducting surveillance on protesters and social groups. Journalists are sure to be on any Bush enemies' list, as well.
In 2005, President Bush created the National Security Service, the first domestic spy agency in our 200-year history, and the National Clandestine Service, which gives the CIA the power to carry out covert operations, spying, and propaganda within the United States and on the American public.
On Bush's watch, the FBI sent out 30,000 National Security Letters that demand access to personal records and make it a felony to reveal the fact of the subpoena to the press.
Feeling safer yet?
This administration has condoned torture and held prisoners without charges. To avoid public scrutiny, the Bush administration has shrouded many of its actions in secrecy, including the establishment of a secret prison system abroad. Their human rights abuses at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and refusal to observe the Geneva Conventions have resulted in virtually every major international human rights organization labeling the U.S. a human rights violator.
Despite its stated concern with national security, Bush White House officials revealed the identity of a CIA agent to retaliate against a critic, Ambassador Joe Wilson, and then lied about it.
In his war on civil rights, Bush developed a new tool that permits totally capricious application of the law. This is the designation "enemy combatant," applicable to anyone that Bush terms a "bad guy." A U.S. citizen, Jose Padilla, was so designated -- even though arrested inside the U.S., unarmed -- and was subsequently held in solitary confinement for more than three years without access to a lawyer or the courts.
Bush has apparently decided that those terrorists who 'hate our freedoms' should have nothing left to hate anymore. One more major terrorist incident, and the Bush administration will turn the "sneak and peek" searches of the Patriot Act into full-time surveillance on American citizens by the Thought Police. The first step will be to ram the draconian "Patriot II" Act through a lap-dog Congress.
There is more.
This anti-science administration has ignored, manipulated or suppressed scientific findings on global warming, missile defense, H.I.V./AIDS, Plan B (morning after pill), misled the public on the number of stem-cell lines available for research, and supported Intelligent Design.
The Bush administration has gutted EPA enforcement of environmental laws at the same time it reversed over 400 environmental regulations governing pollution, forest management and endangered species, lead and mercury poisoning in children, and safety standards for drinking water.
Bush's tax-cut and spend policies have run up a $3 trillion dollar deficit in four years to pay for a trumped-up war, tax cuts for the rich, and corporate welfare. In the same time period, 5.4 million more Americans have fallen below the poverty line and average annual household income has declined by $2,572.
Bush has attacked the separation of church and state, including by forming a multi-billion dollar slush fund in the White House for favored religious groups. He has subcontracted social policy to the American Taliban -- Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the rest -- whose political activities should disqualify their organizations for tax-exempt status but somehow seem to avoid IRS scrutiny.
Remarkably, George Bush did all this in only five years. It will take decades to undo the damage.
People occasionally ask me how it came about that a former official in the Bush White House became a critic of that administration.
Let me count the reasons:
George Bush misled the country about WMD in Iraq and, along with Dick Cheney, repeatedly and deliberately misrepresented Saddam's connection to al Qaeda and 9/11 to lead us into a war that has already put us in hock for a trillion dollars (counting veterans' costs, debt interest, and rebuilding). He then monumentally mismanaged Iraq so that a trumped-up war has become an unwinnable war.
Because of his Iraq obsession, Bush bungled the real War on Terror, allowing bin Laden and al Qaeda to remain at large.
That didn't stop him from manipulating the War on Terror during the election to frighten the populace with phony terrorist warnings.
He then used terrorism as a pretext to circumscribe the civil liberties of critics, authorizing the NSA, the military, and the CIA to engage in domestic spying. Predictably, they immediately began conducting surveillance on protesters and social groups. Journalists are sure to be on any Bush enemies' list, as well.
In 2005, President Bush created the National Security Service, the first domestic spy agency in our 200-year history, and the National Clandestine Service, which gives the CIA the power to carry out covert operations, spying, and propaganda within the United States and on the American public.
On Bush's watch, the FBI sent out 30,000 National Security Letters that demand access to personal records and make it a felony to reveal the fact of the subpoena to the press.
Feeling safer yet?
This administration has condoned torture and held prisoners without charges. To avoid public scrutiny, the Bush administration has shrouded many of its actions in secrecy, including the establishment of a secret prison system abroad. Their human rights abuses at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, and refusal to observe the Geneva Conventions have resulted in virtually every major international human rights organization labeling the U.S. a human rights violator.
Despite its stated concern with national security, Bush White House officials revealed the identity of a CIA agent to retaliate against a critic, Ambassador Joe Wilson, and then lied about it.
In his war on civil rights, Bush developed a new tool that permits totally capricious application of the law. This is the designation "enemy combatant," applicable to anyone that Bush terms a "bad guy." A U.S. citizen, Jose Padilla, was so designated -- even though arrested inside the U.S., unarmed -- and was subsequently held in solitary confinement for more than three years without access to a lawyer or the courts.
Bush has apparently decided that those terrorists who 'hate our freedoms' should have nothing left to hate anymore. One more major terrorist incident, and the Bush administration will turn the "sneak and peek" searches of the Patriot Act into full-time surveillance on American citizens by the Thought Police. The first step will be to ram the draconian "Patriot II" Act through a lap-dog Congress.
There is more.
This anti-science administration has ignored, manipulated or suppressed scientific findings on global warming, missile defense, H.I.V./AIDS, Plan B (morning after pill), misled the public on the number of stem-cell lines available for research, and supported Intelligent Design.
The Bush administration has gutted EPA enforcement of environmental laws at the same time it reversed over 400 environmental regulations governing pollution, forest management and endangered species, lead and mercury poisoning in children, and safety standards for drinking water.
Bush's tax-cut and spend policies have run up a $3 trillion dollar deficit in four years to pay for a trumped-up war, tax cuts for the rich, and corporate welfare. In the same time period, 5.4 million more Americans have fallen below the poverty line and average annual household income has declined by $2,572.
Bush has attacked the separation of church and state, including by forming a multi-billion dollar slush fund in the White House for favored religious groups. He has subcontracted social policy to the American Taliban -- Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the rest -- whose political activities should disqualify their organizations for tax-exempt status but somehow seem to avoid IRS scrutiny.
Remarkably, George Bush did all this in only five years. It will take decades to undo the damage.
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