Dec 30 2008
The Decider Wins?
Last night I was lucky enough to get a seat on a 5:30 p.m. Metro ride to Virginia. A headline in a man’s newspaper right next to me caught my eye: “Mrs. Bush Defends Her Husband’s Legacy.” Sarcastically I thought, what is she supposed to do—not defend?
Once home, I felt ready to re-engage with the world of the political. I sat down in my chair with a dinner of diet coke and popcorn. Within five minutes I had changed the channel four times, squirmed 180 degrees around in the chair, and actually felt my face do this crinkled up thing it does when my brain fills with an incredulous “What?” Intentionally, I froze while asking myself, “Okay, what’s going on?”
CNN was jumping between the Bush Legacy (euphemism) and the fighting in the Gaza Strip, volksnews was discussing the birth of Bristol Palin’s baby who I believe has been named Tripp (why am I surprised?) and Chris Mathews’ special “The Decider” started on MSNBC… Mark the day down folks—The Decider won!
The Decider revisits the past eight years in a way that allows the viewer to relive the time as it happened, contextualized within the historic frame in which events unfolded. I consider myself a political junkie and honestly there were aspects in this piece that I had forgotten or wanted to forget when contemplating the years known as Bush-Cheney.
Couple this piece with my Christmas Day viewing of Frost/Nixon (Imagine Entertainment 2008) and no wonder I was squirming. Hell, I have been squirming since 2003…
What has to happen to us before we finally say enough? This country has been here before. This country will continue to arrive at this threshold of power abused if we do not once and for all say enough of this! I wonder: Are we the people really okay with Bush going back to Texas, taking up the life of gentleman rancher, acting as if he did nothing wrong? What of Cheney — the man who continues to manifest unbridled arrogance?
I think I am squirming because it feels like this one is actually going to walk away…
And I bet you loved it during the Clinton years, when he literally did whatever he wanted and nobody would or could touch him.
I hope that the Messiah, Obama the Most Merciful or has lackeys in Congress actually try to prosecute Bush or Cheney or anyone else they decide was a criminal for “war crimes” or whatever other nonsense.
Then you Bush Derangement Syndrome victims will finally be exposed for the fools you are.
By the way, did you read that Obama wants to start issuing executive orders as soon as he takes over so he doesn’t have to wait for Congress to act?
I bet if Bush said something like that you’d scream “arrogance” and “abuse of power” from the rooftops. But since it’s Jesus Hussein Obama you don’t care. See, it’s not actually about abuse of power; you just don’t like power being used at all if it’s by someone who isn’t doing your socialist bidding.
http://poorrepublican.today.com/
Funny how people just leap to conclusions, innit? Like me, for example. I see the tag “poor republican”, and I read it as “take pity on my tiny brain and lack of intelligence” poor, not “I’m flat broke, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a bigot” poor.
CSC is a bum, don’t pay attention to him.
http://www.democrats.com/
Not much we can do, I’ve definitely filled out a lot of the petitions they have on this site though. I know it put my mind at ease a little bit to do it.
Good article! Bush has been a disaster for this country. Clinton was way better.
I’ll probably get tarred and feathered for this, but i think Nixon was a great, if terribly flawed, president. He was innovative and bold and shaped politics and the international order in ways that were good, as opposed to W. While he was wrong to do what he did in Watergate, his two Dem predecessors did things that were bad or worse (like illegally tapping the phones of civil rights leaders, including MLK), but the media and the Democratic-controlled Congress were all too ready to cover for them. And Mark Felt was no hero. He was trying to get back at Nixon for not appointing him to the post of FBI Director. Given the abuses of Hoover’s FBI, Nixon was right to go with an outsider named L. Patrick Gray (Felt was the ultimate insider). Then Felt started leaking to the Post, with the lame excuse that the White House was “interfering” with the Bureau’s investigation of Watergate. But it is a fact that the White House was not interfering. Felt was just trying to exact revenge, and he did it.
I love these right wing types who can’t possibly defend Bush so they jump back to Clinton. Did Clinton abuse power? Of course. Every president abuses their power some way. But since we don’t live in a world of black and white absolutes no matter how much the bozos on either side want to paint it that way, we need to look at the ramifications of the abuses of power. With Bush, we’ve got thousands dead for absolutely nothing, our rights chipped away, and the soul of our nation tarnished. Where does anything that Clinton ever did even come close to that?
@Jason and all: I began a comment here, but it grew far to extensive to post as a comment. I hope you don’t mind here at Polianiac. Love the blog. Keep up the great debate.
-Kevin
http://rantsandraves.today.com/2009/01/02/in-response-to-the-debate-at-polianiac/
I suppose I should have mentioned that my comment became a post at http://rantsandraves.today.com/2009/01/02/in-response-to-the-debate-at-polianiac/
for any who are interested in furthering the discussion. Doh! ~smacks self in head~
Excellent site and I love the way you tell it like it is. I try to stay out of politics but, for the first time in years I registered to vote this year in the hopes that the reign of the Republican would we over.