Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega has recently made news urging that we don't rush into appointing a special prosecutor to investigate crimes of torture during George W. Bush's presidency. In a provocative April 20th post entitled "Of Black Holes and Radio Silence," Ms. de la Vega wrote:
It doesn't really matter which poll you consult - Zogby, Pew, Gallup - they all show the same thing: Incoming president Barack Obama is hitting new highs in public support, while outgoing President George W. Bush is hitting new lows.
To be fair, it's like comparing apples and oranges: Bush's record includes 9/11, Katrina, two wars, a controversial re-election, and an economic meltdown of historic proportions. Meanwhile, Obama's record includes a low-key decade as a state senator and U.S. senator.
But there's no denying the numbers are impressive. Even Obama's incoming numbers are handing Bush's a thrashing - a pre-inaugural poll by Pew Research Center finds that 79 percent of Americans have a "favorable impression" of the incoming leader. In 2001, George W. Bush had to make do with 60 percent. Pew reports that Obama even has more optimists on his side.
...
Bush isn't facing downhill numbers alone. Trust in his party is waning as well. A Washington Post-ABC News poll reports that "just 23 percent said they trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle the main problems facing the nation."
It's not a great mystery as to why folks seem to have such a poor opinion of our departing President. He pretty much sucked. I mean, even SNL knew he was going to suck months before he actually took the oath:
It's 5:00 PM in the Eastern time zone, which includes Washington DC. 5:00 PM is the standard end of the workday. It's Friday, the end of the week. Monday is a federal holiday, so the mass of federal employees will not be working. On Tuesday President-elect Barack Obama will become President Barack Obama, our nation's 44th president.
Some White House staff will be kept on for the next few days. Certainly in the defense, foreign policy and domestic security areas there are Bush appointees who will--and should--remain on call or at their desks between now and Tuesday. The could still be some late-night activities happening with some of the legal staff. But in terms of devising, implementing and enforcing policies, as of this moment, the Bush administration is effectively over.
It was exhausting, it was most of the time maddening, infuriating and often embarrassing and even shameful for our government to be led by George W. Bush and his administration. But we have endured. The country is damaged, but not destroyed. President Obama and the Democratic people, the massive and professional civil service, and especially the American people have a great deal of work and struggle before us to restore our country's honor, prestige, respect, security, prosperity and opportunity.
We're all up to that challenge. But before we embark on that, let's let out a sigh of relief, and if you're inclined, now or later tonight, raise your glass and toast to the effective end of the administration and presidency of George W. Bush.
I'm watching our current President depart the White House for the last time as, ya know, President. Apparently, he and Laura are spending the last weekend of his utterly disastrous tenure at Camp David. As I watch this murderous buffoon cross the lawn, I'm consumed with the desire to toss some damn shoes at his arrogant, empty head.
At noon on Tuesday, George W. Bush's tenure in the Oval Office comes to an end. Until then, he still retains the constitutional "Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States." Putting aside for the moment whom Bush might pardon (because we won't actually know until he does it), let's ask if any pardons he issues can be undone, and if so, whether there is a limit to how long after a pardon is issued it can be revoked.
Recently, Bush "unpardoned" New York developer Isaac Robert Toussie the day after he issued the pardon. This provoked a lot of newspaper articles, but very little in the way of actual facts, based on actual history. There appear to be three Supreme Court rulings that may have some effect on this possible situation.
Iraq has been relatively quiet lately, compared to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Gaza, Covina, etc.
But people are still dying there every day, as a direct result of the Bush/Cheney regime's misbegotten war.
In the spirit of the great IGTNT diaries, here's the story of an Army Reserve surgeon who was killed in Iraq this week.
On Christmas Day, a mortar round landed near the living quarters of the 1st Medical Detachment, Forward Surgical Team, in Mosul. It killed Dr. John Pryor, a decorated major who leaves a wife and three small children.
Pryor was educated in public schools in New York, and earned his medical doctorate at the University of New York at Buffalo.
President Bush pardoned a Brooklyn real estate developer accused of scamming hundreds of poor, minority homebuyers - and whose father donated $28,500 to the Republican Party this year.
Bush pardoned Isaac Toussie, 36, two days before Christmas in a gesture of mercy that outraged ex-customers who said they were duped into buying overpriced, defective homes.
"We're in the middle of a mortgage crisis [and] this is somebody who was alleged to have participated in predatory lending practices," said Peter Seidman, a lawyer who represents 460 people who say they were fleeced.
"To pardon Isaac Toussie is a kick in the teeth to homeowners struggling with mortgages they can't afford."
The national media, which has spent the last eight years obsessing over the Marc Rich pardon (which I agree was a mistake on Clinton's part), is, needless to say ignoring it.
Twenty-eight grand for a pardon...not such a bad deal, huh?
Only a day after issuing a presidential pardon to Isaac Robert Toussie, a real estate scammer from Brooklyn, President Bush decided to reverse the pardon, after it emerged that Toussie's father had contributed almost $30,000 to the Republican party.
Pardons are absolute. They can't be reviewed or reconsidered or overturned, even by the president who issued them. According to the White House press release, President Bush had sent a "Master Warrant of Clemency" with 19 names to the Pardon Attorney at DOJ to execute. But he hadn't executed it yet. In other words, the White House is claiming none of these folks had actually been pardoned yet. So the president can just send word now not to 'execute' that one pardon.
A relatively new front-page diary at Daily Kos is the "Abbreviated Pundit Round-up," which snarks about and links to various op-ed pieces, across the political spectrum, that are in that day's newspapers, magazines or websites.
The pundits who make the APR are overwhelmingly nationally known types, which makes sense for a national/international blog; as a result, local columnist/pundits rarely make the grade.
For example, Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News has a column today that ranges from the streets of New York to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme to the Bush/Cheney administration's greedy essence.
Lupica is a former Daily News sportswriter and current sports columnist who occasionally does a political column.
This is pretty amazing. It's the White House's predictions about GDP growth, made at the beginning of 2008:
And here was the plan circa January 2008 for dealing with the downturn in housing:
The Administration has aggressively pursued policies to help deal with current challenges. Facing declines in housing markets of the past two years, the Administration has made proposals for modernization of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)...
[....]
These policies are intended to help provide transition relief-without any direct costly "bailout" from the Federal Government for individuals or institutions that had taken on excessive speculative risk and without interfering with the effective functioning of the free market.
Russia has invaded two so-called "breakaway provinces" that are officially part of the sovereign nation of Georgia. Now, despite of two cease-fire announcements, the Russians are not leaving. In addition, they are threatening to open up a second front by invading Poland.
So whose fault is it?
Clearly, there is a convoluted situation in the area known as South Ossetia. Both South Ossetia and Georgia were annexed by Russia in 1801, but the area has been Balkanized for centuries, and neither the Romanovs nor Soviet rulers were able to change that. Both North and South Ossetians have long fought for unification. North Ossetians tended to be willing to be, if not part of Russia, at least closely associated with that country. South Ossetians, on the other hand, have tended to prefer complete autonomy.
When the Soviet Union split up, North Ossetia remained under Russian rule, and South Ossetia, while technically part of Georgia, fought a minor war that ended with de facto independence of Georgia in 1995.
In 2004, the new Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, moved at first to bring the semi-autonomous region more firmly under Georgian control, but later presented a plan that would cement even more local control by a South Ossetian government. In a 2006 referendum, the people of South Ossetia almost unanimously expressed their desire to split off from Georgia and create their own, independent state. For the past two years, there have been several incidents of violence, generally South Ossetian separatists attacking Georgian military.
Complicating the matter is the high probability that separatists from neighboring Chechnya, a region under Russian control that has been fighting for independence, are hiding in Georgia, and staging attacks from Georgia into Russia.
Over the past two months, the situation has intensified, as the Georgian and South Ossetian military have exchanged several gunfire and mortar attacks, each accusing the other of being the aggressor. Russian military planes have overflown the area in a show of strength and support for South Ossetian separatists.
In early July, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the U.S. would support Georgia's entry into NATO. This just added more fuel to the fire, since Russia has been increasingly uneasy at the appearance that they are being militarily isolated.
Late on August 1, Russian forces entered South Ossetia.
Since the invasion, many political leaders of the western world have officially condemned Russia for their invasion, but aside from some humanitarian aid to Georgia, nobody has done anything about it. Two cease-fire announcements have proven inaccurate. The Russian military invasion has come within shouting distance of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. And now, in protest over the U.S. announcement that it will put an anti-missile system in Poland, Russia is threatening to invade that country as well.
Clearly, Russia bears much of the blame, since they actually invaded a neighboring country in force, and may be planning to annex regions that do not belong to them. But Russia is not alone. The Georgian government has failed to resolve the situation. Regional entities, such as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), have also failed to step up and find a solution. The United Nations has failed as well.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush continues to prove that he is either horribly deluded, or the world's greatest idiot. He actually said, "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," apparently unaware that bullying and intimidation (and invasion) are exactly how he has conducted foreign policy. Great!
This could have been an opportunity for the United States to be the world's diplomatic leader, but it won't happen for two reasons. First, a good case could be made that if Russia weren't feeling so threatened by Bush administration policies (expanding NATO and putting anti-missile systems in former Warsaw Pact countries), they might be willing to negotiate rather than invade. Second, the way George W. Bush has handled this situation already makes it impossible for the United States to have any part of any diplomatic settlement.
This begs another question: Is it possible that George W. Bush wanted this situation?
It is well known that Bush has a fixation on Armageddon. Indeed, many people believe that his invasion of Iraq, with no provocation, and sold to America on a passel of lies, was his attempt to bring Armageddon. Expansion of war into the Caucuses only brings the world closer to a "final war." Certainly the Bush administration's foreign policy in the region seems designed specifically to cause Russia to take military action.
Regardless of whether this speculation is legitimate or plain foolishness, it is clear that George W. Bush deserves much of the blame for the situation as well. He could have spent the last seven years working with the man whose soul he claimed to know to help bring Russia into the 21st century as part of the western world, rather than isolating Russia militarily. He could have adopted a policy of diplomacy over invasion when there is no threat to America. He could have made friends around the world, instead of enemies. He could have tackled the "terrorist threat" head-on, instead of diverting his attention and our resources.
Unfortunately, George W. Bush, whether deluded or idiotic, is certainly unfit for command. And now the price is being paid, not only in our country and Iraq, but in Georgia as well.
I was riding home with my dad today and he brought up a very interesting point. President George W. Bush became the first President of the United States to attend the Olympic Games on foreign soil when he traveled to Beijing over the weekend. My dad, a senior citizen who gets angry when he finds out that his taxpayer dollars are going to fund such trips, asked me this question:
"Who paid for George W. Bush to go to the Olympics?"
"It would be the easiest thing in the world for George W. Bush, given the corrupt proclivities of his administration, to say Roger Clemens is an American hero, Roger Clemens helped children," Emery said in a telephone interview. "It's my belief they have some reason to believe they can get a pardon."
I watched the hearings yesterday. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) really hammered McNamee on false statements that McNamee made and DID admit to making yesterday. So in that regard, if McNamee made false statements and he admits to them, then questions should center on those issues.
But I tend to agree with the basic premise here. We all know that Bush was owner of the Texas Rangers and he is a huge baseball fan. So I could envision a Clemens pardon should we reach that point.
Barbara Slavin, senior diplomatic correspondent for USA Today since 1996 and author of the recently published book, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation (St. Martin's Press), writes that,
"Iran and the United States are like a once happily married couple that has gone through a bitter divorce. Harsh words have been exchanged - husband and wife have come to blows and employed others to inflict more punishment. Apologizing is hard and changing behavior even harder. This relationship is unequal, with one side or the other feeling more vulnerable at any given time and afraid the other will take advantage of concessions."
Vice President Dick Cheney will undergo minor surgery Saturday morning to replace the battery that powers a device implanted in his chest six years ago to monitor his heart and deliver a shock if it ever goes out of rhythm.
So, does this mean that George Bush gets to be President for a day?
