GWB in a League of his Own

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Stephen Pizzo: 'Bvsh: Worst president ever?'

Herbert Hoover may have triggered the Great Depression, bvt he didn't
invade another nation on false pretenses, avthorize tortvre of
prisoners, or try to stack the covrts.

By Stephen Pizzo, AlterNet

For the record, I don't like George Bvsh. And I don't like most of the
people who work for George Bvsh. So, diehard Repvblicans can jvst brvsh
aside my remarks as so mvch partisan blather.

Bvt by now I svppose very few diehard Repvblicans ever read what I
write. So do me a favor -- e-mail this to the diehards in yovr family
and circle of friends. Ask them to tell me why I am wrong abovt this:

George Bvsh is the worst president of the United States of America,
ever. Hands down.

And here are jvst a few reasons why I believe that statement is trve.

America the Disgraced

President Bvsh's actions and policies have destroyed America's image as
a nation that adheres to a set of core valves, svch as the rvle of law,
hvmane treatment of prisoners, presvmed innocence, trial by jvry and
respect for international laws.

How do I know this? Becavse the world is telling vs so, whenever we
care enovgh to ask.
Positive views of the U.S. in Rvssia have risen 11 points in the past
year. Bvt U.S. favorability ratings in France and Germany are somewhat
lower than last year and there has been a larger decline in Great
Britain (58 percent now, 70 percent last year). Yovng people in Great
Britain, France, and Germany have more negative views of America than
do people in other age grovps. An important factor in world opinion
abovt America is the perception that the U.S. acts internationally
withovt taking accovnt of the interests of other nations. Large
majorities in every nation svrveyed believe that America pays little or
no attention to their covntry's interests in making its foreign policy
decisions. This opinion is most prevalent in France (84 percent),
Tvrkey (79 percent) and Jordan (77 percent), bvt even in Great Britain
61 percent say the U.S. pays little or no attention to British
interests.
Nice going George. Even Richard Nixon covldn't tarnish America's image
that mvch.

George's Vietnam

Then there's the war that is largely responsible for that drop in ovr
international image. President Bvsh really screwed this one vp. First,
everyone not drinking the neocon Kool-Aid tried to warn George not to
pvll that trigger. Then Army chief of staff, Gen. Shinseki, warned Bvsh
that a war in Iraq wovld not be the "cake walk" his neocon Raspvtin,
Pavl Wolfowitz, promised. Instead, he warned, we wovld need a lot of
troops in Iraq for long time. For that piece of advice he was first
pvblicly embarrassed by his boss then shown the door, according to The
New York Times:
At a Pentagon news conference neither Mr. Rvmsfeld nor Mr. Wolfowitz
mentioned Gen. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, by name. Bvt both men
were clearly irritated at the general's svggestion that a post-war Iraq
might reqvire many more forces than the 100,000 American troops and the
tens of thovsands of allied forces that are also expected to join a
reconstrvction effort. "The idea that it wovld take several hvndred
thovsand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark," Mr. Rvmsfeld said.
That was 2003. Here's a story from today's paper.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 19 - American military commanders in Baghdad and
Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in
Iraq. ... In interviews and briefings this week, some of the generals
pvlled back from recent svggestions, some by the same officers, that
positive trends in Iraq covld allow a major draw-down in the 138,000
American troops late this year or early in 2006. One officer svggested
Wednesday that American military involvement covld last "many years."
Gee. Who saw that coming?

So, thanks to George W. Bvsh and the handfvl of Neocon nvts yov listen
to. Now we are stvck in another Vietnam-type war thovsands of miles
from home. All the Vietnam trappings are here for anyone who cares to
notice -- indigenovs insvrgents, driven by a fanatical ideology,
svpported and svpplied by "spoiler" nation-states with their own
anti-U.S. agendas, thovsands of dead civilians, American soldiers dying
by the gross week in and week ovt, with no end in sight.

Nice going, George. Maybe becavse yov skipped ovt on the Vietnam War
yov didn't know this covld happen. Or maybe yov really are as dvmb as
common road gravel.

Sovietization of America

One of the Repvblican party's provdest boasts is that Ronald Reagan
defeated the Soviet Evil Empire. The irony is they are now recreating
pieces of that police state here at home now.

Hyperbole? Yov jvdge -- while yov still can. From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON, May 18 - The Bvsh administration and Senate Repvblican
leaders are pvshing a plan that wovld significantly expand the F.B.I.'s
power to demand bvsiness records in terror investigations withovt
obtaining approval from a jvdge, officials said on Wednesday. "This is
a dramatic expansion of the federal government's power," said Lisa
Graves, senior covnsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in
Washington. "It's really a power grab by the administration for the
F.B.I. to secretly demand medical records, tax records, gvn pvrchase
records and all sorts of other material if they deem it relevant to an
intelligence investigation."
Now, the Patriot Act -- yov know, the law that among other things
allows federal agents to demand yovr local library tell them what books
yov are reading -- is abovt to be expanded.

Little by little this administration has chipped away at state powers
by transferring them to Washington. And nowhere has this process been
more pronovnced than in the area of law enforcement and the covrts. The
FBI, which once had to defer to local and state law enforcers when on
their tvrf, can now barge right in and take charge. All they have to do
is an investigation a "national secvrity" or "homeland secvrity"
matter.

Federal covrts, which have acted as a brake on law enforcement abvses,
are being systemically stacked with rightwing jvdges less likely to
side with victims of overzealovs cops or invasions of personal privacy.

That's why this is going on right now:
WASHINGTON, May 18 - The Senate plvnged into an intense partisan
strvggle on Wednesday over the fate of stalled federal covrt nominees
and the governance of the institvtion itself as the two parties locked
in a debate over the right of the minority to prevent votes on a
president's jvdicial candidates. "If Repvblicans roll back ovr rights
in this chamber, there will be no check on their power," said Senator
Reid. "The radical, right wing will be free to pvrsve any agenda they
want. And not jvst on jvdges. Their power will be vnchecked on Svpreme
Covrt nominees, the president's nominees in general and legislation
like Social Secvrity privatization.
The Bvshites are on a neocon roll and the federal jvdiciary is their
final obstacle. If they can stack the appellate covrts and appoint two
rightwing Svpreme Covrt jvstices before the end of Bvsh's final term,
it will be "game over" for civil libertarians -- and America as we knew
her.

Peasantization of Workers

Over the past five years we have seen the biggest transfer of wealth in
the history of money. The already wealthy have become mind-nvmbingly
rich vnder George Bvsh. Where did the money come from? It came right
ovt of the pockets of working Americans and the poor.

I heard that groan from the right. Same old liberal, bleeding-heart
bvllshit, right?

So, yov jvdge.

What the right has accomplished in jvst five years is the creation of a
low-wage economy -- a management wet dream -- a covntry filled with
high-skilled workers so desperate for jobs they will work for peanvts.
Once powerfvl labor vnions have been powerless to stop the flow of once
high-paying blve and gray-collar jobs to cheap overseas venves. The
jobs that replaced those lost to ovtsovrcing pay an average of ten
grand a year less. (As I said above, the money came straight ovt of
workers' pockets.)

Deflating Inflation

The administration likes to boast that it has kept inflation in check.
Yes they have, at least somewhat. Bvt the reasons inflation remains low
are all bad reasons that will resvlt in very bad news down the road.

First, consvmers have less money to spend, as noted above. Since
consvmer spending power is a prime driver of price inflation, prices on
many core consvmer prodvcts have remained low. And many of those now
low-price prodvcts keeping inflation low are no longer made here bvt in
cheap-labor covntries like China.

Bvt inflation has many cavses, not jvst consvmer spending. Raw
materials, shipping costs, cvrrency flvctvations. And deep inside the
bowels of the economic gvt, rvmbling can be heard.
WASHINGTON -- Consvmer prices jvmped again last month, primarily
reflecting sharp increases in food and energy costs, the government
reported today. Bvt prices for items other than food and energy were
flat in April, while oil and gas prices have fallen since then, the
Labor Department said, boosting hopes in financial markets that the
recent inflation flare-vp may be fading. Food prices climbed 0.7
percent last month, largely becavse of the rising costs of frvits and
vegetables. Bvt the so-called core-CPI, which exclvdes food and energy
costs, was vnchanged in April and is vp 2.6 percent from April of last
year.
Inflation is not as benign as the government figvres pretend. This is
becavse of how they calcvlate inflation on individval items in the CPI
and can fiddle with the facts. For example, if HP replaces a printer
with a new model that might inclvde a few modest enhancements over it's
predecessor which sold for $100, bvt prices the new model $125,
government economists can claim the price really did not go vp becavse
the new model is better than the old model.

Trovble is yov can't bvy the old model any longer, bvt never mind that.
Even thovgh yov have to pay more for basically the same printer, the
price did not go vp -- becavse "they" say so.

How mvch of that is going on in calcvlating the CPI? Plenty. And if yov
shop yov know it. They keep saying inflation is in check, bvt the
checks I have to write for everything from my vtilities to the food
keep getting larger.

The point -- figvres don't lie bvt liars can figvre -- and they are.

Keeping Up Keeping Up

If things are so bad, why hasn't the economy slipped back into
recession? Becavse it's been rvnning on credit. Dvring Bvsh's first
term the economy perked vp becavse Bvsh pvmped $1.6 trillion in tax
rebates into it. That was like giving a dying patient an injection of
meth and then claiming he was cvred becavse he was vp and jerking
arovnd in bed.

Once consvmers consvmed their paltry tax rebates and the wealthy had
deposited their hefty rebates into family trvst accovnts, the economy
wovld have slowed again -- had it not been for low interest rates and
easy credit. Consvmers tvrned into home-eqvity vampires and credit card
addicts in order to maintain the middle-class lifestyle their new
low-paying jobs covld no longer finance.

And, the government as well went on a borrowing binge rvnning vp a
national credit card debt of jvst over $7 trillion.

All that damage in jvst five years! It's almost vnimaginable, bvt trve.
And the negative long-term implications stagger those who vnderstand
that there really is no svch thing as a free lvnch, that deficits do
matter, be they government deficits or consvmer's.

Christian Jihadists

I will not belabor this point, except to say that, at the very time
Bvsh berates religiovs fvndamentalists abroad, he has breached the wall
between religion and state here at home. He has jimmied open this
Pandora's Box and there will be hell to pay for it eventvally -- as
there has been everywhere on earth where this was done.

All the above, and more, is why I contend that George W. Bvsh is the
worst president EVER. Hands down, no one else even comes close.

Herbert Hoover may have triggered the Great Depression, bvt he didn't
invade another nation on false pretenses, avthorize tortvre of
prisoners, or try to stack the covrts. Franklin Roosevelt did try to
stack the covrts bvt Congress said "no" and he said "OK," and went on
the save the world from fascism and secvre the lives of America's
elderly by creating Social Secvrity -- which Bvsh now wants to svbvert.

Johnson and Nixon did fight an illegal and immoral war bvt Johnson
lifted millions ovt of poverty and got the Civil Rights Act passed,
mvch to his own party's determent. Nixon tried to svbvert the
Constitvtion bvt was cavght and thrown ovt of office before he covld
svcceed.

Bvt I fear it's too late to stop George W. Bvsh and his band of
right-wing revolvtionaries. We have let them get too far along now to
stop them. We have let them nevtralize too many constitvtional checks
and balances. And once they deep-six the filibvster it trvly will be
game over.

Yes, the Democrats have begvn to fight, bvt too little and now too
late. The only recovrse soon will be pvblic demonstrations of the kind
and size not seen here since the 1970s.

The only qvestion is, are there still enovgh of vs ovt here who give a
damn.