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DEMOCRACY: Government & Politics | March 14, 2006


A LEGACY OF DAMAGE TO AMERICA:

THE PRESIDENT'S VILE PRECEDENTS ETCETERA

By Douglas Drenkow, Editor of "Progressive Thinking"

A Posting in DailyKos, OpEdNews, Comments From Left Field, & BarryTalk

The vile precedents established by this president must be added to the long and growing list of damages that he and his ilk are inflicting upon America and the world -- a legacy that will haunt us and cripple us for generations yet to come. Let us not be as foolish or arrogant as those who misgovern us; let us never forget or dismiss their betrayals of the public trust:

George W. Bush and his administration have repeatedly and unapologetically lied and otherwise misled our nation and our allies into an unnecessary war, trashing our reputation in the world and costing thousands of Americans their lives, limbs, and loved ones and tens of thousands of innocent civilians overseas even more.

George W. Bush ignored grave warnings and opened a Pandora's Box of ancient, violent ethnic and religious conflict right in the middle of the Middle East -- at the heart of the world of the world's billion Muslims, in the most vital region of our national interests overseas -- without a clue of how to proceed, other than to spout empty platitudes and self-righteous homilies that have little or no connection to the reality that we can see all too well on the ground.

George W. Bush and his administration and their allies in the corporate world have manipulated the media both at home and abroad, deceiving the public and thus betraying the very democracy they claim to uphold, with other people's lives.

George W. Bush has violated treaty after treaty -- in everything from protecting our environment to torturing captives -- made in good faith between our nation and others, thus sullying the good name of America -- branding us not only a rogue state but also a hypocrite, our condemnations of others who violate international obligations now lacking any moral authority.

George W. Bush and his military administration have engaged in "bait and switch" contracts and other tactics more characteristic of confidence men than honorable men, in their dealings with National Guard and other troops and recruits, whose families and veterans and injured and dead are as neglected as were the duties of George W. Bush when he was in service.

George W. Bush continues to blatantly violate explicit federal law -- to trash both the letter and the spirit of the Fourth Amendment to our Constitution -- by authorizing wiretaps without warrant, as if the legislative and judicial branches of the government were irrelevant to his exercise of raw power.

George W. Bush or others in his administration have revealed the identity and, thus, the operation of a covert agent gathering intelligence on terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction in order to protect a lie about those very same threats.

George W. Bush is packing the Supreme Court of the United States with judges for life who have betrayed the fundamental principle of justice by advancing the claims of the powerful at the expense of those less able to defend their rights to life, liberty, or property.

George W. Bush and his administration have let big business ravage the interests of employees, consumers, and the environment -- the vast majority of Americans and our priceless American heritage.

George W. Bush and his allies in Congress have saddled us and our children and countless generations yet to come with record trillions of dollars in debt -- indebting us heavily to foreign powers, inviting disaster, and crippling programs needed by the needy -- in large measure to provide short-term, utterly unnecessary gains for the wealthiest among us.

George W. Bush has hypocritically left children behind, as he withdrew funding he promised for his much touted initiative of education.

George W. Bush and his allies in Congress have lavished upon pharmaceutical and insurance companies hundreds of billions of dollars in new government spending for a program that does them much more good than the old, sick people it was purported to help; the numbers of all Americans who suffer and die without the means to pay for the care they need rising every day, their needless, selfish neglect a crime against humanity. 

George W. Bush and his administration failed to heed the warnings, both in the long term and short, to protect the citizens of New Orleans, the reconstruction of the ruins of this once-great American city now becoming a boondoggle benefiting big business more than the victims of the disaster, much as has been the scandalous case in Iraq.

And never forget that George W. Bush claimed election by votes whose tally did not even come close to matching the same sorts of polls by which his own administration judges the fairness of elections conducted overseas -- the companies counting the votes, with machines that cannot be audited, controlled by staunch allies of the candidate claiming victory.

In case after case, the most serious injury inflicted upon our nation by this failed presidency is a betrayal of the trust of the American people -- a legacy for which all of us will pay long after George W. Bush has left office.

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