Archive for category Bush Failures
A Complete Failure of Our Political System
Posted by Glenden Brown in Bush Failures, Iraq on March 20, 2013
From Kos:
Of all the people in that video, the only ones to get it right were the ones outside the White House protesting—and they didn’t even get a full sentence of coverage. It’s yet another example of how Iraq represented a complete failure of our political system . . .
I don’t think anyone in America’s political or media establishment has effectively grappled with their personal culpability for the Iraq fiasco. A lot of people who knew better went along. The voices speaking out against the war were ignored and silenced.
Krugman on the dynamic that still plays out in American politics:
The really striking thing, during the run-up to the war, was the illusion of consensus. To this day, pundits who got it wrong excuse themselves on the grounds that “everyone” thought that there was a solid case for war. Of course, they acknowledge, there were war opponents — but they were out of the mainstream.
The trouble with this argument is that it was and is circular: support for the war became part of the definition of what it meant to hold a mainstream opinion. Anyone who dissented, no matter how qualified, was ipso facto labeled as unworthy of consideration. This was true in political circles; it was equally true of much of the press, which effectively took sides and joined the war party.
I’m thinking about systems stuff lately and the Iraq war represented a massive breakdown but it didn’t happen overnight. The Clinton impeachment nonsense was part of the breakdown. The election of 2000 was part of the breakdown. The arrogance and hubris of the followed the first Gulf War was part of the breakdown.
What Economic Recovery?
Posted by Richard Warnick in Bush Failures, Capitalism, Disaster, Economic Exploitation, Economy, Unemployment on March 5, 2013
Recently we learned that real disposable income was down in January, partly due to the payroll tax hike that was part of the “fiscal cliff” deal. The federal government went over the so-called “cliff” anyway.
Today there was a party on Wall Street as the Dow Jones industrial average reached a record high shortly after the opening bell. It’s on track to close above the previous record of 14,164 reached on Oct. 9, 2007. It’s up 7.8 percent for the year. Some call it a “TINA market,” for “there is no alternative.” Interest on savings and bond yields are at rock bottom due to Fed policy, forcing investors to rely on stocks.
However, as Pat Garofalo points out on Think Progress, workers’ wages as a percentage of the economy are hovering near record lows.
Hey, check out what happened with wages during the Clinton administration (1993-2000). Only time since 1970 that wages recovered after a recession.
As Quartz’s Matt Phillips put it, “in many ways Americans are still sucking wind after the gut punch they suffered in 2008.” In fact, the richest 1 percent of Americans have captured 121 percent of the income gains achieved during the current recovery, meaning everyone else has actually lost ground in terms of income since the economy bottomed out.
Those jobs we lost in Bush’s Great Recession have either not come back, or they have been replaced by lower-paying jobs. Party on, Wall Street.
UPDATE:
Robert Reich: Why There’s a Bull Market for Stocks and a Bear Market for Workers
Rarely before in American history have public policies so radically helped the most fortunate among us, so cruelly harmed the least fortunate, and exposed so many average working Americans to such widespread insecurity.
UPDATE:
OOPS: Financial Pundits Predicted The Stock Market Would Plunge Under Obama
National Rifle Association Has Turned the Second Amendment Into a Cruel and Deadly Hoax
Posted by Cliff Lyon in 2nd Second Amendment, Activist groups, Alan Korwin, assault weapons, Bush Failures, Gabrielle Giffords, Gun Control, John Lott, Mass Shooting, NRA, Republicans, Society, Some people should not own guns, Supreme Court, The Constitution on December 21, 2012
The NRA is the enabler of death-paranoid, delusional and as venomous as a scorpion. With the weak-kneed acquiescence of our politicians, the National Rifle Association has turned the Second Amendment of the Constitution into a cruel and deadly hoax. – Bill Moyers
NRA Enabler of death
Bill Moyers Essay: Living Under the Gun from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
The procession of funerals of innocent children under the casual gaze of the gun lobby and 2nd Amendment zealots, reminds us that our public spaces are no longer safe. This is the antithesis of freedom and civic life. Americans must rise up now against this terror and demand basic security for unarmed people.
Watch Bill O’Reilly Steam and Explode
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), Bush Failures, Crimes, Neocons on October 28, 2012
This is from a long time ago, but that is insignificant in the scheme of things.
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Shut Up! Is all they got.
NYT: President Bush Ignored CIA Warnings Before August 6th PDB
Posted by Richard Warnick in 9/11, Bush Administration, Bush Failures, Disaster, National Politics, Terrorism on September 11, 2012
On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) with the headline: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” The PDB (partially declassified in 2004 as a result of the 9/11 Commission investigation) predicted an al-Qaeda attack on New York’s World Trade Center. Bush stayed on vacation in Texas, going fishing the next day.
In yesterday’s New York Times, Kurt Eichenwald reports on the contents of prior PDBs that the Bush administration kept secret (emphasis added):
While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it.
The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent.” …
…And the C.I.A. repeated the warnings in the briefs that followed. Operatives connected to Bin Laden, one reported on June 29, expected the planned near-term attacks to have “dramatic consequences,” including major casualties. On July 1, the brief stated that the operation had been delayed, but “will occur soon.”
…Throughout that summer, there were events that might have exposed the plans, had the government been on high alert. Indeed, even as the Aug. 6 brief was being prepared, Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi believed to have been assigned a role in the 9/11 attacks, was stopped at an airport in Orlando, Fla., by a suspicious customs agent and sent back overseas on Aug. 4. Two weeks later, another co-conspirator, Zacarias Moussaoui, was arrested on immigration charges in Minnesota after arousing suspicions at a flight school. But the dots were not connected, and Washington did not react.
The Bush administration was the worst in our history. And their irresponsible behavior prior to the 9/11 attacks was just one of their string of catastrophic failures.
UPDATE: Speaking to CBS “This Morning” Eichenwald explained that the neocons in the Bush administration ignored repeated warnings about al-Qaeda because they were already fixated on Iraq.
“The worst of them, the neoconservatives at the Pentagon, as the CIA was coming in and saying al Qaeda is going to attack, said, ‘Oh, this is just a false flag operation. Bin Laden’s just trying to take our eye off of the real threat, Iraq.’ And so there are presidential daily briefs that are literally saying, ‘No, they’re wrong. This isn’t fake. It’s real.’”
“In the aftermath, the White House and others said, ‘Well, they didn’t tell us enough.’ No. They told them everything they needed to know to go on a full alert, and the White House didn’t do it.”
UPDATE: Romney Adviser Calls Foreign Policy A ‘Distraction’. Uh-oh.
While it seems clear that the so-called “Cheney-ites” are running things behind the scenes, Romney has avoided much public discussion of foreign policy. Even his own advisers and supporters have no idea what Romney’s foreign policy is.
UPDATE: Cheney bashes Obama for not paying attention to intelligence briefings. Not true of course, it’s another example of GOP projection.
UPDATE: Chris Matthews: Republicans would have blamed Obama for 9/11
Faux News: President Obama Lost 8.8 Million Jobs
Posted by Richard Warnick in 4th Estate (Media), Barack Obama, Bush Failures, Disaster, Economy, Lying, National Politics, Republicans, Unemployment on August 17, 2012
via Media Matters:
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade falsely claimed that the economy has lost 8.8 million jobs under President Obama’s stewardship, a staggeringly false comment devoid of any relationship to reality.
The Associated Press report Kilmeade was referring to stated:
The economy shed a staggering 8.8 million jobs during and shortly after the recession. Since employment hit bottom, the economy has created just over 4 million jobs. So the new hiring has replaced 46 percent of the lost jobs…
That recession began in 2007 and concluded in 2009. Obama’s tenure began in 2009. There are currently more private sector jobs in the economy than when Obama came into office.
In reality, the Bush administration presided over the first net loss of jobs since Herbert Hoover. From January 2001 through March 2004, America lost more than 1.6 million jobs overall, and more than 2.4 million jobs in the private sector. And that was only Bush’s FIRST recession. By comparison, the Obama administration has turned the massive job losses from Bush’s Great Recession into gains. At the same point in President Bush’s term, the total number of private sector jobs was still down 1.7 percent from where it began.
Source: Think Progress
Yes, the economy is struggling under the continuing burden of tax cuts for the rich and public sector layoffs. The Obama administration could have done, or at least attempted, much more in the way of economic recovery. But the Faux News can’t get away with blaming Obama for Bush’s Great Recession. The Republicans must answer for that!
The Consequences of the Invasion of Iraq – Exactly the Opposite of What the Bushies Proposed
Posted by Glenden Brown in American People, Bush Administration, Bush Failures, Disgrace to the Military, Iraq, Liars (politics), Military, Military Industrial Complex, Neocons, Proof Bush Lied on July 14, 2012
In a devastating article, Dan Froomkin observes:
Ten bloody and grueling years later, Iraq is finally emerging from its ruins and establishing itself as a geopolitical player in the Middle East — but not the way the neocons envisioned.
Though technically a democracy, Iraq’s floundering government has degenerated into a tottering quasi-dictatorship. The costs of the war (more than $800 billion) and reconstruction (more than $50 billion) have been staggeringly high. And while Iraq is finally producing oil at pre-war levels, it is trying its best to drive oil prices as high as possible.
Most disturbing to many American foreign policy experts, however, is Iraq’s extremely close relationship with Iran. Today, the country that was formerly Iran’s deadliest rival is its strongest ally.
In other words, the Neo Cons were not just wrong but absolutely 100% wrong, their predictions turned out exactly 180 degrees from what actually happened.
Predicting what’s next in Iraq is next to impossible. In virtually no scenario, however, do things turn out how the neocons intended.
“Whatever [the war] was about, which was never entirely explained, it hasn’t worked out terribly well,” said Freeman, “and in fact Iraq continues to evolve in ways that are, if not fatal to American interests, certainly negative.”
At this point, I’m even more certain the Iraq war was not worth what it cost. It was a colossal waste of time, resources, lives – an exercise in imperial vanity and posturing that was so destructive in every imaginable way, more costly, more ruinous than anyone predicted.
We need a national truth and reconciliation commission. We need it now.
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