Who's Gonna Buy You That Library Now, George?

Nice one, George. You've pissed off your so-called "evangelical base" by saying the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally and that evolution is just alright by You. The Jesus Freaks feel used and betrayed.

"It was all a lie!" they wail. "We were used!"

Big deal. Let them bawl. You're no longer any use to them. And with one foot out the door, it's not like You need them anymore either, right?

Wrong.

The jewel of Your historical fiction "legacy" project is the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Selection of wifey Laura's alma mater SMU as the site was done all cloak and dagger-like and shit; chock full of drama and controversy from the word go. Over objections from the "Faculty, Administrators, & Staff" of SMU's Theology School(!), You & Your backers (Karl Rove leading the charge) rammed that sucker through faster than You can say Bail-Out or FISA or The Patriot Act or Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

Good times.

Your everlasting monument to self-delusion is scheduled to break ground next year. Jamming Your -- OK, Dick's -- twisted agenda down Americans' throats as President proved remarkably easy. Standing on the verge of becoming the most unpopular ex-Presidents ever, you'll find raising the scratch for a temple to Yourself far harder. Should've thought of that before You put the tagger at a half-a-billion buckaroos.

$500,000,000. Maybe Poppy does have diamonds stashed in a Basel safety deposit box (it's possible -- he's an ex-CIA Director, ex-Carlyle Group "advisor" & Prescott Bush's son). This is one present Pop ain't gonna buy, Junior. Say for the moment we ignore the absolute fucking insult inherent in the construction of an ridiculously expensive edifice to Your egotism in the midst of a worldwide economic disaster that occurred on Your watch because of Your watch. Where are You going to come up with the K.A.S.H.?

Pop's out. Ordinary Americans? That's chump change, George. You're wicked unpopular and, not that You've noticed, times are hard. You're not gonna get dick from the Captains of Industry or Wall Street either. AIPAC and the like are far too mercenary. Plus they've already moved on. Hell, when even Adelson's strapped, You know You're screwed.

Jimmy Swaggart, newly minted Presidential Medal of Freedom owner Chuck Colson, James Dobson, Tony Perkins -- I confess to have a hard time remembering the ones who still haven't "gone gay" -- these people were the few left standing from which You could squeeze filthy legacy library lucre. Tit for tat turnabout what with all that faith-based initiatives tax-payer cash You spiffed them. You made the Jesus Freaks feel special. It's not like You gave that money to Jews or Muslims or liberal Christians.

You had to blow it. You always blow it. Speaking dismissively of The Bible, You've gone and pissed off the Evangelicals but good. Probably Karl's Mormons too. And "mainstream" Christians. Jesus Christ, George, how long's it gonna take You to get it through your thick skull that the "M" in "SMU" stands for Methodist?!?!

Look, churches depend on gifts too. People who have ever less to give don't take kindly to having their churches' donation plates dumped into a rich man's hole in the ground. The Jesus Freaks, Mormons and Methodists will not risk offending the faithful. They will not give you one red cent.

So, who's gonna buy you that library now, George?

-AF
Cross-posted at TPM Cafe.

Frank Rich Tees Off on McCain. Again.

From today's NY Times Op-Ed, Rich excoriates McCain's Bush-love:

As the G.O.P.’s long night of the long knives begins, myths are already setting in among the right’s storm troops and the punditocracy alike as to what went wrong. And chief among them are the twin curses of Bush and the “headwinds” of the economy. No Republican can win if the party’s incumbent president is less popular than dirt, we keep being told, or if a looming Great Depression 2 is Issue No. 1.This is an excuse, not an explanation. It absolves McCain of much of the blame and denies Obama much of the credit for their campaigns. It arouses pity for McCain when he deserves none. It rewrites history.

And...

Bush’s impact on the next Republican presidential candidate did not have to be so devastating. McCain isn’t, as he and his defenders keep protesting, a passive martyr to a catastrophic administration. He could have made separating himself from Bush the brave, central and even conservative focus of his campaign. Far from doing that, he embraced the Bush ethos — if not the incredible shrinking man himself — more tightly than ever. The candidate who believes in “country first” decided to put himself first and sell out his principles. That ignoble decision is what accounts for both the McCain campaign’s failures and its sleaze. It’s a decision McCain made on his own and for which he has yet to assume responsibility.

Though it seems a distant memory now, McCain was a maverick once. He did defy Bush on serious matters including torture, climate change and the over-the-top tax cuts that bankrupted a government at war and led to the largest income inequality in America since the 1930s. But it isn’t just his flip-flopping on some of these and other issues that turned him into a Bush acolyte. The full measure of McCain’s betrayal of his own integrity cannot even be found in that Senate voting record — 90 percent in lockstep with the president — that Obama keeps throwing in his face.

Uh-Ah!

-AF

They Said It. I Repeat It.

“It must have been a challenge for him to walk so confidently with Woodward's lips attached to his backside."

Bloomberg book critic Craig Seligman describes Bob Woodward's portrayal of George W. Bush in the newly released The War Within.

-AF
(HT: Raw Story)

I Can't Quit You

Last night on Countdown...













Bush's Brain author Jim Moore:

McCain wants his help, he wants his money, but he doesn‘t want his stink. And this president has political stink on him and he is going to have to be kept at a distance.

Not unlike pheromones it's the "political stink" that keeps bringing these two together despite their tempestuous relationship.

-AF

SOTU IGNORU

I confess that I completely ignored George Bush's final State of the Union Address. I rarely watch it but I almost always read it. This year I decided to give it a pass.




The problem is that under lil' George it's become such a half-baked panoply of half-truths, lies and wishful thinking that I can't even make a decent drinking game out of it. If I depended on Bush to tell the truth or make sense to do a shot, I'd die thirsty. Conversely, if I did a shot every time Bush re-wrote history or told a whopper, I'd drink myself blind by 9:30PM EST.

Since I seem incapable of dealing with a George W. Bush SOTU sober and since a George W. Bush SOTU kills my buzz, this year I left Georgie out of the process. I'm glad I did.

AF

NY Times: Bush's Faith & Middle East

There's plenty to question in the reporting for today's piece In The Heart of Islamic World, Bush Puts Forth His Faith. Two of reporter Steven Lee Myer's characterizations made me gag immediately:

Bush's "push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord" and "his unswerving support for Israel." This is a joke.

Bush's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord has been weak at best. He's gone through the motions but has refused to apply an real pressure on Israel for concessions lest he antagonize his administration's many pro-Israeli hawks. He cannot execute his poor execuse for a foreign policy without their "unswerving support." When examined through the prism of his immediate predecessors, the Bush Presidency has been notable largely for his public ambivalence towards Israel. Again, George W. Bush cannot appear to be overly cozy with Israel lest he alienate his Muslim oil business and GWOT partners.

I didn't graduate from Harvard Business school. I did once work in a field where my "clients" offices were spread nationwide. My company was in fierce competition with much larger ones with whom I had to occasionally cooperate. While I had the resources to bring clients to me, it was less disruptive to them and showed more respect for them when I visited their place of business. The same must hold true on the geopolitical stage.

Bush has visited Iraq a handful of times to for purely personal political purposes i.e. to bolster his flawed policy and plummeting approval ratings. If Bush's support for Israel is so "steadfast," he would not have waited until his presidency's very last year for his very first visit. It proves his contempt and complete lack of respect for Israel except as a Biblical symbol and as an emblem of American might in an area of the world where there are few.

In the twilight of his Presidency, having been disgraced and discredited and declared wrong at every turn, Bush has finally become aware that his legacy may not possibly match his delusions. The American people owe it to themselves and the world to elect the least delusional candidate this November.

AF

Our Leader's Response to Saudi Rape Atrocity

via Think Progress: King George speaks to King Abdullah about various things. The Saudi rape case? “I don’t remember if that subject came up.” But it doesn't matter if Bush broached the subject because Abdullah “knows our position loud and clear.” Our position? "And our opinions were expressed by Dana Perino from the pulpit — from the podium." Really? Perino's entire comment on the subject:

I think that the situation is very discouraging and outrageous. There is an appeals process and we hope that the verdict changes. It is certainly not consistent with the judicial reforms that the Saudis have said that they would undertake.

That is not an unambiguous condemnation of a Saudi government for persecuting a Shiite woman brutally raped by 5 Sunni men. It is not one head of state putting direct pressure on another head of state to force the recognition of basic human rights. Instead our President sent a surrogate up to the "pulpit" to say we hope you do better like you told us you would. Bush further diluted his message by his choice of messenger. You don't enlist a diminutive woman who doesn't even hold a cabinet position to deliver a missive to the King of a patriarchal society.

If this had been say Myanmar or Iran, Condi would be screaming bloody murder. But the House of Saud and the Bush family have long been uncomfortably close. And when it comes to Bush's loyal friends, no crime is too large to be ignored.

AF