A Fond Farewell


Adam Zyglis, editorial cartoonist for the Buffalo News, summed it up pretty well for me in this cartoon that appeared in yesterday's paper. I'm sure, if he'd had more room, he would've added the screwy hiring methods of Alberto Gonzales and the judicial hirings, lack of scientific progress in stem cell research, Exxon Mobil's generation of the largest quarterly corporate profits in human history. I could go on...

I try no to be too overtly political in my commenting. I would never want to purposely offend friends, family, or any of my clients. So I only have you to vent to.

Every time I've seen President Bush selectively recounting his two terms in office it makes me ill. His greatest claim is that he's kept America safe from terrorists since September 11, 2001. If you buy into the fact that his presidency started on September 12, 2001, that is an accurate statement of fact.

If you consider that his presidency started in January, 2001, which it did, then it is also fact that the greatest terrorist attack in American history since Pearl Harbor happened on his watch. And THAT was not keeping America safe by any stretch. That's not getting enough play in the press.

Nearly 3,000 people died in that attack. 4,200 Americans have died in the Iraq war. That's nearly 7,200 Americans that have died in terrorist attacks and an unrelated war on a country that neither terrorized us, nor had the capacity to terrorize us.

This is not including the estimated 150,000 Iraqi lives lost. Just because they're not American lives does not lessen the loss. That's also the single greatest loss of lives since the Vietnam War. And this has made us safe how?

And he has not even mentioned the current Israeli/Palestinian "conflict." The same conflict, of which, a year ago he said he was going to help settle before the end of his presidency. Even at the time he made those comments I thought he was delusional. Turns out he is.

And where is Osama Bin Laden? The guy he wanted "dead or alive?"

And I don't even want to discuss what a mess retirees would be in now had he gotten any traction four years ago with the retirement investment accounts based on the stock market he proposed.

Now, looking back. I feel as though everyone that voted for him to have a second term should apologize to those of us that didn't. During his first term, I thought that his presidency was just a small four-year setback, a momentary blip, in the always-forward progression of our country. It now may take a generation to undo the mess and debt he's left us.

He can take his millions in past and future compensation from his time as president and settle into a good life in retirement, leaving the country much worse than when he came into office. Much like the corporate CEOs he's taken to (verbal) task as a lame duck president.

My house and or apartments in the past have been broken into, and I've had stuff stolen. Has that ever happened to you? I remember a mixture of the emotions of intense helplessness and rage. That is the same feeling I get when I see President Bush defending his years in office. I'm glad he made hard decisions. I just wish, for all our sakes, he'd made the right ones.

Good bye and good riddance.

Comments

  1. No where more apropos is the axiom "a picture is worth a thousand words" than here.

    I can't watch P. Bush speak. If I see him on TV I grab the remote and mute him. However, I don't think he is solely responsible for the plight we find ourselves in. I think he's just a very convenient scapegoat. Not to say that he's flawless, hell no. His mistakes are aplenty. Grace

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  2. Grace,
    I know he's not solely responsible for all this. Congress passed to him the responsibility of attacking Iraq. I'm not happy with my own representatives for having done that. And I know Abu Graib was not his doing. And some of the problems we're having started before his tenure in office. I guess if he was more aware or repentant for some of his own decisions and take responsibility for the failures of others in his administration, since he's the boss, I'd have more respect and pity for him. He's got another day left. I'm betting he "pre" pardons members of his cabinet before he departs.

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  3. Well, Jim, the good thing is...his time is nearly past (thank all the Gods and saints and spirits and voters) and a new day IS coming. I've been glued to CNN the past couple of days, and am so proud and happy for my American friends and neighbours. It'll get better. And I think some of the karma is going to flow this way too (our arsehole prime minister has gotten a bit humble the past few weeks, what with a new Liberal leader here and a new President in the US). It's all good. I LOVE the cartoon, by the way; political cartoonists are as essential to my day as coffee.

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  4. jodi,
    A new day is coming. As much as tomorrow is a unprecedented historical moment, I think it is also a turning point for the US. A chance for us to get the country moving forward on the right trajectory again. We veered off a while ago.

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  5. Thanks for ranting for me! The only other thing I can add is that my rep is Senator Russ Feingold so I have one thing I've been able to be proud of during this whole debacle. Obama is only the third time I've voted for a winning presidential candidate since 1968 — so I refuse to be held responsible for much of this mess.

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  6. Ms. Wis,
    Wow. You don't have a very good presidential voting record. Glad you had a good year this year!

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