Swine of the Week 1/19--The Famous Final Scene

(I did this on Bush's last day in office, and I got my point that I had in head across pretty well)


I just finished reading the latest book by Thomas Friedman called "Hot, Flat and Crowded", and like his other books, you learn a lot and you shake your head at the amazing examples of the wrong way to approach a problem. Of course, the problem in this latest book is Global Warming (and no, we will not be having a debate or discussion about whether it actually exists or not). Friedman covers the spectrum of problems revolving around the problems of fossil fuel gases and the road we are taking or not taking towards cleaner energy.

Since we are into the final few hours of the term of George W Bush, it seems appropriate that his legacy will be a failed public policy that primarily centers around oil. He was an oilman; ok, he was a terrible oilman, but that's splitting hairs. Friedman recites a quote Bush made in his initial campaign for President that he would shape oil policy by the sheer force of his personality and his friendly relations with the Saudi Royal Family and how he would just persuade them to keep oil production so that it was a relatively cheap resource for America. Time has shown that didn't ever really fly. In fact, it was at lengths responsible for what happened on September 11, and everything that has gone down since then. A ten year old child could see that the Saudis are not really our friends, they only do what they need to keep the flow of fancy military hardware flowing into their possession.

But we'll keep the geopolitics to a minimum today. It's the end of an era, not an Era of Good Feeling, but an Era of White Trash, and it can't come soon enough. If the business of America is Business, as another Republican President once said, then George has done to our business what he's done to every other one he's been involved with in his life–run it into the ground.

For all the billions he's poured down the drain to fight enemies unseen, he's not produced a tangible dividend to his shareholders–that would be You and Me, Sport. He has devalued our shares in America Inc. to the point that they are as worthless as a stock certificate for Morgan Stanley.

And yet, like all of his other failed business ventures, he'll walk away scott-free. His own personal wealth won't be affected, he'll still have a roof over his head, and a generous retirement benefit to boot.

I read a piece by David Broder today about how Bush never expected Americans to make a sacrifice after 9/11, a subject that Friedman has also gone into at length in the past. I'm too lazy to find a link for it, you'll just have to go look for it yourself. And it rings true, if we had gone into the War of Terror with the same sort of mentality that we went into World War 2 with, there's a good chance that things would be a lot different today.

Bush never had a vision for America that made any sense to anyone but himself. And for that, he gets the coveted Swine of the Week, a special Undistinguished Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selah