Home > Political Ranting > Worst. President. Ever.

Worst. President. Ever.

February 25th, 2006

I figured that I’d spend a little time trying to come up with a list of the outrageously stupid, criminal, and incompetent things George W. Bush has done. I found that making the list was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and the offenses just kept piling up–and I am certain that I am still missing a whole bunch of stuff. Here’s what I could come up with, without even doing so much as a Google search:

  • Has threatened long-cherished US freedoms, liberties and civil rights
  • Has consistently used fear and fake security “alerts” to bolster his popularity and sabotage political opponents
  • Pretended not to have links to corrupt figures like Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff, not to mention being in the pocket of the Saudis
  • Has overseen rampant cronyism, mismanagement in many government agencies like FEMA
  • Stayed on vacation and let New Orleans drown for several days while he did nothing
  • Raced back from vacation to sign Terri Schiavo legislation that was later proven wrongful
  • Staged fake relief operations in Louisiana as photo ops for himself while halting actual rescue operations during his visits
  • Took more time off on vacation than any president in history, about 20% of total time in office
  • Allowed energy industry to write US energy policy
  • Signed legislation designed to benefit pharmaceutical industry against interest of the American people
  • Signed legislation designed to benefit banking & credit industry against interest of the American people
  • Abrogated multiple international treaties the U.S. had signed and long honored
  • Turned international trust, respect and sympathy for the U.S. into contempt, anger, and suspicion
  • Allowed the 9/11 attacks on his watch though his administration had multiple warnings and more than enough evidence to stop them
  • Fought attempts to investigate 9/11 mismanagement at every turn
  • Despite massive spending on “security,” has underfunded domestic security
  • Has left US ports unprotected and mostly unchecked, gave control of some to country where 9/11 hijackers came from
  • Failed to follow up on policies urged by 9/11 commission
  • Failed to capture Osama bin Laden
  • Has enabled al Qaeda to make massive recruitments
  • Lied about Iraq having “massive stockpiles” of WMD
  • Lied about Iraq being close to completing a nuclear weapon
  • Lied about Iraq trying to buy uranium
  • Lied about Iraq’s ties with al Qaeda
  • Lied about Saddam Hussein’s involvement in 9/11
  • Lied about his early intent to invade Iraq
  • Established dangerous and unethical policy of pre-emptive warfare
  • Mismanaged the War in Iraq from the start
  • Initially tried to avoid Congressional or U.N. approval for Iraq War before flip-flopping
  • Failed to build a coalition that could succeed in winning a long-term war in Iraq
  • Failed to prepare an exit strategy from Iraq
  • Failed to send enough troops as per the advice of the generals
  • Failed to supply troops with necessary gear, especially armor
  • Allowed massive looting of everything except oil fields
  • Lied about the cost of the war
  • Tried to hide flag-draped coffins, does not take time to even sign letters to families
  • Has allowed massive corruption and mismanagement causing billions of US tax dollars to be stolen
  • Stacked Iraqi press office with GOP operatives during election to fabricate “good” news
  • Administration blew cover of CIA operative in retribution for operative’s husband exposing Bush lie about Iraq
  • Turned a historic budget surplus into a string of record deficits
  • Has overseen weakest overall job growth in nearly a century
  • Has never used a veto while Republicans in Congress go on biggest pork-barrel spending spree in history
  • Has stacked the Supreme Court with ultraconservatives who will destroy Roe v. Wade and dismantle civil rights
  • Has consistently short-changed troops, taken away benefits, treated them like crap while constantly using them as window dressing for his photo ops and speeches
  • Anemic “recovery” from recession is the weakest and latest-coming in more than half a century
  • Has overseen a surge of McJobs: low-paying and benefit-free employment exploding
  • Ignored Middle East until situation festered, oversaw terrorist group Hamas gaining power in Palestine
  • Ignored North Korea and allowed its nuclear program to go unchecked
  • Ignored Iran and allowed its nuclear program to go unchecked
  • Did not object in the slightest when “ally” Pakistan gave nuclear secrets to Iran and others then pardoned leaker
  • Instigated culture of torture, created secret prisons for that purpose, defended use of torture
  • Oversaw sending of “suspects” to be tortured in third-party countries
  • Has given multiple massive tax cuts and payoffs to wealthy individuals and to industries while short-changing lower- and middle-class Americans
  • Paid journalists to say good things about him and his programs without disclosing payments
  • Paid Iraqi journalists to report slanted news
  • Lied about whether he’d apply an abortion litmus test to Supreme Court nominees
  • Used taxpayer dollars to pay for ads for his campaign, disguised ads as fake “news reports”
  • Mismanaged US military until stretched so thin it is unable to do anything more
  • Mismanaged US military until recruitment crisis has developed
  • Deliberately withheld true cost of Medicare bill from Congress, threatened job of actuary who wanted to reveal truth
  • Sent thousands of US soldiers to die, tens of thousands to be maimed, then joked about not finding WMD
  • Has sabotaged clean air and water regulations in favor of industry and to the detriment of the environment
  • Underfunded education programs and pushed failed testing policies
  • Slashed funding for welfare, education and housing while allowing record spending on weapons systems, wars, and wealthy people
  • Has consistently suppressed scientific evidence that disagrees with his policies
  • Supported “intelligent design” and pushed for it to be taught equal to evolution in public schools
  • Smeared long list of former administration officials and agents who spoke out against him, including Paul O’Neill, Joseph Smith, Lawrence Lindsay, Anthony Zinni, Eric Shinseki, Richard Foster, John DiIulio, Scott Ritter, Joseph Wilson, and Richard Clarke
  • Has been uniformly hostile to homosexuals and their rights
  • Has consistently attacked the separation of church and state
  • Authorized illegal wiretapping on American citizens
  • Lied about obtaining court warrants for wiretaps before the program was made public
  • Lied excessively about his reasons for authorizing illegal wiretaps
  • Pretended to speak to the American public but closed events and only allowed in supporters even when taxpayer dollars funded events
  • Removed protesters to “free speech zones” far from appearance areas or even travel routes
  • Had protesters arrested on bogus charges even when they just wore T-shirts critical of him
  • Has acted in an unprecedentedly partisan manner in political affairs
  • Under Bush, oil prices have skyrocketed
  • Got more of his judicial nominees approved than almost any modern president, then whined and attacked Democrats for being obstructionist, then re-nominated the ones he couldn’t get passed previously
  • Tried to kill off social security
  • Encouraged businesses to move jobs overseas, supporting tax breaks to do so
  • Prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
  • Has failed to raise the minimum wage, allowing it to fall to absolutely unlivable levels

And let’s not forget this golden oldie:

  • Consistently unwilling to admit to having made any mistakes at all

Of course, do you think he cares about all this? My guess is that his response to this cataloging of his incompetence and corruption would be, very much in character, like this actual clip of Bush. It certainly expresses what he thinks of the American people, as evidenced by his treatment of them. And I am certain that Bush supporters don’t give a damn either, they are just tickled pink that he’s doing half this stuff, and are perfectly willing to look the other way about the other half–I’ve found it next to impossible to get a Bushie to even acknowledge the least of the malfeasance Bush is guilty of.

So, to those who give half a damn about responsible governance, what did I miss?

Categories: Political Ranting Tags: by
  1. Keith Adler
    February 25th, 2006 at 01:48 | #1

    You are insane.

  2. Tim Kane
    February 25th, 2006 at 03:19 | #2

    Excellent post Luis.

    I want to follow up with something I found profound along these ways.

    Okay, I am at risk of going tangently off thread hear, but I want to share this.

    I happened to be in New York last week, and saw the movie “Sophie Scholl” the last days.” (In german with subtitles) it is up for an Academy award as best foreign film. It is well acted, and starkly and efficientl portrayed, using recently available archives and detailed notes of interrogations that the Nazi’s kept – providing insightful dialogue on moral, political, philosophical and theological topics all highly relevant to our times.

    I think it may be the most important film I have ever seen – at least in the context of current events. (It is up there with ‘Its a Wonderful Life’ – a movie that shaped my political views.

    As a film, “Sophie Scholl” is a bread crumb to help people to find their way back to their moral compass politically, and to get perspective of what is happening around us, which you summed up brilliantly.

    The movie is about courageous, moral resistance to political monopoly that is sustained by a culture of fear mongering, war, propaganda and brutality – in a climate where nearly the entire society has been sublimated.

    It is important for our times.

    The White Rose group, which Sophie Scholl was a member of, and is what this movie was about, was a small group of students and academics who were political liberal democrats that decided to resist the Nazis within Germany while attending the University of Munich. The movie pointed out that Germany allowed the Nazi’s to come to power, and abandoned their liberal traditions, such as they were (and prior to 1930, they were substantial) and with that abandonment, decency, out of fear mongering over the threat of “bolshevism”. That fear tormented middle and upper class Germans, and paralyzed the Military’s own ability to object to the Nazi’s.

    This is critical political portrayal. The Neocon’s in this country have done the same thing with Terrorism. We had “terror alerts” from Homeland Security department in the U.S. right up until October 2004. We have not had one since. Furthermore the Neocons have accused their detractors of having a “pre-911” mentality. Now this last week, we find out that the Administration has no problem handing over control of our ports to an Arab government that has played both sides of the fence on terrorism related to 911. NY Times Columnist, David Brooks, a top Neocon pundit, stated that negative reaction to this by American’s was Bogus. Which in short means that the 911 fearmongering we have been subject to, was also bogus. Which means all that fear mongering we have been subject to was all done as political manipulation to keep in power a political group that has not solved one single problem in over 5 years, while looting the treasury and undermining every institution they never created, from the U.N, to Nato, To Social Security, and now Civil Rights, the rule of law and the Constitution in the process of engaging in unlawful warfare and torture and absconding of the innocent and as your list points out, goes on and on and on. All while the bulk of the press, the ‘fourth estate’, the media has been relatively silent.

    All of this means that Sophie Scholl is highly relevant. It is a gift of the Germany people to us, in the United States, to reflect upon. It is a gentle nudge to remind us of just what is taking place around us, and to remind us of how we are being manipulated, how we are failing to react, and what this can come down to, and what it takes to pull ones head out from a hole in the ground and understand just what is going on around us.

    “Sophie Sholl” reminds us take a gauge of our moral compass, how that gauge can read different than what society at large tells us to do, and how to embrace that guage, even in the face of headwinds blowing against it. See this movie, find out more about “the White Rose”. Google them and read some of what they wrote in their pamphlets – quoting ancient Greek theorist on civics even, then take a breath and look at what has been going on around you in this world today. Remember, evil occurs if good ordinary people do nothing.

    This is the most important movie I have seen since “The Quiet American” came out right before the launch of the invasion of Iraq. That movie reminded us of farcicle thinking that drove American action in the Vietnam debacle, and how Graham Green predicted, in 1952, the next 20 years of history in Vietnam. Turns out he predicted the Iraq war too.

    This movie is a gift from the German people to the United States. I personally want to thank them. And I hope it wins the Acadamy award, so that its distribution might broaden and more American’s, and really people everywhere, get to watch it. Even if you disagree with my political points here, you have a duty to consider the moral political climate we are in, consider if we have really been manipulated, else you risk becoming a ‘willing enabler’ to what might possibly the greatest political crime since in the next 50 years.

    If you get a chance to see this movie, don’t hestitate, and if you get a chance encourage another, also please do.

    Sorry if I went off thread, but your post points out just how important people find their moral compass and stop this abomination. What the Nazi’s did to Germany’s reputation, the Neocon’s are doing to America’s. You could argue that it is different only in degree, that while the Germans had less lofty place to start from, but fell to greater depths (genocide), but the American’s started from a near sterling reputation has fallen to one that is banal and morally debase, though we haven’t resorted to police state, dictatorship, outright unlawful stifling of desent (Joe Wilson not withstanding) or genocide, the downfall in moral collapse is parallel, just different in degrees. The Nazi’s assassinated their opponents, The Neocons just politically assassinate (re. “Swiftboat”) their opponents. And we are not done yet. Are we near the end of the Neocon mennace or are we just in 1935 or 1936 or 1939? The more you look at it, the more it looks like Carl Rove studied Nazi tactics and is employing them in a judicious manner.

    Does anyone doubt that the fear mongering is over with? Well it’s an election year, so we will soon find out. My dollar says that their will be something to fear come October 2006 to try to force Americans to ignore your list of wrongs and vote Republican anyway. It might be terrorist, it might be the threat of Gay’s taking over society or ruining the culture, but it will be something. Given your list, the Republican’s can’t stay in power without fear. (or maybe they will pull a “shame” bating maneuver which is also emotionally explosive political manipulation lever).

    I think the new resistance mantra maybe should be “Its the fear mongering, Stupid”.

  3. ykw
    February 25th, 2006 at 05:45 | #3

    I think the Iraq wmd mistake is 50% of what is wrong w/ Bush and the large deficits is 40%. W/o those two items, I think I would consider him an ok president, relative to the others.

  4. February 25th, 2006 at 08:28 | #4

    Valerie Plame has a wife? 😉

    Editor: good point. It’s fixed now.

  5. Luis
    February 25th, 2006 at 09:58 | #5

    Keith: Insane how? You think the list is wrong? Fine. Counter all the points. Even if you disagree with some, there is no escaping most of them, and it would be very difficult to come up with a laundry list containing so many heavy-duty wrongs for any other president. But if that comment is all you’ve got–which would not surprise me because 9 of 10 conservatives visiting the site just blast an insult and leave–then you got nothin’.

    Tim: Thanks, I’ll make sure to look for that. Problem is for me, I live in Japan, so if the film is in German, that means no English subtitles. But I’ll keep an eye open nonetheless. And unfortunately, I agree with your assessment of the coming election; in 2002 it was the looming Iraq War and incessant use of 9/11 as a political tool. In 2004, it was the terror alerts and more 9/11 and gay marriage. Think they’ll go back to terror alerts, or think of something new this time?

  6. misa
    February 25th, 2006 at 12:34 | #6

    Bush and the current leadership of this country is sooo incredibly depressing I don’t know if there’s hope for recovery… Their power grip seems so absolute sometimes…

    I recommend the movie “Why We Fight” (http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/) — it was very educational (and so depresssing). I added Sophie Scholl to my netflix queue.

  7. September 3rd, 2011 at 03:59 | #7

    Thanks for a fine posting. I love the fun remarks.

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