I wish. Rachel Maddow spoofs a book that should be written by George W. Bush, "My Bad: an Apology to the Planet." That would be a good topic for a starter book but there are many more apologies due from the man who brought us two endless wars, a Constitution in shreds, and an economic disaster that impacts the entire world
Thomas Frank in his book The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule explains that conservatives are anti-government and yet desire to become the government. The conservatives are in favor of government when it comes to what they see as the basics such as the military and police forces and a judiciary and a penal system. The conservatives believe that almost everything else governments do should be obliterated or outsourced. Government should therefore not be involved with regulating business in anyway. The " Free Marketplace" is to be left on its own and market forces will decide the outcome. So when conservatives under the Republicans get into power their project is to dismantle one way or another government programs. They may pass legilation which will give less power to a government agency such as the Environmental Agency . If the direct approach cannot succeed then they will use their power for instance to underfund an agency so it doesn't have the resources to do the job the agency is supposed to. The conservative also have a habit of putting someone in charge of a government agency someone who does not believe in that agencies mandate this leads to a cripling of the agency. The people working for this department who challenge in any way the the new administration are gotten rid of or are banished to some remote office somewhere where they have little or nothing to do. Personnel are replaced not by individuals who have some expertise of capability but rather are tested on their loyalty to the administration and to the degree to which they are in favor of dismantling the department in which they are to work.
The conservative agenda is not to make government to work more efficiently but rather for the most part to show that Big Government does not work.
The conservatives may rack up a great deal of debt while in power on the one hand to reward the " True Believers" and on the other hand so that when they are rplace by a more liberal government those liberals will not have the means to create new liberal style programs which the people the ordinary citizens actually want. So here we are .
Barack Obama, for instance, would like to create a better Healthcare system which would benefit larger numbers of Americans if not all Americans but can the government afford such a program. But the United States since the Reagan era to the Bush era after decades of deregulation , tax cuts for the rich, outsourcing and privatization combined with ongoing corruption at the highest level has left the US Treasury bankrupt. So given this reality the conservatives expect Obama to reverse course on much of the platform he ran on. The question becomes will Obama have the audacity & the vision and the creativity to push forth parts of his agenda and stop listening to the conservative naysayers in either party.
Rachel Maddow & Writer Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank-The Wrecking Crew part 1/3
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Sarah Palin continues to refer to the Republican Propaganda playbook to attack Barack Obama even after he has been elected President.
So we can expect the attacks to continue from the right against Obam for as long as he is president. For all their talk about Patriotism and such the conservatives will do whatever they can to undermine Barack Obam's Presidency because they do not want his government to succeed. For instance if Obama finds a way to deal with the economic problems facing the United States and is able to put forth some his liberal style programs or, at least, putting more money and resources into departments which were stripped to the bone by the conservatives and thereby fulfilling his promises when he can without destroying the country : this is not a scenario or outcome that would please or placate conservative ideologues. They would prefer that everything fall apart thereby proving ; they would claim that "liberalism" does not work.
Anyway the conservatives haven't given up on their attacks against Obama, The conservative attacks on Obama many claim only became nasty during the last few weeks of the campaign but I would dispute that. The attacks and smear campaign against Barack Obam dates back at least to almost two years ago. FOX NEWS and others raised questions about Obam's name or claimed he went to a strictly Islamic school - a madrassa & that he was a smoker or he looked funny in a bathing suit or he lacked any sort of experience or he is not really a true Black American or that his only credential is that he is black etc.
Note these videos below about Attacks on Obama ; the first one dates back to January 2007 this is long before McCainand Palin launched their attack campaign of smears and fear mongering. From the beginning Fox News and others had a special fervent hate on for Obama. Was this because Obama was too liberal well some would argue that John Edwards was more liberal and Hillary Clinton was just as liberal. So why more attacks on Obama could they see that his appeal too great for conservatives to overcome in a general election or was it primarily because he is black.
Fox Attacks Obama-January 21, 2007
Fox Attacks! Obama- Part 2
Note they mention Jesus, the Messiah and Mao as if Obama or his supporters were claiming some sort of divinity for Obama. But they are also accusing Obama as possibly having a " Messiah Complex". In part this is odd since George Bush claimed that God told him to run for the Presidency and later God told Bush to invade Iraq and I guess God told Bush to ignore the people of New Orleans and God told him that torture was okay etc. Anyway in the video we see Fox News slyly or rather bluntly add references to Mao and Hitler etc. claiming that he is just another charismatic leftist nut-job who once in power will become evil-incarnate. So the attacks Fear Mongering by McCain/Palin against Obama etc. go back aways and has been just a continuation of this smear campaign which is still going on after the election. Some conservatives are claiming that Obama won the election though fraud so already they want to impeach him even before he takes office. McCain and Palin and Fox News etc. have to shoulder some responsibility for unleashing the crazies and the right-wing conspiracy theorists and their racist White Supremacists cousins who feel embolden by the McCain/Palin campaign.
Palin Attacks Obama Over Ayers Yet Again On CNN Huffington Post, Rachel Weiner Nov. 12, 2008
PALIN: Well, I still am concerned about that association with Bill Ayers. And if anybody still wants to talk about it, I will, because this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who had campaigned to blow up, to destroy our Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol. That's an association that still bothers me.
And I think it's still fair to talk about it. However the campaign is over. That chapter is closed. Now is the time to move on and to, again, make sure that all of us are doing all that we can to progress this nation.
and she stands by her mudslinging and her qustioning Barack Obama's character and suggestin that he maybe anti-American and a domestic terrorist
BLITZER: So looking back, you don't regret that tough language during the campaign?
PALIN: No, and I do not think that it is off-base nor mean-spirited, nor negative campaigning to call someone out on their associations and on their record. And that's why I did it.
The Republicans and the Far-right are still at it claiming Barack Obama somehow stole the elction or that he is still an unknown who wows the crowds as Hitler did. Karl Rove for instance has argued that the problems with the stock-market are primarily due to investors being scared of what an Obama Presidency will mean and so it is Obama's fault. Karl Rove McCain and Palin and their fellow-travelers and true believers and Spin Doctors even argue that it is groups like ACORN which has caused the economic meltdown. So any problems the econmy is having is not the result of the Bush Regime's mania for deregulation . Over the past eight years the US Treasury has been pillaged by the Bush Regime and its friends in Big Business . And the costly War in Iraq has also had an impact on the United States treasury and therefore its economy. Meanwhile American corporations being so bloody Patriotic have outsourced hundreds of thousands of jobs to foreign countries.
Bob Cesca November 12, 2008
What Doesn't Kill The Far-Right Only Makes Them Crazier Huffington Post
Since their thumpin' last week, the far-right has pushed the crazy to eleven and snapped the knob clean off -- an opening salvo of twisted hackery portending an insane four-to-eight years of attacks on the Obama administration. If the last seven days have been any indication, the far-right is shaping up to make the 1990s seem quaint -- even erudite by comparison. That which used to be your basic, off-the-shelf intellectual dishonesty has grown into, as Digby pointed out recently, full-on intellectual violence.
Intellectual violence. While not a new term, it perfectly defines what we're seeing now: accusations and smears that so severely confound logic they literally attack -- violate -- reality and the human intellect. It's like a berzerker dervish of argumentative elbows and fists indiscriminately flailing around, thwacking anything in its orbit, so much so that constructing a counterpoint is literally painful, "Why the hell am I trying to debunk this?! Ow! My head. Aw hell, I need a drink."
The "Impeach Obama" Facebook groups, for example. No, I'm not making that up. They're real and there's a constant variety of disgruntled far-right Republicans joining up every day...
...Then on Monday, Michelle Malkin posted an item in which she referred to the president-elect as the "overlord-elect." And on Tuesday, Congressman Paul Broun told the AP, "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential." Uh-huh. On the scale of probability, "Obama is a fascist dictator" is about as likely as "Broun is a Jedi Master." But it doesn't matter. Reality is irrelevant.
The obvious intention here is to cobble together an abuse of power meme against President-elect Obama, despite President Bush and Vice President Cheney having, you know, spent the last eight years consolidating executive power, authorizing torture, suspending habeas corpus, illegally invading sovereign nations, ignoring congressional subpoenas and eavesdropping on American citizens.
What Bush is up to- More on Bush's last minute looting or shopping emptying out the Treasury
November 12, 2008 Parting Gifts Huffington Post
America's democracy stands or falls on peaceful transitions of power. We can all be proud of our nation that, after the vitriol of the last eight years and a brutal presidential campaign, President Bush is cooperating in the transfer of power. We should expect no less. It is, however, worth remembering that it is on such transitions that democratic government in world history has often foundered.
But 77 days is plenty of time to loot the mint and wreck the house
...it is becoming ever clearer that Bush junior is devoting his last days in power to a final orgy of cronyism.
A 34-year old Texan named Jeb, who worked for Karl Rove in the White House, is in charge of the Treasury's disbursal of the first $350 billion of the bailout package. He's been shoveling out the bailout money to a legion of lobbyists and there's hardly any left, according to a report by the New York Times' Mark Landler and David D. Kirkpatrick Now Jeb might be a stand-up guy who has only the nation's best interests in mind as the lobbyists pound down his door. But what about this picture, given the last eight years, gives you that confidence?
The reports of such last-minute attempts to institutionalize Bush's conservative economics and tie President Barack Obama's hands are multiplying. Kudos to the many MSM investigative journalists who are breaking these stories. But what about us, the legions of Obama supporters and activists? Where's the outrage? Here's a modest suggestion. Call your representative (phone numbers here) and your senators (phone numbers here) and tell them to do all in their power to rescind the illegal change to Section 382. Let them know that you are watching as the bailout money is paid out and that you will hold them acountable for any give-aways that occur on their watch.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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