UPDATE:12:40 PM. & 2:02 PM Sun. Jan. 4, 2009
Lest we forget the Crimes of The Bush Regime here's a little song about the abuse of power and how power can corrupt individuals and distort reality . The Mainstream Media played no small part in the lies and propaganda of the Bush/Cheney Regime. Even the last week Condoleeza Rice and President Bush and others in that administration along with the America Media have shown no interest in the suffering of the average person living in a virtual prison in Gaza . Isn't this just another form of racism?
"Handlebars" by the Flobots
In case You Missed it - to some people and the Media once the New year began whatever happened before that day has been forgotten or is seen through rosy colored classes. Obama maybe offering a new future for America but all that has happened over the last eight years under the Bush Regime should not be so easily forgotten or forgiven. There can be no new era if those criminals of the old Regime are not brought to justice.
The Real Bush History -keith Olbermann- Dec. 9, 2008
Anyway the Karl Rove strategy of re-branding Bush's Presidency as a Success spreads to the Washington Post's Front Page in the article " Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush: Bolten and Hadley Decry 'Mythologies'By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post
Friday, January 2, 2009; Page A01
So The Washington Post which once upon a time was an example of Journalistic Integrity starts the New Year by proving this is no longer the case. I guess they too take their daily orders from Karl Rove and the Neocons to paint a false but more appealing picture of the Bush/Cheney Regime. But then again Americans like my fellow Canadians do not want truth or in depth analysis of issues but rather platitudes and Myth to ease their consciences . It was the average Americans who put Bush into power and praised him day in and day out while the few who spoke out were condemned as Anti-American , Un-American or Not Real Americans and as even being Pro-Terrorists. For the past eight years it has become a sign of evil to espouse any Liberal Views or to question the Bush/Cheney Regime or the Neocons or the Radical Religious Right. And so after those heady few days after Obama won in November we are back to politics as usual and the further embedding in the media of Neocon & Neoliberal Propaganda. There are those in The American Mainstream Media who are quite willing to celebrate Obama's victory as long as Obama tows the line and defends American Exceptionalism and other American Myths such as America's Right to extend its influence around the Globe by way of Military force and threats against any country which questions American hegemony. There is so far unfortunately any real sign that Obama will begin to dismantle the American Empire and that America will respect the sovereignty and rights of other nations. Even now President-Elect Obama recognizes the Rights and sovereignty of Israel but not the rights or sovereignty of the Palestinians or that the People of Gaza shouldn't be collectively punished by Israel .Israel is involved once again in War Crimes and Crimes against humanity and once again it is the United States which insists that Israel is beyond the reach of International Laws and agreements . The issue is that the international standards of human rights and the laws governing the Rules of Engagement in a war or other conflict as spelled out in the Geneva Conventions and other International agreements should apply to all nations and not just those America chooses. But it is an old story for instance when America was friends with Saddam and backed his war against Iran; Saddam was allowed to do whatever he wanted such as arresting , torturing and executing large numbers of Iraqis who dared speak out against him or those whom he hated based upon their religion or ethnicity. The Americans , the British and the French etc. supplied the ruthless , brutal dictator Saddam with weapons of Mass Destruction from guns to fighter jets to lethal gas and a sophisticated defense system. Later Bush used Saddam's crimes which America previously ignored as an excuse or rationale for Invading and Occupying Iraq.
- So The Washington Post plays its role in celebrating the Bush Regime. So has the Washington Post decided that it is best to create a more positive Myth about Bush in order to keep America's reputation in tact. It is typical of Americans and its media to reshape reality to fit its overarching Mythology of American " Exceptionalism" as "The City On The Hill" and as God's Chosen Nation. If America is better than all other Nations how could it have a flawed president or that America launches illegal wars invading sovereign nations while showing no concern about mass murdering innocent civilians or abusing and torturing prisoners or that racism is still part of the basic fabric of American society.
Bolten and Hadley have plainly loved their jobs -- and the man they have built their life around for the past eight years. "Something that is totally lost is what a blast it is to be around here," Bolten said. "Even the hard days, there's some element of humor, of being a big person, of affection that's just overwhelming."
Bolten said another of his goals when he took over was to try to get the country to see the likable boss he and other aides saw in private, convinced that would boost Bush's popularity. "I failed miserably," he conceded. "Maybe in the beginning of the sixth year of a presidency, that's a quixotic task. . . . But everybody who has actual personal exposure to the president, almost everybody, appreciates what a good leader he is, how smart he is and, especially, how humane he is."
Hadley invoked Bush's 2000 campaign theme in summing up the president's personal qualities. "He has got this great compassion which was not just a slogan, 'compassionate conservative.' It is who he is. It is one of the great things he brought to this office," Hadley concluded. "This is the one thing that just drives me crazy, that somehow this is an arrogant administration, an arrogant president running an arrogant policy. This guy -- one thing he is not is arrogant."
Bush adviser's Proclaim What a wonderful and compassionate Guy Bush is- tell that to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and American citizens who have lost their homes and or their savings and investments due to Bush's mismanagement of the economy and his love for deregulation no matter how many Americans suffer as a result, tell that to the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis etc. But at least these advisers to Bush had a good time and that according even to the Washington Post is all that really matters.
Bush A Wonderful Guy Who Made Few Mistakes as president???
Washington Post Complicit In Revisionist History Of Bush's Presidency
"Washington Post Turns Over Front Page to Bush PR Department"
by Chris Edelso Media With Conscience, Jan.3, 2009.
"The Washington Post has a front page article today (hat tip to Joe Sudbay of America Blog) that might as well have been ghost-written by a charter member of the Bush legacy team. This piece is stenography, not journalism. The piece, entitled “Two Advisers Reflect on Eight Years With Bush”, is made up largely of unchallenged statements by Bush advisers Josh Bolten and Steven Hadley.
The Post writer, Michael Abramowitz, simply provides Bolten and Hadley a forum in which they can present their own self-serving and, more to the point, Bush-serving, defenses of the president. Someone reading this piece who knew nothing else of the Bush years (for instance, someone reading the piece in 10 or 20 years) would have no real idea why Bush was so deeply unpopular. The piece does not include any dissenting point of view–no quotes from anyone who disagrees with Bolten and Hadley’s view that Bush is a “good decision-maker” who was simply misundestood by a public who failed to appreciate this smart, engaged, humane leader."
and the article sums up with examples of criticisms of other people who were close to Bush:
"Here is a short list of some people with “actual personal exposure” to Bush who don’t think he’s the best thing since sliced bread: former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, who charges Bush with ignoring warnings about terrorism before 9/11,former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who wrote a book that is highly critical of the president, Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to Colin Powell who recently called Bush a “Sarah Palin-like president“, Powell himself, who doesn’t see Bush as the good decision-maker described by Hadley and Bolten, the former #2 official in Bush’s Office of Faith Based Iniatitives, David Kuo, who says the president failed to follow through on promises to help the poor.
And here’s perhaps the most glaring omission. How could a piece on two members of Bush’s “Texas mafia” (a dumb term, I’m just quoting the Post on this one) fail to note that one former member of this group, Scott McClellan, one-time press secretary to the president, wrote a memoir that made something of a splash in which he said the president “convinced himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment” and engaged in “self-deception” to advance political goals?
If this is how the supposedly liberal Washington Post covers the Bush apologists, what can we expect from others? Of course, as Al Franken has noted, some years ago (in his “Lying Liars” book), the real problem here doesn’t involve questions of liberal v. conservative media. This is simply an example of shoddy journalism, stenography masquerading as journalism and placed prominently on the front page of a major newspaper."
From blog:The Old Codger’s Second Home: "The Bush Legacy Tour" Dec. 2, 2008
"...Despite a failing economy and dire predictions, like an aging and failed rock star, the Lame Duck, soon to be former President, George Bush has begun his Legacy Tour...
... He wants people to remember him in a favorable light. Given that his approval ratings are lower than the economy, and even the approval ratings for another idiot, Sarah Palin are a bit higher, it could be argued that Bush is wasting his time. The most sought after and valuable photograph of 2009 is slated to be the one of Bush getting on the Presidential helicopter for the last time on January 20th.
As long as I have known Bush, dating back when he was playing Governor of Texas, he has had a need to boost his ego. This need can also be described as unmitigated arrogance. As an example of this, when talking about his tour to Africa last February, he stated on Monday:
...Bush has racked up the most vacation days of any sitting president in history. Over 900 of those vacation days were at his Crawford, TX ranch. The total costs to a taxpayer for a President’s vacations is classified information. One thing is certain: It isn’t cheap.
“I wish the American people could see what we have seen … People literally lining the roads in Tanzania, all waving and anxious to express their love and appreciation to the American president, who represents the American people.”
Also see article by David lightman on the Bush Legacy:
"Scholars unflinching in negative assessment of Bush's legacy "BY DAVID LIGHTMAN • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • January 4, 2009
"WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush was supposed to be a president schooled in consensus building and tough, effective management.
However, the first chief executive with a master's in business administration -- from Harvard, no less, -- and the son of a president known for his foreign-policy expertise is leaving President-elect Barack Obama a nation that's arguably in the worst shape since Herbert Hoover left Franklin Roosevelt the Great Depression and a world in which fascism was on the march 76 years ago.
"Obama gets Pearl Harbor and the Depression all rolled into one," said Gleaves Whitney, the director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies in Grand Rapids."
National Security or Racism/ Racial Profiling Muslims Not Welcome In America
So is this the Post-Racist society we are being told about. Many in the Media now proclaim there is no racism in America since Obama was elected president. They should watch Fox News ' O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs bitching about illegal immigrants claiming all of America's economic problems and crimes are the fault of illegal immigrants and all those Blacks and Hispanic Americans looking for a handout.
Washington Posts reports but does not comment since it appears the Post agrees with this sort of Police State style in order to keep Americans that is white non-Muslim Americans safe.This story was not covered on the Post' front page but appears to have been buried inside the paper. We shouldn't be surprised about the lack of reporting on the part of America's Mass Media when it comes to the attitude of Americans towards Muslim Americans or those they mistakenly believe to be Muslims or Arabs because even the Post believes that there is little or no racism in America. Again this Myth of American Exceptionalism and that it is a country of Justice and fairness. But America is far from being Post-Racism. Racism for instance played a major part in the Media's and the Conservative and Republicans attacks on Barack Obama even the Clintons indulged in a bit of racism in their campaign against Obama.
"9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet:Others on Flight Say a Remark Was 'Suspicious' "By Amy Gardner Friday, January 2, 2009; Page B01
Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark.
Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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