Bush: the Year in Review

By SAUL LANDAU

"I'm very proud of my gold pocket watch.
My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch."

--Woody Allen

"They have mouths, but they speak not;
eyes have they, but they hear not;
noses have they, but they smell not;
they have hands, but they handle not; neither speak they through their throats."

--Psalm 115 (written for Bush supporters?)

The Bushies will light the White House Christmas tree and buy family members expensive gifts they don't need. No Monica lurks in the Oval Office waiting to offer him kinky pleasure. The adoring Harriet Miers gives virtual blow jobs -- "you're the very best, sir" ­ but no actual "playing around."

The pious Bush, however, is deaf to thousands of daily demands that he be impeached and tried as a war criminal for waging an illegal and very bloody war against Iraq. Bush has fought back in speeches that repeat the same discredited fairy tales he used to get the country into war, vaguely linking the invasion and occupation of Iraq with the terrorist threat to the United States.

December polls show a tiny bump in his approval ratings as men, whites and Catholics bought some of his message. The majority, however, continue to give him failing grades for his performance at home and abroad. His close friends and family, not known for their heightened sensitivity, care little about approval indices. For them, W delivered more than they ever expected. From the disgustingly rich, the Elmer Gantry contingent, the neo con ideologues and followers of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plus homophobes and anti-abortion fanatics, Bush got an A+.

They did not take points off Bush's grade for prevaricating the nation into war, which has cost the lives of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. Nor did they take off points for W's economic performance. In October, the US deficit grew to record levels as imports continued to exceed exports ­ W's version of the benefits of free trade.

The Bushies don't take seriously such banalities; nor do they worry about the fact that as a result of W's ignorance and arrogance, the rest of the world sees the USA with hatred and contempt.




Keith’s Barbeque Central

Keith’s Barbeque Central