This Administration has lost it

[GOPFighter]

After reading Frank Rich's perceptive column (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14rich.html?pagewanted=1) this morning I am struck by the parallels between the Soviet Union's Communist Party in the mid-1980s and George Bush's clueless administration today.

By the mid-1980s the Soviet Union was a disaster by any reasonable measure: chronic food shortages, large numbers of people living in poverty, industrial output that was an embarrassment, and the people were getting seriously pissed. The communist government had already collapsed - the only ones who didn't know it were the members of the communist government itself (and the Republican party in the US!).

Today we have an arrogant, clueless President who has NEVER had to say "I'm sorry" or "I made a mistake" in his whole life and by god he's not going to start now! He is surrounded by minions (or puppeteers) who constantly feed his ego and tell him everything's going swell, as the country swirls around and round in the toilet of reality, coming closer and closer to being flushed into poverty and chaos. This country has deserted Bush - the only people who don't know it is Bush and his seriously delusional Republican worshipers.

We all know what happened to the Soviet Union, don't we. Is there any doubt Bush and his minions are about to join them?? Can you say "2006"?

Good-by, George. While you fiddle on your ranch in Texas, the country is burning.

[BoneDaddy]

1. Planned benign neglect or just ignorance?

I totally agree. But my question is this. Is bankrupting and breaking down America part of their nefarious goal or is this just the natural course of ineptitude?

[clydefrand]

2. Ineptitude is my guess.

[katsy]

3. Welcome to DU BoneDaddy

:hi:


There's little doubt in my mind that destroying the New Deal is part of their goal.

[BoneDaddy]

10. ty

ty friend

[sam sarrha]

4. Thats the plan, ya cant have old time religion with that pesky Constitution

[Burried News]

5. Pick out your favorite comic books for the pResidential Library

George because your administration (as well as the war) is over.

[Clintmax]

6. I agree...

and I don't think he'll REALLY know it until he is gone! I wish it was still 1994 and Clinton was in office! Now THERE was a REAL President!

[Peggy Day]

7. what about stolen elections?

I keep being optimistic, then they steal the election.

[GOPFighter]

8. It has taken us a long time to realize just how perverted...

...and power-hungry the extreme RW is. It's still hard for me to believe that there are people so twisted they see nothing wrong with sending kids to certain death to further their political agenda, or to encourage the military to brutally torture prisoners in the name of America.

Americans are finally catching on to just how twisted and inept this administration is.

[Independent_Liberal]

9. They lost it a long time ago!

They're a bunch of crazy loons!

:D

[wli]

11. the trouble is malice

These freaks have enough of it to do anything, including nuking their own people.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. That and they own the voting machines.

[Cleita]

12. Historically, leaders who cause as much bloodshed in their

regimes as * already has, usually do not meet a good end. I doubt * will be suicided or assasinated in a coup, but I do believe he will be brought to trial and made to pay a high price as will his cronies in the end. I don't think he will be allowed to retire and build a presidential library like Nixon did because Nixon was smart enough to know when the gig was up.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. The title of this piece is Someone tell the president the war is over but

I read it as "Someone tell the war the president is over"

I wish he was over. And done with.

[WilliamPitt]

15. Yup

Bush's Soviet State
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 22 July 2005

It's funny in an awful sort of way. The defining events of the last fifty years all centered around the Cold War and the eventual demise of the Soviet system. Toward the end of the Soviet regime, their government was often forced to grossly overstate the size of grain harvests or the preparedness of their military in order to maintain an illusion of strength and order. In other words, intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy. In essence, fixing the facts became the policy.

Self-deception was piled upon self-deception. Rather than address the systemic problems within the nation, the Soviet regime chose instead to massage the illusions until the problems became too huge to overcome. Pretending everything was fine became the chosen course of action, and the state's ability to manufacture a pleasing reality became a perfect circle of inaction and delusion. By the time the tanks rolled and the Wall fell, the deal had already gone down.

Sound familiar?

There has been a lot of noise lately in the news media about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, and whether Bush advisor Karl Rove was the button-man who brought her down. Press coverage of this issue has been unexpectedly tenacious. White House spokesman Scott McClellan has been leaving his podium after press conferences lately with fresh bite marks all over his ankles and legs. The intensity of the pursuit on this issue has a lot to do with Times reporter Judy Miller. Like her, hate her, respect her or disdain her, but one thing is clear: The White House press corps is bird-dogging this story with alacrity because one of their own has wound up in the bucket because of it.

Yet even with all the coverage - The Time cover, the Newsweek cover, the growling at the press conferences, the intensity of media attention that has not even been deflected by a Supreme Court nomination - the press and far too many people seem to be letting the larger issue slide by. Reporters, columnists and talking heads chew over minute permutations of the story like whether Rove actually said Plame's name, or whether he used her maiden name, or whether he "knowingly" did any of this. The trees are certainly interesting, but the forest deserves a lot more attention.

In short, George W. Bush and his administration are pursuing a course of determined unreality that mirrors the delusional fantasies that ultimately consigned the Soviet Union to the dustbin of history. This Rove-Plame thing is but one small aspect of the main.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072205Y.shtml

[Cleita]

16. Interesting perspective on the fall of the Soviet Union.

Funny how our government is following in its footsteps. Has anyone in Bush's cabal ever read a history book? I doubt it.

[GOPFighter]

17. Good article.

The thing that pisses me off is that the Soviets had no trouble keeping their people in the dark because their press was tightly controlled by the party. We supposedly have a "free" press. Over the years the press got fat, lazy, and stupid. The RW learned how to play the them like a Steinway and - BAM - all of a sudden, the loonies were in control of everything.

You're right about the affect the jailing of Judy Miller has had on the press. I think there are a few other forces that are forcing the press to examine Bush and his administration more closely, and report more critically. One is the phenomenal growth of liberal blogs. The press always has it's finger to the wind and the wind is starting to shift. Another is Bush's loss of support among the moderates. Moderates have become increasingly critical of the war and are beginning to catch on that the resolve they once ascribed to George Bush is actually a dangerous hard core fanaticism.

BTW, Will, thanks for the coverage of Camp Casey in Truthout. While I prefer hardball responses to the terrible things the Republicans have done to our country, Cindy's low key approach and compassionate response to those who hate her have struck a chord. I wish I could be there in Texas, fire ants be damned!