[Peace-discuss] Ted Rall, with All-purpose Obamatoon

[C. G. Estabrook]

	SORRY, MR. BUSH

SEATTLE--I miss Bush.

Stop the presses and shut off the RSS feeds: the bashiest of the Bush-bashers is 
starting to appreciate the Exile of Crawford.

I haven't forgiven George W. Bush for stealing two elections, starting two wars, 
bankrupting the treasury and doing his damnedest to turn the U.S. into a fascist 
state. He deserves one of hell's hottest picnic spots for refusing to lift a 
finger to bring the 9/11 murderers to justice. Bush was stupid. He was vicious. 
He should be in prison.

He was the worst president the U.S. had ever had. Until this one.

On major issues and a lot of minor ones, Obama is the same as or worse than 
Bush. But Bush had an opposition to contend with. Obama has a compliant 
Democratic Congress. Lulled to somnolent apathy by Obama's charming manners, 
mastery of English (and yes, the color of his skin), leftist activists and 
journalists have been reduced to quiet disappointment, mild grumbling and 
unaccountable patience.

I don't care about window dressing. Sure, it's nice that Obama is intelligent. 
But policies matter--not charm. And Obama's policies are at least as bad as Bush's.

Guantánamo was but the beginning of Obama's betrayals. First he ordered the camp 
closed--not immediately but in a year. Now he's expanding the U.S. concentration 
camp at Bagram--where 600 innocent men and children are being tortured--so he 
can send the 245 Gitmo prisoners there. In the Bush era, Gitmo POWs received 
legal representation. Obama has ordered that the POWs sent to Bagram not be 
allowed to see a lawyer.

You saw the headline: "OBAMA BANS TORTURE." But it was a lie. Obama's CIA 
director told Congress that there's a "review process that's built into 
[Obama's] executive order" that allows torture to continue. Leon Panetta said 
the Obama Administration will keep using at least 19 torture techniques against 
detainees. In addition, Team Obama will "look at those kinds of enhanced 
techniques to determine how effective they were or weren't and whether any 
appropriate revisions need to be made as a result of that."

As editorial boards of liberal newspapers tut-tut and the feds convene 
committees, the screams of the victims pierce the night.

Bush was the biggest spender in history, running up a $1.8 trillion deficit with 
wasteful wars and tax cuts. But next to Obama, Bush was a tightwad. Glamour Prez 
hasn't been around six months, yet the Congressional Budget Office reports that 
he already has quadrupled the deficit by an extra $8.1 trillion. "The total debt 
held by the public [will] rise from 57 percent of GDP in 2009 to 82 percent (!) 
of GDP in 2019," reports U.S. News & World Report.

Obama is sinking us into financial oblivion 72 times faster than Bush.

Where'd the money go? Mostly to insurance companies. Banks. Brokerage firms. Who 
used it to redecorate their offices and give themselves raises.

Against logic and history Obama claimed his bailout package would create jobs. 
Instead, unemployment has risen by 1.3 million. Has Obama's plan saved a single 
homeowner from foreclosure? Reporters can't find any.

I liked Bush better. He wasted our money when the economy wasn't quite as sucky. 
And he didn't insult us by pretending to care. Come on, Barack, smirk! Truth in 
advertising!

I know: he's a politician. Politicians break promises. As the presidential 
scholar Stephen Hess says: "There are some pledges that a candidate reverses 
when he becomes president because things look different. He knows things that he 
didn't know then."

(An official familiar with the photos in question tells me they include, among 
other atrocities, U.S. personnel sodomizing a child.)

Obama has done more damage than Bush. And no one's stopping him. Which makes him 
worse.

Sorry, Mr. Bush. If I'd known what was coming, I would've been nicer.

COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL

http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/
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