Worst.President.Ever: A RANT

Back in my youth I took a class on ecology and energy public policy and crisis management. The instructor made the point that after any disaster, a white paper, report or other document predicting the exact nature of the disaster is found. One might think that "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US" is one of those.

Now there is an entire paper trail of article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune predicting disaster for New Orleans if repairs were not made to the levee system. And if wetland barriers were reduced. Guess BushCo had better things to do with our money than invest in infrastructure and environment.

Blumenthal on Salon has some details. As does Tim Grieve.

The Chicago Tribune reports today in "Flood-control funds short of requests". The article (registration required) quotes Michael Parker, " a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps' budget." Guess he joins a long list of officials (Paul O'Neil, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Genl. Shinseki, and now Susan F. Wood) who attempted to bring the bright light of rational thought to a fundamentalist regime. The Trib article says:

A corps plan to shore up the levees began in 1965 and was supposed to be finished in 10 years but remains incomplete. "They've never put enough money in to complete it," Parker said. He said the corps' budget has been regularly targeted by the White House because public works projects are perceived as pork and aren't considered "sexy."

"Go talk to the people who are suffering in New Orleans," Parker said. "Ask them do they think it's pork."

I can only hope that historians will dissect the Bush governance and identify not just its mendacity, but its greed and incompetence. Bush makes Warren Harding look like Franklin Roosevelt. He makes his father look like Abraham Lincoln. He is a disaster--a selfish, spoiled, ignorant, callous, vengeful and downright wicked leader. He is remote from the people, acting more like a King than an elected leader. His stage-managed Potemkin-town meetings and speeches are attempts to shut out having to respond to the real voice of the American people.

Bush has hidden himself behind a country-boy Jesus-loving facade while he has dismantled federal support of science, reason, social structure and community. He has waged a war based on a ever-shifting rationale: WMD (none); 9/11 revenge (false premises); democracy/human/rights/peace in the Mid-East (Iraq is the domino? not likely); now it's the security of oil (well, that's getting a little closer).

He is a bad man, bad for this country, bad for the global community. As bad I thought he was in the election cycle, I see he is exponentially worse now. He has blood on his hands. I can only hope that finally, FINALLY, a great wave of citizens and our media representatives will see this man for what he is. Perhaps now people will respond. Ask questions. Demand answers. Vote these evil people OUT.