Artus Register
The concept that John McCain would behave exactly like George W. Bush was terrifying for many Americans, and thus an effective campaign tool for the Obama crowd. There were even popular bumper stickers that admonished the thought of a McCain Administration, warning us: McCain: Bush’s Third Term.
It is safe to assume that exactly zero Obama voters ever considered the possibility of their man playing the same role. They probably don’t see it now, either.
The mainstream media’s excitement over the new Administration’s “reversals” of Bush policy is the stuff of headlines, comedy show monologues, and supporter’s bloviations. But despite the droning on about such decisions, the Obama Administration has–in most major areas–parroted the arrogant and unlawful policies of its predecessor.
In the foreign policy arena, Obama and company have promised to copy the Iraq surge in Afghanistan, spending countless billions more in cash and untold quantities of American blood for increasingly vague objectives. The Afghan theater spilling into Pakistan is almost a foregone conclusion. And despite sincere-sounding rhetoric, we aren’t exactly rushing out of the abortion the U.S. has made of Iraq.
Obamanomics needs no explanation, and can enjoy no justification. But for every right-winger shouting “Marxist!” there are three stubborn examples of Bush 43’s abject socialism, indulgent squandering, and exponential government growth.
So-called conservatives (whatever that word means in the post-Bush era) are vocally, and legitimately, if hypocritically, concerned about Obama’s plans to tax and spend, expand government, and gut the Constitution. But it seems such misdeeds don’t count when political and economic tyranny is perpetuated by a Republican the media’s broken compass has signaled as “a staunch conservative” and “strict constructionist.” To the alleged Right, it is the letter that decides the morality of positions, rather than actions: a (D) apparently means “Damn communist!” while an (R) indicaties, “Right on, man!”
The sad reality is that anyone remotely concerned with a healthy economy, the continued survival of a partially-free market, or the rule of law, should be too hoarse from calling for Bush’s head for the past eight years to say much of anything. Those who didn’t certainly have no room to admonish Obama for sins he has not yet committed.
Fortunately as one who recognized the Bush fraud very early, and who experienced daily blood pressure spikes from continued subjugation to W’s endless stream of lies and shattered promises, I am exercising my reserved right to verbally accost this administration and predict the worst kind of governance–a lot of it. Unlike the denizens of hypocrisy that compose the rank-and-file Republicans, I do not spell tyranny f-r-e-e-d-o-m when a Republican dons the jack boots.
Despite the little Easter eggs of difference that will be played up by the media’s abysmal huger for sensationalism and division, this administration will likely do a great service to the cause of freedom by slaying once and for all the perpetual myth that any true and substantive differences exist between the two major political parties.
March 22nd, 2009
Artus Register
What kind of person has no regrets? Perhaps I just live worst than most, and make many more mistakes. But I have many regrets. Sure, it is difficult to truly regret things when mistakes have combined to make you–finally–a person you are proud of. But mistakes are mistakes, and the “butterfly effect” is greatly exaggerated. It is folly to think that a few hundred errors of your past would truly prevent you from finding your way to happiness. At any rate, most of us count among our sins actions taken in relationships, whether with family, partners, co-workers, etc. We may also regret having stolen a pocket knife at an early age, or blamed something on a younger sister. We often chalk such things up to youthful indiscretion.
The great majority of us have not sent men and women to their deaths searching for phantom weapons, nor continued such an exercise in stupidity after material’s non-existence became clear. We have not started wars for one reason, and continued them for another. We have not lied to to our countrymen, accepted their faith, and stomped on our promises, and their liberty.
The man exiting the White House yesterday did all of that, and more. Had most people behaved this way, the last shred of conscience would scream so loudly at night that it could only be silenced by a drug cocktail Lindsay Lohan would refuse.
Much is said about the difficulty of being the President. Which is nonsense. The problem Presidents have is with reading the instructions. The Constitution is a short and easy read. The job of President has a short description. There are a few things allowed, and everything else is not.
Because they don’t follow instructions, they create a lot of problems for themselves; what with all the unlawful jailing, torturing, killing, etc. From there I would imagine sleeping would top the list of problems. That murderous tyrants slumber at all is testimony to their completely jaded nature. Worse is the smugness of men like Bush, smiling at the cameras, talking about his Christian faith (or perhaps he is truly an *antinomian, and fancies himself above above all human law), and dropping verbal bombs that should be the talk of the media, earn him Most Cavalier ribbons, and exude collective vomit from anyone possessing a soul. The most recent: That he has no regrets.
You’ll find that gem in today’s paper, on page 71-Z. On returning to private life, the new Butcher of Baghdad was brazen, as usual, stating, “When I get home tonight and look in the mirror, I am not going to regret what I see. Except maybe some gray hair.” Yeah, hilarious.
That the MSM basically ignores this amazing proclamation is disgusting. The pundits seem to revere his deceit, and his brash refusal to apologize for mistakes that cost countless lives, many of them American.
“He kept us safe,” they parrot, from either of their several faces.
What is safe about a foreign policy that clones terrorists, turns friends to enemies, and exports hatred, is not clear.
“We haven’t been attacked again,” supporters mutter sheepishly, only fairly certain they repeated correctly the line they heard on Hannity, Limbaugh, or one of the other apologist shows. Except that we have. Bin Laden has stated that he is delighted by our military’s proximity to him and his gang. Iraqis have found common ground with Al Queida, and “insurgents” and terrorists alike can kill Americans without too much trouble; without traversing an ocean, or spending millions of dollars and years of time to finance and plan the deaths of “infidels.” And they applaud the safety success of the man without regret.
Wars aside he and his Republican congress have spent us to the breaking point, growing government, expanding socialism, broadening the rot of education with more Washington, and more tax dollars. The man made criminals out of sick people, terrorists out of dissenters, and a mockery of Constitutional government. He gleefully shredded the Constitution and snarled “9/11″ at anyone who objected. He behaved most often as a dictator, rather than a President. He was “the decider,” after all.
The man who once boasted that the country had misunderestimated him was exactly right. We did. Who could have predicted this agrammaticist’s prophecy? Who would have imagined the man who campaigned on a “judicious use of our military,” and a humble foreign policy free of nation building, would have propped up houses of state on a foundation of innocent corpses?
Documented civilian deaths approach 100,000 in Iraq alone.
Add 28,000 for Afghanistan.
The AP counts American military deaths in at 4,227.
There is no accounting for reputation points lost, but the number would be staggering. Neither is thee a counter for infidelity shown to the Constitution, the same Mr. Bush swore to uphold.
Hands dripping with blood, he has passed the torch, and returned to private life, apparently without regret.
If the worst Mr. Bush sees is some gray hair, there must be a magical mirror in the bathroom at Crawford. Many of us see a beast; a murderous thug and tyrant who spent almost eight years waging a horrific war against peace and freedom.
A nagging sense of moral justice forces one to wonder about the contents of his medicine cabinet.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
*antinomian / an tee NOME ee an/ n • A person who believes that faith in Christ frees him or her from moral and legal obligations.
–Another amazing word from Depraved and Insulting English by Peter Novobatzky and Ammo Shea
January 21st, 2009
Goathe