Bush Scorecard-- Not Including Human Lives

Via ThinkProgress.org

Great Insight into Bush

(Post shamelessly stolen from Piglipstick. Similar story here.)

Excerpt from The Bush Tragedy, a new book by Slate's Jacob Weisberg.

"In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: "I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves." Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity."



He took the painting to the white house and hung it in the oval office, pointing it out to visitors and added some stuff to his narrative:

"He came to believe that the picture depicted the circuit-riders who spread Methodism across the Alleghenies in the nineteenth century. In other words, the cowboy who looked like Bush was a missionary of his own denomination."

But the reality of his favorite painting is somewhat different:

"Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled "The Slipper Tongue," published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: "Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught."

Title of Pantload's autobiography?

The Lies About Iraq Never End

Highly promising figures that the administration cited to demonstrate economic progress in Iraq last fall, when Congress was considering whether to continue financing the war, cannot be substantiated by official Iraqi budget records, the Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday.

White House Tape Recycling May Have Erased Controversial E-Mails

The White House has acknowledged in a new court filing that it routinely recycled computer backup tapes containing its e-mail records until October 2003, a practice that could mean that many electronic messages from the first two years of the Bush administration are lost forever.

The disclosure raises the possibility that the White House effectively erased e-mail related to some of the biggest controversies of the Bush administration, including the leak of a CIA officer's name, the start of the Iraq war and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.

Honey, I Shrunk the Economy! (And all I have to show for it are these crappy approval ratings)

Bush's reverse Midas touch strikes again*:

Citigroup announced a steep cut in its stock dividend and another big investment by foreign investors on Tuesday after taking more write-downs related to subprime securities and posting a $9.83 billion loss for the fourth quarter.

Beginning what is expected to be a grim week for financial company earnings, Citigroup said it was writing down $22.2 billion because of soured mortgage-related investments and bad loans. The bank is also cutting its dividend by 41 percent and obtaining a $12.5 billion cash infusion to strengthen its balance sheet, including big investments by its former chairman, Sanford I. Weill, and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. Facing rising expenses and deepening losses, Citigroup is expected to embark on a major cost-cutting campaign that could result in at least 4,000 layoffs. And thousands more could be in the offing in the coming months.

Stock market continues to plunge-- over 200 down right now for the Dow. Not a pretty picture.

*Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's not ALL Bush's fault. I just couldn't resist the post title.

UPDATE: Not a good day for Bush-- new low approval rating.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...

And the Dow ended down 277 points)

George McGovern: Why Bush Must Go

WaPo.

Bush Wins Golden Duke For Best Scandal

The First Annual Golden Duke Award for Best Scandal goes to President George W. Bush, for his role in leading the politicization of the federal government during his presidency.

Perhaps best exemplified by the U.S. Attorneys purge (which took place in 2006 but was not uncovered until 2007), the Bush-led effort to turn the federal government into an arm of the Republican Party had been underway for years but the true scope of his deliberate undermining of the rule of law was not fully realized or appreciated until 2007.

Golden Duke judge John Dean, who knows a thing or two about corruption, was one of the four (out of five) judges who selected Bush for the preeminent Dukey:

Bush's politics have done for good government what war does for peace, what famine does for hunger, what Alzheimer's does for memory, what Lee Harvey Oswald did for Dallas – you get the idea. This president has done more to damage our system of government, and weaken us around the world, than any of his predecessors. Bush is America's worst president ever, only equaled by the abetting of his partner, Dick Cheney.

Or as fellow judge Rick Hertzberg put it:

It would be a shame to allow his presidency to expire without presenting him with a cheesy statue of Randy “Duke” Cunningham . . . although there may be some good ones in his ex-Presidency.

Notified in advance of the President's win, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) took time from his busy presidential campaign schedule to note the occasion. From his communications director, Hari Sevugan:

“The real travesty is that he wasn’t nominated for a lifetime achievement award. But I’m sure this will look nice in the trophy case next to the “Mission Accomplished” banner and Brownies’ Arabian horse show ribbons.”

The Dodd camp's sentiment was shared by blogger and netroots gadfly Markos "Kos" Moulitsas:

"I feel bad for all those scandal-plagued Republicans who never had a shot at winning given Bush's existence. He really had no peer, and deserves nothing less of a 'lifetime achievement award' for his efforts to enable every one of the GOP's most corrupt."

In honor of his (under)achievement, President Bush will be entitled to receive the coveted Golden Duke statuette, at such time as the actual figurine is sculpted, casted, paid for and delivered, which may or may not be accomplished before the end of his presidency.