Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"We torture because during the last eight years, the values of the lynching states became the values of our nation.

Sam McFarland of Bowling Green, Kentucky also wrote about lynching December 22 in a letter to the New York Times.  McFarland stated:

"Regarding America's lynchings, rather than condemn all white Americans or all Southerners in particular, let it be noted that lynchings usually faced local opposition and condemnation.

"Before the 1916 lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas the Times Herald sensed anger against Mr. Washington and urged citizens that, 'Judge Lynch has no proper place. . . . Let the law take its course.'  Waco papers condemned it, as did local white ministers and the dean and faculty of Baylor University.

"Lynching rarely represented the general population.  As in Waco, lynchers were usually poorly educated and often had records of violence."

The general population in the 2006 election emphatically voted to let George W. Bush know he had lost any political capital he ever had.

Bush's ideas on almost everything ended in disaster, death, destruction and deep debt.  Repeatedly Bush chased around the U.S.A. in Air Force One to 50 states, urging citizens to put Social Security funds in private accounts.

The entire nation can be grateful this "wily" idea was over and over rejected.  The Social Security Trust Fund monies in the banks, which Republicans had cunningly de-regulated with such enthusiasm, would have seen the Social Security funding money for millions disappear.

Bush's infamous State of the Union Address when he dramatically declared with great emphasis that the U.S. had absolute proof that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction threatening the U.S.A.  

As if that false claim wasn't enough to get the dogs of war unleashed, Bush declared with dramatic flourish that the U.S. had proof that Saddam was in the process of developing nuclear power, with yellow cake uranium which threatened the free world.

Congressional robots leaped to their feet, giving this false and frightening message a standing ovation.

The Congress, consisting of elected representatives, had degenerated to a group often bought off by lobbyists representing big business.

Over 6,000 lobbyists chased around Washington with handfuls of cash, ready to fund the nearly million dollars demanded to run a political campaign, and were in some cases buying off senators.

Has Congress sadly became the best Congress lobbyist money can buy?

In any event, with a propaganda media blitz, George W. Bush launched the ill-fated Iraq War.  When his father George Bush the Elder engineered the Gulf War, his generals advised him not to barge into Baghdad.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, tagging the Iraq War "shock and awe," it sounded like a title for an exploitation movie.

The smart bombs supposed to target only military installations weren't as smart as they were claimed to be.  Iraqi civilians were killed.  The Iraq infrastructure was hard hit.

Saddam's statue was magnificent media material when it was toppled, symbolizing the fall of the dictator the U.S. had been supplying weapons for the killing spree war against Iran, the Iraq-Iran conflict.

When Saddam was finally found following many civilians being killed in the process, he was hastily given a trial and disposed of.

A French lawyer, whose offer was ignored, wanted to be involved in Saddam's trial.  He was fully aware of how the U.S. had negotiated for oil and supplied the dictator the Elder Bush had compared to Hitler with weapons.  

It was vital never to risk the liability of revealing the fact the U.S. had been embracing someone they labeled the Baghdad Butcher.  That would be U.S. hypocrisy and something hard to swallow with all the claims that the U.S.A. wanted to bring democracy and freedom to the people of Iraq, whose killer dictator the U.S. had tragically supplied with deadly weapons.

Now, as George and Laura Bush leave the grandeur of the White House, Bush laments he'll miss the gourmet cuisine of the White House chef (tell that to the 37 million on food stamps) along with his flights on Air Force One.  

That figures as Bush almost lived full-time on Air Force One.

Bush raced over to Poland and the Czech Republic to arrange for rocket launching weapons systems to be placed strategically on their borders with Russia.

Russia was understandably outraged as the meddling by the U.S. was leading to another round of the Cold War.  The French president has suggested once this president is out of power, the nations of the U.S. France, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia should have a summit meeting to resolve this disturbing matter.

As for peace between Gaza and Israel, with people in Gaza packed into a small slice of coastal land, the conflict was set aflame when a democratic vote in Palestine placed Hamas in power.  

Israel and the U.S. refused to recognize Hamas in Gaza.  Everything was done to support the other Palestine Authority, freezing Gaza's bank accounts and cutting off supply routes and access in and out of Gaza.

Responding in anger, Hamas sent rockets into Israel.  Israel is insisting that it is only trying to hit military targets.  So far 364 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Both George and Laura Bush think they have done a noteworthy job.

All this as the banks collapse, requiring a $700 billion bailout at taxpayer expense.

All this while bloody war rages on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All this while 600,000 to a million Iraqis and 4,210 U.S. service personnel are dead, with 55,000 wounded.

2 ½ million Iraqis have fled to Syria, Jordan and Iran to save their lives.

The Bushes will move from their Crawford, Texas ranch, where Bush is claimed to have enjoyed cutting weeds, to a million dollar Dallas mansion.

Bush's legacy is all of the above with more disaster and debt building daily.

George and Laura fantasize Bush has been a fine president.

But the majority of U.S. citizens when polled insisted that George W. Bush has been the worst president in U.S. history.  

It has been a torturous experience to objectively analyze all that Bush has done during his 8-year reign of terror!