George W. Bush
“”I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.
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| —George W. Bush[1] |
George Walker Bush, aka. "Dubya" or "Shrub," was the 43rd President of the United States, who somehow managed to serve two terms, from 2001 to 2009. He is the son of 41st president George H. W. Bush, and is famous for having the largest number of people ever in history to protest against him.
He is famous for "opposing nation-building" in his 2000 election campaign, then proceeded to take military action on Iraq and Afghanistan and commenced nation-building. He claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They didn't find them. He "caused the War on Terror."[2]
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[edit] Election controversy
Bush was initially elected in 2000, running against then-Vice President Al Gore. The vote was very close, with the election hanging on a very few votes in Florida; due to this, the election eventually had to be resolved in the Supreme Court in the debacle known as Bush v. Gore.
Due to the circumstances surrounding the election, or the first several months of his presidency, some people (Michael Moore, for example)[3] maintained that Bush was not the "legitimate" president, and that it was stolen by Bush, his brother Jeb, the Governor of Florida at the time, and Florida's Secretary of State in charge of the recount, Katherine Harris. The People's Weekly World went so far as to enclose the word "President" in scare quotes when referring to him. Such chatter mostly ceased when 9/11 and its aftermath gave these detractors a ready, large supply of valid reasons (with some exceptions on the validity part) to criticize Bush, such as concerns over civil rights violations.
[edit] Presidency
Dubya's presidency was arguably one of the most infamous in history.
- The economy struggled - while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has recovered the "numbers" lost in the post-dot com boom crash, the dollar dropped by a similar amount against the euro - meaning that in euros, the U.S. economy was stagnant for six years.
- He ignored science on
severalevery major issue, preferring to promote bizarre policies, such as abstinence-only sex education. - His end-of term approval ratings were so low they fell down to numbers reminiscent of Richard Nixon after Watergate.
- His two potentially "useful" contributions, "No Child Left Behind" and the (as yet unpassed) immigration reform thing, failed because of lack of funding and lack of support, respectively.
- In fact, almost everything his administration touched turned to custard. The American Dream Downpayment Act 2003 was crafted as laudable attempt to create 5.5 million new homeowners from ethnic minorities by 2010. In reality, it put pressure on lenders to reduce their lending standards (like, for instance, not being too fussed about documentation of income and assets), thus triggering the boom in so-called "subprime" mortgages in the first decade of the twenty-first century.[4] The result was tens of millions of dollars of debt for people who couldn't be expected to repay them. This debt was taken to ratings agencies, "securitized" (they slapped "AAA" on them) and sold on to businesses, pensioners and even entire countries, thanks to financial reforms pushed through by Reagan and Dubya's dad. This worked fine, so long as interest rates stayed low (so their debts didn't increase rapidly - something Alan Greenspan was happy to do), people kept their jobs (so their income stream remained) and real estate prices kept rising (so the long-term value of their property asset increased). As anyone living in America, or the developed world as a whole, will realise, none of these things happened.
- Bush is also the creator of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, an office of the White House that focuses on tearing down the wall of separation of church and state through the use of so called faith-based initiatives, which include teaching school children that prayer will magically solve all of their problems, and spreading blatant propaganda.
[edit] Accusations
The Bush Administration:
- Outed an undercover CIA operative.
- Lied to Congress and the American people to get into an unnecessary war, as Saddam obviously didn't have WMDs (but he did have a lot of oil in that country of his, have you seen Halliburton's stocks?).
- Disregarded intelligence estimates, and instead manufactured its own intelligence to support political goals.
- Exerted political pressure to hide facts about climate change.
- Fired U.S. Attorneys who wouldn't prosecute bogus voter fraud charges against Democrats, or who would prosecute voter fraud charges against Republicans.[5]
- Defied Congressional subpoenas.
- Destroyed documents that should not, by law, be destroyed.
- Violated its own rules on document declassification.
- Authorized torture - or, as they like to call systematic sleep deprivation and simulating drowning, "enhanced interrogation" - in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions...
You know what, screw it. Go on his Wikipedia page and you won't make it past the first few paragraphs.
[edit] Legacy
A president's "legacy" has become a short term version of their historical place in the pantheon. Short term, in that actual sitting presidents worry about it.
The whole world now knows that Bush's legacy will be that under his watch (besides allowing being in office when an Al-Qaeda attack killed thousands of Americans, allowing New Orleans to be drowned and ruined, etc.) what many consider to be the Second Great Depression started. Or, perhaps, the world's biggest "no eyes attached" bailout of the financial sector of the economy. Or maybe both? Either way, the first possibility simply sucks, and the second is socialism done really badly.
Dubya finished as the 36th president overall in an early 2009 poll of sixty-five historians conducted by C-SPAN.[6] He beat out luminary presidents such as Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore, and James Buchanan. The overall ranking was averaged from scores given in ten areas. Some examples:
- 40th in economic management. He beat out the father of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, but couldn't quite get past the guy who died after only a month in office (William Henry Harrison). This is unfair to Hoover, in reality, since Hoover came into office seven months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, while Bush had nearly eight years before his disaster. Hoover simply bungled the management of the Depression, while Bush played an active role in triggering the Great Recession.
- 41st in international relations. He's dead last here, unless you count his beating W.H. Harrison (see above).
- 37th in administrative skills. So much for that MBA.
Another curious note about the poll is that the other notable presidential drunkard, Ulysses S. Grant, rocketed from 33rd to 23rd between the 2000 and 2009 polls. So, maybe George has something to look forward to after all.
In general, Bush is widely regarded as the "Douchebag of the Decade" (ie. 2000s), as confirmed in places such as the Google the Internet commentary show Bored on the Corner.[7] He is the first and perhaps only sitting President depicted in cinema wiping his ass.[8]
[edit] "Throw Your Shoe At Bush"
During Bush's surprise visit to Iraq on December 14, 2008, an heroic angry Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, hurled his size 10 shoes at him during a news conference, calling him a "dog."[9] Dubya somehow managed to dodge both shoes, but the incident has inspired myriad parodies, as well as an internet game where the player throws a shoe at a moving target of the ex-president.[10]
The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was at the conference, can be seen peeping over a lectern next to Bush. The game and jokes are considered the funny side of an otherwise pathetic ending of the Bush era. The journalist was sentenced to three years in the slammer, later reduced to 1 year.[11]
[edit] Memoirs
In 2010, Bush published his memoirs, "Decision Points," in which he defended using torture as an interrogation method (really pushing it there, are ya!) and described a bizarre moment when his mother showed him the fetus she'd miscarried. Also, of all the low points of his presidency, being called a racist by Kanye West was apparently the absolute worst, because it made him feel really sad inside.
However, in living up to his reputation that he'd never read a book, let alone written one, claims soon appeared stating that whole passages of his "memoir" were lifted wholesale from other books, especially those written by former aides.[12]
Since the release of this book, Amnesty International has been calling for his arrest every time he's left or attempted to leave the country, claiming it holds sufficient evidence that he had criminal knowledge of US torture. This caused him to cancel a trip to Geneva, Switzerland in February 2011; they repeated their demands on his trips to Canada in October 2011 and Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia in December 2011, but those countries were not so lucky. In Malaysia, he and Tony Blair have been convicted in absentia partially on the basis of this book.
Hopefully some country will grow the balls to bring him and his buddies to the ICC soon. Billions worldwide will be cheering.
[edit] Irony, guilt or change-of-heart?
Living under the radar (compared to the constant scrutiny while in office), Bush and spouse have spent time in Africa opening and renovating medical clinics.[13]
[edit] Passing the Time Trying to Forgets All the Bads Good I Did
He also spends time painting portraits of former White House dog Checkers Barney and other assorted crap.[14] The ones of himself in the shower are especially disturbing.
[edit] See also
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For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about George W. Bush. |
- Fractal wrongness
- Bushisms
- Mission accomplished
- Chickenhawks
- Condoleezza Rice
- Bush Derangement Syndrome
- The Pet Goat
- Guantanamo Bay
- John McCain
- John Kerry
- Barack Obama, who now has to clean all the shit up.
- Rosenblum's First Law of Chocolate
[edit] External links
- "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" (Late Show With David Letterman) - In case any of us ever forget.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Seriously, does anyone know what the context to this is?
- ↑ "Bush's Ten Flip Flops" CBS News, 2004
- ↑ Stupid White Men, Chapter 1.
- ↑ Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (New York: Allan Lane, 2009), p.267.
- ↑ See Regent University and Alberto Gonzales.
- ↑ C-SPAN rankings, from MSNBC
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Review: Oliver Stone's "W." Backfires, Tom Hoopes. Retrieved from cbsnews.com April 17, 2012.
- ↑ Stop insulting dogs, dammit.
- ↑ Play at www.sockandawe.com
- ↑ Federal Appeals Court result
- ↑ George Bush Book 'Decision Points' Lifted From Advisers' Books
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]