Rush Limbaugh Is An Idiot

I hate to borrow from the soon to be Senator from Minnosota, but Rush Limbaugh is an idiot. I have listened to him off and on since I returned from Kuwait in 1991. He used to be funny. He used to be entertaining. Today, he is just dangerous.

I don't blame Rush though. I blame the Republican party. In the total vacuum of leadership, Rush has emerged as the only Republican with any (albeit bad) ideas.

Look at what the party has become. Their presumed front runner for 2012 is Sarah Palin, an intellectual lightweight. Those elected are seen as obstructionists with few real solutions of their own. The outgoing President Bush has absolutely no credibility as a party leader. John McCain sold out to the far right and gave up his credibility in the process of losing to Obama. Is it any wonder that a guy who never completed college would emerge as the leader of the Republican party?

Here is the problem though: Rush's ideas are not backed by fact. He can say anything he wants and if he yells loud enough, then people take it as fact. Of course, when he is wrong, he doesn't have to stick around to take credit for it. Or worse, he can just restate his position as if he never said it in the first place.

The GOP needs to stand for something that matters. Rush is only concerned with increasing his listening base so he can earn more from advertising.

Rush is an idiot who has no place in making policy any more than the Hollywood set who speak to policy. The GOP should not listen to him. If they truly want to reinvent themselves, they should start by distancing themselves from entertainers.

Are America's Best Days Behind Us?

In the local paper, The News Virginian, a gentleman claimed that America's best days are behind her. This he believes based upon the election of Barack Obama. In fact, he thinks that America has lost her way because we don't "put God first like we used to."

Well, here is a short list of all the great things America has accomplished putting God first:

1. Owning other people as property
2. Mass genocide of the native peoples
3. A bloody civil war
4. The occupation of the Philipines and the subsequent counter insurgency in 1899 to 1903 where thousands were slaughtered.
5. The internment of Japanese Americans
6. The anihalation of two Japanese cities by Atom bomb
7. The witch hunts known as McCarthyism based upon thoughts
8. The propping up of dozens of despots and dictators
9. The lie that was the Gulf of Tonken
10. Segregation
11. Lynching
12. Wiretapping citizens
13. Suspension of habeaus corpus
14. Torture

We will soon hear the truth

Over the next few months, we will hear the truth about what the Bush administration did and how badly they really screwed things up. We already know a number of things that were done wrong and that Bush and his cronnies could not cover up. But soon, we will find out the things that they succeeded in covering up.

I expect the warrantless wiretapping will be a major story. But there will likely be more whistle-blowers after the fact. Here are my expected subjects:

1. WMD's we will find out the truth about the lack of WMD's and how they knew there were none before the invasion.
2. 9/11:
3. Katrina and the aftermath.
4. I bet someone who was actually thought to have died or disapeared, will show up alive from one of the Bush secret prisons.
5. We will also find out about the threats made to whistle blowers.

HOPE DAY 3!

The End of the Nightmare

Today, January 20th, 2009 will mark the end of the long, dark, national nightmare which we call the Bush Administration.

As George Bush spends his time spinning his legacy, I thought it might be time to discuss the worst of his failings. Bush and his supporters state that "he kept us safe". Of course, he kept us safe except for when he didn't.

We know now that Bush was warned that Bin Laden was determined to attack the US. In response to this, Bush told the aide that, "you've covered your ass, now let's move on".

I am having a hard time forgiving the president for this act. The list of failings go on and on, but this one act was likely the worst. Without 9/11, there would be no Afganistan, Iraq (with the lies that got us there), runaway deficits, torture, warrantless wiretaps, suspension of habeas corpus, Gitmo and secret prisons.

Of course, we will never know whether the Bush administration would have been able to stop the attacks. It is certain that had they done something, then the chances would have improved, by how much is unknown.

While the last 8 years (8 years and 3 months if you include the Florida crimes), will likely go down as the worst presidency of the modern era, we can hope that the next 8 will be remembered as the best.