Bush & Company

President Obama, stop being a wimp! Stand up and fight for the true health care reform with a robust public option you were so strong on a few months ago---exercise your political muscle! The Senate bill, as it is, if signed by you into law, will hand countless Americans over to the corporate predators.

On Tuesday, October 27, 2009, George W. Bush joined other famous speakers at a "Get Motivated" seminar in Fort Worth, Texas. He's to repeat his performance December 2.

Although the event was said in advance by its organizers to deliver "more inspirational firepower than a stick of dynamite," one wonders how Dick Cheney's tool, more concerned with recreation and personal fitness than with governance, could galvanize others to action. His numerous vacation days at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, Camp David, his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas and elsewhere, as well as his hours-long morning exercise ritual in the White House gym, are well documented.

Talk about a whopping goof,
Unless it actually was a spoof,
Fitness freak, vacationing
Former president George two
Was a speaker in October
At that motivational thing.

For some really good advice,
Who knows why they didn't pick
Super-motivated Dick,
Powerful past president of vice?

Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby were award recipients, Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at a Bush administration reunion at the neoconservative Center for Security Policy dinner ---Libby, for the "Service Before Self" award (for being a fall guy) and Cheney, for the "Keeper of the Flame" (for enhancing American security).

Scooter and Dick, felonious dudes,
By all rights should be royally screwed,
Justifiable sitting ducks;
Instead of that, each in his tux,
Is glorified for telling lies
And gets a highfalutin prize.

Though infamous malfeasants these,
Guests warmly toast those honorees.

Senator Joe Lieberman, independent/erstwhile Democrat, and his wife Hadassah, are both closely linked to the insurance industry, profiting royally from the affiliations. Meanwhile, the senator speaks against health care reform on the pretext of its costliness, when in reality, effective health care reform would save money, as Mr. Lieberman must know. He threatens, if a public option is included, to join Republicans in a filibuster that will kill the bill.

Aetna's hero Senator Joe,
Health care reform's most heinous foe,
With grossest perfidy and greed
To sufferers' needs he pays no heed.

Ensuring funds for his campaign
To keep his seat come 2010
And court those health moguls again,
Joe and Hadassah don't mind lies,

For they protect those precious ties.
Break out Beluga and champagne,
Joe and Hadassah, solemnize
Health care reform's woeful demise,

Amid your victims' fruitless cries.

by Elizabeth Gerteiny is hot-off-the-press!
Find all your favorite Bush & Co verses
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President Obama is determined to reform our chronically unstable and inhumane health care system in favor of proven-effective initiatives offering secure health protection, affordable, and available to all.

The current conflict is exacerbated by Blue Dog Democrats while the lunatic fringe of the population continues to be egged on by powerful hate-mongers, and extreme Republican leaders---lobbyist-financed---largely unrebuked by their party---hell bent on bringing Mr. Obama's presidency to defeat in 2012 or preferably to a violent, premature end.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, along with other conservative Republican representatives, wore a sour expression throughout the president's address to Congress September 9. He says not to rush into reform, that the Obama plan is too costly. He says big government is a threat, that looming socialism is a threat, whereas the real threats are media personalities who hawk paranoia and hatred and politicians who on false premises lead and voters who hysterically follow and carry guns.

Mr. Boehner, why so glum?
Just where are you coming from?
Seeming to condone what some
Of our citizens have become,

Eaten up by fear and hate,
Unyielding, mindlessly irate,
Conditions you helped to create
While preaching that reform can wait.

Although health care waste and abuse
May be in part just an excuse
To decimate the president,
Feigning legitimate dissent,

The party that keeps saying no
Aims to retain the status quo
As civic progress they ignore.
What do they think a government's for?

Either the American people are fickle or the polls are. Polls had indicated that the majority of Americans want war criminls prosecuted. Now polls say the reverse.

President Obama said that he would follow where Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation leads, presumably, to criminal prosecution. Then in his 100 days press conference April 29, he called waterboarding a "mistake" rather than the crime that it is. He called enhanced interrogation techniques both "techniques" and "practices" rather than crimes. These indulgences are perplexing and disquieting.

George Washington University constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley thinks the new president is "morphing into his predecessor."

We understand, Mr. President, your conflict between duty and expediency. We realize that you foresee a major distraction that could jeopardize your urgent agenda, that you want the support of those Republicans who might viciously undermine that agenda in revenge for punishing key members of their party, that you believe Americans are more concerned with universal health care, the economy, energy and other reforms than with penalizing the Bush officials who lured us into an illegal and devastating war, a collateral result of which was the use, aided by their equally responsible lawyers, of illegal and devastating torture. Yet a future president, as ruthless, ignorant and inhumane as George W. Bush---seeing what you neglected to do, should Attorney General Holder not follow through on his obligation---would interpret that as carte blanche to repeat the crimes, leading to the use of torture on our own captured troops.

Ther world is watching. Their low opinion of us has soared upward. What will they think of us if examples by the United States aren't made of our own perpetrators? Prosecution of the guilty is cathartic.. A heinous past must be dealt with thoroughly to achieve security as well as closure. Shielding the guilty is breaking the law. You appear to have the ability to anticipate consequences. Can you see the consequences of such an omission? Must we rely on other nations, such as Spain and Germany, to do the job for us? In fact, prosecution could only happen should the culpable visit those countries.

Your release on April 16 of the four Bush torture memos and the shocklinly matter-of-fact torture manual seemed to point toward a positive path on your part. Yet on May 13, you announced that you will not, after all, release the many never before seen torture photos. You said it might further enflame our enemies. Perhaps you're right, based on some high military advice.

Over all, however, your statement, "My sense is that this will be worked out over time" now seems like an evasion.

Dare we hope that in your heart you will welcome the opportunity, when you deem it politically feasible, to make the guilty accountable? Light must be shed upon the finagling by the previous administration of our democratic system and the law, their attempt, both pitiful and egregious, to make torture legal, while first denying the use of it, then defending it and its supposed efficacy.

Master strategist Barack Obama has tested the American people. He's discovered that a majority of us want the war criminals of the past eight years to be brought to justice. He's now shown that he, too, believes that criminals of such magnitude must be fully investigated and when found guilty, be jailed.

The onus falls upon the US Congress, judiciary and an independent prosecutor, not on Spain or any other foreign country. The truth is out there. Of the hundreds, maybe thouisands, of potential whistleblowers, some, under questioning, may be persuaded to tell what they know. Some may admit to having performed, under orders, torture techniques on detainees. As of April 23, 2009, both observers of and participants in various criminal acts, domestic and international, have begun to come forward. This is likely to continue as more damaging information becomes available.

Whether or not hard-core conservative Republicans support a bi-partisan effort is immaterial. They're unlikely to deviate from their implausible opposition to a Democratic-dominated Congress and an objective judiciary under the current administration.

Representative John Conyers and Senator Pat Leahy are ready to lead their judiciary committees in an undertaking to counter the feeble rationalizations and fact manipulation that struggle to normalize the illegal and the abnormal.

We can restore an honorable past by setting a precedent that war crimes will never again be committed or tolerated by the United States of America.

Known as unflappable, but finally miffed---

"This is a spending bill!" said President Obama in early February. "What do you think a stimulus is?"

Is he resigned now to the obvious, that Republicans are indifferent to his good nature, to his honest attempts to bring "everyone in?" Does he realize that theyll say and do just about anything to undermine him to the detriment of America and its people?

This is a president who told the American people that if he doesn't resolve the economic crisis, he should be booted out, who understands that "Responsibility doesn't mean not making mistakes but owning up to them and trying not to repeat them." This is a president who slid easily and confortably into the presidency as if he were made for it.

Scorning Mr.Obama's outreach to bipartisanship, Republicans who want such a president to fail, to lose that coveted second term, care only for themselves and what their party can do for them, not for the nation.

In spite of their negative efforts, the stimulus bill passed, signed into law Tuesday, February 17, but considerbly diluted---again, through their efforts. Because of those efforts, a new recovery plan will soon be needed.

We can thank three Republican senators---Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania---for salvaging what remains of the package. If it fails, that self-serving block of Republicans who claimed the plan was too costly, will blame the president. If it succeeds, they'll credit that success to a natural economic cycle, not to the president.

On January 12, 2009, President George W. Bush held a final press conference and on January 15, gave a farewell address before a small group---cabinet members and Vice President Cheney---televised to the nation from the East room of the White House.

At his news conference, he expressed disagreement with the majority belief that “. . our moral standing has been damaged.” He also defended his decision to send a surge to Iraq of 30,000 troops “. . . as opposed to withdrawing.” This was done in January, 2007. Apparent was his continued rejection of presidential responsibility, despite cogent evidence that his ignorance of the Middle East resulted in a stubborn and unrealistic determination to establish Western-style democracy in the region.

In his farewell address, he emphasized his resolve throughout his tenure both to protect the nation from further terrorist attack and to prevent collapse of the economy. “There are things I would do differently if given the chance, Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right. . .I was willing to make the tough decisions.” However, his insistence on deregulation aided in creating the 2008 financial meltdown, certain to continue for some time and though receiving an intel report every morning but Sunday, he somehow missed the warnings, some very detailed, that signaled 9/11.

(some parting words from George W. Bush paraphrased)

I made tough choices to ensure
America would be secure.
My conscience always guided me---
(But will historians disagree?)

So much taints that grand old Bush name,
Still President Bush takes little blame.
His attitude has stayed the same--- This presidency is about me.

In the Hereafter, George W. Bush, who should have served his people as champion and protector, must finally face up to misdeeds and sins of omission, both of which have far-reaching and collateral ramifications.

Ghostly faces, haunted eyes,
Like a tide around you rise;
Multitudes that like a sea,
Stretch far as the eye can see.

You chose to disregard their cries,
Cries that reached the very skies.
Now eyes, for voices they have none,
Cry wordlessly, what have you done?

The president will leave us soon,
Shedding his sheltering safe cocoon
To go out in the world alone
And show that he's not been outshone.

Outdone by Dad with bat and ball,
He bolstered his own self-esteem
And bought himself a baseball team.
In business Poppy's better, too;

He even flew an aeroplane
More skillfully than George could do;
No contest who best wears the hat
Of an effective diplomat.

Besides misdeeds, once and for all,
Can he prove that he can exceed
His senior in financial greed,
The better Bush thus to outdo---

Every so often make a speech,
An easy seventy-five thou-plus each?
It seems to be part of their creed;
How much dough do these people need?