Bush has been stunningly successful as President.
He invaded Iraq and threatens Iran, thereby keeping those low-cost producers of petroleum offline. He has greatly increased the usage of petroleum by the military. He has created a record price for his friends' oil while their production costs have remained mostly stable. Great for profits.
He has increased military contracts beyond anyone' wildest expectations.
He has multiplied the production of opium ten fold for the benefit of the drug lords.
He has set up a world context where we must continue in Iran and Afghanistan nearly forever, no matter who wins the 2008 election.
He has gifted nearly a trillion to bail out the banking system.
He has decimated the Constutuion so that future presidents have to pay little attention to an impotent Congress.
He has created electronic voting systems that are totally without integrity so he can totally ignore public opinion.
Best President ever if you are an oil man, drug lord, crooked banker, or a war profiteer!
Just a stunning performance! Except for us poor blokes who will have a harder time of it for the rest of our lives and for the dead or displaced Iraqi or a U. S. Veteran.
Of course, per Cheney, the wounded and dead veterans just volunteered for it and have no right to complain. So!
exactly! people mistakenly presume he cares about people and politics. when you understand his values, you understand why he sleeps well at night. people are being slaughtered and the planet is being poisoned, but damn if profits aren't skyrocketing!
Posted by Turkana at April 1, 2008 11:36 AMThis all proves that George Bush is a genius,
Posted by Nobody at April 1, 2008 12:05 PMBut an evil one.
Posted by Nobody at April 1, 2008 12:06 PMThanks for this post...I'd often wondered just how much oil these Wars of choice consumed...the ultimate sad irony...the war really was all about the oil....thinking Cheney's Secret Energy task force maps of Iraq's with companies already to divy up the sp"oils" of the invasion. And of course the oil was going to pay for it too....heh...it would be funny if it wasn't so damn depressing and millions of lives negatively impacted by this in so many ways.
Meanwhile Congress apparently did their pr blast "oversight" and I use that term very very loosely today at a hearing with the CEO's of Big Oil companies asking them about their record profits and their poor investment in alternate forms of energy from the sun and wind....who knew that'd be so hard to discover and invest in technologies for those two resources?
And, although you always hear about the cost of gas and oil on the nightly news shows and how it's increased and hurting consumers, you never hear this side of the story that you pointed out. I wish we did.
Posted by emal at April 1, 2008 12:15 PMturkana: "when you understand his values, you understand why he sleeps well at night"
no, he sleeps well because he is a sociopath
emal, one of the real scandals is how Big Oil gets oil and gas from public lands without paying the proper royalties to the Federal government.
Posted by Gay Veteran at April 1, 2008 12:20 PMGay Veteran...good point....they got us coming and going, whether it's off the taxpayer dime and our pillaging our public lands, or gouging us at the gas pump. And it goes without saying that he and Dick are both sociopaths....depressing.
Posted by emal at April 1, 2008 12:32 PMTurkana,
Thanks for an extremely fine post, especially the part where you say,
"Anyone paying attention understands that the United States is little more than a corporate welfare state, and that enriching military contractors is one of the U.S. government's primary purposes."
As a first approximation if greenhouse gas emissions or energy consumed, the DoD spending figures could be plugged into eiolca.net.
Posted by Corinne at April 1, 2008 01:38 PMI meant to say: As a first approximation of greenhouse gas emissions or energy consumed, the DoD spending figures could be plugged into eiolca.net.
Posted by Corinne at April 1, 2008 01:39 PM