Leftovers

30 January 2008



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Bush Delivers His Final State of the Union Address

Monday night, George “LBJ” Bush spoke to Congress and the world in his final State of the Union address. It was a rehash of tired issues, as if somehow, the year was still 2004. He betrayed no understanding of the economic difficulties of the US, he seems to think victory in Iraq-Nam is days away, and that New Orleans has risen from the dead. Mercifully, there are “just” 356 more days of the Bush administration.

On the economy, North Dakota’s Democratic Senator Kent Conrad said it far better than anyone else, “The simple fact is that the state of the union has deteriorated on President Bush’s watch. This deterioration is perhaps most clearly seen in our nation's fiscal condition. His policies have turned record surpluses into record deficits and debt. By the end of his administration, our national debt will exceed $10 trillion -- a staggering fiscal failure.” A $150 billion stimulus package may help improve the mushy economy ahead, but beyond the end of the year, it will mean nothing compared to this debt problem that Mr. Bush created.

On the war in Iraq-Nam, the president rightly pointed out that violence has declined in that sad country in part because of the “surge” in US forces. General Eric Shinseki lost his job because he said Iraq-Nam would require several hundred troops to secure the peace; more boots on the ground yield more security. But the purpose of the surge was to allow the Green Zone government time to organize itself. That has not happened, the troop levels are returning to pre-surge levels, and Moqtada al-Sadr’s unilateral ceasefire expires soon.

Mr. Bush was ecstatic to announce that the city of New Orleans will host the North American summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada as his guests. Well, they won’t be visiting the 9th ward, and they better not show up during hurricane season because the levees haven’t been fixed yet. And 40,000 formaldehyde laden trailer homes are still in use, down from 120,000 in two plus years. Demolition of public housing is met with protests, which are in turn met with tasers and pepper spray – there is no affordable replacement housing.

It’s quite a record. In just seven years, Mr. Bush has lost two towers in New York, two wars in Asia, the city of New Orleans and the budget surplus. And this journal still wonders, “Where is Usama bin Laden?”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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