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Dissecting Bush’s Farewell Address: Lies, Damn Lies, and Still More Lies
Sometimes in science or other empirical disciplines, practitioners will test a sample of a larger mass, and use the analysis of the sample to infer the composition or attributes of the larger object. Examples include geological cross-sections of a meteor; biopsies of potentially malignant growths; or scientific polling of a representative sample of the population.
Today we’re going to do something similar. Just two hours ago Bush gave his farewell address to the nation. It was not everything I expected to be, but analysis might still turn up something interesting. To analyze, let’s turn to a representative sample from the transcript:
The addicted and suffering are finding new hope through faith-based programs. Vulnerable human life is better protected. Funding for our veterans has nearly doubled. America’s air, water and lands are measurably cleaner. And the federal bench includes wise new members, like Justice Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Eyeballing the sample, I’d say Bush packed all his culture war “accomplishments” into one fun-filled paragraph. Should make for interesting reading. Let’s go line by line:
The addicted and suffering are finding new hope through faith-based programs.
Demonstrably false. With the possible exception of addiction recovery programs, Bush’s faith-based initiatives roundly did more harm than good. As late as this year, unspent taxpayer money languished in admittedly ineffective abstinence-only “faith-based” programs, long-since discredited as effective means of heading off teen pregnancy. He’ll leave office as the only President in decades to preside over an increase in teen birthrates. Try again.
Vulnerable human life is better protected.
Unless this is Bush’s way of taking pride in his tireless efforts to circumscribe abortion rates while the nation burns around him, this claim is also demonstrably false. Discounting the unborn, life among “the vulnerable” of humanity has rarely been worse. From the urban poor (deprived of school funding) to racial minorities (facing record discrimination after Bush’s Department of Justice diverted resources to ensure churches got their tax breaks) to the most vulnerable of all, our soldiers, who bravely put themselves in harm’s way to protect our country (dropped into a poorly-planned war with neither body armor nor an exit strategy), the imperiled have received nothing from Bush but a smile. And, let’s not forget that Bush’s economic policies have resulted in the relegation of much of the middle class to the ranks of “the vulnerable.” Giving the downtrodden more company does not count as better protection.
Funding for our veterans has nearly doubled.
Although this is apparently one of Bush’s favorite ways of spinning himself positively, it’s also wrong. Setting aside for a moment the American lives Bush mismanaged by going into war “half cocked,” any coverage of his legacy regarding veterans would be incomplete without some reminder of the Walter Reed scandal, which revealed the truly awful treatment our wounded veterans received at the administration’s hands.
America’s air, water and lands are measurably cleaner.
What? Does this even deserve a reply? NRDC, you can take this one: Bush’s environmental record consists only of “dismantling safeguards, ignoring climate concerns, marginalizing sound science and catering to industries that endangered Americans’ health and natural heritage.” All the while doing nothing about truly global concerns like climate change.
And the federal bench includes wise new members, like Justice Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
Roberts & Alito are little more than a two-man judicial wrecking crew. But oh well, I suppose: it’s not like we needed antitrust law, or effective antidiscrimination laws, or meaningful review of executive abuses of power. Remember, the only reason that Bush hasn’t been allowed to indefinitely and illegally detain innocent men without hope of due process is that Roberts and Alito didn’t always get their way.
And so on. Judging from this one paragraph, the only thing good or true about Bush’s farewell address is the “farewell” part. Don’t get me wrong: we’re pretty excited about that.
Jack Goldsmith is Kind of a Jerk
Even in a dark, dark administration, there are some spots of light, like Jack Goldsmith, ex-head of the Office of Legal Counsel. On second though, “light” might be too strong a word. Make that “less dark.”
Despite a record of standing up for his principles, in an editorial in today’s New York Times, Mr. Goldsmith reminds us that he is, in fact, still a jerk, cut from the same divisive, mean-spirited, agenda-driven cloth as the rest of the Bush administration. The article asked legal experts what questions they would ask of Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney-general designate, at his confirmation hearing, which is going on right now. Goldsmith’s contributions?
1. What will you do when liberals, over Mr. Obama’s objections, encourage Congress, the courts and the Justice Department to pursue investigations and prosecutions concerning the Bush administration’s surveillance and interrogation policies?
2. Will your representation of Chiquita and other corporations accused of wrongdoing make you less enthusiastic about prosecuting the corporate architects of the financial meltdown? [....]
4. Do you agree with Mr. Obama’s implication that the Supreme Court needs someone who will side with the powerless rather than the powerful? What if the best nominee happens to be a white male?
In the space of four short questions, Goldsmith manages to use “liberal” as a swear-word, a “them” to Holder and Goldsmith’s “us”; place the blame for the financial crisis on bananas in a truly bizarre attempt to smear Holder; and play the reverse-race card. Poor white men. Doesn’t Holder know that they’re oppressed too?
Maybe it’s just me, but when I see an ex-Bush official – even one of the better ones – accuse someone else of corruption, malfeasance, and over-partisanship, it’s all I can do not to crush whatever I’m holding.
LEAKED: Bush’s Farewell Address for Tonight
EXCLUSIVE: per Reuters, Huffington Post, et al, still-president George W. Bush will deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight on primetime. In 1796, Washington set the bar fairly high for this manner of oratory. This, of course, gives rise to any number of questions: Will George W. Bush live up to Washington’s tradition? Will he admit error in the failures that plagued his presidency? Will he finally acknowledge nuance in public discourse? On any other blog, you’d have to wait until tonight to see. Not here. As a Submitted to a Candid World exclusive, please enjoy our leaked copy:
Update: the real address is here.
——
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: My fellow Americans,
Eight years ago we embarked together on a collective experiment designed to settle, once and for all, the issue of whether a self-styled simple man could govern and administer the world’s greatest nation, with nothing more than a wry, folksy sense of wisdom, a few handpicked neo-conservative technocrats, and the blessings of Providence Jesus. The answer, it turns out, is no. But not for my lack of trying.
Inauguration
I can count the remaining days of the Bush Administration on one hand. How does that feel? I’m excited, enough so to risk life and limb to brave the mob scene of the inauguration. Yes, I’ll be there when Barack Obama takes office. No, I don’t have a ticket – who does? But on January 21st, or as soon as possible after I recover, I’ll be delivering a report from the ground, describing the inauguration from the perspective of one of four million stuck in ten-hour lines in freezing weather. Send hand-warmers.
Obama to End “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
There are two stories to take from this CNN article, and this YouTube video:
The first is that Obama’s going to wait to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” – emphasis on the “wait.” This is already the narrative being spun on conservative blogs cynically trying to peel liberal fans away from the Democratic Party; the “concern trolls” of the media, if you will. But a focus on the timeframe obscures two important facts. Namely, Obama has always said that repealing DADT would take time, and (enter story two), he’s actually going to repeal DADT. Stop a minute and consider this – the most conservative government institution in the United States government, the armed forces, will now have to accept openly gay servicemembers. This is a major victory for equality and, incidentally, for the U.S. Armed Forces, who’ve lost upwards of 10,000 soldiers during wartime to this policy, including 55 Arabic-speaking cryptologists. Have to wonder if they might have come in handy.
