Sunday, February 24, 2008

George W. Bush and the Republicans

When the historians sit down to analyze the administration headed by George W. Bush, the bad outcomes will outweigh the good: a suffocating national debt, an inability to get Osama in Afghanistan, diversion of troops and resources to Iraq to fulfill Bush's personal vengeance against Saddam Hussein, the miserable failure of NCLB (No Child Left Behind), the poor response by the federal government to Hurricane Katrina, the mess in the Medicare Prescription Drug program, the loss of efforts in foreign diplomacy, the loss of personal freedom, federal snooping without warrants, astronomical gas prices coupled with obscene profits by oil producers, etc., etc., etc.

What has the current Bush administration given to Ohio? Senator Hillary Clinton summed up the toll as reported in The Toledo Blade:
"More than 200,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since George Bush has been President," she said. "We have more than 1 million Ohioans without health insurance. We have 90,000, 95,000 homes in foreclosure right now, and more than 150,000 [if you] take all of last year."

She is absolutely correct. Ohio has had an unfair burden with Bush in the White House.
However the most heartbreaking part is that we've had 165 Ohioans killed in Iraq ( http://icasualties.org/oif/USMap.aspx ) and a total of 3970 American military casualties.

However, the Republicans and especially the Ohio GOP want us to forget about that. They want us to keep our troops in Iraq f-o-r-e-v-e-r, rebuild Iraq with our tax money, continue to reward the obscene profit margins of drug companies and petroleum corporations, and stay on Bush's plan for total collapse of our financial markets. Do the Republicans have amnesia? Their elected officials kept this war going by giving this administration a blank check. Why would Americans want to continue this disaster for the future?

It is time for Americans to stand up and say to the Republicans, "We've had enough of your b.s."

By the way, according to the New York Times, the Bush presidential library will be housed at Southern Methodist University. It will tell the story of his "accomplishments." In my opinion, that would make the library the size of a cereal box.