People Died, The Press Lied

If you weren't alive 14 years ago when two airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and one into the ground killing almost 3000 perfectly good human beings in a single day, you probably believe George Bush was a lousy president based on what you hear in the media. And by "alive" I mean, fully a grownup with a family, kids, a job and some adult responsibilities. Most grownups at the time expected leadership from our president after that catastrophe.

And we got it.

Other pundits than me, those who pontificate with perfect hindsight, find much to criticize the former president for. I believe they gain this "perfect hindsight" from the fact that their heads have been shoved up or are in the process of being re-inserted into a place from which perfect hindsight is the only possible view available (if only for a short moment before things go dark).

At the time of the attacks, I was watching the new president with interest. My job at the time was writing federal, state and local grants on behalf of nonprofit organizations. About that time, I had spent some months studying the changes that were happening in the federal government.  The president had issued instructions to all departments to take a hard look at their agencies and re-evaluate what they were doing, looking for waste, fraud and corruption. At the time, I thought, "Good for him!"

As president, Bush sent millions in US relief
to fight Aids in Africa and continues
to raise money for the cause today.

Meanwhile, the career bureaucrats in the various departments just about had a collective aneurism. Here was a president telling them to make their departments lean and more effective, rather than to fatten themselves up as much as possible. They were actually asked to spend less than they received and to return any savings to the treasury. The president instructed the human services agencies to create partnerships with nonprofits and faith-based ministries to leverage the power of these agencies to supplement government welfare programs.

It worked too. In East Texas alone, community-based and church-run food banks gave away so much food that food stamp applications dropped dramatically; so much that the feds were able to cut a whopping $800,000 from the Food Stamp agency's budget in just one year in that one region alone. The bureaucrats nearly had a stroke. They began a frantic $200,000 "marketing" campaign to increase food stamp applications again to get their budget back up. At one regional meeting they blamed the budget cuts on church food bank programs.

In the months leading up to 9/11, President Bush, dissatisfied with the security reports he was getting, issued instructions to the CIA to stop telling him what they thought he, the commander-in-chief ought to hear and to start telling him what was actually going on. About this time, I had a sit down supper with a career CIA officer who worked at the bureau in Washington. He was very upset about President Bush's instructions, calling Bush the worst thing ever to happen to this country and to the CIA. The complaint? The president wanted to see raw data, not an "interpreted" version of the data as prepared by Langley. This career spook really believed it would be better if the president were kept like a mushroom by the CIA - in the dark and fed a steady diet of horse manure. That's not how he put it, of course, but that was the upshot.

Of course, what happened nine months into his presidency, rather confirmed Bush's opinion with regard to the quality of information he was getting from his so-called "intelligence" services. Had 9/11 not happened; had the CIA's cadre of Clinton-era bureaucrats done their job better and given the president the information he needed, things might have been very different budget-wise under President Bush. For all intents and purposes, it looked like, in the early months of his presidency that W was planning to follow, not so much in the footsteps of his father, but in the footsteps of his father's old boss - Ronald Reagan.

The "Bullhorn Speech"

As it was, George W. wound up fighting a war that the American people, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks demanded. In the months following the 9/11 attack, sales of American flags went through the roof. Bush's dramatic speech from the rubble of the twin towers electrified a nation. Military recruiters had young Americans lined up in front of their offices to volunteer. President Bush's memorable bullhorn speech united our nation in a way we had not been united since President Reagan called for us to be a "city on a hill" after the dismal and shame-inducing Carter years.

Tragically, believing that no good crisis should go to waste, the career bureaucrats, Democrats and other fans of big government began immediate efforts to refatten the federal budget, tacking new spending for signature Democrat "social justice" programs as a condition of passing spending appropriations for the Afghan and Iraq wars. Don't forget, Saddam had promptly booted out weapons inspectors in the aftermath of 9/11 (after he first did a little dance of joy at the news). Without a way to insure the craziest leader in the Middle East wasn't building nukes, everybody wanted the lunatic taken out - even Democrats.

John Kerry really was serious when he said he was for the war, before he was against it. Once the war was safely underway and the likelihood of Saddam planting a nuke under the Russel Building was dramatically reduced, of course Democrats like Kerry had to turn against the war. How better could Democrats force the president to allow their pet programs to fatten back up, than to hold the war effort hostage?  When, in our naivety, the American people put the Democrats back in control of the Congress in 2006, they went hog wild as we say in Texas. The Democrat driven housing collapse at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ensued and within 18 months, an economy that had been going along pretty well, even with the war effort, was thoroughly in the dumper.

About the only thing that was still going well was the war effort. We'd not had a single terrorist attack on home soil since 9/11, Saddam was swinging from a rope and Ben Laden was huddled in a cave pooping in a bucket. So, of course, that success had to be turned into a failure and W's successor managed to do that quite thoroughly and in short order.

George Bush meeting troops at DFW Airport

Bush talks to local kids while building
AIDS treatment centers in Africa.

And here we sit six years after President Bush with the DNC and their minions in the press blaming him for the 17 trillion dollars in debt the Democrats and President Obama have run up. We're seeing terrorist attacks again on American soil. Everybody in the world apparently hates us even more and, what's worse, they don't respect and fear us anymore either - not after the President's multiple "world apology tours".

And what's Bush doing? Well, he's not criticizing President Obama for one thing, which is the gentlemanly thing to do. The president visits wounded soldiers in hospitals, shooing away any cameras that don't belong to the soldiers and their families. He meets returning soldiers when they fly into DFW when he can. He and Laura have continued their aid work in Africa which started with W's AIDS eradication efforts when he was president. The couple have been very busy building clinics and medical facilities and raising money to address the AIDS epidemic in Africa. No fanfare. No crowds of TV reporters and cameras of the sort that follow Jimmy Carter around. Thousands of grateful Africans are the only ones who take notice. Bush is very popular for his humanitarian work in areas that have been devastated by AIDS. The trouble is these sorts of people aren't Hollywood producers or gay actors or slutty actresses who picked up a social disease - just people who need help. The media doesn't pay much attention to such people, particularly if they don't support the "progressive" agenda the media is desperately promoting.

Meanwhile, back in the states the liberal media and the "progressive" left continue blaming the former

The George Bush tube top - a popular
fashion accessory in central Africa.

president for everything from global warming to outbreaks of toothache in pot-bellied pigs. You'd think they'd get tired of singing the Nanny Nanny Boo Boo Song after a while, but apparently the Progressive Agenda demands it.

I get tired of seeing a good man mocked and ridiculed for doing what he believed was right. On most things, I agree with what Bush tried to do. I think the former president did what he thought was right based on the information he had. That is far different from how either his predecessor or his successor did things. Both Clinton and Obama seem to operate on the "do what is expedient to get what I want" principle of political leadership.

Being President is not brain surgery, but
wouldn't it be nice to have a president
who could do brain surgery if he wanted to....
because he's smart enough?

I respect President Bush and I can't say that about a lot of politicians these days. There's maybe one or two in this current crop of presidential candidates that I can support as whole-heartedly as I did President Bush. It doesn't appear, however, as if the RNC is going to let either of them win, even though they both are running high in the polls. I'd love to see Ben Carson or Ted Cruz shake things up. I don't think the powers that be will ever give us a chance to vote for them though. But how cool would that be if we could get them both - a brain surgeon and a Hispanic businessman running the country. Bring back Condi Rice for SecState and I'd be a very happy man.

Sadly, all we can really do is pray at this point that Jesus comes before this world blows itself up around us. If the last few elections are any indication of where we're going, the next president will probably be the sort that stands upon the rubble of the next massive terrorist attack, wrings her hands and squeals, "Oh my God, they tried to blow me up. How dare they?" Then she'll whip out the old briefcase and start pressing buttons that will turn the Middle East into a sea of glass like Revelation talks about.

I just hope Jesus has the bus gassed up and is coming to get us soon. I have a skin condition that doesn't respond well to radiation.



© 2015 by Tom King

The War on Poverty is a War on the Poor

I am a card-carrying member of "the poor" (or at least I was till a few days ago).  They've apparently revoked my card.  I had a Medicaid card which I used three times last year because I couldn't find a doctor who would take me without either that or insurance.  In February and March, I got a contract job which paid me $1400 over a three week period. My Medicaid was canceled because I made too much money that month (my wife is on full disability too - $700 out of which they take a goodly chunk for Medicare). 

The Washington State Healthcare Exchange informs me that, now that I've been on Medicaid, they have my medical records (and by an interesting coincidence, so does the IRS). But never fear. The WSHE tells me I can now get an affordable health care plan through the exchange for a mere $1,154 per MONTH - a good $500 more than I made in May. I can, they assure me, use an earned income tax credit they are sure that I will get from the IRS as a partial payment for the insurance.

Oh, joy! I may, if the IRS cooperates, be able to get a health plan for only $200 more than I make (not including the deductibles I'll have to pay, if I actually use it).  As a 61 year-old type II Diabetic with high blood pressure and sleep apnea, I can't just go pay a doctor to prescribe my meds. I can't buy a CPAP mask to replace my old one that's beginning to spring leaks unless I have a doctor's okay and I can't get that without health insurance and if I buy health insurance I can't afford to buy the mask anyway....................or food or keep the lights on or the Internet which is my lifeline because the little I make is all done online - the last free market on the planet.  That probably won't last for long now that the FCC has declared the Internet a public utility, but I should be dead before that happens anyway (see scenario below).

The War on Poverty isn't working anyway (see the chart above).  We're not shrinking the number of poor people. We're maintaining it at a more or less constant level, unless there is an election coming and then, somehow, there are suddenly more of us and to my horror, I found myself one of them.

I did not get to be a member of the poor on purpose. It sneaked up behind me and grabbed me. I am the principle caregiver for my wife who is disabled and I can't safely leave her alone while I hike 3 miles to and from the nearest bus stop to ride for another hour on the bus to get to a job somewhere that I can't even find and gave up trying to find a long time ago.  I can't leave home for 12 to 13 hours a day and leave my wife alone.

I am one of the millions of uncounted "unemployed" workers. To survive, I'm working off the grid for myself.  Like other uncounted workers, I am no longer even trying to find regular "countable" employment anymore and therefore I am no longer being counted by the Obama administration Labor Department; a fact which accounts for the falling unemployment rates.

So much for "Obama is for the poor."  I is one and he ain't helpin' me a bit.

If you are a card-carrying member of the poor, it is a full time job, just filling out the paperwork and being careful not to make too much money so you don't inadvertently knock yourself off the poor list and lose your benefits.  I'd burn my card, but it won't do any good. The IRS has a record of it and they never forget anything.  It is my contention that the so-called war on poverty is not about curing poverty. It's about maintaining the poor as a reliable voting block for Democrat Party. Nothing cures progressive socialism like making money on your own hook. Of course, progressive socialism contains within it, some rather dark tenets.

They say Obamacare doesn't have death panels, though it has been suggested that the end-of-life planning element of the Obamacare scheme is precisely that. Differences of opinion notwithstanding, whatever they have seems to be a quite effective way to kill off the aged and infirm.  Take me, for instance. In my current Obamacare predicament, I can't afford health care insurance. It's astronomically high now, probably because its mandatory now that you have health insurance. It is also FREAKING MANDATORY! It is, therefore, better for me to just not go to the doctor at all and pay for the meds that I can afford, at least until the prescriptions run out. Of course, the IRS is going to fine me for having no health insurance, but if all works out, I'll be dead by then.

If I stop using health insurance at all, I won't spend more than I make.  Then, I can go ahead and die from my various diseases at least at a slightly slower pace than I would if I paid everything I make for health insurance and die more quickly from starvation and homelessness, which would be the case if all of my money and then some is going into health insurance.

By dying more quickly, I will make a place for the young and far more useful members of the proletariat, who are, generally, a lot less trouble to the dear leaders than useless people like me. That was an idea favored by George Bernard Shaw, an early adopter of progressivism. His favorite method of dealing with useless people was a "humane gas" - something to put you down once you were of no further use to society. He, in fact, suggested that you have to report to and justify your continued existence every 5 to 7 years to a panel of community leaders (see the video in the link above if you don't believe me). If you weren't producing more than you were using, you'd get the gas. Sounds like a death panel to me, but who am I to have an opinion on the matter when my betters have it all worked out they tell me.

They should probably take away any guns I have at this point.  While I don't actually have any guns because of the high risk of suicide among members of my household, if I did have guns, I'd probably be on the NSA's list of potential domestic terrorists. After all, I do write a lot of stuff critical of the government and you know how easy it is for people who criticize the government to whip up a fertilizer bomb and become terrorists.

I don't have a gun, though I do have a sword. I plan to go down swinging. I'm not doing the gas thing, however humane they make it.

(c) 2015 by Tom King

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Field Guide to Marxist Thought: Politics