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Monday, January 02, 2006
2005: What A Year
Happy New Year. And now, one more (yet another one) of those end-of-the-year articles.
Terry Schiavo. Justice Sunday. Nuclear Option. Social Security Privatization. Downing Street Memos. Cindy Sheehan. John Murtha. John Roberts. Harriet Miers. Samuel Alito. Scooter Libby. Jack Abramoff. Mean Jean Schmidt. Katrina/FEMA/Browniegate. Tookie Williams. Pope Benedict XVI. War on Christmas. Rendition.
Whew! What a year. This time last year, those household names and phrases would’ve been meaningless. And don’t forget some of 2005’s most (in)famous quotes. Katrinagate was a gold mine:
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” “Brownie you’re doing a heckuva job.” “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
Lesser known but maybe the most infamous: Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., telling lobbyists “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it, but God did.”
Besides FEMAgate, 2005 was full of those open-mouth-insert-foot moments:
“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war.”
“This is not somebody in a persistent vegetative state.”
“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city.”
“I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”
This time last year, George W. Bush was basking in his re-election “mandate” and bragging about all his political capital. He was all set to march right in and privatize Social Security, turn the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge into a giant oil field, and make the Patriot Act bigger and better (and written in stone).
OOPS.
Now, this time next year what will we be looking back at? Will Bush’s poll ratings continue to sink? Will Republican politicians continue avoiding him for the sake of their own careers? Will the newly-Democratic House of Representatives begin impeachment proceedings?
Or will Karl Rove bounce back from his legal troubles and come up with a whole slew of new dirty tricks? Will Rove and his Swiftboat Chickenhawks succeed in sliming all critics of the administration and reviving Bush’s popularity? Will the Hitler Youth Patriot Act expire in February ‘06, or will it be made permanent and bigger and better than ever?
Maybe Rove will invent another phony gay-marriage type issue that will get millions more Americans to vote Republican.
Or maybe that Avian Flu pandemic will actually happen and all the above questions will be moot.
If we’re living in “interesting times,” then 2006 oughtta be fascinating.
cross-posted at Who Hijacked Our Country
Posted by Tom Harper at 03:01 AM in Current Affairs, Politics | Permalink
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Comments
And maybe the Democrats will actually offer concrete alternatives to the things about the Administration's policies they dislike, instead of merely carping from the sidelines and gumming up the works. Sure would be nice.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto | Jan 2, 2006 11:03:33 AM
Concrete alternatives -- a good start would be undoing 90% of what Bush has "accomplished." We had a lot more worker safety laws in place before Bush dismantled them; it was practically the first thing he did in January 2001. We could clean up the air and water, and force mining companies to repair the environmental destruction they've wreaked. Again, we were doing this prior to Bush's term. We could form a concrete foreign policy of not invading sovereign countries that aren't a threat to us and haven't attacked us. Etc.
Posted by: Tom Harper | Jan 2, 2006 11:17:42 AM
Tom:
I having loving respect for you all here at Bring It On but, I think Francis is asking for specifics. Putting a "90% of what Bush has accomplished" down as a plan just doesn't cut it. 90% is an awful lot. Are you including things that make this country safer? You'd have to admit no matter who was President this country had to get safer after 9/11, maybe we should have stopped in Afghanistan, who knows.
The environmental problems you are eluding to were there before Bush was President and will continue to be there afterwards. I find it amazing that the United States, with all the restrictions we have on pollution that we are still a leader in pollution compared with the rest of the world. But just saying, "clean up air and water" isn't specific enough. I'm sure your drinking water is clean because you buy it like the rest of us in little plastic bottles at 8 to 10 bucks a gallon yet bitch when the gas price gets over $3 and call Bush a money grubbing oil whore. I was suprised this morning on the Today show that had Willie Nelson and his bio diesel that was made from 5% diesel fuel and the rest was soybean and peanut oil. Wow! What a concept!! That's something a Republican can get behind because of the huge economic benefits. Ever other concept I see from the left restricts trade and revenues for businesses. Businesses you guys want to take money from and form your universal healthcare plans and what not. Well, you can't have one without the other. I am all for enviromental care, just don't make brash decisions based on your feelings... they must make economic sense. Whether you like it or not, that's the way it's got to be?
As far as attacking sovereign nations that have not attacked us, I think we shouldn't create a policy that stops or limits it. Why? This world is a global economy. For now the Middle East is the lubrication for that economy. I don't need some guy over there calling me an infidel when he is sitting on top of what I need. We have and offer what they need: Food. We give them their wealth and offer them their freedom. What thanks do we get?
The Middle East could still be a powerhouse long after the oil runs dry by creating replenishable energy from the Sun and winds. Anything is option for those people, if they choose to accept it. If we have to drop a few bombs on a nation for them to get it, then so be it.
Posted by: Steve | Jan 2, 2006 12:29:15 PM
OK steve, I say the plan should be to undo %100 of what Bush has accomplished. I'm thinking of becoming a skinhead again! And kicking some mother fucking radical right wing ass!!!
Posted by: The Bastard | Jan 2, 2006 12:43:02 PM
(strapping on old Doc Martens) Bring it on!!
Posted by: Steve | Jan 2, 2006 12:47:31 PM
Isn't that a Chinese curse - "May you live in interesting times."
If you review Shrub's comments from New Years Day, you will see we are in for another bumpy year.
Oh, and I just wish that one reporter (maybe Helen Thomas will do the deed) would ask Shurb why he joked about being wounded in a battle with a cedar?
Was there anyone at the San Antonio PR junket who can tell us what the wounded GIs thought? I am sure that would be telling.
Blog on all and happy new year.
Posted by: windspike | Jan 2, 2006 2:42:00 PM
If you actually look at the Democratic Parties platform there are all sorts of concrete answers. If you look at leguslation introcduced by the Democrats, there are all sorts of specific proposals - however you won't hear those because as the temporarily minority party, they can;t get to the floor.
It is a bullshit line to say the Dems have no concrete plans. And Steve last time you tried that I rattled off 15 to 20 off the top of my head.
Oh and on that note, if you want to talk about the rape and pillage of the environment, I would HIGHLY recomend 'The Republican War on Science" for a hige dose of reality.
Posted by: The Cranky Liberal | Jan 2, 2006 5:28:25 PM
That was an intersting point that Steve about not being at war with countries that don't attack us.
So let's see, when did North Korea and China attack us? How about North Viet Nam? Boznia, Serbia? Yet, there were the Democatic Presidents (Triman, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton) dropping bombs on them left and right, and we won't even discuss the invasion of Cuba.
Yeah, those Democrats have to stop their war-mongering ways.
Posted by: DennyK | Jan 2, 2006 7:34:48 PM
keep up tha suopa blog
Posted by: happysam | Jan 2, 2006 8:06:35 PM
DennyK: I don't remember off-hand when we were at war with China. As far as Vietnam goes, we shouldn't have been involved there either, so that's a good analogy.
I had mixed feelings about our involvement in Serbia/Bosnia/Kosovo, but Clinton's Republican critics sure had a field day condemning the war.
Posted by: Tom Harper | Jan 2, 2006 8:53:20 PM
Funny Cranky, I don't seem to remember... Are you making shit up again?
Posted by: steve | Jan 2, 2006 9:17:13 PM
Francis remarks,
"And maybe the Democrats will actually offer concrete alternatives to the things about the Administration's policies they dislike, instead of merely carping from the sidelines and gumming up the works. Sure would be nice."
This is a perfect example of the ignorance of the Right. If Francis ever watched C-Span (as opposed to Fox) he would know that the reason the Dems are unable to present altenatives to the sleazy con destruction of America is because the sleazy cons fixed the rules in both chambers so as to make it almost impossible for the Dems to introduce ANYTHING to committee, let alone getting anything up for a full vote.
What he is showing us is that he is completely and utterly unversed in the day to day operations on the Hill and instead relies on the liars at Fox and other sleazy con infotainment outlets. His opinions are not his. They are borrowed - plageurized, so to speak.
And to say that the dems are "gumming up the works" is the "cake" in the "let them eat." How the hell can the Dems gum up anything if they have been systematically legislatively castrated by the majority?
This is why our nation is in such trouble, folks. We are too much an uneducated, incurious, insecure, ignorant polity.
Posted by: Jersey McJones | Jan 3, 2006 12:08:51 PM
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