#1 BEST MOMENT OF BUSH'S PRESIDENCY

After counting down each of the Top 100 Bush moments to commemorate the last 100 days of the Bush presidency, the TOP MOMENT of the Bush presidency is one I knew way before it happened.

This is the only one not a video - it was taken at 11:59 a.m. EST (by my clock.) In other words, the very last minute Bush was president.

I've thought this for a long time, though only today did I know it really would have an exact time no matter what. I learned from the coverage that regardless of when Obama took the oath of office, he was president at exactly noon per the constitution.

And now I will go sigh the biggest sigh of relief ever...

He's done folks.

Tribute to Bush

At 11:59 a.m. today, D.C. time, there was exactly 24 hours in the countdown to Bush leaving office. We have less than 24 hours to go until Bush will no longer be in charge.







Bush will no longer be in charge.







Let me say that again....







BUSH WILL NO LONGER BE IN CHARGE!







So I'm celebrating. The "end of an error" moment in history is a big moment in world history.







And I'm giving one last tribute to Bush - and all he's meant to me. He is the only president that I've had in my adult life, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the next one.







Join me as we go over some of the fond memories of good ol' Dubya...








I've heard some people say, "Well, you can't really blame one person for the economy..."







Sure I can. Oh, there were plenty of people who helped out, but for a man who makes sure we know, "I'm the decider," well, certainly he is. As if about a gabillion people weren't saying, "Don't do that" when Bush was deciding best business practices - namely regulation. Or the whole "don't have wars over oil" thing is good advice for those who want to keep gas prices down. For that matter, the amount of the BAILOUT was roughly the same amount as we spent on the Iraq war...







But the decider decided us right into a huge financial meltdown.







The picture beside me, for instance, was taken over a year and a half ago. If a guy in a skeleton mask can figure out where it's all headed, I'm not sure why Bush couldn't.







An Iraqi man gave me the best image to think of when I think about the economy and why I can't rent an apartment for a price I can afford. He gave me a shoe...





But a huge financial meltdown can just be a mistake, right? It could be incompetence, could be, as Bush says, just that he never did good in Economics. It doesn't neccessarily mean immorality.







No, for that Bush gave us torture and treating men like animals.







He likes to blame this on troops, and certainly those individuals did their part. But an awful lot of soldiers seemed to feel like they weren't going to get in any trouble - SHOULD be doing things like this, in fact. I wonder where they got that idea...







Bush has, more or less admitted there were some "torture-like" things being done. Sorta. Kinda. And where has this neccessary measure gotten him?




Lots and lots of dead people. Lots of dead Americans, lots more dead Iraqis. Some dead Afghani people as well, but we don't hear much from them. You know, the supposed reason all this got started.







Bush has been getting an awful lot of credit lately for "keeping us safe for the last seven years."







WTF? Whenever I hear this, I want to say, "What about year eight?"







Sept. 11 still has some of the taboo topic around it, but I don't believe Bush gets off scott free on this. There was solid intelligence saying bin Laden was planning some big things. It was ignored. Bush is not responsible for the attacks, he is not responsible for mad men who do these things - but he also doesn't get credit for "keeping us safe." Can you imagine if Bush had gotten shot at eight times, and only hit once? Would his Secret Service guys be telling him, "Boy, aren't you glad we protected you against those seven bullets?"









Which brings me to Katrina. Here again, we can't blame Bush for a hurricane. And there are an awful lot of people to share blame for the emergency services failure - not to mention the failure of the levees in the first place. But for FEMA to become (as the finding was) a "dumping ground" for political appointees with no experience, but whom the administration needed to give a job to?







My advice to all future administrations is this - if you really need a political dumping ground to curry favors, please just make it some department that, you know, isn't so neccessary for BIG, CROSS-STATE EMERGENCIES!!







I mean, really. If an earthquake like the '64 one halfway wipes out Anchorage like it did before, I'd like a little reassurance that the guy coordinating my emergency relief has a little experience coordinating emergency relief. Not to be selfish, but just sayin'...




Kodiak Konfidential posted something I thought was actually better than reminding everyone of the screw-ups we all know about. I mention some of the big whoppers that Bush was in charge of. Although I posted a few of them before, I didn't even mention all the "little things" like screwing over Indian Country, etc. But Ishmael found a nice little article over at the Daily Beast that reminds you of some of the "forgotten Bush Scandals." I mean, in eight years, there were just so many to try and remember them all...







My favorite:

10. In order to get tickets to a 2004 election rally with Vice President Dick Cheney, attendees had to a sign a “loyalty oath” affirming that they would endorse Bush's re-election.

This was the sequel to the first article the Daily Beast did.




And tell me the universe doesn't have sense of humor? I just read an article in the Washington Post about a whole load of Bush administration folk who are finding it difficult to find jobs in this crappy economy. It seems many in the administration literally worked themselves out of jobs!

"The cream always rises to the top," added Nels Olson, of the executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International. "Those that are the first-rate individuals out of the administration and who have developed good bipartisan relationships and have solid policy experience will be able to make the transition."

Still, one day last week, Michael Castine, also of Korn/Ferry, said he had received calls from half a dozen senior White House aides "who don't have anything in the hopper yet " He said, "They are loyalists who stayed the course and are not sure what they're going to do."

#2 Top Bush Moment (THIS IS IT!!)

The number two moment comes on the very last full day of Bush being in charge of the button. At 11:59 a.m. today, the countdown for his last 24 hours starts.

The # 2 moment I've been saving since election night.

Meaning, of course, that the #2 moment in Bush's presidency was Nov. 4, 2008. I posted one version in which a mass of people swarmed the White House, once the election was called, and started singing and cheering.

I've wondered, since, if Bushie could hear anything. I've since watched a documentary, and though I can't remember which one, one of the First Ladies remarked that it just killed her husband that he could hear all the anti-war protestors outside the White House. So on the question of whether he could hear, I'm going to go with, "Hopefully."

But this topped that sight - because in these they could all agree on one (off-key and probably half-drunk) song to sing. I think you'll pick up on it pretty quick.

#3 Top Bush Moment

#3! All right folks! This is really going to happen! Even though, in three days, Bush will still be able to do as many dumb things as he wants, he's not going to do it in our name, on our dime!

I'm not sure why this #3 moment cracks me up so much - but the metaphors are many.

Bush is stuck while trying to escape.

#4 Top Bush Moment

#4 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

I had long been saving one of my favorites for the #4 spot, but Ishmael of Kodiak Konfidential directed my attention (yes, much as an easily distracted toddler) to a very profound post on Slate.com - the Top 25 Bushisms of all time (though I'm not totally convinced he's going to sit down and shut up in just four short days.) There were some real classics ("Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" !) - and even some I haven't heard before. Because really, 100 of Bush's moments isn't nearly enough to carve a spot in the great wealth of Bushisms he's accumulated in eight years. It's going to take the next eight tracking them all down and collecting them. Maybe that is what his presidential library will have - certainly it couldn't have BOOKS WITHOUT PICTURES (which, by the way, is a subject of one of the other excellentt Bushisms.)

I have a new nearly-favorite - another that really just displays Bush's frame of thinking, while being chuckle-worthy at the same time. I actually wasn't going to switch it up, despite liking the quote, until I actually tracked down the video. The part that sold it for me was how everybody claps, nodding their heads as he spews forth Bush wisdom. Sigh.

#5 Top Bush Moments

#5 Best (or Worst) Bush Moments

Five, hopefully short, days left. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

This moment was also chosen for how much it shows "who is this Bush guy anyway?" Or - how Bush can deliver the lines he's given, and then go back to "real business."

#6 Top Bush Moments

#6 Best (or Worst) Bush Moments

I was saving this one until one of the last, just because of the pure exasperation when listening to it. Basically, it's Bush describing one of the most important issues to Native people... or trying to discuss. It's not pretty.

This is why we won't miss Bush.

Every once in a while I will come across someone, usually online, who thinks that the anger and disappointment - not to mention embarrassment - conjured by Bush is "Bush bashing." Unpatriotic, without merit, simply disagreeing to disagree.

I was looking at an opinion piece in Indian Country Today - a "how-to" deal with the Obama administration for tribes - when I noticed the other articles I was picking up on.

No, not exciting. Policy stuff. Tribal enrollment issues. Wasting money. But extremely important to groups of people right here in the U.S.

Uranium mining. Yes. URANIUM MINING. This is not the sort of mining that hurts the environment in the usual way. This is pretty scary, proven-unhealthy-big-scary-ways mining. So why not open up more land, and make this especially dangerous for tribes?
Bush's last minute mining decisions and how it affects tribes

To most in the U.S. "enrollment" doesn't mean much of anything. But tribal enrollment can mean everything. DISenrollment can be life-changing.

I visited the American Indian Museum just after it first opened in D.C., and thought one small exhibit very interesting. It was a letter from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to a Native man. It seemed that, after thought, the BIA had decided the man was not Native after all.

Can you imagine getting a letter telling you that you are not a Smith, or a Jones? That you are not white, or black, or Native? Now imagine needing membership to prove you are this group or another (Native people need many.) And imagine not being able to receive it.
Bush's "you're Indians, but not the right Indians" decisions for 2008

Good ol' Kempthorne. This guy Bush picked... what a winner.
Outgoing Sec. of Interior Dirk Kempthorne gives one last flush down the toilet for Native spending

My point here is simply that it is not bashing to disagree, it is not vicious to want big change, and now, and it is certainly not unpatriotic to be angry and embarrassed by a president who treats one large group of his own people this way. And that's just a few examples in the last few months. Eight years have gone by, and I know no Native person who is saying, "Boy, life is just a little bit better after all that." Or, for that matter, "Well, things are about the same." I know far, far too many that are looking for the silver lining in what was handed over, and instead hoping that their lives are not made more difficult by the next eight years, as they were the last.


And for the Native folk - a few suggestions on how to handle things this time around.
A "to-do" on handling the Obama administration and Native policy

UPDATE: I had to fix my "plutonium mining" to "uranium" because, apparently, I can't keep planets - or elements - together right. Thanks Ishmael!

#10 - #7 Top Bush Moments - ONE WEEK LEFT!

Okay. I'm officially excited. I think I can now safely say I am MORE excited that Obama will be getting sworn in than that Bush will no longer be in charge. One more week left of him...

You know, I keep hearing that at the very end of a term, approval ratings for even the worst presidents get a bit of a surge. They keep saying this, as if the same will happen with Bush. The problem is, Bush keeps TALKING and MAKING DECISIONS. He isn't giving us a chance to to think, "Well, maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought..." and in the joy that is Obama's inauguration forgive and forget (or just forget.) No, he keeps reminding us of everything he's responsible for.

Case in point - his last press conference. I honestly watched a lot of this trying to grab out some bit that was more "Bush" than the other. But it's like they wrapped up the whole last eight years and put it in one bite-size press conference - including such golden nuggets as not looking inward when there's a party loss, not understanding why people get angry or hostile with him, and not worrying about the "little voices" that disagree with him.

I liked one reporter who said, regardless of his goals, the execution of his ideals was the disappointing part. Another reporter asked Bush about a term coined - "Bush derangement syndrome."

In any case, this is an interesting press conference I think people will be taking apart for years, which is why it made the list as #7.

#7 Top Bush Moment

(This is just part two of the conference, if you want more check out the links after it plays.)



#8 Top Bush Moment

I think this one can get downplayed a bit, but it is integral to understanding Bush. In a moment of heat in front of the cameras (okay, there's been a lot) you get to here the voices rattling around in Bush's head. The statement really says a lot about what worldview we've been living under for the better part of a decade now.
"I'm the decider, and I decide what's best."



#9 Top Bush Moment

In a rare moment of recognizing failure (or at least SAYING he recognizes failure) Bush acknowledges Katrina... uh.. "serious problems." It would have a lot more meaning if he hadn't just fully defended the Katrina decisions a few days ago.



#10 - Hands down the WORST moment of the Bush presidency... how little we knew...

#11 Top Bush Moments

#11 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

I get kind of surprised that you don't see this one around more.

#12 Top 100 Bush Moment

#12 with 12 days to go people! Just twelve days until NO MORE BUSH! I almost can't believe it...

This one is classic Bush being a bit uncomfortable, but not quite knowing how to answer.

#13 Top 100 Bush Moment

#13 Until last month, a bird came the closest to physically showing Bush how much we love him.

Bush - What do you think?

I've taken a few days to write along a very different plane, and loved this comment when I came back. It's by Mike C., and I wanted to put it out here for anyone to answer. It was left in one of my Top 100 Bush Moments posts. I'd like to hear all your answers before I post my own thoughts, and I'd like to repost your thoughts (whether they come through e-mail or in a comment) on this post.

You know, I've often wondered about the President. Specifically, I've wondered "why does he do and say the things he does? Of what can he possibly be thinking?". At first it seemed to me that he was, in fact, an idiot. But as emotionally gratifying as that view was (and it IS emotionally gratifying) I'm not sure that it's accurate, or at least wholly accurate. I've come up with 3 possibilities for his often inexplicable and destructive behavior:

A). He is stupid, not much more than functionally literate. He's almost completely at the mercy of those around him, who use them for their own ends. Not smart enough to understand anything beyond simple algebra.

B). He is reasonably intelligent, perhaps even very much so, but his intellect does not really drive his decision making process. He has deeply held beliefs, and when confronted with situations that challenge his beliefs, he will look for and accept any explanations that support these beliefs, no matter how seemingly preposterous they are to others. He has no talent or stomach for critical self examination. He actually believes almost everything Karl Rove (and other like minded individuals) says, because it is comfortable for him to do so. And perhaps he's not the most gifted public speaker either.

C). He is utterly corrupt and dishonest. He does not care for the welfare of the country or world. He is interested only in using his position to benefit a small group of powerful wealthy friends and supporters.

Or, a fourth possibility, a combination of all or some of the above.

What do you think?

UPDATE:

From Annette (on Blogger)

I think he is a true idiot. I also think he is a sheep. He is easily lead, and that is why he surrounds himself with the people he has and does. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld and so forth. I think they were the true leaders of the country, Bush was just the figure head.

I often wonder what would have happened if Jeb had gotten into office instead of George. Would things have been different? That is the way it was supposed to have been, but George jumped in ahead, trying to score points with daddy I guess, he had always been such a screw up. Jeb is known as the smart one...lol Now we may never know, because George has probably ruined Jeb's chances, thank goodness...not sure the country can stand another Bush and I don't think I want to try.

2 is enough. MORE than enough.

From Wayne Gallant (on Open Salon)

I think he's crazier than a March Hare.

Basically, a combination of B and C, with sociopathic overtones.

From Mike C (on Blogger)

I think a 60%B, 30%C, 10%A solution. Not sure what supporting evidence I can come up with and at the moment I'm too lazy. Let's just call it a gut feeling.... :)

From Seven Crows

I have struggled with this question myself and I think that it is a combination of B and C. Also throw in a profound sense of his own importance and an utter lack of interest in anything outside his own personal world. He is from the upper class. He and his compatriots are certainly right because otherwise they wouldn't be upper class would they? You can see in his reactions that he doesn't understand at all what it is like to not have enough money to do whatever he wants. The people killed by Katrina: well, why didn't they just hire a limo to drive them away? That just proves to him that they are stupid and not as smart as the upper class.BAH! I hope that soon I will not have to think about him at all ever ever again.

#17 - #14 Top Bush Moments

Only two weeks to go folks! Two weeks from now the nightmare will be over.

We're now in "classic" Bush territory - some quips from Dubya that have withstood the test of time - or rather withstood all the OTHER incredibly dumb things he's said to be the epitomy, for one reason or the other, or presidential intelligence in the new millenium (so far.)

#14 Best (or worst) Bush Moments

These two are classic Dubya-speak - the "Internets" and "The Google." Or - why our tech economy REALLY went down...



#15



#16
An ultimate, and one I have often heard quoted... "Is our children learning?"
This versio actually has this quote, and Bush's follow-up (posted here before) of "Children's do learn."



#17
And of course, Bush saying the truth, without meaning to.

#19 - #18 Top Bush Moments

#18... just makes my stomach turn a little. A lot about Bush's recent interviews has made me really NOT want to watch them as he gives us a little bit of what is actually in his head as he makes these decisions.



# 19 Best (or Worst) Bush moment

Childrens do learn!

#20 Top Bush Moments... and a bonus

Best 2008 Bush Moment

Ive shown this recently, and of course everyone has seen it, but this truly was the Best Bush Moment of 2008. It was pretty easy actually. You know what I'm talking about. The Shoe.

I like this video because it shows the incident with "fitting epic music." And I just like watching it over and over.




#20 Best (or Worst) Bush Moment

#23 - #21 Top Bush Moments

Three weeks to go! Just three weeks left with Dubya, and we can try and get him to stay on his ranch for the rest of his days.

These are all videos from Letterman's "Greatest Moments in Presidential Speeches" series. You do kinda get tired of the opening speeches though...

#21



#22



#23

#24 Top Bush Moment

#24 Best (or Worst) Top Bush Moment

Bush vs. basketball.

#27 - #25 Top Bush Moments

#25 Top Bush Moments

As a Christmas present to Bush (and pretty much to everyone else) I'm sending out the 25th Top moment early. Really, it's because I'll be playing with all my new toys.... er... important, useful things for a productive life and I won't feel like posting (probably.)

It is a present for one and all though, because Bush doesn't make an appearance in this one. It is just a little video someone did showing what happens when Santa tries to deliver copies of the constitution to the White House.

Merry Christmas!!



#26 Top Bush Moment

I saw this on a video, but can only find the sound byte (with a little bit freaky graphics) for more of Bush's articulation. In this case, I don't think we can expect Bush to speak intelligently about tide's turning. As he says here, he was born in a desert.



#27 Top Bush Moment

Merry Christmas Bush. Not that it would make any difference to him, but Bush should have someone saying things like this to his face every day.

#28 Top 100 Bush Moments

The 28th one was actually kinda cute - Bush gives Muhammad Ali a medal, and Ali gives Bush the "crazy" sign. Very few could get away with it, but who's really going to take on Ali?