Bursting Bubbles

It is quite satisfying to see many more Americans waking up to the reality that George W. Bush is unfit to be President and that the Republicans are taking America in the wrong direction. Almost daily there seems to be something new reported about Republican misfeasance or malfeasance, bursting yet another of their bubbles filled with the hot air of deception.

Bush spent the first part of the year tromping around the country, appearing before screened groups of shills, trying to sell a snake oil mislabeled “Saving Social Security by Private Accounts”, while the AARP pointed out his bottles really contained something which more correctly should be labeled “Foolishly Undermining Social Security”. Old folks quickly saw the fraud and then younger folks began to realize that the quack who would try to screw their grandparents might also be trying to screw them.

Escalating prices at the gas pump, even before Hurricane Katrina, have irritated most Americans, who rightly see it as gouging by Arabs and American oil companies. The Bush administration’s use of the high gas prices to weaken environmental protections, without putting any pressure on the gougers to lower prices, is reminding many more Americans that Bush and Cheney are oil men with strong oil producer ties, especially to the oil rich Saudis.

That Iraq is a military quagmire and a political mess into which we should not have entered has become obvious to the majority of Americans. The extent to which Bush continues to misrepresent the situation was confirmed by the ineffectiveness of his most recent speech to shore up support for the war.

The ongoing story of the effort to discredit Joe Wilson for his pointing out one of the intentional misrepresentations by Bush in the lead up to the war has now included some White House characters, Rove and Libby. Bush at first said anyone in the White House who leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife as a covert CIA agent would be dismissed, but he since has flip flopped in public to change it to “anybody convicted of a crime will be dismissed”.

The Bush flip flop on the CIA agent outing was mirrored in the House by the Republicans trying to keep the indicted Tom Delay in power. Embarrassed by the bad publicity over their changing the rule requiring indicted leaders to step down, the Republicans reinstated the rule and Delay grudgingly stepped down. But Delay’s continued functioning in the House leadership role in spite of his having no official position has exposed the Republican House leadership as deceitful and hypocritical.

On the Senate side, Bill Frist finds himself answering to investigators about his fortuitous sale of health care stock before its fall in value. Denying he got inside information from his corporate executive brother, Frist points out the stock was held in a blind trust - but the blindfold apparently had some peekaboo holes. Doctor Frist says he was trying to avoid conflicts questions in voting on health related matters coming before the Senate, something that has not seemed to concern him during his previous eleven years in the Senate.

The fumbled Katrina response showed Bush to be the non-leader that he is. His obvious lack of personal concern, while he vacationed at “the ranch”, had been demonstrated by his motorcade regularly speeding by Cindy Sheehan, who wanted to have a word with him about her son who died in Iraq. Remaining on the ranch while people clung to roofs in New Orleans, and then clearing the rescue helicopters out of the way so he could get a flyover view from Air Force One, further showed America how much Bush did not care.

The Miers nomination has affirmed serious weaknesses in unity among formerly strong Bush supporters and has caused many marginal supporters to wonder what is going on, as Bush defends her one day as the most qualified lawyer in America, and then another day says her religion is her best qualification. Many women are left to wonder why the right wing wanted Bush to nominate a woman but insists she make it clear she is going to take away a woman’s right to choose, and why their pundits vilify Miers as a female neanderthal in spite of the fact she is likely more intellectually capable than most of her critics.

It is no longer necessary for people like me to try to burst the Bush bubbles. Bush and his allies are doing it for us. If you did not click on the links in this article, you missed some good materials from a variety of sources. If you just want the fun of bursting bubbles, try this downloadable free trial of the game “Bursting Bubbles Deluxe”.