A lack of Courage and Insubordination

I sit in front of the blank page looking for something profound to jump in my head and out of my fingers. I am personally satisfied that I devoted only these words to memo-gate, in fact I have to admit that this is one "issue" that I failed to understand. In any event the fact remains that 32 years ago an officer in the TANG named George W Bush, disobeyed a direct order from his superior, to show up for a physical. That he failed to do so was insubordination, and for the fortunate son, the only disiplinary action faced was the revocation of his flight status.

Dubya has been a lucky boy, if he had actually been serving in the regular army and disobeyed a direct order under wartime, he could have faced not only a court martial, but the death penalty as well. That is the seriousness with which the military takes the chain of command. But George recieved a slap on the wrist because daddy was in a position to ask for and be granted special favors, and over and over again little george was the beneficiary. It is very likely that bush refused to take the physical, because of a fear that it would reveal behavior not becoming of an officer and gentleman, behavior of a nature that its revelation would so damaging to the man or his family as to risk the possibility of being sent to Vietnam for active duty. Think about that for a second.

Was he just trying to hide drug use, or was there something more damaging hiding in a closet somewhere? Was the game so rigged, that george knew that he would never really face the music?

Three years ago today Dubya was on his way to an elementary school in Florida for a photo op. During this photo op he is told that "America is under attack" by his chief of staff, Andrew Card. What does george do? He continues to sit in his chair as if paralyzed and continues with the photo opportunity. Compassionate conservatism is really about wiping that racist stink off your ass by being shown surrounded by black kids. His handlers and the man himself tell us that he did not want to scare the children.

Yeah right, good one. If the man had simply got up 'splained that he had some presidntin' to do, and maybe promise to return at a later date, that would have been fine, the kids would have understood and he could have returned to his real job of leading the country in this very real time of crisis. No that excuse is a sham, trying to put a nice face on a pretty substantial failure of leadership. That the man stuck around after the famous video ends for more photo's is even more damning. Imagine for a second that Clinton had been president and behaved in exactly the same way. That video would be playing 24/7 on all the news outlets and Clinton would be a former president impeached and living in the obscurity of disgrace.

The actions that take place after all the black kids are milked dry in the service of compassion, are best descibed in these words from the Rude Pundit.

"....... but let us remember that the President was on the run, hopping around the country like a jackrabbit on acid, thinking it sees wolves everywhere."

A pretty apt description of the empty suit that was our dear leader on that fateful day.
All of this was lost in the fog of astonishment and rage, and the cries for retribution. A failed leader was elevated to a status unmerited by any action, and embraced by the world. His puppeteers heard opportunity knocking, and before you could say Baghdad, two wars were in the planning stages. And what is war, if it is not an opportunity profit, while under cover of flag and Country. Dubya's "trifecta" was no joke, his cronies Carlyle and Haliburton, had truly found el Dorado, the mountain of gold.

In that mythical america where fairness trumps priviledge, the fortunate son would never have been elevated so far above his level of competance, as to render the peter principle inoperative. In that mythical america, the fact that the administration was at best, asleep at the switch, at worst, looked the other way, would have resulted in their removal from office. In that mythical America our leaders would fight for the common good and would attempt to unite us for the advancement of the common good and not devide us for personal gain or accumulation of politcal power.

Yet this is the real America, and our figurehead has chosen to fead us a never ending diet of fear and hatred, appealing to the basest of our instincts, hoping that we will be cowed like children into returning this pathetic excuse of a father figure to office. On this three year anniversary of the "day that changed nothing everything" the fog clears the sham exposed, and while it is unlikely that george will never truly face any of the consequences of his incopetance, he will be joining his father as a one term president. The judgement of history will not be kind, and will likely include a phrase with which many of us are familier, Worst President Ever.