A Web Review of the Worst of the Bush Presidency

Ann-Marie Luciano Bio

Whether it was the day the Supreme Court announced the Bush v. Gore decision, or election night in 2004 when Kerry lost, there was a point in time after Clinton left office when we started holding our breaths wondering when there would ever be an end to the era of Bush and Republican supremacy.

For some of us, this meant that despite all of the favorable polls, all of the McCain gaffes ("the fundamentals of the economy are strong"), and all of the money pouring into the Obama campaign, we still would not allow ourselves to get too excited to believe that Change was actually coming to Washington. The fear of repeated disappointment even stopped some of us from reflecting back on the litany of Bush wrongs — after all, the more reminders we had about how much harm Bush did to our country, the more depressing the prospect of McCain/Palin became.

But now, with the overwhelming, definitive election victory behind us, it is easy to bask in the safety of knowing that Change is coming on January 20th (at 12:00 EST, precisely) and that the Reign of Error is almost over. With the New Year upon us and the Inauguration a little over a week away, there is no better time than now to reflect back on the list of wrongs, especially now that Bush – and especially Cheney — are already trying to get a head start on rewriting history.

A quick review of any main stream media or blogger review of the Bush legacy reminds us of the full extent of the Bush Administration's failures, beyond the obvious failures of Iraq, Afghanistan and the economy. One interesting website I stumbled across lists in detailed, timeline format, every outrageous and wrongheaded action every taken by Bush. Remember when Bush limited stem cell research to "existing lines"? Remember when he was pushing to overturn the Clinton regulation reducing the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water? Exactly who was he representing then?

Other websites are topic-based, focusing on issues like Bush's violations against the environment. Some of Bush's failures were so abhorrent and on such a grand scale – such as Hurricane Katrina – that his mistakes can be chronicled even on an hour by hour basis.

Other websites focus on the most serious of allegations: war crimes. For example, Friends of the Earth lists all of the international laws believed to have been violated by Bush, along with an excerpt from each.

Reading all of this, one must wonder what future school history books will be like – how many pages or chapters will it take to fully describe the extent of the damage done to this nation so as to prevent history from repeating itself again?

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