Sabotage!

The Greatest Hits of George W Bush- Part Three: Responsible Steward of the Earth

In the waning days of the Clinton Administration, a new environmental protection rule came down from the Interior Department- the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This rule sought to protect the remaining wild areas of the United States from unchecked despoliation from overuse. Some fifty-eight million acres of National Forests and grasslands were placed off limits to road construction and most logging, drilling, and mining.

This sounds like a lot- it is barely more than 30 percent of lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

Bush immediately (on Feb 5, 2001) suspended the rule, of course. Because conservatives hate few things more than the idea that business depends on environmental preservation.

The Greatest Hits of George W. Bush - Part Two: Bigot

"I don't think that witchcraft is a religion. I wish the military would rethink this decision."
-- George W. Bush to ABCNEWS, June, 1999

I told you this wouldn't be in any particular order.

Nevermind that the default Christian mindset recoils at the word "witchcraft". Nevermind that the Bible itself enjoins its believers to kill such (even though the verse clearly cannot mean modern Wiccans).

The decade of the 1990s saw an unprecedented explosion in the popular depiction of witchcraft and magical religion in the media. Movies like The Craft and television shows like Charmed, for all their flaws, presented a view of witchcraft and neopaganism that allowed for the possibility that Pagans were not all leering, evil, manipulative seducers bent on corrupting the young and killing the virtuous. News shows talked (seemingly endlessly) about Paganism, educating the populace about the practice and the believers.

And still after all this, George W. Bush said:

I don't think that witchcraft is a religion.

Well then what the fuck is it, George? Yet another warning sign that too many people simply glossed over.

The Greatest Hits of George W. Bush - Intro and Part One

OK, I'm pissed off enough to have something to write about, again.

I have been watching Versailles heaping plaudits and apologia upon the worst president this nation has ever suffered. I have been watching the Republican Party trying desperately to stuff the entirety of the last eight years down the memory hole, the better to blame Obama for all the pain we will suffer during his administration.

I think it would serve us well to remember. So, between now and Inauguration Day I will be doing my best to post short snippets on the vile, petty, inept, callous, insane,bloodthirsty days of the second Bush Administration. These will come in no particular order, because I'm fracking lazy.

I did try to reach back as early as a quick Google search could take me, though. And so we start with the Hainan Island Spy Plane Incident.


You might not remember this. This was a big huge thing in early 2001, when everyone thought that we might be squaring off with China in the next big power struggle. HA! What a joke that is, now. They'd already outplayed us and were buying U.S. Treasuries hand over fist.

On 1 April, 2001, an American electronic reconaissance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter. The American aircraft, an EP-3E Aries, had to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island, putting ship and crew into Chinese hands. The Chinese promptly claimed the EP-3 had violated their airspace.

The Bush Administration, in a set of moves that should have foreshadowed all that was to come, was initially bellicose, demanding the unconditional return of the plane and its crew. The Chinese weren't any better, but having the upper hand (control of all the information) they waited until Colin Powell finally convinced Bush to issue an apology.

The crew was quickly sent home, and the plane was dismantled (and probably combed over by Chinese intel) and shipped back to the U.S.

The crisis lasted ELEVEN FREAKING DAYS.