Prayer and Probability

Karl Rove
A Cancer Within America

On March 21, 1973 John Dean spoke these words to the President of the United States, “We have a cancer--within, close to the Presidency.” It would be months before the American public would be made aware of the initial danger. It would be decades before we would finally learn that it had metastasized throughout the right-wing body politic. Fueled by hate and anger it would consume the heart of the Republican Party and place the very foundations of our democracy in mortal jeopardy.

For no longer is politics the art of compromise. Right-wing extremists have turned it into a take no prisoners, winner take all battle for power and wealth. They are attacking the very soul of the nation in the false name of God and patriotism. They invoke the name of Christ all the while ignoring the basic tenets of his teachings. They wrap themselves in flags as they call for the need of sacrifice, a sacrifice from others not themselves.

Karl Rove is at the center of the cancer.
He was there at the beginning. He and it have grown in a malicious symbiotic relationship over past three decades. At first he was just a foot soldier doing dirty tricks and sabotaging opposition campaigns. Now he is a commanding general doing dirty tricks and sabotaging opposition campaigns. Through him and others like him the art of politics has morphed into the science of skullduggery.

Rove is one of a handful of Americans whom history will judge as being truly detrimental to the cause of our democracy, men like Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Paul Weyrich, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, and to a lesser extent Lee Atwater, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and Jack Abramoff.

The worst political carcinogen is money so I would be remiss not to mention some of the people who paid the foundation for the toxic cesspool that was to give rise to the radical right; Richard Scaife, John M. Olin, and Adolph Coors to name three. These and others like them financed the ascendancy of the anti-democratic forces born of the extreme right. Forces that if left unchecked will continue to polarize our society and eat away at the very roots of our liberty and freedom.

Karl Don't Let The Door Hit You On The way Out

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

What Was Not A Lie?
The Lesser’s Twisted Path

Has Bush the Lesser ever told the truth? In all my research I have found one possible instance. While running for President in 1999 he was asked about his use of illegal drugs. He answered, "I could have passed the background check on the standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was President of the United States - a 15-year period." He has never clarified that statement, so we are left to ponder just how far back that 15 year period goes. Does it go back 15 years from 1999, from 1989 when his dad became President, or some time in between? Actually I have to include another statement he made, "I have not used illegal drugs since 1974." That means that I may have found two statements where he told the truth, since one does not necessarily preclude the other. But given his history we must at least seriously consider that he was lying at least once if not both times.

What brought this to mind was Frank Rich’s piece in yesterday’s New York Times, “Dishonest, Reprehensible, Corrupt …” It dealt with The Lesser’s deceit from start to unending of the Iraq war. Rich asked the question,” What was not a lie?” This got me to thinking why should we limit the question to just one aspect of Bush’s life? The answer was simple we shouldn’t. He is the one who ran on restoring morals and ethics to government. He and his trainer, Karl Rove, have lied continually about everything in their rush to power. Now granted it is the nature of politicians to lie, but most try to tell the truth at least every blue moon, not so Bush. Whether its drugs, Iraq, corporate malfeasance, being compassionate, funding projects he pays only lip service to, etc etc, he lies about it all. But on the positive side we have never had such a consistent President.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Fairy Tales and Horror Stories
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night

For over thirty years right-wing extremists have attacked the American psyche with fictional propaganda based on fear and hate. They have been enormously successful in their appeals to the basest instincts and reactions of human nature. They have succeeded in reducing our society to its lowest depths. They have failed to lead and inspire us to the higher of levels of human accomplishment that all peoples should strive for. This will be their legacy after the light of truth finally breaks free from the chains of lies and deceit forged by the likes of George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, et al.

That day of liberation is now dawning. Their temple of delusion can no longer be supported by a quicksand foundation of untruths and falsehoods. It is collapsing before our very eyes. The one-time solidarity of the corrupt elite of the GOP is falling apart faster than a seeding dandelion in hurricane. The back-biting and infighting is reminiscent of the Tyrone family and its disintegration in Eugene O’Neill’s, 'Long Day’s Journey Into Night'. If it were not for the fact that this deterioration signified a triumph for truth and democracy it would be almost unbearable to watch.

It is only going to get worse (or better depending on your perspective) when Congress reconvenes after the first of the year. Battles for leadership will be fought in both houses. Each member up for reelection will be scrambling to put as much distance as possible between himself/herself and the zealots of the administration who have placed the country in such a precarious position. Upcoming legal proceedings and investigations will only add fuel to the flames.

As I have said before the extremists will react in the only way they know how, more of the same. They will tell more and bigger lies. They will become much more dangerous as they increase their dependence on instilling fear. They will fail if and I stress if, the people, the media, and the opposition party will stay the course of truth and not the course of destruction that Bush and company want us to follow.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Justice In America
A Tale Of Two Nations

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” So says the narrator in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, “The Rich Boy”. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the United States legal system. Notice I used the term legal as opposed to judicial. The reason for that is because judicial implies justice, and justice implies fairness and equal treatment under the law. If only those implications had some basis in reality. Alas, they do not. It has no basis in the laws passed by Congress and state legislatures any more than it does in criminal proceedings. But today I wish to talk about the court system.

Earlier this week Larry Ellison, CEO of the Oracle Corporation settled a civil suit to the tune of $122,000,000. The California suit originated because Oracle stockholders were trying to get back some $900 million Ellison made by selling Oracle stock just before a bad projected earnings report was made public in 2001. What a travesty of justice.

First why is the only action being taken against Ellison in civil court not criminal court (there is a federal civil action still pending)? The man stole close to a BILLION dollars!! Now there are those who might say he made his sale without knowledge of the soon to be released earnings report. There certainly is precedent for that, both President Bush the Lesser and Senate Majority Leader William Frist made similar sales, though not for such a large amount. And they too said they had no prior knowledge of bad reports, Bush with Harken Oil, Frist with HCA. When Bush the Lesser made his sale he was on the Board of Directors of Harken Oil. Oh, I almost forgot The Lesser was also on the Audit Committee of the Board. Among other things The Audit Committee is responsible for seeing that the company’s financial records and the dealings with the outside auditors are on the up and up. They would be privy to all reports before they were made public. One more thing that bastion of integrity, Arthur Anderson, was the outside auditor. Bill Frist’s connections to HCA were even closer, his father started the company.

Now some might say men like Ellison, Bush, Frist, Kenneth Lay, etc are smarter and more prescient than most people. Again that could be the case; a recent study showed that the sages in the U.S. Senate got a 12% higher return on their investments than the national average. Maybe they are smarter than you and me, or maybe they have access to information that we don’t. Of course some of the more unscrupulous might say that does make them smarter than you and me. And a problem for corporate officers is that if they truly were smarter and more prescient how did they allow their companies to get such an unprofitable situation in the first place?

But I digress, back to Mr. Ellison. Let’s say he has to cough up another $122 million in the federal suit, by my less smart calculations that still leaves a profit of $656, 000,000 for good ol Larry, without having to spend a day in the slammer. Now as strictly a thought experiment let’s say that 656,000 of us less smart people commit armed robbery at the local liquor store and steal a thousand dollars each. Lets then say that we are caught, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. That would increase our prison population by over 33%. My question is this, how can we justify, or legalize, not increasing the prison population by 0.000045 of 1% for someone who stole well over half a billion? You know those guys must really be smarter than you and me.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Luntzian Newspeak, Rovian Doublethink
Guiding Principles/Principals Of Right-Wing Extremists

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. So says the ruling oligarchy of Oceania in 1984. The repetitive use of false and meaningless phrases is one of the ways the elite Inner Party accumulates and maintains its power. It is also one of the ways the far right extemist supporters of George Bush maintain their power. How ironic or perhaps just foresightful that George Orwell would pick a year that would coincide exactly to the time that the radical right of America was building and expanding its power base.

The reactionary right actually began its purge to power about a decade earlier and would have a wait another decade for its subversive tactics to finally wear down the resistance of an aimless and drifting Democratic Party. Over the past decade the extremists have tightened their stranglehold on our now struggling democracy. Just in the past few weeks have signs of life begun to show in those whose responsibility it is to resist the forces of radical right repression. Only time will tell if these are true signs of revival or if they are just the final throes of a dying resistance.

The answer depends largely on what the American people do. Will we continue to be like Orwell’s unthinking Proles who are willing to accept any and all lies conjured up by the Party as long as they are clothed in Newspeak gibberish and patriotic inanities? Will we continue to fall prey to Rovian doublethink attacks on the truth? Or will we clear our hearts and minds and finally demand accountability from those who have sent our sons and daughters to fight and die in Iraq for a plan [1] for oil and power first formulated 13 years ago? Will we ask why we are not fighting Osama bin Laden instead of an Iraqi nation and people who had nothing to do with al Qaeda before George Bush sent troops into Iraq? Will we stand up and say America is a land of equal opportunity and not just a playground for rich and powerful elites to take what they want? Will we stand up and say we want the real definition of America, not the false manipulative one of Frank Luntz and Karl Rove?

[1] Roots Of Bush War

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

An Open Letter To George W. Bush

Understanding, Not Rewriting History

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Clinton’s Call To Civility
Noble But Useless

For the past few weeks former President Clinton has been making speeches and calling for a drastic change in the nation’s political environment. He says we need a depolarization by becoming a kinder gentler America. His grasp of the obvious has been enhanced since he left office. I agree with him completely, kind of, too bad that he is wasting his breath.

There will be no reformation of our political wars until the right-wing extremists who have hijacked our nation are forced out of power. They grabbed power by turning mean and vicious. They have held it by becoming meaner and more vicious. Anti-democratic extremists like Karl Rove and Lee Atwater are the new masters of the political universe. America will not regain her democratic principles waiting on a change of heart from men and women whose political manifesto consists of teachings taken straight from Machiavelli’s, The Prince; Orwell’s Inner Party’s’ tools of newspeak and doublethink, and countless writings of Lenin. Power is their god of choice. Democracy for them was neither a forethought nor an afterthought.

To think they will change the tactics of lying, duplicity, and dirty tricks they started during the Nixon regime is to be delusional. They have defined and refined them for over thirty years. They have proven to be most successful and beneficial for the right-wing elite no matter how catastrophic to the rest of America. These usurpers of freedom will not relinquish the reigns of power. They will have to be pried from their cold politically dead fingers. We will not return to a more civil society until there is a regime change in Washington. Of course that in itself will be no guarantee but it is the only hope.

The politics of the right gave birth to our current turmoil. History has shown it is the politics of destruction. How ironic that the revolution of the reactionary right used the same tactics of Lenin and the extreme left. But then that would explain the fact that both upheavals gave rise to the repression and exploitation of the masses by the elite few.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Variations On A Theme
Devolution Of The Media

Earlier today I wrote a piece on the evolution of the corporate media. Though I alluded to the fact I did not openly state that it is often more a process of devolution than evolution. Let me correct that now. The reason I feel compelled to set the matter the straight is that I read a column, “A lie for a just cause,” by Jonah Goldberg in the LA Times soon after I entered my blog. It is part of the right-wing extremists attempt to rewrite history in order to protect and defend George W. Bush. It is a piece of intellectual and historical drivel.

Mr. Goldberg starts by saying President Bush really didn’t lie about the reasons behind the Bush-Iraq War. Then he goes on to say that even if he did lie it doesn’t mean anything. After that he really gets convoluted and off-the-wall. He tries to make a comparison between Word War II and the Bush War. He says FDR lied us into WW II. He must have temporarily forgotten about Pearl Harbor but it does come to his mind shortly thereafter when he accuses FDR of provoking the attack by sending a single ship into Japanese waters on December 4th. In Mr. Goldberg’s defense it is quite probable that he does not know that Japanese plans for the attack were drawn up before November 5th. But then the Busheviks have never let the facts stand in the way of good yarn.

For a lie to seem credible it helps to a have smidgen of truth in it. This Mr. Goldberg supplies when he says “The Bush Doctrine is not chiefly about WMD and never was.” How true, it has always been about oil and money. But then he tries to slip the big lie in when he says, “Like FDR's vision, it balances democracy, security and morality.” I guess he decided to allow FDR back into his (Goldberg’s) good graces. He concludes his work of fiction by saying Mr. Bush will go down in history as a great president. All I can say is if history judges Bush to be a great president then the revisionists will have won and the world will not be a very nice place for most of those who are here.

This was Jonah’s first regular column for the Times. He is part of Jeff Johnson’s, the Times publisher, purge to turn the paper into another reactionary rag. He’s off to good start. A little history of Jonah, he is the son of Lucianne Goldberg, of Linda Tripp fame. She is the one who had Tripp tape the conversations with Monica Lewinsky. Long before that she was in the cadre of dirty tricksters employed by the far right to wreck the Democrat’s chances in the 1972 elections.

Jonah began his journalism career by doing commentary on the Lewinsky tapes and being in the forefront of the attacks on Bill Clinton. He says he originally wanted to be a fiction writer. I’m sure his mother is proud that he has reached that goal.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall
The Corporatization Of An Icon

You can’t go home again said Thomas Wolfe a very good author from just down the road a piece in Asheville, North Carolina. In his book of the same name he tells about the changes that communities and individuals go through during their lives. One of his main illustrations is the evolution of Corporate America as exemplified by Wall Street and the banking institution during the 1920’s.

Evolution is a fact of natural and corporate life. There is no general timeframe. Just as it varies with species in the natural world so it does with species in the corporate world. But the process has certainly accelerated in the corporate world during the past thirty years. It is not a given that all evolution is for the better. No better example exists than that of the media.

It had seemed if not immune at least resilient to the cancerous incursions of unlimited and uncaring growth of corporate theology. For almost 200 years, up until the mid-seventies the press had stood firm in its belief in and defense of the First Amendment. No better example exists than that of Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and the Washington Post when they withstood a firestorm of attacks for their search for truth during the Watergate affair. It might be the media’s proudest moment.

That was then. We are all older now if not wiser. Men like Woodward were my heroes. They stood for all that was right with America. They showed that no man was above the law. Our nation had gone through more than a decade of upheaval trying to establish the equality of all men. Bob Woodward and those like him showed that maybe we really won.

That was then this is now, thirty years later. The press no longer stands for all that’s right with America. In fact in many ways it embodies all that’s wrong with America. The bottom line is no longer truth and justice, it is the dollar. The press evolved from fighting the good fight for what’s right to fighting for a good quarterly statement. Evolution is an ongoing process so it did not stop there. Now they are fighting for a higher daily stock price closing.

No better example exists of this than Bob Woodward. He has gone from a champion of truth to a champion of Corporate America. I am afraid this hurts me more than it does him. There are several lessons to be learned here. For me one is that we need to be aware than when we place someone on a pedestal they are not suddenly imbued with only perfect qualities they are, as always, only human. If they fail to live up to my expectations of perfection the fault lies with me not them.

For Bob, I hope he learns the importance of not giving up the idealism of our youth for the power and materialism of the corporate world. I hope he learns that we can not rest on the laurels of our past. When Humpty falls, “All the President’s Men” will not be able to put Humpty together again. But as any good newsman and writer like Thomas Wolfe knows no story is ever over, Bob can still correct his own.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

The Battle Is Join’d
Bush the Lesser Goes To War

It is now obvious that the Bush Administration used Friday the Eleventh of November, the day to commemorate the ending of one war, to start yet another, this one with his own people and country. Rather than admit the error of his ways and ask the American people to forgive him for lying about the Bush-Iraq War Mr. Bush did what Karl Rove, his General Tactician, always has him do. Deny the truth and accuse the opposition of being unpatriotic. It has been the standard GOP war plan for the past 30 years. In following this advice the President continues the fateful journey of his Presidency along the chaotic path of a King Lear.

The comparisons are painfully unavoidable. Karl Rove is the Fool. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld are Bush’s Goneril and Regan. However, with all due apologies to Mr. Shakespeare there is one rewrite that is required. There is no Cordelia. Her part must be incorporated into a hybrid Lear/Narcissus protagonist.

Up to now the plot lines between fact and fiction have been practically indistinguishable. We have a leader clearly in love with himself at the expense of all others in his realm. He gets his advice from a fool who babbles and mutters in a form of double-speak. Not being up to the challenge of governing he gives his power and authority to two subordinates. They in turn in their frailty and weakness drive the country into chaos and despair with their greed and lust for power.

There is no happy ending to Lear. The best that can be said is that Lear does finally see how wrong he was and truly repents. But that can not stop his destruction or the destruction of his world. We have not yet reached the final act of our real life morality play. We may still be able to overcome the madness and put an end to the chaos and death before it consumes us all.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

The Dark Side
A Matter of Perspective?

The PBS show Nova aired a program, Newton’s Dark Secrets, about Sir Isaac Newton last night. It covered the standard biographical data such as he was the inventor/discoverer of the calculus, with all due apologies to Leibniz. It talked about his work with optics and his discovery that visible white light was not pure and homogenous as believed since Aristotle but that it was composed of light of the different colors which combined to give white light. It told of his work with telescopes, and of his confrontation with a falling apple which he said led to his theory of gravity. Of course it also included his three laws of motion.

Most people familiar with Newton are acquainted with his scientific life. But few are aware of his deep commitment to religion and alchemy. He was deeply religious and felt there was a fundamental unity to the universe. One of his primary reasons for writing his monumental work, Principia Mathematica, was to show that the laws of nature and science gave proof and evidence of God.

His work with alchemy was not for the standard desire of changing different minerals into gold but for understanding the unity of the world and to give him a better understanding of some of the inherent problems in his theories. Perhaps the most glaring was his concept of absolute time and space. Despite the fact that an absolute space and time were necessary for his theories of dynamics and motion, he never was completely reconciled to them. This intuition was later borne out by Albert Einstein in the early 20th century with his Theory of Relativity.

How strange, or perhaps not, that Newton one of the cornerstones of the Ages of Reason and Enlightenment was so deeply immersed in the metaphysical. How brilliant that he did not fall into the accepted dualism of reality that was not seriously scientifically challenged until the rise of quantum theory. Though he was doomed in his desire to prove God, for it is not provable, he held on to his belief that there was no separation between God and his creation.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Evaluating The Great Uniter
Bush The Lesser Is Found Wanting

“I am a uniter, not a divider, “so said George W. Bush in an election day 2000 op-ed in USA Today.

Yet yesterday with a speech given at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska he was anything but. In a policy shift first evident in his Veteran’s Day speech last Friday, he continued to step to the fore front of his administration’s attack on the truthful origins of the Bush-Iraq War. While it is always encouraging to see a leader out in front of his troops we shouldn’t give Mr. Bush too much credit. Attrition and desertion have left him little choice. Most of the big guns of the Republican Party have been rendered useless because they are either under indictment or cast under suspicion of unethical and illegal behavior. And those who aren’t are jumping overboard like rats off a sinking ship. He can’t even unite his own party.

The President and his Ship of State are being battered by a tumultuous sea of discontent, a sea blown into frenzy by four and a half years of his lying and deceit that have caught up with him. He is standing on the poop deck staring into the past trying to right his ship by waving the flag and standing on the Bible. He fails to understand that using flag and Bible for props only works for so long. Sooner or later there have to be substantive connections to a leader’s use of symbols. When there are none the people not only lose faith in the leader but in the symbols as well. These are causes of disunity not unity. Will the Bush Presidency come to be known as the Age of Polarization?

Until Bush accepts the truth about his war his longing to be a uniter will remain only a pipe dream held by the delusional few. In his speech yesterday he mentioned 9-11 seven times. He condemned Osama bin Laden, the perpetrator of 9-11, just one time. He named al Qaeda four times but one of those doesn’t count because he tripped over his tongue and repeated himself once. However he accused Saddam Hussein ten times and even condemned the Democrats five times.

Here is the first of the two themes in his speech, “When our nation was attacked on September the 11th… We had to take a hard look at every threat to America after September the 11th, and when we did, one stood apart: Saddam Hussein.”

Here is the second, “Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people.”

On further reflection perhaps I have misunderestimated the President. If he keeps making inane misstatements and lies like the above, surely it won’t be long before the whole country unites against him.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Liar Du Jour
Stephen Hadley

It’s getting to the point where you need a scorecard to keep track of the Bush Administration’s current purveyor of propaganda and disinformation. Mr. Bush rarely steps up to the plate himself; his Friday’s Veteran’s Day speech is a notable exception. The current unlucky pinch hitter is one Stephen J. Hadley, his reigning National Security Advisor. Mr. Hadley subbed for Scott McClellan at the last White House Press briefing. The reason for the substitution is that the Administration had to keep McClellan out of the line of fire after the uproar about his stating it was accurate that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby had leaked secret intelligence about Valerie Plame’s identity. The Administration then tried to rewrite history by saying Mr. McClellan actually said, “I don't think that's accurate.” Scott McClellan Unfortunately Mr. Hadley did not fare too well himself when the questioning got around to intelligence. As you can see his defense left much to be desired when questions arose.

Q Can I just do one follow on the intelligence? You said the prewar intelligence was clear. It was also wrong.
MR. HADLEY: Which clear?
Q You said the prewar intelligence was clear.
MR. HADLEY: Right.
Q It was also wrong, wasn't it?
MR. HADLEY: I said it was, I believe, a strong case -- a strong case was what I said in answer to the earlier question. And a lot of it --
Q You said the intelligence was clear.
MR. HADLEY: -- and a lot of it turned out to be wrong.
Q A lot of it turned out to be wrong.
MR. HADLEY: We know that.
Q Why -- I'm sorry, I didn't --
MR. HADLEY: Is there a follow-up? Can this be the last follow-up?
Q This will be the last follow-up.
MR. HADLEY: Good.

It is fair to ask why was Hadley there in the first place, not replacing the hiding Scott McClellan but in a position to substitute for Scott. The only feasible answer is President Bush’s penchant for promoting/rewarding lying and incompetence. You might remember that Hadley was promoted to National Security Advisor after his boss Condoleezza Rice was promoted to Secretary of State earlier this year.

How could a person who publicly admitted that he had ‘forgotten’ about two secret CIA memos that stated the Niger allegations about uranium were most likely false, be named National Security Advisor. It wasn’t like he forgot to take out the trash. He ‘forgot’ that Iraq really wasn’t trying to build nuclear weapons!! He first knew this in October, 2002 and he ‘forgot’ to mention it to his then boss, Ms Rice, before she wrote a New York Times op-ed titled, "Why We Know Iraq is Lying" on January 23, 2003. He forgot to mention it to the big boss, Mr. Bush, before his State of the Union speech on January 28, 2003. And finally Mr. Hadley still hadn’t remembered when he wrote his own op-ed for the Chicago Tribune on February 16, 2003. In fact Mr. Hadley did not remember until July 22, 2003 when the mass deception became public knowledge.

In his defense Mr. Hadley did try to resign for his ‘memory lapses’ but President Bush did not accept it. Obviously this kind of Michael Brown incompetence would need to be rewarded. It was in January 2005.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

I Stand Corrected
I was wrong

Yesterday I said there would be honor in President Bush’s Veterans Day message in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania but there would be none for the messenger. Well, I was wrong. There was no honor in the message. I honestly believed that Bush would not use a day set aside to honor the sacrifices of America’s veterans for his own selfish concerns. I was wrong. I thought he would not try to wash away his lies and deception with the blood of others. I was wrong. I did not believe that any President of the United States would stoop so low as to dishonor our men and women in the military. I was wrong. You see I forgot the Bush creed; no sacrifice is too great for others to make. I will not make that mistake again. To quote Mr. Bush, “There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Well put and well said Mr. President.

Not content with fighting an unjust war in Iraq under false pretenses, Mr. Bush yesterday extended the fight to the American people. In a shameful effort to hide the duplicity and illegitimacy of his administration’s reasons for war in Iraq President Bush declared a new war on truth and history. He did it with a standard Karl Rove tactic of projecting his own use of lies and dirty tricks onto his opponents. Karl may be down but he is not out, yet.

During his opening salvo Mr. Bush declared,” It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began.” Now that is true when taken strictly in the context of the sentence itself. But the assumptions, that Bush and company told the truth initially, it implies are totally false. Like all good lies you must throw a little truth into the mix to make it more believable. Karl’s thought processes have always been wide and shallow not deep.

There is only one good thing that can be said about the Administration’s Iraq Policy. It has been totally consistent. They have lied every single time. The Bush-Iraq War was not a result of 9/11. It had been planned out years in advance before the Supreme Court’s appointment of Bush to the Presidency [1]. This certainly gives a new meaning to Bush’s statement yesterday when he said, “Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision.” The Bush agenda and vision has already sacrificed thousands of victims with no end in sight. His vision was a bomb in search of a fuse. He had to wait less than eight months for someone to strike a match. Only reluctantly did the Bush Administration go after Osama bin Laden the true perpetrator of the 9/11 attack. And considering their lack of success in bringing him to justice we can’t help but wonder if in their hearts and minds his capture was ever a high priority. Certainly the outlay of men and money against bin Laden as compared to that against Saddam Hussein gives pause.

In an attempt to manipulate the emotions of the American people Bush invoked the dead specter of Communism to rally support. He had this to say yesterday,” Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy pursues totalitarian aims. Its leaders pretend to be an aggrieved party, representing the powerless against imperial enemies. In truth, they have endless ambitions of imperial domination -- and they wish to make everyone powerless, except themselves.” I ask you, does that sound like al Qaeda or does it sound like the dogma and ideology of Bush and his legion of right-wing extremists?

In a desperate attempt to salvage his failing Presidency Bush threw down the gauntlet. This time he openly declared war on the truth. Mr. President I have but two things to say. Change it has to come. We won’t be fooled again.

[1] Roots of Bush's War

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

A Matter Of Honor
On the 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th Month

Four score and seven years ago today the Guns of August finally fell silent bringing an end to the war to end all wars. Were that it were so. For we are no closer today than we were those 87 years ago to ending war and bringing peace on earth. And now we find ourselves engaged in a debilitating and destructive war in Iraq. It is a war that has been in the planning for at least the past fourteen years [1]. It is a war brought about by the lying and deceit of the George W. Bush Administration. It is a war in which more than 2000 American soldiers have perished and over 16,000 have been wounded. It is The Bush War.

Today President Bush travels to Pennsylvania to pay tribute not only to those who have fallen and served in Iraq but to all those who have given their lives in service to America. The message will be covered in honor. The messenger will not.

How ironic that he traveled to Pennsylvania for this speech, the very state in which the greatest tribute ever, to those who sacrificed their lives in battle, was given [2]. For sacrifice to President Bush is not a personal matter, but something for someone else. He asks of others what he himself was unwilling to do. Not only was he unwilling to pay the sacrifice of fighting in a war, he lies about it. He has said several times he was willing to go to Vietnam but this document [3] bears witness to his lies. He can wrap himself in a 100 flags and 2000 deaths but for George Bush there is no honor.

[1] The Bush War
[2] Gettysburg Address
[3] Bush Refuses To Go
Overseas

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Tuesday's Elections
A Proper Perspective

After analyzing election results Democrats are dancing in the streets as they proclaim the dawning of a new day in American politics. A new South is going to rise again. A recalcitrant West is finally beginning to see the light. A revitalized North is going to redouble its efforts in the fight for truth, justice, and the American way. Wow, it invigorates body and soul just thinking about it. It sounds wonderful. The problem is that it is the sound of nothing more than tired and worn out clichés. It is formless utterances without a base in substantive reality. But then Democrats have been detached from reality for some time.

The main thing Tuesday’s elections tell us is that the most important thing in any election is money. To quote Greg Palast, America is “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” Though I admit it sometimes seems as if we’re being short changed and ripped off. Regardless it portends bad news for the Democrats. Corporate America and the wealthy elites who are the real base of the GOP will pony up suitcases full of money to protect welfare subsidies and tax breaks that the Republicans have bestowed upon them for the past 5 years.

The God ‘problem’ will continue to haunt the Democrats. Tim Kaine was elected governor in Virginia because he confessed his faith. We will never know if he would have done so without being pushed into it by his opponent. Jerry Kilgore, the Republican nominee, might go down in history as being the candidate who ran the most inept and self-destructive campaign in any election. He did not lose because he called on George Bush for help, for that was a last second grasp for salvation. He lost because he deliberately threw away his faith and values ace card and left Kaine no choice except to pick it up. He ran the standard Karl Rove – Lee Atwater campaign of lies, slander, and deceit, which was to be expected. What was not expected was Kilgore’s attack on Kaine’s Christian faith. When Kilgore accused Kaine of being against the death penalty he left Kaine no alternative but to explain why, and the why was because of his Catholic faith. It was manna from Heaven.

Democrats should not expect such gifts from the GOP next year, for it won’t happen. As mean and dumb as they are Republicans have always been faster learners than Democrats, well at least for the past 40 years. The John Kerry ostrich method of confronting faith and values is a proven failure. With the gross corruption and pandering to the wealthy by Bush and his fellow Republicans the Democrats hold their fate in their own hands. Whether they are brave and smart enough to accept it will largely determine their success next November.

The Democrats' problems do not end with God and money. Science is working against them also. I do not mean the evolution - intelligent design controversy, for both science and religion deal with creation mystically and metaphorically. I mean something much more tangible, the building of rock solid impenetrable GOP Congressional districts. The Republicans hold a majority of governorships and state legislatures. Thus they have the power of the pen to use in their defense or should I say offense. They have used it quite inventively in many cases. They have drawn Congressional districts with shapes so bizarre that they make even the most elaborate mathematical fractal appear commonplace and mundane. Karl Rove and Tom Delay have become the Einstein and Turing of Bush World.

There is good news for the Democrats. Paradigms of thought come and go as their tenets fail and become unworkable. Given the condition of Bush World it is hard to believe that the Republican paradigm of greed and avarice can continue much longer. However the faithful of Bush World will not go gentle into that good night. Dying paradigms never do.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Storming The Bastille
The Wretched Of the Earth

Paris is burning says David Ignatius in an op-ed piece in this morning’s Washington Post [1]. Sadly he is right. France is being engulfed by flames that have been steadily smoldering since the end of WW II and the end of French colonialism. He rightly says that the race issue in France has been a conflagration waiting to happen. He quotes James Baldwin as saying in the 1970s, “"someday it (racial tension) will explode." Right he was. However Baldwin never had his finger fully on the pulse of race relations in France. He knew they were not right but he was never able to translate his truly insightful knowledge of race relations in America to an understanding of the French situation. To complete that understanding it would be helpful to turn to Frantz Fanon [2], a French revolutionary in the ‘50s and early ‘60s.

Fanon was born on the French island of Martinique in the Caribbean. He came from a family background of African slaves and indentured servants. Even though he grew up under the burden of French colonialism he fought with the Free French Army during WW II and was a decorated hero. He went to school in France and became a psychiatrist. He began writing on race and colonialism in the early ‘50s. He supported a doctrine of violence in overthrowing colonialism and imperialism. He has been an influence on groups like the Baader-Meinhof Gang in the ‘60s and ‘70s to al Qaeda of today.

With the possible exception of Gandhi, Fanon’s understanding of race and colonialism is not to be surpassed. His call to violence is intolerable but for anyone with a desire to understand our chaotic world of today, his writings are essential.

[1] Why France Is Burning

[2] Frantz Fanon

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Remedial Ethics 101
An Exercise In Futility

White House ethics classes began today and for the life of me I can’t understand it. Who could have thought this up and what were they thinking? Let me say that there are those who say ‘exercise in futility’ is the wrong epithet that I should say contradiction in terms when discussing the Bush White House and ethics. Perhaps they are correct for I have no evidence to the contrary. But let’s pretend that someone in the White House actually thought sending 3000 Administration employees to remedial ethics class was a good idea.

I repeat, what were they thinking? It is a clear cut admission that the Administration is totally corrupt and running out of control, so much so that the only way to correct it is to bring the problem to the attention of the nation and world. This is not a Karl Rove scheme, for while Karl is not the brightest bulb in the bin even he is not that stupid. Besides Karl’s modus operandi is not one of candor and forthrightness but instead one of lying and deceit.

Then to compound the problem after admitting how corrupt they are they want us to believe that they can repent. They expect us to accept that the real decision makers among the 3000 alpha males and females who have spent their entire political lives scratching and clawing for power are suddenly going to change their previously admitted corrupt ways now that they have reached the apex of the political universe. Hey stranger things have happened, Moses parted the Red Sea and Lazarus rose from the dead. But I have to admit that believing this administration can and will change stretches my faith beyond its limits.

To whoever thought up this course of action let me say, I do not think you are stupid I think you are naïve. I also think you are brave, courageous, and truthful. Unfortunately those are not traits conducive to a long live in the Bush Administration. Good luck, it is time to update your resume.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Kilgore Steps Up Attacks on Kaine
He Lets Loose The L-word

On election eve in Virginia GOP candidate Jerry Kilgore finally fired his big guns against Democratic nominee Tim Kaine. Not satisfied with calling Kaine too compassionate while at the same time comparing him to Hitler, Jerry ran about a zillion TV commercials accusing Kaine of being a liberal. Obviously I was mistaken earlier when I said there were no depths to which the Kilgore campaign would not sink. For the past thirty years there has been nothing worse in American politics than being labeled a liberal. Even liberals acknowledge this for they are no longer liberals but progressives. Perhaps they forget the problems inherent in the concept of, ‘A rose by any other name,” as told to us by sages from William Shakespeare to Umberto Eco.

To be a liberal is to be worse than an axe murderer or child molester. Without doubt Jerry and the Virginia Republicans believe this for the GOP candidate for Attorney General, Robert McDonnell, has child molestation issues of his own. His one time campaign manager and chief aide is a convicted pedophile.

It remains to be seen if this media attack, I would use the term ‘blitzkrieg’ except it comes as no surprise, will be successful. But as I said before, if it is, shame on Virginia.

[1] Kilgore Part 1

The Moral Equivalent Of War
Or The War We Should Be Fighting

Make no mistake about it the Iraq War, the Bush War, call it what you will as long as it doesn’t include “the War on Terror” is about markets and resources. It has nothing to do with terror or terrorism. The Bush Administration even admitted this last summer when it attempted to rename the war, perhaps anticipating the current firestorm over just why we are in Iraq.

The terrible thing is that we didn’t have to find ourselves in this destructive quagmire. We were given plenty of time and ample opportunity to avoid it. In April 1977 the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, gave a speech [1] to the nation detailing the dire peril in which we would soon find ourselves. He declared war on America’s addiction to oil. He listed proposals for reduced energy consumption and for new alternative energy sources. He acknowledged, “Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.”

We were not willing to make those sacrifices as a nation then, just as we are not willing today. Let there be no doubt that as long as American troops are fighting in Iraq we, the American People, do endorse the Bush Creed, ‘No sacrifice is too great for others to make.”

To date that sacrifice has been made with the lives and blood of almost 20,000 U.S. troops and even more Iraqi citizens. So for now we have no moral equivalency, we just have a war.

[1] Carter 1977

[2] Greenhouse

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Longing For Old Virginia

I am a Virginian born and bred, well to be more precise I was born in Tennessee but that is only because the nearest hospital was in Tennessee. Let me repeat, I am a Virginian. Both my mother’s and father’s ancestors came to America in the 1600s. They were Virginians too. I love Virginia. When we studied Virginia History in school it was really United States history at least until 1865. We were the first Americans, well discounting the indigenous peoples and a handful of Spaniards. But we won the wars so we got to write the history. Those are the rules. Some of you who have seen my profile may be asking if I love Virginia so much, why I didn’t go to UVA (University of Virginia) instead of the University of Michigan. Suffice it to say that it was partly due to the Bible, Virginia’s revolutionary tradition, and the Port Huron Statement (1), amongst other things.

For the past few years Virginia has been considering changing the official state song, currently, “Carry Me Back to old Virginny.” The reason is that the lyrics are offensive to many people. The state set up a website where you could vote for a new song. I voted for “Longing For Old Virginia”. I voted for it for two reasons; one it is a love song, two it was written by A.P. Carter. Carter started the singing group The Carter Family which is known as "The First Family of Country Music." A.P. Carter is from my home county and I have walked and climbed his beloved Clinch Mountain many many times. It is visible from my back deck. I love it too.

What this is leading up to is that there is a gubernatorial race in Virginia this Tuesday. One of the candidates, Jerry Kilgore, is from my home county also. No, this isn’t to be a ringing endorsement. It is anything but. Though Jerry and I grew up in the same place we learned different values, we must have for his words and actions are not compatible with the Christian values I was taught. I am not saying that Jerry is not a Christian. I can not see in his heart only God can do that. What I am saying is that his words and actions are not reconcilable with the words and actions of Christ.

Jerry, a Republican, is running what has been the quintessential GOP campaign of the last 30 years. It follows the standard Karl Rove handbook. It is a mean-spirited campaign fueled by lies, dirty tricks, and hate. Kilgore’s campaign is being run by one of Rove’s more ‘talented’ protégées, Scott Howell. If you are not familiar with the name then you have been negligent in your civic responsibilities. In 2000 Scott helped derail John McCain’s primary campaign in South Carolina by starting several vicious lies and undermining McCain with various dirty tricks. Other dirty campaigns run by Howell include the Senatorial campaigns of John Thune of South Dakota, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, and Jim Talent of Missouri. But by far the worst, at least to me, was his despicable and traitorous treatment of Senator Max Cleland of Georgia. Howell ran ads comparing Cleland, a Vietnam hero, to Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and bin Laden. Howell did this in support of a cowardly Saxby Chambliss, a draft dodger in the 1960’s. Chambliss was then elected to the Senate, shame on Howell and the people of Georgia for falling for his lies.

Do not misunderstand me Chambliss is not a coward for not wanting to go to Vietnam. He is a coward for attacking the patriotism of a man who did go, a man who sacrificed an arm and both legs to that war. He is a coward for supporting the sending of troops to far off lands to fight in wars when he was unwilling to do that himself. Shame on Scott Howell for supporting such a man.

And now Scott is up to his old habits in Virginia. He has used one of his standard tricks, associating the opponent, Tim Kaine, with Hitler. There are no depths to which Howell and Kilgore are not willing to sink. They have attacked Kaine for his Christian belief in the sanctity of life. They attack him for his personal belief of being against the death penalty. For someone who has never seen the need to risk his own, Jerry sure seems to enjoy the taste of blood(2). Shame on Scott, shame on Jerry, and shame on Virginia if the new Governor is named Kilgore.

1 Port Huron Statement

2 "Hang em High" Jerry

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Miracles Will Never Cease
Or is It Just Wishful Thinking

A story in yesterday’s New York Times gave my spirits a real boost. It was entitled, “Democrats Seek a Shift to Issues That Will Favor Them.” It should be blatantly obvious why I found this so refreshing. There are several reasons. First, it could signify that the Democrats have taken that first baby step in the long trek back to legitimacy and respectability (1). A corollary of this could be that the right wing extremists’ reign of terror could finally be coming to an end. Of course it is way too early to jump to such a conclusion. One step does not a journey make.

The Democrats call for a closed session of the Senate could be nothing more than a lucky step in the right direction as they continue to stumble and meander blindly. Also their recent history does not lend a great deal of confidence that their new found backbone is anything more than momentary. After all the beginning of the Democrats’ fall can be traced at least as far back to 1970 with future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell’s letter to the National Chamber of Commerce. Powell’s letter was in response to the anti-Corporate atmosphere that was being exhibited by the nation’s youth during the Vietnam War. In the letter he called for wealthy conservatives and the Corporate Class to start fighting back. He called for the right to start funding think tanks that would publish books and papers to promote the Corporate Agenda. It did not take long for reactionary right wing extremists to take up his suggestions in earnest. The Democrats have yet to recover. And they can not undo 35 years of work and planning overnight. It will be a long process. However a Democratic revolution like the one the GOP engineered 1994 could speed up the process immensely.

Yet another reason that the Times’ article gave me hope was the possibility that the Times itself was beginning a journey of its own, one back to discerning the truth and being able to grasp the obvious. These are two traits that have been missing from the Times for a while. The Times of 1970 is not the Times of 2005. They have been overtaken and consumed by the Corporate Attitude mentioned above. Perhaps the worst example of this is their use of eminent domain to take someone else’s property in order to expand their corporate headquarters. In their quest to expand their empire they have been somewhat less than diligent in their pursuit of truth. The Jayson Blair and Judith Miller fiascoes are perfect examples of their failure.

In their attempt to be fair the Times gave the GOP response to the Democrats’ actions. There certainly is nothing wrong with that. The first sentence to the GOP reply is,” While Republicans acknowledge that they are struggling at the moment, they reject the idea that Democrats can employ a national theme to win Congressional elections, particularly in House races.” They rightly quote House Speaker Dennis Hastert when he says the Democrats have no plan. Again nothing wrong with that, in fact it is true. But then would have been a perfect time to mention two other huge reasons why it will be difficult for the Democrats to gain control of the House. The first being the corporate payouts to men like the indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff who then divert the money back into the political coffers of GOP Representatives like Tom DeLay. The second being the inventive redrawing of Congressional District lines again by men like Delay that has made gerrymandering a true art form.

So while I have hope for a revitalized Democratic Party and New York Times, it is undeniable that both have a distance to go before that becomes reality.

(1) Why I Am Not A Democrat
(2) Why I Am Not A Republican

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

The following is a satirical piece I wrote for a contest on another blog. link below

Their Rock is Not As Our Rock

“For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah,” Moses spoke those words in Deuteronomy when warning Israel of her enemies. He was warning Israel that they would be under constant attack from all sides. How right he was and his words are just as true today if not more so. Our great Christian nation is surrounded by the forces of evil. These forces are being led by Godless heathens whose sole desire is the destruction of our values and American way of life.

Praise the Lord that we have such God fearing leaders like George Bush and Dick Cheney to defend our freedom. They are all that stand between us and the damnation of the burning fires of Hell. We should all get on our knees and thank God that he has sent us such patriots in these perilous times. They have no fear and are constant defenders of the weak and poor of our society. They are men of great sacrifice and their love knows no limits. This is why Satan hates them so much. He hates their unending defense of family, flag, and all that’s right with the world. I tell you now that as long as we have men like George Bush as President and Dick Cheney as Vice-President America will stand tall in the eyes of the world. We will always be seen as the last bastion of truth and justice in a world being consumed by evil, evil that is being led the whores of Babylon and countless other disciples of the Devil. These whores are found everywhere even in the bowels of the very organizations of our government that are entrusted with our defense. A perfect example is that of Valerie Plame. She is no doubt in league with the Devil. Why else would she hatch a plot to send her Commie loving husband, Joseph Wilson, to Africa to undermine the life saving defenses being planned by our great leaders?

Now we find the liberal left wing extremists of the media trying to attack the Vice-President for his selfless outing of one of the whores. These liberals are enmeshed in a sinful life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Their concern is not with the defense of God’s favored nation but in their own hedonistic life styles. We must kill and destroy this satanic liberal cabal for they hate God, this nation, and all Christians. Yes my friends, “their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah."

Yours in love and peace

the blue blog

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Fitzgerald Champ or Chump Redux

Monday I asked if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was a ‘champ’ or a ‘chump’. I sorely hope that the answer is a champ. Today in his column (1) Pat Buchanan gave his answer, champ it is. Mr. Buchanan laid out his argument with his usual eloquence. But with his very first sentence he destroyed any credence his opinion might have. He opens with, “Unlike Archibald Cox and Lawrence Walsh, Patrick Fitzgerald is no posturing partisan who assumed he had been chosen by Divine Providence to take on a White House and bring down a president.” Therein lays the problem. There has only been one posturing partisan political hack, er, Special Prosecutor whose sole intent has been to bring down a president. That hack, man, is Kenneth Starr.

History has yet to decide whether Starr was just a small small man in search of a great stage or a hired gun by the likes of Richard Mellon Scaife and other right wing extremists in their destructive pursuit of the great white whale. Starr is the only Special Prosecutor to step outside the Constitution in an illegal quest to entrap a president. We must note that Mr. Cox and Mr. Walsh while remaining within the law both investigated other presidents who went about their jobs by trying to subvert the Constitution.

Mr. Buchanan’s failure to even mention Kenneth Starr much less express outrage at his tactics makes one wonder if Pat is indeed the true believer of conservatism and freedom that he claims to be or if he is just another posturing partisan. Another thing that gives me pause is his defense of Karl Rove. Pat says,” He (Fitzgerald) heeded a plea from Rove's attorney not to indict his client, who, after all, had told Fitzgerald the truth about other crucial conversations, but had forgotten the Cooper phone call.” Why does Pat say Rove told the truth? He never has in his entire political life. The one consistency he has exhibited is his compulsion to lie and deceive. Why would a conservative and believer in democracy defend Rove who is one of the main Republican extremists trying to tear down democracy by destroying the electoral process?

Buchanan goes on to praise Fitzgerald for conducting a limited investigation as dictated by law. Obviously Pat is not familiar with the law. He should read Title 28 Section 600.4 paragraphs (a) and (b) of the Code of Federal Regulations (2). This is the law under which Fitzgerald conducted his investigation. It plainly allows the Special Counsel to expand his original investigation by giving him authority to, “investigate new matters that come to light in the course of his or her investigation.”

About the only thing Pat got right in the column was when he placed blame on Congress for not doing its job. But then who controls both houses of Congress? If Bill Clinton were President under this same set of circumstances he would have been impeached and convicted a long time ago, and rightly so.

(1) Pat Buchanan
(2) Title 28 CFR
Fitzgerald

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.

Gonzales Champ or Chump?

OK, I admit that is a rhetorical question. I ask it only to point out that the Attorney General has obligations under Title 28 Section 600.9 (1) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as well as the Special Counsel. The Attorney General is required to inform the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Judiciary Committees of each House of Congress when any Special Counsel investigation is concluded. So it would appear that Mr. Fitzgerald’s investigation will yet see the light of day. But, there’s always a but, in the very next paragraph Mr. Gonzales is absolved of all responsibility. “The notification requirement in paragraph (a) (1) of this section may be tolled by the Attorney General upon a finding that legitimate investigative or privacy concerns require confidentiality.” What greater concerns can there be than the political future of yourself and those responsible for your rise to glory. Please do not suggest an overriding concern for the good of the nation. The Bush Administration has ignored this concern for 5 years there is no reason to think they will start now. Perhaps Mr. Gonzales will prove me wrong. Perhaps the Cubs will win the World Series next year. Perhaps the end of the world will occur next month. Certainly the odds are much more in favor of the latter two.

Mr. Bush has already laid the ground work to insure that the Special Counsel’s report will never be made public. He did this on November 1, 2001 with Executive Order 13233(2). It says that no Presidential documents of an ex-President can be released without his/her approval. It goes on to state that the ex-President can set up family or a group to make these decisions after the death of the former president. The order allows for a series of designees to be appointed, so control could go on ad infinitum.

Mr. Bush probably issued the order originally to prevent the release of documents from the Reagan Administration that would prove to be embarrassing if not worse to his father, George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s Vice-President. E.O. 13233 undermined a provision of The Presidential Records Act of 1978 which allowed a twelve year only window for Presidential documents to be unavailable to the public after the President left office. So in 2001 the Reagan/Bush papers were available to the public,kind of. Reagan’s E.O. 12667 (3) had laid the groundwork for disemboweling the 1978 statute.

(1) Section 600.9
(2) EO 13233
(3) EO 12667
Fitzgerald Champ or Chump

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.