By Executive Order

In the attempt to pretend that Bush is over and all the harm has been done, I forgot about the Executive Order. This is a way for the President to continue to do business until January 20th at noon. The other day, I happened to hear a conversation on talk radio—which I absolutely never do, but David had left in on in my car. There were people talking about the Bush legacy. They were going on and on about how he had really made an impact on AIDs and malaria in East Africa. In my mind he only did it because Bono asked him to and Bono is so cool that George Bush hoped it would rub off. It didn’t, but that’s not the point. Let’s, for arguments sake, say he really cares about AIDs and malaria in East Africa. It is certainly not my intention to bad mouth a good decision—especially when there have been so few from the Administration.

The ‘experts’ on the President’s legacy then left and a few environmentalists took their place to talk about Bush’s real legacy. The way in which recent and last minute Executive orders are going to impact on the environment and the National Parks. These orders will apparently eliminate about thirty years of progress (started under Nixon!) in the areas of clean air and water as well as natural resources. And that’s not so cool.

Here’s what I just don’t get. President Bush has to know that President Obama will rescind any Executive order that is not in the best interest of the Nation or for that matter the world. These new proclamations are not just, “we can’t build because there’s a spider we want to save”, kind of orders. These are orders that permit corporations to dump hazardous waste into water supplies. These are a gift to corporate friends but whatever for? I get the part where Bush and Cheney don’t give a hang nail about the future. Just look at almost everything they’ve done(or not done), from the war, to the oil companies, to the economy and the health care system. What I don’t get is why anyone would do something so detrimental, as a gesture to people who are corrupt and dare I say, greedy, when you know it’s all going to go away within a short time. Does Bush just want to create unnecessary paper work for the new Administration, or is there something much more sinister that even I can’t figure out – except to say it must be really sinister if I don’t get it.

It just makes me wonder what else is in store for us for the next thirty days? We know they have burrowed political appointments into senior jobs to prevent change from taking place. But why would you even do that. If someone is concerned about their legacy wouldn’t they attempt to polish the image for posterity? Or, doesn’t he care. That may be the greatest of all his evils. As I have been told by White House sources, the President never thought he had to talk with anyone who he knew would disagree with any policy. His response about this was along the lines of “I already knew what they had to say”. It’s kind of like the guy who needs to fix his roof – but he doesn’t do it when it’s raining because he can’t – it’s raining. And he doesn’t do it when it’s not raining because then it’s not leaking. I don’t know why it’s like that, but I love that story – so shoot me.

There comes a time when you have to take responsibility for your actions. You can’t always blame someone else or for that matter expect someone else to bail you out of a bad situation. That has never been the case with this Mr. Bush. His family bailed him out of all his corporate failures. His daddy made it OK for him to serve in the military when he felt like it. And where the country is concerned, he simply doesn’t think he is responsible, so he doesn’t take responsibility. In fact, they have circumvented the truth by continuing to tell a bigger lie or just deny accountability. Here’s another of my stories. There was a kid who was lighting matches in the forest and started a fire. The woods are burning and he knows he’s in trouble, especially if his parents find out, because they told him not to light matches. So he tries to pee on the fire and put it out. It doesn’t work and sure enough the fire engines appear. And he starts to cry and yell about how he’s trying to put the fire out but (he points in another direction), he saw three bigger kids running away. I know that woods and that fire and the kid peed in his pants because he was so scared it just happened. But that kid learned a lesson and, although he never confessed to starting the fire, he did stop lighting matches in wooded areas – it’s not brain surgery. My point is, (and isn’t there always one), If you want people to forget that you were a nincompoop for eight years, you don’t keep being an nincompoop when you have a chance to be not a nincompoop. As my mother would say, “a leopard never changes their spots, and a dope by any other name, including President, is still a dope.” We’re just sayin’....Iris