Tag: George W. Bush

The tonic chord of the last line — that’s our topic.  The tonal and thematic closure of a literary episode found with the right string of words.  The well-struck final sentence of a well-structured novel or essay or even film brings a session of the reader’s consiousness to a close.  Within a definable portion of one’s finite existence, the last line marks the cessation of a who and a when and a what that was spent with a piece of writing.  

Meaning does not stop with the final line, of course; that’s not my claim.  The life of a lived work does not stop when we close the cover for the first time.  A piece of writing is alive after it is read, learned by heart, sometimes, though it need not be learned by heart to live, and then it is alive in us until our death, if it meant a lot to us.  We may return to the work even if we never see it again.

Rather, when I say that the final line, if right, brings an end, what I mean is that an aesthetically, even ethically comprehensible finitude has been created in the space of life.  A mortality in miniature, a totem is there in the soul where before there was none; an object round on all sides (or jagged if that is the author’s purpose) to be studied, kept in one’s spiritual pocket, remembered, cherished, or perhaps disquietedly revered.  A thing with meaning.

The latest demonstration of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s feckless leadership was the 53-40 kabuki vote late on November 8th to confirm Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General. Mukasey had refused to regard the abusive technique called waterboarding to be torture and therefore a prosecutable criminal act. Mukasey understands whom he is supposed to shield.

Democrats quickly announced the intention to introduce legislation outlawing waterboarding. But why? As Evan Wallach pointed out in The Washington Post on November 4th, numerous legal precedents prove that waterboarding already is illegal and prosecutable.

Are Democrats, having caved on Mukasey’s confirmation, now about to make yet another strategic blunder by proceeeding with this legislation?

WARNING NOTICE: Reflecting on this question and exploring the links below may lead to severe loss of equanimity and cause political activism or emigration to a still-civilized country.

——————-

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Back in early 1995, President Clinton had a problem. He needed to nominate a new Surgeon General and the Democrats did not control the Senate. However, the Republicans only had a slim 53 seat majority so the President felt he had a fighting chance to get his nominee through.

If he chose wisely…

          FOR SALE BY OWNER

1 Gulfstream II Business Jet

$100 (1 hundred American dollars)OBO

Call Stephen Mike Adnan James 555-1212 Leave a message

Great deal eh? But the title work is a mess and it’s now a fixer upper after an unscheduled landing in Mexico and… oh, there’s a little problem of about 4 tons of cocaine on board.

This multi-million dollar aircraft was purchased for 100 bucks by 2 guys with no money from a dummy Brazilian corporation and previously belonged to an associate of……

Avedon has a great find, “Jonathan” of Buffy fame, Danny Strong, wrote a movie on the Florida recount that is in production, appraently with some big names:

Recount, the film written by Danny Strong about the 2000 presidential election, is currently filming in my state — at the scene of the crime. . . . What was more fun was meeting Danny Strong. Since I’m not a convention-goer, I figured I’d never actually meet any of the Buffy actors. But he was on the site, and I saw him here and there between takes. Then, there was one fairly long wait between takes, and he was taking photographs of the set. I was talking to another extra, and then I turned, and there he was a mere inches in front of me, with his back to me. Well, I couldn’t let the moment pass, so I said, “Thank you for writing this movie.” He turned, and I told him I was a fan, and we ended up talking about 15 minutes about the film, the election, etc. A couple of other extras also entered into the conversation, talking about their memories of the protests in Tallahassee back in 2000. Anyway, I think he was genuinely surprised to have someone single him out, as I don’t think anybody else among the extras knew who he was . . .

For Buffy fans like me, that is quite cool.  

Mark this date on your calendar: 11/12/07.  On Monday, November 12th, 2007, we will be through the looking glass of US history.

On August 3rd through August 5th of 2005, Time/SRBI polled the American people and found that fifty percent of Americans approved and forty-six percent of Americans disapproved of President George W. Bush’s job performance.  50% to 46%.  That was the last poll by any of the major polling organizations tracked by Roper Center in which the President’s approvals were equal to or higher than his disapprovals.  August 5th, 2005 was two years, three months ago, tomorrow.

Between October 8th and October 13th of 1950, Gallup showed forty-three percent of Americans approved and thirty-six percent disapproved of President Harry S Truman.  43% to 36%.  That was the last Gallup Poll in which Truman’s approvals were equal to or higher than his disapprovals.  Eisenhower took office two years, three months and seven days later. 

Nixon does not bear comparison here.  His approvals beat his disapprovals for the last time on May 4th through May 7th of 1973.  He resigned on August 9th, 1974. That’s only one year, three months and two days in the tank.

In other words, if President Bush’s approval ratings remain below his disapproval ratings for another eight days, we will be through the looking glass.  Bush will have been on his unpopularity run for two years, three months, and seven days.  He will have beaten Truman for the longest unpopularity streak in the history of reliable approval polling.  A record.  Mark it down. 

But further than that, I, for one, am willing to bet that Bush will continue his streak until the end of his term in office.  In other words — on the not-very-risky assumption that I’m right — in the political history of the United States nothing like this has ever happened before. 

As with Joe DiMaggio’s batting streak, hitting singles-or-better in 56 straight games, Bush’s record will be an incredible achievement, probably never to be repeated.

Unless the country elects Giuliani.  Then all bets are off.

Back in 2004, Thomas J. DiLorenzo wrote a piece titled “Bush’s Lincolnian Assault on Civil Liberties (Or, Al Gore is Right!)” Here is some background information:

Under Abraham Lincoln, Habeas corpus was unilaterally (and illegally) suspended … and the military, with the help of a secret police bureaucracy operated by William Seward, imprisoned tens of thousands of Northern political opponents. They were thrown into gulags such as Fort Lafayette in New York harbor where they were never charged, had no idea how long they would be held, and their families often had no idea of their whereabouts. (See James Randall, Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln; and Dean Sprague, Freedom Under Lincoln). The Virginia patriot George Washington would have undoubtedly drawn his sword and fought another revolution over such an outrage.