President Bush probably disappointed Candidate Bush more than any other.

In response to this commentary of the hubris of President Bush, I could not help but to deeply reflect on my own thoughts concerning the man.

When I think of President Bush in retrospect to my current understanding, my puzzled emotional response is not of scorn or ridicule. No. When I think of Bush, I think ultimately of a sad man who once wished to do right by his country, yet caved to the forces of political pressure.

As I became politically awake following 9/11, President Bush -or namely, the baneful, spiteful press that he would always receive- would prove to be the principle reason why I could never develop into a liberal democrat. I couldn't analyze with clarity yet, but I knew that in there was an intelligent mind that understood basic economics, regardless of his bashers. I'm sure that in his honest heart is one that genuinely wishes nothing more than for the prosperity of his fellow man.

His pursuit of ANWR, his tax policy, his once anti-war rhetoric, his references towards reforming freddie mac and fannie mae, his list of vetos, and his call to address (at least marginally) social security reform before it was too late are all the reasoning behind why I speculate this. Additionally, his justice appointees Alito and Roberts, his lifting of the presidential ban on off shore oil drilling on July 14th 2008, and his later commitment to the principle of national security gives me confidence that within the man (and not the politician) himself, beats the heart of a true American who should have known better -or at least be retrospective- of such mistakes such as NCLB, the patriot act and the house of cards structure of the Department of Homeland Security.

The pity stems that despite it all, he would ultimately surrender his principles in a manner that resulted in the overall expansion of government. Deficits on account of his war spending is naturally among the first outcrys against him. Still I keep in mind that the man did not ask to become a wartime president. Candidate Bush did not run on the concept of nation building. Personally I hold our wars to be attributed to two other reasons. The emotional, nationalistic demand for someone's head following 9/11, and Saddam's own foolishness in painting himself the perfect scapegoat to vent our frustration upon.

Despite the warnings, the decision to go into Iraq was overwhelmingly popular. We the American people would have been in demand for demonstrating our superpower status regardless of who was president, regardless of which infamous nation was to be our victim. Al Gore could have targeted North Korea given 9/11 and the support would've been there. The fear of what a terrorist could do with a bomb was overwhelming, and perhaps only a full scale war would've satisfied our desire to go back to sleep at night. One can at least argue that despite America's present war fatigue, Al Queada has been dealt with crippling blows. To be fair, none can also deny Bush's attempt to get Saddam to comply and alleviate our paranoia of WMDs, prior towards going in; paranoia that the Baath party could have curtailed given better transparency on their part. I do not believe Bush gave the order to strike out of hawkish bloodlust, but of tempered, dutiful concern that we'd be struck again. In personally interacting with those who have lost loved ones, it is difficult to doubt that Bush carries his war decisions as a lifetime personal weight.

Weight. Remorse. Again I hold a level of pity for Bush, as I cannot help but ponder how things may have been different if not for 9/11. Given his statements during his farewell address, if there was anyone that President Bush least popular with, it was probably with a man known simply as Mr. Bush. With overwhelmingly negative press and the pressure of neoconservative policy pushers advocating against wise policy, I see a man who would finally crack in attempting to satisfy all. Did he honestly agree to prescription drug entitlements as he allowed it to pass? Did he personally agree to bailouts as the subprime crisis occurred (a crisis he brought attention to on deaf ears)? I speculate that he did not. But this was no longer the same man. By the point in his second term, all I saw in President Bush was just another victim.

A victim of the transforming power Washington can have on a man's spirit. Does this give him a pass on his mistakes? No. This American however can at least give him a break.

He was not malicious. Merely misguided. A house of compassionate conservatism torn apart by the winds of politics, for lack of a strong enough foundation in liberty.

The Obama administration on the other hand...

~David Morris~

Biblical Relevance

Just a little reminder of God's attitude towards big government that I cannot help but to find relevant when it comes to crying out for human messiahs.


I may as well use this opportunity to sneak in a very ironically worded bible verse as well.

~David Morris~

NASA - "National Allah Science Appreciation" Department

Regarding this “new mission,” I merely found myself shaking my head at the latest line in this administration’s flops. Once again I find myself asking the same question: Is this guy even interested in a second term? With a political ammo cache like this, even Bush could theoretically beat him in a landslide come 2012, let alone any other hypothetical candidate.

Just when you thought he couldn’t dig himself a deeper political hole. After all, was there anything we could cite as being redeeming in the eyes of the American people? Corporate welfare? No. “Stimulus?” No. National Security? No. Justices? No. Oil spill? No. Immigration? No. Health Care? Triple No.

Now this. Somehow, he now manages to find a way to mess up NASA? Unprecedented. Truly, he is proving himself to be a president who will go down in history like no other, just as promised. And to think, we still have a minimum two years more with the guy.

~David Morris~

That's good satire.

This was shared with me at work today. Its an relatively old video by this point, but its humor I found worth archiving.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1888086

~David Morris~

Following up on how I was an example of government waste...I regret to say that...I've suffered my first termination in my life.

I received the letter yesterday. The United States Census Bureau has terminated me from my position as a 2010 Enumerator. What have I ever done to deserve this? Woe is me. :(


Included in the census letter ironically, were instructions on how to obtain unemployment benefits. -_-



~David Morris~

Palidrome of True Hope

When comparing myself to my elders, I realize that its always unfair due to age gap advantage. Hence, I routinely have a dream of the man I hope to be in 2036 (the year I turn 50 years old myself; a year in which my generation is firmly in charge of the world). In this vision includes a loving family, children whom I am most proud of, and a world in which the promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness continues to be delivered even more ideally than what the current middle-agers felt with Reagan.

By almighty God, I pray that I will make an impact on preserving the American Dream. I haven't met my kids yet (not even interested in looking for their mom as of right now), but I already know that I love them very much, and I already resent that which would threaten them. Especially as I now get to witness fascism with my own eyes.

So is the vision I have for my generation. That we reject the notion that we will be content with inferior living standards than the generation before us, and we will leave a superior legacy for the next.

~David Morris~

Obama and the Oil Spill

We need to give Obama a chance with the oil spill. He's doing the best he can they say.

Really? You mean to tell me that this wouldn't be a past issue already, if anyone other than Obama was in the office? That Obama is pursuing the spill with all the tenacity that he gave to his pet project of healthcare reform?

As though Ronald Reagan wouldn't have been done with this after 58 days already?

Heck, take either of the Bush presidents or even Clinton. Any president that's demonstrated a modicum of competency would have long rallied a response that included declaring a state of emergency, the dispersion of troops, and the granting of federal permits to those states in the way of being most affected, into establishing sea bars. The damage wouldn't be over, but Americans would surely have confidence that the situation is contained. The only president I can think of who'd have been this incompetent would've been Carter. We're talking Carter levels incompetency here.

So why the slow deal? My theory on this is simple. Obama, reeling from the political fallout of a health care debate that he didn't "win" so much as "cheat the scorecard," rolled a political gamble and loss. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste afterall. In the same vein that FDR permitted Pearl Harbor to be unnecessarily tragic in order to morally justify a call to war, by permitting this catastrophe to happen as badly as its happened, Americans would rally behind a new environmentalist wave to cap and slash oil drilling.

Hence the calm, cold demeanor towards the crisis. Ever the demagogue, he expected us to look at the damage "evil enterprise" has done, and upon a knee-jerk emotional driven response, jump on a bandwagon of "never forget, never again" for domestic oil drilling, resulting in a new era of windmills! His miscalculation comes from two things:

1. The damage from the oil well was not immediate, leaving plenty of time to take preventive measures to minimize the damage. Preventative measures that local officials such as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was denied of.

2. This is not the 1930s, and we certainly are not all socialist now. Part of FDR's success was in his monopolistic control of the media. With an populous that is better educated in general thanks to having far more media outlets, Americans today are significantly less sheep-like than their 1930s counterparts. Translating to less patience with demagoguery. This is one of his central miscalculations in attempting to emulate FDR: That his audience is too ignorant to see through his attempts at camouflaging his ulterior motives.

The American Spirit is still center right (as has been ever since Carter/Nixon/Johnson created the backlash for big government that people like RR and Gingrich was able to climb upon). With the toxic mood generated by the accumulation of a "spendulus" bill, multiple near-miss terrorist attacks, apologetic foreign policy, delays and compromise over Afghanistan, no jobs, mounting debt, and generally no light at the end of the tunnel for a suffering economy, the ideology of the nation is only being pushed further to the right.

In an environment whereas such an ideology is given prominence, allowing an oil spill to happen will not spark a socialist rally for more private sector punishment as he had hoped. Obama was likely hoping that that this would be his "Jungle*" rather than his Katrina. The big government catalyst effect of a propaganda victory this is not.

Cap this off with a health care bill that passes by a mere 7 votes out of a total of 431 representatives, whereas the only bi-partisanship is in opposition to the bill, and you do not have a formula for people viewing you as the hero squaring off against the demon of "private enterprise." President Clinton to his credit, would've known that this is a situation where you show some competency to reassert yourself as capable of the "3 am" call, any scorn generated by other issues be darned. Rather than take the street cred now, Obama gambled on having a wave of public outrage to ride on later. Problem is, he never expected it directed at him.


~David Morris~

*The 1906 propaganda novel by Upton Sinclair which "aimed for the heart and hit in the stomach," nonetheless paving the way for big government expansion over food and drug processing.