Hugh’s List

Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, by E. Teller

Tonight George Bush will go before Congress to deliver the President’s annual State of the Union speech, one of the few Constitutional requirements Bush still follows. In his address he will continue the tradition of virtually all Presidents, declaring, perhaps with some evasive caveat, that the state of the union is good. It will be just another lie for the man whose administration has practiced unparalleled mendacity.

Today he will bully Congress to give up our 4th Amendment rights, as he has done relentlessly for seven years. This President has trashed the Constitution and made a mockery of his oath. He has ignored and humiliated the Congress, whose submissive behavior in the face of the Administration’s vast lawlessness has become a national embarrassment. He has turned the executive branch into an extension of a rapacious party, and so corrupted the administration of justice that Americans no longer have confidence that the rule of law will be honored at the highest levels of government. His judicial appointments, ratified by a foolish Congress, have saddled the nation with judges that will be barriers to equality, justice and fairness for decades.

Because of this man’s policies, tens of thousands of people have died in senseless wars of aggression. He and his insane Vice President would start more if not checked. Our nation has never been more disrespected and hated abroad, nor have Americans ever felt so shamed by our own government's practices. We abandon treaties and defile international conventions; we ignore common standards of decency. We kidnap, imprison without cause or recourse, torture and then cover it up; we kill without consequence.

Even if we were not confronting a serious economic downturn, what little prosperity has occurred during his tenure has been forcibly taken from the many and shamelessly given to the richest of the rich. The richest have never been more wealthy, because we have vastly greater numbers of the poor, homeless, uninsured, uneducated. We've seen obscene executive compensation for men who bilked their shareholders and walked away rich, while the average income for most Americans failed to keep pace with inflation.

There will be many legacies from this outlaw regime, but perhaps the most devastating to the union is the destruction of accountability. Conservative and liberal politics are, at some point, both founded on notions of personal or public accountability, but the Bush Administration has evaded accountability for every crime, every injustice, every lie. What ideology is it that celebrates its escape from personal and public responsibility? This is not governance; it is outlawry.

How dare this man come before Congress except in the dock for impeachment? How dare he appear on our televisions and proclaim that the state of the Union is good?

When the President walks into the House chamber, he will be greeted, as is customary, by applause, as elected officials and the elite of Washington stand to honor the office, if not the man. But no patriot should applaud when this man enters. If they must stand to honor the office he has disgraced, let it be in silence.

There will be shouts and cheers from the Republicans, but they will be hollow. They know, all of them, that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales have destroyed their party.

Many of those applauding tonight will not be back for the next SOTU speech, because the voters will not return them. This is their last hurrah. They deserve their fate, and more.

The picture came from blogger and FDL commenter Edward Teller, who printed out the famous "Hugh's List" of nearly 300 Bush Administration scandals and displayed the printout in a mall for all to see. It documents the true legacy of the Bush Administration.