2009

The buzz word for 2009 will be "Change," with "Obama" almost inextricably linked to it. Most everything I think of -- in our public life, anyway -- needs to change. Our concept of the role of government and our elected officials as that old-fashioned concept of public service for the many, rather than connections for the privileged; our concepts of honesty and truth and justice in our leaders, instead of power and influence; our moral position in the international community, instead of the world's bully; the basis of our economy as something other than greed, or at least regulation of its excesses; the necessary rebuilding of the wall between politics and governing, and especially restoring the integrity of the Justice Department; our concept of ethics in public life as being about doing what's right, instead of what you can get away with; and policy decisions made from reliance on Reality Based evidence rather than someone's particular Faith Based dogma. The fact that those terms even came into usage to describe official policies says a lot about what has been wrong for the last eight years.

We still have 19 days to go before Barak Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States. Meanwhile, the Bush dynasty continues to spin its dismal record, sometimes with absurd claims of success, but mostly in obfuscating hopes that history will vindicate George Bush.

Two of my favorite spin-absurdities have to do with Iraq and the "freedom" we have brought to that nation. Karl Rove's spin was that the Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at Bush was evidence of the freedom of speech we have brought to them. It's true that Saddam would have had him tortured and killed on the spot, whereas he is now languishing in prison with court appeals for a reduced sentence. But this ignores the message of the shoe-throwing, which has been bolstered by wide-spread celebrations throughout the Muslim world: an insult to the U.S. president who brought them this "freedom." Shouldn't he wonder why?

Instead, they have passed it off lightly with comments about how quick Bush's responses were in dodging the shoes. Again, how emblematic of his presidency: his greatest asset seems to be his agility in dodging responsibility for anything that happened (bad intelligence on WMD, no way of predicting 9/11, couldn't have foreseen the collapse of Iraqi society, bad apples not policy in Abu Graib, no control over the economic collapse).

The second is in today's Doonesbury cartoon, in a series depicting a FOXNews reporter interviewing an Iraqi family about how they view the results of our liberating them. In a prior strip, the reporter was trying to make much of the fact that the family now lives in safety and comfort, while trying to gloss over the fact that they now live in Syria.

Today's strip has the reporter asking the same man to give him the "big picture." "You mean the 4 million who have been driven from their homes? This is our new freedom -- the freedom to flee for our lives!" Reporter: "Which is a lot easier to do now than under Saddam, right?" Iraqi man, "Um . . . I suppose so." Reporter, "Gotcha! Sorry, it's my job."

There you have it . . . the FoxNews, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Dubya spin.

Nineteen days to go.

Ralph