Selective Blindness

In another exit interview/spin cycle, this one with the Associated Press, VP Cheney said this about President Bush and the economic crisis: "I don't think he needs to apologize. I think what he needed to do is take bold, aggressive action and he has. . . . I don't think anybody saw it coming."

Just like they've claimed that they didn't see the 9/11 attacks coming, despite dire warnings included in the president's daily briefing a few weeks before. And they did not foresee the possibility of Katrina's devastating effect on New Orleans, depite Corps of Engineering warnings for years. And they didn't foresee or plan for the aftermath of our invasion of Iraq, despite those in their own administration who tried to tell them.

Instead, they saw things that weren't there, such as widespread voter fraud that necessitated firing state attorneys who wouldn't prosecute non-existing cases (only one of their perversions of our justice system); and all those millionaires who would make our economy stronger if we just gave them tax cuts (see how well that worked); and the danger to our moral fabric of comprehensive sex education (kids who have abstinence only sex ed have higher rates of pregnancy), along with the risk to our economy if we allowed the government's own scientists to report their findings on global warning and other environmental risks (we can only hope it's not too late).

So -- of the four worst disasters that occurred on Bush's watch, they didn't "foresee" any of them, while throwing money at other non-existent problems. How many trillions of dollars does that all add up to? Enough at least to provide health care for all Americans for generations, plus college education for all the kids, with enough change left over to rebuild the infrastructure and make a start on new energy sources and global warming.

The saddest words in the English language: what might have been.

Ralph