Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
Posted Friday June 26, 2009 2:13 PM | Bush | 76
FRANK RICH, New York Times
Posted Sunday April 26, 2009 7:08 AM | Torture | 655
Richard Cohen, Washington Post
Posted Tuesday April 14, 2009 6:18 AM | Bush | 385
EDITORIAL, New York Times
Posted Wednesday March 4, 2009 6:53 AM | Torture | 963
ERROL MORRIS, New York Times
Posted Monday January 26, 2009 6:51 AM | Bush | 758
CARL HULSE, New York Times
Posted Tuesday January 20, 2009 4:06 PM | Obama | 1,500
E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:00 AM | Bush | 714
Guardian
Posted Saturday January 17, 2009 9:17 AM | Bush | 910
Jacob Weisberg, Slate
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:53 PM | Bush | 1,111
Helen Thomas, Democracy Now
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:54 PM | Bush | 946
Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:47 PM | Bush | 754
Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:09 AM | Bush | 875
JOSH ISRAEL, Center for Public Integrity
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:02 AM | Government | 627
Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted Sunday January 11, 2009 7:35 AM | Bush | 1,059
The Associated Press, Boston Globe
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:54 AM | Bush | 699
Today's column is my last for The Washington Post. And the first thing I want to say is thank you. Thank you to all you readers, e-mailers, commenters, questioners, Facebook friends and Twitterers for spending your time with me and engaging with me over the years. And thank you for the recent outpouring of support. It was extraordinarily uplifting, and I'm deeply grateful. If I ever had any doubt, your words have further inspired me to continue doing accountability journalism. My plan is to take a few weeks off before embarking upon my next endeavor -- but when I do, I hope you'll join me.
It's hard to summarize the past five and a half years. But I'll try. more. . .
It's hard to summarize the past five and a half years. But I'll try. more. . .
Posted Friday June 26, 2009 2:13 PM | Bush | 76
FRANK RICH, New York Times
WE don’t like our evil to be banal. Ten years after Columbine, it only now may be sinking in that the psychopathic killers were not jock-hating dorks from a “Trench Coat Mafia,” or, as ABC News maintained at the time, “part of a dark, underground national phenomenon known as the Gothic movement.” In the new best seller “Columbine,” the journalist Dave Cullen reaffirms that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were instead ordinary American teenagers who worked at the local pizza joint, loved their parents and were popular among their classmates.
On Tuesday, it will be five years since Americans first confronted the photographs from Abu Ghraib on “60 Minutes II.” Here, too, we want to cling to myths that quarantine the evil. more. . .
On Tuesday, it will be five years since Americans first confronted the photographs from Abu Ghraib on “60 Minutes II.” Here, too, we want to cling to myths that quarantine the evil. more. . .
Posted Sunday April 26, 2009 7:08 AM | Torture | 655
Richard Cohen, Washington Post
Former president George W. Bush and some of his White House aides are gathering in Dallas this week to plan the future George W. Bush Policy Institute. There, I guess, they will ponder grand themes and marble foyers, but I propose they begin by simply renaming the place. I suggest naming it the "George W. Bush Institute of Management Failure" and dedicating it to studying how this presidency went so wrong -- a task as big as Texas itself. more. . .
Posted Tuesday April 14, 2009 6:18 AM | Bush | 385
EDITORIAL, New York Times
We had two powerful reactions this week after the C.I.A. admitted to destroying 92 videotapes of interrogations that may involve torture and the Justice Department released several of the legal manifestos that former President George W. Bush used to justify mangling the Constitution after Sept. 11, 2001. more. . .
Posted Wednesday March 4, 2009 6:53 AM | Torture | 963
ERROL MORRIS, New York Times
We are at a crossroads. It is the beginning of a new administration and the end of an old one. There are those who would like to forget the last eight years. It’s the magic-slate idea. As if you could lift up an acetate window and those eight years would suddenly vanish.
Photographs make this somewhat more difficult. They are a partial record of who we were and how we imagined ourselves. They remind us that we have a past and that we are the sum of our past experiences. They reassert that unassailable fact. more. . .
Photographs make this somewhat more difficult. They are a partial record of who we were and how we imagined ourselves. They remind us that we have a past and that we are the sum of our past experiences. They reassert that unassailable fact. more. . .
Posted Monday January 26, 2009 6:51 AM | Bush | 758
CARL HULSE, New York Times
Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, a moment of profound racial significance, and called on Americans to confront together an economic crisis that he said was caused by “our collective failure to make hard choices.”
Mr. Obama spoke to a sea of cheering people, appearing to number well over a million, who packed on the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond. more. . .
Mr. Obama spoke to a sea of cheering people, appearing to number well over a million, who packed on the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond. more. . .
Posted Tuesday January 20, 2009 4:06 PM | Obama | 1,500
E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post
There are many reasons why most Americans are not mourning President Bush's departure. But our new president would do well to concentrate on the deeper causes of the public's disaffection with the man headed to Texas.
From the very beginning of his presidency, won courtesy of a divisive Supreme Court decision that abruptly ended his contest with Al Gore, Bush misunderstood the nature of his lease on power, the temper of the country and the proper role of partisanship in our political life. His win-at-all-costs strategy in Florida became a template for much of his presidency, reflected especially in the way the Justice Department was politicized. more. . .
From the very beginning of his presidency, won courtesy of a divisive Supreme Court decision that abruptly ended his contest with Al Gore, Bush misunderstood the nature of his lease on power, the temper of the country and the proper role of partisanship in our political life. His win-at-all-costs strategy in Florida became a template for much of his presidency, reflected especially in the way the Justice Department was politicized. more. . .
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:00 AM | Bush | 714
Guardian
Posted Saturday January 17, 2009 9:17 AM | Bush | 910
Jacob Weisberg, Slate
I started gathering Bush's verbal slip-ups while covering his first presidential campaign. From the first one we published in Slate in October 1999—"The important question is, how many hands have I shaked?"—adding to the collection has been my main pleasure, perhaps my only pleasure, in watching the man.
Since then, I've collected—with help from Slate readers—more than 500 Bushisms. What follows is a list of my 25 favorites. There were many to choose from, but in my opinion, the greatest Bushism of all was delivered on Aug. 5, 2004, when the president declared: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." more. . .
Since then, I've collected—with help from Slate readers—more than 500 Bushisms. What follows is a list of my 25 favorites. There were many to choose from, but in my opinion, the greatest Bushism of all was delivered on Aug. 5, 2004, when the president declared: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:53 PM | Bush | 1,111
Helen Thomas, Democracy Now
President Bush held his final news conference Monday. Bush fervently defended his record, saying he made the nation safer following the 9/11 attacks, rejected the idea that the nation’s moral standing has been damaged over the past eight years and defended the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. We speak with veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas. She’s the most senior member of the White House press corps and has covered every president since Kennedy. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:54 PM | Bush | 946
Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
President Bush bid the nation goodbye last night with a simpering speech that may have appealed to those who still believe in him, but offered nothing to change the minds of the vast majority of Americans who don't.
Bush smirked and twitched while delivering a highly defensive farewell address in which he tried to hearken back to his glory days right after 9/11, sought credit for having made "tough decisions" and insisted his intentions were good. more. . .
Bush smirked and twitched while delivering a highly defensive farewell address in which he tried to hearken back to his glory days right after 9/11, sought credit for having made "tough decisions" and insisted his intentions were good. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:47 PM | Bush | 754
Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
President Bush famously asserts that history's verdict on his presidency won't come until he's long dead. But far from waiting until his corpse is cold, the verdict is largely in before he's even left the building.
Some things just aren't gonna change, no matter how much time passes. Here is Bush's legacy, in part: more. . .
Some things just aren't gonna change, no matter how much time passes. Here is Bush's legacy, in part: more. . .
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:09 AM | Bush | 875
JOSH ISRAEL, Center for Public Integrity
As America approaches a historic transfer of power, it is becoming ever-clearer what a daunting set of tasks awaits the new administration. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon on January 20 he will inherit an economy collapsing before our eyes and a pair of ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he will also inherit a federal government whose machinery should bear an “out of order” sign.
Obama has often stated his desire to have a more efficient government — one that is open, transparent, and accountable. “We are not going to be hampered by ideology in trying to get this country back on track,” he said in December. “We want to figure out what works.”
The Center for Public Integrity’s Broken Government project makes clear what an imposing assignment that will be by cataloging what hasn’t worked. In a comprehensive assessment of systematic failures over the past eight years, the Center found more than 125 examples of government breakdown. The failures occurred in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans’ affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more. While some of the failures are, by now, depressingly familiar, many are less well-known but equally distressing. more. . .
Obama has often stated his desire to have a more efficient government — one that is open, transparent, and accountable. “We are not going to be hampered by ideology in trying to get this country back on track,” he said in December. “We want to figure out what works.”
The Center for Public Integrity’s Broken Government project makes clear what an imposing assignment that will be by cataloging what hasn’t worked. In a comprehensive assessment of systematic failures over the past eight years, the Center found more than 125 examples of government breakdown. The failures occurred in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans’ affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety, and more. While some of the failures are, by now, depressingly familiar, many are less well-known but equally distressing. more. . .
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:02 AM | Government | 627
Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer
We already know that George W. Bush will walk away from his wreckage nine days hence, having bequeathed us record budget deficits, a tanking economy, a needless war costing half a trillion dollars and thousands of lives, a sullied global image, and so much more.
But one other facet of his legacy is widely overlooked: He wrecked his own Republican Party. more. . .
But one other facet of his legacy is widely overlooked: He wrecked his own Republican Party. more. . .
Posted Sunday January 11, 2009 7:35 AM | Bush | 1,059
The Associated Press, Boston Globe
A look at the ups and downs of George W. Bush's presidency on some of the biggest issues of the day: more. . .
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:54 AM | Bush | 699
Joseph L. Galloway, McClatchy Newspapers
Posted Thursday June 4, 2009 5:08 PM | Cheney | 213
BRIAN KNOWLTON, New York Times
Posted Wednesday April 22, 2009 6:16 AM | Torture | 589
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
Posted Friday April 10, 2009 6:46 AM | Torture | 439
Editorial, Washington Post
Posted Wednesday March 4, 2009 6:57 AM | Justice | 563
Devilstower, Daily Kos
Posted Sunday January 25, 2009 2:58 PM | Bush | 698
Time
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:01 AM | Bush | 1,410
Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle
Posted Sunday January 18, 2009 3:57 PM | Bush | 1,142
PAUL KRUGMAN, New York Times
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 6:37 AM | Bush | 1,642
CBS News
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 9:45 PM | Bush | 1,075
US News & World Report
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:49 PM | Bush | 929
John Conyers Jr., Washington Post
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 6:40 AM | Bush | 713
Leonard Pitts Jr., McClatchy Newspapers
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:07 AM | Bush | 863
Ian Williams, Guardian
Posted Wednesday January 14, 2009 7:12 PM | Bush | 841
BBC
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 8:43 AM | Bush | 1,003
Rupert Cornwell, Independent
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:15 PM | Bush | 653
If former vice president Darth Cheney had been arrested for any of his multiple felonies, he might remember the most important of the Miranda rights that the arresting officer would have read to him: You have the right to remain silent.
These days, you can't turn on your television without finding Cheney’s doughboy face on the screen, alternately repeating old lies, mouthing new lies or defiantly confessing to yet another criminal act. more. . .
These days, you can't turn on your television without finding Cheney’s doughboy face on the screen, alternately repeating old lies, mouthing new lies or defiantly confessing to yet another criminal act. more. . .
Posted Thursday June 4, 2009 5:08 PM | Cheney | 213
BRIAN KNOWLTON, New York Times
WASHINGTON — A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military’s use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration. more. . .
Posted Wednesday April 22, 2009 6:16 AM | Torture | 589
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
It's no longer possible to mince words, or pretend we didn't know. The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's so-called "enhanced" interrogation methods, used on "high-value" terrorism suspects, plainly constituted torture. The time for euphemisms is over, and the time for accountability has arrived. more. . .
Posted Friday April 10, 2009 6:46 AM | Torture | 439
Editorial, Washington Post
IMAGINE A PLACE where soldiers are entitled to burst through doors without warrants and citizens can be locked away without trial. Imagine that the leader of this place has the power to silence dissenters and the press and has the right to keep duly elected legislators from having a voice in these matters. Imagine further that he can unilaterally rip up and disregard any treaty he dislikes and that he has been told he is on solid legal ground by a hand-picked circle of advisers. more. . .
Posted Wednesday March 4, 2009 6:57 AM | Justice | 563
Devilstower, Daily Kos
Bush's departure from the news cycle has been so abrupt that you get the impression that were you to mention his name to Katie, Brian, or Wolf, all you'd get would be a puzzled look and a "Bush? How do you spell that?"
Would that the rest of us could forget so quickly. While we are now looking forward to changes with the Obama administration, we're currently living with the world W wrought. For the last eight years, conservatives weren't just digging a hole, they pulled out a squadron of excavators that have put craters all over the national map.
A lot of the numbers are familiar, but with the departure of the economic mangler in chief, it's worth a quick review just to get a look at the scope of the task ahead. more. . .
Would that the rest of us could forget so quickly. While we are now looking forward to changes with the Obama administration, we're currently living with the world W wrought. For the last eight years, conservatives weren't just digging a hole, they pulled out a squadron of excavators that have put craters all over the national map.
A lot of the numbers are familiar, but with the departure of the economic mangler in chief, it's worth a quick review just to get a look at the scope of the task ahead. more. . .
Posted Sunday January 25, 2009 2:58 PM | Bush | 698
Time
George Bush leaves the White House with a dismal economic record. By almost every measure—GDP growth, jobs, median incomes, financial market performance—he stacks up as probably the least successful President on the economic front since Herbert Hoover.
It's not all Bush's fault. He inherited an already-inevitable recession in 2001, and even last year's financial collapse was to some extent the result of unsustainable trends in place long before he moved to Washington. Also, we generally give Presidents both more credit and more blame for economic outcomes than they probably deserve. As Bush mock-moaned in his final White House press conference, "Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?"
His next words, though, were, "It's just pathetic, isn't it, self-pity?" So let's spare him the pity. As the decider in the White House for the past eight years, George Bush made some economic calls that aren't looking smart today. Here are eight of them. more. . .
It's not all Bush's fault. He inherited an already-inevitable recession in 2001, and even last year's financial collapse was to some extent the result of unsustainable trends in place long before he moved to Washington. Also, we generally give Presidents both more credit and more blame for economic outcomes than they probably deserve. As Bush mock-moaned in his final White House press conference, "Why did the financial collapse have to happen on my watch?"
His next words, though, were, "It's just pathetic, isn't it, self-pity?" So let's spare him the pity. As the decider in the White House for the past eight years, George Bush made some economic calls that aren't looking smart today. Here are eight of them. more. . .
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:01 AM | Bush | 1,410
Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle
It is hard to imagine that one U.S. presidency could leave more wreckage than George W. Bush's did during his eight years in the White House.
By his own yardsticks, his administration was an abject failure. more. . .
By his own yardsticks, his administration was an abject failure. more. . .
Posted Sunday January 18, 2009 3:57 PM | Bush | 1,142
PAUL KRUGMAN, New York Times
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power. more. . .
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 6:37 AM | Bush | 1,642
CBS News
President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent.
Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years. more. . .
Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 9:45 PM | Bush | 1,075
US News & World Report
A look at the ups and downs of George W. Bush's presidency on some of the biggest issues of the day:
BUDGET
Bush inherited a federal budget that had just posted a record $236 billion surplus, but the U.S. government's fiscal picture deteriorated sharply on his watch. The deficit for the recently completed 2008 budget year registered a record $455 billion, and the 2009 deficit is sure to be far worse as slumping revenues, the costs of the fiscal bailout and a huge economic stimulus bill promise to produce a deficit exceeding $1 trillion — the latest estimate is $1.2 trillion. more. . .
BUDGET
Bush inherited a federal budget that had just posted a record $236 billion surplus, but the U.S. government's fiscal picture deteriorated sharply on his watch. The deficit for the recently completed 2008 budget year registered a record $455 billion, and the 2009 deficit is sure to be far worse as slumping revenues, the costs of the fiscal bailout and a huge economic stimulus bill promise to produce a deficit exceeding $1 trillion — the latest estimate is $1.2 trillion. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:49 PM | Bush | 929
John Conyers Jr., Washington Post
This week, I released "Reining in the Imperial Presidency," a 486-page report detailing the abuses and excesses of the Bush administration and recommending steps to address them. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. popularized the term "imperial presidency" in the 1970s to describe an executive who had assumed more power than the Constitution allows and circumvented the checks and balances fundamental to our three-branch system of government. Until recently, the Nixon administration seemed to represent a singular embodiment of the idea. Unfortunately, it is clear that the threat of the imperial presidency lives on and, indeed, reached new heights under George W. Bush.
As this report documents, there was the administration's contrived drive to a needless war of aggression with Iraq, based on manipulated intelligence and facts that were "fixed around the policy." There was its politicization of the Justice Department; unconscionable and possibly illegal policies on detention, interrogation and extraordinary rendition; warrantless wiretaps of American citizens; the ravaging of our regulatory system and the use of signing statements to override the laws of the land; and the intimidation and silencing of critics and whistle-blowers who dared to tell fellow citizens what was being done in their name. And all of this was hidden behind an unprecedented veil of secrecy and outlandish claims of privilege. more. . .
As this report documents, there was the administration's contrived drive to a needless war of aggression with Iraq, based on manipulated intelligence and facts that were "fixed around the policy." There was its politicization of the Justice Department; unconscionable and possibly illegal policies on detention, interrogation and extraordinary rendition; warrantless wiretaps of American citizens; the ravaging of our regulatory system and the use of signing statements to override the laws of the land; and the intimidation and silencing of critics and whistle-blowers who dared to tell fellow citizens what was being done in their name. And all of this was hidden behind an unprecedented veil of secrecy and outlandish claims of privilege. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 6:40 AM | Bush | 713
Leonard Pitts Jr., McClatchy Newspapers
"History. We don't know. We'll all be dead." – George W. Bush
Dear President Bush:
I am glad you are, at 62, still a relatively young man. I am glad you are in robust health. This means there is a good likelihood of your being with us for decades yet to come, and I dearly want that. You see, history's verdict is on the way, and I want you to see it for yourself. more. . .
Dear President Bush:
I am glad you are, at 62, still a relatively young man. I am glad you are in robust health. This means there is a good likelihood of your being with us for decades yet to come, and I dearly want that. You see, history's verdict is on the way, and I want you to see it for yourself. more. . .
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 7:07 AM | Bush | 863
Ian Williams, Guardian
As disastrous a president as he has been, George Bush is certainly cleverer than most of his detractors gave him credit for. He is reminiscent of Stalin, whose defeated rivals sneered at his intellect. Like Stalin, Bush passed the ultimate Darwinian test: He held power while his detractors did not. But while researchers now reveal that Joe the Georgian had a personal library of some 20,000 well-thumbed and heavily annotated volumes, no one, despite Karl Rove's claims to the contrary, really believes that book boxes will take up much space in the moving van when the 43rd president quits the White House or sells his dude ranch in Crawford, Texas.
What did Bush do well? He epitomised the Republican party's makeover of itself as the party of the common man, even as he pursued the most unabashedly plutocratic policies in an American history replete with welfare for the wealthy. more. . .
What did Bush do well? He epitomised the Republican party's makeover of itself as the party of the common man, even as he pursued the most unabashedly plutocratic policies in an American history replete with welfare for the wealthy. more. . .
Posted Wednesday January 14, 2009 7:12 PM | Bush | 841
BBC
What words did George Bush use most during this eight-year presidency?
This word cloud focuses on the words he used in his eight State of the Union addresses, in which the president looks back at events from the previous 12 months and sets out his agenda for the coming year. more. . .
This word cloud focuses on the words he used in his eight State of the Union addresses, in which the president looks back at events from the previous 12 months and sets out his agenda for the coming year. more. . .
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 8:43 AM | Bush | 1,003
Rupert Cornwell, Independent
Say what you like, George Bush has been a transformational figure. Under him, almost everything in America has been transformed – alas for the worse.
The 43rd President still has nine days left in office, ample time for some new disaster to befall the country. It is true that history's verdict on presidents can change, none more so than in the case of Harry Truman, whose approval rating at one point sank to 23 per cent, a depth even Bush has not quite plumbed. Half a century on, and helped by a victory in the Cold War (plus a couple of authoritative and extremely favourable biographies) he is regarded as one of the dozen most successful ever.
But Truman, the patron saint of unpopular presidents, is the exception. As a rule, judgements emerge quickly and do not greatly fluctuate. The current rating of Bush is dire, and likely to remain so. more. . .
The 43rd President still has nine days left in office, ample time for some new disaster to befall the country. It is true that history's verdict on presidents can change, none more so than in the case of Harry Truman, whose approval rating at one point sank to 23 per cent, a depth even Bush has not quite plumbed. Half a century on, and helped by a victory in the Cold War (plus a couple of authoritative and extremely favourable biographies) he is regarded as one of the dozen most successful ever.
But Truman, the patron saint of unpopular presidents, is the exception. As a rule, judgements emerge quickly and do not greatly fluctuate. The current rating of Bush is dire, and likely to remain so. more. . .
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:15 PM | Bush | 653
Richard A. Clarke, Washington Post
Posted Saturday May 30, 2009 7:12 AM | 9/11 | 224
EDITORIAL, New York Times
Posted Sunday April 19, 2009 6:31 AM | Torture | 597
MARK DANNER, New York Times
Posted Monday March 16, 2009 7:08 AM | Torture | 827
Alex Koppelman, Salon
Posted Monday February 9, 2009 6:58 PM | Bush | 925
EDITORIAL, New York Times
Posted Tuesday January 20, 2009 8:48 PM | Obama | 1,561
Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:03 AM | Bush | 849
The Economist
Posted Sunday January 18, 2009 10:44 AM | Bush | 952
Bernie Horn, AlterNet
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 7:01 AM | Bush | 1,213
Tim Heffernan, Esquire
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:51 PM | Bush | 1,052
Slate
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 7:13 AM | Bush | 809
GAIL COLLINS, New York Times
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 6:44 AM | Bush | 1,470
Bob Woodward, Washington Post
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 6:57 AM | Bush | 779
Amy Goodman, AlterNet
Posted Wednesday January 14, 2009 7:11 PM | Bush | 726
Frank Rich, Guardian
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:18 PM | Bush | 939
Top officials from the Bush administration have hit upon a revealing new theme as they retrospectively justify their national security policies. Call it the White House 9/11 trauma defense. more. . .
Posted Saturday May 30, 2009 7:12 AM | 9/11 | 224
EDITORIAL, New York Times
To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush’s Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity. more. . .
Posted Sunday April 19, 2009 6:31 AM | Torture | 597
MARK DANNER, New York Times
ON a bright sunny day two years ago, President George W. Bush strode into the East Room of the White House and informed the world that the United States had created a dark and secret universe to hold and interrogate captured terrorists.
“In addition to the terrorists held at Guantánamo,” the president said, “a small number of suspected terrorist leaders and operatives captured during the war have been held and questioned outside the United States, in a separate program operated by the Central Intelligence Agency." more. . .
“In addition to the terrorists held at Guantánamo,” the president said, “a small number of suspected terrorist leaders and operatives captured during the war have been held and questioned outside the United States, in a separate program operated by the Central Intelligence Agency." more. . .
Posted Monday March 16, 2009 7:08 AM | Torture | 827
Alex Koppelman, Salon
If there's going to be any effort to account for the Bush administration's alleged lawbreaking and abuses of power, it may have to come from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Monday, Committee Chair Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), a longtime critic of the Bush White House’s national security policies, gave a speech at Georgetown University in which he suggested one possible way to hold the previous administration accountable. Leahy spoke of what he called a "middle ground" proposal, a truth and reconciliation commission that would investigate lawbreaking without necessarily prosecuting violators. more. . .
On Monday, Committee Chair Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), a longtime critic of the Bush White House’s national security policies, gave a speech at Georgetown University in which he suggested one possible way to hold the previous administration accountable. Leahy spoke of what he called a "middle ground" proposal, a truth and reconciliation commission that would investigate lawbreaking without necessarily prosecuting violators. more. . .
Posted Monday February 9, 2009 6:58 PM | Bush | 925
EDITORIAL, New York Times
There was no shortage of powerful imagery on Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day, starting with the confident man who defied all political conventions — that he was too young, too inexperienced, too black or not black enough — to stand on the steps of the Capitol and take the oath of office in a city and a country that are still racially divided in many shameful ways.
And there was the crowd that for a day, and we hope much longer, defied those divisions. By the hundreds of thousands they came from every part of a nation that has rarely been in such peril and yet is so optimistic about its new leader. more. . .
And there was the crowd that for a day, and we hope much longer, defied those divisions. By the hundreds of thousands they came from every part of a nation that has rarely been in such peril and yet is so optimistic about its new leader. more. . .
Posted Tuesday January 20, 2009 8:48 PM | Obama | 1,561
Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Editorial writers around the world have been taking their final printed whacks at George W. Bush, accusing the president of tarnishing America's standing with what many saw as arrogant and incompetent leadership. more. . .
Posted Monday January 19, 2009 9:03 AM | Bush | 849
The Economist
HE LEAVES the White House as one of the least popular and most divisive presidents in American history. At home, his approval rating has been stuck in the 20s for months; abroad, George Bush has presided over the most catastrophic collapse in America’s reputation since the second world war. The American economy is in deep recession, brought on by a crisis that forced Mr Bush to preside over huge and unpopular bail-outs.
America is embroiled in two wars, one of which Mr Bush launched against the tide of world opinion. The Bush family name, once among the most illustrious in American political life, is now so tainted that Jeb, George’s younger brother, recently decided not to run for the Senate from Florida. A Bush relative describes family gatherings as “funeral wakes”.
Few people would have predicted this litany of disasters when Mr Bush ran for the presidency in 2000. more. . .
America is embroiled in two wars, one of which Mr Bush launched against the tide of world opinion. The Bush family name, once among the most illustrious in American political life, is now so tainted that Jeb, George’s younger brother, recently decided not to run for the Senate from Florida. A Bush relative describes family gatherings as “funeral wakes”.
Few people would have predicted this litany of disasters when Mr Bush ran for the presidency in 2000. more. . .
Posted Sunday January 18, 2009 10:44 AM | Bush | 952
Bernie Horn, AlterNet
George W. Bush presented his valedictory last night, desperately seeking thanks and congratulations. So here goes: Thanks and congratulations, W, for showing the world that today's conservatism is an abject failure.
Thanks to Bush, we know that conservatives are not fiscally responsible, they are not for small government, they don't stand up for moral values and they won't make Americans one bit safer. Conservatives aren't even true defenders of "free markets" -- having presided over the biggest market bailout in the world.
After eight long years, Bush can no longer fool the public. Polls show that he is the most unpopular president in the history of survey research. When the 2006 and 2008 elections are considered together, Bush policies resulted in the landslide rejection of his party at both the federal and state levels. There are probably a hundred examples where Bush conservatism failed, but let's stick with the top 10. more. . .
Thanks to Bush, we know that conservatives are not fiscally responsible, they are not for small government, they don't stand up for moral values and they won't make Americans one bit safer. Conservatives aren't even true defenders of "free markets" -- having presided over the biggest market bailout in the world.
After eight long years, Bush can no longer fool the public. Polls show that he is the most unpopular president in the history of survey research. When the 2006 and 2008 elections are considered together, Bush policies resulted in the landslide rejection of his party at both the federal and state levels. There are probably a hundred examples where Bush conservatism failed, but let's stick with the top 10. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 7:01 AM | Bush | 1,213
Tim Heffernan, Esquire
You know 9/11, Iraq, and all the rest. Almost. Come on, did you remember that Google only went public in 2004?! Before we consider what's next, an abbreviated history of the last eight years of our lives. more. . .
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 3:51 PM | Bush | 1,052
Slate
Posted Friday January 16, 2009 7:13 AM | Bush | 809
GAIL COLLINS, New York Times
Tonight President George W. Bush bids adieu to the American people.
Excitement mounts.
The man has been saying goodbye for so long, he’s come to resemble one of those reconstituted rock bands that have been on a farewell tour since 1982. We had exit interviews by the carload and then a final press conference on Monday, in which he reminisced about his arrival on the national stage in 2000. “Just seemed like yesterday,” he said.
I think I speak for the entire nation when I say that the way this transition has been dragging on, even yesterday does not seem like yesterday. And the last time George W. Bush did not factor into our lives feels like around 1066. more. . .
Excitement mounts.
The man has been saying goodbye for so long, he’s come to resemble one of those reconstituted rock bands that have been on a farewell tour since 1982. We had exit interviews by the carload and then a final press conference on Monday, in which he reminisced about his arrival on the national stage in 2000. “Just seemed like yesterday,” he said.
I think I speak for the entire nation when I say that the way this transition has been dragging on, even yesterday does not seem like yesterday. And the last time George W. Bush did not factor into our lives feels like around 1066. more. . .
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 6:44 AM | Bush | 1,470
Bob Woodward, Washington Post
There's actually a lot that President-elect Barack Obama can learn from the troubled presidency of George W. Bush. Over the past eight years, I have interviewed President Bush for nearly 11 hours, spent hundreds of hours with his administration's key players and reviewed thousands of pages of documents and notes. That produced four books, totaling 1,727 pages, that amount to a very long case study in presidential decision-making, and there are plenty of morals to the story. Presidents live in the unfinished business of their predecessors, and Bush casts a giant shadow on the Obama presidency: two incomplete wars and a monumental financial and economic crisis. Here are 10 lessons that Obama and his team should take away from the Bush experience. more. . .
Posted Thursday January 15, 2009 6:57 AM | Bush | 779
Amy Goodman, AlterNet
Amy Goodman: With a week to go in his two-term presidency, President George W. Bush gave his final White House news conference Monday. Bush fervently defended his record, saying he made the nation safer following the 9/11 attacks. Asked whether he could now admit to making any mistakes, Bush cited the "Mission Accomplished" banner soon after the invasion of Iraq. He also listed what he called his "disappointments." more. . .
Posted Wednesday January 14, 2009 7:11 PM | Bush | 726
Frank Rich, Guardian
We like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians. So here, too, George W Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for President 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He's the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life. more. . .
Posted Saturday January 10, 2009 10:18 PM | Bush | 939