The perfect good-bye to a failed administration, a timely review of the Bush years. One man's obsession leads to the creation of the calendar "Poor George's Almanac for 2009".
Boston, MA (PRWEB) December 14, 2008 -- This is a story of obsession; an obsession with the Bush administration.
It didn't start out that way. There was all that talk of "compassionate conservatism", of this new "uniter not a divider" who had entered the national political stage. George W. Bush seemed to be a good guy. Maybe even a capable guy.
Then he was elected, and an obsession began. Frank O'Dette of Boston watched as the new administration made blunder after blunder, bad decision after bad decision. He began taking notes, cutting and pasting from newspapers, recording it all. "I had even set-up a shortcut on my computer, CTRL-ALT-B, to quickly get to my Bush data file," recalled O'Dette. Why? He didn't know. Should he have stopped? He couldn't.
When Bush was re-elected, O'Dette wondered how it was that so many people had failed to see how bad a president Mr. Bush had been. Those election results turned over and over in his head until one day out jogging it occurred to him to compile his Bush data file into a daily fact sheet, so that people could see, day by day, error after error, all of the reasons why President Bush was bad for the nation. The initial idea was to put this up as a list on the web. As the project continued, the effort evolved into a book of Bush blunders, now set to a 2009 calendar, entitled "Poor George's Almanac for 2009".
Details, this calendar has details. There are, of course, the well-known events such as the pre-mature 'Mission Accomplished' speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln and the "heck of a job Brownie" incident, but the calendar's strength lies in the details. There is the ethical Bunnatine Greenhouse, a 20-year Pentagon contracting expert, being demoted after questioning the no-bid contracts being shoveled through to Halliburton. There is the Bush administration actually going to court to stop meatpackers from doing more to test for mad cow disease. How about the man Bush picked as his mine safety chief; he once headed a company with an abysmal mine safety record.
There are numerous examples of ignoring experts, of hiding unpleasant scientific facts, and the multitude of bad and selfish decisions leading to the biggest budget deficits in the nation's history. How about those 'regulators' who were really industry insiders, and the faked news events, the broken promises, the overworked military, the plummeting polls, the invalid assumptions, the disastrous results? What of the agencies who significantly backed off from doing their jobs: OSHA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the EPA, are examples.
Then there are the lighter moments. Not to be forgotten are the president's famous and numerous verbal flubs, the pretzel induced fainting incident, the comedy show known as the Bush-Gonzales Justice Department (OK, not so funny), the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld slime-mold beetle honor, and even Karl Rove revealing what White House staffers thought of the President's dog Barney. Also included are Bush's thoughts on the saddest thing about being president (not enough jogging time), and the self-proclaimed greatest George Bush presidential moment (the time he caught a large fish).
Bush's pandering to his base is here as well. There is the appointee who claims he was used by God to fight Satan's plans at the FDA, the anti-family planning doctor appointed to head up a family planning post, the covered breasts of the Justice Dept's 'Spirit of Justice' statue, and the 24-year-old NASA appointee making sure that NASA scientists do not discount 'intelligent design by a creator' in their scientific reports.
O'Dette says he is not looking to make money off his book; he's pledged that all his profits, up to $10,000, will be going to the charity 'Action Against Hunger' (see their good works at the site http://www.actionagainsthunger.org ). "My goal is to give citizens a chance to learn from these last eight years in an entertaining way," he says. "Each page is another lesson in ethics, common sense, fairness, and prioritizing the people's business over the interests of the moneyed few. Not lessons by good example, of course, but lessons nonetheless!". Hoping that these lessons won't be forgotten, and that these errors won't be repeated, O'Dette adds: "I'd love to see this calendar on the desk of every significant decision maker in the Obama administration."
One man's obsession realized. The details of the last eight years, faithfully recorded, and now available so that we shall not forget. Said O'Dette of his work and his president: "It's proof-positive that many of us were right all along. He really is a screw-up."
"Poor George's Almanac for 2009" is now available on Amazon.com. The website http://www.poorGeorgesAlmanac.com/2009 has sample pages and purchase information.
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[Via Legal / Law]
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