Five years later

[jhetley]

A certain part of me (the petty, vindictive part) says we shouldn't let Shrub leave office until he cleans up the mess he made.  Personally.  With a mop and shovel.  Sorta like a "community service" sentence of emptying garbage cans and running a pooper-scooper through the park...

Yeah, I know, if he stayed he'd only make things worse.  But whoever takes over, the poor schmuck is going to have a shitty job picking up the pieces and trying to fit them back into a working whole.  Foreign policy, military, economy, you name it.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's not going to be easy for whoever gets the job.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a good idea, especially if he gets demoted from President to a Private E-1 and told that he has four years on his new mandatory enlistment to clean up his mess or he gets another twenty. The thought of him, Cheney, Joe Lieberman, and the Bush Twins spending the next four years having to clean Iraqi sewer lines or swab out Gitmo toilets fills me with glee.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Why the Bush Twins? They haven't had any part in the creation of the mess; AFAIK they don't get involved in politics at all. Is it just that you want to punish them for having been born to the wrong parents?

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

In this case, it's because while they've been vocal about their support of the war, you don't see them (or the vast majority of the children of other war supporters) enlisting. The biggest issue facing Armed Forces recruiters right now is that the automatic response they get when they bring up putting in a two-year tour is "When Jenna and Babs Bush join up, I'll consider it," and many of those recruiters state privately that it's really hard to convince parents that military service is a good idea when the children of the President have "other priorities". (This is why I can't support Prince William enough for his tour in Afghanistan: for all their faults, the British Royal Family understands the concept of "noblesse oblige," while Jenna Bush drops the beer bong long enough to play at being a real-life author person.)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Gives you some idea of the local economy, Maine recruiters seem to meet their quotas...

(Maine is something like #3 nation-wide in per-capital military service. Bet you that #1 and #2 are also rural poverty-pockets.)

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Yep: my brother Eric, who isn't looking forward to returning to Iraq for his fourth tour, is perfectly willing to admit that he did so because his options in Wisconsin were severely limited. That's why I have so much fun with the SMU brats who continue to throw "support the war" parties but who cry like little girls with skinned knees if they're actually asked to put off getting their MBAs long enough to put in a two-year tour. (I wouldn't even have a problem with them going in as officers, even though I know they wouldn't have the intellectual capacity to get out of OCS. Say what you want about the "perfumed princes" in field-grade rankings, but the first and second lieutenants I knew in the Army were, without doubt, some of the sharpest people I'd ever met in my life.)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

"The sins of the fathers..."

Yeah, I know, the Scriptural reference specifies "sons" -- we're going for gender-equity in Divine Wrath.