The Reeking Pile

I keep a folder on my virtual desktop into which I toss URLs about stories I run across that strike in a chord of interest, rage, sympathy, curiosity, or some other random but powerful emotion of the moment. Some of these URLs, worthy though the news might be, never make it to Powderfinger because they get elbowed out by other, more pressing (interesting, enfuriating, . . . etc.) sites discovered as I surf over my usual places. I ran into one of these last night. Over the next few weeks, an endless outpouring of deservedly disgusted and savage retrospectives on the presidency of the vile little pretender in the White House will issue forth from the thoussands, tens of thousands of people, who swimming in the sewerage that Bush has left us with, will still rejoice that he has been flushed away. That the term of the absolute worst president in the history of this country has come to an end.

I ask myself just what did this president do that was good? or praiseworthy? and I cannot think of a thing. There must be something. If anybody has a suggestion, I'd like to hear it. But when it comes to enumerating the crimes, deficiencies, and sheer buffoonery of this president, there seems to be no end. So it's easy to understand how some of them have escaped notice. The staggering numbers reported in this article are a case in point. During the last 8 years, this is the backlog of essential executive services that have gone undone. Ignored. Shit-canned.

• 730,000 pending patent applications
• 760,000 Social Security disability applications
• 806,000 VA disabilty claims

And this, brothers and sisters, is just the first little whiff of this stinking, rotting pile Bush is leaving us and Obama with. Get a gander at some of the numbers from the mother document at the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity. Just a few of a long list: 180,000 weapons missing in Iraq (guess who has these); 17 (1 percent) out of 1,273 whistle-blower complaints addressed, 99 percent dismissed; political interference with 60 percent of EPA scientists; billions in overpayments to Halliburton; billions more in defense procurement overruns, and on and on.

It's funny the things you remember (and forget). One thing that I remember word for word from years ago when I wrote my book is something an outraged Southerner wrote about President James Buchanan, the closest of Bush's competitors for the worst president ever: "What more can I say to commend this wretch to your execration?" I say the same for Bush . . . in spades.