Turn out the lights. The party's over.

Well, now that that's done...we can start cleaning up the mess.

As of about 5PM Eastern Standard Time, GWB's tenure effectively ended. Yeah, he's still the Preznit until Tuesday at noon, but for all intents and purposes "don't let the door hit ya in the ass..."

Friday at 5 is when most places empty out (and the happy hour bars get rollin'). Monday is a federal holiday, so as far as the US Gumint is concerned
"It's Change, Baby!"

America, then and now: "thanks for nothing, cretin!"

ahh...the good 'ol days...remember how Clinton left things for Bush. Now look how Bush left things for Obama! Thanks for nothing, GW! ..er, wait...actually..Bush didn't do nothing, now that I think about it? Wow. I WISH he did nothing. Instead, he started a wholly unnecessary war, decimating our military and getting american troops killed, by and large, for no reason (and TENS OF THOUSANDS MAIMED FOR LIFE), gutted our constitution, lied to us all constantly about WMD's and more (folks, every phone call you make is STILL being monitored by extremely sophisticated technology), assaulted our environment with policy changes, attacked and ridiculed science and scientists, completey destroyed our economy with his policies, tax cuts (is there anymore debate about these not helping the economy? please), lack of federal oversight, and by going against his "free-market" mantra and bailing out his corrupt buddies in the financial sector (not to mention his assinine "tax rebate" which failed miserably), and on and on and on...don't even get me started on Katrina!..the fact is any person reading this blog could have LEAD New Orleans, Mississippi, and this country better than Bush and this administration did, trough this terrible and fatal time. BUSH. DID. NOTHING. Seriously, this low-life has done everything possible to RUIN America in 8 years, not help it (and yes, I DO blame spineless democrats as a whole for rubber-stamping a lot of his lunactic actions). And if anyone disagrees, I sincerely would like to hear something to the contrary. Please, help me. Tell me what Bush has done to HELP AMERICANS in the last eight years. Please. I want to know. For real. Use the comments section after this great tidbit about "now/then's"...

From NBC's Mark Murray

With President Bush set to leave the White House less than two weeks from now, here's a "Then and Now" to show what the United States looked like when Bush was entering office and what it looks like now as he's leaving. The "Then" is the best-available figure as Bush was taking office in 2001. The "Now" is the most recent figure.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

SATISFIED WITH THE NATION'S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

"History Will Judge..."

Those of us left-of-center types have been saying this for going on eight years: "Worst. President. Ever." We've been joined in more recent years by many of our not-quite-so-liberal friends from the middle, and even a few authentic conservatives who recognize that the neocon/christofascist alliance of the GOP has run their party into a ditch. Thus, polling such as the NBC/WSJ numbers that just came out:



George W. Bush: Mr. 20%

In spite of the Rovian campaign currently organized to polish the Shrub's "legacy," I submit that history will judge #43 as not much more than a useful idiot, readily doing the bidding of his handlers and the neocon cabal that actually made the decisions of "the Decider."

That swagger of his has long ceased to seem authentic, and Mr. Bush in recent months has even seemed to me to have reached a point of realization about his tenure. Since I can't find it in my liberal heart to truly hate, my reaction is to re-humanize him, such that I sense a profound regret despite his outward talk of "no regrets." Perhaps there is enough native intelligence behind the beady eyes to realize that he - as well as a nation - was horribly used by others, that this past eight-year orgy of imperialism and suppression was planned well in advance of his arrival; that, indeed, his arrival was part of the plan. For that, I feel sorry for him. (But I'm not losing sleep over it.)

"history will judge," he likes to say. He's history, right?

friggin eagles (your Philadelphia Eagles...)

When the schedule came out in early spring I couldn’t decide if the Eagles were gonna be 9 & 7 or 10 & 6. I ultimately settled on 10 & 6 as my “official” prediction, due to then having the easiest schedule they’ve have in YEARS. That being said, I had them missing the playoffs due to 10 wins not being good enough, due to the Cowpatties and Gints being in their division and much better teams than them. I had them 3 & 3 at the BYE week, which is coming up for them after this week’s game vs the 49ers. If they beat the 49ers, they’ll be 3 & 3 at the bye. If they lose, they’ll be 2 & 4.

Here’s the bottom line folks: The Eagles are an extremely average football team. They’re simply not good enough. They don’t have enough talent on their team, and they don’t have a good enough coach. And Coach Reid is responsible for both of those facets.

He’s been in charge of picking and drafting the players here since he got here 10 years ago, when the naive and ignorant ownership, stewarded by Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner foolishly handed him that duty, with no prior experience on Reid’s part whatsoever. Seriously, Reid is the only one to blame for the actual players we have on this team currently.

And while Reid is a good coach, he’s far from being a great coach, or even a good ‘enough’ coach to get this team where it needs to be consistently. In this 10 years here, he’s 1 & 3 in Conference Championship Games. Period. While others will talk about other things he’s done here (once he’s gone), that will remain his legacy. He’s just not good enough.

Something that I have never read or heard about Reid anywhere (and am surprised by this), that I believe explains a lot about his skills and makeup, is the fact that he skipped a very important rung on his career ladder: He was never an Offensive Coordinator. He went from being a QB Coach at Green Bay (during Brett Favre’s formative years), to Head Coach AND General Manager at the Philadelphia Eagles. The fact that he skipped that rung, has everything to do with his dysfunction here at both of those levels.

He’s always been a terrible game day coach, seemingly unable to adjust whatsoever to the opposing team’s play. He can’t manage a clock; he can’t pick the correct plays on the fly; he can’t manage a game. This is the actual job description for an Offensive Coordinator. He skipped that rung. Is it any wonder he can’t do those things? He refuses to see the obvious and what is just right in front of him constantly.

Everything you ever needed to know about how inefficient Reid ultimately would be, you could have learned (like I did) back in 2003, when, after choking in their home NFC Championship Game the season before (against the Tampa Bay Bucs who we owned the years prior and sent home packing many times), Reid stated, “our WR’s are fine,” when asked by a reporter if the WR corps, let by James Thrash and Todd Pinkston, was good enough to win a Super Bowl with. And he didn’t just say it. He believed it. And it was obvious to any idiot in the United States, that our WR corps sucked. Especially, when you consider we were and are a “pass first” offense! And then the Andy Reid’s Eagles, proceeded to will themselves to ANOTHER home NFC Championship Game against the Carolina Panthers and proceeded to choke again, this time scoring only 3 points.

It was also this year (I believe) that when deflecting another question by a reporter aimed at Reid’s insistence to continue to pass first when it never really seemed to work that well, Reid answered, “passing’s just as good as running,” when asked why he doesn’t run more. That is just flat-out wrong. Passing, by and large, is never as good as running, when discussing globally, and with regards to offensive philosophy, and proven success throughout the history of football. What a complete asinine and moronic statement to make and belief to adhere to. No other NFL coach would agree with that statement ever.

It was the aforementioned 2 statements back in 2003 that convinced me Reid simply did not possess the ability to guide a team to a Super Bowl win. Ever. And it’s why I was calling for his head on a platter after that second home conference championship loss; if I was the Owner, I would have fired him outright, the day after that abomination of a loss to Carolina. But, alas, he’s still here, and our naive and clueless ownership loves him. I don’t think he’s going anywhere for years. No matter how much he continues to fail

I could go on (how Reid has stunted McNabb’s career, his stubbornness with letting other coaches and personnel take over certain reins, etc)…and I will. Believe me. But that’s enough ranting for now.