How Bush & his cronies show utter contempt for the average American
 

One of the reasons that Americans have grown increasingly irritated with Bush and his cronies is their total disregard for, well, EVERYBODY. Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the crew think they are above reproach, above the law, above criticism. Here's just a FEW examples of their crimes of hubris.

After finally, legitimately winning an election for president, Bush stated in 2004, "I earned political capital in this election, and I intend to spend it." In other words, I kicked ass, and I'm going to now bulldoze everybody. But the fact is, he DIDN'T earn any political capital. He looked like the moron he IS during the election, and only won because of the bonehead conservative movement that doesn't care about qualifications, only about abortion and, well, not much else.

Bush NEVER admits mistakes. He'll say, "mistakes have been made," but will take no personal responsibility. He didn't actually say "I take responsibility" until Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, and Bush's worthless FEMA director buddy bungled the whole thing.

Bush ignored Dick Cheney and Bush's own dad when he invaded Iraq. Sure, Cheney was big on it THIS time, but back in 1992, Cheney said it would be a BAD thing to invade Iraq, because it wouldn't be worth the American lives it would cost. Bush Sr. wrote in his bio the exact same thing. Why did Junior think things would be any different NOW?

Bush baited the insurgents when he hawkishly told them, "Bring it on." Well, dumbass, they DID, and we now have over 2000 dead American soldiers, and a whole lot more dead Iraqi civilians. Nice dare, from a chickenhawk who doesn't actually have to face the bullets. And the GOP made fun of Mike Dukakis riding around like a dummy in a tank in 1988, but then Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a jet, and gave a speech to the troops and the nation under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished." Oh, and despite lying like hell about it, it turns out that the White House actually DID come up with that banner.

Bush has hogged more authority than any president in his own lifetime. He has continually ignored Congressional oversight with regard to domestic intelligence and the treatment of detainees. He thinks he's above the law.

January 2007, Bush was fighting with Congress over his proposed troop "surge." He pronounced very arrogantly, "I am the decider." He was told a couple of days later by Republican Senator Arlen Spector, "He is not the ONLY decider."
 

Like Bush, Cheney weaseled out of his own military service, saying "I had other priorities in the '60's than military service." Yeah, his priorities included getting arrested for drunk driving multiple times, and getting deferment after deferment.

His company Halliburton pulled some nasty accounting shenanigans while Cheney was running the place, but he weaseled out of accountability for that as well. When he left Halliburton to run for vice-president, they gave him a "going-away" present of $20 million, which is unheard of. Critics screamed that the oil giant was buying access to the White House, so he kindly agreed to take ONLY $13.6 million. This paid off handsomely when Halliburton got a flock of HUGE, no-bid contracts for the rebuilding of this and that in Iraq. They also cheated hell out of the American taxpayers by overcharging for all manner of things. Their quarterly profits immediately doubled, although amusingly enough they said this happened "despite the war." Yeah, right.

Cheney got his old oil buddies to create some kind of super-secret energy policy that, naturally, benefited oil companies. People went to court to get the details, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court. Not caring about how bad it would look, Cheney went duck hunting with Justice Antonin Scalia, on a trip hosted by, naturally, an oil executive, a week before the case was to be heard. 

Cheney was finally cornered on the lack of evidence that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11. He even finally admitted it in a televised debate, after repeating the charge early and often. But just two days after admitting this to John Edwards on TV, he repeated the Saddam-9/11 thing again in a speech to a group of elderly folks in Orlando.

Summer 2006, the National Archives asked Dick Cheney's office to provide his records in order to comply with a presidential order that insists he do so. Cheney replied by trying to get rid of the group within the Archives that enforces this order. Since then, Cheney has insisted in written correspondence that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch." Cheney has defined his office in a way other than how the Constitution does. Chairman Waxman of the Oversight Committee wrote back to Cheney, insisting "I question both the legality and the wisdom of your actions. It would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive brach officials."

Early on, Cheney somehow managed to run up a $136,000 electric bill at the vice-presidential compound. He tried to get one of the branches of the military to pay for it. He said, arrogantly enough, "You can use all the electricity you want, provided you pay for it." ARROGANT ASSHOLE. Who do you think paid for that? WE did.
 

Wolfowitz pulled the same shit at the Bank. Got his girlfriend a ridiculous promotion and raise, and when there was a stink, got her moved to a cushy spot at the State Department. Unbelievable. When the bank employees' union, the executive committee, and all the investors other than the USA universally demanded Wolfowitz resign, he said he wouldn't, and Bush gave him a vote of confidence. Even after Wolfowitz's top aide, a guy he dragged along from the State Department, resigned and said that they could no longer be effective with the "current leadership crisis," the White House said specifically that the Wolfowitz and the Bank could still be "effective."
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He got caught trading references for votes in Congress. 

When members of his own party suggested it was time to cut spending in order to pay for the war, for hurricane relief, and a whole bunch of other stuff, he said, amazingly enough, "After eleven years in the majority, I think we've got it pared down pretty well .... I challenge them to find the fat in the budget."  HOLY CRAP. How about the bloated highway spending bill, including the quarter-billion-dollar bridge to nowhere? How about the 4000-plus pork projects? How about the corporate giveaways, including the subsidies to the obscenely rich oil companies?

Delay also said that Terri Schiavo, completely brain dead, was "just like any other handicapped person." Huh?
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The governor of Alaska got himself a fancy new jet, over the objections of just about everybody else in Alaska. He never misses an opportunity to spend money on himself. He says that his state, more than other, has regions that are only reachable by plane. However, the big jet he covets can't land at most of those remote airports, because of the runways.

May 2007: Two Alaskan lawmakers were found guilty of taking bribes from oil companies. No big surprise there.
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Of course, this is the guy who repeatedly prostitutes his medical license for political reasons. In the most blatant example of this, he stated, based on viewing an old videotape of Terri Schiavo, that she was responsive and just needed some therapy, ignoring the HOST of medical experts who had examined Schiavo personally and pronounced her profoundly brain damaged, something that the autopsy confirmed.
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