What Monica Goodling did to the DOJ, along with her other staffers, is pretty much the opposite of what America is about. Un-American is often thrown around by partisans to demagogue, but in this case the word seems to be the only appropriate choice. We are supposed to get beyond politics when doing the actual work of governing. These agencies, especially, need to be beyond politics.

Another reason, btw, why George W. Bush is the worst President in American history.

Whoever becomes President next will have to deal with all of this. How do you get the experienced folks to come back to agencies like the CDC that have been driven away over the last 7+ years? It should be more reassuring that the Rove folks who helped put these sycophants into the agencies are now running McCain’s campaign…

This is going to be the long-terms damage that this administration has inflicted on the nation. The cronyism reached to the lowest ranks of the bureaucracy, something that seems very different than the sorts of cronyism one expects at the top of the tree. (via Atrios)

61% of historians surveyed agree with my contention the the Bush presidency has been the worst in U.S. history.

Update: Worth pointing out that this isn’t a statistically meaningful survey (self-selecting respondents, etc.) so it’s more a conversation starter than an actual conclusion.

Go Nancy! Love the answer to, “Is the President lying?”

The average effective income tax rate for the top 400 earners in the U.S. (as reported on their taxes) was about 18%. It was about 30% during the Clinton years. According to Wikipedia, a person earning about $50,000, no itemized deductions, has an effective tax rate of 18%. This is supposed to be a progressive taxation system (and this doesn’t even consider the payroll tax effect, which raises effective tax rates for lower incomes). I’d have to guess that a lot of this is dividend tax related, since most of us have little in terms of dividend income.

Tell me again which party is the “law and order” party? Because it sure isn’t the Republican party, and certainly not this administration.

The moral high ground has been abandoned by the Bush administration and everyone has noticed. It’s pretty sad what 8 years with him as President has done to our country.

C&L has the video. Pretty much covers how I feel about this one.

When you sit around imagining the good that America could do in Afghanistan (and I had high hopes in 2002 that we could’ve brought Afghanistan forward a few decades), these are the kind of programs you imagine. Sadly, the Bush administration is cutting back on these programs and spending a ton of resources next door in Iraq. We could get a nice 2-for-1 return on the failed state lottery…

Wheeee, liberal media…?