‘Should be a scandal’

Pretty amazing that the only thing W can think of to regret upon reviewing his presidency is a bad photo-op from the window of Air Force One.

Bush said it made him look out of touch to be seen observing the Katrina aftermath from the sky. Note that he’s not sad about his actual performance in helping people escape death or getting them food and water afterward, just the image problem.

Bush also said he was stung by Kanye West’s refreshingly blunt statement that the president ‘doesn’t care about black people’ in the middle of New Orleans’ martyrdom. It’s hard to remember now that the Fox News mafia didn’t jump on that statement all that much because it was so hard to refute.

But even West is backing down now, which is another disturbing sign of the times.

Meanwhile, no one at all even gives a shit that Bush placidly admits now that he authorized torturing defenseless prisoners during his reign. Given that Obama and the Democrats refused to go after them for it, why shouldn’t he? And the lamestream media—so concerned about the ethics of Keith Olberman’s campaign donation—has no interest in that ‘old story’.

On the economic front, the supposed experts at the Federal Reserve had a big powwow to debate whether their latest monetary measures, called ‘quantitative easing’, will resuscitate inflation. Inflation??!! At a time when essentially one-sixth of the workforce is out of a job, and bank accounts are paying 0.2 percent interest, that’s what the poobahs in Washington are worried about?

As this dumbfounded economist opines, the fact that they are having that discussion at all should be a scandal. That it is not tells us that the ruling elite is entering some sort of black hole/parallel universe that bodes very ill for the land (to plagiarize Tony Judt).