i began to have concerns about the bush administration only a few months into 2001 when he and gonzales began gutting the 1978 presidential records act. as enacted by congress, the act was intended to ensure public access to non-classified presidential papers within a reasonable period of time (12 years) after a president left office. (as it now stands, a sitting president can indefinitely block the release of a former president's documents; as can the former president--or his or her designees)
at the time, i believed it was only a matter of bush trying to protect reagan, bush's father and their associates, some of whom were already back in the whitehouse.
it's only now--in the wake of 5 years of concerted and focused effort on the part of gonzales and george bush--that the real motivation has become clear. our first president named george did everything in his power to prevent the presidency from becoming a monarchy; his namesake clearly intends the opposite.
there was more...
in may 2001, bush announced that the us was no longer willing to comply with terms of the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty.
in july 2001, the administration effectively killed the 1972 international biological & toxic weapons treaty by refusing to agree to enforcement provisions. the us became the only country to reject this next stage of the treaty which was the results of 7 years of international negotiations.
sadly, only a few short months later america would find itself on the receiving end of an anthrax attack. within a year, north korea would openly begin work on icbms and nuclear weapons with which to arm them. iran clearly intends to do the same.
as far as iraq goes, all the arguments for and against invading the country were moot. even before they moved into the whitehouse, bush and his associates intended to invade that country and change the regime.
in that sense, those who claim bush does what he says he'll do aren't wrong. they are, however, conveniently ignoring other promises he's abandoned such as lowering power plant carbon dioxide emissions levels (as he stated he'd do during the 2000 campaign) to hunting down bin laden (in that regard, bush has been as effective--and currently appears to be putting an equal amount of effort--as oj simpson in tracking down his ex-wife's 'real' killer).
