It’s eight traumatic years of Bush and friends presented by San Franciscan Erich Origen and Los Angeles resident Gan Golan. It is a parody version of Goodnight Moon, a children’s book written years ago, then known and read by parents and their children. And now these children are parents.
Of course, the Bush scourge is generational as well.
Good Night Bush is supposed to be done in humor, to mark the passing of a corrupt president and his friends, an abuser of our planet, our government, and our Constitution.
Is it significant that many of us can rattle off most of his crimes? Yes, the litany is well known: election fraud, torture, war of aggression, war based on lies, war for profit, corruption of communications media, lawmaking done in stealth, tossing out the separation of powers, shredding the Constitution, distorting science, spying illegally, peddling favors to friends -- corporate and otherwise, 9-11 negligence, environmental destruction, failure to pursue Osama bin Laden, lawless detention, alienation of former allies, slaughter of innocents, fiscal irresponsibility, erosion of the rule of law, neglect of veterans, standing by as Katrina victims died, fear-mongering, and an unbelievable incompetence.
Like I said, it is supposed to be a parody, a spoof of an innocent child’s book. But in many ways, the child is Bush. We are saying goodbye to the childlike Bush, who never grew into the responsibilities of adulthood, who masqueraded as a hero, wearing a flight suit, war gear he never experienced because he evaded the draft and service in the National Guard. But it’s also goodbye to Cheney and his child.
The book’s Bush image is steeped in irony. When the Twin Towers were attacked, we all know that Bush was reading a child’s book, My Pet Goat, while Vice President Cheney was calling the shots.
Even after being told, like it was no surprise or like being unaffected, he continued reading. He was a child again, ignoring grown-up responsibilities. It was a condition very similar to the run-up to the Twin Towers attack, when he and his staff were also out of touch with the threats of the terrorist adult world, being obstinately close-minded against any new intelligence or any Clinton intelligence before him.
Though Bush and his minions will undoubtedly leave office, never brought to justice for all of their crimes, we can bid him an appropriate adieu, for, always out of touch with reality, he is sort of a Child King.
In the book, most of the crimes are chronicled in images and rhyme: Cheney in the rocking chair as the Puppet-Master, marionettes at his feet and Bush before him, an infantile figure in a bed, clad in a flight suit. His clock on the night stand is frozen at 9:11.
Bush is alternatively giggling, balled in a fetal position, and praying, in the latter image he is facing a broken piggy bank of money. All scenes seem to be directed by Cheney: “And goodnight to Dick Cheney whispering 'hush.'”
But as clever, ironic and humorous as this is, we must remember that this soiled parchment of history is unfolding without investigations, without accountability, without impeachment charges.
What does this auger, we might ask?
It invites the same corruptions to repeat, to continue into our future, for none of Bush’s illegal powers have been revoked, even with a Democrat majority in Congress.
In fact, we still have a fifty percent chance this next election, that someone worse, who has features of competency, someone more intelligent, could terminally take away what we have now and ditch any chance of a future.
The book does suggest this.
For it ends signifying the deathly seriousness of what has been done to our country, to our future and to our planet.
While oil gushes from derricks looming over the bleak landscape, while effluents besmirch the land and while a grim darkness dominates, a father from a high vantage point, with one hand gesturing to these abominations before him, touches his son’s shoulder with the other: “Goodnight earth? Goodnight heir? Goodnight failures everywhere.”
jimdhm's comments about Bush & Co. are right on. I wonder if he caught the irony in his remark about a 50% chance that in the Nov. election "someone worse, who has features of competency, someone more intelligent, could terminally take away what we have now and ditch any chance of a future." I submit he's wrong. The chance is 100%, assuming the Congress is controlled by Democrats. Just look at the FISA revision crafted by Steny Hoyer (D-Md)and the remarks made and positions taken by Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid.
Editor's note: The post was written by Jim Hoover, but for technical reasons is shown to be posted by jimdhm.
Posted by: Argus | June 22, 2008 at 04:18 PM