Author: Gareth

President Obama just signed executive orders which direct the CIA to shut down its network of “Black Site” secret prisons, orders the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, and prohibits the use of “coercive interrogation methods” (i.e. torture)– requiring that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual (policies derived under the Geneva Conventions).

After signing he said:

“The message we are sending around the world is that the US intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals … We intend to win this fight, and we intend to win it on our terms.”

I have a suggestion, to pre-empt the revision of history that you just know will be coming. Let’s make our true feelings about the Presidency of George W. Bush be clearly heard.

With luck, we can start a meme here — hopefully getting enough momentum going that it gets media coverage.

The George W. Bush Foundation is prepping the enshrinement of the fiction surrounding his so-called legacy, so let’s donate objects which TRULY reflect his legacy.

Go to your closet, grab one of your old shoes, and mail it to the Foundation:

George W. Bush Foundation
PO Box 600610
Dallas, TX 75206

Flood their office with a massive wave of symbolic disapproval… virtually throwing our shoes at this shameful stain on our nation’s history.

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”

Bush has to feel about three inches high at the moment. He’s sitting there, on that platform, as Obama says those words, and over a million voices ROAR in approval.

That is my favorite moment of this address — with this as a close second:

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

Amen. Let’s get to work.