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Probably criminal, not to be hyperbolic.

When you consider the breadth of the taint and degrading effect of the Bush administration on all aspects of the government, the kindest thing you can say is that they were blinded by ideology. I don't think it's too out of bounds to ask if the results of their governance is their ideology; to essentially wonder if they are following the Grover Norquist handbook to weaken the government, leave it powerless to regulate any market or industry effectively. As was asked after Katrina, you could ask about their manipulations of every aspect of the government, "Was it deliberate malevolence or just criminal incompetence?"

The War on Terror has become the war to create terrorists.
No Child Left Behind has left most children behind.
The cakewalk war that would never become another Vietnam, has the potential to be worse than Vietnam, especially in terms of its effect on the stability of the region.
Rumsfeld's plan to create a fast moving sleek military has left it broken.
The VA is overwhelmed and underfunded and sweeping PTSD cases under the carpet.
The economy is in shambles.
Oil company profits are higher than they've ever been.
The rich are much richer, the poor and middle class are poorer.
People who have made their careers working for the government have resigned or been fired in droves; from generals, to lawyers, to accountants it almost seems like a purge.

My head starts to swim, the list goes on and on. So I need to take a moment to step back and take a look at the larger picture. Six+ years after 9/11 we have a President who has taken on king-like power in the name of making us safer, better, and there's nothing left to show for it except the king-like power to declare an individual an "enemy", a massive domestic surveillance apparatus, 2 wars going badly, terrorists bombings across the world increasing yearly, agreements between the Pakistan government and al Qaeda providing safe haven, and Hezbollah receiving the right to veto decisions of the Lebanese government. In other words, all that power gathered in the hands of one person and we're less safe. So if they're not making us safer, what are they using that power for?

The next president faces a tremendous challenge beyond Iraq. This administration has changed rules within agencies, functions of agencies, replaced professional bureaucrats with political hacks, all while obscuring their trail by not recording their actions, altering the record, or destroying the record. If the next president is smart he will take office with the perspective that the Bush administration was deliberately malevolent and will work to undue every rule change, re-fund every agency, and find every political hack, otherwise the government will never function effectively again.

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