Is It Over Yet?

We're so close, and yet still so far away. According to the fine folks at this website, the Bush administration is 94.18% over as of today.

This is both encouraging and nauseating. After all of the horrible damage these people have done to our country, it should be great to hear that they have just over 5% of their time left. You'd think we'd be rejoicing in the light at the end of the tunnel.

I can't though. I just can't. First and foremost, although it doesn't seem like much, they still have A LOT of time to do even more damage. Just this week, they're implementing new rules at Labor that will make it more difficult for employees to make claims about being poisoned by their employers (which is about all the department has done in the past seven-plus years). They're still threatening to attack Iran. They're still stonewalling legitimate congressional investigations by ignoring subpoenas, for which ordinary folks like you and me would be in jail. They're still ignoring global warming and, just as importantly, the pollution that causes it. I just don't have the energy to even attempt a comprehensive list.

Even if they left today, it would take us years to dig out of the mess we're in on many many fronts. I couldn't possibly list all of the areas in which they've created horrible problems for us. We could spend the next four years doing nothing but investigating the crimes that these people have committed in almost every conceivable area of government. And it would be time well spent, in my opinion.

But we also have to start with the digging. And even then, our hands will be tied by the fine folks that have been appointed to the federal benches and to career government positions by these crooks. Alito, 58, and Roberts, 53, aren't going anywhere for decades. Not to mention all of the lower court judges that nobody knows anything about. And I'm sure I'm not the only one holding his breath that John Paul Stevens, 88(!), doesn't kick the bucket in the next 5 months.

And is everyone ready for the blanket pardons that will be going out to all of the liars, torturers, warmongers, war profiteers, influence peddlers, polluters and other assorted cretins come January?

Almost over? In a way. But in other more important ways, we're just getting started. We can't make any progress when we have to spend so much time and energy just getting back to Square 1, if that's even possible. It's a long road ahead and I'm having a hard time facing it with any kind of optimism.