Clear skies this early Tuesday on California’s north coast — the moon a white light in the western sky.
Weather that’s true or not, who’s to say?

Indeed, as the dust settles a bit off last week’s string of shit, and President Obama did the right thing yesterday in putting young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on trial in civilian court, the history of the US the last 10 to 12 years has not been pretty and the horror of it will be put on display this week — a recent past skewered by lies.

On Thursday a criminal crawls out from under a Dallas rock in the midst of an apparent wave of self-imposed collective amnesia — one of the great and terrible assholes of the age will once again be center of attention.

(Illustration found here).

In lieu of recent events, how could anyone pay attention/care to this:

Former president George W. Bush says his new presidential library is “a place to lay out facts,” not a forum to explain policies such as the war with Iraq or his administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
“There’s no need to defend myself,” Bush said in a phone interview with USA TODAY.
“I did what I did and ultimately history will judge.”
…
The Iraq War, the 2007 troop surge there, the 2008 financial meltdown and the response to Katrina in 2005 are featured in an interactive exhibit called “decision points theater” where visitors can assess “the decisions that I had to make and the recommendations I received,” he says.
When people try to debate him on decisions he made while in office, Bush says, he suggests that they read his 2010 memoir, Decision Points.
“Get a sense of what I did and if you still disagree, I understand,” he says he tells them.

If George Jr. would have done his shit in some age ages past, he might have faced a firing squad, or at the least, spend some time peeking out from a jail cell. In looking at George Jr. and how he functions, one can get a sense that the US is way-on the back-side of a down-hill slide into shitville. Nowadays, life is so chaotic, so filled with trauma that people really don’t seem to remember the asshole who aided/abetted the whole process.
Time heals wounds, or history judges easily:

Days before his second term ended in 2009, Bush’s approval rating among all adults was 33 percent positive and 66 percent negative.
The new poll found 47 percent saying they approve and 50 percent saying they disapprove.
Among registered voters, his approval rating today is equal to President Obama’s, at 47 percent, according to the latest Post-ABC surveys.

And the little shit enjoys the good. A blow-hard-puff-piece in the Atlantic:

His lifestyle is beyond comfortable — corporate jets and hefty six-figure speeches as often as he chooses; weekly golf rounds at Brookhollow Country Club (despite a back still healing from disc surgery); the ham and cheese souffle at Rise, an Inwood Village bistro; hunting and fishing expeditions, and ministering to wounded U.S. warriors and AIDS victims in Africa.
His second career as a self-styled “beginner painter” has become an unexpected passion: he paints upstairs at his North Dallas home and keeps another easel busy at his Crawford ranch near Waco, exhibiting a discipline surprising even his closest pals.
Friends say he’s getting better, beginning to master the intricacies of composition with regular visits by an accomplished local artist.
“I’m done with politics but I’m not done with life and I’ve got a real good life,” he recently reminded a political ally, not for the first time.
“He’s very content, and his new granddaughter is the exclamation point,” echoed Brad Freeman, one of his closest friends, referring to Margaret Laura “Mila” Hager, born in New York City April 13.
He’s enjoying the hell out of life, ” a close friend told National Journal.
“He’s his loosey-goosey self again, the way he used to be.”
Various confidants describe 43 as “mellow,” “serene” and “tranquil,” happy with his self-imposed exile from the political grind he never really liked and ecstatic with his new life below the radar.
“You have no idea how relieved he is to be out of the game,” one of his oldest friends said.
“He doesn’t miss politics even a little.”

And a little “loosey-goosey” like this.

Despite what this guy did.
Even our own government drew a terrible accounting — five years ago next month the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report that should have required a court date for all involved:

“Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced.
Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said.
“In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent.
As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”
“It is my belief that the Bush Administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by al Qa’ida as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
To accomplish this, top Administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and al Qa’ida as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11.
Sadly, the Bush Administration led the nation into war under false pretenses.
“There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence.
But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.

And just last week, the event weighted down by the horror in Boston, an independent, bi-partisan committee released a report that stated in the clearest of terms, George Jr.and his lackeys okayed the use of torture in trying to fight the massive Global War on Terror — “It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.”
More via the LA Times:

As a result of the Bush administration’s greenlighting of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the report says, “U.S. forces, in many instances, used interrogation techniques on detainees that constitute torture. American personnel conducted an even larger number of interrogations that involved ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’ treatment.”
But “there is no firm or persuasive evidence that the widespread use of harsh interrogation techniques by U.S. forces produced significant information of value.
There is substantial evidence that much of the information adduced … was not useful or reliable,” the report says.

So on Thursday, Obama will be joined by George Jr.’s daddy, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for the dedication of the little-Bush library – President Benson should take control of shoveling the shit.