By James Donahue

With all the political bantering between presidential candidates dominating the news preceding a national election now only weeks away, it is easy to forget that the most incompetent president in history still remains in office and is still capable of further bungling between now and the day he goes away.

Contrary to what may be general opinion, President George W. Bush has not been spending his time resting on his laurels or playing cowboy at his fake ranch in Texas. He and his staff are still actively doing as much damage as possible before his term expires in January. For example, this administration is responsible for creating that $750 billion “bail-out” plan to pump fantastic amounts of money into America’s corrupt and crashing mortgage and banking system, thus compounding the damage already caused by a seriously flawed national economic policy.

And yes, the majority of both the House and Senate went along with the package after making some hasty changes. The whole mess got dumped in their lap just days before they were scheduled to recess so they could go home and campaign for re-election against candidates working hard to bump them out of their jobs. You know they didn’t spend the time they should have to deal with legislation as important as this bill appeared to be. That didn’t happen by accident.

So in one quick move by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, utilizing that well tested mixture of fear of impending disaster due to unexpected crisis at a moment when elected legislators did not have the time or the inclination to deal with it, the Bush Administration succeeded in nationalizing America’s banking and mortgage lending systems.

If you remember, they did the same thing when they pushed through the Patriot Act that stripped most Americans of their Constitutional rights in the weeks after the 9-11 attacks. Bush has used the power of executive order to unravel much of the work of previous administrations to protect national forests and parks from loggers, road construction and oil and gas well drilling and strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to enforce controls on air, land and water pollutants by industry. He launched two wars in the Middle East in his so-called “war on terrorism,” then used the excuse of being a president of a nation at war to hide behind a cloak of secrecy during Congressional investigations of alleged wrongdoing relating to torture of prisoners of war and other suspicious activities.

Throughout his eight years of power, President Bush has alienated the United States from most other nations of the world. Now we look with horror at his plan to host a conference of “world leaders” to discuss solutions to the global financial crisis                             

European Commission President Jose’ Manual Barroso, who was attending a meeting at Camp David last week with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, suggested that the  conference may lead to extreme changes in the way the world deals with financial matters. “We need a new global financial order,” Barroso  said.

Remember that it was George Bush’s father, former President George H. W. Bush and former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, who coined the phrase “New World Order” at the end of the cold war. They appeared to be talking about a new spirit of global cooperation but some believe the phrase is a code word for a one-world socialist government.

As our world becomes more populated and polluted, and vital resources like oil, water, lumber, farmland and fish grow scarce, tensions between governments are on the rise. Terrorism is only a part of this international unrest. More and more nations have gained access to nuclear technology and the world grows closer to self annihilation with each passing year. Thus it stands to reason that some kind of mutual cooperation is desperately needed. The concept of a one-world government that functions in a socialist system, rather than capitalistic one, certainly is on the mind of many world leaders.

There is disagreement among nations that prefer the capitalistic system. Unfortunately, the introduction of world trade agreements has opened the door to the exploitation of poor in undeveloped countries by big business interests, thus turning the capitalistic system into a twisted form of slavery. Consequently, interest in forcing a sharing of the wealth, through a socialist system, is gaining popularity.

If there is going to be a world conference to discuss such strategies and if it is hosted by the United States, it would be best to wait until Americans have a chance to choose new leadership. Mr. Bush has shown time and time again that his administration is in bed with and obviously financed by people interested in maintaining the capitalistic system. Who might think we could trust him to become a leader in a world move toward a global enterprise of such magnitude without making a colossal blunder of such magnitude, its effects will haunt us all for years.