During the February 3rd segment of the Abrams Report on MSNBC, part of the discussion focused on President Bush's surprising and vocal support for DNA evidence funding during the State of the Union address. Abrams and his guests seemed mystified as to why President Bush, a man who presided over more executions than any other […]

From the perspective of public policy and narrative, President Bush's 2005 State of the Union Address brought few surprises. But for sheer chutzpah, President Bush reached new heights. 1. The Social Security Shell Game As expected, Bush focused on Social Security privatization. Also as expected, he continued the selective use of numbers to create the […]

Once in a rare while, tectonic historical change occurs with the span of only few days. The dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall heralding the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, was one of those watershed moments. And for many Americans, the events of the last 10 days of January, with the Rice confirmation, the […]

With President Bush and the GOP launching an all-out campaign for their misguided Social Security privatization plan, Perrspectives has assembled a library of resources to help you evaluate the pluses and (endless) minuses of the Bush proposal. The Perrspectives Social Security Document Library includes the Republicans' cynical game plan, the Trustees' 2004 Report, the 2001 […]

Among the many sub-plots to watch for in Wednesday's State of the Union address will be President Bush's appropriation of the words "freedom" and "liberty" for his agenda and the GOP. As we've written before, the Republicans have dominated American policy debates through their manipulation and control of language. Whether through message discipline or superior […]

With President Bush's 2005 State of the Union approaching, my 2004 SOTU-eve critique of Bush's so-called Ownership Society still stands. State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and […]

In the aftermath of President Bush' second inauguration, there is a widespread consensus that taken literally, his address would commit the United States to a global campaign of democratic proselytization. American friends and foes, puppets and pawns, the wistful and the wary, all are understandably concerned. Before starting a panic over the President's apparent Wilsonian […]

To commemorate the Second Inauguration of President George W. Bush, Perrspectives is pleased to announce the winners of the "Name That Bush Scandal" Contest which concluded at noon EST, January 20, 2005. Perrspectives received entries from all over the United States (and the world, for that matter). We'd like to thank everyone who participated for […]

Only days after the Armstrong Williams paid-for-pundit debacle, President Bush used his January 12 "town hall meeting" to once again reach out to African-Americans. this time on his Social Security privatization plan. With a hand-picked audience of supporters present on stage and in the Washington DC audience, Bush was on the top of his game: […]

As we previously discussed in "The Party of Choice", the Bush Social Security privatization is only loosely concerned about increasing market returns for retirement savings, providing greater freedom to American investors or even staving off a supposed funding crisis. Win or lose, the Bush plan seeks nothing less than to dramatically redefine the role of […]