Settle in for a long ‘un, kiddies.

Start here (h/t Ann Althouse):

Hey, according to the press, wars are challenging, serious and difficult to win. Funny how perceptions change when parties change in the White House, innit? Iraq suddenly looks different, too! Or…actually…maybe the same!

President Bush has declared Washington DC a state of emergency to help secure and pay for Obama’s inaugural. Most expensive inaugural ever. In a time of (if the left is to be believed) “unprecedented hardship and a depressed economy.” Imagine how they’d be screaming, right now, if McCain was spending half of what is being spent here. You know they would. They always do. Ungenerous natures cannot even allow a president his inaugural, if he is not of their party.

I say, go to it, Obama! Who knows what the next year will bring. Your inaugural is not going to bring down the nation’s economy. No one’s inaugural ever has or ever could, regardless of what the drama queens tell you.

Speaking of the nation’s economy: Bizzy Blog is saying, hate to say I told you so and James Pethokoukis says Big Media is (predictably) distorting Bush’s economic record. But, of course. Re-writing history is big business for them, these days:

Bush’s successes are destined to be overshadowed by the imploding housing and credit bubbles. They are the economic equivalents of IEDs, and they blew up at the end of his second term. The causes? Everything from Fed monetary policy to government housing policy to cultural dysfunction on Wall Street and Main Street. But as teenagers like to say, “Too bad, so sad.” Bush was president, and Big Media has already declared its summary judgment: Failure.

Reaching such a mistaken conclusion, though, requires an almost purposeful misreading of the past eight years… please, he’s no Hoover.

Read it all. And then try to remember that the caricatures are just caricatures, and that if you really are as smart as you think you are (if you really are as “liberal” as you think you are, and I mean that in the proper sense) then you can see past them.

This is a man who endured countless savage attacks on himself and those of his administration, and spoke not one bitter word in return. A man who, in stark contrast to his predecessor, cared not a whit about public opinion when it came to our national defense, trusting instead that future historians will do what their current counterparts refuse; to treat him fairly.

So this is the message to our liberal friends in the media: you didn’t beat this president, he beat you. You and your allies in Washington failed time and again to take this good man down. Indeed, he was elected and re-elected despite your historic efforts to the contrary.

And this is his legacy: that this man did precisely what the President of the United States is sworn to do. He and the troops who fought so bravely under him for eight long years have defended this still-great country of ours against one of the most pernicious enemies mankind has ever seen, and equally important, he kept alive the idea that America is and can still be, a force for good in the world.

Interesting thought. Because the left never owned George W. Bush, they also never defeated him. Reminds me of Buster and the Gift Freely Given.

The other reason I never begrudge a president his inaugural is because once the party is over, he has a heavy duty before him. Bill Clinton may have partied through his “vacation from history” presidency, but the bill for that came due pretty quickly in 2001, and Obama will not have it as easy.

For one thing, regardless of the myth that “the world hates America because of Bush and will now lover us again, thanks to Obama” the truth is Bush – who did start off rocky with “Old Europe” has maintained good relationships with both “Old” and “New” Europe, most of Asia, with Canada, with Australia…in fact, America gets along with all but the tyrant-run nations, these days, so the “kumbaya” does not quite start on Obama’s watch.

Nevertheless, it bears remembering that every American president since Jimmy Carter has been hated, vilified, burned-in-effigy and named “Satan” – and Obama is not being excluded from that hate, as we see below.

Obama gets the Traditional Presidential Treatment

Yep as noble as shoe-throwing. And business as usual.

Kumbaya my ass. You might want to save these pictures since the mainstream media seems to have scrubbed them from the internet. They don’t fit with their narrative, you see. Everyone loves us now that a Democrat is back in the White House, and any residual hate you see is still Bush’s fault, as it has been since 1976.

And no wonder the press hates the internets.

Afghani Girls: Putting their lives at risk to go to school. We’re allowed to care about the plight of Middle Eastern Women, again, now that President Bush is leaving office. Nobody cared much in the last 8 years because that might have implied approval-of-Bush, or something.

Jay Ambrose: Big lies about George W. Bush, but the truth will out, or perhaps it won’t. As I’ve said before, the truth will make a lot of people uncomfortable.

Jules Crittenden: About that torture thing.

Michelle Obama: Her hospital will not be replacing her important 300K a year job. Just saying.

A prospective Treasury Secretary who has not paid his taxes? I love it. Bring him on, slap him down next to Joe the Plumber. You can’t make this stuff up, even on 7 cups of coffee!

Drinking 7 cups of coffee will give you hallucinations? Well, as much as I concur with Crescat that Mystic Monk Coffee is like liquid crack that you can’t stop drinking, I’ve never had 7 cups in a day, so I couldn’t tell. But I’d bet that if you’re doing 7 cups a day of the Hermits Bold Blend your hallucinations will be monastically serene ones!

Thomas Donnelly looks at Bush’s strengths and weaknesses as CIC. It is significant that his troops love him. But what’s going on at the War College?

Hillary is going to be rubber-stamped as SecState and Hitchens would rather not see it.

How easy is it to insult some people? Well, since they’re looking for reasons to be insulted, it’s pretty easy.

I just sent this Camille Paglia piece to Buster at school and told him he must make her part of his regular reading, thanks to her wide-open mind and her viper of a pen. See her remarks about K. Couric, S. Palin, the Fairness Doctrine and more, plus: “Until I see stronger evidence, I will continue to believe that climate change is primarily driven by solar phenomena and that it is normal for the earth to pass through major cooling and warming phases.” Boo-rah, Paglia! Enjoy.

More on that hoo-hah, here. And here. And here. Oh, the humanity!

The Clergy Shortage: It’s not just for Catholics, anymore.

Divinity and Decay: Fascinating theater production

Says the Bishop: How aggressively Christian of us!

Universal Health Care in Massachusetts: It’s not working. It’s expensive and umm…it still ain’t universal.

What’s Wrong with Hollywood? Oh, come on, this is easy. They never got past 1972. And they’re all 14 years old. And they’re helping to create a nation of 14 year olds. Like these. Eureka, I have found them. The stupidest people on earth!

Is Europe “re-importing Jew hatred”? I’d say it was already here. Yes, more 14 year-olds. And others. But everything is always George Bush Israel’s fault.

Ten Great Books You Should Never Have to Read: I could offer more suggestions, but I can’t be arsed.

Labradoodle Not bad, but I believe a president should have a border collie. Smartest doggies ever.

MUST I go back to writing about vaginas? Whatever. I see the awards are over. Sincere congrats to driftglass.

Late to but worth reading:
Ann Althouse on David Gregory’s unspectacular takeover of MTP. He doesn’t ask questions because it all seems groovy to him, I think.

GM Roper: Today I am a Jew. I say Remember Daniel Pearl. Remember who we’re dealing with, here. These are the original “you love Pepsi, we love death folks.

President Bush’s Last Presser. Watch it all here. Transcript is here

Deacon Greg: On Fr. Neuhaus’ Funeral

Ed Morrissey on why the bailout will kill business.

Can you be Catholic and Conservative without Contradiction?. Sure. You can be liberal and be Catholic without contradiction, too. That’s the beauty of Catholicism. You can be Catholic and still hold many positions that some will tell you you cannot hold. In then end you have to answer for them all, though. Just like everyone else. So choose wisely!

Jesus is my facebook friend.