George W. Bush’s new memoir, Decision Points, is less a memoir than a testimony to true crime, which is where some U.S. activists, following the lead of British activists’ treatment of Tony Blair’s memoir, are encouraging booksellers to stock it. As Dan Froomkin’s excellent review of the facts-versus-the-lies demonstrates, Bush, whose ideological commitment—while no crime in itself—to spending money we didn’t have led to the crises still plaguing the U. S. and world economies, also, with malicious intent and considerable forethought, committed two easily documented crimes during the eight long years of his miserable presidency:

“… the two most essential lies -- among the many -- in his new memoir are that he had a legitimate reason to invade Iraq, and that he had a legitimate reason to torture detainees. Neither is remotely true. But Bush must figure that if he keeps making the case for himself -- particularly if it goes largely unrebutted by the traditional media, as it has thus far -- then perhaps he can blunt history's verdict.”

Yesterday was Sunday, a peaceful day of promised rest from the great gigamaflanks (yes, I made that word up) that define the usual politics of newsmaking the other six days of every week in 24/7 mediated America. But on Sunday, no. It is a day of rest. Attend services or go for a long walk. Maybe both. Make a proper pot roast, watch some NFL football. Think about whatever. Spend time with the family. Tinker with the furnace before winter arrives. But, alas, as is my nasty habit, I begin each and every day with large cup of black coffee and a perusal of several online news sources.

And so it was that my eyes were assaulted by a series of headlines about Sarah Palin and the 2012 presidential race. These headlines were not good signs. I read on. Surely some modicum of sanity would prevail among my favorite columnists and reporters?

Every morning I wake up to news reports that remind me that Walt Whitman was right: America is large enough “to contain contradictions.” I am not surprised to find that a recently elected Teapublican candidate Andy Harris who campaigned against healthcare reform now demands that it be supplied to him ahead of schedule, or that those newbies who said maintaining a strong national defense was a priority have suddenly fallen in line behind Mitch “our priority is to defeat Obama” McConnell and John Kyl in opposing the START treaty, which every expert from Colin Powell to Henry Kissinger to Robert Gates says is key to our future national security.

In an article about a video depicting a “liberal” astronomy professor at LSU “mocking” conservative students in class—a video inspired by a Virginia-based conservative “leadership” group called Campus Reform—the professor’s defense is that he was “challenging all of his students, liberal and conservative … and not chastising any of them for their beliefs.” The unedited video supports his claim.

In another article two other cases of students recording and publishing to the web segments of professor’s classes— at Cornell, another at the University of Central Florida—are characterized by Cary Nelson, president of the AAUP, as an example of the “misrepresentation of what has taken place in classrooms.” All three of these incidents also document the “gotcha” quality of these moments, college professors caught on video challenging beliefs about global warming or complaining about student yawns or about student cheating on exams, as if these “gotcha” moments truly represent the whole of the educational experience. Nelson concludes:

I opened the op-ed section of the NY Times this morning and saw the lead article “Pretty Good for Government Work” by the fabulously wealthy investment guru from Omaha, Mr. Warren Buffett. In this belated love letter, Mr. Buffett, commenting on the U. S. Government’s intervention to prevent a total economic meltdown observes:

“The challenge was huge, and many people thought you were not up to it. … Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered. People will second-guess your specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of war, there is a fog of panic — and, overall, your actions were remarkably effective.