My vote goes to the eight years lost in addressing human contribution to global climate change (on top of the eight lost years lost before that), even though this is the only area in which Bush has firmly rejected unilateral action by the United States and insisted on "international co-operation".

I would go with illegal immigration. By far the worst problem for our country in the long term. As for "loss of civil liberties", can anyone tell me one thing they lost? Because I cant think of any I lost...

Immigration, legal or otherwise, seems like an artificial problem at most. We have a common market for free movement of goods, capital and intellectual property among Canada, Mexico and the United States. In that context, at least, restrictions on the movement of labor and people are arbitrary. Moreover, the labor of illegal immigrants in the U.S. sustains our economy.

can anyone tell me one thing they lost?

Privacy.

Jon, Um the right to check out library books without the government starting a file on me, the right to communicate without government snooping, and the right to NOT be confined by the government without charges...
Those are just a few that come to mind right away. And if your argument is that these cases dont' apply to you or me, you have more trust in the government than you should.

I think our concentration prison camp in Cuba is the nicest touch of the Cheney regime.

But trashing morale at the Justice Department is right up there.

I agree with Allan; failing to deal with global warming is definitely going to have the biggest and longest lasting impacts on us all.

As for civil liberties lost, let's not forget the late, great first amendment. "Free speech zones" are NOT free speech.

It would be great if it were only the morale at the Justice Department that had been trashed. Policy and personnel changes, coupled with the responses to efforts by the Congress's to investigate, make it clear that, to a flawlessly cynical administration, Justice has value only in the service of furthering the Republican party's political goals. I think it will be some time before the US Department of Justice regains its needed stature in the eyes of the public or of the courts.

The unitary executive and all its far-reaching effects. That is, the erosion of constitutional democracy. With the left so splintered in this country and the "opposition" party more interested in corporate donors than human constituents, we may never recover what we've lost under Bush.

It's hard to imagine the Democratic party fighting to regain what they consciously acquiesced to Bush.

Boy, that's a tough one.

can anyone tell me one thing they lost?

thousands of my fellow Americans dead in Iraq.

thousands more grossly deformed for life.

thousands of dollars of my own tax money to finance the war and give oil companies stunning record profits.

all faith in the two-party system.

my privacy.

All politicians are crooked, why focus on Bush? Because he is a republican? The only difference between a democrat and republican is their method of acquiring[stealing] wealth-

With that said, I think the immigration problem is by far the worse thing going for W.. but I doubt any politician in his place would have the backbone to do something about it.

Thousands upon thousands of dead and maimed soldiers and civilieans, the middle east on a fuse, the polar ice caps melting, the federal deficit out of control, the justice system in shambles, obstruction of justice rampant in the white house, civil liberties gone, concentration camps, torture, corruption in defense procurement, ports and chemical factories and nuclear power plants and aircraft utterly exposed to terrorist threats, and the worst thing folks here can think of is a few Hispanics who have managed to slip across the border. Unbeflippinglievable.

I don't blame Bush for the polar ice cap thing. He's not making it any better, but that problem started long, long ago. It's probably FDR's fault.

*cough*impeachment*cough*

It's funny that people really believe the party that continues to sign blank checks for Bush would actually impeach him.

Of course he's impeachable. But you have to have an opposition party on hand to do that.

I vote for all of the above.

I don't "really believe the party that continues to sign blank checks for Bush would actually impeach him."
They're all equally responsible for what's going on. We've witnessed scandal after scandal (much more serious than a sex-related scandal almost a decade ago) on top of human rights violations, the war, and a myriad of other domestic problems rage on while our representatives are basically involved in a big circle jerk. It stopped being a goverment "of the people" a while ago.

Jon, Brandon Mayfield was just a regular citizen like us. The government invaded his house, tapped his phones and put him through hell all due to the Patriot Act. That's a loss we all share.

Even since then, we learn that the FBI has seriously misused their new powers. That's a loss we all share as well.

Other.

Bush has NOT "messed up" anything; he has perfectly executed his game plan -- to 'make of mess' of things.

Goo-dummit, chumps, reFRAME the rearview question; for example: What character fault in action, manifest to see in Bush and others, creates the LONGEST lasting debility, in any and every 'area' of humankind affairs it goes into?

It is: Self-identity privilege, (and private), unmerited or ungranted by the common opinion of others. When most people say you deserve a privilege, then you deserve privilege of them. When you alone say you are, inherently, possessed of a privilege not theirs, then you are not, and self-privilege is a character fault.

Our privileges are granted from others. Such awareness, such perspective, such respect, is fundamental and eternal (in human nature). We are to learn character judgment which can 'sense' and 'know' when fault is there, uninspectable and invisible as a motive, behind affairs. What is visible of it, that which we can see of its surfacing, are the manifest areas in affairs it messes up.

For instances, a list:
Jesus said a rich man cannot get into heaven, saying 'rich' is not privileged of everlasting life. The privilege of everlasting life is granted by others, all who memorize and learn of you. endlessly.

LIARS Liarson said he has celebrity privilege to enstate or void laws, saying to broadcast his (witless) thought and denying to broadcast others' (witness) thought. The privilege of celebrity is granted by others, who in the majority judge a person's behavior of merit to be copied.

Bush said he has dictator privilege and can make dictatorship good, saying he has privilege of "uniter," saying he has privilege of "decider." A majority of us already have heard, seen, witnessed those quotes.

What few have recognized is Bush self-proclaiming, by virtue of birth and breeding, privilege of superior racial genetics (white Anglo-Saxon) and superior spirit, (God). In such, the bounty and resources of Earth are his privilege to consume and sustain, first, and his leftovers are others' (races and spirits) to fight over, last, for food and survival.

Bush self-proclaims oil and gold, and more the Earth holds in its formation, is his privilege to sell and convey to others. or not. Earth lacks resources enough for the majority of persons to live the lifestyle Bush says he is privileged to live, and quickly to desecrate and massacre a majority of humankind, until the minority who remain live in his privilege, per capita, by divided share available in Earth's resources limit.

The people of all countries cannot live as grandly as we, the people, living it up in the US. The math doesn't work out -- Earth's sustaining resource limit divided by humankind population. Therefor, in parity, either US must reduce consumption, or more than half the human hands in the world must be chopped off.

As the Earth's resources limit is finite, either fewer per person (yet sufficient), or fewer persons (yet extravagant), are the only two variables of volition. Bush and the misanthropic, supremacist character fault, designs mass-murdering others instead of designing self-identity in humble modesty.

It may be unseen in public, however it is easy to figure out (there are only two variables), behind the scenes which are seen. Thus, supremacist liars make secret the limits of resources, and make public a false-illusion Earth as limitless, as undebilitated by human population waste.

Reading material in the topic goes further HERE.

Please live well in Blog University, where large questions, (Worst? of the Worst?), earn large answers and learn:
Character is destiny.
Benefic character is benefic destiny.
Malefic character is malefic destiny.

Those who think their self-identity matches Bush's character, are the ones not thinking to impeach him into incarceration. A majority of we, the people, are the judge of that.

Postscript, here's afterthought for Bush's 'US immigration mess,' voiced in many comments. Semi-supremacists proclaim Americans are better privileged from the rest of humankind, and with American self-identity then each obtains that privilege, as well. These semi-supremacists endow Bush in it, and expect in reciprocation he endows them. He doesn't, and SupremeRacists don't. You can figure if Bush thought Americans have life better than Mexicans can have, then Bush means to stop immigration. He said he doesn't. So, in his actions, you can figure behind it is SupremeRacism thought which, in Bush, demeans privilege for both, equally (zero), as established Americans and current immigrants.

Bush as readily mass-murders 'fellow' nationals, (Americans), as he does 'aliens,' foreigners, immigrants. He disregards the loss of air, water, land, and humankind on Earth, and expects what remains is (enough) for the life of him and his race, family, bloodline. ('Ethnic cleansing,' or), 'Mass-murder' is the ill-charactered 'eugenics' sociopathology of Supremacists, and Bush got it from his dad (and mom), and he got it from his dad, who got and consolidated it in the era 'eugenics' was taught and practiced in thought of self, (1880 - 1940, say). The messed up areas suffering Bush's self-privileged, divine-right, destructiveness of humankind's planet Earth, lasting longest in the future are effects, as Jack points out, "started long, long ago."

"That's a loss we all share."
Oh the pain. What nonsense. Furthermore if you looked into the Brandon issue you'd know how justified the accusation and investigation was. Turned out to be the wrong guy but even his own lawyer bleieve the finger prints to be his clint's.
We also haven't lost any privacy or Habius Corpus. Gewt over your hysteria.

Iraq? Yet to be ddtermined.

Not working for peace between Israel and Palestine? What, there's no lasting peace there? Didn't Clinton fix that?

The budget deficits? Yaaaaaawn.

Torture of prisoners? Did Bush really?

Loss of U.S. civil liberties? Never happened, couldn't happen. Relax, no one is coming for you.

Illegal immigration? Hardly a Bush matter but he is wrong wiht the current refrom.

Handing the Democrats the House, Senate, and Presidency in 2008? He has contributed mightily to this.

Anyone thinking Global Warming might as well be thinking Bush knew about 911. The building mountain of contradicting science has the global warming crowd all messed up. After claiming the debate over humans causing it was over they look pretty stupid now that their science is so much bunk.

Bush real failures
NCLB expanding feds in ed
Runaway spending W/O vetoes
No SS reform/partial privatization
Prescription drug coverage W/O means testing.
Politicized war tactics in Iraq
Illegal immigration advocate

Makes me sick to my stomach to try and decide what will be the worst long term issues to come from out of this administation. The possibilities go on and on......my vote would be loss of respect from the rest of the civilized world, they must wonder whether it is all Americans or just chimp and crew.

This one's for pawns, Jon and Don. Scott Ritter: Calling Out Idiot America, but seeing it's so obvious that you hardly write, reading is unlikely to work for you.

For all, the Worst effect: A Culture of Atrocity. The recent work of Pulitzer holder, Chris Hedges, saying:

The moral universe is turned upside down.

The veterans who return, even if they do not speak about the atrocities they have committed or witnessed in Iraq, will spend the rest of their lives coping with what they have done. ... The God they knew, or thought they knew, failed them. The high priests of our civic religion, from politicians to preachers to television pundits, who promised them glory and honor through war betrayed them.

... our demented civic religion, our love of power and force, our belief in our right as a chosen nation to wield this force against the weak. This is our nation’s idolatry of itself.

The Bush administration isn't done giving us options yet. It is an incomplete list, and we are certain to have more to select from soon.

Privacy.

Sorry, Im not seeing it.

Brandon Mayfield was just a regular citizen like us. The government invaded his house, tapped his phones and put him through hell all due to the Patriot Act. That's a loss we all share.

He wasnt indicted...the system WORKED.
People are picked up and accused of crap all the time. They are not all guilty, right? And the PATRIOT Act...you realize all those "laws" were already on paper for dealing with drug dealers right? How come nobody bitched until "terrorist" was added to the wording?

Oh, and IMPEACH? OMG, are you nuts? Then Cheney would be President! Lets stick with the dope we have for 18 more months, ok? (Of course, I am truly afraid of the current crop of retards currently running for President..that includes both parties.)

This one's for pawns, Jon and Don. Scott Ritter: Calling Out Idiot America, but seeing it's so obvious that you hardly write, reading is unlikely to work for you.

Sorry if I wasnt responding fast enough for you, I have a job. Then I was busy having a life outside the blogosphere.

That was 2 million of your false-arrest tax-dollars paid to Mayfield.

You better have a job.

I think we will live with the consequences of the war in Iraq for many years to come.

But I don't think we should underestimate the long-term damage of the Bush administration's botched response to Hurricane Katrina. Construction rolls on - but it will be generations before the people of New Orleans (and indeed the country) can move past the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual costs of that terrible event.

In terms of lasting harm, here's one that is up there: Supreme Court Appoinments. With Alito and Roberts confirmed, the Court now has a majority of conservative, Roman Catholic men, and the consequences are already clear and unsurprising.