The George Bush Legacy

[rayboyusmc]

The presidency of George W. Bush has been a reckless joy ride in a stolen car.

My intent was to write a requiem for it a few months from now, but by then, I fear, no one will be interested. Even the lawmakers on Capitol Hill listening to Mr. Bush's State of the Union address treated it as a last chance to get an autograph.

Mr. Bush was unconcerned, even lighthearted. Never linguistically ambitious, he seemed to care little about his own speech — a pedestrian stringing-together of unimaginative prose. With a sigh of relief, pundits described the speech as "last" and "final," as if bursting to shout: That's all, folks! Indeed, the world we live in shifts faster than human intelligence can grasp, so legacy is a tough call even for our best leaders. Judgments are formed as events unfold, and verdicts come in while proceedings are in motion. In President Bush's case, yesterday is already yesteryear — except for the damage inflicted on the American people.

In a democracy so impeccably crafted by our Founding Fathers, no leader should willfully take the nation into an unnecessary war and expect to be redeemed by contemporaries or descendants. With every soldier who dies, the Bush legacy shifts into reverse.

These days, as we watch the two men and a woman clawing their way to the Oval Office, we must hope that somewhere in their souls is enough humility to propel them — and us — to greatness. Though Mr. Bush claims to be guided by his Christian faith, one can detect only smugness in the way he handled the lives of millions entrusted to him by the power of his office.

It is preposterous to surmise that the United States, established only 231 years ago, would attempt to teach Mesopotamia how to build a free nation. Remember: Iraq's ancestors invented script, canonized the Laws of Hamurabi, composed the poetry of Gilgamesh, and constructed the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. And we? After five years of being there, we haven't learned enough Arabic to tell a child: Take us to your sheik! Four thousand of our boys and girls are dead. Their average age is 20. We have more than 15,000 wounded. The estimates for post traumatic stress disorder and other grave mental impairments run to 100,000 and more, considering that more than a million soldiers have been rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan.

But he never perjured himself about a blow job. Of course he would never let them swear him or Cheney in either. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??????

http://tinyurl.com/2vkhg5

 

[CSM]

But he never perjured himself about a blow job. Of course he would never let them swear him or Cheney in either. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??????

http://tinyurl.com/2vkhg5

Got a case then bring it. Anything else is just pure flatulence.

 

[JimH52]

bush is a piece of dirt...

 

[Gunny]

But he never perjured himself about a blow job. Of course he would never let them swear him or Cheney in either. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??????

http://tinyurl.com/2vkhg5

Do you EVER get tired of posting left-wing extremist lies and rhetoric? You sound like a broken record.

 

[jillian]

Do you EVER get tired of posting left-wing extremist lies and rhetoric? You sound like a broken record.

Actually, what he said was the truth. When called to testify before the 9/11 commission, Bush and Cheney insisted on being called together, doing it in private, without taking any oath and with no transcript.

So, er... correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing a lie there. I did get this lovely image in my head at the time of Bush sitting on Cheney's lap with Cheney moving his lips for him. ;o)

 

[Paulie]

Actually, what he said was the truth. When called to testify before the 9/11 commission, Bush and Cheney insisted on being called together, doing it in private, without taking any oath and with no transcript.

Why do you think that was?

 

[jillian]

Because they're screw ups and Bush was incompetant. And their partisan BS made them and their staffers refuse to be briefed on OBL or do even the slightest follow up when they got into office or even after they got the PDB of 8/6/01

 

[Paulie]

And their partisan BS made them and their staffers refuse to be briefed on OBL or do even the slightest follow up when they got into office or even after they got the PDB of 8/6/01

I'm not a Bush fan, and definitely not a Cheney fan, but could you provide some kind of info that shows it to be "partisan BS" that kept them from securing the country against an obvious threat?

 

[jillian]

I'm not a Bush fan, and definitely not a Cheney fan, but could you provide some kind of info that shows it to be "partisan BS" that kept them from securing the country against an obvious threat?

EARLY 2001 – WHITE HOUSE DEPARTS FROM EFFORTS TO TRACK TERRORIST MONEY: The new Bush Treasury Department "disapproved of the Clinton Administration's approach to money laundering issues, which had been an important part of the drive to cut off the money flow to bin Laden." Specifically, the Bush Administration opposed Clinton Administration-backed efforts by the G-7 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that targeted countries with "loose banking regulations" being abused by terrorist financiers. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration provided "no funding for the new National Terrorist Asset Tracking Center." [Source: The Age of Sacred Terror, 2003]

APRIL 30, 2001 - BUSH ADMINISTRATION SAYS BIN LADEN FOCUS WAS "MISTAKE": The Bush Administration released the government's annual report on terrorism, but unlike previous Administrations, it decided to specifically omit an "extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. A senior State Department official told CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden." Similarly, AP reported in 2002 that the Bush Administration's "national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions." [Source: CNN, 4/30/01; AP, 6/29/01]

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b43926.html

Clinton did leave an anti-terror strategy, put together by Clarke and his staff in apaper entitled "Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al Qida: Status and Prospects." It was completed just as Clinton's time as President was coming to a close. (p. 197) It was conveyed to the incoming Bush Administration in January 2001. (p. 201)

It's certainly plausible to say that Clarke was "the best guy in the country" on al Qaeda, although a word like "best" is almost always a matter of opinion. There's no denying that he was extremely well-versed on the subject, and many of his warnings proved prescient. And Clarke was demoted, in effect, by Rice (see above).

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2006/osama_bin_missing_whos_tried_hardest_to.html

RC: Well let me ask you: Contrast December '99 with June and July and August 2001. In December '99 we get similar kinds of evidence that al-Qaida was planning a similar kind of attack. President Clinton asks the national security advisor to hold daily meetings with attorney-general, the CIA, FBI. They go back to their departments from the White House and shake the departments out to the field offices to find out everything they can find. It becomes the number one priority of those agencies. When the head of the FBI and CIA have to go to the White House every day, things happen and by the way, we prevented the attack. Contrast that with June, July, August 2001 when the president is being briefed virtually every day in his morning intelligence briefing that something is about to happen, and he never chairs a meeting and he never asks Condi rice to chair a meeting about what we're doing about stopping the attacks. She didn't hold one meeting during all those three months. Now, it turns out that buried in the FBI and CIA, there was information about two of these al-Qaida terrorists who turned out to be hijackers [Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi]. We didn't know that. The leadership of the FBI didn't know that, but if the leadership had to report on a daily basis to the White House, he would have shaken the trees and he would have found out those two guys were there. We would have put their pictures on the front page of every newspaper and we probably would have caught them. Now would that have stopped 9/11? I don't know. It would have stopped those two guys, and knowing the FBI the way they can take a thread and pull on it, they would probably have found others.

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/3991

 

[rayboyusmc]

Do you EVER get tired of posting left-wing extremist lies and rhetoric? You sound like a broken record

So do you, Gunny. Jeez, you push your agenda, I push mine. Why is it that so many right wingers think they hold the bible of truth and no one else does? When anyone disagrees with them, then you are "whining"

Clinton had to testify under oath and perjured himself.

Bush not only refused to testify under oath, he has stated that none of his staff will testify under oath either. That is no fukking left wing extremist bullshit. It's the truth and you know that.

That is the reason that the house just this week brought contempt charges against Bolton and Meirs. I only wish they had made it inherent contempt. Then they could have had both locked up now.

Please justify why Clinton had to testify under oath abouj a blow job but Bush doesn't over a war. Please tell me that he has nothing to hide.

 

[Detmurds]

I have stated this many times,....."when it is all said and done, we all will ask ourselves what ever happened to the good old days of GW Bush. ....WE ARE IN FOR SOME HELL!"

Love, Detmurds

 

[eots]

I have stated this many times,....."when it is all said and done, we all will ask ourselves what ever happened to the good old days of GW Bush. ....WE ARE IN FOR SOME HELL!"

Love, Detmurds

well that's true but its only because of the foundation laid with the first bush/Clinton era

the hell you speak of is only that unbroken chain of command and their
N.w o. agenda

 

[Detmurds]

well that's true but its only because of the foundation laid with the first bush/Clinton era

the hell you speak of is only that unbroken chain of command and their
N.w o. agenda

You know EOTS,...you are exactly right, and I sometimes forget that,...there is a pursuit for a New World Order and too many Americans are blind. Will there be a revolution, or Civil War?

 

[rayboyusmc]

I have stated this many times,....."when it is all said and done, we all will ask ourselves what ever happened to the good old days of GW Bush. ....WE ARE IN FOR SOME HELL!"

Only in a post apoclyiptic world.

The damage he has done to US and world will take decades to right.

 

[bush lover]

1) He kept us safe.
2) He attacked the Axis of Evil
3) He revived our economy after Clinton wrecked it with his socialist policies
4) Our stock market boomed, especially stocks in the energy, pharma, financial and defense sectors (I personally quadrupled my stock holdings thanks to our President and Vice President)
5) He has brilliantly laid out a strategy to drown the welfare state in the bathtub, because he has funded our War on Terror and there is no money for the socialist Dems to waste on welfare. Result: Deep cuts in the welfare.
6). He has re-established out rightful global presence through a network of more than 200 military bases in 122 countries - after the socialist Clinton nearly destroyed our military.
7) He took control of the schools from the socialists by putting in No Child Left Behind
8) He has rewarded the productive class with tax cuts that should be made permanent.
9) He has slashed the socialist regulatory burdens that hamper our businesses.
10). He has successfully put in long-overdue controls on phoning and emailing, so our government can find the Evil Doers.
11) He only failure was to give up the fight to end Socialist Security and replace it with private mutual funds.

 

[JeffWartman]

While it is very hard to predict what historians will say years from now, there are some indisputable facts with which we have to stew:

(1) The Bush presidency has been one of an exponential increase in government. This administration has been hostile to the ideas of limited government.

(2) The Bush presidency has been one of extreme hostility to the privacy rights of ordinary Americans.

(3) The Bush presidency has been one of the most divisive periods of our history. Whether the GOP or Dems are to blame is yet to be determined.

Notice there is one issue I did not mention: Iraq. On that issue, it's safe to say no one can predict how historians will view the Iraq war in 50 years. To claim that historians in 50 year will view Iraq either favorably or unfavorably is ignorant -- that's one issue which is TBD.

 

[LA RAM FAN]

well said.

 

[Taomon]

Got a case then bring it. Anything else is just pure flatulence.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2828699763450405659

All you need to see is the first 5 minutes of this video. Then research it further on your own.

The twin towers were struck by airplanes, there is no doubt about that. There is contention on their symmetrical collapse, but without the evidence that Rudy G hauled away and destroyed, we will never know.

But let's look at a little known and under-investigated phenomena...Tower 7. Why did that also collapse in perfect symmetry?

 

[midcan5]

The things I find most amazing about the Cheney/Bush administration is the level of secrecy within the administration and the failure of conservative MSM to investigate it with the same enthusiasm they investigated a blow job. It must say something about our moral ethos, but I'll leave it to the audience to decide.

The second thing I find astounding is the deficit and war and the actual voiced opinion (mostly by Bush) that it will be up to the next administration to solve these issues. This is flat out amazing. The Buck stops somewhere up the road.

There should be a slogan contest for this particular kind of thought pattern.
I offer these lines for our local poet.

Rob em and steal em
Katrina who cares
Deficit smeficit
war and death and fear
speeches and leeches
it's off to Texas i go
pockets full of loot
jeez i look good in blue jeans
mission sorta accomplished
you all take care now

 

[Taomon]

The things I find most amazing about the Cheney/Bush administration is the level of secrecy within the administration and the failure of conservative MSM to investigate it with the same enthusiasm they investigated a blow job. It must say something about our moral ethos, but I'll leave it to the audience to decide.

The second thing I find astounding is the deficit and war and the actual voiced opinion (mostly by Bush) that it will be up to the next administration to solve these issues. This is flat out amazing. The Buck stops somewhere up the road.

There should be a slogan contest for this particular kind of thought pattern.
I offer these lines for our local poet.

Rob em and steal em
Katrina who cares
Deficit smeficit
war and death and fear
speeches and leeches
it's off to Texas i go
pockets full of loot
jeez i look good in blue jeans
mission sorta accomplished
you all take care now

I watched this documentary on Link TV last night: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4467655342219448521

This is the answer to your questions. The media is consolidated now. Only 7 companies own all of the radio, newspapers, and television - which means, they control information.

There will never be an investigation until we can have a free press. We will never be free unless there is a free flow of information.