Tag Archive for 'George W. Bush'
As everyone here probably knows already, I’m a huge Obama fan but I eagerly await the end of Bush’s term if only because I know that either candidate, even as dead-set as McCain appears to be to continue Bush’s policies in substantive areas, can’t help but bring more competance to the management of the executive branch. It seems like every day we’re reminded of how thoroughly botched every facet of this Administration has been and today’s no exception as the NYTimes reports on the mismanagement of the Justice Department under Gonzales:
Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility, an internal report concluded on Monday.
A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics, and a much-less-experienced lawyer with Republican leanings got the job, the report said.
Another prosecutor was rejected for a job in part because she was thought to be a lesbian. And a Republican lawyer received high marks at his job interview because he was found to be sufficiently conservative on the core issues of “god, guns + gays.”
Wow, makes me feel like I’m in good hands!
I’m always timid saying things like this because extreme statements are usually sanctuaries for the ignorant and idiotic, but I really believe that Bush will go down as one of the top 5 worst Presidents of all time…
My Dearest President;
Maybe the long hours and stress of your job have finally caught up, but just for your edification, it was your party that killed the immigration bill. In both the Senate, and in the House.
“House Republicans yesterday unveiled a resolution expressing their disapproval of the Senate immigration bill. It was offered by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), and simply read: “resolved the House GOP Conference disapproves of the Senate immigration bill.”…His resolution passed the House Republican Conference by a large margin, despite the fact the Senate bill’s language has yet to be finalized.”
So the next time you’re going to go around casting blame, please remember it was your party that disemboweled this bill like a bunch of marauding zombies.
Ya nimrod.
Love always,
Sean
Photo: Last Republican Caucus Meeting w/ President.
Upon meeting with the President, John Bohner (center, vacant eyes) remarked
“I came away hungry, because really, there was no brain left to eat!”
“Norm Coleman is an enabler,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Americans United for Change. “Senator Coleman’s blind loyalty to President Bush has enabled him to veto legislation to begin safely and responsibly winding down the war in Iraq. Repeated votes from Coleman and his fellow Bush apologists in Congress in support of the President’s failed ‘stay the course’ policy in Iraq gave him all the cover he needed to keep our troops stuck firmly in the crosshairs of a bloody civil war which has no end in sight.”
“With now 71 percent of Americans disapproving of the President’s handling of the war in Iraq, there is no question that Norm Coleman’s continuing support for the war and President Bush’s failed policy there is out of step with America
Yet, we would be foolish to lay the blame for this garish hypocrisy at the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and move on. For while the remaining Republican Representatives and Senators have been forced to put on a new face of responsible opposition, many of them were quietly (and some vocally) complicit in the irresponsible actions that led to Walter Reed over the last six years. President Bush may be Commander-in-Chief, but it took many “aye” votes in both houses of Congress to lead us down the path we find ourselves on.
The most embarrassing failure of the previous Congress was its complete failure to carry out its constitutional duty of oversight. Why has it taken this long to figure out that a system that has been widely reported on as broken is, in fact, broken? Why has there been a total lack of investigations into the shady areas of the Iraq war? Why was this past Congress so insistent on cutting taxes but simultaneously felt few reservations over writing a check for the full amount that Bush requested every time Iraq needed another supplemental financing?
Clearly we need to look for the answers to these questions nationally, but we, as Minnesotans, also need to look closely at our own DC delegation.
No real message, just a sad but poignant metaphor for the last 6 years.
From Truthout:
Copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by defense attorneys for former White House staffer I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case.
Bush has long maintained that he was unaware of attacks by any member of his administration against [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson. The ex-envoy’s stinging rebukes of the administration’s use of pre-war Iraq intelligence led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson’s wife’s covert CIA status to reporters in July 2003 in an act of retaliation….
Last week, Libby’s attorney Theodore Wells made a stunning pronouncement during opening statements of Libby’s trial. He claimed that the White House had made Libby a scapegoat for the leak to protect Karl Rove - Bush’s political adviser and “right-hand man.”
“Mr. Libby, you will learn, went to the vice president of the United States and met with the vice president in private. Mr. Libby said to the vice president, ‘I think the White House … is trying to set me up. People in the White House want me to be a scapegoat,’” said Wells.
Cheney’s notes seem to help bolster Wells’s defense strategy. Libby’s defense team first discussed the notes - written by Cheney in September 2003 for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan - during opening statements last week. Wells said Cheney had written “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others”: a reference to Libby being asked to deal with the media and vociferously rebut Wilson’s allegations that the Bush administration knowingly “twisted” intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq.
owever, when Cheney wrote the notes, he had originally written “this Pres.” instead of “that was.”During cross-examination Tuesday morning, David Addington was asked specific questions about Cheney’s notes and the reference to President Bush. Addington, former counsel to the vice president, was named Cheney’s chief of staff - a position Libby had held before resigning.
“Can you make out what’s crossed out, Mr. Addington?” Wells asked, according to a copy of the transcript of Tuesday’s court proceedings.
“It says ‘the guy’ and then it says, ‘this Pres.’ and then that is scratched through,” Addington said.
This is going to be huge if it’s real.
James in the comments claims that Michele Bachmann kissed Bush on the lips after the speech was over. Can anyone confirm this? Bonus: if you find a YouTube video you’re me new hero.
9:15 I thought that it was a pretty good speech. Obviously I disagree with much that was said, but I do think that it represented a pretty legitimate attempt to come to the table with some centrist ideas. I hope the Preisdent is serious about these offers like energy policy because they are generation defining issues that demand the most serious of attention. Webb is speaking now and doing a decent job but my connection is being far too finicky to continue. Check back later for more analysis.
9:15 Great, sorry about that. My internet connection chooses to crash at the most inopportune times.
8:58 Wow, he’s tall!
8:57 These corny personal stories are really ridiculous interludes and somehow touching at the same time.
8:55 If he’s serious about AIDS relief in Africa he absolutely has to stop insisting on these asinine abstinence only programs.
8:54 A Darfur mention. Excellent! Maybe we’ll begin to see some actual US involvement.
8:53 I don’t mean to be a pessimist but I honestly don’t think I’ll see peace in Isreal in my life time. But that’s not to say that it’s not worth trying with all our might.
8:53 On to Iran…
8:51 He’s calling for an increase in the size of our standing army. The founding fathers all thought that a standing army would be the end of the Union. Not saying I think the same, just some trivia.
8:49 Joe Biden’s comb-over is an interesting thing…
Continues below the fold…
Line the beers up on the table and call the friends over, it’s time for the 2007 State of the Union drinking game from DrinkingGame.US
Unfortunately, I’ll be staying sober in an attempt to really take in the whole thing (sigh) but you should try this game out; it looks like great fun. One of my favorite rules is that you have to drink an extra drink if he actually pronounces “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad” correctly.
Visit DrinkingGame.US for the full rules (even if you’re not playing it’s a pretty funny read).
Good News Everyone! Bush’s address this past evening on America’s campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis, secure their country, and score one for the good guys in the War on Terror saw our fearless leader toss out almost 4 years of It gets better…
Bush began by announcing that he is now, shockingly to some, willing to answer calls from the American public and Congress to change course in Iraq. Frustrated,
The new strategy I outline tonight will change America’s course in Iraq, and help us succeed in the War against terror….the elections of 2005 were a stunning achievement. We thought that these elections would bring the Iraqis together, and that as we trained Iraqi security forces, we could accomplish our mission with fewer American troops. But in 2006, the opposite happened.
Bush needs to provide some justification early on for the, ‘…and why didn’t you do this two years ago’ crowd. It seems Bush expects us to accept the premise that the incitement of sectarian violence by everyone in Iraq save the Kurds [mostly] is a recent development,
He’s no longer a hawk, and you can’t call him a dove…Coleman said on the floor of the Senate yesterday that American soldiers have become targets, and that we should redeploy American forces in Iraq. So, again, we find 
Coleman is already terrified of his re-election bid. With only a few seats truly competitive in the Senate in ‘08 right now, Norm’s self-reinvention for his campaign is in full swing - myDD:
[Coleman] suggested the Iraqis meet certain benchmarks within a timeframe, such as moving the Iraqi military to the frontlines. If those benchmarks aren’t met, he said U.S. troops should accelerate pulling back - but not withdrawing from the country - and repositioning within Iraq
Isn’t this setting a timetable, managing the battlefield from the US Senate, and cutting and running? Whoa!
Gil lost, so Norm flipped on DM&E. Makeover Mark lost, and now we find Coleman, SURPRISE!! a newly minted skeptic the President’s plan for Iraq. What Coleman is missing in this political calculus is one of the main reasons Kennedy got absolutely drubbed by Amy Klobuchar - because he tried to whitewash his record and couldn’t sell himself as authentic.
Coleman called Saddam Hussein the “world’s worst terrorist leader,” and said Hussein poses a grave threat to the world. “Saddam is a menace. His menace grows with each passing day. History will judge us harshly if knowing what we know, we fail to act with bipartisan solidarity to prevent the death of hundreds of thousands,”
Either Coleman was wrong then [which he will never admit], is wrong now [which he isn’t, Bush’s plan is folly], or he’s simply riding the winds of public opinion…waiting for his next Republican ally to develop a visible limp…
During today’s Iraq Study Group Press Conference:You’d better listen to the associate justice there, because when I was working on this word for word she said I was using split infinitives. And I told her I didn’t even know what they were, had trouble with adverbs and things like that.
But I can tell you this - since leaving public life and this chamber where I was the toast of the town one day and toast the next, it’s a strange place, but I see the American people and
the sadness to me is that the American people see the Congress and this administration as dysfunctional. Which is very sad for someone who loves the institution.
People Are Shouting
RSS