Work Ethic
Interesting. Prior to the current administration, the President who took the most vacation days during his time in office was President Reagan, who over the course of 8 years took 335 days of vacation time.
That record has now been shattered. If you just count the time in Crawford, TX, and not any other vacations, prior to the start of the current trip, Bush has in four and a half years taken 319 days, and this doesn't count trips to Maine or anywhere else.
With the current 5 weeks, he's up to 344 days. Almost a full year on vacation, or 20% of his Presidency. How many of us get a day off per week? How many jobs carry 10 weeks of paid vacation?
Certainly the President isn't entirely on vacation during his vacation, but the arguments in favor of these trips don't wash.
It is suggested that Bush goes back to Crawford to "reconnect with the people", but interviews with Crawford residents say that he's never seen off of the ranch, the fact that he's there makes him no more accessible to locals than the fact that he's in the White House means that the average DC resident can talk to him.
The Presidency is not suppose to be a telecommuting job. If you don't have the fire to be President and put in the huge amount of work necessary to run the country, don't run. By the end of 5 years of Presidency, George Bush will have SHATTERED the old record of days off for a full 8 year Presidency.
Now, on top of that, even when he's working, this President isn't working. He's publically stated that he refuses to work weekends. His wife reports that he's in bed by 9pm every night, he doesn't get up particularly early, and it's reported that he takes two hours to exercise mid-day every day.
President Bush needs to realize that the Presidency isn't another cushy job gotten for him by one of his Dad's rich friends. This guy's work ethic sucks, and he's the one whose Administration is giving ever more of our money to corporations and rich buddies? Giving billions in "incentives" to ExxonMobil and the rest of the OIL industry, and industry that had record setting profits last year? Refusing to support a higher minimum wage?
Just one more in a long list of reasons why I think this guy is the worst President in my lifetime. And you'll note, not a single bit of this argument is partisan. It's personal.
Liam.
posted by Liam at 8/04/2005 11:18:00 AM
8 Comments:
Nice job Liam. This guy really is a classic example of the spoiled rich kid, isn't he?
Thursday, August 04, 2005 3:34:00 PM
What bugs me is ... he's been this way all his life, and it was never secret. Why did anyone think he'd be any different in the White House than any other job he's had?
Thursday, August 04, 2005 5:17:00 PM
Actually, the contrast that means the most to me is one I intentionally avoided making in the main rant, because it turned the thing partisan, which I didn't want.
Clinton, for all of his failings, was a known workaholic. He was up early working most days, it was not uncommon for him to still be at it at 1 or 2 am. He also worked weekends when there were things to be done.
Sure, he also took some time to go jogging every day (and on special days, some time off to have some fun with an intern), but the time doesn't bother me as much because I know that when there was work to be done, he was doing it.
I've heard reports that he (Clinton) rarely slept at all in his last months in office, trying to get as much accomplished as he possibly could.
And I think Clinton is (at least age wise) a much more appropriate person to compare W. to than Reagan.
Thanks for the comments!
Liam.
Thursday, August 04, 2005 7:00:00 PM
Liam, would you really attribute hours worked with accomplishments?(especially the time off with the intern)
Below is a list of accomplishments by Bush. Some of these I think you will probably not agree are good things, but they are in line with his beliefs that he ran on and won! The Bush Administration 2001-2004
Abortion & Traditional Values
1. Banned Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.
2. Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.
3. By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.
4. By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups that provide abortions and related services.
5. Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals.
6. Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004.
7. Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman.
8. Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents.
9. Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.
10. Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption (reintroducing discipline into classrooms).
11. Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline.
12. Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.
Budget, Taxes & Economy
1. Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.
2. Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.
3. Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
4. Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.
5. In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty.
6. Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people.
7. Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.
8. Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America.
9. Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.
10. Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains.
11. Signed trade promotion authority.
12. Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches.
13. Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.
14. Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.
15. Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home.
16. Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.
17. Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child.
18. Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $10,000.
19. Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans.
20. Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.
Character & Conduct as President
1. Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency.
2. Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.
3. Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:
Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."
On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation.
Education & Employment Training
1. Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act.
2. Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school education.
3. Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked in the Senate.)
4. Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.
5. Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance.
6. Requires school-by-school accountability report cards.
7. Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher accountability systems.
8. Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former military personnel to become teachers.
Environment & Energy
1. Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.
2. Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.
3. Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives.
4. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
5. Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.
6. Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
7. Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.
8. Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.
Defense & Foreign Policy
1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.
2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.
3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Maida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaeda leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.
4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.
5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.
6. Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.
7. Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.
8. Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever hand in the U.S. presidency.
9. Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along with Great Britain, Russia and the EU.
10. Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year.
11. Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.
12. Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.
13. Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.
14. Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs.
15. Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.
16. Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal 2002 to 2006.
17. Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.
18. Ordered a review of overseas deployments.
19. Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.
20. Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports.
21. Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed.
Globalization & Internationalism
1. Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be completely irrelevant).
2. Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.
3. Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).*
4. The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the answer.
5. Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."
Government Reform
1. Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.
2. Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government while increasing private sector jobs.
3. Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50 years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.*
4. Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.
5. Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performanc goals.
Health
1. Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.
2. Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.
3. Signed Medicare Reform, which includes:
A 10-year privatization option.
Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about $28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now, drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine.
More health care choices: As President Bush stated, "…when seniors have the ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of Congress is also good for seniors.
New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses. Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35 percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.
Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration
1. *See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security.
2. Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.
3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield).
4. Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders.
5. The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity.
6. Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals.
7. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security Zones.
8. Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested.
9. This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.
10. Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.
11. Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.
12. Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.
13. Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.
14. Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.
Judiciary & Tort Reform
1. Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.
2. Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.
3. Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.
4. Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.
Politics
1. His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.
2. Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.
Second Amendment
1. Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined "collective" right.
2. Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit.
3. Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers.
4. *See Globalization & Internationalism.
Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism
1. Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."
2. Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history, Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country and around the world.
3. Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative — located in seven Federal agencies. The faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth, ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families.
4. The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to maintain their religious identity through hiring — even when Federal funds are involved.
5. Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible.
6. Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them.
7. Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.
8. Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.
9. Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:
Equal Justice
Freedom of Speech
Limited Government Power
Private Property Rights
Religious Tolerance
Respect for Women
Rule of law.
Granted, this was compiled by a group that agrees, or at least promotes President Bush, but one has to admit that a lazy unplanned President would got no where near this much accomplished in one term.
Saturday, August 06, 2005 6:53:00 PM
You have GOT to be kidding.
I'm on a dial-up modem from vacation, so I'll have to write up my response and post it later, but...
Restored HONOR and DIGNITY to the PRESIDENCY?
Are you mad? He's lied repeatedly, to the American public (remember, that's what Clinton was impeached over) and to Congress. He's eroding our freedoms and our liberties, he's giving away all of the governmental protections for you and me to the corporations so that they can abscond their responsibilities in the name of greater profits.
His tax cuts... went almost entirely to corporations and the richest 5% of citizens, at a time when we *HAD* a balanced budget and now have record deficits.
Just imagine how much he could have screwed us if he HAD actually put in some good work.
Liam.
Saturday, August 06, 2005 8:37:00 PM
OK, my longer response.
First off, I think there’s sufficient reason to wonder whether Bush won either election, if fairly counted. It’s been PROVEN that he didn’t win over Gore (except legally, but he didn’t win the popular vote).
Against Kerry... Never, in the history of elections in which there have been exit polls, have the exit polls been more than one standard deviation off from correct, and with the exception of Dewey (a statistical dead heat) they’ve never been wrong... Suddenly, in the deciding state (Ohio), exit polls showed Kerry was the winner by 4 percent, Bush somehow walks out with a win by 3 percent.
It’s been shown how easy it is to tamper with the vote on the Diebold machines in use in OH, on a widely publicized television program, Howard Dean was shown how, with about 30 second, the count of the vote can be changed on the central tabulating machine with no trace. The CEO of Diebold is quoted in 2004 as saying that he was committed to doing whatever it took to deliver Ohio to Bush in the election. It doesn’t take a genius to look at these things and wonder what was going on. The recent “win” in Ohio of the Republican over the Democrat war veteran challenger has similar markings. The Democrat was winning handily with most precincts reporting... and suddenly the computers went down. No results for a while. An hour or two later, up come the result, and lo and behold, the Republican wins. It might be entirely on the up and up, but it certainly looks suspicious. My point of this rant-within-a-rant is that we need to support the election reform that’s been proposed to require a paper trail on all votes, with voter verification and random precinct manual recounts.
But that’s an aside. As to Bush’s supposed accomplishments...
I’m going to ignore the whole section on abortion except for one. I do think you give him too much credit for education, when he passes “No child left behind” and then CUTS funding for education. But the one I want to comment on:
Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman.
This is an accomplishment? Displaying intollerance and bigotry? What, exactly, has he accomplished here?
Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.
Income taxes that give more wealth the CEOs and the rich, when the poor are finding it ever harder to make ends meet. The pay of corporate CEOs has gone up 45% recently, while the minimum wage has not increased in nine years. The rich get richer, the poor and middle class get screwed, and this is considered progress.
Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.
Again, how is this an accomplishment? It’s a position. It’s also a stupid one. We are not supposed to have a class system in this country. We are all supposed to have at least relatively equal opportunity. And, by the way, when polled, the majority of the nation supports the estate tax. When the name is changed to the politically charged terminology “death tax”, most people oppose, but when informed of what it actually MEANS, the majority support it. But regardless of your position on it, how is “supports” an accomplishment?
Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
He did what now? We’re still in a recession, and at the same time having record deficits after being handed a balanced budget. He’s spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a war that his administration insisted would cost us 4-5 billion dollars tops. Most of that money is funneling through KBR/Halliburton, whose people drive around in heavily armored vehicles while our fighting men and women drive around in vehicles with light or no armor. When Donald Rumsfeld goes over to visit Iraq, he doesn’t travel in Army vehicles, he borrows ones from Halliburton. Spending huge amounts on an unjustified war that he lied to get us into, and then doesn’t give the troops the armor that would have saved 21 servicemen earlier this week, and then accuses everyone ELSE of not supporting the troops, while cutting troop pay and benefits. Great guy.
Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.
I agree with this one, but again, “is seeking” isn’t an accomplishment.
Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.
Yeah, great. The vast majority of people haven’t got the financial acumen to manage a checking account, but suddenly the Social Security program is going to be in great hands by putting it into the control of the people? You realize what will happen, don’t you? The majority of people will mismanage their money, will not then have sufficient money to retire on, and will end upon the welfare roles, which we don’t have money for because it was given to people to privatize. And forget financial acumen, with Chris Cox in charge of the SEC, even if you think you know what you’re doing, we’re going to have more Enron type scandals. Just before Enron blew up, they were getting solid “buy” ratings from just about all of the fund rating services. Following good practices in that case ended up losing the investor his/her money.
Suppose you privatize and then there’s a stock market crash. They happen occasionally. Suddenly everyone’s retirement money is gone, but there’s not even any social security to help out.
Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America.
Really? I’d be interested in hearing more about this. Sounds like hype to me, but if you can substantiate it, I’ll comment.
Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.
Again, you have to be joking here. You can’t be that blind. Accountable? Most of them are skating through with little or no punishment. And as I said, Chris Cox supports further deregulation of the sort that allowed Enron to happen in the first place, and Chris Cox is Bush’s choice to head the SEC. As I’ve mentioned before, he nominates corporate officials regularly to run departments intended to hold those industries responsible, has non-scientists editing out any trace of good science from environmental studies, he’s doing everything he can to prevent corporate crime, but not by punishing it, by decriminalizing the actions.
Look at it this way: If he were to pass legislation that made murder no longer illegal, he could then legitimately claim to have slashed the number of people guilty of murder, but it wouldn’t be because there were less murders, only that the word “guilty” would no longer apply.
Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency.
If lying is honorable, then I agree. If saying one thing and doing another (calling for support of the troops while cutting their benefits and wages, calling for “no child left behind” while cutting funding for education, etc) is dignity, then sure. If trying to change the rules so that he doesn’t have to submit to the same checks and balances that have kept this country safe and whole since it’s inception is honorable, then yes. If giving the finger to the American public not once put twice (once, granted, as governor, once recently as he walked into the White House) is dignity, sure.
Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.
God has no place in public (government) discourse. God is a private matter. You worship as you like. I’ll worship as I like. Hindus, Moslems, Jews, Buddhists all worship as they like. Atheists choose not to worship. Agnostics ponder. Proselytize all you want, but not on government time or on the governmental dime.
Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:
Yeah, right. Let’s look at his record there...
1) Sat with his head in his hands for 15 minutes after being told of the attacks. For all we knew, more attacks were on their way, and he wasted 15 valuable minutes sitting dazed.
2) Immediately after 9/11, he vowed that bin Laden could run, but he could not hide. He swore that we would not rest until we had brought him to justice. Now nearly 4 years later, bin Laden is still at large, and Bush “isn’t that concerned about him” while he runs around conducting a war in Iraq which he CONTINUES to link to 9/11 in contrast to all known evidence. He’s running a war that all good information suggests is only INCREASING the anti-American sentiment in the Moslem world, he’s the best recruitment tool al Qaeda ever had.
On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation.
Politicizing the event, you don’t think anyone else could or would have done this? Name for me one politician who wouldn’t, given the opportunity, have been all over that event in exactly the same fashion.
Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act.
...and then cut education funding and didn’t even fully fund his own Act. Sure shows support for education to me.
Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.
Thus requiring teachers to teach to the tests, rather than teaching a full curriculum. When you link funding to how well students do on a particular test, you simply ensure that what is taught is how to do best on those tests. I assure you, having taken my share of standardized testing during my time as a student, there is very little in the business world for which filling in standardized testing bubbles prepares one.
Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.
This is a GOOD thing? When virtually every reputable scientist now agrees that global warming is a fact, Bush’s administration alters the reports so that they appear inconclusive and then insists that the jury is still out. Fiddling while Rome burns isn’t good policy.
Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.
The plan provides billions in “incentives” to oil companies which had record profits last year and with rising oil prices, are set to do so again this year. There is very little in the way of actual incentives to comes up with truly revolutionary new energy sources. Oil is a finite resource. There are different opinions ranging from five years to twenty, but we’re fast approaching the point at which we’ve used up half of the total available crude on the planet, and we’re using it at an ever increasing rate. The only way to prevent a catastrophic failure of our entire economy is to make sure we’ve got alternative and renewable sources in sufficient quantities to take over when the oil finally runs out. Burying your head in the sand and not seeing the long picture isn’t leadership. Not to mention that as long as we’re reliant on oil, we’re beholden to other nations, because there simply is not sufficient quantities of oil in the United States to sate our thirst for the stuff.
Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.
This was another one of those doctored reports. What he did was allow more logging in national forests, after having doctored the legitimate science with pseudo-scientific bunk that claimed that the logging was actually good for forests because of forest fire danger.
This is kind of like saying blowing up all of the houses on a city block is beneficial because that way, there are no houses there to catch fire if lightning strikes.
Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.
Yeah, why have any oversight at all, when you can give away the store to logging interests. Why worry about what impact you’ll have on the environment when you’ve already decided to edit the existing environmental impact science so that it supports your bogus claim that excess logging reduces forest fire danger. And really, who cares about species? There are thousands of them, who cares if a few go extinct. What’s the chance we’ll take out something that’s vital to the food chain?
Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.
Yeah, all of those rules we had in place to require industry to be responsible and clean, and not pollute the air we all have to breathe, let’s just scrap them. It’s funny how while I am renovating my house right now, I have to pay to clean up after the renovation, I won’t be allowed to leave trash and litter on my own property because it reduces property values. But when a corporation wants to save money by not cleaning up something they don’t even own, that’s a good thing. Yeah, right.
Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.
Successfully? Afghanistan is currently barely holding it together, we went in (fully justified) and then largely pulled out without finishing the job. The majority of Afghanistan is not under the control of the government we helped get elected but under the control of warlords. The drug trade is skyrocketing. Oh, and that pesky bin Ladin got away and we continue to be hammered by pro-Taliban forces.
Meanwhile, we start a NEW war in Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11. It distracts us from our main purpose (catching and punishing those who actually hit us on 9/11), incites huge hatred for our country in the Islamic world, and is based on reason after reason that have proven to be lies. No WMDs. No ties to al Qaeda. No ties to 9/11. Just a guy in a turban and a populace too stupid to realize that just because one person with black hair beat up your sister, it does not mean it’s OK to enact revenge on whoever happens to be handy that has black hair. We’ve provided insufficient forces (by reports from just about every officer I’ve heard interviewed on the topic), insufficient armor to the troops (look at how many keep dying) and the “last throes” of the insurgency (per Dick Cheney) may go on for 10-12 years (per Donald Rumsfeld, a couple of days later).
Finally, the Vice President asks to have plans drawn up to drop a nuclear bomb on Iran in case of another 9/11 style attack. Not based on any evidence that Iran is planning any such thing, not waiting to find out who did it. If we get attacked, there’s a plan in place to use that attack to nuke Iran. Lovely.
He successfully STARTED two wars. One of them justified. But he has not been particularly successful in executing them.
Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.
And what does that have to do with the very important, very justified war on terror? Nothing. Sure, he’s not a good guy, but the only LEGITIMATE justifications for going into the war in Iraq are justifications for a multi-national war, not a unilateral one by us and the one or two other countries we can strong arm into helping us. Doing it that way only serves, as I said, to increase anti-American sentiment, recruit another generation of future martyrs, oh and line the coffers of oil companies who have already basically carved up Iraqi oil fields among themselves.
Leader by leader and member by member, al Maida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaeda leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.
Yeah, how many times can we catch “the number three man in al Qaeda”? We got a few of them, but we continue to allow bin Laden to roam free. According to Porter Goss, we know where he is. Why don’t we grab him then? If there was ever a more justified apprehension, I don’t know what it was. Either we don’t really want to catch him (because otherwise it’s harder to keep the public terrified enough to support giving up personal liberties in the name of the Patriot Act), don’t recognize the importance (because we’re stupid) or don’t have the ability (which we might have, if we weren’t distracting ourselves with a completely unrelated war).
Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.
I missed the part of the news where Bush had anything what so ever to do with this.
Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.
...while at the same time creating an entirely new legal status of people so that he can claim that he has the power to entirely throw away any human rights they have. They aren’t peace time criminals, so constitutional protections don’t apply, but they aren’t prisoners of war, so Geneva doesn’t apply. They’re “enemy combatants”, and (he claims) he can do whatever he likes with them.
His Administration publishes policy papers indicating they consider Geneva prohibitions against torture somehow “quaint” and not applicable to Bush. Torture goes on repeatedly. In Abu Ghraib (we’ve all seen the pictures), in Guantanamo (see the article a few weeks back on what was done to a U.S. soldier as part of a training exercise!) and in numerous shadow detention centers, ostensibly run by other countries, but countries to whom we’ve handed people to be interrogated. He had the military pay bounties for information, which caused us to net large number of innocent people, because when you offer money to starving people, some unscrupulous ones are going to turn in people they don’t like, just to get the money. He un-Constitutionally suspended the rights of at least two American citizens, one of whom was actually arrested here in the United States and then taken out of the country and put in legal limbo.
Here at home, the war consists largely of giving the government ever more power to snoop into our private lives, and the argument is always “if you have nothing to hide, why should it bother you?” It should bother you because that’s not what our country is about. It should bother you because the same thing was said under McCarthy during the red scare, and then a lot of people were accused of being communists and basically ruined, some of which were actually innocent. It should bother you because while they say they only use it for terrorism purposes, there are lots of historical instances of governmental power being misused.
One example: The Census is supposed to be absolutely private. We are required to give the information, but in return for this, we are assured that our personal identifying information will not be given out, that only statistical groupings and counts will ever be seen outside of the Census department. And yet there have been cases of people prosecuted for crimes which were discovered only because of the information filled out on a Census form.
So, we give the FBI the right to snoop through our library history, supposedly only to be used to catch people who fit a profile of terrorist activity. Fine, but what if your son or daughter is assigned a report on terrorism at school? They may check out many of the same books, and now they’re flagged as potential terrorists. Now what if the notice that you’ve been checking out books on gay rights and you live in a state with anti-sodomy laws, and because of your private interest in the books, you are investigated on suspicion of being gay?
Not to mention that we continue to redefine more and more crimes as terrorism related, so that we can inflate both the fear-inducing statistics of terrorist activity and also the number of terrorism related crimes prosecuted. Did you know that for purposes of counting and the Patriot Act, drug offenses are considered terrorist related? So if you get caught with a single marijuana cigarette in your pocket and are arrested for it, you are now considered a terrorist, at least for statistics sake.
So they’ll only use the new Patriot Act powers in cases of terrorism. Even if that’s true, once they’ve defined almost everything more serious that jay-walking as a terrorist related activity, that’s not much of a protection.
Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.
Yeah, he also received (during one of those many vacations to Crawford) a memo pretty much telling him that bin Ladin wanted to attack us with hijacked planes, and he ignored it. “Bin Laden determined to strike in the United States” was the title of the memo, according to Condoleeza Rice in Congressional testimony. Maybe if he’d been paying attention, 9/11 might have been foiled BEFORE it happened.
Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year.
Where do you get these numbers? Everything I’ve read indicates that he’s cut both pay and benefits. When I can get a reliable internet connection again (I’m typing this off-line) I’ll try to remember to find references.
Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.
Ooooh. Russia. The former Soviet Republics are in such bad shapes, they don’t even know where about half of their old nuclear arsenal are, several of them are in the middle of bloody civil wars, and this is supposed to impress me? Especially when a few minutes before you touted how great it was that he did away with a previous non-proliferation treaty?
Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.
Such as “Rods from God” for example, the space-based weapons system that’s been soundly panned by virtually everyone?
Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.
Yeah, because it can be SUCH a pain to have to live up to the same code of conduct we require from others. It’s so nice to be the big bully on the block. You can feign moral outrage and go after lesser countries when they violate standards of behavior, but act with impunity when you do, because who has the power to bring YOU to justice? Just one more case of this Administration trying to absent itself from any rule of law.
Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).
Yeah, who needs diplomacy. Who cares of anyone else likes us. Might makes right, we make our own rules, and if anyone else doesn’t like it, screw ‘em. We didn’t participate in the founding of the U.N. to actually try to get nations together to SOLVE problems, why should we try to play nicely with the other kids in the sandbox? We’re the biggest kid, let’s just MAKE the other kids play the way we want them to.
Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."
And no one has ever suggested that we should have such a thing, intentional misquotes and misrepresentations of Kerry’s line about the “global test” notwithstanding. No one has ever said we shouldn’t defend ourselves. What rational people have said is that we need to make sure in doing so, we’re not being as guilty or more so than those who we are going up against. That was the meaning of the “global test”. Not that we needed permission, but that it’s worth noting if almost the entire rest of the world things we’re wrong in doing something, and perhaps taking a look to see if we haven’t been blinded by our own anger and outrage.
Without lying or misrepresenting what the politician said, I defy you to list one major politician who has seriously suggested that we should cede our right to defend ourselves to some outside authority.
Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.
If government is so efficient, why does he continue to give us record deficits when he was handed a surplus? And why are people so all fired sure that unions are a bad thing. For the majority of people in the country, unions have had a beneficial effect, even if they themselves did not belong to one. Unions have improved working conditions even for those who were not in them. They have increased pay. Without unions, the world is comprised of Walmarts. You may like Walmart when you go in and can buy items for really cheap prices, but when you then learn that of 14 states that have published such numbers, 13 report Walmart as being the employer of the most people on public medical welfare (medicaid and the like), now we’re back to the money coming out of our pockets again.
Should we REALLY return to the days when sweatshop conditions were allows, when workers could be required to work long hours without sufficient safety regulations or protections for them if they got hurt on the job, only to end up with so little pay at the end of the month that they couldn’t even feed their families properly?
Every one of those things was procured for the majority by unions of the minority. They are not the ultimate evil you think they are. Are there union excesses? Certainly. But a few bad apples doesn’t justify throwing away the entire bushel.
Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.
Is this that same ABM system that consistently fails whenever they test it? If in practice it works as well as it has in testing, about 90% of the missiles will get through. Spending money on something which doesn’t work just to claim you’re doing something is bad for America when the liberals do it (with increasing welfare programs that don’t work) and it’s just as bad for America when conservatives do it (funding aircraft the military doesn’t want, ABM systems which don’t work, etc etc).
3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield).
And yet our spending on homeland security in the U.S. is far outstripped by our spending on the war in Iraq, even though the tired and trite argument “we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” was clearly and completely disproven with the attacks on London a few weeks back. If we really want to make America safer, shouldn’t we be spending at least as much on security of the homeland as we are spending on wars increasing the need for security at home?
Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.
...while touting an amnesty program for current illegals, because they’re willing to work cheaper for his corporate buddies, allowing them to further fatten their wallets.
Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.
INFORMATION about them is screened. The cargo itself is not. Our borders are so porous right now as to be comical, if it weren’t so serious. What information is screened? The bill of lading? Of course, because no terrorist would EVER think of lying and listing “cars” on the manifest while shipping nuclear explosives.
Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.
A worthy goal, except that as currently expressed, it appears Bush would like to consider any lawsuit by a private citizen against a corporation “frivolous”. While I agree that something needs to be done about frivolous lawsuits, the answer is not to prevent them from being brought. The answer is to have some system in place to punish those who bring obviously frivolous lawsuits. The problem is that right now, there’s very little in the way of repercussions for someone who brings such a lawsuit. We should not take away anyone’s right to sue for grievances when they are legitimate, we should simply find some way to transfer back the majority of the pain onto the initiator of a lawsuit which is clearly without merit.
Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.
...and then also emasculated the Senate’s advise and consent role by refusing to turn over documentation requested BY the Senate. Became the first President in history to re-nominate judges who have already been blocked once. Published demonstrably false arguments claiming a pattern of blocking by Senate democrats when the true number show that Bush has enjoyed a confirmation rate far in excess of any President in my lifetime. Heck, if we can get rid of the ABA, and we can stop that pesky Congress from actually doing their job, we can get a batch of judicial extremist activists on the bench and REALLY take apart the underpinnings of this nation.
Fascism is on the move in our country. For those who don’t actually know, Fascism is when personal representation in the government is replaced by corporate representation. A fascist society is one in which the Corporation is all, judge, jury and executioner. Sole granter of rights and punishments. That’s the direction our current crop want to take us in. They claim the “free market economy” will keep everyone in line, but if that was true, why didn’t it work on the snake oil salesmen of the early previous century? Why doesn’t it work on the peddlers of “food supplements” who make huge profits selling pills of dubious efficacy?
Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.
Is nominating extremist conservative judges to the judiciary. Conservative judges I like. Extremist judges who believe in stripping away our rights, who ignore the Ninth Amendment which expressly says that any right not EXPRESSLY removed by the Constitution is assumed to exist, not the other way around. Extremist judges who believe as Bush does that it’s unfair to require corporations to behave responsibly, ethically and morally, because that infringes on profits. Extremist judges who would take our country back to the days when the majority of people had little or nothing to show for long hours at work, while the few fat cats at the top get richer and, because they have the money to pass on to their kids that no one else has, perpetuate family lines of riches and completely give lie to the American ideal that everyone should have a fair and relatively equal chance.
Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.
Wow, finally a real, honest to heaven accomplishment! Took a lot of words to get to something positive Bush has accomplished. Oh, wait. Supports. There’s that word again. He hasn’t actually DONE anything, has he.
His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.
This is neither a good nor a bad thing. We should have the best person for the job, not the best party. Right now, we have a small group of fascist extremists who have taken over the Republican party. As long as they are in control of that party, bringing Republican control over the government is not a good thing. When the Republican party gets back to it’s core values of fiscal responsibility, then perhaps it will be a good thing. For now, it’s a huge smack to the side of the head of 95% of the population, they just haven’t realized it yet.
Or maybe they have. Again, there’s sufficient evidence to question whether Bush or the Republicans have legitimately won anything. Bush won the election when his approval rating was below 50%, and when the polls showed a majority supporting Kerry, and the exit polls for the first time ever were off by an unprecedented 7-8%.
Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.
Yeah, because Unions generally go Democrat. But I don’t see him doing the same thing with Corporations, requiring them not to donate money to Republicans in the name of employees who might not approve. And yes, it happens.
Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers.
FULL immunity? Gee, that’s odd. So if a gun manufacturer sells me a defective gun that blows up in my hand, I can’t sue them for damages over the defective product? Or if a gun manufacturer sells a gun to a known felon (who by law gives up his or her right to own a gun) in violation of mandated background checks, and that felon goes off and kills someone with that gun, the company is immune from prosecution?
What, then, is the motivation for them to pay any attention to required background checks? All they do is cut down on sales. If you’re immune from prosecution for any action resulting from your behavior, why behave responsibly when you can make more money by not?
Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."
This one is a huge laugh. Bush has failed at everything he’s ever done until he entered politics. He failed to take personal responsibility during the Viet Nam war, joining the national guard and then by all accounts not even showing up there most of the time.
Business venture after business venture failed, and he never once had to pick up the pieces or make restitution, he just moved on to the next business set up for him by rich friends of his powerful father. A hard drinking, hard drugging party boy. Not a drop of personal responsibility in his entire life.
Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.
Correction. He’s PROMISED the funds. So far, they have mysteriously failed to actually materialize.
Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:
All people everywhere... except at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay or in any Moslem nation which gets in our way. This quote is just full of untruths. We no more “have no intention of imposing our culture” than we “don’t believe the United States should be involved in ‘nation building’” (quote from candidate Bush in 2000).
Equal Justice
Unless we can classify you as an “enemy combatant”.
Freedom of Speech
Unless you work for PBS or the mass media, in which case you will be shut down if you can be, made to look ridiculous if you can’t.
Limited Government Power
Limited to ever increasing deficits to pay for wars the majority of the country does not support. Limited except when it comes to regulating what goes on in our bedrooms. Limited except when it comes to reducing freedoms in the name of protecting the symbol of those freedoms.
Private Property Rights
Except when some rich developer wants your land, then eminent domain comes into play and we’ll take your land and give it over to the rich. That’s Bush’s America. The rich get richer, the poor should know their place and just be glad for whatever scraps fall off of the master’s table.
Religious Tolerance
...as long as you are Christian, or are willing to live under Christian laws. And certainly not if you are Moslem.
Respect for Women
...who should, according to Rick Santorum’s book, be at home taking care of the kids. It’s those pesky working women that have destroyed this country.
Rule of law.
...after dismantling any laws that hold corporations responsible for proper behavior, when proper behavior reduces profits. Rule of law, except when that law is inconvenient, at which point we’ll create a new status and suspend the rule of law for people we classify in that new status. Rule of law except when it comes to fair, honest, VERIFIABLE elections.
Granted, this was compiled by a group that agrees, or at least promotes President Bush, but one has to admit that a lazy unplanned President would got no where near this much accomplished in one term.
Actually, one doesn’t have to admit any such thing. I didn’t say that the neoconservatives who BACK Bush aren’t actively working. I’m saying Bush himself is lazy and doesn’t work very hard. They get it done, he signs the bills. A trained monkey could sign the bills.
The fact remains, Clinton worked 10, 12, 15 hour days regularly, often on weekends as well. Bush works shorter days, refuses to work weekends, takes two hours out of the middle of every work day to work out, and has spent more time on vacation than any other President, ever. 50 trips to Crawford ranch in under 5 years. 300+ days on vacation to Crawford. More if you count trips to Kennebunkport and other locales.
Comparing the work ethic of the two men, or the vacation record of Bush vs any other President (even the #2 guy in this respect, Ronald Reagan), it’s hard for anyone to NOT see that Bush is hardly a hard working President.
Liam.
Saturday, August 06, 2005 11:42:00 PM
Wow, you really do like to debate politics...and you really do hate this President comparing him to a monkey...bye.
Sunday, August 07, 2005 2:43:00 PM
Liam,
You have to give Clinton credit for conducting his recreational activities right there in the oval office.
Monday, August 08, 2005 11:41:00 AM
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