The Legacy of George Bush's Presidency

[Buster Highmen]

Sometimes I just wonder if I am the only one that thinks this asshole has destroyed my country with his reckless and selfish ways. Judging by the other responses, it is validating and makes me realize I am not alone in my views.
Note; I don't live in the US anymore so I don't have water cooler talks.

The president is only a figurehead. The responsibility for the state of the country lies with the American populace which has allowed itself to be led by the little head into this mess.

Everybody wants something for nothing, the big house, the fancy car, all the meaningless material crap that's supposed to fill an empty cultural identity.

We let the fuckwads deregulate banking, sell the easy credit to the masses, we let them go into Iraq. We let them sell us this sack of shit trickle down economic policy and again disenfranchised the notion of "We, The People". We let them erode our fundamental rights as individuals to privacy and personal responsibility.

So, I'll be the first to piss and moan about this bilious bucket of presidential deceit with you. But we let it happen.

[Toadman]

Oil imports account for a huge portion of our trade deficit. The price of oil in Jan 2001 was ~$31 a barrel. Today it has roughly tripled in price. When that increase is subtracted from the increase in the trade deficit the increase in the TD becomes much, much smaller.


52.75% of U.S. Liquid Fuel Consumption is Imported

60.38% of U.S. Liquid Fuel Consumption is Imported

If I remember correctly, Bush wanted to drill in ANWAR but the dems blocked it. So, who bears responsibility for us being more dependent on foreign oil?

U.S. Exports are up in '07 by about 16% due mostly to the decline in the dollar. One reason oil is so expensive is because it's priced in dollars, and with a weak dollar, well OPEC is going to want more of the those increasingly worthless dollars. Bush has never once voiced his support for a strong dollar and backed it up. Sec. Treasury Snow only paid the USD lip service. Not much you can do to strengthen the USD when you are running the money presses 24/7 and dumping them on the world market. On one hand Bush has inflation from all the dollars being printed, and the massive debt that the dems and Bush were willing to spend. What's worse; borrow and spend or spend and tax? At the end of the day someones going to have to sack up and pay the piper.

Yes, Bush wanted to drill in ANWR, A WA senator was very vocal against it. Also, Bush wants(ed) to drill off the coast of FL too. But at the time GWB's bro, Jeb said no, no, no. No support by Jeb's base who live along the EC of FL who would be looking at oil derricks. Maybe they'll revisit that scenario in a few yrs. when oil is $200/barrel. Still will take a decade before any new wells would come on line anyway. I understand that CO has more oil shale than Saudi Arabia has oil reserves. Would be an environmental shit show to mine it though. Makes ANWR look like a good idea.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Been asleep at the wheel??? Haha, he had barely just got to the wheel! He had been in office a few months and was still adjusting the wheel!

Sorry, never knew that the first eight months of a president's term are sort of an internship when they can 'adjust' to the wheel. Granted, Bush is a fucking idiot who only got worse after those first eight months, but to make excuses for his inattention to anything outside our borders is just more nonsense--although to be expected from people like you. If Bush hadn't surrounded himself with neophyte, moron yes-men, he might have paid attention to all the warnings.
But you'd rather blame Clinton, even though he actually took military action against Al Qaeda. What did Bush do before 9/11, when he was pledging that we wouldn't become entangled in 'nation building'? Nothing. Asleep at the wheel (which, in retrospect, might have been better than what he's done since he took the wheel and drove us into an Iraqi civil war).

[YourSupremeExcellency]

But you'd rather blame Clinton, even though he actually took military action against Al Qaeda.

Oh I see, so lobbing a couple missles at an empty camp of wooden houses in the middle of nowhere after OBL killed US service members vindicates Clinton from dramatically slashing all national security, intelligence and military budgets, vindicates him from refusing to take OBL even just as a prisoner when he was handed to us on a platter from Sudan, and vindicates him after changing the rules of intelligence gathering and making them so politically correct and carebearish that human intelligence became impossible to obtain. I suppose all of that can be reversed in 8 months?? Bush didn't even submit his very first budget yet for christ sake! Yet he was suppose to accept responsibility for a 8 year long gutted and underfunded and undersupported national security apparatus? That's some strange world you live in.

[Tippster]

Oh I see, so lobbing a couple missles at an empty camp of wooden houses in the middle of nowhere after OBL killed US service members

He blew the fuck out of the camp where the CIA stated OBL was, killing dozens. The backlash from the Republicans was HUGE, and they accused him then of "wagging the dog," remember?

vindicates Clinton from dramatically slashing all national security, intelligence and military budgets,

He didn't - his predecessor did.

vindicates him from refusing to take OBL even just as a prisoner when he was handed to us on a platter from Sudan,

The non-partisan 911 commission stated it had... "not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim"

...and vindicates him after changing the rules of intelligence gathering and making them so politically correct and carebearish that human intelligence became impossible to obtain.

Muffin, that's just silly talk.

I suppose all of that can be reversed in 8 months?? Bush didn't even submit his very first budget yet for christ sake! Yet he was suppose to accept responsibility for a 8 year long gutted and underfunded and undersupported national security apparatus? That's some strange world you live in.

Yes - we call it "Reality."

[Dexter Rutecki]

What Tipp said, and to note that 'lobbing missiles at empty houses' missed Bin Laden by just a few minutes--meanwhile Bush decided to defer to his friend Pervez and let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora. You may not like the facts, but the facts are that Clinton did actually do something, while your boys tried to score political points by criticizing him for it. Deal with it. Stop making shit up.

And you're still an idiot.

[timvwcom]

Who knows for sure if different actions by a president could have caught OBL, or more precisely the 9-11 hijackers? We can all speculate, but it's just that.

OK, now with ^^^ that said; It has been confirmed that before the 2000 New Year there was increased terrorist type "chatter" from our monitoring sources. Clinton was involved in raising the level of observation and monitoring in all our security services. They had an emergency meeting/conference of those services and had the word sent out to every level right down to the shoes on the street, to be on our toes and keep a keen eye out for anything suspiscious. An observent border guard (in Washington state I believe) ended up catching someone smuggling explosives across the border for an attack.

Now with Bush in office, when a similar increase in "chatter" occured... He did nothing. He initiated nothing new/special as Clinton had... Hell, he did the opposite, he took his stupid ass down to Texas for a month long vacation. Also, remember Condoleeze Rice having to admit one of the daily briefings titles??? OBL/Al Quaida determined to strike inside the United States!!! There were signs there. Again, I can't say that if Bush had helped make sure the level of our observation was raised as Clintion had, that we would have caught them... But at least he could have done something???

[YourSupremeExcellency]

Blew the fuck out of the camp? Oh yeah he really showed those huts who was the boss . And he didn't "miss OBL by minutes". OBL never showed up, he went to another place instead (the intel was from his driver who was wrong about where they were going).

Clinton didn't dramatically slash military, intelligence, and national security budgets but Bush/Reagan did??? HAHAHA! Omg you are such a misinformed fucking idiot.

Not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim?? So you are saying that Bill Clinton himself is not a reliable source??? It came from his mouth! He defended himself in an interview about why exactly he turned down OBL! Damn you guys are freaking brainwashed.

It's silly talk to say that Clinton put in place rules barring the CIA from dealing with anyone or accepting intelligence from anyone "dirty" and that he refused to meet with the head of the CIA to discuss such matters? Yes I agree, that is silly talk, really fucking silly, but unfortunately for us and those who died on 9-11 it is very true silly talk.

Ahh I see, so Bush is suppose to reverse underfunding before he even had a chance to submit one single budget. I'm not sure how your world works but I lived in Washington for 18 years and thats not how Washington works.

[enlosandes]

Quick off topic quesiton for Your Supreme Excellency. When was the last time you got laid?

[MashedPotatoes]

ALL I SEE HERE IS HATE HAT E HATE YOU LIBERASL NEED TO GET A LIFE YOUR SO FULL OF HATE - IM ONLY UPSET WITH TWO THINGS BUSH HAS DONE - ONE HE DIDNT MAKE TEH TAX CUTS PERMANENT AND TWO HE DIDNT TURN THE MIDDLE EATS INTO A GLASS PARKING LOT AFTER 91/1

[Powow]

ALL I SEE HERE IS HATE HAT E HATE ...TURN THE MIDDLE EATS INTO A GLASS PARKING LOT AFTER 91/1

If that was sarcasm...it sucked.

[Dexter Rutecki]

Again, YourSupremeBrainwashedMoron, you're wrong. From Wikipedia:

Attack on camps in Afghanistan

About 75 cruise missiles landed in Afghanistan at four insurgent training camps around Khost and Jalalabad: three camps in the Jarawah area near Khost, one of which, El Farouq, trained primarily Arab Afghans, and Al Badr camp 10 miles to the west which also trained Arab Afghans and was run by bin Laden.[7] The Khost camp, Zawhar Kili, was reportedly the scene of a meeting of "senior leaders of Islamic militant and terrorist groups linked to bin Laden," and was regarded by Pakistani intelligence as a "summit" convened by bin Laden. [8] Whether bin Laden would definitely attend was uncertain to the Americans, but the attack was made partly in hopes that bin Laden would attend and be killed. [9] After the attack, the CIA heard that bin Laden had been at Zawhar Kili but had left some hours before the missiles hit.[10]

No mention of your imaginary empty shacks. You're wrong again.

So take the bullshit propaganda back to Rush where it belongs. I believe Tipp and others have previously posted links showing where the defense cuts came from, and they were from Bush--the first one, since you seem to have forgotten about him and his peace dividend. It's not your fault Bush was too bumbling and narrow (and on vacation, as usual) to listen to all the warnings, but it's your kind of stupidity that got him elected and helped create the current mess we have.

[Jumper Bones]

wikipedia isn't exactly a primary source, dex.

since, you know, any jackoff can edit it.

[Dexter Rutecki]

True, but since it merely repeated what I already knew from other sources (and it was my first hit on google) I went with it. Pretty easy to verify, but I don't think Excellency is interested in that.

[The Reverend Floater]

ALL I SEE HERE IS HATE HAT E HATE YOU LIBERASL NEED TO GET A LIFE YOUR SO FULL OF HATE - IM ONLY UPSET WITH TWO THINGS BUSH HAS DONE - ONE HE DIDNT MAKE TEH TAX CUTS PERMANENT AND TWO HE DIDNT TURN THE MIDDLE EATS INTO A GLASS PARKING LOT AFTER 91/1

Add "No Child Left Behind" to GW's accolades.

YSE--Do you see the irony in blaming Clinton for OBL's terrorism when GW's clearly had almost 7 years and found nothing but civil war in Iraq and a stronger Taliban operating in Afghanistan/Pak then before 9/11? Take a breath and think about it.

[Tippster]

wikipedia isn't exactly a primary source, dex.

since, you know, any jackoff can edit it.

Versus, of course, other encyclopedias which only a few jackoffs can edit and nobody can really call bullshit on.

The public knowledge stuff on Wikipedia actually gets winnowed down rather quickly from Bullshit to truth due to the feedback loop. Don't buy the "If it's on Wiki it's not true" hype. I'd love to see a boldfaced lie that hasn't been caught and edited yet.

[MashedPotatoes]

hmm, my shouting post was actually meant as parody.. Guess it didn't come off too well.

[timvwcom]

hmm, my shouting post was actually meant as parody.. Guess it didn't come off too well.

We're not all that bright... either that or there are too many wackjobbushies around spouting now and then. Try [/parody] or next time? THAT POST HAD ME CURLED UP IN A FETAL POSITION CRYING FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY!!! DAMNNABBIT !!! (<- see)

[YourSupremeExcellency]

About 75 cruise missiles landed in Afghanistan at four insurgent training camps around Khost and Jalalabad:

As I said, some missles hit a bunch of empty mud and stick huts.

[YourSupremeExcellency]

AND TWO HE DIDNT TURN THE MIDDLE EATS INTO A GLASS PARKING LOT AFTER 91/1

MashPotatoes for President!

[powder11]

That pretty much sums it up. His daddy must be proud.

Bush Sr. couldn't be more happy with W. considering he took out arch rival Saddam Hussein and boosted the fortunes of the Bush family financial empire (Oil and Defense industry) by invading Iraq. W. will be the fucking hero of that family for some time to come. I only hope people remember all this shit when his little brother Jeb comes up for election. Someone should write a comic book series about all this.

[MashedPotatoes]

HEY WHEN IS THE PRESIDENTS SPEECH DID I MISS IT??? DEAR GOD GIVE HIM
STRENGHT AS HE FACES DOWN THIS NEW THREAT TO AMERICA FIRST IT WAS AL
QUEDA NOW ITS AL QUESADILLA DEAR LORD LIFT YOUR VIEL OF DESTRUCTION AND
FORGIVE US AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS INTO AMERICA BUT NOT BEFORE
WE CUFF THEM AND SHIP THEM HOME - LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT
DELIVER US FROM LIBERTY AMEN









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