The Bush legacy: Fear or compassion?

George W. Bush got a lot of people in Iraq killed for no good reason. Most experts put the total numbers somewhere in the hundreds of thousands. There used to be a Christian and Jewish population in Iraq, it's mostly gone now.

In Dubya's zeal to get Saddam Hussein, he let Osama bin Laden get away.

Then there are the billions and billions and billions of American taxpayer money that Dubya has dumped into Iraq to prop up a government that twiddles its thumbs on reconcilliation. There are millions of refugees who fled Iraq due to the bungling of BushCo minions Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and the rest.

The 1st chapter in the 43 history book will be about Iraq and its title should be "Abysmal Failure."

Well over 70 already know the answer--fear.
After the Rx drug benefit for Big Pharma, W gets them to ship some AIDS drugs over to Africa at cost. Big deal.
Actually, if there is a Truth Commission, you better hang onto your golf clubs, George, because when the full extent of your malfeasance is revealed, you'll be lower than Warren G. Harding.
One silver lining: your brother the Jebster will find it tough to stick his nose in national politics anytime soon.

The G.W. Bush legacy and the Republican brand = Dirty, Death, and Bankrupt. Never again. Amends required.

Worst. President. Ever.

Giving Bush credit for anything would be like letting a serial murderer free because he found Jesus.
Bush is not going to go down in history as a great president because his misdeeds overshadowed any good he did. Whether his leadership led to anything good is debatable.

There are millions of refugees who fled Iraq due to the bungling of BushCo minions Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and the rest....

Posted by: Zook | August 3, 2008 10:32 AM

Millions of refugees? Did you count them? Where are they now? Gitmo? Maybe Bush drowned them in the Persian Gulf in between creating hurricanes targeting New Orleans. Where are all of your Links to substantiate your baseless claims?
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Worst. President. Ever.

Posted by: Cheryl Hussein | August 3, 2008 12:13 PM

I somehow failed to notice any mention of Jimmy Carter made in this article.

If you have any serious intent in trying to tag the Worst President Ever, let me offer you some very viable candidates for your diligent consideration:
No. 7 - Andrew Jackson
No. 8 - Martin Van Buren
No. 14 - Franklin Pierce
No. 29 - Warren G. Harding
No. 31 - Herbert Hoover
Absolutely No. 39 - James Earl Jimmy Carter

For a small window on the soul-less Andrew Jackson, get / read the book "Trails of Tears". Please compare what Jackson did to anything that you think Bush may have done, if you can allow yourself any objectivity.

If you are a committed Bush Hate-er, like the other three posters here, than of course there is no point in reading anything that may have a real academic quality to it, is there. So much easier to just not do anything.

Do democrats ever read any serious (not intentionally biased) historical tomes? Very hard to tell.

Have a nice day.

I couldn't be more happy with Bush. He did an incredible job for our country. His legacy on Iraq will be a good one. The History Books will tell it as a great thing, as it was. They will talk of all the millions of bodies found in graves that were left by Sadam murderous hands, and that Bush freed these very oppressed people, and protected our country from a threat that could not be over looked. He protected us in our own country and made us feel safe after tragic events occured. His Republican approval numbers are around 67%. He kept his word to the American people and he did what he said he would.
THANK YOU PRESIDENT BUSH!

PEPFAR has done some good (according to reports) in treating AIDS victims in Africa. Though there are always strings attached with any Bush program. Can't give generic drugs to AIDS sufferers. Can't mention contraception to prevent the spread of AIDS. More abstinence only preaching instead of real help.

That is the essence of Bush's legacy. A nice sounding program with a goal that everyone supports (improving schools! world peace! fight terrorism!) done to enrich his friends and family and suck up to idealogues.

Note how the Swamp journalist labels Bush attacker Jane Mayer only as a "staff writer for the New Yorker" (no ideology seen there!) while Bush defender Linda Chavez is identified (correctly) as a Republican.

What the article leaves out is any context about the Bush attacker, Jane Mayer. Never mind that she wrote a (discredited) hit piece on Justice Clarence Thomas. Never mind she contributes to the far-Left group ACT. And now this. A pretty clear pattern of bias, one that even a Swamp journalist would note if he were trying to report the news fairly.

Worst. Media. Ever.

You Bush bashers make me sick. You have no logic just emotion to your posts. Saddam Hussein was a merciless killer who obliterated some 500,000 of his own people by gassing them to death.Ousay and Qusay his sons had rape rooms to torture innocents in.
All you can think about is your obsession with War.You forget that we were successful in taking Saddam out and now we are winning. When compared to the Civil War the Iraq war has been a walk in the park. But you Cindy Sheehan types are victims. Get over it. This is America we now have a democracy in the middle of the mid-Eastern nations with rich oil reserves.
Iran will have to be dealt with in time. Mahmoud like Saddam is a tyrant to whom life is cheap. Thanks to Jimma Carter we lost the Shah of Iran to these Islamic Jihadists way to go Jimma.
The Progressives brought us the Income Tax, the Prohibition, the new deal,the War on Poverty and now the Global Warming to confiscate money from carbon caps what a scam for Algore! Wake up guys you have a sorry history to ridicule W with. Oh I forgot the welfare state that Dickie Durbin and Obama want to bring back.Jerry White, Springfield, IL

We Americans Owe Our Souls to the Company Store

Judging by the uninspiring and dispassionate campaign launched by the McCain camp, one can conclude that the current regime along with the entire Republican ‘leadership,’ are completely unconcerned with the outcome of the November election, and with good reason. Last week, the White House announced that the next administration will inherit roughly, a 500 billion dollar debt. The question the American people continue to avoid is, to whom do we owe this astronomical sum? The answer, while ugly, is quite simple. We owe it to them. When Georgie W. took over the family business in 2001, he had one and only one goal: to establish a perpetual source of wealth for his father’s friends and the private interests who installed him in office. Through a campaign of lies, deceit, and propaganda he has achieved his goal.

It is astounding that, in the realm of global politics, the majority of Americans and, for that matter, most citizens of the world, find it easy to dismiss the obvious while embracing the absurd. The simple truth is that Georges Bush, Senior and Junior; Dick Cheney; David Addington; along with the entire Carlyle Group; are on the same payroll as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nouri Maliki, and Muqtada al-Sadr. These individuals will do anything necessary, independently or in cooperation with each other, to manipulate the price of oil. Let’s face it; it’s in their best interest.

John McCain, along with his cheerleaders continues to tout the fact that, contrary to Obama’s predictions, “the surge has worked.” In reality, the surge “worked” because agents of the United States government in collusion with representatives from the Big Three Oil Companies have made substantial cash deals with the warlords and gang leaders attempting to fill the power vacuum left by the Bathist Regime. Muqtada al-Sadr, now the highest paid extortionist in world history, has restrained his guns and has assumed the responsibility of turf assignment to his capos. The “surge” has merely kept the parties apart until the final deals could be finalized.

Furthermore, McCain somehow holds Obama responsible for rising oil prices by attributing the phenomenon to Obama’s past refusal to support offshore drilling (did I mention absurdity). It is a foregone conclusion that even if oil was extracted from these sights, it would not impact gasoline supplies for seven to ten years and the target market for this supply would be in China. More importantly, no American voting in the next election should be complacent with the prospect of driving a gasoline-powered vehicle ten years from today.

The American people have a single issue on the ballot: are we willing to allow big oil and special interests to dictate global policies of war and peace, environmental preservation, and economic stability? Are we willing to allow our children and grandchildren to kill and die for Exxon Mobil and Halliburton?

It’s time for America to embrace the obvious and reject the absurd. Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and their entire multi-billion dollar propaganda machine must laugh themselves to sleep at night when they consider the following: for eight years they were successfully able to convince the American people that the American heartland, with the most powerful military in the world; with the most technologically sophisticated intelligence apparatus known to science; one which boasts of the ability to read a license plate from outer space; is under constant threat of attack by an international terrorist network with a capacity to strike at a moment’s notice that is commanded by three individuals operating from a cave in Afghanistan. Nice work Dick. In the final analysis, even if the Republicans lose the Presidential election and every seat in the legislature, they will still be in power by order of the golden rule: he who has the gold, makes the rules.

Lookee all the droogs out for their usual Sunday stroll. The failed logic of the Texas dunce unable to comprehend that two wrongs don't make a right. The broken record child crying media foul. The crazy ramblings of the fence rattler and the resident dittohead from Springfield making the others seem sane. Just like any other day of the week I guess.

He protected us in our own country and made us feel safe after tragic events occured....
THANK YOU PRESIDENT BUSH!

Posted by: Shaking the fence-Teresa-HA! | August 3, 2008 1:34 PM

THANX.
Your comments, in their entirety, will go into the Django archive. NO president can be expected to have a perfect outcome in every decision that has to be made over 4 or 8 years in office, and that would include anyone that is willing, for some reason, to take on this kind of responsibility.

I genuinely do not see all of this vague ' woe unto me and the World ' stuff flowing down from the evil team of Bush and Cheney each day, every day. Fencing with the Hate-ers is more than I really care to do on a fine, overcast Sunday. Thank you, Teresa.

Quinn- NO, you owe that debt to the Liberal Media. The very ones who are cheerleaders for the anger directed at Bush for the cost. I remember the news of Bush talking about the cost going to be taken from Iraqs oil. No one was even complaining at that time. It wasn't until the Lib Media got in there and started fear mongoring that Bush was going to take over all the Iraqi oil. They had everyone in this country up in arms and everyone over their upset, and that was the end of that plan. So, blame yourselves and Media for that little stunt, the media sold us all out because going their politics/hate of going after Bush went above and beyond all of us.

A reporter asked Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, "What is the major short coming of mankind"? Schweitzer's answer was short and to the point, he said; "Man doesn't think."

My challenge to McCain=Bush supporters is this. THINK; The economy was in good shape when Bush came to office. We did not have a deficit, we had a $127 billion surplus. Goldman Sachs forecasts that the federal deficit will skyrocket under the Bush Administration to a whopping $425 billion for year 2008 to and to $440 billion in 2009.

In Clinton's last year in office the nation borrowed 18 billion dollars. The first year Bush II was in office he had to borrow 133 billion. Congress raised the debt ceiling three times in three years to increase the government's borrowing authority by as much as $800 billion. The debt limit amounted to a grand total of more than $2 trillion during Bush's first term forcing the United States to borrow money from governments such as China and foreign investors. The more the interest we pay on this debt the less is available for health care, education and other programs. The debt is currently on track to reach the $6.5 trillion mark by 2011.

Bush Tax Cuts has created the largest deficit ever, leaving future generations to pay the bill. The first tax cut Bush pushed through a willing Republican Congress caused an upswing in government borrowing that was supposed to stimulate the economy. Two years later Bush pushed through another tax cut because the first one did not work. In 2003, President Bush set a record for the biggest single yearly dollar increase in debt in the nation's history with his tax cutting with no cutting in spending. He did it again in 2004, increasing the debt more than half a trillion dollars. Since 2003 total borrowing has exceeded $500,000,000,000 per year. Even Mr. Reagan never increased the debt that much in a single year; Mr. Reagan's biggest increase was only 282 billion, half of GWB's outrageous spending.

The Post reported that White House budget director Joshua B. Bolton attributes 23% of the nation's deficit to the three successive Bush tax cuts. Sources: Washington Post, The "White House Foresees 5-Year Debt Increase of $1.9 Trillion" Two recently released Census Bureau reports show that median household income declined 1.1 percent in real terms from the 2001 figure to $42,409. The number of people in the US living in poverty has risen for the second year in a row to 34.6 million, an increase of nearly 3 million people since 2000. The proportion of Americans living in poverty increased to 12.1 percent in 2002 from 11.7 percent in 2001—an additional 1.7 million people in poverty. Sources: Frederick, Md. News-Post, Bush Tax Cuts Lead to Largest Deficit Ever, Leaving Future Generations to Shoulder the Burden.

Bush Claims He's Not Rich. Bush and first lady Laura Bush had income totaling $822,126 last year, and according to the Wall Street Journal, their net worth is somewhere between $7.7 and $18.9 million. Under Bush, The Rich Get Richer. The Associated Press reports that the total net worth of America's richest people rose 10 percent to $955 billion this year from 2002.

The McCains have a net worth around $40 million, almost all of it from Cindy's holdings. The Obamas' net worth is closer to $4 million, most of it earned from Barack's two recent books. John McCain supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent rather than allowing them to expire, as they are scheduled to do under current law. Now, John McCain runs around saying things like, "The Democrats have already ... told us they will increase our taxes." Who do you think McCain means when he says "our"?

Bush=McCain, has had 7 years with a republican congress to correct the employment problems in this country and he has done little or nothing to help American workers. Now McCain is trying to con the workers into believing that he will solve their problems if they vote for him. McCain has the insensitivity to arrogantly tell workers at a factory in Belleville, Mich., Thursday: (07-10-08) that "America is hurting today. Michigan is hurting today." What an insult to their intelligence, they know that because they are the ones that are hurting. This is pre-election rhetoric (BS) to get the working peoples votes by conning them into believing that he is sensitive to their plight and that he will create good jobs for them. If America is cursed by some fluke that McCain gains the presidency he will help the working class just as he has done in the past which is nothing. McCain's constituency is the wealthy class that he belongs to which is the oil companies, the war machine and the corporate CEO hogs. McCain will continue to lavish them with tax breaks and corporate subsidies at the expense of the working class.

McCain's lifetime rating from the ACU, considered the authority on conservative rankings, is that 82.3% of McCain's votes supported Bush's policies. McCain=Bush is a strong supporter of the Iraq war which is a major contributor to the deficit and supports a long term military occupation of Iraq.

The Republicans have had eight years to improve the economy, you decide from the facts, have they?

THINK! Do you want more of the McSame. (AKA McCain)

"Mission Accomplished".
The oil companies and Halliburton have had a very profitable 7 years. At out expense.
The reason you saw GHWBush weeping at Kinnebunkport (f/k/a Walker's Landing) was he knows he'll be tarred with the same brush as his dyslexic alcoholic son.
(Not that he was much better: "thousand points of light" probably never really meant anything more than a thousand explosions of ordnance, and Americans with Disabilities Act has helped precious few Americans with disabilities, the way it's been limited by the Bush judiciary).
Anyway, my personal view is that this election will test two issues above all: is the electorate stupid enough to believe America has "won" anything in Iraq other than generations of enmity from a rather large seqment of the world population, and is it still racist enough to reject a candidate as superlative as Barack because of his (perceived) race.

Don't forget that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt interned 15,000 European Americans during World War II. Among those interned were almost 11,000 German Americans; many of whom were deported, including US-born infants and children. For more on this please visit http://www.foitimes.com

I strongly support McCain. He plans to do away with those costly EAR MARKS that some of you bring up (the debt).

Every war there has ever been, we've had debt. That's the nature of the beast. Sitting back waiting for an attack from Saddam would be rediculous, especially given the chances he had to come clean on WMD. Bush was a on board with a line of presidents who were given the same intel on Saddam. The threat was something you can look back on (there's evidence ha) and hear both parties speak to. I heard that there was an interview with Saddam just before he died where he admitted to deliberately making it appear that he had WMD. He said he did that because he wanted Iran to be affraid to mess with him.....well, guess what, that back fired ha!

Obama just got in there on his nice little vacation abroad, and interfered with negotiations between the Bush admin and Maliki. He tried, in ONE DAY, to negotiate us leaving. That was the most appaling part of his entire trip (after the troops weren't visited). You can not negotiate something that big in a day, and the part that really was a kicker, is that he tried to give away the kitchen sink. He looked like a medaling BOOB! Those negotiations are still going on to this day because it's a complicated process and America won't just agree to everything they want so as to have this ablility to say that we are the most liked and that we all get along ha (duh).

You can vote Mr Green in if you like, but I want someone who isn't affraid NOT TO GET ALONG with someone else ha.

The Bush legacy is summed by one word: stupidity.

Stupid will be remembered as the worst. a legacy of death, debt and deceit...he's a real hero. There is so much he could have done but he chose to squander 8 years. It will take decades to undo what he has done.