JackRabbit Cafe: bush

Showing posts with label bush. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

That's A Bad Sign.

No.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

When It Comes To George W. Bush, His Silence Is Golden.

Dubya never could tell the truth...

From ThinkProgress.com:

After initially stating that he wanted President Obama to “succeed” and that he owed Obama his “silence,” President Bush yesterday decided to reverse course and criticize the President. The former President took aim at Obama’s desire to introduce a public health insurance option for Americans:

"There are a lot of ways to remedy the situation without nationalizing health care,” Mr. Bush said. “I worry about encouraging the government to replace the private sector when it comes to providing insurance for health care.”

Asked by the evening emcee at the 104th annual Manufacturer and Business Association meeting if he finds the new president’s policies “socialist,” Mr. Bush started then stopped.

"I hear a lot of those words, but it depends on…,” he said, breaking off. He later offered a more diplomatic assessment: “We’ll see.”

From Salon.com:

Former President George W. Bush has said he's not going to directly criticize his successor, at least not in public. And he said it again Wednesday, before making some more indirect criticisms of President Obama and his policies.

From the Washington Times:

Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector -- not government -- will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care.

"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."

Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president, who has moved to take over financial institutions and several large corporations. Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.

"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States."

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

During a question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush recounted tough decisions he made in office. Still steely, the former president said he left Washington with the same moral resolve. "When I look in the mirror, I say, 'He did not sell his soul for short-term politics.'"

He's right. He sold his soul for his politics of two-term incompetence.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Taking A Stroll On The High Road.

The Obamas went to the theater in New York last night.

Yet another opportunity to be reminded that right-wingers are flat-out assholes.

From Politico.com:

The Republican National Committee slammed the outing in an "RNC Research Piece": "As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills. ... Have a great Saturday evening – even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense. ... PUTTING ON A SHOW: Obamas Wing Into The City For An Evening Out While Another Iconic American Company Prepares For Bankruptcy."

The RNC's Gail Gitcho added: "If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the Presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?”

I'm not sure, Gail. But then you're probably not used to anybody going out without a hood, a gas mask or some kind of a f******hose.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

You Can Fool 37 To 41% Of The People All Of The Time.

From CNN:

The same day Dick Cheney delivered a major speech on the battle against terrorism, a new national poll suggests that favorable opinions of the former vice president are on the rise.

But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Wednesday morning, indicates that a majority of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of Cheney.

Fifty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say they have an unfavorable opinion of the former vice president. Thirty-seven percent say they have a favorable opinion of Cheney, up eight points from January when he left office.

In the past two months the former vice president has become a frequent critic of the new Administration in numerous national media interviews.

“Is Cheney’s uptick due to his visibility as one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration? Almost certainly not,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Former President George W. Bush's favorable rating rose six points in that same time period, and Bush has not given a single public speech since he left office.”

The poll suggests that 41 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the former president, with 57 percent viewing him unfavorably.

What have I learned from this poll? Nothing. I already knew that at least 37% and possibly as many as 41% of Americans are knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing dipshits.

Friday, May 1, 2009

6 Years Ago Today: "Mission Accomplished."

On that day six years ago when George W. Bush claimed "Mission Accomplished" in his dirty little war, 139 Americans had been killed and 542 wounded.

Today, almost 4,300 Americans have been killed in Iraq, and over 31,000 wounded.

Bush, meanwhile, is a reviled ex-president living in Texas and busy trying to create a false legacy while raising money for a presidential library that will be a complete waste of money and time. Even his own party has rejected him.

And that's his real legacy and the only mission he ever accomplished.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

"Experience Is Simply The Name We Give Our Mistakes."

Thanks to Oscar Wilde for the quote, and thanks for nothing to The Dick and The Dickier.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Tortured Logic.

Defending himself against critics who have said that he is trying to do too much at once, President Obama has said repeatedly that an administration has to be able to tackle multiple issues simultaneously.

They couldn't squeeze this one in?

From Sam Stein of the Huffington Post:

Remarks made by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod on Monday provide the clearest indication to date that the White House is not only uninterested in pursuing investigations of Bush officials involved in torture but views them as a distraction from a larger governing agenda.

Speaking before the Religious Action Center, a Reform Judaism advocacy organization, Axelrod warned against re-litigating the past, arguing that the current White House didn't need such a distraction when it already had so much on its plate.

"The president believes strongly that we need to be looking forward," said Axelrod. "If he had not banned these [interrogation techniques] there would be a different case to be made here. But these practices are a thing of the past. What this should not become is a forum for re-litigating these issues apropos to the last administration and some of the policy makers there, because we have too much work to do to become bogged down in that debate. That's the feeling."

The remarks, which Axelrod acknowledged would come as a disappointment to the largely progressive crowd, are a step further than the Obama White House has largely been willing to go on the issue of investigating the Bush years.

The president himself has said that if illegalities were proven it would be the obligation of his Justice Department to investigate and/or prosecute them. And while, also on Monday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated the president's preference for moving "the country forward" he did not, like Axelrod, qualify why it was that Obama was disinclined to look back.

"The President does believe and the Attorney General said quite clearly that those that believed in good faith that these techniques had been declared legal by the Department of Justice should not be prosecuted," Gibbs explained.

Indeed, the line from the White House, especially in wake of the release of the Bush-era torture memos, has been to stress that those techniques have now been outlawed and pivot to another question. Axelrod tried the line too, stressing that the president closed this "dark chapter in our history" by shutting down Guantanamo Bay and ending the practice of torture. Forgoing investigations, he added, was not an easy one to make, as evident by the four weeks of consultation Obama took to evaluate the matter.

"We do have real threats in the world and a national security apparatus that has to confront those threats every single day," Axelrod added. "And what [Obama] has said is he does not believe we should prosecute those people who were told that these [techniques] were with the legal parameters for interrogation, and then go back and say, 'You know what, they really weren't, so now you are going to be prosecuted.'"