The legacy of President George W. Bush

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If anyone has read or heard about what the CIA was allegedly doing in some of these "enhanced interrogation techniques"-threatening to kill children, watch your mothers are sexually assaulted, use of power drills, mock execution of fellow prisoners, and probably much more.


(CNN) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney is again taking aim at President Obama, issuing a statement Monday suggesting the administration's decision to name a prosecutor to investigate CIA interrogations under President Bush fuels "doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security."

"The people involved deserve our gratitude," Cheney said in the statement. "They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions."

The former vice president also said documents released Monday prove enhanced interrogation techniques yieled valuable information that "provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda"

"This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks," Cheney said. "These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002."

"The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States," he added.

Late Monday, the government released declassified CIA documents originally requested last May by Cheney. The former vice president had argued they would show enhanced interrogation techniques saved lives.

While analysis in the documents says information from detainee interrogations "helped thwart a number of al-Qaida plots" and "arrests…disrupted attack plans in progress," it remains unclear from the heavily redacted documents whether that information was obtained through the enhanced interrogation techniques Cheney defends.

The documents' release came the same day Attorney General Eric Holder asked federal prosecutor John Durham to examine whether CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists were illegal after the release of a 2004 CIA inspector general's report into further questionable interrogation techniques.
 
Some interesting stuff..

Bush In 2008: "I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married"

Speechwriter Matt Latimer's new book trains its gaze on the lunacy of the late-era Bush White House. And there was plenty of material.

Sounds like it might be a good read!

Bush, when told that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig had been the latest GOPer to be caught in a sex scandal involving boys or men: "What is up with all these Republicans?"

....

Laura Bush, says Latimer, "was secretly a Democrat for all intents and purposes, though it really wasn't much of a secret."
 
Popularity fleeting, former president tells seminar crowd | Local News | Star-Telegram.com

Former President George W. Bush told more than 11,000 people at the Fort Worth Convention Center that he was confident he made the right decisions as president, even if it hurt his popularity.

“Every single day I was honored to be your president by bringing honor and dignity to the office,” Bush said Monday afternoon, during his first foray into motivational speaking, at the day-long "Get Motivated" seminar.

Bush, who now lives in Dallas, spoke in a relaxed tone about a few lessons he'd learned in life, including sticking to your principles and living each day to its fullest.

“It’s so simple in life to chase popularity, but popularity is fleeting," Bush said. "It’s not real."

When the president left office in January 2009, his approval ratings hovered in the low 20s and 30s, depending upon the polling agency.

Bush assured the families of war veterans that he wouldn't sell out "their loved ones for the sake of pure politics."

"And let me tell you," he continued. "I never did.”

The former president also emphasized the importance of generosity, noting how many people were surprised when he promised billions in aid to Africa to fight the AIDS epidemic.

“Apparently Republicans aren’t supposed to be compassionate, so it was a shock," Bush said.

Bush also spoke about his faith, promising everyone in the audience that those people who prayed for him and his wife while they lived in the Oval Office made the first couple's lives better.

“From a personal perspective, I don’t see how you can be president without relying upon an almighty," Bush said.

When he spoke about his economic outlook, Bush’s remarks sounded like a Republican Party stump speech.

“Another principle I believe in is that you can spend your money better than the government can,” Bush said to huge applause.

He added later: “The marketplace works. It is fair. It is equitable. It is a fair form of democracy.”

At the end of his speech, Bush received a standing ovation.
 
Ah George. . .

You know, I never felt he was evil. Just not very competent. . .with disastorous results. I actually agree with his principles of not chasing popularity.

It's just, if you're wrong, you're wrong whether that's the popular conception or not.
 
I have to laugh...

I never heard one Republican moan about his spending while in office, yet now they all say that they didn't agree with Bush on his spending and TARP, but yet they applaud him when he says something like this...

:lol:
 
I have to laugh...

I never heard one Republican moan about his spending while in office, yet now they all say that they didn't agree with Bush on his spending and TARP, but yet they applaud him when he says something like this...

:lol:

Um... works both ways, you know.

Democrats didn't stop complaining about the deficit spending the last 8 years, but now they seem pretty silent, yourself included, despite the debt and the deficit skyrocketing.
 
I spoke about the deficit spending of a war of choice from a Republican and how on his watch we drove ourself to this economy, what did you do?
 
no question.

people need flat-screen TVs, not roads and schools and a fire department.

Wow. Talk about selective hearing. Is this how you interpret statements from everybody you hate, even when the statement is clear, obvious, logical, and something 99% of the population would agree with?

And am I left to believe that you think the government can my spend money on things more worthy to me than I can?

By the way, show me any legitimate conservative who opposes paying any taxes.
 
I spoke about the deficit spending of a war of choice from a Republican and how on his watch we drove ourself to this economy, what did you do?

So that's a no? You don't have a problem with Obama's spending, and you're fine with every dime he is adding to the deficit?
 
And am I left to believe that you think the government can my spend money on things more worthy to me than I can?



yes.

unless you can build your own bridges, roads, schools, stealth bombers, etc.

there are many problem that only government has the organizational capacity to address, charity and being a nice person only goes so far.

the government is simply a tool, it's neither inherently good nor bad. in some situations, it's the best tool, in others it's not.
 
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Can we blame it all on Bush? Some will of course but not me. No getting around it being a shitty* decade however.



*except for 3 U2 albums and tours, a Colts Super Bowl and maybe something else that I'll think of.
 
here's something we can blame on Bush:


Rumsfeld decision allowed Bin Laden to escape: Senate report

by Andrew Gully
Sun Nov 29, 3:07 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Osama bin Laden was "within the grasp" of US forces in late 2001 but escaped because then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected calls for reinforcements, a US Senate report says.

Dated for release Monday, the hard-hitting study comes as President Barack Obama prepares to announce a major escalation of the Afghan conflict, now in its ninth year, with the expected deployment of some 34,000 more US troops.

It points the finger directly at Rumsfeld for turning down requests for reinforcements as Bin Laden was trapped in December 2001 in caves and tunnels in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan known as Tora Bora.

"The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the marine corps and the army, was kept on the sidelines," the report says.
"Instead, the US command chose to rely on airstrikes and untrained Afghan militias to attack Bin Laden and on Pakistan's loosely organized Frontier Corps to seal his escape routes."

Entitled "Tora Bora revisited: how we failed to get Bin Laden and why it matters today," the report commissioned by Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says Bin Laden expected to die and had even written a will.
"But the Al-Qaeda leader would live to fight another day. Fewer than 100 American commandos were on the scene with their Afghan allies and calls for reinforcements to launch an assault were rejected.

"Requests were also turned down for US troops to block the mountain paths leading to sanctuary a few miles away in Pakistan.

"The decision not to deploy American forces to go after Bin Laden or block his escape was made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his top commander, General Tommy Franks," the report says.

"On or around December 16, two days after writing his will, Bin Laden and an entourage of bodyguards walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area. Most analysts say he is still there today."
Rumsfeld's argument at the time, the report says, was that deploying too many American troops could jeopardize the mission by creating an anti-US backlash among the local populace.

The report, which Kerry says in a foreword "relies on new and existing information," dismisses statements from Franks, Vice President Dick Cheney and others defending the decision and arguing that the intelligence was inconclusive about Bin Laden's location.

"The review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants underlying this report removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp at Tora Bora."

The report admits that capturing or killing the Al-Qaeda leader, accused of orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people, would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat.

"But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed Bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide," it says.

"The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism, leaving the American people more vulnerable to terrorism, laying the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan."

Kerry points out at the beginning of the report that when the United States went to war less than one month after the September 11 attacks, the mission was clear: to destroy Al-Qaeda and kill or capture Bin Laden.

"Today, more than eight years later, we find ourselves fighting an increasingly lethal insurgency in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan that is led by many of those same extremists," he says.

"Our inability to finish the job in late 2001 has contributed to a conflict today that endangers not just our troops and those of our allies, but the stability of a volatile and vital region."
 
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