Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

Honestly, I have been having this same thought. From here.

If you had any illusions that Gitmo was about prosecutions...

...this may change your mind. The Washington Post has found that there were in fact no plans to create case files on detainees. Instead, files were kept broken up across multiple agencies and never integrated with an eye towards a court date.

Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.

While I have supported George W Bush in general, I always felt Guantanamo was an overreaction that could not be supported long-term.

George W Bush's Farewell Address

Since George Washington printed a letter in the papers as his "Farewell Address" after 8 years of governance, it has become somewhat of a tradition for presidents to give some sort of presentation of their parting thoughts. Last night, George W Bush gave his. I will admit that I did not watch it live, but used the linked text of the speech to review his farewell. I would argue the key paragraph is this...

As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before Nine-Eleven. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our Nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.

This is the Bush presidency, at its worst and best, in a single sentence. Every unexplained decision, every failure of philosophy, every frustration for liberals and conservatives alike is explained by this. For GWB, 9/11 was the defining moment for everything that came after.

It will be interesting to see what a post-9/11 president looks like in Obama. Or if he will be eventually pressed into the same mold.

Pausing... to reflect

GWB Sends Thank Yous to Every Soldier Killed in Iraq and Afghanistan

There is plenty to fault President George W. Bush for. The handling of Katrina, the War in Iraq, the economic collapse, the flawed bailouts... the list goes on. But it is important to remember that even in the depth of ones popularity, no president is all wrong. Consider the latest news that the president personally wrote letters to the families of every soldier who died in Iraq and Afghanistan to thank them for their sacrifice.

"I do get a little emotional because it's - I'm genuine when I say I'll miss being the commander in chief," the president told The Times. "I am in awe of our military. And I hold these folks in great respect. And I also sincerely appreciate the sacrifices that their families make."

Whether you agree with the War or not, we need to honor military families who have given the ultimate sacrifice in serving their country. And those who were willing, but did not have to give it. It is impossible to overestimate how much we owe the men and women who have served the country under all manners of commanders and chief.

Gotta admit, I had not seen it this way

From Townhall.Com

What the "Shoe Throwing Incident" really means

Much is being made of an incident over the weekend where an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush. The touching of the soles of ones shoes to a person is considered a great insult in the Iraqi culture, and the journalist intended to condemn the poor job Bush has done in the war and the suggestion that Americans could be in the country for many years to come.'

The incident is being viewed by many as a repudiation of Bush and a major international incident. But it should be seen as what it truly is. A sign of a slowly maturing democracy, where people are confident enough in the protection of their freedom that they can protest without fear of reprisal. Do we think in the culture of Sadaam Hussein's Iraq that such a thing could happen without someone dying? Do we think it is even possible today in nearby friendly countries like Saudi Arabia? Nope. This is a sign that Iraqis - while upset at the situation in many ways - are confident that they have freedoms and that they will be protected. This is a good thing.

Who is this guy?

I just have to ask. Is there ANY relation between the guy who ran for President in 2000 and 2004, and the one who is allowing the mutating bailout to continue without any controls? It is like invasion of the body snatchers.

How much power do we give to the unelected?

The direction of the Bush Bailout - and most especially the insistence that it be passed without amendment - troubles me more by the day. There is first the question of the wisdom of the bailout itself, but I am willing to accept a general idea of it as the tourniquet to staunch the bleeding. But second is the way it is being handled - drawing yet more power into the Executive Branch. George Will has up a new column which succinctly summarizes the main problems with the current process.

Rep. Barney Frank, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, says: "No one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to spend as he sees fit. ... That's not the way to run a democracy." Frank is properly punctilious about a fundamental principle of American governance -- legislative control of public funds. But a fundamental principle of American political economy is that no elected person should exercise virtually unfettered discretion with such sums of taxpayers' money.

Are we really ready to entrust this level of social control to the Bush administration and the Fed? I am not sure I'd trust this much unchecked power in the hands of my best friend or even my own mother. How much less an unelected bureaucrat?

Scary quotes on the Bush Bailout

Some scary quotes from Marketwatch.Com. It does nothing to ease the concerns about the Bush Bailout.

"You can draw some valid parallels between the prosecution of the war under the Bush regime and the way the financial sector has operated in recent years," said Tom Schlesinger, head of the nonprofit research group Financial Markets Center in Howardsville, Va.
"It fails the most basic test of democratic accountability," Schlesinger said...

"It is no wonder that the Bush administration is pressing to get the plan passed quickly before any real oversight can be brought to bear, because even the simplest due diligence suggests that it needs some work if the taxpayer's interests are to be even minimally protected and some real oversight brought to bear on the whole process," wrote Josh Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc. in a note to clients.

Rhetorical Question: What do you do?

So, you're greatest political fumble of all time is a little thing called "Katrina." In this debacle, your chosen man failed to get aid to people in a time of emergency and left them hungry and living in squalor. (Say what you will about local authorities dropping the ball, the public perception is the failure was all FEMA's.) This event was a flood, due to a failed levee. And this one event can easily be seen as the turning point when you lost the faith of the American people.

Now, a levee has failed in Iowa and the city is flooded. Nearly an identical situation, from a high-level. So, what do you do?

Apparently, you go for photo ops at tea parties in Europe.

Sigh. Can someone please call up the President and tell him unless he comes home immediately to tour the area, he has extinguished ANY hope for the Republican party to even maintain its numbers in the fall?

So when is a crime not a crime?

Sigh.

President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak investigation Monday, delivering a political thunderbolt in the highly charged criminal case. Bush said the sentence was just too harsh.

Bush's move came just five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay his prison term. That meant Libby was likely to have to report soon, and it put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

''I respect the jury's verdict,'' Bush said in a statement. ''But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.''

Honestly, I still support the War, I still support Afghanistan, I opposed the immigration bill but respected GWB's stand. But this - while predictable and the right of the president - I find completely reprehensible.

OK, now all of the Libby supporters can tell me how this is morally right, despite all of our condemnations of Bill Clinton for doing the same thing.

Bush vs Bush

Even as a Bush supporter, I have to admit this is funny.

Dow 30K!

Yesterday, I was reading a somewhat paranoid and highly critical discussion about the GWB presidency. I then came across a liberal whose comment was mystifying to me. It made the claim that this was "the worst economy since the Great Depression with the highest unemployment ever." Hunh? I am hoping the comment was made before the Dow hit 13,000 which is the highest level it has ever reached, which was pushed largely by unexpected drops in unemployment which was already very low.

There are many things to criticize about the George W Bush Administration. But somehow, I do not think the state of the economy is one of them.