Dubya: Please Don't Call Them MY Tax Cuts, Nuance

While on his book tour, President George W. Bush expressed his doubts over the wisdom of including his name, when people discuss the tax cuts that he signed into law 10 years ago:

Former President George W. Bush appeared on the Scott Hennen Show today and spoke a bit about his namesake tax reform that is the subject of hot debate in Congress right now. His opinion? The tax cuts would be less controversial if they weren’t called the “Bush tax cuts.”

Here's the part of the interview transcript where Bush expressed this concern:

HENNEN: I did a little analysis of three most used words over the last, I don’t know, three or four months here for sure, and they are Bush tax cuts. It’s everywhere right now with this debate going on. You talk obviously about the economic crisis and the financial crisis in your book and it’s obviously right now recognition of members of congress of both sides that we need to keep your tax policy in place. Does that feel like a vindication?

BUSH: Well I wish they would have called it something other than the Bush tax cuts and therefore would have been less angst amongst some to pass it, but I do believe it’s very important to send the signal to our entrepreneurs and our families that the government trusts them to spend their own money. And I happen to believe lower taxes is what stimulates economic growth and what we need now in our country is economic growth.

I'm know that it must get the left's gourd to keep giving Bush credit for any tax cuts for the middle class. A few would love to let them expire just to pass them next year, and then, they can call it the Obama tax cuts, instead. However, most on the Democrats wouldn't hurt the economy just out of spite. Most that are saying this are lefty bloggers.

Let's go back to Bush's point that it might be easier to pass the bill, if it would just be tax cuts instead of the Bush tax cuts. In the end, I don't think that it'll really matter. The Democrats would still be for letting taxes go up on the rich and for extending the rest of them, regardless of what they are called.

Palate Cleanser: Dubya Job Approval Rises to 47%, While Obama Falls to 45%

This is just an interesting FYI from a Gallup poll that was released yesterday:

Notice President George W. Bush’s approval is at 47 percent.

Meanwhile, Gallup also finds President Obama’s current approval is… 45 percent.

Much of this rebound can be attributed to hindsight being 20/20, time healing the wounds of the economic crisis, or whatever other cliche that you want to use.

Many people are watching him on his interviews on his book tour and reading his book, and they are realizing that he didn't do as bad as a job as they may have thought in the heat of the economic crisis in the final months of his presidency.

Will he ever be considered the best modern president? Probably not, but when it is all said and done, he'll wind up somewhere in the middle.

Time: Hey, Dubya Might Have Voted For Obama in '08?

Did Bush cement his RINO label by oting for Obama in 2008?

Over the past week, former President George W. Bush has been giving us little appetizers in advance of the main course that is his new book, ranging from his thoughts on former Vice President Dick Cheney to his hurt feelings over Kanye West's comments post Katrina. But now, a real kicker: Did Bush support presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008? (via Financial Times)

During the 2008 presidential campaign a group of British officials, which included then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, visited Bush in the Oval Office, the newspaper reported. The meeting came a short time after the president had endorsed Sen. John McCain in the election. During a light chat about the upcoming vote in which they expected Bush to say something nice about his one time Republican rival, he reportedly told the group, "I probably won't even vote for the guy.”

Whoah. Full stop. Come again?

"I had to endorse him," Bush said. "But I'd have endorsed Obama if they'd asked me.

Of course, there is no way to prove that any of this actually happened. None of the principals allegedly involved in this conversation are admitting anything.

Starting during the 2000 presidential campaign, rumors have swirled saying that Bush and McCain don't have the best relationship, cantankerous at best, and Bush didn't have too many flattering things to say about McCain in his book. Even so, I couldn't see Bush endorsing or much less voting for the ultra-liberal Obama over McCain, no matter what his personal feelings toward the Arizona senator are.

This is such a non-story that I wonder why Time even bothered to post it.

ACLU Looks to Prosecute Bush for Waterboarding Admission

The ACLU is looking to take advantage of Bush's admission in recent interviews that he authorized the water-boarding of three terrorists, while in office, and call for former President George W Bush to be prosecuted for torture:

Former President George W. Bush seemed content as “the retired guy” on The O’Reilly Factor last night, but if the American Civil Liberties Union has anything to do with it, that retirement probably won’t be quite as peaceful as he envisioned.

In his new book, Decision Points, Bush details how he authorized the waterboarding of certain terror suspects, even though the practice is largely considered to be a form of torture and was since banned by the U.S. Well, the ACLU isn’t happy with the admission – and they think it’s worth a criminal investigation.

From a letter from the ACLU to attorney general Eric Holder:

“The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President’s acknowledgment that he authorized torture is absolutely without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president. That founding principle of our democracy would mean little if it were ignored with respect to those in whom the public most invests its trust. It would also be profoundly unfair for [Assistant U.S. Attorney John] Durham to focus his inquiry on low-level officials charged with implementing official policy but to ignore the role of those who authorized or ordered the use of torture.”

While it’s a bit hard to imagine Holder actually following through on that request, considering the firestorm that would undoubtedly follow, the ACLU isn’t the only group making this kind of statement: Amnesty International recently said Bush must be prosecuted in the wake of his admission. Either way, none of this talk is likely to faze Bush. If anything is clear from his frank admissions and recent interviews to promote Decision Points, it’s that this is someone at peace with what he did as president…and someone who’d much rather leave the fierce debate over his actions to everyone else.

I highly doubt that anything will come of this. It would set a very bad precedent, and it could conceivably open the door to prosecutions of all presidents for their military operations. Clinton could be prosecuted for bombing Iraq, or Obama could be prosecuted for anything that has gone on in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.

The ACLU is just looking to embarrass Bush and keep public opinion low on him just when his approval numbers are starting to creep above Obama's.

Hmmm Change: PPP: Who Do Want to Be President: Obama 50%, Bush 44%

Considering that Bush's final approval rating was a beyond dismal 22%, this is an amazing turnaround:

Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama’s declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective for Democrats anymore, which is good news generally for Republicans and especially ones like Rob Portman who are running for office and have close ties to the former President.

Hat/tip: Allahpundit of Hot Air

To Be a Fly on the Wall: Obama Speaks to Bush Recently, Keeps Silent About What Was Said

Interesting little tidbit I found:

President Barack Obama says he's spoken with former President George W. Bush since taking office. But the current commander in chief is keeping mum about the details.

Obama says that even though he's been president for only a few months, he thinks having a general policy of keeping confidence with former presidents is important.

It's especially important since it seems that he doesn't always know what he's doing. I wonder if there was a "Sorry, George for all of the things that I have said and continue to say about you even though I've been proven dead wrong" in there somwhere. Probably not.

It would be interesting to know whether any conversations with Dubya led to Obama's reversals on military tribunals or the slow down on the closure of Gitmo.

Obama Erases Bush's Twittering Past

Believe it or not Obama Obama wasn't the first president to use Twitter:

Barack Obama 's Webheads are getting ready to launch a new Twitter feed for President Change. But the White House already had a Twitter account. It has disappeared down the memory hole.

Given the widespread belief that Obama invented the Internet, many will scoff at the idea that the Bush White House had a Twitter account. But it did -- and the administration handed over twitter.com/thewhitehouse at noon on Inauguration Day, just like it did with the whitehouse.gov website . Google still has the old account, with Obama's tweets, in its cache.

Actually, Al Gore invented the internet. Obama just perfected the use of it.

Obama didn't just take over the account:

Obama's Twitterers didn't just change the username on the account ; they started fresh, wiping out all of the White House's existing Twitter followers, and the entire archive of messages.

I hope there aren't any presidential historians or high school students for that matter who want to do research on how the presidents used the new media. They would be SOL to find anything related to Bush's Twittering not because he didn't do it but because Obama had the audacity to pretend that there was no other president before him.

What was the purpose of deleting all of the Bush era tweets, followers, etc? The only reason I can think of is spite and hatred for Dubya.

David Axelrod: Bush More of a "Statesman" Than Cheney, To Axelrod: Define Statesman

My Thoughts

This again shows what it actually takes for a Democrat to compliment and like a Republican. They need to shut up and let them do what they want.

The main difference between what Bush and Cheney have done since leaving office is that Bush has refused to say anything about what he thinks of Obama's plans and policies. On the other hand, Cheney hasn't been shy to tell anyone that will listen that he doesn't like what Obama has been doing so far.

In response to what Axelrod actually said about Al-Quaeda still being around after 7 years, it is a fact that they haven't been able to hit us domestically since 9/11. Is that fact lost on him? While it is true that they are still around, their ability to actually pull something significant off has been severely crippled. They have been virtually impotent over the last 7 years. They've been mostly cornered in a small part of Pakistan. The only reason why we can't go into Pakistan and retrieve them is that it would mean invading a third country and adding another stage to the War on Terror. We are just not able to pull it off militarily or willing to ostracize an ally.

Biden Takes Credit For Bush's Plan

Biden brags about stimulus in N.C.
By Mark Johnson - Staff Writer
Published: Thu, Apr. 02, 2009 02:00AM

PIKEVILLE -- Vice President Joe Biden brought a clear message to this tiny Eastern North Carolina town Wednesday: The federal recovery money isn't just for big banks and auto companies.

Biden and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a new wave of $10.4 billion in federal stimulus money for home loans across the country, and billions more for essential services in rural communities such as Pikeville, which is getting money for a new fire station. Biden used the outdated, current station as a backdrop. Pikeville is just north of Goldsboro in Wayne County.

"We're investing in places like this all across the country," Biden said, "to demonstrate the vital role towns like this play in the recovery."

Most of the money for the station that was announced Wednesday, however, had been secured last year under the Bush administration, according to fire department officials.

State Sen. David Rouzer, a Republican who represents Pikeville and worked in the Agriculture Department under President Bush, said he helped secure the fire department money last year out of the federal agency's regular programs.

"They're coming in and cherry picking the best projects and switching out the money, saying it's stimulus money," Rouzer said. "But it was already approved and in the pipeline. It's totally disingenuous to come down here and say this is stimulus money, when regardless of whether a stimulus bill passed, they were getting the money."

The Obama administration is working to draw attention to money for rural communities, where gravel roads and volunteer fire departments are the norm. The moves come as irritation and anger are rising over federal money that has been streaming to Wall Street, banks and car companies.

Biden and Vilsack talked Wednesday about grants that are being parceled out for water systems, police stations, hospitals and fire stations. Earlier in the day, they visited Goshen Medical Center in Faison, where $635,000 in federal money will help hire two doctors, two nurses and three administrative workers.

Pikeville, where nearly all residents live below the poverty line, will receive $150,000 in grants and a $1 million loan toward the $1.3 million cost of the new fire station, said Fire Chief Wesley Wooten.

It is expected to create several months of work for the contractor, who has sat idle since late last year, he said.

A few volunteer firefighters perched on their trucks to watch Biden and snap photos. Fewer than 80people squeezed into metal folding chairs in the bays that normally hold pumper trucks."

These people are smart people," Wooten said. "Eventually, they'll see the effect."

Biden and Vilsack also talked about money being made available through the Department of Agriculture for low-cost home loans in rural areas.

A wave of new loans, though, sounds like a repeat of what created the recession, said John Tyndall, a volunteer firefighter and corn and soybean farmer who attended the Biden event.

"They gave out loans to people who couldn't pay 'em back," Tyndall said.

Wilbur "Andy" Anderson is the county commissioner for the district that includes the fire department, and one of two Republicans on the board of commissioners. He was not invited to the event in Pikeville, but offered his take later on what Biden had said.

"It'll help people," Anderson said, "but I don't see where it'll create a lot of jobs in the immediate future."

UPDATE

Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday disputed statements by officials from a volunteer fire department in North Carolina and a state senator about when the fire department's recently announced loan and grants for a new fire station were approved.

Leaders of the Pikeville Pleasant Grove Volunteer Fire Department and N.C. Sen. David Rouzer, a Republican, said Wednesday that the department had requested the $1 million loan and at least some of the $150,000 in grants last year and was working through the application process with the Bush administration.

The fire department's president, Russell Robertson, said he was told the loan was approved in December. Contract bids for the new station were put out in January, he said. Rouzer, who worked for the Agriculture Department in the Bush administration, accused the Obama administration of being disingenuous because Vice President Joe Biden, who visited the fire department Wednesday, announced that the fire department was receiving stimulus money through the Obama administration.

Robertson reiterated his December time frame Thursday morning. But after speaking with USDA officials, Robertson said later in the day that he had misunderstood the process. He said the fire department did not officially apply for the money until March 5. USDA provided a copy of the application with that date.

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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1468042.html
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My Thoughts

So, I guess the Obama administration give Bush all the blame for their bad behavior and take the credit for things Bush may have done right. They might as well. The Mainstream media will minimize and bury the story. Of course, as Dan Rather found out you can't misrepresent the facts for long these days with the rise of new media and bloggers like me calling them out on it. They will be found out in the end.

To Democrats: If It Walks Like A Surge, Talks Like a Surge, It's a Surge

My Thoughts

Can't they give Bush or Republicans any credit at all? They can't rewrite history. Bush and McCain were both right about the surge. The more Democrats refuse to admit this the more they will be seen as petty and juvenile by the voters.

Spanish Lawyers Diagnosed With Bush Derangement Syndrome, Updated: Added AP Video

Spanish Court Considers Criminal Case Against Ex-Bush Officials
Court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay.

AP Sunday, March 29, 2009

MADRID - A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.

Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.

The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

"The charges as related to me make no sense," Feith said Saturday. "They criticize me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated."

Yoo declined to comment. A message left at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco where Bybee is now a judge was not immediately returned. A message left at Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, Calif., where Haynes reportedly works as an attorney was not immediately returned.

Spanish law allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes under a doctrine of universal justice, though the government has recently said it hopes to limit the scope of the legal process.

Garzon became famous for bringing charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, and he and other Spanish judges have agreed to investigate alleged abuses everywhere from Tibet to Argentina's "dirty war," El Salvador and Rwanda.

Still, the country's record in prosecuting such cases has been spotty at best, with only one suspect extradited to Spain so far.

When a similar case was brought against Israeli officials earlier this year, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos assured his Israeli counterpart that the process would be quashed.

Even if indictments are eventually handed down against the U.S. officials, it is far from clear whether arrests would ever take place. The officials would have to travel outside the United States and to a country willing to take them into custody before possible extradition to Spain.

The officials are charged with providing a legal cover for interrogation methods like waterboarding against terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, which the Spanish human rights lawyers say amounted to torture.

Yoo, for instance, wrote a series of secret memos that claimed the president had the legal authority to circumvent the Geneva Conventions.

President George W. Bush always denied the U.S. tortured anyone. The U.S. has acknowledged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described plotter of Sept. 11, and a few other prisoners were waterboarded at secret CIA prisons before being taken to Guantanamo, but the Bush administration insisted that all interrogations were lawful.

Boye said he expected the National Court to take the case forward, and dismissed concerns that it would harm bilateral relations between the two countries.

He said that some of the victims of the alleged torture were Spaniards, strengthening the argument for Spanish jurisdiction.

"When you bring a case like this you can't stop to make political judgments as to how it might affect bilateral relations between countries," he told the AP." It's too important for that."

Boye noted that the case was brought not against interrogators who might have committed crimes but by the lawyers and other high-placed officials who gave cover for their actions.

"Our case is a denunciation of lawyers, by lawyers, because we don't believe our profession should be used to help commit such barbarities," he said.

Another lawyer with detailed knowledge of the case told the AP that Garzon's decision to consider the charges was "a significant first step." The lawyer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

There was no immediate comment from Garzon or the government.

The judge's decision to send the case against the American officials to prosecutors means it will proceed, at least for now. Prosecutors must now decide whether to recommend a full-blown investigation, though Garzon is not bound by their decision.

The proceedings against the Bush Administration officials could be embarrassing for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has been keen to improve ties with the United States after frosty relations during the Bush Administration.

Zapatero is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama for the first time on April 5 during a summit in Prague.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/03/29/spanish-court-considers-criminal-case-ex-bush-officials/
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My Thoughts

"When you bring a case like this, you can't stop to make political judgments as to how it might affect bilateral relations between countries. It's too important for that."-Boye

That's quote is a joke. It's all about politics. The probability that these charges will actually turn into an arrest warrant. Even if there are warrants are issued, there will be no chance at all that even the most liberal president in our history will extradite anyone to Spain or any other country that oversteps its boundries.

CNN's Heidi Collins: Today's Overspending Still Bush's Fault

CNN's Heidi Collins: Monstrous Spending Bill 'Is a Hold-Over From the Last Administration'
By Michael M. Bates
March 6, 2009 - 14:58 ET

On this morning's CNN Newsroom, anchor Heidi Collins gave Barack Obama some cover by characterizing the omnibus spending bill, larded with thousands of earmarks, as left over from the Bush administration:

A controversial $410 billion spending bill hits a snag in the Senate. This is the bill we've been talking about with about $8 billion in earmarks. Republicans and a few Democrats are mad about all that pork barrel spending. That led members from both parties to push President Obama to veto the bill.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid says the measure will be opened up for changes next week in an effort to gain more support. The bill is a hold-over from the last administration.

Collin's reporting comes straight from the Obama playbook.  Last Sunday on "This Week," Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag defended his boss's support for the measure:

"This is last year's business.  We want to just move on.  Let's get this bill done, get it into law and move forward."

It was originally drafted last year, but congressional Democrats didn't want to send it to President Bush, so it will only fund the government from April through September.

Paul Kane at The Washington Post points out that the bill is "leftover from last year's congressional agenda."

And the Associated Press reported yesterday on Senator John McCain's attempts to defeat the spending bill:

McCain took aim at the $410 billion spending bill to keep the government running, specifically Obama's willingness to accept thousands of pet projects that it would fund. Orszag, McCain noted, called the so-called earmarks "last year's business."

"Last year's business? Does that mean last year's president will sign this pork barrel bill?" McCain railed from the Senate floor. "It is the president's business. It is the business of the president of the United States."

No, Heidi, the omnibus bill working its way through Congress isn't a hold-over from the Bush administration.  Your saying so is evidence of what's become increasingly apparent: When it comes to covering up for Obama, the news readers at CNN are shovel ready.

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http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/michael-m-bates/2009/03/06/cnns-heidi-collins-monstrous-spending-bill-hold-over-last-administr
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My Thoughts

Michael pretty well said it all. The left can't keep blaming everything on Bush. The American people aren't stupid. They'll see it for what it is, subterfuge.

How can they blame today's spending bill on Bush? Obama is president not Bush. It is true they wrote the bill last year, but they didn't dare try and pass it. Why? The Democrats knew damn well that Pres. Bush would have vetoed it in a Gotham second. It was always written with Pres. Obama in mind not Bush.

Unless Obama wants to resign and appoint W. the president again, it isn't Bush's bill. It never really was. The Obama administration and the Democrats better start acknowledging their own culpability for the beginning of the recession and the continuous downward slide of the economy. They are not going to be able to hide behind W. for much longer.

Another Iraqi Election, Another Day Without Terrorism

Polls Close in Iraq Elections, No Major Violence Saturday, January 31, 2009

BAGHDAD —  Iraq's provincial elections have wrapped up without any reports of serious violence.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) on Saturday — an hour later than planned — after millions of voters cast ballots for influential regional councils around most of Iraq. There were no reports of major violence.

Iraqi authorities imposed a huge security operation around the country that included traffic bans in major cities and extensive checkpoints and surveillance posts. The U.S. military also was out in force but did not take a direct role in the election security.

Results from the elections are not expected before Tuesday.

Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote Saturday in provincial elections that are considered a crucial test of the nation's stability as U.S. officials weigh the pace of troop withdrawals.

Polls opened shortly after dawn after a step-by-step security clampdown across the country, including traffic bans in central Baghdad and other major cities and closure of border crossings and airports.

Though there was no major violence during voting, there were some disruptions at the polls.

A Kurdish official said hundreds of Iraqi Kurds stormed an election office in a disputed city after claiming many Kurds were not on voting lists for provincial elections. There were no reports of serious injuries.

The protest in Khanaqin on Saturday is part of lingering disputes over control of the city about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad. In August, Kurdish and Iraqi forces were locked in a tense standoff before the Kurds backed off.

Salahuddin Kekhaa, a Kurdish official in Khanaqin, says Kurds held a rally to claim that thousands of Kurds were left off voting list. Then they tried to break into the local election office but were turned back, he said.

Ghufran al-Saidi, a Shiite lawmaker in the Sadr City district, said a military officer opened fire in Baghdad after voters chanted slogans at a polling station. He said two people were injured, one of them seriously.


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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486164,00.html
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My Thoughts

Thank God there was no violence today. There has been a lot of progress been made over the last couple years after the surge. Let's hope that Obama doesn't change the direction of the change made in Iraq. Love him or hate him, Bush did a lot of good in Iraq.

Obama: Gitmo Isn't As Easy As I First Thought

"It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize," the president-elect explained. "Part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication. And some of the evidence against them may be tainted even though it's true. And so how to balance creating a process that adheres to rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system, by doing it in a way that doesn't result in releasing people who are intent on blowing us up."

But Obama said unequivocally that it will close. "I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution. That is not only the right thing to do but it actually has to be part of our broader national security strategy because we will send a message to the world that we are serious about our values."

Obama said that he is not ruling out prosecution for crimes committed by the Bush administration and left open the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor or commission to independently investigate abuses of power and illegal activity.

Obama's comments came in response to the most popular question on his own Web site, www.change.gov, which has received 23,000 votes on the "Open for Questions" portion of the site. Bob Fertik of New York who runs the Democrats.com Web site asks Obama, "Will you appoint a special prosecutor -- ideally Patrick Fitzgerald -- to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law." Obama said. "But my instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward."

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http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Economy/story?id=6619291&page=1
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My thoughts

Maybe that Bush guy had it right all along.

Bush-"Comforter In Chief"

Report: Bush Spent Hundreds of Hours Comforting Families of Fallen Soldiers
President Bush headed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Monday to comfort wounded soldiers, the public part of a private campaign that has included more than 4,000 letters to family members

FOXNews.com

Monday, December 22, 2008

According to The Washington Times, the self-described "comforter in chief" said it's his duty as president to try to help as "best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish."

The Times notes that people familiar with Bush's routine say he has written letters personally to every one of the families of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. The task has taken a toll, and Bush has relied on his wife, Laura, for emotional support, he said.

"I lean on the Almighty and Laura," the president told the Times. "She has been very reassuring, very calming."

Vice President Cheney has also met with family members of soldiers who have died.

Bush has met with more than 500 families of troops killed in action and with more than 950 wounded veterans, often during private sessions, White House spokesman Carlton Carroll told the newspaper.

The Times said the first lady was in on many of those meetings and also felt the heart-wrenching pain of such moments.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/22/report-bush-spent-hundreds-hours-comforting-families-fallen-soldiers/
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My Thoughts

Is it that it was really the best kept secret or did the liberal media not care about a story that might put Bush in a good light? Why did this story not come out until after the election?

Bush's Size 10 Attacker

December 15, 2008

Iraqi Journalist Hurls Shoes at Bush and Denounces Him on TV as a 'Dog'

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALISSA J. RUBIN

BAGHDAD — President Bush made a valedictory visit on Sunday to Iraq, the country that will largely define his legacy, but the trip will more likely be remembered for the unscripted moment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at Mr. Bush's head and denounced him on live television as a "dog" who had delivered death and sorrow here from nearly six years of war.
The drama unfolded shortly after Mr. Bush appeared at a news conference in Baghdad with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to highlight the newly adopted security agreement between the United States and Iraq. The agreement includes a commitment to withdraw all American forces by the end of 2011.

The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!" He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.

As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!" That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president's face to help shield him.
Mr. Maliki's security agents jumped on the man, wrestled him to the floor and hustled him out of the room. They kicked him and beat him until "he was crying like a woman," said Mohammed Taher, a reporter for Afaq, a television station owned by the Dawa Party, which is led by Mr. Maliki. Mr. Zaidi was then detained on unspecified charges.

Other Iraqi journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush, who was uninjured and tried to brush off the incident by making a joke. "All I can report is it is a size 10," he said, continuing to take questions and noting the apologies. He also called the incident a sign of democracy, saying, "That's what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves," as the man's screaming could be heard outside.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/world/middleeast/15prexy.html?_r=1
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My Thoughts

Apparently, the journalist liked it better when Hussein was in power. There was the 8 years of war with Iran and the 1 year with the US and Kuwait. Those wars weren't exactly filled with love and happiness. He didn't gas the Kurds and Iranians with laughing gas. Does he have the same concern for the many widows that Sadaam made during his reign of terror? Let's not forget that many were, also, wrongly imprisoned or executed for speaking out against Sadaam or his party. If the reporter would have thrown a shoe at Hussein, he probably would be missing a limb or in a shallow grave. I hope that he enjoys the freedom of speech and the right of dissent that he has now.