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Were we as bitter about Bush?
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Anonymous
Defining deviancy down. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Waterboard3-small.jpg http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/04/damn-right-personally-ordered-waterboarding-bush/ It is kind of depressing that your average American wing-nut is so deviant, that anything short of hot-pokers through your eye-sockets isn't considered "torture." But the real legacy of the American right, and Bush, is that most of these techniques were culled out of the military SERE program. They were techniques that were designed by America's enemies *specifically* to extract false confessions from captured American servicemen. In other words, the amateurs running the executive branch under Bush ordered the professionals in the military and CIA to use techniques they knew yielded false information. So, just to recap: not only are these assholes unequivocally war criminals, but they filled the US intelligence pipeline with a bunch of bad information while they were at it. And you wonder why folks think that the head of this slow-motion train-wreck was both evil *and* stupid. Sure is puzzling. |
Anonymous
No, but 'cause remember? Bush's personal lawyer wrote a brief saying it was ok. Of course, he came an ass-hair's breadth from being disbarred for it, and even his staunchest defenders in the legal community called him woefully misguided. But, you know, sometimes you just have to tell Saddam what he wants to hear. |
Anonymous
Oh my. That is a stomach churner. I don't think I lasted more than 25secs. Spot on though--future panty-sniffer. |
Anonymous
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yeah, it's always funny how wingnuts throw these racist insults at the president and his wife--stuff that's got a history going back hundreds of years--and can't seem to figure out why it resonates with them so strongly.
"The presidents a smelly, ape. He's always preening and trying to pull one over on the Real American voters. He's *stupid* (e.g the teleprompter idiocy) but he's *crafty* (e.g. soo good at deception)!" The only thing that's missing is the fear he's going after our white women, though the "preening" charge kind of dovetails with that to a certain extent. Meanwhile, they just can't seem to understand why it's okay to call Bush a chimp, but not Obama. Um, let me take a stab at that: 300 years of racist slurs calling black people monkeys on the one hand, and the fact that, well, Bush really does kind of look like a chimp on the other. Nevermind all that though, it's just so unfair! The lack of self-awareness, of historical perspective, is staggering. |
Anonymous
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Oh, and just so we're clear that there's no equivalence whatsoever between the (well-deserved) vitriol towards Bush and the craziness towards Obama:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/town_hall_attendee_asks_ga_republican_when_someone_is_going_to_shoot_obama.php?ref=fpblg Compare this to the rare yet oft-cited anonymous postings on internet forums like this one saying "Bush is a Nazi!" or other juvenalia. Here's a sitting US Congressperson taking questions about the assassination of a sitting US President, and barely blinking an eye. "Chimpy McHitler" indeed. |
Anonymous
| 11:25- I could just hug you- you are so awesome. |
Anonymous
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Dazzling Brilliance; Keep your eyes, head and heart clearly fixated on your rear view mirror and pray that your air bag is functional. Just brilliant! |
Anonymous
Aside from the fact that there is nothing remotely constructive about this post, not even a touch of humor, I can't even tell (nor do I care) who it is pointed at. It might be said that my own words are just as negative, so I'll make the positive part of my message more explicit. It is that we ought to concentrate on adding to the discussion, not just throwing tomatoes. I am the OP on this thread, and my intent was not to create another arena for bashing Bush or Obama, but to look back at how we treated Bush as President in the light of what seems to me to be merciless bile directed at Obama. In order to come up with ideas about how to influence those I disagree with, I am trying to remember when I was in that position. |
Anonymous
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OK, that has merit.
Just one question. Did Bush ever point his finger at Clinton? Well maybe two questions. Didn't Clinton make or fail to make moves that considerably weakened our intelligence? |
Anonymous
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"OK, that has merit.
Just one question. Did Bush ever point his finger at Clinton? Well maybe two questions. Didn't Clinton make or fail to make moves that considerably weakened our intelligence?" you could say he did not support Gore and if he had, Gore would have won and etc. and we would not hear "No one could have foreseen this"( b/c I did not read the report on my desk) |
Anonymous
Why bother to insert the questions when fail to address either? Giant minds at work here. |
Anonymous
"Let's not bicker and fight over who killed whom; this is supposed to be a happy time!" I think when the drunk guy who wrapped your car around a tree last month stumbles up to you, reeking of alcohol, and asks if he can borrow your car again, a bit of retrospection is called for. |
Anonymous
The record pretty clearly shows that the Clinton team considered violent extremist groups like Al Queda to be the main foreign threat to focus on. This effort was headed up by Richard Clarke. The second the Bush team came in, they isolated Clarke and disbanded the capacity. Wanted to focus on Saddam after all. And, no, the answer is, Bush never pointed his finger at Clinton. He had Rice and Cheney do it. |
Anonymous
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OP, I will say I have been pondering this question too and I don't really know how to think about it because in my head I do think that it's hard to compare a president who made the worst foreign policy mistake in at least a generation with a president who is trying to extend health insurance coverage.
I do think that there has been a remarkable animus towards Obama since day 1, whereas with Bush it was the cumulative effect of getting us into an awful war under essentially false pretenses, plus endorsing the detention and torture, even of American citizens, as long as the "war on terror" required it, but I am also going to try and keep it in mind next time we have a R president. |
Anonymous
OK, so Bush did not whine about Clinton. Obama has plenty people to whine for him but fails to maintain any proper presidential decorum, what a shock. Didn't Clinton have an opportunity and justifiable reason to hit Bin Laden with a drone but failed to issue the order? |