The Bush Administration

[nightrider]

A few points stand out to me.


Doesnt give a flying f%$k about the environment and has set us back by years if not decades, reversing improvements (i.e. Kyoto for one)
Attempted to disable salmon and forest protections/reconstruction in the NW
Stifles/quashes dissent in scary ways (global warming reports censored, scientists muzzled)
Created an environment where predatory corporate misconduct and corruption thrive (Enron Halliburton et al)
Weakened essential gov't organizations (i.e. FEMA, attorneys scandal, other agencies infilled with loyalists)

I have to run. I will edit and add more later. 

oh: doesnt give an f about workers rights, healthcare, the rest of the world if they disagree, or education

On the plus side, he does favor immigration reform... but only because it's necessary for US industry and small business owners to function with the lowest possible expenses.

[scratch]

You're right.  Now, everybody start writing your representatives and senators to impeach.

[Onlypastrana199]

I already have...but NY alone isn't enough to do it...we need some of those key "republican" states...

[The Buddha]

What environment ... China and India are spewing toxins like there aint no tommorow ... which very well may not be.
I think we should start polluting as quickly as we can so we atleast can stop the hemorraging of the jobs.
But ... I suggest we dump the toxins with a looong pipe and a good powerful sludge pump in the direction of china ... so it makes it over there in 1 piece ... cos they sure as hell are spewing it in our direction and sending us their crap over in containers too ... like the $9.99 angle grinder I bought made of egg shells or the toys for my son, which ironically were better made than the grinder and lasted longer too.
Cool.
Srinath.

[makenzie71]

who cares.  It's not like the president has supreme power over anything anyway.  And I always love this "bush administration" nonsense because the majoraty of the politicians in power now were up there a decade ago.  Not like impeaching him will do any good, either, because politicians will just elect another dufus that's good for politicians.  The people have no say in it.  It's all pointless and not enough people are willing to do anything about it...so shut the f%$k up.

[CasiUSA]

who cares.  It's not like the president has supreme power over anything anyway. 

Checks & Balances:
In Theory - Executive Branch (The President) has the same amount of power as Legislative (Congress and the House- the "voice of the people") and Judicial (Supreme court "The voice of the constitution")

I'd say that's as close you can get to one man having supreme power.

[nightrider]

Once the invasion of Iraq started, I didn't care if it was right anymore, I was just rooting for our side. Also I like watching tanks, jets, marines, and stuff blowing up.

However everything leading up was propaganda. Remember his eve of war speech? The words coming out were carefully selected, but everything else was a lie, and also stated that either way, he didn't give a f%$k anymore what anybody else thought. That is scary.

Even if you agree with the ends, the tactics are coercion, denial, and secrecy. His actions don't even fit his stated beliefs (i.e. fiscal conservatism). A President with average class and finesse could have done a better job post-911, pre-war, post-Katrina. And would have way more progressive views to boot, and actually give a f%$k.

I just think it's weird so many people voted for him in the first place. Twice.  Hopefully this is the last President of his kind, not the start of a trend.

On the plus side, you have to give it to him, he sticks by his guns.

[scottpA_GS]

I am proud that Murtha is my area Congresman  here in PA  He has done A TON for my area and has called for the removal of Bush 

I think he should take over 


I know that some on the board have served in Iraq like me, and I can tell you first hand... WE NEED TO BRING THE TROOPS HOME !!! The Iraqi "Army" and "Police" if they even deserve the titles, are LAZY!!! They dont care about the state of their own country, but yet we are there trying to make it better for them. As a cop in the Airforce I helped train Iraqi police and military. THEY DONT CARE! They would rather get drunk, sleep and play cards than do anything to help their city or country. We gave them our Humvees, Cop cars, BP vests, Guns.. things most police depts in the US would die for and they dont care.. They even sell the items we give them to buy drugs, cars and beer!!! Its much worse than you could ever imagine. We shouldnt send another penny there! The reason our troops dont have equipment is... WE GIVE IT TO THE IRAQIS !!! and ... THEY SELL IT TO THE PEOPLE WHO ARE KILLING OUR TROOPS !!! We spend weeks training their police just so they can take that knowlege to the insurgents 

I would like to give a big shout out to Iraqi Police officers that I trained... thanks for waisting my time...    GOOD LUCK WHEN WE PULL OUT ! You dont have a chance in hell

</rant>

[jdanna]

Stifles/quashes dissent in scary ways (global warming reports censored, scientists muzzled)

If anything it's the opposite, and has nothing to do with the administration.

Despite what the media tells you, man made global warming caused by CO2 emmissions is no where NEAR proven. there is still TONS of real, legitimate science that says that the changes in climate we are experiencing are normal, and that CO2 has no effect on climate.

However the global warming eco-mentalists like al gore have said stupid things like "there is no debate" and "every credible scientist agrees" for so long that the general public beleives it.
People that question it are called things like "non-beleivers". Global warming isnt science - it is religion. People accept it based only on faith, and admently defend it without any real scientific backing.

Remember - it was junk science that got DDT banned. and millions of people die every year from malaria because of it.



but yea all that stuff you said about iraq is totally right.

[nightrider]

Stifles/quashes dissent in scary ways (global warming reports censored, scientists muzzled)

If anything it's the opposite, and has nothing to do with the administration.

Despite what the media tells you, man made global warming caused by CO2 emmissions is no where NEAR proven. there is still TONS of real, legitimate science that says that the changes in climate we are experiencing are normal, and that CO2 has no effect on climate..

... 

are you from Detroit?

i think most ppl agree it is happening... the question is what to do about it... 

[jdanna]

... 

are you from Detroit?

nope.

im just more likely to beleive that the giant ball of fire that provides all the light and warmth to our planet (you know, the one that is under a state of constant and seemingly random change) has more impact on our climate then a gas that all non-plant life exhales constantly, and makes up only 0.038% of our atmosphere.

remember, the simplest answer is usually the right one.

temperatures now are actually still lower then they were during the medievel warm period. and for 40 or so years until the mid 70s, deperatures were dropping and "the whole scientific community agreed" that we were causing global cooling, and were headed straight for a new ice age.

[nightrider]

this man's ideas are preposterous! off with his head! 

[Cal Price]

If you will permit some thoughts from a foreigner,

jdanna's comparrison between science and faith is interesting. As an atheist it often crops up in my thinking but that's another debate. The comparison may or may not be valid as you cannot prove that anything does not exist, check out the "Parable of Bertrand Russel's teapot" as an example (Google perhaps)

What is measurably provable is that we are polluting a great deal more, China will probably overhaul the US this year as the worlds biggest polluter in total, however because of the population China produces around three tonnes per head whereas the US produces about 20 tonnes per head. Meanwhile the rest of the world is either improving or slowing its excelleration which means little in the face of US, China and India.

One thing proven by science is that no organism can exist in an environment of it's own excreta, it does not need a giant leap to suggest that this might well apply to a species as well as individuals.

The overwhelming evidence suggest that we do have a problem but a problem that is solvable. Clearly we cannot expect emerging economies to arrest their own developement when we developed nations have cut down most of our own forests and used most of our coal, oil, minerals etc, indeed we need them to develop, who else is going to make crappy angle grinders for Srinath?

The European experience is that "Going green" can actually benefit the wider economy and new technologies are emerging all the time, not just no carbon or carbon nuetral but carbon-capture looks very promising. UK and Norway are about to embark on building power stations run on North sea gas oil that will capture the emmissions, pump them back into the oil wells where they came from which extends the life of the well by 30% and releases no carbon emmisions. Win-win.

Individually our contributions seem insignificant but we can make a difference without living in the stone age.

Don't want to dabble in US Politics and nor will I but scottpA_GS made a point about the Iraqi security forces. It does seem strange that they appear to be amazingly ineffective when under Saddam they were a terror-machine keeping all dissidents etc well under the thumb. Possibly it was a mistake disbanding the Army and dissolving the Baathist party after the invasion but what is done is done.

I saw G Bush on a US news channel yesterday saying that setting a date for withdrawl would endanger US (and others) more. Whilst not being George's greatest admirer he was right, back in the 60's the brit army was engaged in a troublsome place called Aden (now in the Yemen) and the govt of the day set a date for idependance and British withdrawl two years ahead. This led to a blood bath as rival factions fought even more especially amongst themselves to claim the credit for chucking out the Brits who were going anyway. Go or stay, that is for Americans to decide not me but don't make the mistake of publishing a timetable, it will cost even more lives.

That's my two pennyworth, sometimes I wish OMW was not banned, I would love to see his suggestions, thermo-nuclear war perhaps or simply ignore it all ??

[El General]

Hi, I’m new to the board and forum but felt that I should shine some light on the past and recent Bush administration and American practices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOXOLlyFZUg

There are tons of links and info out their, this is just one of many. Enjoy

[The Buddha]

Global warming isn't a myth nor is it due to the sun ...
Yes Co2 makes up .038% but its the heaviest gas molecule and its a gas ... OK that got nothing to do with it really ... just pointing out an anamoly ... however a increase of say another .001 will cause a 3-4 degree bump in temperature.
However ... man made CO2 ... industrial CO2 ... gimme a freaking break, the earth makes tons of it from lime stone rocks and other natural sources, which in turn cause sea levels to rise due to warming and that in turn causes more Co2 to come out ... ad nauseum. Domino effect ...
So ... did man cause the first domino to fall by rampant industralisation ... probably ... will the earth have another domino fall and go the other direction ... more than likely ...
1500 years ago, earth was really warm (polar Ice caps prove that), 500 years ago the earth was really cold (polar ice cap again) so somehow ... some thing happened and we got the warming trend reversed. more than likely, we will see it again.
However, we are ploouting the earth with a lot more, and nuclear power is much much cleaner and we are staying away from it. That is going to come back to bite us, if its not already doing so. Global warming ... big deal. Its probably warming up, and probably going to get even warmier still, and probably going to abruptly reverse course and get cold again in the next few hundred years.
Cool.
Srinath.

[nightrider]

nuclear power is much much cleaner and we are staying away from it.

well global warming is just a minor blip of a few hundred years' indiscretion compared with 100's of THOUSANDS of years of radiation leaking out of all the eons-old, long-decayed radiation canisters... sheesh. What a Buddha Loves You of a cleanup thats gonna be... if humans even have the technology or knowledge of exactly wtf is going on with our nuclear waste in say, 300000 AD. Even that Yuma Mt site or whatever the f it is is no guarantee of anything. Radiation gets around.

[The Buddha]

Nuclear waste doesn't cause global warming.
We also didn't have 100's of thousands of years of radiation leaking out of decayed radiation cannisters. We built reactors from the 30's to 70's. That is the extent of our radioactive wastes.
CO2 pretty much is the biggest culprit in warming. Soem minor things may do a bit here and a bit there, but co2 trumps them all in quantity needed for direct effect.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Onlypastrana199]

Not to mention that nuclear reactors require massive cooling...Look at the one out in Buffalo NY. Lake Erie is messed up because of the constant release of warm water into the lake from cooling the reactor. They've since shut it down because it cost to much to keep running.

[Jake D]

I already have...but NY alone isn't enough to do it...we need some of those key "republican" states...

Ah, you must be referring to the areas known as "Dumbfuckestan". 

[trumpetguy]

I already have...but NY alone isn't enough to do it...we need some of those key "republican" states...

Ah, you must be referring to the areas known as "Dumbf%$kestan". 

And I get to live there...lucky me.  I'm the bluest of blues in one of the reddest states.  Home of global-warming denier and, not coincidentally, corporate oil "ho," Sen. James Inhofe (former chair of the Senate environment committee).  A real deep thinker.

If anyone believes global warming isn't real, find me 10 scientists WITHOUT oil company connections who are saying this.  Good luck.  I work in academia, and I believe in science.  A HUGE majority of scientific research points to human-accelerated (possibly human-caused) global warming.  Ignore it at the peril of your children's children.