Does anyone feel up for taking apart this Anti Bush Glurge?

Great Debates
1

First I will say that I am not fond of our current president. However, this e-mail that was forwared to me contains so many wild assertions that it I had to wonder what the Straight Dope is. Now I realize most of you are probably as busy as I am, and don’t have time to pick this apart, in particular since many of these points have already been addressed in other threads. Is there anyone out there who would like, however, to take up the task of debunking this?

I am not interested in debating (at this time) the presidents overall competancy, general fitness as president or possible lack thereof, I just wanted to know which of these points are fabrications, and or misunderstandings…

-----Original Message-----
From: person@e-mailaddress.fake
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 11:52 AM
To: anotherperson@e-mailaddress.fake
Subject: FW: A resume to remember

I know I’m preaching to the converted, but how the hell did we let this happen!?!?!

From now on, NO DRINKING ON ELECTION DAY!!! It may have seemed funny at the time to pull that lever or punch that card (or maybe you live in FL and knew that your vote wouldn’t count anyway), but now look at the mess we have to live with!

RESUME

GEORGE W. BUSH

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement:

I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for

driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty,

paid a fine, and had my driver’s license suspended for

30 days.

My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not

available.

Military:

I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I

refused to take a drug test or answer any questions

about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National

Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

College:

I graduated from Yale University with a low C average.

I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland,

Texas in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn’t

find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt

shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a

sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil

industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected

governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil

companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the

Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles

as the most smog-ridden city in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the

tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any

governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida,

and my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court, I

became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter

office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing

cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted

the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit

in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies

filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a

12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the

history of the U.S. stock market.

In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans

lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.

I’m proud that the members of my cabinet are the

richest of any administration in U.S. history. My

“poorest millionaire,” Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron

oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips

by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for

receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

One of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the

largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History,

Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and

corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S.

Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton

against investigation or prosecution. More time and

money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky

affair than has been spent investigating one of the

biggest corporate rip- offs in history.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S.

history and refused to intervene when corruption

involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S.

history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals

to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration

than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the

largest bureaucracy in the history of the United

States government.

I’ve broken more international treaties than any

President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the

United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights

Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspector’s access to U.S.

“prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused

to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United

Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S.

election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press

conferences of any President since the advent of

television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in

any one-year period. After taking off the entire month

of August, I presided over the worst security failure

in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the

World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later

made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the

largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people

worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public

venues (15 million people), shattering the record for

protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first President in U.S. history to order an

unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military

occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the

will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S.

citizens, and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and

support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops

and their families – in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our

reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on

our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority

of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest

threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical

Bunker Buster," a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring

Osama Bin Laden to justice.

During the Iraq War and Occupation thousands of

American troops were injured and killed. I did not

have the time to attend any of the funerals for our

fallen soldiers but I did have the time to attend more

than 43 fund-raising events of the Republican party.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now

in my father’s library, sealed and unavailable for

public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider

trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in

secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my

Vice-President, attended regarding public energy

policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for

public review.

PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004.

PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW.

2

This should be read by every American. Simply beautiful!

3

Old news, for the most part. And, gosh, couldn’t you have gone to the trouble of pasting it ito a word proc. program and aligning it so it isn’t a pain in the butt to read?

Further, too much penny-ante bitching. We have some serious shit to carp about, why in the world should anyone care than Condy Rice has an oil tanker named after her? The Pubbies are too close to Big Bidness? Well, stop the presses!

And stuff like “I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.” is so shallow and insignificant, it actually weakens our case.

Stick to the serious ammo. Which we got. Lots.

4

Condi’s name uses two z’s: Condoleezza.
Here’s the story on her Oil Tanker.

5

I’ve only skimmed the spam in question (The formatting! My eyes!), but a random pick-n-check of the document doesn’t reveal any blatant errors. I suspect if there are misstatements, it will probably be in the “sweeping generalizations,” of the “biggest/worst/firsts” types.

But elucidator hit the nail on the head – all this is old news, and much of it is penny-ante nitpicking, and compared to the major screwups of this administration, this list is merely the dessert after the meal.

6

OK.

First off I start out with an explanation that is so laced with grammatical errors that it is incredibly annoying. Then I post the e-mail without reformatting, not even thinking about how hard it would be to read.

(Preview, DANG it, PREVIEW.)
Mea culpa.

7

For penance, you must repair to the nearest river, there to perform the Ancient Tasmanian Ritual of Self-Abasement, accompanied by a Chorus of Bitter Virgins, intoning dirges of Woe and Humiliation.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

8

You’re going to make him beat off in the river while Girl Scouts laugh at him?

Dude, that’s cold.

9

Was it Broken_Column who sent you that e-mail?

You’d think that someone who foreclosed on so many people would have enough money to keep from going bankrupt that many times.

But we all knew he was bad with money. :smiley:

10

Since Congress passes the appropriations bills that outline how much money is spent where, they share more blame in this than the president.

Actually, adjusted for inflation, gas prices haven’t been at historical highs during the Bush term.

One, it’s the Department of Homeland Security.

Two, again, Congress passed the bill creating it, so they share blame in this, too.

Thee, many of the workers in this department came from other agencies, so it’s not like all the bureaucratic positions in that agency were new positions.

Bush hasn’t broken any treaties. A treaty is only bindng when ratified by Congress and a President cannot unilaterally break it. Bush has taken the U.S.'s signature off some treaties that weren’t ratified by Congress, but that isn’t the same as breaking them, especially since the treaties were never binding on the U.S.

The President is never on “vacation.” He’s always working, whether he’s in Crawford, Texas, or the White House.

Let’s see – Panama and Grenada come to mind.

Simply untrue. No benefits were ever cut.

Nothing unusual here. This is the way all the memoranda and other written material regarding meetings in the White House is kept.

11

I believe you are incorrect about the treaty thing in one respect, Renob. Didn’t he withdraw the US from the ABM Treaty to renew the missile defense system development and deployment?

There were a couple of other things wrong with that e-mail, but you know what? It’s all a matter of interpretation anyway, so why bother?

12

Reminds me of an email I got about Clinton when he was president…same exact format almost and same content free bullshit. The one difference I recall was a rather disturbing reference to the shape of Clintons cock, something best not thought about. Glad they refrained from that in THIS email, at least…not sure I could keep my lunch down.

Why people seem to enjoy this kind of over simplification and demonization is beyond me. Its like a Cliffs Notes attack on the president. As has been pointed out, there are REAL issues with this president…you don’t NEED to resort to this sort of bullshit.

-XT

13

You are correct, though what he basically said was that the treaty was signed with a state that no longer exists (the Soviet Union), so it was null and void.

14

Oh, c’mon - the president has a great deal of influence on federal spending. It’s funny how conservatives were slamming Clinton left and right for cutting military spending, yet when Bush increases it, then it’s all of a sudden Congress’ fault.

Good point.

That argument smacks of sophistry.

The fact that you do some work while on vacation doesn’t make it not a vacation.

Good point. Bush wasn’t the first president to unilaterally invade a sovereign country, not by a long shot.

I think you’re right there. IIIRC he tried to cut them, but had to abandon the plan in the face of public outcry.

cite?

15

Just to be a nitpicky pedant: this would appear to mean that Enron committed fraud on the bankruptcy court or otherwise engaged in shenanigans during the bankruptcy process. Not so. It was the discovery of Enron’s fraud that caused their bankruptcy, but the bankruptcy process itself has AFAIK been untainted. It would be better to say that Enron was the “largest bankrtupcy” or the “largest fraud,” but not the “largest bankruptcy fraud.”

The glurge shows its age here, since Fastow has copped a plea carrying a long sentence, and Skilling has been indicted on a crapload of fraud counts. Lay’s almost assuredly going to be next. If Bush is protecting Enron folks, he’s doing a poor job of it.

16

I dunno, could be fun under the right circumstances.

I’ll let myself out now…

17

As others have said, this is basically some well-known facts (although some details may be incorrect), mixed in with some items that are of questionable relevance to the presidency (who gives a shit what ChevronTexaco names a tanker, or, frankly, who might have had a DUI in 1976) and others for which presidential responsibility is debatable at best (the items about bankruptcies and foreclosures; pollution in Houston). Some of the items are involve points of law (such as the statements on treaties and international agreements) that render the statements worthless without considerably more detailed explanations.

It is not necessary to refute this point by point, however. An anonymous E-mail message, with no references at all as to the provenance of the purported facts contained therein? Rejected out of hand in its entirety, as I reject all such messages.

18

According to this site, the ABM treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate on August 3, 1972, so it wasn’t a case of the President just taking back a signature.

However, the text of the Treaty provided that either party could give six months’ notice and then withdraw, in the event of an extraordinary threat to the party’s national security:

So when Shrub gave six months’ notice to Putin, he wasn’t breaking the Treaty - he was terminating it in a way that the Treaty itself provided for.

19

There may have been more executions during his tenure as governor, but that statement by itself isn’t enough to make any judgments about Bush. Under the Texas Constitution the Governor does not have very broad pardon powers. He can only pardon someone if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends a pardon. Without that recommendation, the Governor has no power to pardon; the most he can do on his own is to grant a 30 day reprieve in capital cases.

So if the Board doesn’t recommend a pardon, the accused’s file never even hits the Governor’s desk.

Now, if the e-mail said that the Board was very generous in its recommendations, but that the Governor routinely turned them down, that would be something very different, and if true, would say something about Bush.

20

True. As a libertarian, I am appalled that Bush hasn’t pressed for a tighter lid on spending. He does have a lot of influence, but it must be kept in mind that, ultimatley, Congress controls the purse strings. The e-mail that I was commenting upon laid all of the blame at Bush’s feet. He definitely shares the blame over the large amount of spending, but he certainly isn’t the only person who deserves condemnation.

Actually, it’s not. It’s reflective of the way treaties work in this country. The president can sign all the treaties he wants, but they have absolutely no force of law in the U.S. unless the Senate ratifies them. Other nations may have ratified them and they may have the force of law elsewhere, but here they are completely meaningless. During the Clinton years, he signed a few treaties, such as the Kyoto treaty pertaining to global climate change, that he knew would have absolutely no chance of passing the Senate. However, just because he signed them does not mean the U.S. was a party to that treaty. So when Bush removed the U.S.'s signature from that treaty, it didn’t break it, since we were never a party to it in the first place.

This is not an argument over semantics. Treaties that are signed but never ratified are meaningless documents.

[quote]

I think you’re right there. IIIRC he tried to cut them [veterans benefits], but had to abandon the plan in the face of public outcry.

[QUOTE]

Actually, if I recall correctly (I dealt with this on another message board, which has recently reformatted and dumped its previous posts, and with them all my numbers. I can find the numbers again if need be, but don’t have the time now, so you’ll just have to trust me), what happened was this: presidents propose their budgets for ten-year periods of time. One year, in his ten-year projections, Bush’s budget showed a rate of spending on veterans’ programs that, while still higher at the end of the ten year period, was less than what the previous year’s ten-year forecast had shown. Thus, it was a “cut” only in the sense that the projected level of increase was less. So, as you can see, it was not really a cut at all, since the numbers were merely projections and not actual expenditure numbers and the amount of money projected to be spent actually increased from year-to-year. There was never any real cut proposed, in that Bush proposed to lower the amount of money going into these veterans’ programs.