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

[Shodan]

@The glurge in the OP

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I would say the oil crisis of the 70s was a good deal worse.

@The glurge in the OP

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

Already covered.

@The glurge in the OP

I’ve broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

Ditto. None broken.

@The glurge in the OP

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

Is this the time when we were replaced by Libya?

@The glurge in the OP

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).

This is the first I ever hear of this one. Does the UN routinely send election inspectors to US elections? Any other countries get inspected?

@The glurge in the OP

After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

Worse than Pearl Harbor? More people died on 9/11, but I would judge that the strategic situation was worse on 12/8/41.

@The glurge in the OP

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.

More hated than North Korea, or Israel? I find that hard to believe.

@The glurge in the OP

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.

Thousands? I think those figures are a trifle high.

And, IIRC, Reeder or another of our more enthusiastic Dopers got his ass handed to him on the claim that Bush didn’t go to any funerals.

As for the rest, whatever.

Regards,
Shodan

[Northern_Piper]

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

No such beastie exists.

There is the International Court of Justice, which is sometimes called the “World Court” informally, but the U.S. hasn’t withdraw from it, so far as I know. As a member of the United Nations, the U.S. has standing to appear in front of the ICJ, and to lodge a complaint against other nations, if it wishes.

As well, the Court does not automatically have jurisdiction over a Nation in a particular complaint brought by another Nation. The ICJ only has jurisdiction on one of three grounds:

1. by the conclusion between them [the parties] of a special agreement to submit the dispute to the Court;

2. by virtue of a jurisdictional clause, i.e., typically, when they are parties to a treaty containing a provision whereby, in the event of a disagreement over its interpretation or application, one of them may refer the dispute to the Court. Several hundred treaties or conventions contain a clause to such effect;

3. through the reciprocal effect of declarations made by them [the parties] under the Statute whereby each has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court as compulsory in the event of a dispute with another State having made a similar declaration. The declarations of 64 States are at present in force, a number of them having been made subject to the exclusion of certain categories of dispute.

It’s not at all uncommon for nations to refuse to appear when another nation lodges a complaint with the ICJ, if the respondent nation thinks that it hasn’t agreed to the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the dispute. For example, the U.S. refused to appear in response to a complaint by Nicaragua back in the 80s, and Israel has refused to appear in the recent request for an advisory opinion over the Israeli wall.

The U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court, arguing that the Court’s mandate is too broad and undefined. I think that’s a point on which reasonable people can differ, but it’s not like the U.S.'s refusal to join the ICC is contrary to international law or something. Each sovereign state has the power to decide for itself if membership in the ICC is consistent with its own national interests; the U.S. doesn’t think it is.

[ElvisL1ves]

Well, **Shodan ** ol’ bud, it must be reassuring to know that so many of the things your man Bush has done aren’t *the * worst ever to happen. You’re right about most of your list, until you get to your demurral over the casualty count in Iraq. The Pentagon does not release any more info than necessary, sure, but that doesn’t make it unavailable - this is a comprehensive rollup. “Thousands of Americans killed and injured”, you scoff? Don’t. As of the moment, the US-only, military-only total is 549 dead, 2704 wounded. That’s “thousands”, all right - three thousand, two hundred and fifty three lives destroyed or deeply damaged so far, and with no damn light at the end of the tunnel, either.

“Whatever”, you say? What does that mean - that you acknowledge the rest is true, or that it doesn’t matter to you?

The glurge is sloppily reasearched and written, but not far mistaken.

[duality72]

Snopes’s take, which isn’t so much a take as a page with links to sites with more information.

[New_Iskander]

E-mail author starts on a fresh and provocative note, initially holding inebriated electorate responsible for Bush election in 2000, then quickly contradicts himself by saying that Bush “became President after losing by over 500,000 votes”. Clearly, drinking did not cause Bush election then. As the author says himself, it was Florida, where, to quote him again, “your vote wouldn’t count anyway”, that gave election to Bush. Thus, after such promising beginning, reader is offered nothing new, save the reminder that state of Florida is a Bush-idol worshipping despoty, once again; and if that isn’t old, what is? Yawn.

[sajwalke]

A lot of those statistics are probably true, but may not take into account the greatly increased population of America today, or inflation. So although the budget deficit may have the highest dollar value in history it may not be the biggest deficit in relative terms, just as Rockafeller was (relatively speaking) richer than Gates is now, but gates has a far higher number of dollars in his net worth. Likewise, there are more Texans now than at any other time in history, so it stands to reason that there are going to be more executions.

Note that I don’t like defending Bush, as I think one execution is too many, but statistics can be used to “prove” something which they don’t really support. I think that some research into these statistics is in order.