Oh, and I forgot to mention that I also really dislike GWB for not being Republican enough. No Child Left Behind is pretty much a joke (I’m a teacher, and I had to study it for my grad class), and I completely oppose his proposal to reward people the law told to keep out of the country.
What I’ve decided is that Bush is tired of being vilified, and he’s willing to do some “Democratic” things to look like “a uniter, not a divider”. And, I think it’s probably true that big business wants the cheap labor in the country, because they can exploit them, if only in indirect ways (don’t ask for a raise, because that might attract attention). So they remain, and they get exploited, and the governments refuse to enforce the law in any meaningful way at all, because no one wants to deal with the economic lull as we figure out how to make do without this “indentured servant” workforce. But I think I might be willing, and I resent his immigration bill. I called my senator many times.
Cardinal, re the true humanitarian bit, the people who used those words based them on the belief that we invaded Iraq entirely out of a humanitarian concern for the poor, downtrodden citizens of that country who were being routinely raped, tortured, and murdered by a ruthless, sadistic dictator, his depraved sons and his evil minions: That, my friends, was the actual, real reason for the invasion. That and the fact that Saddam harbored terrorists, sponsored and paid for the 911 attacks, and had Weapons of Mass Destruction that were ready to be deployed against the USA within seconds via some secret delivery system. But the liberation of the citizens of Iraq was the primary reason. All the other things were just collateral reasons, compared to the humanitarian motives of Bush. I ain’t making this stuff up; it is actually what these people said.
Amen. Staunch republicans like my Hubby and the other blue-collar men he works with are NOT ok with the Prez. Not enough yet to be vocal about it in public, but when asked they will stare at the floor or spit their tobacco away in a manner which means “get off me”. This cut to the heart of their Pub beliefs … Mom, apple pie, Reagan, Jesus … all those things. For these rock-hard Southern pubs to lose faith in GW … well … to answer the OP: NO. In many many people’s eyes he won’t make the list. It doesn’t help that many young people in the military in Iraq are these men’s sons and daughters; and it’s hard to justify putting your young one out there in harm’s way for an unjust war. It’s trickled down to the homesteads … Bush is not on anyone’s Happy List. Here, anyway.
LouisB, I guess I can tell you why I voted for Bush even in 2004. I couldn’t find a compelling reason personally to vote for Kerry, even asking for one from this board, and (I know this will make someone grind his teeth, sorry) Democrats scare me with the idea that government is the solution to everything. I can’t recall a large government program being discontinued after the Depression.
And as far as the ports management is concerned, I just read Wikipedia on it, and I disagree with him again. How hard is it to funnel terrorists in here even now? I don’t get that one. Someone can tell me otherwise.
So I feel like I was caught with no one to vote for, kind of. And Bush hadn’t done the blatant kind of utter insane lying that got my attention. I don’t know if he was confused about Iraq, or stupid, or willfully ignorant, or a lying bastid, but it hadn’t presented itself to me in that way at that time.
Oh, and some of you would consider me hyper-religious, and I can tell you that Diogenes is at least mostly correct. Because of gay marriage, and whatever else, he is somehow next to Godliness, and I have had my mind blown by the convoluted excuses I’ve been given for various things. For the most part though, I think it’s true that they’re just not really willing to consider that he might not be great, because somehow that makes them lose face. As if they haven’t met complicated, flawed people in the church. But the problem is, many of them don’t think they have. “Christians are pretty much perfect.” And I say this a church goer. I went to those kinds of churches before, where everyone acts really put-together, and you never hear of people’s real problems and flaws and fears, and so I guess they think that if Bush is deeply flawed, then the things they agree with him about must also be flawed, because they can’t be separate issues.
I just can’t fathom how anyone can call Bush a good Christian. A Christian seeks to emulate Jesus. I can’t imagine Jesus signing off on the smear campaign against McCain in South Carolina. Or approving the use of torture. Or laughing and mocking at a woman who called him as governor pleading for her execution to be halted. Jesus would admit any mistakes that he made (except I don’t believe Jesus was capable of sin). He would own up to his cocaine use, his alcoholism, and his marital infidelities. And those massive tax cuts to the rich hardly sound like a tactic of Jesus. A Christian practices tolerance and would not exploit bigotry against Muslims and gays.
His performance as president falls even shorter than his performance as a Christian. First and foremost is the war in Iraq, which will go down as the biggest blunder in American history. The response to Katrina was one of criminal neglect. The prescription drug bill was nothing more than a device to channel money from the treasury to the drug industry. It was an act of madness not to allow the government to negotiate price with the drug manufacturers. His assaults on civil liberties are a threat to the very freedoms he pretends to cherish.
To sum up, we have had incompetent presidents, but never one so incompetent. We have had corrupt presidents, but never one so corrupt. We have had stupid presidents, but never one so stupid. He has set the limbo bar so low that no president will ever be regarded as his inferior.
Actually, I didn’t intend to talk about any President except George W. Bush and I most emphatically **do not mean that as a criticism of you **since you didn’t lead the thread in the Carter direction; I suspect it was led astray in an attempt to divert attention from my request that SOMEONE, ANYONE, illustrate some indication of greatness in George W. Bush. I understand that you are responding to another post and not attempting to divert the thread.
Please don’t take offense; the migraine I mentioned earlier is still very much a player and I’m considering biting the next person I see.
As a Republican, I think you might need a wider circle of Republican friends. (To the peanut gallery: This is your cue to come up with a witty comeback on how few Republican friends one actually needs.) I’m not saying that this isn’t your experience with your friends, Little Nemo, but what sounds tinny or faulty to me is that Republicans who dislike Bush don’t compare him to Reagan, because Republicans in general love Reagan and consider him a very successful president. They re-named the Lincoln Day Dinner the Reagan Day Dinner in his honor. To be fair, that replacement was a bit much even for some Republicans, so now it’s the Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner. But the point is, Republicans who think Bush is failing don’t compare him to Reagan – especially not on foreign policy issues like, say, a war.
There’s one thing I truly admire about G.W., right or wrong, he stands by his convictions. I agree with him on some issues, disagree with him on some others, and think he’s he’s hired the most idiotic group of advisors ever - but it’s refreshing in this day and age (especially after Slick Willie) to have a polititian stand for what they believe in and not what is popular.
Compared to some, maybe Clinton, I kind of know what you mean, but (and remember, I [urg] voted for him) this is one of the things that drives me bats about GWB. I really think it’s the mark of a mature adult to listen to advice and seriously and honestly consider it. Bush doesn’t give me that impression at all. Then he seeks to make a virtue of his unturning attitude, but if it never turns, that means he’s just a talking-to-a-brick-wall kind of guy.
Even when his convictions are provably wrong headed and he stands by them out of stubbornness, without any regard to the problems they cause? Even when what he believes is not only contrary to science but has been proven beyond any doubt to be totally wrong? Even when he believes in denying a class of US citizens the rights that are guaranteed to all other citizens? Even when he believes in pardoning people who are in the country illegally while knowing they will be exploited by people seeing cheap labor? Even when what he believes in is superstitious rubbish? Even when he professes to believe in something but proves by his actions that he does not? Yes, sir, ya gotta admire a guy who lies his country into a war he cannot win but refuses to admit to it? Do you admire OJ Simpson, as well?
“Sticking to his convictions” is not an admirable trait if the conviction was ill-chosen in the first place, and worse if he later has reason to know he made a bad decision, but still “sticks to his convictions” just for consistancy’s sake.
Not following you there. (Although I am on a Mac.) What I was getting at is that when a reply is typed in the Reply to Thread box you don’t need to hit Return (like on a typewriter) when you get to the end of the line. Just keep typing and the text will wrap itself around. When people hit Return at the end of the line the page (or email – I still see it a lot there) wraps the text to fit its parameters and then goes to a new line when it hits the Return code.
When teaching a computer class, do not refer to that key on the right as the “Return” key, as some of your ignint students will stridently inform you that they don’t have that key. They’re using PCs of course, and it’s printed as “Enter”. This information is brought to you by Somewhat Painful Experience.
Carter did enact sanctions and froze all Iranian assets. I don’t know what you wanted him to do to get “John Wayne” on their ass. The only options left on the table were air strikes and/or invasion of Iran. Both of those likely would have resulted in the hostages being killed.
For people who can barely follow directions in a beginning MS Word class, and tell you that they save their files “in Word”, switching OSs is asking for the moon. It’s difficult for me. It’s nigh on impossible for them. They couldn’t even make the mental leap to hitting that same key in the same spot to affirm a command, regardless of what I called it.
