# Year Ago Today Bush Re-Elected: Happy Now Assholes? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 2, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134 "2005-11-02T19:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/41 "2005-11-02T21:27:16Z")
For a president who enjoys the support of the Religious Right, there sure have been a lot of Acts of God during his watch. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/42 "2005-11-02T21:29:25Z")
> [@wring](#): > > ??? > > IF it had been an ‘actual drop’, maybe. So if we had had an actual drop, would **that** be a good thing? Suppose the deficit had been $374B in 2003. Then it dropped to $318B in 2004. How about that? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/43 "2005-11-02T21:32:19Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I assume your outrage over the leaking of this classified information which directly affects national security will equal your outrage over the outing of a CIA employee? Depends. If it turns out to be a lie, some rotten propaganda cooked up to make us look bad, I’m gonna be really pissed. I wish I could believe that’s likely. I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/44 "2005-11-02T21:34:54Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So if we had had an actual drop, would **that** be a good thing? > > Suppose the deficit had been $374B in 2003. Then it dropped to $318B in 2004. > > How about that? > > Regards, > Shodan your comment was that the deficit was less than projected. my rebuttal (fixed) is that by merely over projecting our planned deficit we can always keep the **Shodans** of the world happy. and yes, if the deficit itself dropped a smidge (from 374 B to 318 B) that would be a good thing, if that’s all you looked at, unless, of course the figure for 2005 showed an overall increase from 2003. IOW, you can if you choose, look at a single year drop instead of the overall 7 year trend. Won’t cut it for me, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/45 "2005-11-02T21:43:17Z")
> [@wring](#): > > ??? > > IF it had been an ‘actual drop’, maybe. But it was a “we didn’t loose quite as much as we predicted”. from your post here, we could guarentee **Shodan** would be a happy camper by simply taking the projected deficit and doubling it before the number’s released. See, we reduced the additional deficit by 100% - isn’t that grand? 50%. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/46 "2005-11-02T21:53:47Z")
> [@wring](#): > > your comment was that the deficit was less than projected. my rebuttal (fixed) is that by merely over projecting our planned deficit we can always keep the **Shodans** of the world happy. Well, no, my pleasure that the deficit is significantly less than expected is based on the notion that the projection was a best guess. Random figures would not produce the same effect. But I realize it was a semi-facetious remark. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![pace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c2a13f/32.png) [@pace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pace)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/47 "2005-11-02T21:54:43Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Year five, for those of us who can actually count. > > As for the rest - neener neener neener. > > Regards, > Shodan Sad but true… the guy won the election. Maybe the following should be a thread on its own, but I’m curious to know the percentages of minority groups that actually voted… anyone have that info? a link maybe? It makes me wanna puke every time those living on, near or below poverty line harping about ANY adminsitration and I come to learn that they don’t vote–at all. Personally, I think if you’re eligible to vote and you don’t, you should be penalized… for the low income, especially those receiving gov assistance–cut their benefit$. “you snooze, you lose.” ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/48 "2005-11-02T21:58:29Z")
> [@Der Trihs](#): > > I think of them as fools, monsters and vermin, not assholes. > > Well OK, some \* are\* assholes. So if I’m not in the same political party as you, I’m a fool, a monster, and vermin? ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/49 "2005-11-02T22:03:41Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I assume your outrage over the leaking of this classified information which directly affects national security will equal your outrage over the outing of a CIA employee? Why is this ridiculous moral equivalency trotted out all the time? When crimes are commited in our name, they **should** be exposed. Pointing out that our agents are engaging in torture is not the same thing as outing a spy in retaliation for debunking the lies which led to a war. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/50 "2005-11-02T22:07:25Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I don’t buy the “we thought there were weapons” excuse anymore. American agents broke into the Niger embassy in Rome with the purpose of planting forgeries that could be used to give the appearance that Saddam was building a nuclear arsenal. The reason that the administration’s retribution against Wilson was so vicious was that they did not want this story pursued any further. The plain truth is that the administration lied with malice and lied deliberately and then sought to destroy anyone that dared question them. > > I don’t have a problem with the deficit coming in much smaller than predicted. I do have a problem with there being record deficits on the heels of the Clintonian surpluses. The Pubbies shouldn’t point to these numbers as proof of their fitness to govern. > > Besides the criminal misconduct that started the war and the fiscal irresponsibility, you have a man that has brought the US to the level of a torturing third world nation. He is a war criminal just as much as any tin horn dictator elsewhere in the world. > > The man belongs in prison, not in the White House. Clinton and Bush served during vastly different times. Bush had to address a lot of issues that Clinton never did. And I’d argue that the government running a surplus isn’t a good thing, it just means government taxed its citizens more than it needed to. A big deficit isn’t good either, and I’m not saying Bush is a financial whiz. I’m just saying I wouldn’t expect much of ANY President when it came to budget balancing when we have to address issues with global terrorism and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The conspiracy theories about Bush planting evidence I’ll just disregard entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/51 "2005-11-02T22:08:04Z")
I get to wondering what America would be like like if Gore had been sworn in in 2001 rather than Bush. There would be no war in Iraq today. There would never even have been a serious debate about it - just a crank in Austin carrying on about it. Saddam tried to kill his dad you know. The U.S. would not have flushed its credibility at the U.N. with the now infamous presentation of the evidence of how Iraq’s WMD program was continuing. None of us would have ever heard of Alito, Miers or Roberts - not to mention Abu Ghrab. There would have been no torture memo. OBL and AQ rather than Saddam would have been the focus after 9/11. The Paris Hilton windfall estate tax break wouldn’t have gone into effect. That, coupled with no Iraq war spending would have helped the budget situation. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/52 "2005-11-02T22:10:59Z")
Also, Bob. Do you think FDR belongs in prison for the Japanese internment camps? I think concentration camps on the scale of hundreds of thousands is way more serious than anything Bush has done. Yet you don’t hear many liberals saying he belonged in prison. Sometimes in a war situation you have to do unsavory things, at least in the war on terror we’ve done unsavory things with some clear goal. The removal of 112,000 Japanese persons to concentration camps would be the equivalent of Bush having all the arabs in the United States arrested. I’m not necessarily saying FDR was a bad guy, or that Bush is totally correct in everything he’s done (of course I would argue he has less to do with the treatment of captured persons on the battlefield than FDR did with citizens in his own country) but I think sweeping statements like “Bush should be in prison.” Go entirely too far. Some of our agents may have committed crimes, but sometimes you have to break a few eggs to bake a cake, and I think most realists will accept that as a fact. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/53 "2005-11-02T22:18:33Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > So if I’m not in the same political party as you, I’m a fool, a monster, and vermin? I’m not in _any_ political party; my remarks are directed at Republicans. Also, most people are only one of the three; two of three if elected. Make that four; I forgot “insane”. > [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Do you think FDR belongs in prison for the Japanese internment camps? I think concentration camps on the scale of hundreds of thousands is way more serious than anything Bush has done. Yet you don’t hear many liberals saying he belonged in prison. Well I would, except he’s dead. I’ve heard plenty of liberals slam FDR/America for that; it’s the conservatives who defend it, in my experience. I also say the war in Iraq is _much_ worse than those camps. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/54 "2005-11-02T22:18:39Z")
We see the broken eggs. Where’s the cake? ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/55 "2005-11-02T22:19:53Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Also, Bob. Do you think FDR belongs in prison for the Japanese internment camps? I think concentration camps on the scale of hundreds of thousands is way more serious than anything Bush has done. Yet you don’t hear many liberals saying he belonged in prison. > > Sometimes in a war situation you have to do unsavory things, at least in the war on terror we’ve done unsavory things with some clear goal. The removal of 112,000 Japanese persons to concentration camps would be the equivalent of Bush having all the arabs in the United States arrested. I’m not necessarily saying FDR was a bad guy, or that Bush is totally correct in everything he’s done (of course I would argue he has less to do with the treatment of captured persons on the battlefield than FDR did with citizens in his own country) but I think sweeping statements like “Bush should be in prison.” Go entirely too far. > > Some of our agents may have committed crimes, but sometimes you have to break a few eggs to bake a cake, and I think most realists will accept that as a fact. Would you say [what happened with detainees](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427989/) falls under the same category as what happened to those in Japanese internment camps? (I watched this last night, btw. Angry doesn’t even begin to describe it. Most of these people left their countries to get away from the treatment they’ve received at the hands of our government.) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/56 "2005-11-02T22:21:54Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Nice response to 2000 dead American soldiers. Try that to the parents of one, and let us know how that works out. C’mon Rev…you know they’re famous for their warm, “people-person” ways. He’s the quintessential Bushman. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/57 "2005-11-02T22:22:14Z")
For that FDR analogy to work, his response to Pearl Harbor would have to have been an invasion of Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Soapbox\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Soapbox\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soapbox_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/58 "2005-11-02T22:26:19Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > As for the rest - neener neener neener. > > Regards, > Shodan Shodan, representing the best of America. Too bad I would get banned for saying what I really think. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/59 "2005-11-02T22:27:46Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Also, Bob. Do you think FDR belongs in prison for the Japanese internment camps? I think concentration camps on the scale of hundreds of thousands is way more serious than anything Bush has done. For the record, internment camps are not even near the same as concentration camps. Both were bad. One was horrific. ---
**Author:** ![Updike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@Updike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Updike)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134/60 "2005-11-02T22:29:35Z")
> [@misshannah](#): > > The fact that you could look at those bloated floating dead bodies and say “neener neener neener” is one of the more disgusting things I’ve ever read. But not the most…and who knows, you have three more years to top yourself, asshole. President Bush is not responsible for any bloated floating dead bodies, unless you’re saying that he caused the hurricanes. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/year-ago-today-bush-re-elected-happy-now-assholes/329134.md?page=4)