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Memoir by George W Bush to be published in November

I agree with your post and I left that part out of my original post because I was rushing to get back to my studies. But I have no doubt that President Bush was smarter than he was when he spoke. And similarly most people when they hear my talk think I am not as smart as I really am and they are surprised by my papers and analysis of things. I am not saying that I am smarter than President Bush, although I would like to think I am, or any of the people you mention. But rather it is not uncommon for fairly well educated and intelligent people to have difficult in public speaking or when speaking come across less intelligent than they really are.

and I know plenty of news people who can read a teleprompter really well and have the IQ of a soapdish.
 
No the unit commanders said they had no recollection of him. The 6 month pay gap during that period is because he was in a civilian training program working on a campaign. He was not performing flight duty because he had failed to appear for a physical and had his flight status revoked so its no surprise that this guy doesn't remember someone who was only serving as a desk jockey.

Really? None of them came forward? Hm.

USATODAY.com - Former Guardsman: Bush served with me in Alabama
(USATODAY.com - Former Guardsman: Bush served with me in Alabama)

First off. Bush was in the National Guard. That’s a branch of the military. You don’t just walk around, doing whatever you want to do. He was ordered to report to the commander and he did not. National Guardsmen do not become “civilians” if they cannot do their primary MOS/job.

This John "Bill" Calhoun had been exposed a long time ago as a Republican kool-aid drinker.

When Calhoun first emerged in February, he announced he'd seen Bush "eight or 10 times" on the base performing drills between May and October of 1972. But within 24 hours of his statement, the White House released Bush's military pay records -- which aides touted as definitive proof of Bush's service -- definitively proving that Bush was not credited for any training in Alabama for the months of May, June, July, August and September 1972, and that Bush showed up only in late October. So how could Calhoun have seen Bush several times in one summer if Bush's own records indicate he was never there?

Calhoun's story is even less believable in light of the fact that Bush in 1972 originally tried to transfer from his Texas Air National Guard unit in Houston to a National Guard unit at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. That request was eventually denied, so Bush ended up at the Montgomery unit where Calhoun served. But again, according to Bush's records, he didn't even apply for the transfer to Montgomery until September and didn't show up until late October. How did Calhoun see Bush performing drills throughout the summer of 1972 when Bush didn't even request an assignment there until the fall?
From: In the same league as Fox - MSNBC - Salon.com

The bi-partisan No Child Left Behind program which passed 384-45 in the House and 91-8 in the Senate?

The House of Representatives passed the bill on May 23, 2001 (voting 384-45),[6] and United States Senate passed it on June 14, 2001 (voting 91-8).[7] President Bush signed it into law on January 8, 2002.

No Child Left Behind Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I didn’t say No Child Left Behind didn’t pass. I’m saying it was an abysmal failure.
The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001″ is yet another example of the failure that usually results from the federal government attempting to force their influence over areas that are traditionally best left to state and local governments. The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001″ (NCLB) was the brainchild of President George W. Bush who wished to go down in history as an “Education” President. The Act called for the creation of Statewide Standardized tests that would be administered once a year to every student in order to gauge educational improvement of the school systems. The NCLB Act also implemented punishments for any school that did not post “Improvement” every year.

With the threat of lost funding and even total disbanding of the school at risk if even one specific group of students did not show “improvement”, school systems were forced to redefine and lower their educational standards in order to avoid punishment. While this practice of “cooking the books” allowed State Educational Departments to “prove” a statistical raise in test scores, it did not in any way improve the education students were receiving.

Another very damning aspect of this federally mandated test was in its administration. There is both a cultural and physical bias that destroys the NCLB principle. The same test, given to every student the same way. Culturally, there are variances in just what may be considered the most important skills a person can learn. An inner city student from a poor section of town will not necessarily respond as well to the same educational stresses as a rural farmland student or on who has grown up with well-off middle class values. Nor does NCLB testing differentiate between Special Education students and the most mentally gifted students.

The NCLB tests also blatantly violates the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA) which requires schools to accommodate students with disabilities. Under the IDEA for example, blind students are allowed to take a test by having the questions read aloud to them. A group of blind students were invalidated by the NCLB test because they could not read the test and were given a “zero” score. This fact is hardly a good example of no child being left behind.

These are but a few major examples of the massive shortcomings of this program. The NCLB Act has been declared a failure by both educators and many law makers who have seen the results of a poorly thought out program whose only real purpose was to aggrandize a politician’s ego and self image.
Why Was No Child Left Behind a Failure?

Now, I know Bush is going to try to use NCLB as one of his crowning achievements. I wonder if he’ll mention why he under funded it so it was further doomed to failure? Just another nail in his Crown of Stupid Ideas.
His wife, a teacher herself, must be so proud of her hubby! She would be hard pressed to find any educators who praised this ill conceived program.

Here’s another more lengthy analysis of the galactically stupid No Child Left Behind law:
Rethinking Schools Online
 
There were no lies everyone thought that the NIE was accurate and that the
reasons listed in the AUMF were genuine.


All 16 members of the U.S. Intelligence Community wrote this report

The NIE report, that so many rightees point to as exonerating Bush, was itself a lie.
Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction
Salon exclusive: Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq.
Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction - Iraq war - Salon.com

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior IA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam’s inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again. Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD.

No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq. The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD.
On April 23, 2006, CBS’s “60 Minutes” interviewed Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief of clandestine operations for Europe, who disclosed that the agency had received documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam’s foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD. “We continued to validate him the whole way through,” said Drumheller. “The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy.”
CIA confirms Bush lied about WMDs

There are hundreds of other links to Bush’s lies about Iraq having WMDs. Throw a dart and read one.

Bush took Clinton's suggestions and implemented them and even went further.

Sen. Frist on "Outrageous Charges by Richard Clarke"
(Sen. Frist on "Outrageous Charges by Richard Clarke")

Very interesting link. Thank you!

But, from it:
Question. It was not put into an action plan until
September 4, signed off by the principals?
Clarke. That's right.

September 4th. 8 ½ months after Bush took office.
Exactly one week before 9/11.
Great timing!

And Richard Clark has to practically scream at Condi-the-liar to get that Sept 4th meeting.

Ashcroft never stopped using commercial flights in fact his wife flew on September 7th 2001.

Ashcroft made a point of saying he never stopped using commercial for “personal” use. Typical lawyerese.
Don't let them fool you, folks: They knew. They might have been surprised by the ferocity of the attacks, but the highest-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration knew before Sept. 11 that something terrible was going to happen soon.

Bush knew something was going to happen involving airplanes. He just didn't know what or exactly when. His attorney general, John Ashcroft, knew. His national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, knew. They all knew. And, in spite of its apparent ineptness, the FBI knew, too.

Not only did they all know, but they told us. Obliquely. And we didn't pay attention. Why would we? Then, as now, terrorist threats were a dime a dozen.

Is this my opinion? No, it's published fact.

On July 26, 2001, cbsnews.com reported that John Ashcroft had stopped flying on commercial airlines. Ashcroft used to fly commercial, just as Janet Reno did. So why, two months before Sept. 11, did he start taking chartered government planes?

Because of a "threat assessment" by the FBI, he was told. But "neither the FBI nor the Justice Department ... would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it," CBS News reported.

The FBI did advise Ashcroft to stay off commercial aircraft. The rest of us just had to take our chances.

The FBI obviously knew something was in the wind. Why else would it have Ashcroft use a $1,600-plus per hour G-3 Gulfstream when he could have flown commercial, as he always did before, for a fraction of the cost?
Ashcroft demonstrated an amazing lack of curiosity when asked if he knew anything about the threat. "Frankly, I don't," he told reporters.

So our nation's chief law enforcement officer was told that flying commercial was hazardous to his health, and yet he appeared not to care what the threat was, who made it, how, or why?
Heads-Up To Ashcroft Proves Threat Was Known Before 9/11 - SFGate

Richard Armitage not Rove, Cheney, or Libby leaked Plame's name.

CNN.com - Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak - Aug 30, 2006
(CNN.com - Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak - Aug 30, 2006)

From your own link:
But the Wilsons' attorney, Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the revelation that Armitage was the original source for the leak did not undercut the charge that Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and White House adviser Karl Rove acted to retaliate against Wilson by engaging in a "whispering campaign" about his wife.

The couple plans to proceed with the lawsuit, Sloan said.
"Mr. Armitage's conduct does not change the facts of what Libby, Cheney and Rove did," Sloan told CNN. "The case is about the abuse of government power."

I know you’re trying to say that because Armitage leaked her name first that that means that Rove, Libby and Cheney did not expose her identity and thus did not break any law. Wrong. That is not what the law says. When one person divulges a covert agent’s identity that agent still enjoys a covert status. If 100 people leaked Mrs. Wilson’s name to that liar Novack, all of them would be guilty of exposing a covert agent’s identity.

Those thugs conspired to intentionally expose a covert CIA agent's identity. Life imprisonment would be too good for them.

And FWIW, the president can not declassify a CIA covert agents covert status.
 
Strong the BDS is with this one Master Yoda

Seduced by the Obama side of the force he has been Obi Wan
 
ADK, seriously, it's time to give it a rest. We cannot do anything about what Bush did or did not do. All we can do is use it for cheap political theater which is pretty transparent. Sometimes it's better to take the high road.
 
If former President Bush did in fact meet all your listed requirements, would it change your perception of him as a human and a man? Would it make you feel better? If so, why?

He would never do that. But, I would like to see him answer my questions... under oath.

It wasn't his job to care about what the American people thought of him.

Seriously? Well, he certainly lived up to that low expectation.

It was his job to do what he believed was the right thing to do, regardless of how people felt about him. I didn't agree with much of what he did, but I do believe he performed the job with dignity and class.

Well, I guess that's another reason this is the best country to be a citizen of... we can all have such different opinions on the same issue, on the same person. I believe he ran the presidency as if he were a young, spoiled rotten brat. He bullied his staff. He abused this country, our reputation and didn't give two hoots when he sent our men and women to their deaths all for his selfish, personal reasons.

The only thing he did with class was keep his mouth shut after he left office, unlike his former puppeteer.
 
He would never do that. But, I would like to see him answer my questions... under oath.



Seriously? Well, he certainly lived up to that low expectation.



Well, I guess that's another reason this is the best country to be a citizen of... we can all have such different opinions on the same issue, on the same person. I believe he ran the presidency as if he were a young, spoiled rotten brat. He bullied his staff. He abused this country, our reputation and didn't give two hoots when he sent our men and women to their deaths all for his selfish, personal reasons.

The only thing he did with class was keep his mouth shut after he left office, unlike his former puppeteer.

Tertiary BDS-almost always fatal
 
First off. Bush was in the National Guard. That’s a branch of the military. You don’t just walk around, doing whatever you want to do. He was ordered to report to the commander and he did not. National Guardsmen do not become “civilians” if they cannot do their primary MOS/job.

He had permission from his superiors. In all probability the reason Bush's commanding officer from Alabama doesn't remember him is because he was only there to do his minimum training hours because he was working for a campaign, and because he wasn't a pilot but was rather doing clerical work and the like.

This John "Bill" Calhoun had been exposed a long time ago as a Republican kool-aid drinker.


From: In the same league as Fox - MSNBC - Salon.com

lol he wasn't being payed because he had permission to work on

I didn’t say No Child Left Behind didn’t pass. I’m saying it was an abysmal failure.

A bi-partisan failure.
 
The NIE report, that so many rightees point to as exonerating Bush, was itself a lie.

Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction - Iraq war - Salon.com


CIA confirms Bush lied about WMDs

There are hundreds of other links to Bush’s lies about Iraq having WMDs. Throw a dart and read one.

lol so Bush believed the word of all 16 members of the U.S. Intelligence Community over the Iraqi Foreign Minister? Touche sir, that proves it, Bush knew that Iraq didn't have WMD's when he led us to war.

Very interesting link. Thank you!

But, from it:


September 4th. 8 ½ months after Bush took office.
Exactly one week before 9/11.
Great timing!

Read the next lines:

Question. I want to add though, that NSPD--the actual work
on it began in early April.
Clarke. There was a lot of in the first three NSPDs that
were being worked in parallel.

Then the ones above them:

Question. Had the Clinton administration in any of its work
on this issue, in any of the findings or anything else,
prepared for a call for the use of ground forces, special
operations forces in any way? What did the Bush
administration do with that if they had?
Clarke. There was never a plan in the Clinton
administration to use ground forces. The military was asked
at a couple of points in the Clinton administration to think
about it. Um, and they always came back and said it was not a
good idea. There was never a plan to do that.
(Break in briefing details as reporters and Clarke go back
and forth on how to source quotes from this backgrounder.)
Angle. So, just to finish up if we could then, so what
you're saying is that there was no--one, there was no plan;
two, there was no delay; and that actually the first changes
since October of '98 were made in the spring months just
after the administration came into office?
Clarke. You got it. That's right.

And Richard Clark has to practically scream at Condi-the-liar to get that Sept 4th meeting.

That's what he says now not what he was saying then.



Ashcroft made a point of saying he never stopped using commercial for “personal” use. Typical lawyerese.

Heads-Up To Ashcroft Proves Threat Was Known Before 9/11 - SFGate


What's the difference between using it for personal use and business use would the plane had crashed into the building differently if Ashcroft had been using it for a personal reason? He's still using commercial aircraft, in fact his wife flew right before 9-11.




From your own link:


I know you’re trying to say that because Armitage leaked her name first that that means that Rove, Libby and Cheney did not expose her identity and thus did not break any law. Wrong. That is not what the law says. When one person divulges a covert agent’s identity that agent still enjoys a covert status. If 100 people leaked Mrs. Wilson’s name to that liar Novack, all of them would be guilty of exposing a covert agent’s identity.

Well first of all you are completely wrong, so utterly and completely wrong that I know you have never even read the law in question so let me help you out here sir:

SEC. 602. [50 U.S.C. 422] (a) It is a defense to a prosecution under section 601 that before the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged, the United States had publicly acknowledged or revealed the intelligence relationship to the United States of the individual the disclosure of whose intelligence relationship to the United States is the basis for the prosecution.

Intelligence Identities Protection Act

And secondly you have absolutely 0 evidence that anyone but Armitage leaked the identity of Plame.
 
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I mean how do you know Bush "earned" his way into Yale?

He was admitted to the university and received a degree from said university. Typically, when someone gains admittance to a university, the default assumption is that he/she earned admittance. It is up to you to prove otherwise, which you have not been able to do.
 
lol so Bush believed the word of all 16 members of the U.S. Intelligence Community over the Iraqi Foreign Minister? Touche sir, that proves it, Bush knew that Iraq didn't have WMD's when he led us to war.

You either don't get it or don't want to. Bush and Cheney released what info they wanted to for that report. Did you read my links? Info was LEFT OUT OF THE REPORT. Those 16 members could only work with what they were given.

Geeze Louise!

And secondly you have absolutely 0 evidence that anyone but Armitage leaked the identity of Plame.

Zero? Shirley you jest! :doh
 
So he read 91 books in 2006 huh... that is what? 1 every 3-5 days while he was President and dealing with a million other occupations? I call bull****.

If he read that many books, it explains why he mangled so many words when he tried to speak.
His lips were tired...:2razz:
 
If he read that many books, it explains why he mangled so many words when he tried to speak.
His lips were tired...:2razz:

I don't have nearly as many occupations as the President of the US and I barely manage to get 20-30 books read and that is MAYBE. I couldn't imagine fitting 91 books into my reading schedule between traveling, daily meetings with staff members and having a 24/7 job that required me to get up at 3 am for whatever. I'm not doubting Bush's ability to read 91 books in a year. I'm just doubting his ability to read 91 books and still do all the things a president does. What kind of books was he reading? 30 page long travel guides?
 
I don't have nearly as many occupations as the President of the US and I barely manage to get 20-30 books read and that is MAYBE. I couldn't imagine fitting 91 books into my reading schedule between traveling, daily meetings with staff members and having a 24/7 job that required me to get up at 3 am for whatever. I'm not doubting Bush's ability to read 91 books in a year. I'm just doubting his ability to read 91 books and still do all the things a president does. What kind of books was he reading? 30 page long travel guides?

Maybe he had staffers do the reading and write book reports?
Yeah, it seems improbable. OTOH, maybe he had plenty of time to read while Cheney ran the country for him...
 
No, I want him to address those issues. These are not the same as the box-of-rocks birthers. Obama has released his birth certificate and I suspect you know it. To say he hasn't is to be disingenuous... at best. :roll: Bush has never addressed these issues. Never.

For the 760789563476179601th time, here is his birth certificate:
About.com: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html



When someone categorizes these Bush issues as "talking points" yes, I lump them in with the Bushies. The ignorance is the same.
Bush doesn't owe you or anyone else an answer to anything. Got it?
 
Bush doesn't owe you or anyone else an answer to anything. Got it?

If Bush was dictator, he doens't have to explain anything.
Otherwise, he should. But, if he doesn't, historians will do it for him....
 
If Bush was dictator, he doens't have to explain anything.
Otherwise, he should. But, if he doesn't, historians will do it for him....
I doubt he gives a **** about historians, and believe me nothing he ever says will change their minds.
 
I doubt he gives a **** about historians, and believe me nothing he ever says will change their minds.

It's not that he doesn't give a **** about historians. It is that he doesn't know what they are.
 
I doubt he gives a **** about historians, and believe me nothing he ever says will change their minds.

Of course he does.

The President repeatedly declared that his actions would eventually be looked upon favorably by "history."
 
It's not that he doesn't give a **** about historians. It is that he doesn't know what they are.

He just didn't have one near his crotch like Kennedy did with Schlesinger. :mrgreen:
 
You either don't get it or don't want to. Bush and Cheney released what info they wanted to for that report.

Did you read my links? Info was LEFT OUT OF THE REPORT.

Yes those links said that Bush didn't believe the Iraqi Foreign Minister. Woopedy doo.


Those 16 members could only work with what they were given.

Wow, your own links said it was the CIA that told Bush about what the Iraqi Foreign Minister had said. The intelligence community gives the Administration information not the other way around and that information comes in the form of the annual NIE in which all 16 members of the intelligence community came to the consensus opinion that Iraq had WMD and was reconstituting WMD production.

Geeze Louise!

You don't even read your own links and have no clue whatsoever how intelligence gathering works in this country, in fact your impression is the exact opposite of the way it operates.

Zero? Shirley you jest! :doh

No actually I don't jest. Tell me again your take on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, I need another good laugh.
 
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