Bush's State Of Union Speech

limerickman

I think that Bush is a lame duck President.
Having taken the correct decision to invade Afghanistan (which did harbour the people who plotted the attack on the USA) Bush then made a fatal error in invading Iraq.

Not only did he invade Iraq on a tissue of lies, he took his eye off the ball about the Afghanistan issue.
Now you have one country, Iraq, in a mess and you have another country Afghanistan on the verge of civil war.
And the main culprits of the attack on the USA are still at large.

It is clear that the Bush Presidency has mired his country with a growing list of needless slaughter (both American/Iraqi).
He has also saddled his country with an enormous debt in funding a "war on terror" which has delivered little with regard to tangible results.

We're told that attacks on the USA have been prevented - we have no measure to conclude if attacks have been
prevented.
We're told that the war on terror is working - yet the culprits still appear to be alive.
We're told that the USA has widespread support in the war on terror - yet Blair his biggest ally is himself being pilliored as we speak about the mounting death toll in Iraq.

Throw in the domestic issues which dog Bush (Abramoff, DeLay, jobs being exported, Katrina) and you have a very lame President.

The real concern is that Bush cried wolf once and has been found out.
If indeed the real wolf is at the door, who'll heed Bush?

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

Carrera

They interviewed the mother of a U.K. soldier who was killed in Iraq on T.V. and she stated the situation over there is grim. The troops complain that the oil is flowing but hardly not enough has been done to provide Iraqi civilians with fuel, running water and electricity. Of course, I did see another report elsewhere that contradicted her and it claimed more Iraqis owned satellite T.V. than under Saddam. So, there are all manner of reports.
But, however, the case may be, I agree. Bush figured all he had to do was invade, install a U.S.-friendly Government within Iraq and then hold a monopoly the oil revenues, displacing France and China as Iraq's main trade partner. The democratic Iraq would then cause other surronding regimes to ditch the clerics and embrace western democracy. It's a childlike view.
There were catastrophic failures when they removed the whole infastructure of the country and failed to provide Iraqis with jobs or welfare directly after the war. Little wonder so many joined the insurgency. Also excluding the Sunni Moslems initially from the democratic process was a huge mistake.
Yes, it has been a monumental cock-up and it looks pretty certain Bush will pull out altogether or maybe Blair will agree to send U.K. troops in their place.

Wurm

I guess that would be the correct thinking, IF you didn't know the real motivations behind invading A'stan, and the fact that it was planned before 9/11 occured. For 9/11 itself, the skids were well-greased by BushCo to allow it to happen on purpose, or they made it happen on purpose.

One thing is certain: there is overwhelming evidence that shows they aided & abetted whomever/whatever was steering those planes.

A quick synopsis on A'stan:

Link

On a map of A'stan with the US military bases depicted, you can overlay the route of this pipeline and see that most of the major bases follow the pipeline throughout its course.

__________________
"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

- John Dean, former Counsel to the President (Nixon)

The aim of big corporations is to separate fools from their money all of the time and ordinary folks from their money most of the time. The rest of us must fend for ourselves.

Hypnospin

if i had just dropped in from another planet
(yeah, i know, this may seem not too far fetched at to some at times)
and watched the afformentioned speech, i might have made the following conclusions:
-this was a pres concerned with the welfare of the nation
-his diction and speaking manner were fair, though obviously not natural, so he must have practiced a good bit
-he showed signs of sincerity
-was able to cite progress during his adminstration
-showed ony slight signs of negativity, an overall positive delivery

but given the fact that i have been aware to some extent the reality of what preceded this bogus display of attempted merit, the whole thing was reduced to farce.

if the us citizenry is not sufficiently, albeit painfully, aware of the reality behind the criminal bush syndicate enough to continue being vigilant in rejecting this sorry attempt at damage control propaganda, the staged approval ratings might be manipulated up to near 50% again as a temporary result.
at best.
this might just depend on if your kid is still alive and you still have a job.

these things have become a major concern of the outlook towards the us in nations the us has chosen to liberate even moreso than in the us...proven approval rating killers to say the least.

and the world is watching as the us slips further in international standing in most any, if not all categories you could mention. certainly in matters of foreign policy.

as for a two term limit, even this hallmark of democracy as we have come to know it may not sacred if bush does not wish to step down, you know, in the interest of national security and the crisis of the hour to come. another attack may well do the trick...
after all, look at all the us citizens and their elected officials have granted him with impunity thus far...under the decpetive premise it is all somehow for our own good.

__________________
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew"
Abraham Lincoln, in his address to congress dec. 1st, 1861

davidmc

Bush to Blair:

and:

http://wyliepost.blogspot.com/

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

limerickman

Reading this mornings Guardian Newspaper : a memo has surfaced of the Bush/Blair meeting in January 2003.
The minutes to the meetings state that Bush told Blair that the decision to go to war had been taken by the Bush Administration.
Bush proposed that regardless of the UN weapons inspectors findings that an attack on Iraq would happen.

Bush even floated an idea to speed up the process of going to war.
It seems that the Americans had suggested sending planes, with the UN design logo over Iraqi airspace, in the hope that Iraq would shoot down the planes - thus causing a pretext to invade sooner rather than later.
This plan was dicussed and approved at Bush cabinet level.

The problem with this new memo is that it furthers scorches Blairs statement to parliament in February 2003, that "Saddam has one final chance to avoid confrontation - he can give up his WMD and avert what may well be dire consequences".
This statement by Blair was uttered in parliament as Colin Powell was addressing the UN at 5th February 2003, with the doctored evidence of mobile WMD graphics and "conclusive evidence" of WMD movements in Iraq.

We know (and knew) that Bush was an utter liar.

Now it seems that Blair has once again been shown to have lied to Parliament.

__________________
.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

davidmc

This could all have been averted had we tapped "Dubya's" (W's) phone

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

roadhog

Schwarzennegger is nothing but a movie actor to people outside of California, which - believe it or not - is not the center of the universe at all.

And the State of the Union is only meaningful for propaganda purposes. None of the proposals made in them ever come to fruition - much like campaign promises. It is a tradition begun in a different time - and these days has very little relevance except as a shameless public relations event.

ptlwp

Lots of folks will be happy to make it out alive by the time a new president is inaugurated, speech or no speech.

__________________
"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." Sir Edmund Burke