Is Bush the Worst President in American History?

barrons · May 17, 2006, 7:47pm

Yup. That’s why I don’t drive union built Big 3 American crap cars.

scidoc · May 17, 2006, 8:08pm

Mini
Thank you for your detailed explaination. My remark regarding w/h, ss and m/c “doesn’t mean a thing” was poorly expressed. I meant that every employer if required by law to withold taxes, ss and m/c. So, the fact that a grower does this, might appear exemplary for growers, but the rest of us withold taxes routinely. Here in CA my friends who own restaurants are the most disturbed about immigration reform. If you looked at the prices on the menu, you would truly wonder whether
the low cost of labor is being passed down to the consumer. Surely it is not. It is enhancing the wealth of the restauranteur.

digmedia · May 18, 2006, 12:29am

Is Bush the worst US President ever?

The answer: <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ehdqrxyO_Q&search=President%20Bush%20CNN%20Speech%20Rehearsal%20Media%20Bias[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ehdqrxyO_Q&search=President%20Bush%20CNN%20Speech%20Rehearsal%20Media%20Bias</a>

originaloog · May 18, 2006, 10:17am

You did it digmedia! You changed my mind, my opinion of the President. He is so erudite, an intellectual giant! I mean, did you see how de deftly formulated his thoughts and put them into a cogent form. He surely must be our best President ever!

He inspires me!!!

Anyone for a third term?

digmedia · May 18, 2006, 11:25am

Wait, wait… there’s a technicality here: It uses the word “elected,” which means that if there’s no election, the President can continue to serve. Well, because the Congress has authorized Supreme Power in this Time of Terrorism, and because a new person in the White House might compromise State Secrets (i.e., “dirty laundry”), the 2008 Election can be set aside. Besides, Bush answers to a higher authority…

We’re at War…

Changing horses and all that stuff…

Authorized to take all available means to combat terrorism…

etc, etc…

Allmusic · May 18, 2006, 11:35am

Beat me to it, Dig. I was thinking the very same thing. Anyone for ‘Prez for Life’?

originaloog · May 18, 2006, 1:27pm

Allmusic, that would be a king and we have already dealt with a Kign George many years ago.

Ah, maybe that is the solution. Gotta go reread the Declaration of Independence.

digmedia · May 18, 2006, 2:39pm

Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Wow, Powerful stuff. it’s been a long time since I’ve read it, and I think it ought to be required reading about once a year in schools.

originaloog · May 18, 2006, 4:26pm

We read it every yea at our July 4th picnic. And yes it is impressively powerful.

optimisticdad · May 24, 2006, 11:47am

An interesting article by Lou Dobbs on CNN.com

I agree with much of what he says and it brings to mind what I believe is an old Greek saying:

“Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”

It is noteworthy that no one really has a handle on how many illegals there are in the country - estimates range from 11 million to 20 million and yet even before we have any handle on this there is this headlong rush to grant blanket amnesty to this unknown number of people.

Here is an excerpt:

*President Bush says that the installation of the new Iraqi government was a “watershed event,” but at the same time warns Americans of the challenges and loss as we continue to prosecute the war against Iraqi insurgents. Sen. Harry Reid declares that legislation that would render English the national language is racist.

Thirty-seven Democrats vote for full amnesty for all illegal aliens in this country, even though nobody really knows whether the number is 11 million, 12 million or 20 million. The Senate Republican leadership demands that a “comprehensive immigration reform” plan must be passed before this Memorial Day weekend. And the president signs into law a tax cut that raises taxes on the educational funds of teenagers saving for college.*

<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/dobbs.may24/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/dobbs.may24/index.html</a>

originaloog · May 24, 2006, 3:50pm

I am really on the fence(pun intended) about the illegal immigrant issue and do agree that something needs to be done about minimizing the influx of illegals in the future. For those illegals already here I think the just solution lies somewhere between deporting them all and blanket amnesty. The two givens in my mind is amnesty for illegals who have had children born in the USA. The child is a US citizen and it would be cruel to either break up a family or subject the child to de facto deportation. The other is automatic deportation for any illegal convicted of a serious misdemeanor or felony crime. Perhaps they already are. I’m not that familiar with the criminal justice system.

And don’t forget we are accomplices in this situation. Our low cost groceries are in part a product of illegal immigrants. Much of the home maintenance service sector is manned by illegals. US businesses have hired illegals into minimum wage jobs with a wink and a nod for many years. There have been several reports of WalMart having had it hand caught in this cookie jar.

Dadguy · May 24, 2006, 5:09pm

Ironcially, we will have to hire some illegals to build the fence on their way back South. Otherwise, it’s just going to be too darn expensive to put up!

originaloog · May 24, 2006, 6:10pm

The USA is not marching toward a police state. We are already there! This one is right out of the KGB playbook.

<a href=“http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/NEWS06/60524054[/url]”>http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/NEWS06/60524054</a>

barrons · May 24, 2006, 7:41pm

Maybe they had a tip on another pedofile in the Mayor’s office.

digmedia · June 1, 2006, 2:16pm

Hate to resurrect this thread, but it’s now official in the eyes of the public:

<a href=“http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/06/poll_gw_bush_wo.html[/url]”>http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/06/poll_gw_bush_wo.html</a>

*"Poll: G.W. Bush ‘worst’ president since WWII; Reagan ‘best’

Of the 11 presidents since World War II, President Bush is the “worst,” said 34% of those surveyed in a Quinnipiac University poll released today. That was double the precentage of the next “worst” president, Richard Nixon (17%).

The “best” president, chosen by 28% of those surveyed, was Ronald Reagan. President Clinton came in second in that category, at 25%. (Clinton was named “worst” president by 16%.) "*

fundingfather · June 1, 2006, 3:02pm

I’m afraid that the only thing that is official is that Quinnipiac University really knows how to waste its polling money and tarnish its reputation as a legitimate polling organization. Since when is a President’s historical relevance measured by popular opinion? Even if you wanted to stoop to popular opinion, as long as the sitting president (or even a President from the previous 15 or 20 years) is thrown into the mix, the results are tainted by emotions and issues that have not had the chance to have been fully resolved and understood. This poll is not even of sufficient caliber to make it onto one of USA Today’s fluff polls.

mini · June 1, 2006, 3:33pm

Oh, his historical relevance is there all right. Gosh, I wish he had spent some of his time having sex with interns. :)

citygirlsmom · June 1, 2006, 3:55pm

I guess for SOME people Bush would have to run over a puppy for them to think he was not perfect

Popular opinion…well, what do we call elections? If Bush ran again, he would lose big time…and that is what these polls indicate

When history looks back a Bush, she will not be kind, unless, they keep rewriting it

Did you know that there are TWO logs of Bush’s speeches? What he said (done by independent monitors) and what he SHOULD have said (corrections made to his words for the historical record)…so all his errors are POOF, not in the official archives…gosh, why do they do that?

TheDad · June 1, 2006, 4:02pm

At least with an intern, Bush would only be screwing the country one person at a time.

fundingfather · June 1, 2006, 4:17pm

One interesting note from this survey: Harry Truman holds the record for lowest approval rating (something like 22%). Certainly if the Quinnipiac “poll” had been done when he was president, he would have been labeled as worst by a long shot. Yet, now that history has had a time to fully evaluate his presidency, he was listed in the current poll as worst by only 1% of the people. So, if you insist on using polls to evaluate presidents, come back in 50 years and see how GWB makes out.

Is Bush the Worst President in American History?

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