George W. Bush

Interesting Statistic: Obama Has Pardoned Four Turkeys, But No Human Beings Yet After 22 Months In Office!

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A very interesting statistic has been uncovered: President Obama has yet to pardon any human being, although he has pardoned four turkeys over two Thanksgiving holidays!

This is a bit odd, and it makes one wonder why there have been no pardons, one of the great powers a President possesses!

The question is why President Obama has not used the pardon power, with some wondering if it is because giving pardons so often is a political issue, causing new controversies for a President, making one think that giving pardons at the end of a President’s time in office may often be the best strategy, since it cannot affect the President’s agenda as he finishes his term!

But yet, other Presidents have used the pardon power extensively all through the time they are in office!

The records show the following since World War II:

Harry Truman 1913
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1110
John F. Kennedy 472
Lyndon B. Johnson 960
Richard M. Nixon 863
Gerald Ford 382
Jimmy Carter 534
Ronald Reagan 393
George H W Bush 74
Bill Clinton 396
George W Bush 189

It is interesting how the number of pardons has declined rapidly since the high point under Truman and Eisenhower, and the two Bushes together granted very few pardons, particularly the senior Bush!

According to records, a total of 1,140 pardon petitions have been received under the Obama Administration, with 247 closed without action!

Other information makes it clear that 71 requests for pardons were denied just in the last month!

It will be of great interest to see how long Obama goes without granting pardons, and how many eventually will be given over his time in the White House!

The Growing Chasm Politically In Major States, And Across The Nation!

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As a result of the midterm elections of 2010, we see California becoming a state where Republicans are a dying breed, failing to win one statewide office, not gaining even one House seat, and losing any control over what the state legislature does in either house! It is hard to believe that at one point, the Republicans dominated the governorship and House and Senate seats, and that this was the state of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon!

But at the same time, the Democrats lost a couple of House seats in Florida, no longer have any influence in the state legislature, and failed to gain one statewide office, as the Republicans swept over the Democrats in all but black and Jewish areas of the Sunshine state. It is hard to remember that this was the state that once elected Bob Graham, Rubin Askew, and Lawton Chiles!

And Georgia, once the state of Jimmy Carter and Sam Nunn saw an equivalent GOP sweep, as did Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas among others!

At the same time, New York remained a dominant stronghold for the Democrats, as also occurred in Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii, among other states!

Finally, the Midwest saw a major GOP gain in such states as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Iowa!

What this all tells us is that the nation is becoming more and more divided politically, as we see the development of two nations–the Northeast Atlantic Coast and the Pacific Coast as Democratic strongholds more than ever before, and the South and the Great Plains and much of the Mountain West more Republican, and the Midwest tending in the direction of the GOP!

The political flux is amazing, having witnessed what seemed like a permanent GOP gain in the early Bush II era, succeeded by what looked like a permanent Democratic gain under Obama, followed by what now seems like a major Republican gain that could be long lasting due to reapportionment being affected by their triumphs in the state legislative battles of 2010!

Tax Cuts For the Wealthy: David Stockman Vs. Mike Pence!

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This past weekend, former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman debated the Republican party demand for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy with Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, who has been one of the most hard line conservatives insisting on that issue, despite the fact it would add $700 billion to the national debt over ten years, at a time when it is clear that there is dire need to avoid adding to the national debt, which is already over $13 trillion! 🙁

Stockman gave an excellent presentation, and called such a demand for the wealthy to continue to have tax cuts as totally irresponsible and unrealistic in the present economic climate! He made it clear that the Reagan Administration was wrong to allow a tripling of the national debt during the 1980s, and it was recalled that he had resigned early in the administration over the reckless defense spending which caused most of that overwhelming addition to the debt!

Stockman made it clear that the Bush tax cuts in the past decade had been a mistake as well, as it caused a doubling of the national debt, with much of it because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also starting the Medicare prescription plan for senior citizens without taxing to pay for it!

Stockman’s appearance on the interview showed how far the GOP has gone since the 1980s–willingness to be totally reckless in the name of the wealthy, despite the fact that the stratification of American society with the wealthy having such a large portion of the total national wealth, as compared to the middle and lower classes, is the greatest it has ever been!

Pence showed total irresponsibility over the issue of the long range effect of GOP tax policy, and also demonstrated that he has no concern over the effect of budget cuts on domestic needs in the midst of the greatest economic downturn in 80 years!

It again must be recalled that MOST of the national debt increase has been due to Republican Congresses and Republican Presidents, with Jimmy Carter only adding a comparatively small amount to the debt, and Bill Clinton actually balancing the budget in his last years in the White House, and leaving a surplus for George W. Bush, who proceeded to double the national debt, on top of Ronald Reagan tripling the national debt in his time! Reagan added $2 trillion, and George W. Bush $5 trillion to the national debt, meaning seven of the nine trillion added to the debt since Jimmy Carter left office was due to these two Presidents and their administrations alone! 🙁

And the first President Bush added a good portion of the remaining two trillion, leading up to the $10 trillion plus debt when Barack Obama came into office in 2009! This is not what one hears on conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel, however! 🙁 But it is the truth!

So the GOP has a record of total recklessness in the name of the wealthy, while the country flounders economically, and David Stockman was effective in delivering a warning as to the danger of following GOP economic doctrine! 🙁

Difference In Image Of Obama-Biden As Compared To Bush-Cheney!

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George W. Bush has revealed in his memoir, due out this week, that he seriously considered replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the 2004 Presidential campaign, due to the image that Cheney was really making the decisions as the President, and that Bush relied on him too heavily. Therefore, replacing Cheney would improve Bush’s image as the “decider”!

This shows how insecure Bush was and is, that he would be concerned what the American public thought of him, and that he might be considered by them as not qualified for the Oval Office! His upset that Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina is further evidence of that fact!

Compare this to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the image is VERY different!

Many might say that Obama is not qualified to be President, but only the right wing talk show hosts really spread that propaganda, and Obama has a strong enough self image that he does not spend a minute worrying about that assertion! And if he was to be upset over every character assassination which has been visited upon him by critics, he would be totally unable to function! But Obama is very secure in his own skin!

Joe Biden is playing a very important role for President Obama, and they get along splendidly, but there is no sense of rivalry between the two men, no self doubt on the part of Obama that he can do the job!

It goes to show that we need to have a better way to judge a candidate’s mental health, as that is an important part of what makes him able to handle the pressures of the Presidency!

It is clear that we have had Presidents, particularly Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, who based on their mental state, should not have been President, as they harmed the country in many ways because of their own insecurities!

George W. Bush: Two Years Later, Is He Delusional? :(

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George W. Bush has been out of the White House now for two years, and has been avoiding the public spotlight, while preparing his memoirs, which will come out next week!

But excerpts of the memoir have been leaked to the press, and it does not make Bush look very good! In fact, it makes one almost wonder if he has taken to drinking again, something he writes about in his memoir!

Well known as an alcoholic, joining the short list of Presidents who are defined as such (the others being distant relative Franklin Pierce, and Ulysses Grant), Bush reveals a great deal about himself in his memoir!

He tells us that he thought of replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an interesting scenario, because had it happened, Frist might very well have been the Presidential nominee in 2008, rather than Senator John McCain!

He feels that Barack Obama has not been a success, forgetting the mess that he left for the new President, the worst situation since Herbert Hoover handed over the Presidency to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933!

Even more interesting is his assessment of his greatest failure: the inability to privatize Social Security in his second term! This would have led to the total destruction of the whole system had it occurred, with the stock market crash in 2008!

But somehow, Hurricane Katrina, September 11, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War–all of these are not depicted as failures, as compared to Social Security privatization! What planet is George W. Bush on? 🙁

Also, what was his greatest disappointment and upset? Not any of the above events, but when recording artist Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly the flooding of New Orleans! Not the hurricane, but Kanye West calling him names, is the greatest upset Bush experienced!

By this statement of Bush, President Obama should be constantly upset over the crazy, loony verbal attacks on him by the “wingnuts” and the talk show hosts who don’t give him a pass on ANYTHING! 🙁

George W. Bush seems to the author to be a very troubled man who fails to face reality, and can too easily be “upset” by words of criticism!

Bush needs to learn the following: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” He needs to get off liquor and have some serious psychiatric help!

The question is how will the American people be able, finally, to overcome the damage he has wrought on this nation! 🙁

Divided Government: More Typical Than Atypical Since World War II!

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The fact that the 112th Congress will not be of the party of the President in at least one house, and historically often in both houses, is actually typical more than atypical, when one looks at the history of Congressional-Presidential relations since World War II!

In 38 of the past 66 years, we have had a divided government, with the only years it was not being: 1945-1947 and 1949-1953 under President Harry Truman; 1953-1955 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower; 1961-1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; 1977-1981 under President Jimmy Carter; 1993-1995 under President Bill Clinton; 2003-2007 under President George W. Bush; and 2009-2011 under President Barack Obama!

So divided government has been much more common, basically 60 percent of the time since 1945, and therefore, is not the tragedy some think it is!

However, having both parties controlling one chamber each has only, as stated in an earlier entry, occurred in the first six years of Ronald Reagan (1981-1987), in the years since 1945, and that IS the problem–a divided Congress, more than a divided government where both houses are in the hands of the party opposing the President!

Average Americans Are Being Exploited By The Tea Party, Which Is Funded By The Elite Wealthy! :(

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The Tea Party Movement is based on anger and frustration at the power of the elite on Wall Street, and yet who is behind the movement, funding it furiously in recent days through the Chamber of Commerce, which represents powerful corporations which want to end the new regulations imposed on them by the Obama Administration? The WEALTHY CORPORATIONS THEMSELVES! 🙁

And who is running for office as Tea Party favorites, out to stoke the fires of anger against Barack Obama? THE WEALTHY from the corporate world, including those mentioned in a previous blog entry this week: Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Carl Paladino, Rick Scott, Linda McMahon, Ron Johnson, John Raese! 🙁

Do these people have any interest in helping resolve the issues facing common folk Americans who are losing jobs and homes? Do they give a damn about the struggles of the middle class or the poor? Do they wish to resolve the issues of regulation of banks and Wall Street to prevent a future economic collapse? Do they have any concern about the health care of millions of Americans? Do they care about the struggles of college students, minorities, women, low wage workers, ordinary Americans bilked by credit card companies, and other victimized groups and individuals? NO! 🙁

Do talk show hosts such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and others really care about the struggles of every day life when they are multimilliionaires from backing the corporate classes? NO! 🙁

Why are so many average Americans unable to see that the enemy is those who are bankrolling the commercials and raising money to defeat all attempts at reform by a President who is trying to help them, but cannot be expected with the opposition forces that stand in his way, to succeed in 21 months, after eight years of corruption and scandals and profiteering under George W. Bush?

It may be that the only thing that will convince them is to give the plutocrats power and see how conditions become even worse than they are now! Maybe people have to be burned and punished further to get the message across that to return to the past failures and give power back to the corporations that caused this economic mess and national debt is total suicide! 🙁

George W. Bush: His Worst Moment Was Failure To Privatize Social Security? :(

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Former President George W. Bush is about to publish his memoirs, and he claims that his worst moment and greatest failure was his inability to privatize Social Security in 2005!

Can one imagine that? This is Bush’s worst moment? Is Bush delusional? This, if it had happened, would have been a true disaster, particularly considering the stock market collapse in 2007-2008!

But somehow, Bush has conveniently forgotten his real moments of failure:

1. Choosing Dick Cheney to be Vice President for eight years.
2. Failing to be aware through intelligence that was available of the impending attack of September 11, 2001.
3. Choosing to avoid a full commitment to the war in Afghanistan, including the seizure of Osama Bin Laden.
4. Engaging in an unnecessary war in Iraq based on manufactured evidence, and in so doing, strengthening the influence of Iran.
5. Having a slow and inadequate reaction to Hurricane Katrina, leading to the flooding of New Orleans and large areas of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
6. Violating civil liberties at home, and engaging in war crimes in Iraq, and justifying all of it.
7. Causing through lack of regulation the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and nearly causing the total melting down of the American economy, its effects to be on us for the next decade at the least, and burdening President Barack Obama with trying to resolve the mess that Bush left him!

This memoir is just further proof of the total disaster that George W. Bush was in office, and only adds to the feeling that this country was pushed into mediocrity by the corrupt vote count and the intervention of the Supreme Court in the 2000 Presidential election, which denied us Vice President Al Gore as our President!

Barack Obama And Recognition Of Science!

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President Obama should be applauded for emphasizing the significance and importance of science, which was downgraded by George W. Bush during his years in the Presidency, and continues to be repudiated by most Republicans today, who deny that climate change or global warming is occurring, and also deny the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution!

As part of his promotion of science, Obama held a Science Fair at the White House on Monday to give recognition to the contributions of scientific research!

He pointed out that we give respect and attention to athletes who perform great deeds, and that the White House has for many years held public ceremonies for the World Series champions in Major League Baseball, the Super Bowl champions in Football, the NBA champions is Basketball, and the Stanley Cup champions in Hockey.

So why not give equal recognition to young people in the field of science, which affects our lives for the better and for the long run?

The life of the mind, indeed, needs as much, if not more, respect and honors, which we already give to sports!

Thank you, Mr. President, for taking America forward, and overcoming the ignorance of George W. Bush and much of the membership of the GOP!

The Failure To Communicate: Americans Don’t Realize They Received A Tax Cut In the Past Two Years! :(

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President Obama’s administration promoted a tax cut in the past two years, averaging $400 a year for individuals and $800 a year for couples, but less than ten percent of Americans in a NY Times/CBS News Poll know it!

At the same time, half thought their taxes had remained the same, and one third thought their taxes had gone up! 🙁

The tax cut had been done by changing withholding rates, while when George W. Bush lowered taxes, he did it by sending a rebate check to taxpayers!

Apparently, the way taxes were lowered went by with taxpayers totally unaware, so the communication of the message was inadequate, and has not benefited the Democrats, who are still being accused of raising taxes by the Republican opposition!

A rebate had more political effect, but Obama felt that doing that would cause the money to be saved, rather than spent, when it came at about $65 a month in paychecks! The purpose was to stimulate the economy, as more important than thinking about the politics of a check in the mail!

So, unfortunately, the Democrats have been unable to benefit from their tax cut to stimulate the economy, which would be much worse if the tax cut through withholding had not been done! 🙁