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Former President Bush did a lot of things. Some were good, some were bad, and some
are still up for debate. But what is not up for debate was his steadfastness. A strong
moral fortitude is a trait lacking on capital hill, ie. Franken, Powell, and Obama. Not to
say that these people aren¶t decent, but it is quite clear that they are politically expedient.
And it is more than clear that political expediency is not a forte of our 43rd president.

Although many say that Bush started with a clean slate, that is just not true, and here is
the reasoning to debunk that theory.

With disregard to voting trends, and if you want to make argument here, you best
research voting trends. If the American public were happy with the 1992-2000
administrations, they would have not switched from the Democratic to the Republican
Party in 2000. I mean, Al Gore was on the ticket, and Al Gore was President Clinton¶s
running mate, it should have been a shoo-in for the Democratic Party.

And you can argue that Bush won the election at the hands of the Supreme Court. And
yet again you have clearly not done your research. First, I shall debunk the Supreme
Court hubbub. Are you referring to the Supreme Court, which had two fresh Clinton
appointees, Ginsburg and Breyer? Was Bush not at a disadvantage in this hearing?

Second, was Gore not violating the constitution, and United States law via
discrimination? Gore, wanted a recount, granted. But what is little talked about is that he
wanted a recount only in certain counties, counties like Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm
Beach, and Volusia. These four counties hold the majority of the population, but also
normally vote democratic. Does that mean that the other Florida counties votes don¶t
count? The court agreed, and decided that all of the counties must be recounted if the
recount was to be constitutional, and in short, that was just going to take too damn long,
ruled the Supreme Court.

The Bush presidency was polarized, and was little respected in the end. Bush¶s lack of
political aptitude lead to his isolation from the GOP. However, the former president is not
solely to blame. The GOP did, and still does represent a very wide spectrum of political
savvy, and political alignment, reference, Sarah Palin and John McCain. The lack of
foundation provided for a weak base for President Bush to make unpopular decisions.




The mass media, will not come out and say that they support one party or the other,
even FOX NEWS never supported the Republican Party, which for you FOX haters, I
know, this really makes you upset. But it is clear that the mass media supports the liberal
party; reference, Ted Turner. MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, MTV, BET, E! all support the
Liberal Movement, and there are others, trust me. Evidence is provided through simple
research. The media, and subsequently the American People have forgotten about the
ongoing war in the Middle East. No longer are death tolls tallied on a daily basis, no
longer are the spent taxpayer dollars graphed on large moving, aesthetically pleasing
slideshows. It is easy to forget about the horrors, when you are not reminded about them
everyday. For those of you that have forgotten, heroes are still fighting, and heroes are
still dying. And I am eternally grateful for those in the Armed Forces.

Why is the media not reporting on Iraq any more? This is because Operation Iraqi
Freedom is a success. Did Betray-us not really betray us? The Operation was doomed
from the beginning, there was no exit strategy, and there were no benchmarks. This
however, is not at fault of the President. It is at fault of Congress who funded the entire
operation from the get-go. But, back to the original question, why was the ³War in Iraq´
deemed a failure? And, why is it no longer being reported on? This is a two-part
question, because there is a two-part answer. First, the ³War in Iraq´ was deemed a
failure because the Democratic Party needed to realign their policies and stances to
regain office in 2008. It was clear that the American ³Public/media´ was losing interest in
the War. Had we all been as gun-ho about the war as I still am, I am sure Nancy Pelosi
would be standing there, not accusing the CIA director of pulling an Al Franken (lying), I
am sure she would be in Cuba right now pouring water down those bastard¶s noses. But,
she needs to gain re-election. Re-election means she needs to change her points of
view. To say the least, she did.

Now, why is the War in Iraq not being reported on any more? Simple. Media Bias.
President Obama is plagiarizing Bush Administration tactics, which were used in Iraq,
and is now using them in Afghanistan. Wait, so, if the War in Iraq was such a failure, why
are we doing the EXACT same thing in Afghanistan?

Good question. There are two answers to this question. Both are equally pleasing. 1)
Bush¶s Iraqi Surge worked. 2) Obama is an idiot. Well, both are right.

Well, that was one hell of an intro to this intro, which will eventually get to the ³Things
Bush Did Right´.

Many people say that President Bush did not do a single thing right during his 8 years in
office. The Internet is scoured with blogs asking, ³What did Bush do Right?´ Well, I found
a couple things, and I backed a lot of them up with facts, and there is nothing keeping
you from researching some of these things on your own. Like I said before, the success
of some of these programs is debatable. But others are not. Being the optimist that I am,
I decided that in this note, I was going to list the positives of President Bush as opposed
to the negatives of Obama. I think it¶s a nice change. I challenge anyone to compile half
as extensive of a list at the end of Obama¶s first (and hopefully only) term. In fact, I
challenge anyone to list a single good thing Obama has done since his inauguration. DO
IT.

Civil Liberties:

  



 



In 2006, there was a debate within the Republican-dominated Congress over the future
of America's 12 million undocumented immigrants. The response of the House was
mass deportation; the response of the Senate was comprehensive reform with a
citizenship path. President Bush strongly and openly favored the latter approach, to the
point of essentially ending the debate within his party over deportation. It cost him dearly
among his base, but it moved the immigration reform debate to the center and provided
political cover for other Republicans willing to entertain humane immigration reform
proposals. Thanks in part to President Bush's position on this issue, real bipartisan
immigration reform may be possible in 2009.






 






 
During his first State of the Union address in early 2001, President Bush vowed to end
racial profiling. In 2003, he acted on his promise by issuing an order to 70 federal law
enforcement agencies calling for an end to most forms of racial and ethnic profiling. The
ban was not airtight, but it was the first ban of its kind.















In an effort to condense this note, I condensed the explanation to: research this on your
own; it won¶t take but 5 minutes on Google. Plus, the title is pretty self-explanatory.





 








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In short:
Clinton: 7,000 Asylum seekers 60,000 refugees
Bush: 32,000 Asylum Seekers 87,000 refugees

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In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sentiment was
on the rise. Almost every other president in the history of the United States who had
faced terrorist attacks from abroad ultimately gave in to xenophobia--President Woodrow
Wilson being the most egregious example. President Bush did not, infuriating elements
of his base by meeting with pro-Arab and pro-Muslim civil rights groups and holding
Muslim events at the White House. When Democrats relied on anti-Arab sentiment while
criticizing the transfer of several U.S. ports from British to UAE ownership, it became
clear just how far this xenophobia had spread--and just how important it might have
been that the president had made an effort to reject it.


 




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The top four positions in the executive branch are those of the president, the vice-
president, the secretary of state, and the attorney general. Until President Bush came to
power, a person of color had ever occupied none of these four offices. President Bush
has appointed the first non-white attorney general (Alberto Gonzales), as well as both
the first (Colin Powell) and second (Condoleezza Rice) non-white secretaries of state.
There have been non-white legislators and two non-white Supreme Court justices, but
prior to the Bush administration, the upper echelon of the executive branch had always
been all white. President Bush changed that.

 








 
When President Bush came into office, the Clinton-era "assault weapons" ban was still
in effect. Even though he had supported the ban consistently during his 2000 campaign,
President Bush made no serious effort to seek its renewal and it expired in 2004. Since
that time, President Bush has also signed legislation preventing local law enforcement
agencies from forcibly confiscating legally-owned firearms, as was done on a large scale
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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Although President Bush's rhetoric has often been troubling, he has yet to change a
single federal policy in a way that detrimentally affects LGBT Americans. Couple this
with a 2006 bill he signed that gave non-spousal couples the same federal pension
standards as married couples, his decision to appoint an openly gay man as U.S.
ambassador to Romania, his refusal to turn lesbian and gay families away from the
White House Easter egg hunt, his decision not to overturn President Clinton's executive
order banning federal employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and
his warm words about the vice-president's daughter and her family, and you have an
administration that is not as homophobic as many had feared it would be.




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The greatest contribution President Bush has made to civil liberties has been his failure
to live up to expectations. During the 2004 campaign, Senator Hillary Clinton warned us
that re-electing Bush would radically transform our country, leaving us with what she
called "an America we won't recognize." While President Bush has a horrible civil
liberties record, it is only incrementally worse than that of his predecessor and certainly
not so much worse as to pose a grave threat to the existence of our liberal democracy.
His record on civil liberties has been, I am sad to say, quite normal for a president--
perhaps better than I would have expected from a president responding to the worst
terrorist attack in our country's history.

Middle East:



 

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Iraq is now a fragile, but functioning democracy.

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It is easy to round up terrorists and hold them accountable, but Bush held the countries
harboring terrorists equally responsible.








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President Bush was willing to commit ground troops to the surge even with the likelihood
of casualties.








President Bush wanted to make sure all of the military armaments were in place before
he dropped the first bomb on Afghanistan. Even in the face of public disapproval.

Foreign Policy:






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He strengthened relations with East Asian democracies (Japan, South Korea, Australia)
without causing a rift with China. On top of that, he forged strong ties with India. An
important factor was their common enemy, Islamic jihadists. After 9/11, Bush made the
most of this, and Indian leaders were receptive. His state dinner for Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in 2006 was a lovefest.

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He ostracized Yasser Arafat as an impediment to peace in the Middle East. This
infuriated the anti-Israel forces in Europe, the Third World, and the United Nations, and
was criticized by champions of the "peace process" here at home. Bush was right.

 


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This not only includes the Middle East, but Russia as well.



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In Bush¶s 2003 State of the Union Address, he announced that he would start a $15
billion dollar campaign to combat HIV/AIDS around the world, and specifically in Africa.
This also happens to be the largest international effort in history created to combat a
disease. In July 2008, congress gave the Bush Administration $48 billion more to extend
to program to combat Tuberculosis and Malaria.





 
In Bush¶s first term, his Administration helped secure $34 billion in debt relief for 19
African Countries. Today, foreign aid across the globe is three times what it was at the
time of Clinton¶s departure.





Although he might have gotten Katrina wrong, he got the Tsunami relief right in Southern
Asia. One-Third of US households donated to the cause with help from President Bush
Appointees, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Americans donated $700 million
matched by a federal contribution of $950 million, 16,000 troops, dozens of ships, and
over 100 aircraft.


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Late 2003, President Bush announced that quiet diplomacy had led to a breakthrough
with Libya. Libya agreed to give up all WMD programs and agreed to allow international
inspections of suspected weapons sites

 



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National Security:

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Secret prisons and wireless eavesdropping saved thousands of American lives. Charles
Krauthammer said, ³Those are precisely the elements which kept us safe and which
have prevented a second attack.´ And for those of you who don¶t know who Charles
Krauthammer is, here is the wikipedia.com link. Educate yourselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Krauthammer




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Keep in mind, President Bush, never banned stem cell research, he did however, and
set up guidelines for what kind of research will receive federal funding.

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Bush¶s 2008 budget gave the National Parks an 11.8% increase, or, $208 million more
dollars.



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Aka, saw the hoax in Ethanol

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Presidential authority was badly degraded from the Vietnam Era, Watergate, and Bill
Clinton. Bush didn¶t hesitate to conduct wireless surveillance of terrorists without getting
a federal judge's okay. He decided on his own how to treat terrorists and where they
should be imprisoned. Those were legitimate decisions for which the president, as
commander in chief, should feel no need to apologize.





 
 



It's not only wildly popular; it has cost less than expected by triggering competition
among drug companies. Conservatives have deep reservations about the program. But
they shouldn't have been surprised. Bush advocated the drug benefit in the 2000
campaign. And if he hadn't acted, Democrats would have, with a much less attractive
result.

 

 

Announcing his 2006 decision to designate a group of remote Hawaiian islands as the
world's largest marine reserve, President Bush said, "It's larger than 46 of our 50 states,
and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined.
This is a big deal."

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This was done to raise pressure on congress to allow exploration along the United
States coast for oil. This was done in response to rocketing energy prices, and even
though him lifting the moratorium did not do anything as far as changing legislation, the
renewed consumer confidence decreased gas prices almost immediately.

Environment:
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Yeah, well so were the citizens of New Orleans. Since when is it the responsibility of
government to bail you out of a sticky situation you could have bailed yourself out of?

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Will reduce emissions from ³Heavy´ vehicles by 90% by 2014

Education:

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America¶s most prominent liberal Democratic senator Edward Kennedy cosponsored the
education reform bill. The teachers' unions, school boards, the education establishment,
conservatives were adamant about local control of schools--they all loathed the measure
and still do. It requires two things they ardently oppose, mandatory testing and
accountability. Kennedy later turned against NCLB, saying Bush is shortchanging the
program. In truth, federal education spending is at record levels. Another complaint is
that it forces teachers to "teach to the test." The tests are on math and reading. They are
tests worth teaching to.

Ok, I lied, it was 66 things, I think. All well, hope you liked it.