Tag: Worst President Ever

As Hurricane Season Starts, Entire 82nd Airborne Redeploys Overseas

Jon Ponder

The 82nd’s Robert Stanley patrols the flooded streets of New Orleans in 2005. He was killed March 2007, in Samarra, Iraq.

Earlier this year, with recruitment tanking and its forces strapped down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army’s famed 82nd Airborne Division was forced to disband one of its best known missions, the “division ready brigade” — a contingent of troops on stand-by at all times ready to deploy anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

The 82nd’s ready brigade — an integral part of domestic disaster preparedness — has been disbanded.

The 82nd’s ready brigade has been an integral part of the United States’ relief preparations for domestic disasters such as hurricanes for years. But now, as the 2007 hurricane season begins, the entire 82nd Division is leaving United States for the first time since it was deployed to Iraq in 1990 as part of Operation Desert Storm — and none of its divisions will return until September, when the season is over:

When a jet lifts off Sunday at Pope Air Force Base with the commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team and the last load of his 3,300 paratroopers aboard, the 82nd Airborne Division will notch one more hard-earned mark in a history so often described as “storied.”

For only the second time since World War II, all of the division’s combat infantry brigades will be at war. Other 82nd units are deployed also, bringing the total overseas to nearly 17,000 paratroopers.

One of the most memorable successful stateside deployments of the 82nd’s ready brigade was to South Florida in response to the Hurricane Andrew disaster in August 1992. The 82nd provided food, shelter and medical attention in the region for 30 days.

In 2005, however, Pres. George Bush’s incredible six-day delay after Katrina before sending the 82nd’s ready brigade to New Orleans was the worst of a cluster of bad decisions that came out of the White House. It was this failure of leadership that finally woke many Americans up to the depth of the president’s incompetence.

On Monday, August 30, 2005, the day after Katrina’s storm surge breached the levies and flooded New Orleans’ low-lying neighborhoods, the 82nd was put on alert at Fort Bragg, N.C., for deployment into the region:

[A] battalion would have been ready to move as early as Tuesday, said Major Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd .

“We could have immediately responded within 18 hours,” he said. “We could have come here, had we been asked, at any point.”

As the days dragged on in New Orleans — while thousands of people were stranded in the Superdome, dozens were rescued off roofs and others drowning in the flooded streets — millions of Americans watching the disaster on television were wondering — Where is the 82nd?

It wasn’t until six days after Katrina struck, at 10 o’clock Saturday morning, September 3, that the 82nd was called into New Orleans. Even then, Pres. Bush made the announcement to the media before he or anyone in his government officially notified commanders of the 82nd’s ready brigade.

The 2006 storm season was comparatively mild, but now as the 2007 season gets underway, the American South faces its first hurricane season without the 82nd Airborne on alert and ready to move in if the unthinkable happens — again.

Bush Disses the Pope to His Face – Twice

Jon Ponder


Papal bull: Hard to find the good guy in this one. During his visit with Pope Benedict XVI Saturday, Pres. George W. Bush twice addressed the pope disrespectfully by using an improperly casual honorific:

Maybe George Bush heard the rumors that Pope John Paul II believed he was the Antichrist.

“Good to be with you, sir,” Bush said. (Italian journalists immediately noted the breach in protocol: The pope is formally to be addressed as “Your Holiness.”)…

The two leaders also exchanged gifts; Bush’s presents included a walking stick engraved by a formerly homeless man with words and images of the Ten Commandments.

“The Ten Commandments?” Benedict asked.

Bush replied: “The Ten Commandments, yes, sir.”

Imagine the brouhaha if a normal president — especially a Democrat — had made a similar faux pas. I’ve seen nothing about it on TV today, and don’t expect to. Besides, in the unlikely event a controversy brews, Bush-lovers and their running dogs in the media will write it off as just his usual muddling.

And yet it is unfathomable, or should be, that a thorough briefing on papal protocol was not fresh in his mind when he entered the room.

Why would Bush deliberately insult the pope? During the president’s European trip three years ago this month, Benedict’s predecessor and ally, Pope John Paul II, called Bush to Rome, forcing an unprecedented change in the presidential schedule, in order to deliver a public scolding over the war in Iraq and, particularly, the torture of prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Grahib prison. Adding sting to the slap was the fact it came a few months after Bush had bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his highest honor, on John Paul. (The nerve.)

It’s also possible Bush heard the rumors that John Paul was said to believe he is the Antichrist.

Update: Trish spotted this via WTF – Bush in holy gaffe”

US President George W Bush drew gasps at the Vatican on Saturday by referring to Pope Benedict XVI as “sir” instead of the expected “His Holiness”, pool reporters said…

On his way to see the 80-year-old pontiff, the US leader apparently recognised someone he knew, and could be heard greeting the person with a casual “How ya doin’?”

The pool reporters also noted Bush’s relaxed posture, crossing his legs “Texan style” while facing the pope across his desk in the private study of the apostolic palace.

Before You Leave for the Weekend…Important Friday News Dump

Trish

It’s coming hot and heavy:

Gen. Pace is out as chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gates blames it on Congress; says Pace wouldn’t have been able to be reconfirmed when his current term is up in September.

Gonzales will face “no confidence” vote in the Senate on Monday. Bush says he’s doing a heckuva job and the vote is simply “political thee-AY-ter.”

The CIA denies claims by more than 30 current and former intelligence officers here and in Romania and Poland that it abducted and tortured people at secret prisons in Europe. The fully documented report, filed by the European Parliament, is “biased and distorted,” the CIA said.

Cheney needs his pacemaker replaced. The batteries are going dead, and he could presumably follow. Nuff said.

Bush is over his hangover. “The president already was dressed when he began feeling ill in the morning, [Spokestool Dan] Bartlett said. He stayed in bed for several hours to rest and recuperate, missing one session with African leaders and another with leaders from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, all developing nations not G-8 members. Bush returned to the talks in time for the closing lunch, where he engaged in extensive conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Paris Hilton is back in jail. And reportedly just thrilled to be there.

Houston Chronicle: Jail Libby Now

Trish

A call for immediate imprisonment of convicted liar Lewis Libby has come from a surprising source: the biggest newspaper in one of the biggest cities in the president’s home state.

Houston Chronicle:

Libby’s lawyers and supporters want Libby to stay out of prison while he appeals, which could take more than a year. [U.S. District Judge Reggie] Walton seems disinclined to go along, noting that people in Libby’s position, “where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands,” have a special obligation to be truthful. Libby failed to meet that obligation, stands little chance of having his conviction overturned and should start serving his sentence now.

Libby’s conviction and sentence is a fair outcome to a troubling chapter that afforded Americans a rare glimpse into the machinations of a secretive White House determined to go to war and to undermine its critics by whatever means available, even at the risk of putting covert operatives and their contacts in harm’s way.

Was Bush Too Hung Over to Work at G8 Summit?

Jon Ponder

The AP has a story online with the title “Illness Sidelines Bush at G8 Summit,” running alongside a photo of Pres. Bush relaxing yesterday with an amber-colored German beverage.

As is usual with our liberal media, we are left to put two and two together and draw our own conclusions, so here goes:

The president was already dressed when he began feeling ill in the morning, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said. He said doctors are keeping an eye on him but that Bush’s illness — whether a stomach virus, a light touch of food poisoning or something else — is “not serious.”

He stayed in bed to try to rest and recuperate, missing the morning session of the summit being held here of eight industrialized democracies.

Hey, it’s happened to the best of us — except most of us don’t officially claim to have been alcohol-free for the past 20 years old when we are afflicted by a hangover.

[…]

Poll: Why Is Bush’s Approval Still So Amazingly High?

Jon Ponder

How does Pres. Bush do it? If the polls accurately reflected his job performance, not to mention the disregard for him among the public, his polling would be minus 32 — and yet:

Public approval of the job President Bush is doing now matches its all-time low, an AP-Ipsos poll says… Only 32 percent said they were satisfied with how Bush is handling his job overall, the same low point AP-Ipsos polling measured last January and a drop of 3 percentage points since May.

By any objective measure, a 32 percent approval is astronomically high considering he is hands-down the Worst President Ever. How does he do it? Here’s the answer:

Bush still wins approval from seven in 10 Republicans, though that is near his historic low for GOP support of 67 percent in January.

Bush has bungled everything he has touched, from the war in Iraq to fighting terrorism to the entire rack of domestic issues. The country suffers every day he is in office, and for the first time in a generation, the future of the United States is in jeopardy — not due to external forces but rather because of the incompetence of its current president.

Considering this, it appears that Republican deadenders put their adoration of George W. Bush ahead of their love for America. Contrast their overwhelming support for the president in contrast with his rating among normal Americans:

Only a quarter of those initially identifying themselves as independents expressed satisfaction with the president, about equaling his low with them reached in February. Eight percent of Democrats gave him their approval.

It’s obvious that the biggest crisis facing America’s future is not terrorism or the healthcare crisis, it’s our over-abundance of delusional conservatives.

Hat tip: The Bard of Shuffletown

Is Bush’s Base Softening on Impeachment?

Jon Ponder

Over the past week or so, conservatives who oppose Pres. Bush’s immigration bill have been on the receiving end of insulting and denigrating attacks in the media from the president and his flying monkeys. They are apoplectic over being framed as unpatriotic and bigoted, and they seem genuinely shocked to find that, like any old-school messianic cult leader, Dear Leader treats all opposition as heresy.

“Message To The Left: I’m not saying you should impeach him, I’m just sayin’, you know, go with your hearts.”
— Conservative blogger

Peggy Noonan, who has been as Bush cult-y as anyone, described the angst among Bush’s base in a column dramatically subtitled, “President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder”:

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic–they “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, “We’re gonna tell the bigots to shut up.” On Fox last weekend he vowed to “push back.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want “mass deportation.” Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are “anti-immigrant” and suggested they suffer from “rage” and “national chauvinism.”

And then she asks, beseeachingly, “Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens?”

Welcome to our world, Peggy. Bush and company have been directing insults and hostility toward us “concerned citizens” on the left for seven years.

At the top of her piece, Noonan asserts that Bush’s base hasn’t broken with him on immigration, it’s the other way around:

What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition.

How bad is it among Bush’s base? The National Journal’s Blogometer posits that if congressional Dems were to move toward impeachment over Bush’s violations of the FISA laws, they would find conservatives in no mood to object:

Let’s pretend the House Judiciary Cmte. tires of Monica Goodling and Co., and returns their attention to the NSA surveillance program. Article II powers aside, has anyone really made the case Pres. Bush didn’t violate FISA? Wouldn’t monitoring Americans phone records contra to federal law constitute a high crime or misdemeanor? And if articles of impeachment were drawn up, after the immigration debacle, who exactly would come to Bush’s defense? Laura Ingraham? National Review? Conservative stalwart Ace of Spades sums up conservative sentiment: “Message To The Left: I’m not saying you should impeach him, I’m just sayin’, you know, go with your hearts.”

Blogometer also put together a round up of angry posts about Bush from conservatives, many of whom discuss the possibility of impeachment:

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Troops in Iraq are Getting Shortchanged on Medical Care

Buck Banks

Need some M*A*S*H with that surge? A recently uncovered Army report (not released to the media or public, of course) found that medical support services in Iraq are not what they should be. The report noted shortcomings in medical staff training, medevac facilities and a lack of lab personnel and facilities that means blood samples are shipped all the way to Germany for testing.

‘It could be a bloody — it could be a very difficult August.’
— George W. Bush, on his surge

A shortage of lab and pharmacy technicians makes it difficult to conduct tests near the battlefields, according to briefing slides prepared by the Army Medical Department. When the Army can hire lab personnel, they frequently need additional training, according to the briefings. To complete lab tests, the Army must send patients’ samples to the Landstuhl Regional Army Medical Center in Germany, a process that can take two to three weeks to return results to medical facilities in Iraq.

Even when lab work can be done in Iraq, it is often conducted on an ad hoc basis. “Blood collection and apheresis [separation of blood components, such as platelets] are ‘Hey you’ tasks,” according to the briefings, which were conducted in February during a mid-year review for Maj. Gen. Ronald Silverman, commander of the Iraq-based Task Force Three Medical Command. The Army Medical Department Center and School conducted the review, which included representatives from major Army commands, divisions and brigade combat team surgeons.

The findings point out deficiencies in what is otherwise a vast improvement in battlefield medicine in the past 15 years. The advances, together with a system of medevac helicopters that can transport a wounded soldier from the battlefield to a field hospital in an hour or less, have boosted the survival rate of Iraq casualties to nearly 95 percent.

Still, the briefings portray a combat medicine operation struggling under inadequate and poor training. For example, the briefings describe combat medics who are poorly trained to perform emergency surgical airways when working in the field. Performing airway procedures is a key component of emergency medicine, which includes insuring that a patient can breathe and stopping a patient’s bleeding.

Government Executive, which broke the story, sent written questions to the Army regarding the specifics of the briefings. The Army’s response was a typical Catch-22:

Army headquarters did not respond by the time this article was posted. Cynthia Vaughn, head of public affairs at the Army Medical Department, declined to respond because she said the briefings were marked “For Official Use Only” and “are not intended for public release, and it would be inappropriate for us to respond to questions relating specifically to this document.”

So let’s be clear, since the materials were not intended for public release, the Army won’t comment on them, even though the materials now have been released, as of publication of this article. Sounds like a new version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” only it’s now “You Can Ask Till You’re Blue in the Face, but We Won’t Tell.”

Although the survival rate of casualties is about 95 percent, the kinds of wounds inflicted in Iraq are typically more serious than in previous conflicts. And as improvised explosive devices get ever more powerful, the wounds they cause require faster, better critical care. We have just finished what has been the bloodiest month of 2007, with 127 Americans and two Britons killed in May. The total of American casualties has now exceeded 25,000 since the war began.

And it looks like it will get worse before it gets better. Even George Bush has admitted that his so-called surge will likely produce more U.S. casualties.

“We’re going to expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months. We can expect more American and Iraqi casualties,” Bush said at a press briefing in the Rose Garden in late May. “It could be a bloody — it could be a very difficult August.”

And just when the troops will need it most, it appears that their medical support won’t be as good as it should be. Typical. Just like the administration sent them into Iraq without body armor or armored Humvees, so it now is surging them with insufficient medical supplies, personnel and facilities.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

Stand By for Change of Subject

Trish

ABC is reporting that Bush will speak at 1:25 p.m. EST, imploring Congress to implement his stupid, corn-fed, greenhouse gas belching, Big Ag buddies enriching, global warming worsening energy plan that no one paid any attention to during his State of the Union address because it does absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

But hey, maybe it will get people to focus less on his endless failings, his neocon attempts to overthrow our republic, and his incitement of the world’s animosity toward each and every one of us.

Or not.

Sussing Out Bush’s Never-Ending Surge

Buck Banks

Political analyst Craig Crawford equates the pattern the Bush administration has established with Congress with Muhammad Ali’s infamous boxing tactic he used against George Foreman — the “ropa dope.” By laying back on the ropes, Ali was able to prolong the fight until Foreman wore himself out whaling away on him.

The White House might be preparing the way for another “ropa dope” of Congress.

Crawford sees the same kind of tactic at work in George Bush’s surge, which seems to somehow keep getting extended. As Crawford sees it:

Back in December, when Bush announced his new Iraq strategy, his GOP war supporters — and even the White House itself — had pinpointed this summer as the soft deadline for determining whether it is working. But early last month the president announced that the troop boost would not even be completed until June, thus buying a few more months.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., among others in their party, are now settling upon September as a deadline. But the White House might be preparing the way for another “ropa dope” of Congress. Yesterday the Pentagon announced that another 35,000 troops were notified that they are likely to be heading to Iraq by December. That suggests that, come September, the White House will be asking for a reprieve until the end of the year — and possibly beyond.