Tag: Worst President Ever

Public Relations Effort Paying Off for Prez

Buck Banks

PR works: The BBC is reporting on new polling results that indicate George Bush’s constant appearances over the past couple of weeks are paying off, despite mounting criticism over his authorization of illegal spying on U.S. residents.

The ABC News and the Washington Post poll shows Bush’s approval rating has risen to 47%, from an all-time low of 39% in November. The poll suggests the spike is a result of high voter turnout in Iraq and growing public confidence in Bush’s handling of national security and the economy.

The latest opinion poll shows his approval rating on Iraq has risen by 10% since early November to 46%. On the economy, his rating has jumped 11 points, to 47%, the Washington Post reports.

His overall approval rating has risen to 47%, from 39% in early November. Some 52% say they disapprove of how he is handling his job.

The poll found that approval over Mr Bush’s handling of the fight against terrorism had risen to 56%, from 48% last month.

Bush Issues Guidelines On Sharing Terror Info

Buck Banks

Share and share alike: In the wake of a speech and press conference wherein our Commander In Chief defended his administration’s ongoing illegal spying on U.S. citizens, George Bush issued guidelines to Congress and government departments about how that ill-gotten info should be shared among government agencies.

In a letter to Congress, Bush explained that the details are part of his effort to build the “information-sharing environment,” or ISE, as required by a 2004 intelligence law.

“The ISE is intended to enable the federal government and our state, local, tribal and private-sector partners to share appropriate information relating to terrorists, their threats, plans, networks, supporters and capabilities while, at the same time, respecting the information privacy and other legal rights of all Americans,” he wrote. “Creating the ISE is a difficult and complex task that will require a sustained effort and strong partnership with the Congress.”

Bush sent the details in the form of “guidelines” and “requirements” to heads of government departments and agencies, and to lawmakers. The guidelines cover the role and scope of the authority of department chiefs and implement common technical standards and architectures to expedite intra-government information sharing.

Isn’t it a comfort to know that the information gathered through illegal spying on citizens by the government will be shared more efficiently among government agencies? At least the former Texas oilman and Kyoto Protocol hater has created one environmental intiative during his rule — building the “information-sharing environment.” Oh, it’s not that kind of environment ….

Works For Me

Trish

You know… Bush doesn’t feel like obeying the government’s laws… neither do I. He is the crux of government power yet doesn’t want to follow the government’s laws, why should I, one who has had no say or motion regarding their establishment, feel compelled to do anything but reciprocate?

I’d consider myself lucky not to enjoy excessively destructive behavior because in my mind, life is nothing but anarchy. I shall no longer let the legal skeleton that beauacracy supposedly creates confine me. I will do what pleases me most at any given moment, and fight whatever force tries to punish me, to death if need be.

– Comment from alert PR reader Matt

Iraqi Democracy Sullied by Bush

Trish

Having George W. Bush explain democracy to the Iraqis is a lot like a man writing a book about pregnancy, which has itself been equated to taking your car to a mechanic who doesn’t drive. In each case, basic facts and concepts are not in dispute. What is lost, however, is a deeper understanding of the spirit of the thing, a knowledge that the costs along the way make reaching the final goal even sweeter.

What we have here are not the wrong students, we have the wrong teacher.

For George Bush, democracy requires no sacrifices, no trade-offs.

True democracy requires leaders who refrain from tyranny, but Bush has given himself a free pass. True democracy requires a marketplace of ideas, but the only members of the public Bush meets have been screened and validated to agree with him. True democracy requires the consent of the governed but Bush neither asks our permission nor heeds our protests.

If I were an Iraqi and was taking my view of democracy from what I’ve seen so far, I would think that in a democracy, the government uses propaganda to lie about the news and distort public opinion. I would think elections are rigged so that the right people can vote and the right people can win office. I would think torture is used on the state’s enemies. I would think democracy is exactly the same as dictatorship. And for George Bush, it probably is.

What we have here are not the wrong students, we have the wrong teacher. George Bush can no more be the instrument for spreading democracy than a cat can spread understanding of fish – and all the cat knows about fish is how to get fat off them.

Another BS Speech from the Bush – But the BS Appears to Be Working

Jon Ponder

Propaganda by repetition: The campaign by the White House to boost public opinion of President Bush by repeating key words like “victory,” “terrorism” and “9/11” in his speeches over and over – and over – is working. His poll numbers have spiked four points! As usual, Buzzflash speaks for us all:

Frankly, we don’t give a damn if Bush was a little “more candid” in his script Sunday night. It’s all written for him based on polls anyways.

(An academic pollster from Duke has been hired by the White House to conform Bush speeches and Republican message points — that includes FOX GOP News — to polling results the guy has developed. These results show that the American public will put up with increasing U.S. military casualties if Bush promises “Victory” as the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s that simple; it’s all propaganda based on the polling of some “pointy headed” professor. It has nothing to do with reality. How’s that for irony?)

To us, for Bush to be completely candid, he would have to admit to crimes against the nation, the Constitution and humanity — and accept his judgment before the American courts and the World Court.

For us, if the president would just resign – and take Cheney with him – we would advocate letting them both off the hook, with the proviso that, like Nixon in exile, they must both stay off the political stage. With Bush in exile working on his abs in Crawford, and Cheney in exile in a nondisclosed location, the world would be a safer place.

(And yes, we’d have President Hastert to deal with, but the GOP would be chastened and it would find it harder to win congressional seats than the last time they disgraced themselves, with Nixon in 1974 – or the time before that, with McCarthy in the 1950’s – or the time before that, with Hoover at the dawn of the Great Depression.)

Congress Has No One But Itself to Blame for Coronation of King George

Trish

As lawmakers and Sunday show pundits finally began to notice that Pres. Don’t Bother Me With the Constitution is out of control vis a vis domestic spying, there is proof that it’s not all in our minds. A.P. interviewed Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, who admitted Congress has abdicated its Founding Father-envisioned role of checking and balancing the other two branches.

The panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002 [which] cost more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration

“Republican Congresses tend to overinvestigate Democratic administrations and underinvestigate their own,” said Davis, who added that he has tried to pick up some of the slack with his committee. “I get concerned we lose our separation of powers when one party controls both branches.”

Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002. The Democratic analysis found that those congressional probes cost more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration, two to the Energy Department over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and one last week to the Defense Department over Hurricane Katrina documents…

“I do not think you can argue today that Congress is a coequal branch of government; it is not,” said Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman and vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission…

A partial list of egregious, no-brainer starting points for investigations includes:

…14 areas where the GOP majority has “failed to investigate” the administration, including: the role of senior officials in the abuse of detainees; the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the role of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office in the awarding of contracts to Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton; the White House’s withholding from Congress the cost of a Medicare prescription drug plan; the administration’s relationship with Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi; and the influence of corporate interests on energy policy, environmental regulation and tobacco policy.

Meanwhile, the House ethics committee has not opened a new case or launched an investigation in the past 12 months, despite an array of outside investigations involving, among others, [California Rep. Duke] Cunningham and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Media Still Believes Bush Wants to Change His Behavior

Jon Ponder

“Is Bush in a bubble? Is Bush a dry drunk? Is Bush a drunk drunk? Is Bush a narcissist? Is Bush an idiot? Is Bush a madman? Does Bush have an “Authority Problem”? Theories abound about why Bush does the things he does, but most of them assume that he is making mistakes that he could or would correct if he understood how misguided he was.

“On Monday, there was an editorial in the New York Times lamenting the apparent indifference of the Bush administration to the rebuilding of New Orleans, the levees in particular. On Tuesday, there was another editorial, excoriating the shameful behavior of the Bush negotiators at the Montreal conference on global warming. The gist of both editorials was that without national leadership, two chances are about to be lost–the chance to rebuild the city of New Orleans and the chance to mitigate the effects of global warming. Then at the end of the week, we learned that Bush has been wiretapping the phones of his own citizens–an impeachable offense. The Times writes as if it is possible still to alter the direction of Bush administration policy, but obviously it is not.”

— Jane Smiley

Rightwinger Barr Says Bush’s Spying Is Impeachable So Freepers Attack Dems and Media

Jon Ponder

You can’t make this stuff up: Pam Spaulding went to Freeper Country looking for reaction to former GOP Rep. Bob Barr’s statement on Friday that President Bush was “apparently in violation of federal laws” when he authorized domestic spying.

“The problem isn’t the spying; it’s the secrecy. Surely that’s something conservatives can wrap their heads around, as Bob Barr seems to have done.”
— Shakespeare’s Sister

After first refusing to confirm or deny that he had ordered spying on U.S. citizens, President Bush came out swinging yesterday, using national security (9/11) to justify (9/11) his shredding (9/11) of the Constitution (9/11) . The White House strategy now is to muddy the waters. They cite newer laws that contradict the 1978 law Bush allegedly broke that requires the government to obtain special court orders before wiretapping Americans.

Of course, these complexities are too large to fit in the Freepers’ walnut-sized brainpan. Here are a few of Pam’s Actual Freeper Quotes�:

“There is nothing I’d like to see more than a Democrat attempt to impeach GWB for doing his duty to proetct America. The backlash would be incredible. 58-60 Republican Senators in 2006. The true colors of the America haters and Al Quaida sympathizers would be out for all to see. Let the debate go on…”

[…]

More Trouble on the Right for Bush – Bob ‘Impeachment’ Barr Says Domestic Spying Is a ‘Violation of Federal Laws’

Jon Ponder

Complete Transcript: Barr Debates Rohrabacher – here.

Thunder on the right – again: I happened to catch former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) duking it out with current Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) on CNN yesterday over news that President Bush has been spying on U.S. citizens, which Barr said has been done “apparently in violation of federal laws.”

“Well, gee, I guess then the president should be able to ignore whatever provision in the Constitution as long as there’s something after the fact that justifies it.”
— Bob Barr

The president’s poll numbers are just now starting to inch up as conservatives who lost faith with him over Iraq and Katrina – and because he nominated his secretary to the Supreme Court – are starting to “come home.”

The last thing the White House needs now is another big internecine row. And they cannot want a fight with a pit bull like Barr – who as a Congressman filed charges against President Clinton long before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. ( During the actual impeachment, he was one of the House Managers who tried the case against the president. )

Thrice divorced, Barr drafted the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 which bans federal recognition of same sex marriages. A strong opponent of abortion, his second wife says that Barr footed the bill when she terminated a pregnancy. A vocal advocate of “family values,” he was once photographed licking whipped cream off a woman’s naked chest.

All this hypocritical extremity aside, Barr is a strident conservative well to the right of the Big Government neocons who are running the government. So it is significant that he has come out so strongly against the charges of domestic spying – which, if proven to be illegal, are impeachable:

[…]

Life in the Propaganda Age

Trish

Excellent commentary by The Week’s Eric Effron on the revelation that BushCo has been planting propaganda in the “free” Iraq press. You know, ala some dictator, like Saddam Hussein maybe.

…after decades of tyranny, the Iraqis don’t need better or different propaganda; they need less of it

Propaganda may be a reality of war. But after decades of tyranny, the Iraqis don’t need better or different propaganda; they need less of it. And it’s hard to see how planting articles with headlines such as “The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq” and “Iraqi Forces Capture al Qaida Fighters Crawling Like Dogs” could ever fool anyone.

In its own defense, the Pentagon says that its phony news stories merely reported the truth to a populace steeped in anti-American lies. But as an old journalism teacher of mine used to say, the difference between journalism and propaganda is not a matter of accuracy—it’s a matter of “intention.” One is meant to inform and enlighten; the other, to screen out contradictory information and promote a narrow agenda. That distinction, sadly, is being erased, and not only in Iraq. From the blogosphere to 24/7 cable news to a mainstream media desperate to keep our attention, it’s ever harder to find information not tainted with an ideological or marketing agenda. Rather than seek some semblance of the truth, we’re now encouraged simply to pick a source consistent with our biases. The Information Age, it would seem, has been mislabeled. We’re all actually living in the Propaganda Age.

New reports reveal the Pentagon has launched a $300 million psychological warfare campaign to plant more propaganda throughout the world. I remember when America didn’t need to be sold to anyone, but that seems so last century now.