Posted on 04/02/2006 4:52:01 PM PDT by mathprof
George W. Bush is taking time to explain himself, open up to the public in new ways and court the U.S. Congress as he tries to breathe life into a presidency beset by sagging ratings and influence.
With a job-approval rating under 40 percent, Bush, who went to his Crawford ranch for a quiet weekend, has a long way to go. Aides acknowledge it will take a while to rebuild his image, and much will depend on the outcome of the Iraq war.
White House staffers, who have long limited the president's appearances to speeches and photo opportunities with little contact with regular people, are now inclined to let Bush be Bush.
He is talking at length. His March 21 news conference lasted nearly an hour. A Freedom House speech with questions from the audience in Washington on Wednesday went on for an hour and a half.
Bush even took questions from gray-haired retirees at a senior citizens' home recently and they asked some tough ones. More such sessions are planned.
``The president enjoys the open question-and-answer formats,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. ``The more we can put him in settings where people can get a better sense of his thinking and his beliefs, the better.'' SNIP
Democrats are not impressed by the more-open Bush. ``The president can give all the speeches he wants but nothing will change the fact that his Iraq policy is wrong,'' said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well, I am disgusted with the border issue. I was also a big supporter of his. I won't call Bush a "rich kid", but I will say he is out of touch.
I didn't catch the line "if he wasn't President tomorrow" bit before, and I don't know if it's a call for impeachment or not. If it is, I don't agree.
The British version of the Titanic is on Turner Classics, and watching a large ship sink is FAR more productive than continuing on this thread with leftists calling for impeachment of one of the finest Presidents in American history.
Carry on.....
I've listed numerous issues. Over the years I've also posted here about the murder of the unborn. You are stretching, especially with the abortion comment which you toss out for some odd reason.
Actually, you don't like the message so you are attempting to shoot the messenger. What you might consider is that when a "Bushbot" like myself gets this agitated you might take a breath and listen instead of being as rude as you have been.
Bush would not be where he is at today without people like me. And besides that, he works for me and if I have a problem with him I can say so here unless that's something JimRob decides not to allow.
In no way shape or form did I mean in any way for Bush to be impeached. The thought never crossed my mind. The port deal, the illegals situation and other things have caused me to lose the passion I had for him. That's all.
As far as the rich kid thing that applies to a wide range of politicians including the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry.
You can't have it both ways, nick. You can't claim one thing and laugh at me for listing the very real conservative stances the President has taken, and then be 'offended' that I have been 'rude' when I respond to you for doing so.
He IS conservative in those issues. If you laugh at me for listing them, then the problem is yours, not the President's, or mine.
Enough of this pointless discussion. The President is conservative in many areas. That's a fact........no opposition to it is based on reality. Back to the Titanic......
Back to the Titanic......
That applies to more than the movie....
"Her own local people have betrayed her."
Like hell they did. Her own local people DO NOT ENFORCE BORDER CONTROL! That's under the authority of the President, not the Mayor or Governor.
Michelle Marquez is an American citizen who has been betrayed by Bush, the same as you and I have been. Alia doesn't like to admit that her President, our President is betraying American citizens by not protecting our national borders.
He's conservative in a few social areas, and liberal in others. His personal leanings may be conservative on social issues. We'll have to wait for the SCOTUS picks to pan out to see what (if any) those appointments will have.
No child left behind is a well-intentioned flop. Same for his social drug benefit.
Tax cuts without taking measures to control spending is hardly conservative budgetary policy.
In matters of foreign relations, he's a progressive with liberal leanings.
He's decidedly pro-military, and has decided to fight WoT abroad, which is good.
That hardly makes him worthy of idolatry. If he signs an amnesty into law (that he, himself has hacked for), it will almost certainly guarantee victory for Hillary in '08.
THIS is what you replied to my saying the President was pro-life and thus, conservative in that area.
YOU are the one who implied that the pro-life issue was not important. I didn't IMPLY any such thing. I INFERRED it from your statement that the pro-life issue wasn't important to you, because you SAID it wasn't.
btw, the ship sank..........just like you.
Say what you mean, and mean what you say, and you'll be far better off. If you SAY being pro-life isn't important, don't get your feelings hurt by people who read what you SAY when it isn't what you mean.
Bye, nick. The movie's over.
I agree. And no one I know worships him.
Please note the part of the Titanic story where the band plays on, and the deck-hands rearrange the deck chairs. Some here have called for impeachment hearings, but not me. Bush is no Bubba Klinton, but I doubt he'll end up with his mug on Mt Rushmore.
They want what she has and they mean to take it, by force if necessary. The woman on the far right doesn't look like a high school kid to me. If I had to guess her age I'd say she's around thirty. She is leading this thing. The look on her face tells me where this is headed. The mob behind will follow her, and others like her.
I almost feel sorry for McClellan, but he is way too meek for that job. Ari was working for the W.H. at a much "easier" time, but boy was he smooth with the media!
You've been listening to the DNC talking points, haven't you? (Rush played a montage last week of liberals using those exact words!)
I love how you 'purists' always echo the left when you talk about President Bush.
You don't hide your alliance with the dark side very well, do you? Do you even try? Or do you not care that you say the same things about this strong and courageous President as the rabid leftists do? Unbelieveable!
Let me let you in on a secret. President Bush may well be on Mt. Rushmore some day because of the monumental things he has done for the freedom and security of this country. Tom Tancredo will only get there as a tourist.
I didn't think you did, I was just covering my bases. I had assumed you're just Republican-fatigued like I am, but far from demanding impeachment like the moonbats.
There are more of us than the rest of the Bush loyalists like to admit to.Despite what the loyalists claim, I never expected perfection, but I'm not seeing eye to eye with Bush on issue after issue after issue. I don't know where he's coming from, and I don't know where he's going to. You have to really, really trust a guy to follow him when you don't know where he's taking you.
But the problem is, I don't know when he's pandering and when he's doing what he really believes in. After the Miers incident, I realised his priorities didn't match mine very much at all.
Do you care that your dear golden boy has sided with the rabid lefties on amnesty?
I wouldn't even know what the DNC's talking points are. I watch about 2.5 hours per week of television, and that consists of nightly news on the local Fox affiliate in a very conservative town.
"President Bush may well be on Mt. Rushmore some day because of the monumental things he has done for the freedom and security of this country."
That was good for a chuckle.
Then the logical question is, "Why do you repeat them?"
That was good for a chuckle.
Better than the falling on the floor hysterical laughter at the thought that Tancredo might ever be elected President...
Nice talking to you Jay. Good bye now.
I truly hope you're right. But truth be told, I fear that a deep slumber has befallen much of our countrymen, and that they could care less about the gathering threat of Communism.
Some of them would refuse to acknowledge its existence, if a proposal came down the pike to formally declare the U.S. a communist state was presented in a pretty package, i.e., under a PC-label 'New Domestic Fairness Initiative' or some such euphemism. Particularly if it came as a 'good bill' from this administration, they would sing hosannas, and praise it to the stars, and say how wonderful it is. How Christian it must be.
And I have to remark from the discourse of this thread that there has been a serious descent into degradation. A painful one to witness if the provocateuer is assumed to be arguing in sincerity. Which I am not inclined to doubt. This provocateuer has manifested the thickest set of scales over their eyes I have ever witnessed among those asserting their christian identity... They rather suddenly popped out of nowhere to launch a set of tirades and rants against conservatives of long-standing and uprightness here. The provocateuer proceeded to make judgmental, ignorant accusations without basis.
Constantly striving contentiously on behalf of the administration...and calling those conservatives who iterate truth, after truth, after truth...or for merely accurately quote the administration... calling into question its conservative credentials ..."lies", and the messengers "liars"...
The provocateuer could not deny that the Administration has not stopped or slowed down the funding of Planned Parenthood. That federal funding of abortions continues.
But then it gets worse.
They confuse and mistake healthy troop reverence for a properly respectful commander-in-chief, as unswerving admiration for his national defense issue acumen.
That is simply not so.
The provocateuers could not debate any of the very serious defense issues, where the administration has arguably been neglectful at the strategic levels...from scoffing at and slighting border security, to embracing a globalist agenda that conflicts with God's plan for man being divided amongst nations* (biblical reference below), to seriously eroding our strategic deterrent. These are facts. No amount of lip service by administration officers gain-saying, can change those facts of history, or the on-the-ground situational reality.
We conservatives have clucked and complained, but, ultimately there was not presented an alternative in either 2000 or 2004 that would keep the even graver national defense mismangement of the democrats from taking power. As Hugh Hewitt has accurately said, it's all about national security for the Republicans to keep its electoral base.
But there appears to be a disconnect from the entirety of its national security obligations, which it is oathe-bound to perform, in our Administration.
A good illustration is the messianic idealism by the administration to unilaterally...and dangerously... lower our nuclear stockpile. Eliminating our counterforce capabilities (necessary to dissuade those with a war-winning strategic doctrine) with unilateral cuts [ This administration has decommissioned all 100 MX missiles, six trident subs, 550 Minuteman III's...all critical to deter a pre-emptive attack].
These unilataral cuts were not and are not reciprocated by the Russians who signed the Treaty of Moscow with the President just four years ago. [ The Russians are keeping their arsenal of first-strike SS-18's at least until 2017 thank you very much, while also deploying the new mobile MX-equivalent but with MARV capability and stealth to boot, the Topol-M ]
Nor does such unilateral generosity appear to forestall proliferation elsewhere either for that matter as we witness in North Korea and Iran...all with the covert backing of China.
And we're spending $16 billion annually at the Dept. of Energy to accomplish this unilateral self-mutilation. This is squandry when considering that our tactical armed forces are also stretched to a serious degree... and a lot of defense recapitalization is frankly going by the way side unfunded. They plan to cut another two aircraft carriers. The F-22 will be seriously under-deployed...by more than two-thirds from what the AirForce called for when it was first planned. And our F-15s are now that much older, and obsolete in relative terms. Now we have even more high-tech foes than when it was called for. The F-15 now loses its dogfights with its Russian export-model counterpart...which is widely being sold to other nations.
The world has not stayed still...and we have decommissioned without adequate replacement our F-14 naval air superiority fighters, nor are we ready to deal with technological surprises...as the fleet continues to shrink. [ The Yakhont ssm, or the Skval torpedo for example ]
And the Chinese are busy deploying major strategic missile forces...ultra-quiet SLBMs, long-range MIRV missiles utilizing our W-88 warhead design they stole, and on and on. And nothing, at least at a strategic funding level, and fairly little at the diplomatic-level is pursued to end this dangerous totalitarian regime.
So the provocateuers just called it all lies. One can visualize them trying to put their hands over their ears, and over their eyes...and stamp their feet in petulance. I will remind them, and not only them, but myself, to be conversant with Exodus 20:16. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."
Nor do some of those so striving so vociferously seem to be cautious of Jesus's commandment in Matthew 7:
1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Finally, some of those striving against the conservatives here seem to be rather taken up with a form of proclaimed piety but then strikingly demonstrating their lack of humility. And as we all know, that is the sign of a false prophet...their inner ravening wolves. Unfeigned love demonstrates real humility to God and their fellow Man, this is the hallmark of grace we all strive for.
I don't doubt that this person is sincere, although clearly freighted with mistakes, misconceptions, and a misplaced zeal that have led them astray, and quenching the true still small voice.
We Freepers are mostly here out of a desire for public discourse with civility to learn of our government, and society...and of our enemies. And know the truth. No matter how distasteful that can sometimes be. This provocateuer I allude to has commenced a war of insult and offense. I can only pray that I was not the occasion by which this person, whom I don't know, fell. And that I not lose place by virtue of my own pride. For such sins I repent truly, and pray for foregiveness...and the Lord's healing.
For I pray that we all can be in our place of prayer here as well as throughout our lives, not seeking vengeance...when it is the Lord's place to enact such...that I can discard the filthy rags of my own self-righteousness...and lean on Jesus for all aid and understanding of those things I don't understand. And maybe, just maybe, the Lord can still use me to help soften hearts so he can recover these wayward sheep, mold and shape them after his own son's image.
And I will pray for such as the provocateuers here, that they too can be healed from their affliction, and share in the blessing of coming together onto God, and receiving rest:
Matthew 11
28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
______________________________
*Genesis 11:
6. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
.. and puleeze. Let's do some simple math here: You say the President is NOT protecting our borders? WHADDYA THINK THE WOT IS? If not protecting our citizens and our borders. Must be kinda cozy in that fishbowl you are living in, eh?
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