That Bush Magic

My Bushie friend likes to say that “Everyone knows” that things are better now, and we all know that for them “everybody” means those who lives in his house, but apparently America (and the individuals who comprise America that he has little use for) disagree:

Stories below are hyperlinked for your viewing convenience:

We’re worse off than 4 years ago, voters say

WASHINGTON - Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
This has become a fundamental question in presidential elections. And for the first time since 1992, a plurality of voters heading into November’s election answer that question with a resounding no, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Forty-three percent say that they and their families are worse off, compared with 34 percent who say they’re better off; 21 percent respond that their status is the same. By contrast, strong pluralities or majorities answered that they were better off before entering the general elections in 1996, 2000 and 2004 — when, with the exception of the extremely close 2000 race, the incumbent party held onto the presidency
.
February retail sales worse than expected

Feb. foreclosures up 60 percent over year before
Oil prices touch a new high of $111 a barrel
Stocks tumble as commodity prices soar

Vile

The Bush extortion of American continues.

Bush appears to be saying that the Army’s behavior “could cost American lives”. How’s that for supporting the troops? It should be horrifying that while the Military of America refuses to engage in torture, the civilian executive believes that he should be able to torture. WOW.

Bush: Limiting CIA Interrogations "Could Cost American Lives"

By Paul Kiel - March 8, 2008, 10:33AM

From President Bush's radio address today, where he announced that he'd
vetoed the Senate authorization bill, which would have effectively outlawed
waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques for the CIA by
limiting the CIA to the Army's guide for interrogations, the Army Field
Manual:

Interesting discussion of "experience"

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/01/17/Worldandnation/Presidential_experien.shtml



http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1717926,00.html?xid=rss-topstories


"there's no such thing as presidential experience outside of the office itself."
James A. Baker III


Wouldn't it be nice if time on the job and tickets punched translated neatly into superior performance? Then finding great Presidents would be a simple matter of weighing résumés. Take a Democrat like Bill Richardson — experienced in Congress, in the Cabinet, as a diplomat and governor — and have him run against Republican Tom Ridge, a former soldier, governor and Director of Homeland Security, with the winner chosen by a blue-ribbon commission of all-purpose elders. The Danforth-Mitchell commission, perhaps, or O'Connor-Albright. But it has never worked that way, which is why Lincoln 's statue occupies a marble temple on the Mall in Washington , while his far more experienced rival William Seward has a little seat on a pedestal in New York City .

…

Richard Nixon served as a Congressman, Senator and Vice President; he watched from the front row as Eisenhower assembled one of the best-organized administrations in history. When Nixon's turn came, though, his core character — insecure, insincere, conspiratorial — led him to create a White House doomed by its own dysfunction.

Lawless

Yeah, but our secret police, spying on our own citizens and general disregard for the law is better than when China, Cuba, and Russia, etc use their secret police, spy on their citizens and have a general disregard for the law. We’re George W. Bush’s America . When our leader says he must violate these laws to protect our country, who are we to argue? After all, when has a leader claiming the violation of laws and the abuse of civil rights is justified by “protecting the state” ever gone wrong? If laws are in place to specifically guard against these types of abuses, what is a leader to do, but ignore them? That behavior has never had bad consequences in the history of the world.

George Bush was elected our leader by nearly a majority of Americans, how can he be expected to be bound by laws established by Congress or a Constitution created by the mental midgets of the 18th Century? It’s not like they knew anything about threats to our nation. They only fought a war for independence and then watched a foreign country burn down the Nation’s capital, what would they knew about threats to the homeland?



More FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed

By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer

The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone
records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year
of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and
spies.

The breach occurred before the FBI enacted broad new reforms in March
2007 to prevent future lapses, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. And it was
caused, in part, by banks, telecommunication companies and other private
businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than was requested.

Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mueller raised the
issue of the FBI's controversial use of so-called national security letters in
reference to an upcoming report on the topic by the Justice Department's
inspector general.

An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded
personal records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data
than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last year's
audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many national
security letters were requested by more than 4,600.
The new audit, which
examines use of national security letters issued in 2006, "will identify issues
similar to those in the report issued last March," Mueller told senators. The
privacy abuse "predates the reforms we now have in place," he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that we not only get this right, but
maintain the vital trust of the American people," Mueller said. He offered no
additional details about the upcoming audit.

Senators Clinton and Obama

Senators C and O:

GROW UP!. You’re running for the highest office in the land, show some dignity. We’ve had 7 years of partisan bickering and name-calling and the Democrats have the best opportunity to win the WH in decades and you two are going to ruin it with your petty sniping and bickering over little irrelevant junk. Senator Clinton, tell me why I should vote for you instead of Senator Obama because you call him a plagiarist. Honestly, do you think that is the kind of stuff that is going to win you the election? If so, it tells me you don’t deserve it.

Stop the negative name-calling and focus on WHY WE SHOULD VOTE FOR YOU. I ask Senator McCain to do the same.

And as for you, the “media” you too could serve America well but not taking these comments and blowing them out of proportion. Look at the headlines you write, why do you sensationalize these comments. Those of you running and those of you reporting owe it to America to grow up. Try to return civility and dignity to American politics. You’re the only ones that can do it, so why don’t you step up and serve America and it’s citizens.