Thanks for not bashing me .. I do remember one thing about Bush though during the first year or two as a presidant. He was on vacation a lot. I remember commenting about it myself. Was it what Moore said at 42% ehhh who knows. I do see the presidant as having a 24x7 job so I do consider weekends a part of vacation. I can't remember the last time I had either one of those days off. I think it was about 2 years ago :/
I don't really think a president should be the one to work 24/7, except if it means 24h/week, 7 months/year ;-) I see a president as someone who should have a political vision for the future and who should spend his time thinking, and not running a country. Running a country is administration's work. I really see the difference now that I have a lot of time to think about new ideas/concepts while my trading is going on its own, run by my computers automatically. Here is the comment I found on a critic of Fahrenheit 9/11. It's worth what it's worth... Bush Vacations Deceits 6-7 Fahrenheit 9/11 states, "In his first eight months in office before September 11th, George W. Bush was on vacation, according to the Washington Post, forty-two percent of the time." Shortly before 9/11, the Post calculated that Bush had spent 42 percent of his presidency at vacation spots or en route, including all or part of 54 days at his ranch. That calculation, however, includes weekends, which Moore failed to mention. Tom McNamee, "Just the facts on âFahrenheit 9/11â Chicago Sun-Times, June 28, 2004. See also: Mike Allen, "White House On the Range. Bush Retreats to Ranch for âWorking Vacationâ," Washington Post, August 7, 2001 Many of those days are weekends, and the Camp David stays have included working visits with foreign leaders. Since the Eisenhower administration, Presidents have usually spent many weekends at Camp David, which is fully equipped for Presidential work. Once the Camp David time is excluded, Bush's "vacation" time drops to 13 percent. Much of that 13 percent was spent on Bush's ranch in Texas. Reader Scott Marquardt looked into a random week of Bush's August 2001 "vacation." Using public documents from www.whitehouse.gov, here is what he found: Monday, August 20 Spoke concerning the budget while visiting a high school in Independence, Missouri. Spoke at the annual Veteran's of Foreign Wars convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Signed six bills into law. Announced his nominees for Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Agriculture, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management, member of the Federal Housing Finance Board, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disabled Employment Policy, U.S. Representative to the General Assembly of the U.N., and Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development for the Bureau of Humanitarian Response. Spoke with workers at the Harley Davidson factory. Dined with Kansas Governor Bill Graves, discussing politics. Tuesday, August 21 Took press questions at a Target store in Kansas City, Missouri. Spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on the matter of free trade and tariffs on Canadian lumber. Wednesday, August 22 Met with Karen Hughes, Condi Rice, and Josh Bolten, and other staff (more than one meeting). Conferenced with Mexico's president for about 20 minutes on the phone. They discussed Argentina's economy and the International Monetary fund's role in bringing sustainability to the region. They also talked about immigration and Fox's planned trip to Washington. Communicated with Margaret LaMontagne, who was heading up a series of immigration policy meetings. Released the Mid-Session Review, a summary of the economic outlook for the next decade, as well as of the contemporary economy and budget. Announced nomination and appointment intentions for Ambassador to Vietnam, two for the Commission on Fine Arts, six to serve on the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry, three for the Advisory Committee to the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation, one to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and one to the National Endowments for the Arts. Issued a Presidential Determination ordering a military drawdown for Tunisia. Issued a statement regarding the retirement of Jesse Helms. Thursday, August 23 Briefly spoke with the press. Visited Crawford Elementary School, fielded questions from students. Friday, August 24 Officials arrived from Washington at 10:00 AM. Shortly thereafter, at a press conference, Bush announced that General Richard B. Myers will be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and General Pete Pac will serve as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He also announced 14 other appointments, and his intentions for the budget. At 11:30 AM these officials, as well as National Security Council experts, the Secretary of Defense, and others, met with Bush to continue the strategic review process for military transformation (previous meetings have been held at the Pentagon and the White House). The meeting ended at 5:15. Met with Andy Card and Karen Hughes, talking about communications issues. Issued a proclamation honoring Women's Equality Day. Saturday, August 25 Awoke at 5:45 AM, read daily briefs. Had an hour-long CIA and national security briefing at 7:45 Gave his weekly radio address on the topic of The Budget. Having shown a clip from August 25 with Bush explaining how he likes to work on the ranch, Moore announces "George Bush spent the rest of the August at the ranch." Not so, as Scott Marquardt found by looking at Bush's activity for the very next day. Sunday, August 26 Speaks at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Speaks at the U.S. Steel Group Steelworkers Picnic at Mon Valley Works, southeast of Pittsburgh. He also visits some employees still working, not at the picnic. Marquandt looked up Bush's activities for the next three days: Declared a major disaster area in Ohio and orders federal aid. This affects Brown, Butler, Clermont and Hamilton counties. Sent a report on progress toward a "solution of the Cyprus question" to the Speaker of the House and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Announced his intention to nominate Kathleen Burton Clarke to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior). Spoke at the American Legion's 83rd annual convention in San Antonio, discussing defense priorities. Decommissioned the Air Force One jet that flew 444 missions, from the Nixon administration to Bush's retirement ceremony for the plane in Waco, Texas. Attended the dedication ceremony of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in San Antonio. Announced appointment of 13 members of the Presidential Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nations Veterans. It is true in a sense that the Presidency is a "24/7" job. But this does not mean that the President should be working every minute. A literal "24/7" job would mean that the President should be criticized for "sleeping on the job 33 percent of the time" if he slept for eight hours a day. Christopher Hitchens notes: [T]he shot of him "relaxing at Camp David" shows him side by side with Tony Blair. I say "shows," even though this photograph is on-screen so briefly that if you sneeze or blink, you wonât recognize the other figure. A meeting with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, or at least with this prime minister, is not a goof-off. The president is also captured in a well-worn TV news clip, on a golf course, making a boilerplate response to a question on terrorism and then asking the reporters to watch his drive. Well, thatâs what you get if you catch the president on a golf course. Christopher Hitchens, "Unfairenheit 9/11: The lies of Michael Moore," Slate.com, June 21, 2004. (Some of Moore's defenders have denounced Hitchens as a member of the vast-right wing conspiracy. Hitchens, however, wrote an obituary of Ronald Reagan recalling his lone meeting with Reagan, when he asked a question which made Reagan angry: "The famously genial grin turned into a rictus of senile fury: I was looking at a cruel and stupid lizard." Hitchens also wrote a book and produced a movie, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, urging that Kissinger be tried for war crimes.)
WHAT SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID : Things that make you think a little: There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: a. FDR led us into World War II. b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year. c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost .. an average of 18,334 per year. d. John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost .. an average of 5,800 per year. f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions. g. In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking. But .. It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation. We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!! Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts. But Wait. There's more! JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR) Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13 Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living. This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military. Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn): "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?" Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard, it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took my tie off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank." "I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a veterans' hospital and look those men ... with their mangled bodies in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom, and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job. You go with me on Memorial Day, and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job? What about you?" For those who don't remember .. During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA. Now he's a Senator! If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran.
I'm a veteran, but don't thank me. I saw Bush use the terror card to get reelected. Now that the election is over, surely you noticed the less and less saber rattling. But now that the cows have been coming home and those previously mentioned bad boys of the party are in deep dung Bush has been dusting off the terror card. Well why not? What else has he?
206 a month for you and your son... I pay 500 just for me for GHI in NY through a group .... What state are you in and is it an hmo...? Nick
I do NOT think 9/11 was our fault. It was an act of madmen, enticed with promises of martyrdom and glory by other madmen. Clearly, you've misunderstood my position. I don't want justice for those who are lost to terrorism as much as I want vengeance. However, I think that we're fighting another country's civil war, and I don't see how that can possibly work, except to the detriment of our people in the armed services, as well as to further destabilizing a region which has been unstable for most of recorded history.
You question whether I believe that the US is doing something for the world or is it just something I am told, or a big show. Well, my friend, just study some history. I am not sure what kind of point that you are trying to make. What show are you talking about? You seem to dislike that the US is active in foreign affairs, even though those actions do not even affect you or your own country as far as I know. Do you feel sorry for Sadam Hussein, the taliban or Osama Bin Laden? Do you want Iran and North Korea or Iraq to be free to develop Nukes? The US is a super power, like it or not. There will always be superpowers in the world, that is a fact of life. You ought to be thankful that such a military power is in the hands of a country like the US rather than a country that might seek territorial expansion and colonization. The US uses it's power to defend herself, her citizens and her allies. The US can longer sit back and wait for terrorists to strike with ever stronger capabilities and deadlier weapons. It can no longer just defend, but must be offensive against terrorists and those who harbor them. This is the sad state of the modern world. Your ideal world is one without American intervention you say...... So whose intervention do you prefer? Would you have preferred Hitler's intervention to have gone on? Sooner or later those nazi tanks would have rolled into your country too. Your banks holding all that Jewish and Nazi money only bought you some time, but it wasn't going to be a free pass forever. Maybe you would have preferred if Russia won the cold war?? That would have been a good scenario for you I suppose. Your ideal world is illogical. You can't just sit back in your neutral country and say that the world does not need the US. The world always needs a dominant power that is good. Evil must always be balanced by good. You are lucky that you live in a country that does not have to shoulder the burden of being a policeman to the world. That lets you enjoy a lot of nice things that you take for granted. Of this, I envy you, in fact. The actions of the US is not always perfect but nevertheless ultimately keeps the world intact and preserves freedom. In fact, you should probably send the US govt a check as away of saying thanks.
It says it all.... And you will come back once again that you are not influenced ? Is that a joke ? By the way, I'm still waiting for this list of countries...or should we officially recognize that US interventions haven't had any good effect throughout the years ? Perhaps getting rid of Pervez Musharraf in the next years ? A new typical example of the US helping a dictator for its own interests ? Perhaps attacking North Korea, which is a REAL threat if you compare it to Saddam's Iraq... By the way, there is one organisation that should be a superpower, it's the UN. But as long as the US hinder the UN to do anything, the situation won't change. And please don't tell me the UN is doing nothing...nothing for the US perhaps...
Getting rid of Musharraf will only destabilze that region in a major way. When you have a vast majority of the population living in abject below subsistence level poverty and high illiteracy rates, democracy is a panacea that does not work. Except for India ( which is still very poor) I can not think of any other poor nation in that part of the world that has succeeded economically while being democratic. In poor countries democracy usually equates to desperation, rampant corruption and cronyism which are destaliblizing forces if not checked by "benign" strongmen leaders like Musharraf. When it comes to North Korea, it's a threat because so little of its inner statecraft is known. With the capitalistic influence of the new China encroaching at its borders, if sanctions were lifted, I suspect sooner rather than later we would see changes towards a positive outcome. After all, there is no one to prop up their medieval ideology and they too most likely want to be 'gloriously rich". I think you'll agree with me when I say that the U.N is as useful as its security council deems it necessary. It's nothing but a tool for its powerful members. With the rise of regional economic and political zones, it might very well become irrelevant in the not too distant future.