View source for George W. Bush

[[Category:People]][[Category:United States Politicians]]{{sidebar|__TOC__}}
==Reference==
* [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_w_bush/ The New York Times]
* {{Wikipedia|George W. Bush}}
==Related Pages==
* George W. Bush was the [[43rd President of the United States]]
* [[Corruption in the Bush administration]] has a number of sub-articles regarding specific areas of corruption
* [[Bill Clinton vs. George W. Bush]]: comparison of two successive presidents

==Presidential Election==
* '''First elected''' by a narrow margin in the [[wikipedia:United States presidential election, 2000|2000 election]]:
** '''electoral votes''': 271/538 (50.3%)
** '''popular vote''': 47.9% (Al Gore actually had slightly more, 48.4%)
* '''Re-elected''' in the [[wikipedia:United States presidential election, 2004|2004 election]]
** '''electoral votes''': 286/538 (53.2%)
** '''popular vote''': 50.7% (Bush was widely quoted as seeing this narrow majority as a "popular mandate")

There are continuing and credible claims, however, that both of these elections were extensively [[US election fraud|rigged]] to favor Bush.

==Negative Points==
{{quoteon}}"You agree that this president is one of the top two or three most incompetent in history?" - Right wing financial talk show host [[Wikipedia:Lawrence Kudlow|Larry Kudlow]], to a guest, on MSNBC 2006-01-17 ''(quoted [http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/01/misc-technical-plus-only-little.html here]; unverified)''.{{quoteoff}}

A number of negative points fall into the general category of [[corruption in the Bush administration|corruption]]; the following points are attributable specifically to Bush himself:
* Has repeatedly insisted on blind trust and subsequently failed to live up to it [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/opinion/12sun1.html]
* Has stated repeatedly that he feels free to carry out a law as he sees fit, not as Congress wrote it. Appears to be essentially trying to destroy the democratic process in America by [[Bush's elevation of presidential power|elevating the office of Presidency above the law]]
* Seems at times to be working towards making the U.S. a police state; just one example: "The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 bans the military from participating in police-type activity on U.S. soil. Bush began discussing the possibility of changing the law last month, in the aftermath of the government's sluggish response to civil unrest following Hurricane Katrina." ... "[A] senior editor at the conservative Cato Institute said Bush would risk undermining 'a fundamental principle of American law' by tinkering with the act, which does not hinder the military's ability to respond to a crisis." [http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/04/bush.avianflu/]. (The preceding items were noted before the wiretapping scandal, which is just another example.)
* Says one thing in public, with the cameras on, and disavows it later (sometimes quietly, or sometimes claiming that he never made the original statement)
** Lied about his intentions in invading Iraq, claiming that:
*** (a) there was strong evidence of WMDs when it seems clear that there was none and that this was well known to Bush and his closest advisors at the time the claims were made
*** (b) that Iraq was connected to the 9/11 attacks:
**** 2003-03-21 [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030321-5.html Letter to Congress]: "The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."
**** 2006-03-20 [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060320-7.html President Discusses War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom]: "First, just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said &ndash; at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."
** see also [[#Negated Points]]
* Appears to have no concept of budgeting (sources: [http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/02/diebold-comes-to-californiaand-more.html], [http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/09/arguments-for-your-obstinate-uncle.html]; needs checking & more definitive source):
** has run the highest deficit in history at $423 billion. If 2006 is included he will have had 4 of the 5 largest deficits in US history; [[George H.W. Bush|his dad]] lays claim to the 5th one.
** 2002: '''forecast''' a '''surplus''' of $262 billion in 2004; '''actual''' 2004 figures show a '''deficit''' of $412 billion. As of 2002, he was still insisting that his then-proposed $2 trillion in tax cuts wouldn't cause deficits.
** 2003: '''forecast''' a 3-year cumulative '''surplus''' of more than $133 '''billion'''; actual situation as of early 2006 is a '''deficit''' of over $1.45 '''trillion'''.
** Total federal debt has increased by $2.3 trillion since Bush took office. It took from 1776 to 1987 &ndash; 211 years &ndash; for the {{USA}} to run up its first $2.3 trillion of debt; Bush has reproduced that feat in only 5 years. Presumably the only reason we're a mere $1.45 trillion in the hole, instead of $2.3 trillion, is the surplus left by the [[Clinton administration]].
** Bush continues to propose '''more''' tax cuts (about $2 trillion over ten years).
** '''2006-07-14''' [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/07/14/cnusa14.xml US 'could be going bankrupt'] by Edmund Conway
** '''2006-09-15''' "We've overcome recession, attacks, hurricanes, scandals, and the economy is growing -- 4.7 percent unemployment rate. It's been a strong economy. And I've strongly believed the reason it is because we cut taxes, and at the same time, showed fiscal responsibility here in Washington with the people's money. That's why the deficit could be cut in half by 2009, or before." &ndash; [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-2.html GWB] ''(the unemployement rate was 4.2% when he took office; [[New Orleans]] is far from recovered, the [[US economy]] is worse, and as his administration's budgetary policies are responsible for the current outrageously huge size of the deficit, cutting it in half is at best delaying disaster. This can only be seen as a passle of [[Big Lie]]s, as far as I can see. --[[User:Woozle|Woozle]] 17:55, 27 September 2006 (EDT))''
* Glibly dismisses criticism of his performance as unhelpful hindsight
* The [[US Invasion of Iraq]]
* Created the [[US Department of Homeland Security]], a department whose actions often seem contrary to the ideals of a free country 
* Anti-science [http://www.livescience.com/othernews/ap_050221_bush_science.html], as is his administration [http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/space_advocacy/budget_statement.html]
* Anti-environment
* Pro-life ''and'' anti-contraception [http://www.alternet.org/rights/36371/], a popular but rationally inexcusable viewpoint
* Apparently favors insertion of an evangelical Christian point-of-view into all levels of the government [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html?pagewanted=2]; justifies his actions with zealotry and fanaticism that bears more in common with the supposedly-hated Al Qaeda than it does with [[enlightened]] American/democratic values [http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-25.htm]
* Responded to violence (9/11) with violence (unsanctioned invasion of a non-involved country, causing countless deaths to Iraqi civilians and US soldiers)
* Against [[same-sex marriage]]
* He is sometimes just, I'm sorry, [http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/101704A.shtml really scary] (most notably, search for "reality-based" and read the paragraph which includes it)
* Claimed, in 2000, to be "a uniter, not a divider", but in fact seems to play heavily on [[The Red-Blue Divide]], both in his 2004 campaign and in his actions while [[2000-2007 US Presidential Administration|in office]] [http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-25.htm]
* Has greatly harmed worldwide opinion of the United States [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/04/AR2005110401724.html]; is uniting the Islamic world in support of extremism and against the United states [http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/02/oh-please-let-this-be-lesser-parallel.html]
* Approved warrantless spying on individuals suspected of terrorist connections; openly admitted doing so, ''after'' having lied about it earlier
** [http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/12/17/bush-spying051217.html Bush admits to approving secret spying], CBC, 2005-12-17
** [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/01/nsa.spying/ Bush defends NSA spying program], CNN, 2006-01-01
** [http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/02/threat.hearing/ Democrat: White House built 'wall' around spy program], CNN, 2006-02-02
** Has openly prevented investigation into warrantless spying [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4056228.html]
* Personally ignored at least one [[Pre-9/11 warning]] (the infamous August 6, 2001, national security briefing)
===Negated Positive Points===
* In an announcement on 2006-01-11:
** <s>Pushed for return to Luna and Mars</s> [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4569] [http://www.whitehouse.gov/space/renewed_spirit.html]; as of 2006-02-16, Bush's proposed NASA budget basically pulls the rug out from under any serious effort towards humans visiting Mars [http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/space_advocacy/budget_statement.html]
* In his 2006-01-31 State of the Union Address:
** <s>Called for increased spending on alternatives to oil, specifically clean energy research</s> [http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6033630.html] but reversed this the next day [http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/1/201048/6377]
* Supporters often say that he "states his personal views and governs with his morals" ... "you know where you stand with him" ... but there is strong evidence that his statements and his actions are not necessarily in alignment, e.g. claiming he does not condone [[Torture During GWB Administration|torture]] while supporting VP Cheney's efforts to remove torture-restrictive language from an appropriations amendment; see also [[#Negative Points]] "Says one thing in public..." and [http://www.republicansforhumility.com/conservative.html Is George W. Bush a Conservative?] "as president, George W. Bush has consistently advanced policies contradictory to his professed values."
===To Be Investigated===
* Seems to be deliberately engineering crises, by neglecting or actively harming the mechanisms which would have prevented those crises, so that he will be given license to take "necessary" extreme countermeasures and thus further extend his control
** The Mexican [[US immigration|immigration]] crisis: Bush gutted the budget for border guards
** [[Response to Hurricane Katrina|Hurricane Katrina]]: Bush gutted FEMA and decimated domestic military numbers in the service of the Iraq war (this one may have gotten away from him, as Katrina would have been a challenge even with military capacity at normal levels)
** The [[War on Terror]] is an open-ended, poorly-defined battle with no clear goal; it can be [[endless crisis|sustained indefinitely]]

==Positive Points==
''see also [[#Negated Positive Points]]''
* '''2006-09-26''' [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060926.html Signed] the [[wikipedia:Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006|Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act]] ''(assuming it didn't get subverted before it reached his desk; need to confirm this)''
* In his 2006-01-31 State of the Union Address:
** Called for increased research spending [http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6033630.html] (while the Republican-led Congress tends to slash funds for the institutional cornerstones of US science, such as [[wikipedia:National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]] and [[wikipedia:National Science Foundation|NSF]] [http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050911/news_lz1v11science.html])
* Removed Saddam Hussein from power (into which Hussein had been placed by [[George H.W. Bush|Bush Sr.]]'s [[1988-1991 US Presidential Administration|administration]] [http://www.davidbrin.com/shame.html])
*Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear, biological WMDs.
*Signed largest nuclear arm reduction ever with Russia.

==Debatable Points==
* [[United States Republican Party|Republican]]; [[Conservative]] [[Christian]]
* Supportive of big business (part of the [[United States Republican Party|Republican Party]] platform)
* Pushed the [[No Child Left Behind]] Act
* Pushed for family-centric reforms (e.g., reformed adoption laws, requiring adopting parents to have background checks before getting children)
* Nominated [[John Roberts]] and [[Harriet Miers]] to the Supreme Court
* Pushed ahead with reconstruction in Iraq when popular opinion was against occupation after the first few weeks ''(This was originally stated as a positive point, using Vietnam as an example of a disastrous early pullout from reconstruction due to public demand. The US was in Vietnam for many years before pulling out; wouldn't this be an example of the disastrousness of staying too long?)''
* '''2002-05-15''' Signed the [http://www.treas.gov/nofearact/ No FEAR Act]

==Opinions==
* '''2006-09-25''' [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14912584/ Bush owes us an apology] by [[Keith Olbermann]]: commentary on [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-2.html 2006-09-15 Rose Garden press conference]
* found '''2006-06-24''' [http://www.republicansforhumility.com/divgov.html The Conservative Case Against George W. Bush / The Case for Divided Government]
* '''2006-06-08''' [http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/37214/ Blame for Haditha Lies at Bush's Feet] by Scott Ritter, AlterNet
* found '''2006-05-09''' [http://www.kabc.com/mcintyre/listingsEntry.asp?ID=432586&PT=McIntyre+in+the+Morning An Apology From a Bush Voter] by Doug McIntyre, Host, ''McIntyre in the Morning'', Talk Radio 790 KABC
* '''2005-11''': [http://www.republicansforhumility.com/ Confessions of a Repentant Republican]
* '''2005-10-22''': [http://www.counterpunch.org/landau10222005.html Death Up; Taxes Down: Bush, an Assessment]
* '''2005-10-21''': reader comment on [http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/10/best-books-blogs.html]: "I have just spent the last four years watching conservatives throw away any and every principle they have ever claimed to have in support of GW Bush. * Balanced Budgets - out the window. * Peace - out the window. * Prosperity - out of the window. * Geneva Convention - out of the window. * 6<sup>th</sup> Amendment - out the window. * Small Goverment - out the window."
* '''2005-09-03''': "My wife, a dual British-Australian citizen, says that in any civilized country, the massive failure of the Bush administration would bring down the government. It is not so simple. Emperor Bush II, after all, came into office by a coup, and consolidated power 4 years later (involving election machine software as well as more traditional fraud). In the process, he betrayed (1) the Bush family (firing the remnants of his Dad's friends from Cabinet-level and the next rung down), and recall that Bush Senior fought to SAVE the wetlands around New Orleans; (2) the rump-state of the Republican party (which had been nominally run by the technocrat Goldwater, whose election failure led to the takeover by the anti-government Reagan wing, which in turn was displaced by the current anti-Science Imperial Theocrats; (3) the country (as reconfirmed by the Gulf Coast fiasco); (4) the World (unilateralism, Iraq, Bolton in UN, etc.); (5) the universe (see Anti-Science, supra)" [http://www.quicktopic.com/32/H/KgrsPuVrx5jKm]
* '''2005-09-01''': "Impeach George Bush. Impeach him now." [http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/09/impeach_george_.html]
* '''2004-09-10''': [http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/09/10/conservatives/print.html Why conservatives must not vote for Bush]
* '''2004-02-08''': [http://www.slate.com/id/2095160 You Can Make It With Plato]: "Bush's difficult relationship with reality." by William Saletan
* '''2004''': "We invaded a country that did not threaten us, did not attack us, and did not want war with us, to disarm it of weapons we have since discovered it did not have. We may have ignited a war of civilizations it was in our vital interest to avoid. Never has America been more resented and reviled in an Islamic world of a billion people. As custodian of the national economy and decisive actor in the management of the Budget of the United States, George W. Bush has compiled a fiscal record of startling recklessness." &mdash; conservative pundit [[wikipedia:Pat Buchanan|Pat Buchanan]] in ''Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency'' (ISBN 0312341156)
* '''2002-11-08''': [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1128-02.htm Bush Anything But Moronic, According to Author]: "Dark Overtones in His Malapropisms" by Murray Whyte, about ''Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder'', a book by Mark Crispin Miller

==Rumors==
* Bush was talked out of bombing Al-Jazeera by Tony Blair: apparently false, unless further evidence surfaces. The White House at least seems to realize how crazy the idea would be: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4459296.stm BBC News] See also [[Wikipedia:Al Jazeera bombing memo|Al Jazeera bombing memo]] at Wikipedia and more details at the [http://www.agrnews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1613&Itemid=49 Asheville Global Report] and [http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=16570250%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26page=1%26headline=kilfoyle%2dmay%2dface%2djail%2dover%2dbush%2dbomb%2dthreat%2dleak-name_page.html here].
==News & Editorials==
* '''2006-07-19''': [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4056228.html President blocked surveillance probe] ([http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/21/0448225 slashdot]) "Gonzales tells Senate panel that Justice Department investigators were denied clearance"
* '''2006-05-25''': [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19092 Power Grab] by Elizabeth Drew, ''The New York Review of Books''
* '''2006-05-19''': [http://www.alternet.org/story/36343/ How Bush Destroyed the CIA] by Sidney Blumenthal, AlterNet
* '''2006-05-18''': [http://www.alternet.org/story/36428/ One Step Closer to a Police State] by Joshua Holland, AlterNet
* '''2006-04-30''': [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4959380.stm 'Double-You' Bush delights media]: the guy clearly has a sense of humor about himself...
* '''2006-04-24''' [http://scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0604/S00294.htm Bush Impeachment Resolution Introduced In Illinois]: "...the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office..."
* '''2006-03-10''' [http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2006/03/memo_to_george_w_bush_your_pre.html Memo to George W. Bush: Your presidency is in serious trouble]
* '''2006-02-21''' [http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1643110 Bush: U.S. on Verge of Energy Breakthrough]: but wait, does he know something we don't? Stay tuned...
* '''2006-02-06''' [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4686684.stm  Bush seeks defence spending rise]
* '''2006-02-04''' [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness], but a Bush-appointed official (George Deutsch, a 24-year-old college dropout [http://scientificactivist.blogspot.com/2006/02/breaking-news-george-deutsch-did-not.html]) inserts political correctness into the information stream; see "Mr. Deutsch" on [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/science/04climate.html?pagewanted=2 page 2]: "the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang." Mr. Deutsch has since resigned his post ([http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/politics/08nasa.html])
* '''2006-01''' [http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200601/decoder.asp Decoder]: "How the White House edits out [[global warming]]" by Paul Rauber
* '''2003-12-15''' [http://www.amconmag.com/12_15_03/feature.html “Free-Speech Zone”]: "The administration quarantines dissent." by James Bovard
===Texts===
* '''2006-09-11''' [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060911-3.html President's Address to the Nation] on the 5th anniversary of [[9/11]]
** Commentary: [http://indigestible.nightwares.com/2006/09/12/what-planet-are-you-from-again/ What Planet are you From, Again?]
* '''[[2006-05-08]]''' [[wikisource:Ahmadinejad's 2006 letter to Bush|Ahmadinejad's 2006 letter to Bush]]
* '''2006-01-16''' [http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html Al Gore speech]
* '''2001-12-28''' [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011228-1.html President, General Franks Discuss War Effort]

===Groups===
====pro-Bush====
* [http://www.blogsforbush.com/ Blogs for Bush]
====anti-Bush====
* [http://www.impeachpac.org/ ImpeachPAC]: group campaigning to impeach Bush and Cheney
* http://www.sorryeverybody.com/ : The U.S. apologizes for electing GWB