The 9/11 Presidency

Long after George W. Bush boards Marine One next Tuesday bound for Texas, the enduring image of his epochal eight years will be the September 20, 2001 evening a relatively new President stood before a nation traumatized and in mourning.

"We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network," Mr. Bush told a Joint Session of Congress. "I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."

In that moment, he set the standard for the Bush Presidency: To protect Americans from another 9/11 and hit Islamist terrorists and their sponsors abroad. Whatever history's ultimate judgment, Mr. Bush never did yield. Nearly all the significant battles of the Bush years -- the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Guantanamo and wiretapping, upheavals in the Middle East, America's troubles with Europe -- stemmed directly from his response to the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that defined his Presidency.

By his own standard, Mr. Bush achieved the one big thing he and all Americans demanded of his Administration. Not a single man, woman or child has been killed by terrorists on U.S. soil since the morning of September 11. Al Qaeda was flushed from safe havens in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and its terrorist network put under siege around the world. All subsequent terror attacks hit soft targets and used primitive means.

No one seriously predicted such an outcome at the time.

[The way it was - Highly Recommended > ]

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History will show that George W Bush was right

The American lady who called to see if I would appear on her radio programme was specific. "We're setting up a debate," she said sweetly, "and we want to know from your perspective as a historian whether George W Bush was the worst president of the 20th century, or might he be the worst president in American history?"

"I think he's a good president," I told her, which seemed to dumbfound her, and wreck my chances of appearing on her show. [snip]

The decisions taken by Mr Bush in the immediate aftermath of that ghastly moment will be pored over by historians for the rest of our lifetimes. One thing they will doubtless conclude is that the measures he took to lock down America's borders, scrutinise travellers to and from the United States, eavesdrop upon terrorist suspects, work closely with international intelligence agencies and take the war to the enemy has foiled dozens, perhaps scores of would-be murderous attacks on America.

There are Americans alive today who would not be if it had not been for the passing of the Patriot Act. There are 3,000 people who would have died in the August 2005 airline conspiracy if it had not been for the superb inter-agency co-operation demanded by Bush after 9/11.

Sneered at for being "simplistic" in his reaction to 9/11, Bush's visceral responses to the attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones...

[Recommended > ]

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Eight facts that burnish Bush's record

1) Even as you read this, Indian commandos are waging a deadly urban battle against Islamic terrorists. Those soldiers have almost certainly trained with U.S. Rangers or Marines — part of an intensifying U.S.-India security partnership that has been one of the most signal foreign policy successes of the Bush years. Otto von Bismark is supposed to have said that the most important geopolitical fact of the 20th century would be that the United States and Great Britain spoke the same language. Bush’s strategic entente with India may well prove the most important geopolitical fact of the 21st.

[seven more you're not likely to hear about on TV > ]

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Bush Was No Unilateralist

Paula Dobriansky is too much the diplomat to ever "bristle" at a question. But the word "unilateralism" elicits something close to that response. Sitting in her comfortable office, located in a drab wing of the drab State Department, I ask the undersecretary for democracy and global affairs just what she thinks of the conventional judgment that the Bush administration has practiced a "go it alone" foreign policy.

"If you look at every issue here, every issue I deal with, I can tell you our method has not been to take the U.S. experience and merely transplant it on the soil of another country," she says firmly. "Every issue here has had a rather vibrant, multilateral component to it. And you can see the results."

And then there are the democracy initiatives. With U.S. leadership, in 2005 the United Nations created the Democracy Fund, designed to finance projects that build democratic institutions. More than 35 countries have contributed some $100 million to the fund, which has already green-lighted 85 projects. In 2002, the Bush State Department created the Middle East Partnership Initiative. It is now funding more than 350 initiatives in 15 countries, focusing on everything from press rights in Algeria to legal rights for Yemeni women... [snip]

She is quick to note that much of this has been driven by President Bush himself. She singles out Africa, where Mr. Bush has more than quadrupled health funding. "I used to have that portfolio," she says. "But the president has devoted such personal time to issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria that the State Department created a whole new department, the U.S. Global Aids Coordinator." [snip]

It might also be the case that the Bush administration doesn't get credit for leadership on key issues for the reason that the results aren't always to the liking of the liberal intelligentsia. When Mr. Bush first took office in 2001, he met howls for his decision not to submit the Kyoto Protocol for ratification. That event helped create the storyline of Bush unilateralism...

[ah well, he's an apostate - that explains it]

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President Bush Tried to Rein In Fan and Fred

Democrats and the media have the housing story wrong

Mythmaking is in full swing as the Bush administration prepares to leave town. Among the more prominent is the assertion that the housing meltdown resulted from unbridled capitalism under a president opposed to all regulation.

The facts are that the Bush administration warned in the budget it issued in April 2001 that Fannie and Freddie were too large and overleveraged. Their failure "could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity" well beyond housing.

Mr. Bush wanted to limit systemic risk by raising the GSEs' capital requirements, compelling preapproval of new activities, and limiting the size of their portfolios. Why should government regulate banks, credit unions and savings and loans, but not GSEs? Mr. Bush wanted the GSEs to be treated just like their private-sector competitors... [snip]

... again pushed for comprehensive GSE reform in 2005, Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut successfully threatened a filibuster ... Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts defended Fannie and Freddie as "fundamentally sound" and labeled the president's proposals as "inane"... [snip]

That's why some mythmakers are so intent on denying that Mr. Bush worked to rein in the GSEs. But facts are stubborn things, as Ronald Reagan used to say, and in this instance, the facts support Mr. Bush and offer a harsh judgment on key Democrats. Perhaps that explains why so many in the media haven't told the real story.

[Recommended > ]

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CBS: No ‘Job Well Done’ on Bush Report Card

Reacting to President Bush’s Monday press conference, on Tuesday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith remarked:

"Not going to get a 'job well done'...on the report card, on the final report card."

That observation was prompted by Republican strategist Ed Rollins declaring:

"I think to a certain extent, we have a lot to be thankful to this president for his service"

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President Who? Network Morning Shows Give 55 Seconds to Bush Farewell

The three network morning shows on Friday almost totally skipped any coverage of President Bush's farewell address to the country on Thursday. Despite having a combined eight hours of air time, NBC's "Today," CBS's "Early Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America" devoted only 55 seconds total to reporting on Bush's speech. Instead, important topics such as "Obama thongs" and cheddar biscuits were highlighted.

Over a period of two hours, "The Early Show" ignored the speech entirely. "Good Morning America," which has a similar running time, allowed a mere 17 seconds. The "Today" show, which now encompasses four hours of broadcast time, provided the most with 38 seconds of information about the address.

None of the three programs featured any clips of Bush's farewell. (In contrast, on March 19, 2008, the day after then-presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech on race, these same shows allowed nine and a half minutes of sound bites of the Democrat.)

Over on GMA, co-host Robin Roberts and others spent over four minutes cooking bacon and cheddar biscuits with Emeril Lagasse. Additionally, co-host Diane Sawyer discussed whether Obama had the right dancing moves for the inaugural dance.

Finally, the "Early Show," which had zero coverage of Bush's speech, featured two Obama related segments, one on patriotic arts and crafts and a second on a Harlem school that will be having a group of children perform at Barack Obama's inauguration.

[Some of us consider it to have been a long 8 years since 2000 - but longer than they've been for George? Despite my profound disappointment in the man on more than one issue, I consider his overall treatment to have been deplorable and frankly a national embarrassment. I think overall we were lucky to have him, vs. the alternatives, given his success at the single most pressing danger we faced during his term. I wish him well, as all Americans should.]

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Here is the text of President Bush's "Farewell Address to the Nation" on Thursday, as prepared for delivery

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As she leaves, Bush’s press secretary has some advice for reporters

Since she succeeded Tony Snow as presidential spokesperson in September 2007, Perino has been able to observe the press closely. She told the standing room only crowd at her final briefing,

“it’s quite remarkable that everyone says they want to add more commentary to their news pages. In some ways, I think, well, how is that even possible. It seems sometimes that that’s all that there is.”

Over breakfast, Perino was especially critical of reporters who write a news story on one day and then the next day write an analysis piece that is just thinly veiled opinion. While noting that there is some real analysis being produced,

“Most analysis to me now is just basically a chance for reporters to use a lot more adjectives and adverbs. And it is very hard then for a press secretary the next day to go back to working with that reporter as an objective journalist"

Reporters send the White House press secretary a staggering amount of email seeking information, Perino said. Last weekend, she worked hard to clean out her email in-box and left on Friday with 997 emails. On Monday, the inbox contained 2,172 messages.

“And that is mostly from reporters asking me every little thing and some big things and it is completely overwhelming"

At the morning briefing, Perino declined to offer advice to her successor.

“I wish my successor, Robert Gibbs, all the very best. Please go easy on him — for a week."

[I'll never complain about my email again {well, for a week...}]

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Bush National Security Adviser Has Advice for Obama

Washington – Stephen Hadley, the outgoing Bush administration national security adviser, offered advice to the incoming Obama administration on Wednesday while also praising the often-maligned foreign policy of President George W. Bush.

“This president has put in place the tools to allow future presidents to succeed in the years ahead. I hope the next president will use those tools,”

Hadley told a gathering of more than 100 people at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

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John Cusack to Eric Holder: Jail Bushies or Practice ‘Moral Relativism at its Most Insane”

[meanwhile, in Hollywood...]

Radical-left actor John Cusack’s back on The Huffington Post today with "Two Questions" for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder: Is waterboarding torture? Because torture is a war crime. And "Since we know the Bush administration at the highest levels approved waterboarding which is torture which is a war crime," will you appoint a special prosecutor to imprison the guilty Bush officials? It’s unthinkably insane to Cusack that Barack Obama and Holder would resist this agenda, or delay it with a commission... [snip]

Cusack’s conservative opponents might ask Holder a different question about moral equivalence: Which is worse? Thirty seconds of waterboarding a terrorist suspect? Or sending an innocent six-year-old kid back to a communist dictatorship for the rest of his life?

[evidently BDS is going to remain well past the Bush term...]

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Israel Declares Cease-Fire; Hamas Says It Will Fight On

JERUSALEM — Israel declared late Saturday that a unilateral cease-fire would begin in Gaza within hours, but said its troops would remain in place for now.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed Israel’s cease-fire announcement and said in a statement that the United States “expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately.”

That appeared unlikely as the truce’s 2 a.m. start neared early Sunday. News reports as of 6 a.m. seemed to indicate that things were relatively calm.

In Gaza City, a Hamas spokesman in hiding, Fawzi Barhoum, said in a statement that “we will not accept the presence of a single soldier in Gaza,” according to Agence-France Presse. “The Zionist enemy must stop all its aggression, completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip, lift the blockade and open the crossings.”

Beyond the potential for an effective end to heavy fighting on Sunday, the shape of any lasting peace was far from clear.

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Bolivia, Venezuela presidents invited to Tehran for Palestinian resistance victory feast

TEHRAN, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Students Society invited Bolivian President Juan Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran to attend the feast of victory of the Palestinian resistance, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.

In separate letters sent to Bolivian and Venezuelan presidents, the society invited them to attend the feast which is to be held in Tehran.

"The feast will be hosted by Tehran University celebrating the victory of the resistance of the people of Gaza during the Zionist regime's savage attacks on the Gaza Strip", IRNA said.

[is there another Gaza I don't know about?]

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Speaker With Ties to Hamas to Address Inaugural Prayer Service

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), will deliver a prayer at the National Cathedral during the National Prayer Service on January 21st. The event is part of the festivities for the inauguration of Barack Obama, which occurs January 20.

ISNA has close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group, and was named an un-indicted co-conspirator in U.S. v Holy Land Foundation, a case that uncovered covert financing of the terrorist group Hamas.

In lending its imprimatur to ISNA, the Obama White House proves that opening the doors of power to Wahhabi apologists is the kind of bi-partisan undertaking we'd all be better off without.

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Forest Regrowth Key to North American CO2 Sink

North American land use has had major impact on global environment

The reforestation of former farmland over the last century has played an important role in reducing the accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, according to Princeton scientists.

The scientists, publishing in the Nov. 10 issue of Science, reported that changes in land use have been critical in allowing North American forests to regrow and soak up large amounts of carbon dioxide. Previous studies had suggested that other factors, such as the fertilizing effects of carbon dioxide, were spurring forests to absorb more carbon dioxide.

"Changes in the way we manage our land have had a real impact on the global environment," said the paper's lead author, John Caspersen.

... Then, in 1996, a Princeton-led group reported that much of this absorption was happening in the United States and neighboring countries - a phenomenon called the "North American carbon sink."

... coming from the recovery of forests on land that had been cleared for agriculture in the 1800s. In a collaboration between scientists at Princeton, the University of New Hampshire and the U.S. Forest Service, the researchers performed a careful analysis of inventory data in five states, comparing recent growth rates to historical growth rates. The analysis showed that forests have been growing at nearly the same rate for most of this century...

The result is also important for scientists developing computer models of ecosystems and climate. Many of these models only take into account physiological processes, such as the supply of nutrients and carbon dioxide, whereas the dominant factor governing carbon uptake in North American forests is historical changes in land use.

[Kyoto gives no credit to CO2 uptake - it couldn't bilk billions from us if the mitigating factor of our reforestation efforts (~1 Million acres a year for the past 40 years} was taken into account - so they don't.]

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Passengers' fury as climate change protest forces dozens of flights to be cancelled

Climate change protesters stormed Stansted Airport today in an astonishing breach of security that brought flights to a standstill. More than 50 protesters from the Plane Stupid group cut through fencing in the early hours before chaining themselves together just yards from the runway. Thousands of furious passengers left stranded after dozens of flights were cancelled and others seriously delayed had to be kept calm by armed police.

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Warmist hysteria intensifies as temperatures plunge

With temperatures falling since 1998's peak, and much of the nation shivering, global warming propagandists become have become shriller, even asserting counterfactual propositions. Case in point: Seth Borentstein "science" reporter for the Associated Press. Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters debunks the "global warming is accelerating" nonsense offered by AP to gullible (or mendacious) editors in newsrooms across the country. It is remarkable to see bald-faced lies so readily debunked...
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Oregon looks at taxing mileage instead of gasoline

Portland, Ore. -- Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles.

The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes.

[get this? we must all do the right thing and buy hybrids to save the planet ... despite their increased cost ... but it can't cost the government any of its dough...

which is why this will be enacted in addition to gas taxes, guaranteed...]

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GM is doomed - unless Big Labor accepts cuts

Former labor lawyer Richard Berman, writing in the DC Examiner, makes a compelling case that the only thing that can save GM is a big cut in the only thing it really controls: labor costs.

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REPORT: CITY EMPLOYEE PAY IS OUTPACING PRIVATE SECTOR

The average New York City employee cost the city $107,000 a year in wages, health insurance, pension and other benefits in the 2008 fiscal year, an increase of 63 percent since 2000.

City worker compensation grew twice as fast as that of employees in the private sector during the same period, the Citizens Budget Commission said in the report, which was released last week. The increase was driven by contractual raises [those would be union contracts] that outpaced the inflation rate.

With the city staring at a projected $7 billion deficit by 2011, fiscal watchdogs are intensifying their calls for the Bloomberg administration to act more aggressively to control employee costs.

"These skyrocketing costs are stunning and they impose an enormous, and growing, burden on increasingly strained taxpayers. Corrective action is essential and can no longer be delayed."

Part of the reason that health benefits have jumped so much, the report said, is the city's longstanding practice, unchanged by Bloomberg, to pay 100 percent of health insurance premiums for employees and their families, as well as for retirees and their spouses.

[Government: the only sector where labor unions are actually growing]

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Calif. tax refunds to be delayed starting Feb. 1

California's controller says he will begin a 30-day delay on tax refunds and other payments starting Feb. 1 because the state is running out of money. Controller John Chiang said Friday he must delay $3.7 billion in payments next month because lawmakers have failed to address California's growing deficit.

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[it's the same old blackmail: raise taxes or we'll shut the place down. Resist. It wasn't not taxing us enough that caused our deficit, it was spending - spending - spending - and so the fix should be spending-cuts - period. Our state is now spending over 100 Billion dollars - a year. Stop.]

Tell 'em:


"STOP THE SPENDING - NO NEW TAXES"


CA Governor: http://gov.ca.gov/interact mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov
YOUR CA Legislators (Sen+Assy): http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

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Hundreds wait for hours to buy S.F. ID card

California
Hundreds of people stood in line for hours at San Francisco City Hall on Thursday to be among the first in the nation to receive municipal identification cards regardless of their immigration status.

San Francisco officials hailed the cards as a way to connect undocumented immigrants with banks, businesses and city services.

"I really need the identification card," said Marvin Martinez, who arrived in the city five months ago from Florida and is originally from Mexico. Martinez stood in a long line - one made up mostly of Latino men - that snaked down the marble hallway outside the county clerk's office.

The cards have sparked fury among advocates of stricter immigration laws. They argue cities have no business declaring people residents if they are not in the country legally.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute of Washington sued to block the cards on behalf of four San Francisco residents who said the program would aid illegal immigration. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch tossed the suit in October.

[So I guess that San Jose may now arrest and deport immigrants holding green cards if it chooses to do so. Yes I know they're supposed to give them legal status per federal law, but since that's just a guideline...

It's the Rule of Law, stupid: change it or live with it {like the rest of us}]

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More gun control not a viable answer to crime

They're sneaking up on us again, and gun owners and hunters need to be forewarned of another plot to take away our Second Amendment rights.

"Ammunition Accountability," a newly formed group of ammunition coding supporters, is working to pass legislation to make ammo-coding a reality. Using laser etching, the group wants to place an alpha-numeric serial number on the back of each bullet, round or cartridge manufactured in the U.S. The idea is that it will control criminals by identifying brass or empty shells left at a crime scene and then following up the number on the back to find out who purchased the offending bullet. Gee...it almost makes sense, doesn't it? That's exactly what they want you to think, but don't fall for this newest attack on our heritage.

Here are a dozen reasons why the proposed legislation will never work:

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The Workshops Of Identity

by Bill Whittle

Part 5: And finally, Culturally, [ran late Friday and missed - apologies]

It is America that the world watches, that the world listens to, that the world emulates and copies to the degree that suicide bombers wear Lakers t-shirts and the most virulent anti-American Euro kids look and dress and act and talk like kids from Compton or Detroit.

There was a time when America broadcast its virtues to the world. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, even Star Wars, were films about common, decent people – Americans, obviously, for we all know that even Luke Skywalker was an Iowa farm boy – who find themselves in dangerous and evil places and whose fundamental decency corrected this wrong in the world and restored a sense of hope and optimism, a sense that we are masters of our own destiny. It is an idea so powerful that even French intellectuals, who seemed then and seem today to be incapable of a single positive or upbeat thought, could watch in wonder and contempt as legions of their countrymen flocked to see them.

Those days have gone. No longer does Hollywood broadcast America’s mythic virtues to the world. No, the flow is reversed now. Now the great creative driving force of Hollywood is to present to America the anti-American hatred of the intellectuals watching in impotent fury out in the rest of the world.

Of the six or seven war movies made during the last few years, all – save one – were spectacular failures. Many were the reasons given for this, but perhaps, someday, while sitting in a hammock in the Cayman Islands, even a studio executive might be just intellectually aware enough to catch a flash of what is obvious to a pharmacist in Des Moines: that maybe, just perhaps, these films failed not because of war weariness or denial or rank stupidity on the part of the American people, but rather – are you sitting down? – that most of the country, unlike Hollywood, has sons and daughters and fathers and brothers in the military and know for first-hand fact that they are not rapists or murderers, hicks, dullards, losers, or broken and victimized children but rather the bravest, the most capable, the most decent and honorable and just plain competent people we have. [snip]

If America simply led the world military to the degree that it does today, well, that would simply be historical. That it should have both economic and military might, and use them so much more often for good than for ill, would be unique and awe-inspiring. That it could couple military and economic strength with such leadership in science and medicine is simply unheard of in the annals of history, and for it to be the military, economic, scientific and cultural beacon that is is not only unheard of, it simply almost defies imagining – would, in fact, defy imagining to anyone who had not grown up in it, as we have, and seen it with their own eyes.

I have said all of that simply to say this: I know my people and I study our history. The single thing that makes America so exceptional is the belief of its people in American exceptionalism. It is a simple cause and effect relationship, easy to understand from using your own common sense and the examples in your own life. The confident and the bold do bold and confident things. The shameful and self-loathing? Not so much.

And Hollywood as it exists today is using all of its vast talent to turn us from the former into the latter... [snip]

And how – pardon the profanity – how ironic is it that those libertines, those most determined to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and at no cost to themselves… how ironic, how pathetic, how tragic, how infuriating and indeed, how insane is it that they – they alone – now control the mythology and the message of the workshop of our identity...

[Recommended > ]

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Prior Workshops of Identity > http://netizennewsbrief.blogspot.com/search?q=workshops
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