Bush a right-winger? No way [Mulshine]

Newark Star Ledger ^ | 6/27/04 | Paul Mulshine

[Incorrigible]

Many of my readers are puzzled as to why I insist the Republican Party should dump George W. Bush and find another nominee for president.

Simple. Because I'm a right- winger. He's not.

If you doubt that, imagine for a second that Al Gore had been elected president. Imagine he had retained Bill Clinton's CIA director and, based on faulty intelligence, gotten the United States involved in a costly and apparently endless war in Iraq. And imagine that Gore said he was doing it for the good of the Iraqi people, that he felt we Americans had a duty to spend tens of billions helping these poor foreigners.

[Incorrigible]

"the only truly controversial foreign-policy issue among right-wingers: nuclear or conventional? I myself tend to the conventional side of the debate, but I guess I'm a bit of a softie."

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't always agree with Paul but I like his columns.

[Incorrigible]

Go Pat Go!

:-)

[cyborg]

very interesting...it's sunday. Where's my popcorn?

[Huck]

Most Republicans are too obsessed with retaining the White House to point out that Bush has authored perhaps the single biggest foreign policy screwup in American history

Yet another newsie who just don't get it.

[Terpfen]

"If you doubt that, imagine for a second that Al Gore had been elected president. Imagine he had retained Bill Clinton's CIA director and, based on faulty intelligence, gotten the United States involved in a costly and apparently endless war in Iraq. And imagine that Gore said he was doing it for the good of the Iraqi people, that he felt we Americans had a duty to spend tens of billions helping these poor foreigners.

How would right-wingers have reacted?"

Are these the new Dem talking points on how to cover their asses with regards to Iraq? "Republicans would've opposed Al Gore, who REALLY won the election, if he had gone into Iraq!" Well, no, we wouldn't; mainly because Al Gore wouldn't have gone into Iraq in the first place.

[camas]

it must be nice to "know it all" like old muleshine does. or is it moonshine.

there is soooo much info that the public does not know (including me) that I'll stick with Bush.

[freedom44]

the same jackasses lambasted President Reagan during his evil empire speech and the mass amount of funds we sent to eastern europe to combat Communism.

Spreading democracy is and has always been a "right-wing" foreign policy agenda.

[dagnabbit]

Again, imagine a theoretical Gore presidency in which the Democrat proposed amnesty for 8 million illegals.

With Jorge at the helm, the leadership of both major parties now favors the abolition of the USA as a sovereign country with meaningful borders.

[megatherium]

Yes, we could nuke them. But then we would all have to walk to work every day.

[Southack]

Besides building a 15 foot high steel fence on our Southern border from the Pacific into Arizona to stem illegal immigration, President Bush has accomplished numerous other right-wing things. That the author of the article above doesn't grasp that and more (see below), and in fact, that the author lauds Pat Buchanon, the man who picked the *communist* Fulani to be his VP candidate in 2000 as well as promoted the pro-Palestinian Ralph Nader this year, should be more than enough to clue the average reader into who is pushing an "agenda" around here...

Presidency of George W. Bush -- the first 41 months

 

President Bush signing a federal ban on Partial Birth Abortion

Banned Partial Birth Abortion

Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy

Stopped foreign aid that would be used to fund abortions.

Supported and upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals

Signed E.O. reversing Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court

Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California

Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules that would have shut down every home business in America

Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses

Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first ten ABM silos in Alaska and California so that America has a defense against North Korean nukes

President Bush pledged to Israel on 4/14/2004 that it could keep parts of the West Bank, giving international legitimacy to Jewish settlements there

Denied Palestinian refugees any right of return to what is now Israel, saying they should be resettled in a future Palestinian state instead

Part of coalition (Russia, Israel, EU, Palestine, USA) for Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace"

Pushed through THREE raises for our military

Increased Defense Dept funding which had deteriorated during the previous 8 years

President Bush's Grand Strategy (click here)

President Bush's Environmental Record - 2004 (click here)

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit

Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers

Ordered Attorney-General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, NOT a leftist-imagined *collective* right

Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e. the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty)

Signed the 2004 Omnibus Budget 1/26/2004 that now MANDATES that gun buyers' background check information be fully and permanently destroyed within 24 hours of the completion of the check, no matter what.

Disarmed Libya of its Chemical, Nuclear, and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed

Won an agreement that U.S. Navy sailors may now freely board thousands of commercial ships in international waters to search for weapons of mass destruction under a landmark pact between the United States and Liberia, the world's No. 2 shipping registry (signed Feb 11, 2004), and Panama 5/10/2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/international/americas/11ship.html).

Successfully executed 2 wars: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom

 

Executed a WAR ON TERROR by getting world-wide cooperation to track funds/terrorists (has cut off much of the terrorist's funding and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network)

Bush Administration diplomacy led to the 5/25/2004 peace accord that ended a massive 20-year civil war between Sudan's north and south after two million deaths Click Here

 

Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed

Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia

Initiated comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE was critical.

Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the Presidency

Reorganized bureaucracy...after 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency: the Department of Homeland Security.

Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.

Improving govt. efficiency with .8 million jobs put up for bid...weakening unions and cutting undeserved pay raises. Wants merit based promotions/raises only.

Orchestrated Republican control of the White House, the House AND the Senate.

Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

GWB signed an executive order enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision (re: union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes)

Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession.

Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

Signed 2 income tax cuts ---- 1 of which was the largest Dollar-value tax cut in world history

Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains

In process of eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people

Eliminated the Estate Tax (AKA "Death Tax") that was taking small farms and businesses from families

Signed into law the No Child Left Behind legislation delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations)

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

Signed trade promotion authority

Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

Passed Medicare Reform (authorized $39.5 Billion per year for preventive medicine such as drugs and doctor visits as well as included a ten year Privatization option)

Urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits

Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims

Submitted comprehensive Energy Plan--awaits Congressional action (works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.)

Endorses and promotes The Responsibility Era ("In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else -- to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself. " -----this quote was too good to leave out)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Initiated review of all federal agencies with a goal to eliminate federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of federal gov while increasing private sector jobs.

Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become The League of Nations ( in other words, completely irrelevant)

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary clean-up of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

As part of the national forests clean-up, the President restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges) and removed the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.

Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

President Bush signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal Aliens
S. 1685, the Basic Pilot Extension Act of 2003, was signed by President Bush on December 3, 2003.
It extends for five years the workplace employment eligibility authorization pilot programs created in 1996. It expands the pilot programs from the original five states to all 50 states.

U.S. Forces In Baghdad

[stljoe71]

The biggest problem with most republicans for me is they are republicans first and conservatives second. Its like rooting for a sports team. You don't root for an agenda you root for your team to win.

The result of which is a left wing extremist republican president offering the first new entitlement programs in decades,runaway federal spending and yet more foreign adventures.

But he did cut taxes so using the baseball analogy he's hitting about .125 which I guess is fine if you are a minor league relief pitcher.

[Southack]

"The result of which is a left wing extremist republican president...

What are you smoking?!

Banning partial birth abortion is left wing extremism in your warped worldview?!

Building our national missile defense system is left wing extremism in your warped worldview?!

Arming pilots in our cockpits is left wing extremism in your warped worldview?!

Cutting income taxes twice is left wing extremism in your warped worldview?!

Did you not even see post #10?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Many of my readers are puzzled as to why I insist the Republican Party should dump George W. Bush and find another nominee for president.

Simple. Because I'm a right- winger. He's not.

"Right-wingers" are a minority.

Do the math, Mr. Mulshine.

[Penner]

...Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

And a pretty lame attempt at that.

[alloysteel]

"....Al Gore wouldn't have gone into Iraq in the first place."

Damned straight he wouldn't have. Primarily, because the attack on 9/11, which would have happened ANYWAY, no matter WHO was President, was attributed to Osama bin Laden, who then had to be punished for this terrible transgression. The US would have swept into Afghanistan, with 500,000 troops, and busted our horns doing entirely ineffectual things the same way they were done in Viet Nam, a most wasteful and unproductive strategy, even with the example we had of the Soviet Union being unable to assert effective control of the country. It may have been possible to have driven Osama out of Afghanistan, but only over into Pakistan, and had our forces come calling in Pakistan, in hot pursuit, the first of many dominos would have fallen in a row that reached all the way to China. Everybody had an axe to grind, and somebody they wanted to use it on.

There is a perception that Bush was not using diplomacy. He was, but not on the people, nor in the way, that the liberal blame-America-first crowd would have used it. First, the tensions between India and Pakistan were quietly defused, then Pakistan was sort of turned into an ally of convenience. Pakistan, though, has its own internal stresses, and not all of its people are politically reliable. There was also the possibility that Iran may have become an independent player, and the US presence in Afghanistan was clearly under a second threat.

Thus the decision to kick the legs out from under Saddam, and gain a foothold squarely in the middle of what could potentially very hostile territory. Risky, yes, so much so that it would NEVER have been considered by the give-peace-a-chance crowd. Going into Iraq was a judgment call, much like knocking down the wasps' nest BEFORE you get stung. In doing so, a sufficient amount of uncertainty was introduced to make Iran most extraordinarily cautious.

Bush had to practically use a p*ss-elm club on the UN to get them to even get out of the way so an assault could be made on Iraq, using the wording of the UN's own resolutions. That Bush succeeded in winning even this grudging support, shows the importance of this step, and in the aftermath of the Battle for Baghdad, so much of the information recovered clearly substantiated the original suspicions of practically every intelligence service on the planet, that Saddam was subsidizing terror all over the world, Bush was fully vindicated.

Of course, the War on Terror is far from over, as we have scarcely even achieved a toehold in that part of the world. We could still be thrown back, but somebody, sometime, is going to have to go in there and drag the world of Islam into the 21st Century, if any hope of relative calm is to be known in the coming decades.

[edchambers]

(snip)costly and apparently endless war in Iraq.(snip)

This is crap.Anyone with a basic understanding of warfare and a grasp of basic math can see that we are on the winning side of this war.It's not that complicated, they kill 2 or 3 of ours we kill 20 or 30 of thiers.No army no matter how large or well motivated can withstand that level of attrition indefinately. On top of that the terrorists are now stupidly making new enemies by killing thier own countrymen,South Koreans and now Turks? Do the math.

[Southack]

Reorganized the INS in an attempt to safeguard the borders and ports of America and to eliminate bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability. - Southack

"And a pretty lame attempt at that." - Penner

You don't know what you are whining about. Name a single port that hasn't been safeguarded.

Name a single bureaucratic redundancy that hasn't been addressed in the INS. Name a single INS agent who is still unaccountable.

[stljoe71]

Well first of all the administration has done everything he can to NOT arm the pilots

Socializing all airline security workers is a left wing extremist action in my view

Signing campaign finance reform is a left wing extremist action

Increasing the department of eds budget by about 50% is a left wing extremist action.

Pushing forward programs to provide free housing down payments for poor people is a left wing extremist action

Forcing local communities to spend ridiculous sums on reducing arsinic levels when those communities do not want to is a left wing extremist action.

Increasing federal spending by somewhere in the ballpark of a half trillion dollars since he has been in office is rather left wing extremist in my view.

Creating an Iraqi constitution that guarantees a right to healthcare and affirmative action in political representation is a left wing extremist action.

Shall I go on?

On the balance the man is in fact almost off the scales on the left and his willingness to build a missle defense system while admirable doesn't change the balance of his behavior.

You have basically made my point. Instead of holding the mans feet to the fire you defend him because he wears the republican uniform.

[Southack]

"Well first of all the administration has done everything he can to NOT arm the pilots"

Not true. President Bush signed *two*, yes 2 bills into law that armed pilots. Doing "everything" that he could to not arm pilots would be vetoing those bills, not signing them.

There are more than 1,000 pilots armed today, by the way. President Bush also fired at least 1 senior bureaucrat under Mineta who was holding up the commercial passenger aircraft firearm training program for pilots, too.