Posted on 01/24/2007 8:26:52 AM PST by TexasCajun
When I threatened not to vote for George W. Bush back in the fall of 2000, a friend of mine warned that a future State of the Union address would include proposals for reducing gasoline use by 20 percent, tougher fuel economy standards for cars and reducing "global warming" emissions.
My friend was right.
But it wasn't because Al Gore got elected.
It was because George W. Bush was elected without my support, and re-elected four years later.
That future State of the Union speech took place last night.
Even this Bush skeptic has to pinch himself to make sure I'm not dreaming. This was a Republican presidential speech? What would be the major difference if it had been Hillary Clinton giving the talk – other than it being a little more shrill?
Really, I mean it. Check out these initiatives from Bush:
* Setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 – whether they are ready or not, whether they work or not and whether or not you want them.
* Raising the so-called CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) for cars and light trucks. In other words, mandate better and better fuel economy no matter how many lives it cost – and make no mistake, it always costs lives on the highway.
* Fight "global warming" by cutting the growth of carbon dioxide emissions in automobiles over the next 10 years. Yes, Bush concedes, Al Gore was right all along!
* Federal grants to states to provide medical insurance to everyone – presumably Bush's illegal alien amigos as well.
* A temporary foreign worker program because, for heaven's sake, we can never have enough illegal aliens in our midst.
* $1.2 billion more to fight malaria in Africa – not with DDT, which works, but with eco-friendly mosquito nets!
* More foreign aid in general.
* Blah-blah-blah-blah …
There was not one word about national security in the first half of the speech.
Are we at war or not?
Are CAFE standards more important that the threat of Islamic terrorism?
Is global warming a more serious national security issue than the enemy we fight in Iraq and Afghanistan?
I am appalled. I am repulsed. I am … feeling like I did in the 1990s, again.
When Bush did talk about the war, he misrepresented what it was about.
"What every terrorist fears most is human freedom – societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their resentments," he said.
It's just not true. The terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip voted their way into power. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the fanatical president of Iran, was voted into power. Terrorists are only too happy to use the voting booth as a mean to capture power just as Adolf Hitler, one of the great terrorists of all time, did.
I do agree with Bush on one thing – we can't cut and run in Iraq. But the key to victory is not just more manpower. The answer is to restore the intelligence-gathering apparatus the U.S. military had in place at the beginning of the war – pre-Abu Ghraib. It's time to start interrogating prisoners, again – not playing patty-cake with them.
All I can conclude is I was right not to vote for Bush in 2000. I was wrong to vote for him in 2004. I regret it, even though I am happy John F. Kerry was denied the White House.
That the Democrats got a chance to offer a rebuttal to this speech is a shame. The Republicans should have been given the opportunity – except that most of the Republicans in Congress have no more of a clue than Bush
We'll show him! Don't vote for Bush in 2008
Don Quixote?
I am wondering..what is the difference between tilting at a windmill and pissing into the wind?
I know you are referring to George, but there is still a Bush eligible for the Presidency in 2008.
The difference is Gore will strangle business and innovation. The President is doing this through business and innovation.
Oh, Joe, please shut up. Bush is in the political position he is in today---and the country is the worse for it---because of people such as yourself.
It's the Republicans, even, that have allowed the Rats to continually undermine our effort in Iraq, all the while the Rats complain that it "isn't working."
I wouldn't be bragging about not having voted for Bush.
" I am happy John F. Kerry was denied the White House. "
At least I can agree with him on that.
It's a sad state of affairs that the thought even crosses my mind.
No kidding. I am not great fan of GWB, but what the heck. What good will ragging on him more do? It only feeds the liberals.
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Churchill
How wet you get?
I was dissappointed in the speech last night. I expected to be before it started. It seemed very concilitory for my taste, but I guess that is the political climate he is now in. Iraq stuff was decent.
I took comfort in Jim Webb's response. It was so much worse and contradicted itself so much that even my wife caught the BS. "Most in the military are against...We do not support pulling troops....just the immediate withdrawl...the economy is not good for most Americans..." I was happy when my wife asked who he thinks he is kidding.
I'm even more sick of Pelosi's bipartisan rhetoric. She doesn't know the meaning of the word.
Tilting doesn't stink like pee, and won't make you wet.
Wow...
I have never read that Churchill quote before. That about sums it up don't you think?
I couldn't watch it. I tuned in for a minute, and heard him asking for more billions for AIDS in Africa, and assorted other foreign aid, then turned the channel. I find very little I agree with Bush about anymore.
I don't understand it: Being happy that John F. Kerry was denied the White House while being unhappy that Bush was elected is a contradiction.
Hygiene.
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