Helen Thomas: History Cannot Save Him (barf alert)

As he leaves office, President Bush is passing on to his successor two wars and a growing economic debacle. What a way to go!

Because of Bush's policies, the U.S. also is complicit in the Israeli attack on the Palestinians on the Gaza Strip by providing a "made-in-America" high-tech arsenal for the assault and blocking a ceasefire for nearly two weeks, a move intended to help the Israelis consolidate their hold.

Not to worry, Bush says he isn't concerned about how history will view his militant eight years in the White House, telling ABC News that he "won't be around to read it."

Well, they say that journalism is the first draft of history. So I am going to predict that those future historians will not deal kindly with the Bush presidency.

It's true -- as Bush and company point at their proudest achievement-- there have been no new terrorist attacks on the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001.

But they fail to acknowledge administration mistakes before and after that fateful day, starting with the fact that White House and security officials ignored significant early warnings of an imminent strike against the U.S.

The second half of the double 9/11 mistake was the trampling of our constitutional system and American values by the administration's infamous torture policies, illegal interrogation practices, including water boarding (simulated drowning), secret prisons abroad and U.S. run jails at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. Post- 9/11 Bush strategy also nurtured a climate of fear that enabled the self-styled "decider" to lead the country into a senseless war against Iraq, a calamity still underway as he leaves office almost six years after the invasion.

Add the administration's pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and you have basis to dub Bush's eight White House years as the "Bush error."

While he remained stubbornly steadfast to his core social convictions, he did a 180-degree turn when it came to the role of government in the economy when he bailed out the collapsed giants of Wall Street.

He told CNN: "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market systems." So much for all the anti-government rant of Republican conservatives.

After the 9/11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice drummed up the fiction that Iraq was linked to the al Qaida attacks and sold that fable to a naive Congress and jittery American people. During the first crisis meeting after the 9/11 attack, neo-con advisor Paul Wolfowitz, said: "Let's bomb Iraq."

There were no Iraqis involved in the attack and no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any role in planning or executing it.

Other falsehoods that these officials peddled included the tale that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Cheney told his Sunday television audiences, "We know where they are."

Official inspectors found none. The non-existent weapons were used to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Bush is not about to admit that his costly inhumane attack on Iraq was a mistake. How could he tell grieving families of more than 4,000 American service members that their loved ones had died because of his error?

In addition to the flawed decision to attack Iraq, Bush and Co. used the aftermath of 9/11 to take wholesale swipes at our civil liberties, including warrantless wiretapping.

So those future historians will have a clear view of the 43rd president as they look back on the early years of the 21st century.

A list of Bush's accomplishments also should include his efforts to pay more money and political support into helping victims of AIDS and malaria in Africa. And he is proud of his controversial program "No Child Left Behind" to upgrade public school students by imposing national standards on an education system that had none.

Those future historians should also take note that Bush was hailed for his "likeability" when he came into office and was dubbed the guy you would like to share a beer with.

However, a CNN poll last year suggested that Bush had become the most unpopular president in modern American history. That CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicated that 71 percent of the American public disapproved of how Bush was handling his job as president.

He is confident that those future historians will vindicate him and his presidency.

Helen Thomas gets it wrong, as usual. It's not that History will save Bush, but rather, that Bush saved History.

No new 9/11 attacks. Victory in Iraq! Libya disarmed of its WMDs! Syria kicked out of Lebanon! Charles Taylor dethroned in Liberia!

Who saved the U.S. banking system from collapse? Bush. In contrast, FDR failed that *same* test during the Great Depression (notice that no one is carving FDR into Rushmore, either).

Who banned partial birth abortion? Bush.

Who forced bad schools to be closed down with No Child Left Behind? Bush.

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Presidency of George W. Bush -- Top Achievements

No New 9/11 Attacks On The U.S.

Tax Cuts

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

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

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

Implemented Nationwide Amber Alert System

Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court

National Missile Defenses (PAC-3, AEGIS SM-3, ABL, Silo-based ABM's)

First Missile is Installed For NMD on July 23, 2004
Killed the U.S. - CCCP ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses

Built ten ABM silos in Alaska and California so that America has a defense against North Korean nukes
Killed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty so that the U.S. can once again test our nuclear weapons

Gun Rights

Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit
Full Immunity From Frivolous Lawsuits For Our Domestic Gun Industry
Click Here

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.
Repealed Gun Controls Against Active, Retired, and Off-Duty Law Enforcement Personnel Carrying Weapons Into Local and State Prohibited Zones (7/28/2004)

Enacted powerful tort reform legislation that moves many class action lawsuits from state to federal courts. Requires federal courts to hear cases where the amount of the dispute is more than $5 million, and when the defendant and any of the plaintiffs live in different states.

INTERNATIONAL

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).
Approves The First U.S. Counter-Intel Plan

Successfully executed 2 wars and rebuilt 2 nations: Afghanistan and Iraq.
U.S. Forces In Baghdad
50+ million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom...epitomized by their own free and democratic elections.
Provided Billions in aid, machines, and manpower to tsunami victims.
Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men and women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa

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 Islamic north and Christian south after two million deaths Click Here
Delivered vital emergency aid to millions of survivors on multiple continents (e.g. Africa, SE Asia) of a devastating Tsunami caused by a 9.1 earthquake near Sumatra.

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.

Bush and Putin sign historic anti-nuclear treaty

· Largest ever missile cuts agreed

Friday May 24, 2002

Russian president Vladimir Putin (left), and US president George Bush shake hands before signing the treaty. Photo: Yuri Kochetkov, AP.

Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin today signed a landmark treaty to make the largest reductions ever in US and Russian nuclear arsenals but public differences were voiced over Iran.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,721544,00.html

Syrian Troops forced to withdraw from Lebanon, ending their 2 decades of illegal occupation
Russians Troops Peacefully Withdraw From Georgia
Dramatically improved U.S.-India relations via a breakthrough nuclear agreement
Algeria has held its first competitive presidential election, and the military remained neutral.
The United Arab Emirates recently announced that half of its seats in the Federal National Council will be chosen by elections.
Kuwait held elections in which women were allowed to vote and run for office for the first time.
Citizens have voted in municipal elections in Saudi Arabia and parliamentary elections in Jordan and Bahrain and in multiparty presidential elections in Yemen and Egypt.

Broke the Chinese Yuan to Dollar currency peg
CAFTA - President Bush signing CAFTA
Signed the Peru free trade pact
US rules out extra pledges on global warming
Bolton to the UN

DOMESTIC

Chief Justice John Roberts
Justice Sam Alito
Killed the liberal ABA's role in vetting federal judges for Congress.

Bush-appointed Judges: Most Conservative On Record, New UH Study Finds

Fed Chairman Bernanke

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

Signed Bankruptcy Reform Into Law

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 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

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)

Started the USA Freedom Corps

Nominated strong, conservative judges to the judiciary

Bush’s Healthcare Legacy
Energy Bill (new tax cuts...after 5 years of opposition)

President Bush opened up an additional part of Alaska for domestic oil drilling. In 2004, the National Petroleum Reserve, an area west of the existing Prudhoe Bay field, was approved for new energy exploration and production.

President Bush Ended The Ban On Off-Shore Oil Drilling 7/14/08 (Congressional Ban Expires 9/30/08)
Bush Wins Offshore Drilling Fight
US to open 3.9m acres in Alaska for drilling

Increased U.S. Oil Drilling Permits 70% Above Clinton-era
Implemented "clean diesel" EPA mandates that reduce diesel air pollution by up to 97% as well as enable U.S. refiners to profitably use U.S. coal or natural gas to produce diesel in a move that aids our environment as well as enables the U.S. to gradually wean itself from Middle-East oil
Lifted The Oil-Drilling Ban in Alaska's Bristol Bay
Waived Make-Work Enviro Studies For New Oil Drilling
Using Closed Bases For New Refineries, Cutting Refinery Red Tape
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.
New Forest Rules Gives States Power Over Federal Forests Inside Their Borders
Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
4.5% unemployment
3.4% annual (after inflation, 5.5% actual) reported GDP Growth

IMMIGRATION

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.
700 Miles of Border Fencing Approved And Funded

The Essential President Bush (click here)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060623-10.html

Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to strengthen the rights of the American people against the taking of their private property, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.

Sec. 2. Implementation. (a) The Attorney General shall:

(i) issue instructions to the heads of departments and agencies to implement the policy set forth in section 1 of this order; and

(ii) monitor takings by departments and agencies for compliance with the policy set forth in section 1 of this order. ...

July 27, 2006: John Walsh, right, gives a thumbs up as President Bush, left, looks on during a signing ceremony for the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in the Rose Garden at the White House.

U.S. govt gets giant cross in San Diego [with President Bush's signature...........]

New Civil and Military Space Policy (includes using nuclear power for long-range space exploration)

Enforced Mandatory Declassification of All Government Documents older than 25 years, Automatically

President Bush opens NAZI Holocaust records to the public for first time (after more than 60 years!)
Legalized 2007-8 tax rebate for economic stimulus

Immunity For Telecom Wiretapping of Terrorists Calling In To The U.S.

The U.S. will take the lead in coordinating efforts to combat piracy coming from Somali territory, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after the United Nations authorized the inland pursuit of brigands. The Security Council voted 15-0 to adopt a U.S.-drafted text that permits all nations and regional organizations -- with the consent of Somalia’s provisional government -- to “take all necessary measures that are appropriate” to deter piracy.

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