Posted on 04/02/2006 4:52:01 PM PDT by mathprof
George W. Bush is taking time to explain himself, open up to the public in new ways and court the U.S. Congress as he tries to breathe life into a presidency beset by sagging ratings and influence.
With a job-approval rating under 40 percent, Bush, who went to his Crawford ranch for a quiet weekend, has a long way to go. Aides acknowledge it will take a while to rebuild his image, and much will depend on the outcome of the Iraq war.
White House staffers, who have long limited the president's appearances to speeches and photo opportunities with little contact with regular people, are now inclined to let Bush be Bush.
He is talking at length. His March 21 news conference lasted nearly an hour. A Freedom House speech with questions from the audience in Washington on Wednesday went on for an hour and a half.
Bush even took questions from gray-haired retirees at a senior citizens' home recently and they asked some tough ones. More such sessions are planned.
``The president enjoys the open question-and-answer formats,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. ``The more we can put him in settings where people can get a better sense of his thinking and his beliefs, the better.'' SNIP
Democrats are not impressed by the more-open Bush. ``The president can give all the speeches he wants but nothing will change the fact that his Iraq policy is wrong,'' said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
.....AND ALL of them failing to EVER brief Rice, Hadley, Rumsfeld, or the President on Al-Queda's Operation Bojinka prior to 9-11?
Rush Limbaugh did a salutory discussion on that topic back in 2004 around April I think.
No.
It is first and foremost a case of enforcement. Are we a nation at all, let alone one under the rule of law? These illegal aliens are not good candidates for citizenship.
The first major test was flunked when they disregarded our immigration laws.
The second was when they refused to learn English, acculturate and melt in.
The third is when they waved foreign national flags and demanded rights to conquer the whole continent.
The fourth was when they filled up a third of our prisons.
The fifth was when a vast portion of them demanded our social services.
Self-deportation can be effectuated much more easily than you imagine. Why do you think the Senators keep brow-beating INS officers who are too effective?
William Bennett had an extremely important interveiw to that effect this morning. One of the identified trouble-makers: Senator Chuck Hagel is one of those pieces of dreck who does not deserve to be called a Republican. An INS officer had come up with a simple, slick, and efficient way to clean house at one of the packing plants...and the Packing plant owners got on the phone to Hagel...who then immediately raising holy hell...and got the INS official ousted.
"New White House Tactic: Let Bush Be Bush"
Has someone been overpowering him and making him back huge spending bills and ignore the border? Now that he will be able to exercise free will, can we expect different results on these issues?
Oh. I guess it's case closed, then.
It is to me and 70+% of the electorate. And it is an aroused electorate that will vote on this issue.
The corruption of the system requires a house-cleaning of those winking-and-nodding. Which is of course all the more difficult when you have RATS...and RINOs in full cry accusing anyone who enforces the laws as racist.
This would all be so much easier if the President himself took the high ground...and took charge. Enforcing responsibility top to bottom. Immediately SEALING the borders to illegal entry. Punishing illegal employers. And punishing under RICO and demanding Congressional ethics charges of all members who scream racism...or otherwise interfere in the exercise of lawful enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.
The President's campaign aircraft in the 2000 campaign was named "Responsibility One". The implicit promise in that was uplifting. It is time he lived up to that...and took responsibility. Stopped trying to triangulate, and double-speak. But was honest with himself.
And he needs to make a formal address to those who are here illegally...especially during the demonstrations... and tell them that only those who are lawful are wanted here. And then point out that 1.2 million illegals are residing annually in our prisons (a third of the prison population). At $24,000 per head annually that is an annual drain on the U.S. taxpayer of $24 BILLION dollars. And no telling how much economic cost the nation suffered from the crimes that they committed to get there. Murder, Drugs, Robbery and Theft, Etc.
That the illegal alien pipeline...all based on a corrupt labor rationale...has provided a conduit for Mexico and others to eject the liabilities of their society...and impose the burden on us. One we no longer are willing to wink at. Because it is also letting in even more dangerous undesireables of jihadi's. Hence, we will all have to feel the pain while the rule of law is restored. Everyone takes responsibility. No one shirks it.
Borders and Enforcement First. Then we'll talk.
no response from me doesn't imply agreement.
I have to take issue with the nuclear strategy stuff; there's really no need for the United States to have as large a stockpile as it has.
Classic deterrence theory says you need to be able to kill 25% of the enemy's population and destroy 50% of its industrial base to prevent him from even thinking about bombing you. Going off that standard, we can deter even Russia, who has thousands of missiles, with only one of our submarines.
Bush is right to get rid of land-based ICBMs like the Peacekeepers; there's no reason to make our land a nuclear target unnecessarily when we can maintain our deterrent force in easily hidden (and almost completely undetectable) submarines.
Ignoring the historical and military logic which required their deployments...as the minimal response to those enemies with war-winning nuclear doctrines. The liberal creed understates the calculus of survivability by quite a bit. Not to mention utility in a shattered post-attack residual arsenal. And it is clear that the MX among other counterforce doctrinal features...prominently Operation Looking Glass... convinced the Soviets they could no longer threaten a war-winning decapitation strike.
When you deal with tyrants such as Iran's, China's and a nascent national fascism getting its feet under it in Russia...you need counterforce...because that is what they value. And while we are dismantling pell-mell.
Meanwhile, the Chinese obtained on a silver platter via their espionage... the necessary scientific and mathematical approach to help them also acquire Synthetic Aperature Radar techniques to detect and track our submerged Trident and attack submarines.
We very literally must not put all our eggs in one basket.
Is Thomas L. Friedman mentally disturbed? The question needs to be asked.
He tells those who have staked their entire success on the endless continuation of globalism what they want to hear. He is the bull at the stock traders party.
The problem is, most people either flunked history or somehow passed in spite of sleeping through it. So called modern "conservatives" also have this flaw. Most of my fellow GOPers do not know diddly squat about those who ran it 100 years ago.
(Democrats are not impressed by the more-open Bush.)
I'm sure Bush is not impressed with Democrats either. They will hate him regardless.
Did you see David M. Walker, the Comptroller General on C-SPAN this weekend?
Whoa! I frankly wonder how he manages to keep his job with the White House. He appears, at least at first glance to be far to the right of the President...and Dick Cheney, on Fiscal responsibility.
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