http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/bush/ en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:02:31 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2050765/posts Since President Bush announced an end to federal ban on offshore drilling, the price of oil has dropped over $20 a barrel, the stock market is ticking back up and the dollar has strengthened. And all this because, why? Well, because the markets can be almost totally assured that supply will increase with new drilling offshore. In other words, Republicans are/were right: More drilling = more oil = lower prices. Overseas stock markets were higher and Wall Street index futures pointed to a solid open as the cost of oil retreated further and traders turned a bit more hopeful about... Right Up Front http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2050765/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:02:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050705/posts House rejects bill to sell oil from reserve Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:09pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected legislation on Thursday to sell 70 million of barrels of light, sweet crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and replace it with heavy, sour crude. The bill would have required the sale of 10 percent of the emergency stockpile's holdings, or 70 million barrels, on the open market over six months. Proceeds from the sales would have been used to buy an equivalent amount of heavy crude, which is cheaper. The White House had threatened to veto... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050705/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:12:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050554/posts Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050554/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:10:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050426/posts In any partnership, the coin of the realm is trust and responsibility - in other words, saying what you mean and doing what you say. In the dramatic rescue on July 2 of 15 hostages, including three Americans, held captive for many years by guerrillas and terrorists, deep in the Colombian jungles, we saw a powerful reminder that the United States has no better partner in South America than the government and people of Colombia. Colombia's leaders, especially President Uribe, had promised us that our three abducted citizens would be treated no differently than the many Colombian men and women... Real Clear Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050426/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:31:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050411/posts What do you do when you don’t want to like George Bush, and you don’t want to hate him either? As we near the end of the 43rd President’s term, one has to look back in amazement at how Bush could go from one of the most popular chief executives of all-time to one of the most hated. Bush seems to have become the anti-Reagan: whereas twenty years ago most Americans would have liked to see Reagan stay in office for another four years, now most Americans seem to want Bush to leave tomorrow. I voted for Bush twice, and... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050411/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:54:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050343/posts George W. Bush's overall job approval has dropped to 21% as 76% of American say the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 21% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 72% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 17% approve and 77% disapprove. Among Americans registered to vote, 22% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 71% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 18% of registered voters approve of... American General Research http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050343/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:24:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050219/posts Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called the U.S. decision to send a representative to international nuclear talks in Geneva a "positive step." But he reiterated Wednesday that his country will not back down in the face of international pressure to suspend sensitive nuclear activities. Mr. Ahmadinejad vowed Iran will continue to pursue nuclear technology despite the efforts of what he called oppressive powers. In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Mr. Ahmadinejad's statements continue to isolate the Iranian people from the international community. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran could face additional sanctions if... VOA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050219/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:31:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050151/posts The "surge" in Iraq sure appears to have worked.  There are some who say President Bush should have listened to voices such as Senator John McCain and then Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki in the first place, rather than taking the foolish advice of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other "neo-con" hardliners. But before we give all the credit to the "more boots on the ground" stompers and all the blame to Rumsfeld and the neo-cons, let's take a second look at the surge. To set the stage, let's look at the results to date.  (In the... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050151/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:23:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050154/posts BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday. The remaining troops from that brigade departed over the weekend, leaving just under 147,000 American soldiers in Iraq, the spokesman said. "The final elements of the surge brigade have now left, getting out a few days ahead of schedule," he said. The U.S. military had 20 combat brigades in Iraq at its peak in 2007, with troop levels around 160,000-170,000. Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050154/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:26:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050044/posts WASHINGTON — A housing bill aimed at giving the U.S. economy a shot in the arm appears to be on track for passage after the White House announced President Bush will not block the package, despite his objections to a $3.9 billion provision providing money to some hard-hit neighborhoods. The House is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday and pass it onto the Senate. But the bill won't move ahead without a hitch -- albeit one not likely to derail it: Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., vowed Wednesday to filibuster the bill because of the neighborhood provision once the legislation... FoxNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050044/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:50:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050031/posts Oil prices fell again this evening as a US government report showed larger than expected increases in reserves of petrol and distillates. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said petrol stocks rose by 2.9 million barrels last week - a much bigger rise than expected. Stocks of distillates, which include diesel, rose by 2.4 million barrels when they had been forecast to rise by 2.3 million barrels. US crude fell $1.78 to $126.64, while Brent crude was $1.95 lower at $127.6 The increase in refined products stockpiles in the US, the world's biggest energy consumer, overshadowed a larger than expected... RTE Business http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2050031/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:29:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049940/posts WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has an explanation for the housing-market meltdown that has thrown the global economy into turmoil: Wall Street got drunk. “There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk,” Bush said at a private event in Houston on Friday. “It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is, how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?” MSNBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049940/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:21:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049950/posts The Bush administration on Tuesday released proposed rules administering commercial oil shale development on public lands in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming to provide "critical rules of the road" for investors. The rules would govern lease management and royalty payments should extracting kerogen from rock for further refining into fuel ever prove economically feasible - an open question given the likelihood of carbon taxes, lack of available Colorado River water and a host of environmental protection restrictions. The rules proposed by the Department of the Interior are part of an election-year push by Republicans to support development of oil shale, which... The Salt Lake Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049950/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:46:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049941/posts No sooner did President Bush lift the executive ban on oil exploration in the outer Continental Shelf then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, put the kibosh to its prospects. “The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the US Congress,” said President Bush last week. “The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn’t drill offshore,” quickly countered the House Speaker. “That is not the cause, and I am not going to... Cross Action News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049941/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:22:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049765/posts When he talks about why the economy is ailing, President Bush often turns to euphemism, citing “challenges in the housing and financial markets.” But Mr. Bush offered a far blunter assessment last week at a closed Republican fund-raiser in Houston: “Wall Street got drunk.” Despite the president’s request that those present turn their cameras off, his comments were captured on videotape that made its way into the hands of Miya Shay, a reporter at the Houston television affiliate of ABC. The video, which also included the newsy tidbit that Laura Bush had begun shopping for houses in Dallas, was broadcast... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049765/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:40:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049603/posts Explaining the status of the economy to a closed-door fundraiser last week, President Bush said, "Wall Street got drunk." "There's no question about it," Bush said. "Wall Street got drunk, that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments." Bush made the remark at a closed-door fundraiser for Republican Pete Olson, who is challenging Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) No cameras were allowed in the fundraiser, but an... EconomicPolicyJournal.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2049603/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:11:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049495/posts NEW DELHI — The Indian government survived a motion of confidence in Parliament Tuesday evening, paving the way for India to seal a landmark nuclear agreement with the United States but leaving the entire parliamentary process tainted by dramatic allegations of bribery made on the floor of the house. In a wider margin of victory than had been predicted by politics watchers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who initiated the confidence motion, won 275 votes, while his opponents secured 256 votes, and 11 members abstained. It came on the heels of two days of acrimonious debate and constant heckling of speakers,... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049495/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:22:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049323/posts WASHINGTON -- Former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown are among the more than 2,000 people convicted of federal crimes awaiting word on whether President Bush will give them a pardon or commute their sentences during his final months in office. Edwards, who turns 81 on Aug. 7, will be eligible for release from the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale on July 6, 2011. He's serving a 10-year sentence for corrupting the state's riverboat casino licensing process. "I'm hopeful," said former Gov. David Treen, who joined former U.S. Sen. J. Bennett Johnston in filing the request on... The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049323/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:15:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049214/posts I remember the exact moment I had my first serious doubts about whether I was 100 percent right that the U.S. preemptive invasion of Iraq and the take-out of Saddam Hussein was a serious mistake. I had been strongly opposed to the U.S. intervention from the start. I felt this way even though I believed (as did most everyone, including the intelligence community) that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and even though I thought that Saddam was a murderous, genocidal thug and the world would be better off — and the U.S. safer — with him dead. However, I... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049214/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:22:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049179/posts More than 100 members of Congress wrote President Bush today, urging him to "halt all action" on a proposal they argue would change the definition of abortion, and drastically limit women's access to birth control. The Department of Health and Human Services draft proposal, which began circulating around Capitol Hill last week, would require hospitals receiving federal funds to certify that, in their hiring, they do not discriminate against people who refuse to provide forms of contraception, such as birth control pills, due to personal religious beliefs. The proposal immediately incited an uproar among Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Hillary... ABC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049179/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:27:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049107/posts Eventually, we will all hate Obama too What makes America such an indispensable power is precisely what makes anti-Americanism inevitable David Aaronovitch It amuses me that some of those who criticise the present US Administration for its Manichaeism - its division of the world into good and evil - themselves allocate all past badness to Bush and all prospective goodness to Obama. As the ever-improving myth has it, on the morning of September 12, 2001, George W. and America enjoyed the sympathy of the world. This comradeship was destroyed, in a uniquely cavalier (or should we say cowboyish) fashion, through... Times of London http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049107/posts#comment Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:30:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048975/posts WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush promised Kosovo's visiting president and prime minister Monday he would try to convince more nations to embrace formal diplomatic ties with their young country. "I pledged that the United States would continue to work with those nations that have not recognized an independent Kosovo to convince them to do so as quickly as possible," Bush told reporters. He spoke as he met in his Oval Office with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who were making their first US visit as leaders of an independent Kosovo. "I'm a strong... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048975/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:55:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048917/posts Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young was interviewed on PBS's Charlie Rose show. The show, almost a complete hour, can be watched at this link. (Thanks to Jay for the tip.) If you can get past some of the political baggage, and you like Neil Young, it's an entertaining interview, where Young comes across funny, sincere and kind of sweetly naïve. With regard to the politics and his Let's Impeach the President phase, Young certainly is giving the distinct impression of having second thoughts. Some of what he says when Charlie prods him on the war: I look at it Charlie as... RightWingBob.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2048917/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:57:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048549/posts Dan Rather’s $70 million lawsuit against CBS heated up in a Manhattan court on Wednesday as his lawyers sought to have several key documents in the case made public. Rather’s lead attorney Marty Gold asked Justice Ira Gammerman to release the documents, arguing that they would help refute CBS’s public characterization of Rather’s claims in the suit as a fantasy, the New York Observer reported. Gold said that Rather would like to give the public access to about 10 of the thousands of documents handed over by CBS. But Gammerman rebuffed the effort, saying he considered the request to release... NewsMax http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048549/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:32:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048353/posts It’ll only get worse after Bush By: Jeremy Lott July 19, 2008 11:02 AM EST At this year's CPAC convention of conservative Republican activists in D.C., many young supporters waited in long lines overnight and braved metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs to hear President George W. Bush speak the next morning. After he had finished, they broke out an eerie chant: "Four more years! Four more years!" I heard tell of this later that day and thought they had all gone barking, foaming-at-the-mouth mad. By almost any measure, this has not been a successful presidency — certainly not when on... The Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048353/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:43:30 GMT