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Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush quietly visited the wounded from the Ft. Hood massacre on Friday. Barack Obama mentioned the attack at the end of some comments he made at a conference and on Saturday, Obama headed out to Camp David for a little R&R. Bush visits Ft. Hood, Obama goes to Camp David. What is wrong with this picture? Even more troubling, is there an Obama, Hassan connection?It has been a bit disconcerting that the President of the United States has seemed so terribly disengaged from a terrorist attack on a military base in...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States. The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."

Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch for a baseball game in Japan Tuesday during his first visit since he left office. Bush joined former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to watch the game between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters. Bush changed into a baseball jacket before taking the mound in the Tokyo Dome to throw the pitch before Game 3 of the Japan Series. He chatted briefly with several players before joining Koizumi in a private box. Also in the box were Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh and U.S. Ambassador to Japan...

If vindication means anything its name is spelled George Bush. As former U.S. president George W. Bush spoke to a Saskatoon audience, I stood in the wings, sneaking a peek through the curtains at the spectators beyond the footlights. The crowd was friendly to be sure. But more than that, the relationship was like a musical virtuoso carrying the audience through every nuance, crescendo and dynamic of a composition. With every pause, smile, laugh and down stroke of seriousness, Bush had the crowd in his hand. Before the show, a friend who recently dined with the former Texas governor and...

Former President Bush Honored with Pro-Life Award during Visit to SaskatoonBy Patrick B. Craine SASKATOON, SA, October 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Yesterday morning, before delivering an address at TCU Place in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for a crowd of about 2,000, former U.S. President George W. Bush joined the Saskatchewan Pro-Life Association (SPLA) at a business breakfast where the pro-life group presented him with an award for his "very public determination to protect the unborn while he served two terms as President." The Humanity of the Unborn Child Pro-Life Award, as it is called, was given to the former President "in recognition...

Republicans needn't trouble themselves to nominate a presidential candidate in 2012. No matter what, President Obama will be running against George W. Bush. Bush will be Obama's eternal foil. At this rate, when Obama writes his post-presidential memoir, it will be titled "An Audacious Presidency, or How I Saved America From That Bastard Bush." His presidential library will have a fright-house wing devoted to Bush's misrule. Obama clearly wants Bush to be the Hoover to his FDR. Since Bush left office with a 34 percent job approval, Obama understandably feels moved to scorn him. But Obama's perpetual campaign against Bush...

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Coordinated international action helped save the world from the financial crisis that erupted last year, former President George W. Bush said Wednesday. "We intervened early, we intervened aggressively and we intervened together," Bush told the World Knowledge Forum, an annual conference sponsored by a South Korean business newspaper. Bush added that it remains unknown what would have happened had action not been taken. "I believe because of close coordination and the willingness to act in the face of financial danger that the interjection of capital into the financial system helped save our economies," Bush said.

Al Qaeda Tried to Assassinate George Bush at 6:00 AM on 9/11 2001, just as Al Qaeda Assassinated Northern Alliance Chief on 9/10 Possible Longboat terrorist incident Is it a clue or is it a coincidence? By now, most everyone knows President George W. Bush began that fateful day, Sept. 11, on Longboat Key, but the FBI is now investigating whether terrorists also began that fateful day here on the island. At about 6 a.m. Sept. 11, Longboat Key Fire Marshall Carroll Mooneyhan was at the front desk of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort as Bush prepared for his...

We hear about Afghanistan almost every day now. But it recently occurred to me that I didn't recall reading about it much when George Bush was President. So I decided to check Google News to see how many New York Times articles mentioned "Afghanistan" during Bush's last year in office. Take a guess, and then continue reading below.

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

WASHINGTON — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the face of the Iraq troop surge and a favorite of former President George W. Bush, spoke up or was called upon by President Obama “several times” during the big Afghanistan strategy session in the Situation Room last week, one participant says, and will be back for two more meetings this week.

Another month has passed and we are already into October. I have chosen photos from October 2001 to October 2004. The quote of the day is from the Lessons of Liberty Initiative speech which President Bush gave on October 30, 2001 at the Thomas Wooten High school in Rockville, Maryland Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island ..

In May of 2008, Times Online ran an article entitled, Barack Obama: the New Great Redeemer. The author, Gerard Baker, recognized something many American voters at that time were unwilling to admit, which was, The idolatry of Mr. Obama is a shame...The Illinois senator is indeed, an unusually talented, inspiring and charismatic figure...But he is not a saint. He is a smart and eloquent man with a personal history that is startlingly shallow set against the scale of the office he seeks to hold... If the past 40 years have taught us anything they have surely taught that premature canonization...

The Bush-era deficits were bad. I know. I spent eight years complaining about the president’s lack of fiscal responsibly (here and here for instance). I even wrote that Republicans during Bush’s time in office made French socialists look like Reagan. However, President Obama's new projected deficits are truly frightening. And the worse part: we haven’t seen it all yet. Based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, the following chart shows a projection of deficit numbers for each year until fiscal 2018. Each color represents the difference between the projected deficits at different points in time. The purple bars represent the...

Okay, Code Pink did not intentionally praise former President George W. Bush, but that is the clear result of the photographs the group has posted of their first days on their week-long trip to Afghanistan that began this week.Before President Bush ordered the liberation of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, the Taliban controlled the lives of men and women--with an exceptionally cruel domination of women. Thanks to President Bush and America's armed forces, intelligence operatives and foreign service officers, Afghan women are not forced to wear burkas and girls can go to school:Code Pink's caption: These fabulous women were...

A Washington tell-all book is seldom a good place to look for political wisdom. But, whether he meant to or not, former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer’s new book, “Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor,” makes at least one important point: politics should be about ideas, not personalities. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case recently. Conservatives coined a term, Bush Derangement Syndrome, to explain the fierce opposition many liberals had to George W. Bush personally. It wasn’t simply his policies they opposed, it was him. They hated the way he walked, the way he talked. He exhibited “faux cowboy...

Remember when the Left scoffed at the argument from George W. Bush that claimed the authorization to use military force allowed the executive branch to hold captured terrorists indefinitely, without criminal trial? Bush’s opponents screamed about human rights and due process, and claimed that Bush had abused his power. Those critics included Barack Obama, who regularly castigated the Bush administration for its failure to provide his idea of due process to detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, as well as blasting Bush for his argument that he didn’t require Congress to act to maintain that power. Now? Change you can...

It's the Obama administration that has pressed the "reset button" on relations with Russia, scrapped plans for a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe, and toned down the rhetoric on NATO expansion. But it seems Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin still pines for Obama's predecessor. At his annual meeting with academics, think-tankers, and journalists, Putin barely mentioned Obama but "repeatedly expressed fondness for his friend 'George,' " says Cliff Kupchan, a Russia analyst at the Eurasia Group consultancy. "He clearly has a personal softness for George Bush," says Kupchan, who attended the meeting. Why the nostalgia? After all, Bush put in...

The Obama administration signaled Wednesday that it would scrap a controversial Bush-era rule that set stricter limits for smog but fell short of scientific recommendations. In a notice filed Wednesday in a federal appeals court, the Justice Department says there are concerns that the revision made by the Bush administration does not adhere to federal air pollution law. The Environmental Protection Agency will propose revised smog standards to protect health and the environment in late December.

Former President George W. Bush addresses a Fourth of July crowd at the Let Freedom Ring 2009 festival at Crystal Beach Park Arena in Woodward, Okla., Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo) How many times during the last eight years did you hear that George W. Bush was a dangerous right-wing extremist? Probably too many to count.What you heard less often were expressions of the deep reservations some conservatives felt about Bush's governing philosophy.Conservatives greatly admired Bush for his steadfastness in the War on Terror -- to use that outlawed phrase -- and they were delighted by his choices...

Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement. Latimer got the assignment to write Bush's speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush was decidedly unenthusiastic. "What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer. Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that...

At least that's how the 43rd president is quoted in a new book by one of his speechwriters, as reported by Byron York. Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement.[Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor author Matt] Latimer got the assignment to write Bush's speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office....

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Matt Latimer, a minor former speech writer for George W. Bush, is out with a diss-and-tell book, and Byron York's previews in the Examiner are causing quite a stir in political circles both left and right. It seems there's something for everyone in Lattimer's Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor. Conservatives who never felt like Dubya was one of their own will point to certain segments and say, "See, I told you so." A prime example is when Latimer supposedly got tasked with preparing a speech for Bush's appearance before the 2008 CPAC conference: "What is this movement you...

New Book Claims George W Bush Said Barack Obama 'Has No Clue' George W Bush believed Barack Obama was "a cat" who "has no clue", dismissed Sarah Palin as a nonentity and insulted Hillary Clinton's posterior, according to a new account of life in the White House under the former president. Alex Spillius in Washington 15 Sep 2009 George W Bush believed Barack Obama was "a cat" who "has no clue", according to a new book. For all his politeness in public, Mr Bush is alleged to have privately mocked fellow big name politicians, claims his former speech writer Matt...

Interview with Senator Harry Reid, NBC’s Meet the Press, December 5, 2004 MR. RUSSERT: When the president talked about Yucca Mountain and moving the nation's nuclear waste there, you were very, very, very strong in your words. You said, "President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country." Is that rhetoric appropriate? SEN. REID: I don't know if that rhetoric is appropriate. That's how I feel, and that's how I felt. I think to take that issue, Tim, to take the most poisonous substance known to man, plutonium, and haul 70,000 tons of it across the...

Politics: The senator who called the president a liar and never apologized may have worn out his welcome in his home state. Harry Reid may be riding the liberal agenda into political oblivion.In 2004, Republicans defeated Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle largely on the theme that he neglected his home state in favor of national party interests. The GOP is hoping that in 2010 lightning will strike a second time, and Nevada polls indicate it may be more than wishful thinking. In 1998, Reid beat John Ensign by a hair-thin 428 votes. Ensign would go on to win Nevada's other...

Still inspiring. Video at link.

I cannot believe we are already into September which no doubt will bring back many bad memories to a lot of Americans and others of us who love freedom and America and Americans. As I prepared this thread I felt that it needed to be posted in 2 parts and allow us to think about the first 10 days of September 2001 and try to think have our attitudes, thoughts and how we approach life changed after those 10 days. Do the photos up to 10th September 2001 mean something different to those that will posted later of 11th September,...

President George W. Bush plans a quiet day in his Dallas office Friday in his first Sept. 11 since leaving the White House. *snip* "Eight years ago, our nation and our freedom came under attack. On this solemn anniversary, Laura and I hold the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers. We honor those who volunteer to keep us safe and extend the reach of freedom — including members of the armed forces, law enforcement officers, and intelligence and homeland security professionals. Their courage, service and sacrifice is a fitting tribute to all those who gave their lives...

TED KOPPEL (ABC host): When the president talked about the bankruptcy of Social Security, there were clearly some Democrats on the floor who thought that that was taking it too far. And they did something that, apparently, no one at this table has ever heard before. They booed. [ABC, Nightline, 2/2/05; Koppel's panel consisted of former Bush adviser Mary Matalin, former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein, and former Clinton speechwriter Michael Waldman] JOHN ROBERTS (CBS White House correspondent): At a couple points in this address, it looked more like the British Parliament than the United States Congress. I've never...

See if you can notice any difference.YouTube Video

Kids Didn't Hear Obama, But Will be Bussed for Bush Church questions district's "duplicity" on president talks By STACY MORROW Updated 1:09 PM CDT, Wed, Sep 9, 2009 Print Email Share Buzz up! TWITTER FACEBOOK The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21. District officials said it's part of a Cowboys Stadium field trip that the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee invited 28 fifth-grade classes to attend several months...

(CNN) -- Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars? It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror. "You don't know where these things are going to end up," former CIA agent Peter Brookes told me. "They could go to very high levels in the government." The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner...

An unusually restrained Van Jones doesn't use a potty mouth or compare Bush to a "crackhead", but MERELY says Bush "lynched" war dissenters with the American flag. How nice. Van Jones is senior Adviser to the President for "Green Jobs" and Asst. Secretary for Boycotts of Conservative Talk Show Hosts.

<p>WALLACE: Mr. Vice President, welcome back to "FOX News Sunday."</p> <p>CHENEY: It's good to be back, Chris.</p> <p>WALLACE: This is your first interview since Attorney General Holder named a prosecutor to investigate possible CIA abuses of terror detainees. What do you think of that decision? CHENEY: I think it's a terrible decision. President Obama made the announcement some weeks ago that this would not happen, that his administration would not go back and look at or try to prosecute CIA personnel.</p>

PGA Champ Yang Pledges Round of Golf With Bush AUGUST 28, 2009 03:40 Y.E. Yang, the first Asian-born golfer to win a major PGA title, said yesterday that he promised to play a round of golf with former U.S. President George W. Bush. Yang was speaking to a news conference at the Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey, just a day before the FedEx Cup playoff opener at The Barclays. He said that when he went to Carlsbad in Southern California to visit the headquarters of his sponsor TaylorMade last week, he met Bush and chatted with...

Media Bias: Veteran reporter, author and commentator Bernard Goldberg reports that when CBS News did its fake National Guard story on George W. Bush avoiding service in Vietnam, it knew it was a lie.It's a liberal urban legend that Bush used the influence of his father and his father's friends to land a cushy position in the Texas National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. The Democrats would run John Kerry as a hero in the war, and CBS News was all too eager to help with Mary Mapes producing a "60 Minutes II" segment in September 2004 charging exactly...

<p>BOSTON — The elder President George Bush will not be attending Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral.</p>

<p>"Laura and I are saddened by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. We extend our condolences and prayers to Senator Kennedy’s wife, Vicki, and all of their family. Ted Kennedy spent more than half his life in the United States Senate. He was a man of passion who advocated fiercely for his convictions. I was pleased to work with Senator Kennedy on legislation to raise standards in public schools, reform immigration, and ensure dignity and fair treatment for Americans suffering from mental illness. In a life filled with trials, Ted Kennedy never gave in to self-pity or despair. He maintained his optimistic spirit, his sense of humor, and his faith in his fellow citizens. He loved his family and his country – and he served them until the end. He will be deeply missed."</p>

I used to admire Tom Ridge. After reading Peter Baker in The New York Times, I have to say, I've lost a lot of respect for the man. By now you've probably heard about Ridge's allegation that he faced political pressure to change the Homeland Security Department's threat level in 2004. The most sensational assertion was the pre-election debate in 2004 about the threat level, first reported by U.S. News & World Report. Mr. Ridge writes that the bin Laden tape alone did not justify a change in the nation’s security posture but describes “a vigorous, some might say dramatic,...

Ridge Changes Tune On Terror Alert LevelsPITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 Tom Ridge (File) Alex Wong/Getty Images Close numSlides of totalImages Former Pennsylvania Governor and Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge is calling out former colleagues in the Bush Administration, suggesting they tried to play politics with the terror alert level. The charge comes in a book due out next month. Ridge claims other members of the Cabinet pressured him to raise the terror alert level shortly before the 2004 Presidential election. He says Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed him to support increasing...

Bush vets dismiss Ridge claims By: Andy Barr August 20, 2009 06:53 PM EST Top officials from the George W. Bush White House are disputing claims in former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s coming book that they pressured him to adjust the terror threat level for political gain. “We went over backwards repeatedly and with great discipline to make sure politics did not influence any national security and homeland security decisions,” former White House chief of staff Andy Card told POLITICO. “The clear instructions were to make sure politics never influenced anything.” “I’m a little mystified,” former homeland security adviser...

We were told the country was divided, the election stolen, that there were "two Americas" and a drunk frat boy barely able to speak had been selected by the US Supreme Court...yet on August 22 of 2001, President Bush's approval ratings were at 57% according to Gallup. Today we are told the country is in a new era, the election a mandate for change, that there is one America full of hope and a brilliant orator has been elected by a huge turnout...yet by mid August 20 2009, President Obama's approval ratings are at only 51% according to Gallup.

Tom Ridge confirms a long-held suspicion among Bush critics, writing in his new autobiography that he "was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over."...

Ridge: I was urged to raise terror level for re-election @ 11:32 am by Eric Zimmermann Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was pressured to raise the terror threat level in the run-up to President Bush's re-election, the former cabinet secretary will claim in a new tell-all book. Titled "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…and How We Can Be Safe Again," the memoir is intended to rouse Americans from their complacency about security issues, Ridge says. To accomplish that goal, Ridge has included some stunning allegations about his time in the Bush administration. He almost considered resigning after being...

Your editorial claims that Congress was complicit in Bush administration human rights abuses. Here are the facts: Until Sept. 6, 2006, only a handful of members of Congress were aware of the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques." Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 to prohibit the CIA's use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" -- the same standard as the Geneva Convention. After learning of the CIA program, Congress took action. I introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill to limit the CIA to interrogation techniques authorized by the Army Field Manual....

On Wednesday, August 12, a man holding a sign that said “Death to Obama” at a town hall meeting in Maryland was arrested and turned over to the Secret Service, which is pursuing an investigation into charging him with threatening the president. As well they should. I fully and absolutely agree with this arrest, since anyone who threatens the president is breaking the law and should be prosecuted. It doesn’t matter that Obama was not at the meeting nor that the man was unarmed: the threat all on its own is a federal crime, according to the United States Code....