George W. Bush's positive achievements

Isn't this thread title an oxymoron?

F*** all!

Al Qaeda consider him a positive asset!

here's my list.

want to hear it again?

"Bush has increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And four African nations -- Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda -- rank among the world's top 10 recipients in aid from the United States."

What a prick...

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What a prick...

I can't disagree with that Jim.

imbecile comes to mind as a good description.

Not suspending the Constitution and promising to leave after two terms in office.

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Originally posted by Roy T:
Not suspending the Constitution and promising to leave after two terms in office.

Yes, although there's still time for him to do so. However, I really think he's had enough.

Best,
Fred

quote:

However, I really think he's had enough.

I'm pretty sure everybody else has too.

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Originally posted by Jim Lawson:
"Bush has increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And four African nations -- Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda -- rank among the world's top 10 recipients in aid from the United States."

What a prick...

That's all well and good, except when you look at the details of how this aid is being spent.

quote:

Originally posted by dsteady:

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Lawson:
"Bush has increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And four African nations -- Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda -- rank among the world's top 10 recipients in aid from the United States."

What a prick...

That's all well and good, except when you look at the details of how this aid is being spent.

Thanks for posting that, dsteady ... much needed look at reality.

By the way, I'm sure you noticed the bit about how when Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city's policy was "to bill rape victims for the kits used to gather evidence of sex crimes. In most places, police departments pay for rape kits, which cost hundreds of dollars, but while Ms. Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the town decided to save money by billing rape victims."

Despicable.

Fred

Bush's biggest achievement......... he made it possible for Obama to be elected.

If there was any justice in the world Bush and Cheney would be in the dock in the Hague on war crimes charges, but we know that's not going to happen

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"Bush has increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001,

I think similar points have been made here by others but it is worth mentioning again.
US overseas aid is incumbent on the recipients buying goods/services from the USA.
The use of seed bought from Monsanto (for instance)may achieve higher crop yealds in year 1 but effectively leaves the farmer without a crop in year 2 as the hybrdised crop does not throw off seed stock.
Consequently, the farmer has to go back to supplier for further stock thus becoming caught in a cycle of dependance.
Basically, Bush's biggest achievement will be closing the door to the Whitehouse without locking the keys inside!

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Basically, Bush's biggest achievement will be closing the door to the Whitehouse without locking the keys inside!

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Originally posted by Jim Lawson:
"Bush has increased direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But in many cases the money is not actually being received, it's just been "pledged." And with that pledge, as per the op-ed piece dsteady cited, comes demands, like, for instance, cutting off access to birth control for Africa's poorest women.

Further, the USA ranks far behind most industrialized nations when it comes to foreign aid as a percentage of GNP, which is the true measure of a government's generosity.

Fred

Go easy on George W.

He's only the latest in a long line of inept puppets controlled by the selfish tyranny of evil men...

quote:

Originally posted by Colin Lorenson:
Bush's biggest achievement......... he made it possible for Obama to be elected.

Precisely–out of desperation comes hope (that, in the future, major U.S. political parties would always carefully vet their prospective candidates for President).

Would the American Oil companies be able to come up with a couple of positive achievements for GWB?

Cheers

Don

quote:

Originally posted by David Dever:

quote:

Originally posted by Colin Lorenson:
Bush's biggest achievement......... he made it possible for Obama to be elected.

Precisely–out of desperation comes hope

So . . . may be there is hope for ourselves too down here in Italy?

The view from Canada

"With the U.S. economy in crisis, George W. Bush’s already slumping popularity levels have sagged even deeper. This summer, his own political party kept him away from its national convention in St. Paul. The President himself has been reduced to wistful hopes that history will somehow justify him.

At this low point, some counterbalance:

1) Even as you read this, Indian commandos are waging a deadly urban battle against Islamic terrorists. Those soldiers have almost certainly trained with U.S. Rangers or Marines — part of an intensifying U.S.-India security partnership that has been one of the most signal foreign policy successes of the Bush years. Otto von Bismark is supposed to have said that the most important geopolitical fact of the 20th century would be that the United States and Great Britain spoke the same language. Bush’s strategic entente with India may well prove the most important geopolitical fact of the 21st.

2) Last week, the Iraqi parliament approved a status-of-forces agreement authorizing the continuing presence of U.S. troops inside Iraq. The Iraq war is ending in political reconciliation within Iraq -- and with hope of an ongoing alliance between Iraq and the United States. Since the 1960s, Iraq has been the most destabilizing state in the Arab world, ruled by a succession of radical anti-western regimes. Bush leaves office with Iraq ready at last to become a more normal country, at peace with itself and its neighbours.

3) Bush’s hopes for a more democratic Middle East have not been realized. But here’s what has been accomplished throughout the region: Libya has ended its nuclear program, paid damages for the Lockerbie bombing and reoriented its regime to the West. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have toughened their banking rules, ending their old double game on terrorist financing. Hamas fundraising operations in North America have been rolled up: Just this past week, a Texas court convicted the officials of the Holy Land Foundation, Hamas’ main U.S. front group, of providing material support to terrorism. The second Palestinian intifada has been crushed, confronting the Palestinian leadership with the hard truth that their aspirations cannot be attained by violence.

4) No new international terrorist attack inside the United States since 9/11. No Islamic terrorist attacks on a European ally since 2005.

5) Plan Colombia worked, and the Colombian insurgency has been weakened if not broken. Mexico has completed its second multiparty presidential election. The United States has resisted Hugo Chavez’s attempts to make himself a Castro-style martyr, putting the Chavez regime on the way to collapse due to its own economic incompetence.

6) Economic conservatives like me may not like it much, but for many millions of senior citizens, George Bush’s most important legacy is a national prescription-drug program that relieves those over 65 of the fear that they cannot afford the medications they need.

7) Bush encouraged the nuclear-power industry. There have been 17 new nuclear licence applications since 2007 — opening the way to the first new reactors since the 1970s. U.S. oil consumption has dropped almost 10% since 2005. In September, 2008, the most recent month for which figures are available, the United States consumed a little under 534 million barrels of oil — the lowest amount used in any month since September, 1996.

8) After 9/11, Bush passionately championed America’s vast majority of law-abiding Muslims — and perhaps due to his leadership, the much-feared wave of hate crimes never occurred. According to surveys by Zogby International, only 6% of U.S. Muslims experienced any form of verbal abuse in the two months immediately following 9/11. In all the United States, there were 84 incidents of anti-Islamic violence or intimidation in 2007. (To put that in context, there were 1,039 incidents that year of anti-gay violence or intimidation.) George Bush was the first president to confer cabinet rank on a Muslim American, when he chose Zalmay Khalilzad as ambassador to the United Nations in 2007.

Does this legacy qualify George Bush for Mount Rushmore? Probably not. But it does promise the 43rd president a gentler treatment from history than he has received from his contemporaries.

David Frum

I've always liked the quote Australian Oppostion Leader Mark Latham gave a few years back-
"George Bush is the most dangerous & incompatent American President in living memory. "

Jim

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Does this legacy qualify George Bush for Mount Rushmore? Probably not. But it does promise the 43rd president a gentler treatment from history than he has received from his contemporaries.

Your extract would carry more credibility if it wasn't written by a conservative journalist who was formerly a GWB speech write don't you think?

Jim

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would carry more credibility

is it fact, or fiction?

Cheers

Don