doing evil to obtain good? (Page 3)

Nope. Almost immediately after taking power, Bush greatly minimized an Executive Branch counterterrorism group that eyeballed all-things-al-Qaeda.

Your examples are irrelevant - the positions you cited require Congressional blessings/approvals. The group he dismantled operated in the Executive Branch and did not require Congressional approval.

I agree with you - he is a dumbass.

"On January 24, 2001 I requested in writing an urgent meeting of the NSC Principals committee to address the al Qida threat. That meeting took place on September 4, 2001. "

This from CNN today:

(CNN) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed criticism of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program Tuesday, saying Congress was aware of its scope and approved it "under the authorization to use military force" against terrorism.

So now we know what the administration meant by their statements that congress had "full knowledge" of the domestic spying program. Congress gave the OK to use military force, and they say listening in on citizens' phone conversation constitutes "military force." So they had full knowledge. OK...I get it now. Whew...glad they cleared that up. 

John,

I'll repost what I said because it seems that my position is being changed on my behalf.

Is Bush to blame for the tragedies of September 11? I didn't say that and I don't believe that. I think that's a specious argument for anyone to make. However, it seems to me that if one takes credit for lack of attacks, one should be prepared to take blame for attacks. If one campaigns on the idea that a vote for one's opponent is a vote for being attacked, then one surely mustn't protest when called to account for any attacks. But that's Bush's cross to bear. Let's hope he never has to pickup the cross.

I said there existed a counterterrorism group that eye-balled all things al Qaeda and this group was minimized once Bush took power. This is a simple statement of fact.

As for what Clinton did or didn't do, feel free to post your opinions and facts. It doesn't change the fact that the Bush Administration minimized the counterterrorism group but if it makes you feel better to say the administrations of other POTUS' failed also, knock yourself out.

Yep, still a tense thread.

Has anyone seen Tuesday Funnies???

Was there supposed to be a link in there somewhere, or did you just cut and paste the Fox News crawl? 

No less brilliant than  your distorted facts and political diatribe that you and every other liberal try to pass off as the truth.

You are correct in that we should not discuss because it will probably just make us both mad.

If a known/suspected Terrorist outside the United States is calling/contacting someone inside the U.S. I am glad that someone is listening. I think the real evil would be if they didn't  and thousands of lives were lost because of that missed opportunity.

American citizens don't have the same rights in foreighn counties when they are there physically, why should their end communication have greater privilage outside our borders than they would if actually there?

I fail to see how that differs greatly, from our country spying on foreign governments.

So if W. is the "second best President of the last 50 years", what then are his accomplishments that earn him this distinction? OK, he got rid of Saddam, but at what cost? 2200 dead American soldiers (and counting) and  $200 billion dollars of tax payer money (and counting). Was it worth it? You tell me.

But after that, what has he done? 

You bash Clinton continously (the Buzz Patterson stuff was good, but the guy has a history distorting the truth (http://mediamatters.org/items/200407210003), but at least it's easy to list a littany of truly good things the man did in his 8 years in office:

• He left office with the strongest US economy ever.
• He invested more in eduacation than any President in the past 30 years.
• The US had it's lowest overall crime rate in the past 25 years.
• He reformed welfare and saw millions of Americans go from welfare to work.
• Increased access to helthcare
• He grew the economy while at the same time improved the environment.
• He actually encouraged science and research.
• He made the government smaller by getting rid of 16000 pages of federal regulations and eliminating 375000 federal jobs (he created 21 million new private sector jobs).
  

coredump - 2006-01-25 7:13 AM

ASA22 - 2006-01-25 7:04 AM "Katrina" You may think Bush is a bad president, but I'm prety confident that he had nothing to do with a Hurricane.

Heh.  A wise-guy, eh?  Woowoowoowoo!

By Katrina I'm referring to the preparedness for and the response following.  My own fault for being too concise.

-C

I understand you have a firm stance against the Bush admin, but everyone is reaching on Katrina.  The big report out now is that they knew a major hurricane would devestate New Orleans.  Guess what!  Every admin in the past 30 years has known this and every one of them has ignored it as did the local New Orleans government. 

I do think everyone can agree that the FEMA response left alot to be desired.