George W. Bush's 50 Greatest Accomplishm ents

“George W. Bush's 50 greatest accomplishments

1. I attacked and took over two countries.
2. I spent the US surplus and bankrupted the US treasury.
3. I shatterd the record for the biggest annual deficit in history (not easy)
4. I set an economic for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
5. I set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
6. I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
7. I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
8. In my first year in office I set the all-time record for the most days on vacation by any president
in US history. (tough to beat my dad's, but I did)
9. After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failire in US history.
10. I set the record for most campaign raising trips by an president in US history.
11. In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their jobs.
12. I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history.
13. I set the all-time record for most real estate foreclosures in a 12-month period.
14. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any other president in US history.
15. I set the record for fewest pres conferences of any president since the advent of TV.
16. I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was reveald.
17. I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constituution than any other US president in history.
18. I cut health-care benefits for war vetrans.
19. I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me
(15 million people) shattering the record for protest against ant person in the history of mankind.
20. I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
21. I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
22. Members of my caninet are the richest of any administration in US histiry. (the poorest mulitmillionaire,
Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her)
23. I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the union simultaneously struggle against bankruptcy.
24. I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.
25. I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation,
and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community.
26. I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the US.
27. I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other president in US history
(Reagan was hard to beat, but I did it!!!)
28. I am the first president in US history to compel the United Nations to remove the US from the HnmanRights Commission.
29. I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from Elections Monitoring Board.
30. I removed more checks and balances and have the least congressional oversight of any presidential
administration in US history.
31. I renderd the entire United Nations irrelevant.
32. I withdrew from the World Court Of Law.
33. I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
34. I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 elections.
35. I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for the most corporate campaign donations.
36. The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the
largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of EnronCorporation)
37. I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
38. I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under attack ( and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to
Air Force 1).
39. I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.
40. I took the world's sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the
world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
41. I am the first US president in history to have a majority of hte people od Europe (71%) view my presidency as the
biggest threat to world peace nad stabilty.
42. I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
43. I set the all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated US laws by not selling their huge
investments in corporations that later made bids for gov contracts.
44. I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
45. I have created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided that the US has been since the Civil War.
46. I entered offive with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category
heading straight down. RECORDS AND REFERENCES
47. I have at atleast one conviction for drunk driving in Maine ( Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
48. I was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during time of war. I refused tro take a drug test or
even answer any questions about drug use.
49. All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father's library, sealed in secrecy and
unavailable for public view. All records of any SEC investagation into my insidertrading or bankrupt companies are sealed
in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
50. All minutes of meetings of any public corportaions for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable
for public view. Any records or minutes from meeting I ( or my VP ) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in
secrecy and unavailable for public review.”

“HERE'S MORE BAD NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS

It would seem that March was a pretty good month for job creation. Preliminary figures show that there were more new jobs created in March than in any month since 2000. How many? About 120,000. There are predictions that as many as one million jobs or more may be created before the election.

Kerry knows the numbers look good, and he needs a way to overshadow the latest statistics. So ... he has now come up with some sort of a grand plan to create 10 million new jobs.

sKerry says he will put forward a comprehensive economic plan in the coming weeks to create these 10 million new jobs. What a load of nonsense. First of all, the government does not create jobs. Jobs are created in the private sector. All John Kerry would do would be to propose legislation that would kill jobs. But that is not what gets reported. And what about the 10 million figure? Where does that come from?

Do you want to know how sKerry would "create" these jobs? Government spending, that's how. Take money out of the private sector, where jobs are created based on the free interaction of a free people in an arena of economic liberty, and use that money to create massive public works projects to put these people to work for government instead of the private sector. Kerry will also come up with plans to seize money from the private sector by way of taxes, and then redistribute that money back to the private sector to create government subsidized jobs.

Bottom line ... jobs aren't a problem. The economy is growing, and the private sector is creating jobs at a swift pace. Here's a little quiz: Just what was the unemployment rate at the end of the third year of Clinton's presidency? Why, since you asked, it was 5.6%. And what was the unemployment rate at the end of the third year of Bush's presidency? Sure! Happy to tell you! It was 5.6%.”

“Desperation is setting in, LOL”

“What's the matter Tilt? Did the truth smack you in the face or something.”

“desperation?

LMFAO!

it takes 25 or 30 of ya'll desperately jihading bush to keep up with lil ole me......

kerry....now THAT'S desperation...”

“ScorchFire, Bush is still better than Kerry by a long shot.

1, 25, & 31 are my favorites.

Tell me more about 39.”

“51. Bush is the first president to convince a tightwad like me to send money to the DNC, twice!”

“I love the campaign strategy of negativity. Throw in some conspiracy theories and all I need is popcorn.”

“"Conspiracy Theory" ???

Yeah, like Richard Clarke is workin' for the Democrats.

LMGDMFBFAO ! ! !!”

“"1. I attacked and took over two countries."

I'm afraid I don't understand this. The U.S. has or is in the process of handing authority back to the indigenous peoples of those countries. To me, "took over" implies an imperialistic or colonial goal, which clearly cannot be reconciled with giving the countries back to their people.”

“"25. I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation,
and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community."

I'm going to have to say that I don't understand this one, either. What about Japan, Germany? Those were sovereign nations.

Against the will of the UN? It's not surprising since much of the UN comprises the very nations that harbor anti-Western elements, or that are in a race to balance U.S. power. Also, there were many countries - and there still are - aligned with the U.S. Just looking at all the inroads made in establishing military ties with nations around the world is proof enough of a broad, albeit tacit, alignment with the U.S.”

“Come on simi, can't you see the writing on the wall? 75 million given to what US industry for telecommunications in Iraq? We are not giving the indiginous population back their country. we are taking it over for their resources. Sure, we'll give them some jobs while we're at it. Nice of us, huh. Unless we want more heroin, i don't think we want to take over the trade in Afghanistan. Out of all 50 things, i didn't see the mention of specific women's rights being taken away. A woman who ends her fetus life will be accused of murder. Whether accidently or deliberately by drug use, or by being in a domestic violence incident, it seems it will always be her fault. Or the dissolvemnet of the separation between church and state. Is including the old russian and east europe countries help balance out the number of countries that we alienated?”

“Your funny. You know Scorch Fire can't tell you more about 39 (or 16 or 8 or 42 either) becasue she doesn't know what that post its about. She's barely smart enough to djust do a cut and paste job.”

“Stay tuned, the U.S. has NOT YET given those countries back to anyone.

The crap is getting deeper.”

“"We are not giving the indiginous population back their country. we are taking it over for their resources. Sure, we'll give them some jobs while we're at it. Nice of us, huh."

Thank you for your reply, LaBastillefan. I hold no doubt the U.S. will be first in line to economically exploit Iraq's resources. However, this is very different from just taking their resources without recompense. But yes, Iraqis will gain jobs and money from doing trade with the U.S. I don't think you'll find many Iraqis complaining about that!

Also, we're in the process of handing over the government to the people. I still fail to see how that's *not* giving the country back to the people.”

“"We are not giving the indiginous population back their country. we are taking it over for their resources. Sure, we'll give them some jobs while we're at it. Nice of us, huh."

True, and all this oil, where is it? Gas prices are at an all time high and expected to get higher.”

“ok, simi, i'll bite. When you give the country back to the Iraqi's, you'll be giving them ....what? Civil war. But, to imply that we are not really, really, really, that interested in a stable Iraq is much more closer to the truth. The poor guys over there do not even know how to vote, or some do not even know what voting really means. Do you know what 60% Iraqi's believe in (in government practices)---- TRIBES ------ So if the majority tribe is elected, guess what? The other tribes get wiped out. Just like what Saddam was trying to do. But should we let them? Should we support the tribe that will do us the best deal for oil?
Wounded Knee- it grieves me to be the only one on these boards to say it. But Bush continues to buy oil for reserves, while prices and demand are high, at a steady pace. Because of this, and Congress fiddling with the way that oil prices can be (handled), OPEC is probably not going to be as willing to hand over oil so we can attack another Middle East or African country. So they up the price, and threaten to lower their output in a meeting tomorrow. So if Bush stopped buying oil for reserves for 1 month, or released reserves for 1 week, the prices would go down and OPEC would have to sell their surplus at a discount rate, either to us, or to someone else.”

“Then why doesn't he do this? Is this the real answer? Explain it to me. I am stupid!

What happens when everyone starts to buy these gas/electric powered cars. A whole lot better on saving gas, which means they don't have to go to the pump as often which also means they spend less.

What then, gas prices will be compensated? $3.00 a gallon, maybe $4.00.”

“The Washington Post agreed to a White House request not to name any of those deployed or identify the two principal locations of the shadow government.

Only the executive branch is represented in the full-time shadow administration. The other branches of constitutional government, Congress and the judiciary, have separate continuity plans but do not maintain a 24-hour presence in fortified facilities.

The military chain of command has long maintained redundant centers of communication and control, hardened against thermonuclear blast and operating around the clock. The headquarters of U.S. Space Command, for example, is burrowed into Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs, Colo., and the U.S. Strategic Command staffs a comparable facility under Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Civilian departments have had parallel continuity-of-government plans since the dawn of the nuclear age. But they never operated routinely, seldom exercised, and were permitted to atrophy with the end of the Cold War. Sept. 11 marked the first time, according to Bush administration officials, that the government activated such a plan.

Within hours of the synchronized attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Military District of Washington helicopters lifted off with the first wave of evacuated officials.

Witnesses near one of the two evacuation sites reported an influx of single- and twin-rotor transport helicopters, escorted by F-16 fighters, and followed not long afterward by government buses.

According to officials with first-hand knowledge, the Bush administration conceived the move that morning as a temporary precaution, likely to last only days. But further assessment of terrorist risks persuaded the White House to remake the program as a permanent feature of "the new reality, based on what the threat looks like," a senior decisionmaker said.

Few Cabinet-rank principals or their immediate deputies left Washington on Sept. 11, and none remained at the bunkers. Those who form the backup government come generally from the top career ranks, from GS-14 and GS-15 to members of the Senior Executive Service. The White House is represented by a "senior-level presence," one official said, but well below such Cabinet-ranked advisers as Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Many departments, including Justice and Treasury, have completed plans to delegate statutory powers to officials who would not normally exercise them. Others do not need to make such legal transfers, or are holding them in reserve.

Deployed civilians are not permitted to take their families, and under penalty of prosecution they may not tell anyone where they are going or why. "They're on a 'business trip,' that's all," said one official involved in the effort.

The two sites of the shadow government make use of local geological features to render them highly secure. They are well stocked with food, water, medicine and other consumable supplies, and are capable of generating their own power.

But with their first significant operational use, the facilities are showing their age. Top managers arrived at one of them to find computers "several generations" behind those now in use, incapable of connecting to current government databases. There were far too few phone lines. Not many work areas had secure audio and video links to the rest of government. Officials said Card, who runs the program from the White House, has been obliged to order substantial upgrades.

The modern era of continuity planning began under President Ronald Reagan.

On Sept. 16, 1985, Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 188, "Government Coordination for National Security Emergency Preparedness," which assigned responsibility for continuity planning to an interagency panel from Defense, Treasury, Justice and the Office of Management and Budget. He signed additional directives, including Executive Order 12472, for more detailed aspects of the planning.

In Executive Order 12656, signed Nov. 18, 1988, Reagan ordered every Cabinet department to define in detail the "defense and civilian needs" that would be "essential to our national survival" in case of a nuclear attack on Washington. Included among them were legal instruments for "succession to office and emergency delegation of authority."

The military services put these directives in place long before their civilian counterparts. The Air Force, for example, relies on Air Force Instruction 10-208, revised most recently in September 2000.

Civilian agencies gradually developed contingency plans in comparable detail. The Agriculture Department, for example, has plans to ensure continued farm production, food processing, storage and distribution; emergency provision of seed, feed, water, fertilizer and equipment to farmers; and use of Commodity Credit Corp. inventories of food and fiber resources.

What was missing, until Sept. 11, was an invulnerable group of managers with the expertise and resources to administer these programs in a national emergency.

Last Oct. 8, the day after bombing began in Afghanistan, Bush created the Office of Homeland Security with Executive Order 13228. Among the responsibilities he gave its first director, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, was to "review plans and preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security of the United States Government or its leadership."

Staff researcher Mary Lou White contributed to this report.”

“in other words, Shrub ratified it with his Patriot Act executive order.”

“(CBS/AP) U.S. Marines backed by helicopters battled hundreds of Iraqi insurgents Sunday near the Syrian border, where an ambush killed five Marines. At least 10 Iraqis, including the city police chief, have been killed in two days of fighting, a hospital official said.

The fighting appears to be related to the ongoing violence in Fallujah, says CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron.

Meanwhile, U.S. forces struggled to maintain control of Iraq's highways. The military announced new closures around Baghdad that severed long stretches of roads into the capital from the north, south and west — a reflection of the damage from a two-week guerrilla onslaught on U.S. supply lines.

Insurgent attacks and kidnappers' roadblocks have forced the military to curtail supply convoys and are part of the reason commanders have boosted ground forces by more than 20,000 U.S. troops. The military has already been tied down since April 1 on fronts in southern and central Iraq in the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Officials have said the violence threatens to hamstring U.S. reconstruction effort and drive up prices of civilian goods, dealing a blow to a delicate economic recovery in Iraq.

More than 1,500 foreign engineers and contractors have fled Iraq for fear of being abducted or killed, Iraqi Housing Minister Bayan Baqer said Sunday.

Reconstruction has come to a halt as foreign contractors stay in their quarters and scores of Iraqis stop working for the coalition for fear of their lives, the Washington Post reports.

In Baghdad, two Iraqi civilians and one American soldier were killed in multiple attacks, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The U.S. soldier was killed Saturday morning when a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy, the military said. The soldier was from Task Force Baghdad, which is made up mostly of troops from the 1st Cavalry Division.

The death brought to 90 the number of U.S. troops in violence killed since April 1. At least 687 U.S. servicemembers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Those figures don't include the reports of Marine deaths in Husaybah.

Two Iraqi civilians were killed Friday and four wounded when rockets fired by insurgents fell short of a military camp and hit a civilian area in western Iraq, the military said.

Two U.S. civilian contractors and one soldier were wounded in that attack, the military added.

The fighting in the town of Husaybah, 240 miles west of Baghdad, began when insurgents ambushed Marines on Saturday, sparking a battle with hundreds of rebel gunmen.

Fighting continued Sunday in three neighborhoods of the city, which was sealed off by U.S. forces.

Five Marines were killed in the initial ambush and nine more were wounded, an embedded journalist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Military spokesmen in Baghdad had no information on the reported Marine deaths.

Ten Iraqis were killed and 30 wounded — a mixture of insurgent fighters and civilian bystanders, said Hamid al-Alousi, a doctor at the hospital in the nearby city of al-Qaim.

Some civilians were shot by Marine snipers as they stepped outside to use outdoor toilets behind their houses, the doctor told the Arab television station Al-Arabiyah.

Husaybah police director Imad al-Mahlawi was one of those killed by American snipers, according to a man who identified himself as al-Mahlawi's cousin, Adel Ezzeddin, Al-Arabiya reported.

According to Marine intelligence, nearly 300 Iraqi mujahedeen fighters from the Fallujah and Ramadi areas, some 150 miles to the east, launched the offensive in an outpost next to Husaybah.

They first set off a roadside bomb to lure Marines out of their base, and then fired 24 mortars as the Marines responded to the first attack, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch correspondent reported.

Marines have been battling Sunni insurgents in a siege of Fallujah, 35 miles west of the capital, and guerrilla activity has surged in nearby Ramadi, where 12 Marines were killed in an ambush on April 6.

The military announced Sunday it closed off the main highway from Baghdad to the Jordanian border, the scene of heavy fighting at the western entrance to Baghdad as well as near Fallujah and Ramadi further down the road. For days, gunmen along the route have been attacking convoys and kidnapping foreigners — including an American soldier and civilian.

The military also shut down a stretch of the main highway north to Turkey, starting at the entrance to Baghdad extending to the town of Balad 42 miles north. Also closed was a 90-mile section of the main southern highway connecting Baghdad with Basra and Kuwait.

A military release said the closure was aimed at repairing the roads, but it warned civilians caught using the roads could be shot as enemy combatants.

Commanders suggested the routes remained vulnerable to attacks by insurgents who have been targeting U.S. military supply lines.

“We've got to fix those roads, we've also got to protect those roads,” Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad. Kimmitt said civilians would be redirected around the closed sections.

Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Baghdad Thursday that the need to defend supply lines for U.S. forces was “part of the calculations” U.S. commanders used when they called for troop reinforcements.

In other violence, two British soldiers were injured Saturday when their convoy came under fire in the southern town of Amarah, but their injuries were not life-threatening, the British defense ministry said Sunday.



****Some civilians were shot by Marine snipers as they stepped outside to use outdoor toilets behind their houses****

Way to Go USMC! This is Operation Iraqi Freedom!”

“(CBS/AP) President Bush has declined yet another invitation to speak at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s annual convention.

Mr. Bush addressed the 2000 convention when he was a candidate, but has declined invitations to speak in each year of his presidency. He has thus become the first president since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention, said John White, a spokesman for the group.

The NAACP said it received a letter from the White House declining the invitation signed by the presidential scheduler Melissa Bennet.

CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports that White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president had "other scheduling commitments."

The convention opens on Saturday in Philadelphia. Mr. Bush’s challenger, John Kerry accepted an invitation to speak next Thursday on the final day of the convention, according to the group.”

“You know, this thing was really a set up. If he accepted, all most of the people there would have done was slam him. If he rejected, they'd criticize him for not coming.

It raises an interesting question, however. Are there more African-Americans in swing states that could be persuaded to vote for Bush or stay home one election day?

Or are there more anti-NAACP people out there who would vote for a guy who eschews black organizations?

I guess the administration has calculated that the angry whites outnumber the angry blacks.”

“Well, either way you slice it, being linked to Hoover ain't goot for votes.

He should have went. There would have been no harm in going and more possible votes if he did. After all, he is running for re-election and need to get those lies out there.


opps! sorry, was I talking out loud again?”

“If you are a racist or a bigot, the fact that a candidate decides to stick it in the ear of the NAACP will make you more likely to vote for that candidate.

Bush is not a racist or a bigot. But he needs every one of their votes in this election.

BTW, watch very carefully for anti-Catholic codewords in this election. Bush will never directly say it, but when he stands up in North Carolina and talks about having the same "values," many in the crowd will get the "he's Catholic and I'm not" message.”

“Yes, we remember Bush's visit to Bob Jones University and the kind of crap they spew about Catholics.

I don't think the invitation was any kind of 'set-up'. After all, they've invited every president since Hoover, apparently. How much crap would they have caught if they hadn't invited him? <G> He could've been first president to be snubbed by the NAACP.”

“Bush could have asked Bill Cosby to stand in for him.”

“Point is that Bush is not a good president for this country. The president of the United States should be a uniter, not a divide and conquer sorta person. Bush is very much about us versus them. Too bad for "them".”

“Vacationing Bush Poised to Set a Record
With Long Sojourn at Ranch, President on His Way to Surpassing Reagan's Total



By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 3, 2005; A04



WACO, Tex., Aug. 2 -- President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of -- nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.

The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening for a stretch of clearing brush, visiting with family and friends, and tending to some outside-the-Beltway politics. By historical standards, it is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.

The August getaway is Bush's 49th trip to his cherished ranch since taking office and the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford -- nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president's travel than the White House itself. Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush's time away from Washington even further.

Bush's long vacations are more than a curiosity: They play into diametrically opposite arguments about this leadership style. To critics and late-night comics, they symbolize a lackadaisical approach to the world's most important day job, an impression bolstered by Bush's two-hour midday exercise sessions and his disinclination to work nights or weekends. The more vociferous among Bush's foes have noted that he spent a month at the ranch shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when critics assert he should have been more attentive to warning signs.


While the soldiers are dying in Bush' Vietnam, the best president ever takes 5 weeks off. Bring it on!
last edited: 8/05/05 11:06:04 PM”

“Bush heads to Crawford for August vacation
By BILL STRAUB
Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON -- President Bush left for his traditional midsummer break Tuesday having accomplished the first goal of his second term -- ensuring he wouldn't spend four years as a lame duck.

Before heading to the ranch in Crawford, Texas, the president celebrated congressional passage of his long-stalled energy bill -- a goal he has sought since moving into the White House -- and approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

But the early success doesn't end there.

Bush oversaw passage of the $286 billion transportation bill, which had been stalled in Congress for two years, and the Patriot Act appears well on its way to renewal. The House and Senate are expected to reconcile their differences this fall before major sections of the anti-terrorism legislation expire.

Not bad for a presidency not even eight months into a second term, particularly one that critics have tried to characterize as lame-duck since Bush again took the oath of office. It has not escaped the notice of the White House.

"I think it's important for the American people to hear about the important progress that we're making when it comes to our economy," said Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary. "And it's something we'll continue to talk about because this is something that impacts their daily lives."

McClellan said Bush intends to "build on the policies we have in place to keep our economy growing stronger."

The president seems to be faring well on other fronts, too.

It appears that John Roberts, his nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, will face less opposition from Senate Democrats during confirmation proceedings than originally thought -- despite the candidate's conservative record. Elsewhere, Bush now has in place the person he wanted to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. But strong opposition to the candidate, John Bolton, necessitated a recess appointment that will expire at the end of next year.

There will be a few clouds overhead as Bush putters around the ranch over the next four weeks.

Despite his successes and the nation's healthy economic growth, polls show that the public doesn't much care for the direction he is providing.

A Zogby America Poll, conducted July 26-30, showed that a minority of respondents, 45 percent, believe the president is doing an excellent or good job, while 55 percent rate him fair or poor. A Gallup poll done July 25-28 offers similar conclusions, with 44 percent saying Bush is doing a good job but 51 percent saying he's not.

John Zogby, head of Zogby International, said his latest survey showed that voters disapprove of the president's handling of every facet of his job -- with the exception of the war on terrorism. Fifty-one percent approved of Bush's actions in that area.

"The president is not likely to feel any significant bump from the events of the past week -- at least, not until new jobs are created from the transportation bill or gas prices are impacted by the energy bill," he said.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California dismissed the suggestion that Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress were making gains.

"The American people are concerned about job security and Republicans here have done nothing to create jobs," Pelosi said. "In fact, they and the president have the worst record of job creation since Herbert Hoover. More people do not have access to health care and this Congress has done nothing to make that better for them."

Meanwhile, Bush's top domestic priority, Social Security reform, distinguished by private accounts and financial solvency, is in jeopardy. House Republicans are drafting legislation that would use the Social Security surplus to fund private accounts, but the move would only add to the system's long-term financial problems.

And then there is the investigation into whether Karl Rove, the president's political guru, or anyone else in the administration committed a crime by revealing to reporters that Valerie Wilson was an undercover operative for the CIA.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/08/02/build/nation/25-bush-vacation.inc

And all they can fire back with are polls and Karl Rove...”

“Fifty-one percent approved of Bush's actions in that area.

yep, its a mandate alright”

“Presidents don't really ever vacation. So, I couldn't care less about where Bush chooses to spend his time.

But creating the Crawford Ranch was a great political move. Vacations in Texas, calculated mispronunciations, media-blitz brush clearings and hunting trips are nice ways to say "forget about Yale, Harvard, Kennebunkport and my birthplace in Connecticut."

President Bush is just like Al Gore in that he was political from the day he was born. Nothing the man has done has ever been far from a political calculation.

The true test will be how often he heads to Crawford after his presidency is over.”

“it is kind of silly to bash bush for this when there are legit reasons. like hes really going to stop being prez for 5 weeks. gimme a break”

“Hell, I can't get away from my job for a few days without getting drug back in ...”

“I remember the first time some newshound said "Bush's ranch outside Waco..." when he first took office... and I never heard them mention Waco again. After that one time, it was always Crawford this and Crawford that.

hmmmmm.

I guess Bush, Inc. didn't want to be identified with the Vernon Howell, the Branch Davidians et al... even if it is just a hobby ranch.”

“Do guest workers trudge through the Crawford plantation on their way to 'their new your job'?”

“CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- The angry mother of a fallen U.S. soldier staged a protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday, demanding an accounting from Bush of how he has conducted the war in Iraq.

Supported by more than 50 demonstrators who chanted, "W. killed her son!" Cindy Sheehan told reporters: "I want to ask the president, 'Why did you kill my son?”

“jeeeeEEEeeeeez.”

“Thanks USA. That just goes to show how ignorant some people are, regardless of if their children served honorably.”

“GW met with my best friends widow and offered his personal condolensces, he had rumsfeld and wife meet with all the fort bragg widows(my friends wife included, he mentioned my best friends sacrifice(by name) during the first debate with kerry, he sent me a hand written letter (as inelligible as it was) in response to my letter to him.”

“Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed;
2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed;
3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb;
4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs;
5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb;
6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change Accomplished;
7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark;
8. One to viciously smear #7;
9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along;
10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

Or …

None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?”

“FUEGO! FUEGO! FUEGO! Wait, it already is. Sorry, carry on.”

“#5 !!!

11. One to call Enron to turn the juice back on.”

“LOL @ USA!”

“1st President to have a spy in the White House

Oct. 5, 2005 — Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history.

Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I don't know of a case where the vetting broke down before and resulted in a spy being in the White House," said Richard Clarke, a former White House advisor who is now an ABC News consultant.

...Since that arrest, officials say Aragoncillo has started to cooperate. He has admitted to spying while working on the staff of Vice President Cheney's office.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1187030&page=1”

“Has any administration ever been more incompetent than the current Bush admin?”

“Well USA, considering that the spy was vetted by the Clinton Administration you might want to rethink who's been incompetent here.”