Palindromedary -- Did you see Rachael M last night? She was talking about the Popular Mechanics book "Debunking the 9/11 Myths"

When you mention things like the rewiring job is that book your source?

In honor of the opening celebration of G.W. Bush’s Presidential Library Let’s look at 50 reasons, some large and some small, why W. inspired so much anger. See if you have fortitude to make it to the end.1. He stole the presidency in 2000. People may forget that Republicans in Florida purged more than 50,000 African-American voters before Election Day, and then went to the Supreme Court where the GOP-appointed majority stopped a recount that would have awarded the presidency to Vice-President Al Gore if all votes were counted. National news organizations verified that outcome long after Bush had been sworn in. 2. Bush’s lies started in that race. Bush ran for office claiming he was a “ uniter, not a divider.” Even though he received fewer popular votes than Gore, he quickly claimed he had the mandate from the American public to push his right-wing agenda. 3. He covered up his past. He was a party boy, the scion of a powerful political family who got away with being AWOL during the Vietnam War. He was reportedly AWOL for over a year from his assigned unit, the Texas Air National Guard, which other military outfits called the "Champagne Division.” 4. He loved the death penalty. As Texas governor from 1995-2000, he signed the most execution orders of any governor in U.S. history—152 people, including the mentally ill and women who were domestic abuse victims. He spared one man’s life, a serial killer. 5. He was a corporate shill from Day 1. Bush locked up the GOP nomination by raising more campaign money from corporate boardrooms than anyone at that time. He lunched with CEOs who would jet into Austin to "educate" him about their political wish lists. 6. He gutted global political progress. He pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol which set requirements for 38 nations to lower greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change, saying that abiding by the agreement would “harm our economy and hurt our workers.” 7. He embraced global isolationism. He withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, over Russia’s protest, taking the U.S. in a direction not seen since World War I. 8. He ignored warnings about Osama bin Laden. He ignored the Aug. 6, 2001 White House intelligence briefing titled, “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.” Meanwhile, his chief anti-terrorism advisor, Richard Clarke, and first Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, testified in Congress that he was intent on invading Iraq within days of becoming president. 9. Ramped up war on drugs, not terrorists. The Bush administration had twice as many FBI agents assigned to the war on drugs than fighting terrorism before 9/11, and kept thousands in that role after the terror attacks. 10. “My Pet Goat.” He kept reading a picture book to grade-schoolers for seven minutes after his top aides told him that the World Trade Centers had been attacked in 9/11. Then Air Force One flew away from Washington, D.C., vanishing for hours after the attack. Squandered global goodwill after 9/11. Bush thumbed his nose at world sympathy for the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, by declaring a global war on terrorism and declaring “you are either with us or against us.” 12. Bush turned to Iraq not Afghanistan. The Bush administration soon started beating war drums for an attack on Iraq, where there was no proven Al Qaeda link, instead of Afghanistan, where the 9/11 bombers had trained and Osama bin Laden was based. His 2002 State of the Union speech declared that Iraq was part of an “Axis of Evil.” 13. Attacked United Nation weapons inspectors. The march to war in Iraq started with White House attacks on the credibility of U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq, whose claims that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons proved to be true. 14. He flat-out lied about Iraq’s weapons. In a major speech in October 2002, he said that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to send unmanned aircraft to the U.S. with bombs that could range from chemical weapons to nuclear devices. “We cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun—that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud,” he said. 15. He ignored the U.N. and launched a war. The Bush administration tried to get the U.N. Security Council to authorize an attack on Iraq, which it refused to do. Bush then decided to lead a "preemptive" attack regardless of international consequences. He did not wait for any congressional authorization to launch a war. 16. Abandoned international Criminal Court. Before invading Iraq, Bush told the U.N. that the U.S. was withdrawing from ratifying the International Criminal Court Treaty to protect American troops from persecution and to allow it to pursue preemptive war. 17. Colin Powell’s false evidence at U.N. The highly decorated soldier turned Secretary of State presented false evidence at the U.N. as the American mainstream media began its jingoistic drumbeat to launch a war of choice on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. 18. He launched a war on CIA whistleblowers. When a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson, wrote a New York Times op-ed saying there was no nuclear threat from Iraq, the White House retaliated by leaking the name and destroying the career of his wife, Valerie Plame, one of the CIA’s top national security experts. 19. Bush pardoned the Plame affair leaker. Before leaving office, Bush pardoned the vice president’s top staffer, Scooter Libby, for leaking Plame’s name to the press. 20. Bush launched the second Iraq War. In April 2003, the U.S. military invaded Iraq for the second time in two decades, leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and more than a million refugees as a years of sectarian violence took hold on Iraq. Nearly 6,700 U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq and Afghan wars. 21. Baghdad looted except for oil ministry. The Pentagon failure to plan for a military occupation and transition to civilian rule was seen as Baghdad was looted while troops guarded the oil ministry, suggesting this war was fought for oil riches, not terrorism. 22. The war did not make the U.S. safer. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate (a consensus report of the heads of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies) asserted that the Iraq war had increased Islamic radicalism and had worsened the terror threat. 23. U.S. troops were given unsafe gear. From inadequate vests from protection against snipers to Humvees that could not protect soldiers from roadside bombs, the military did not sufficiently equip its soldiers in Iraq, leading to an epidemic of brain injuries. 24. Meanwhile, the war propaganda continued. From landing on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit to declare “mission accomplished” to surprising troops in Baghdad with a Thanksgiving turkey that was a table decoration used as a prop, Bush defended his war of choice by using soldiers as PR props. 25. He never attended soldiers' funerals. For years after the war started, Bush never attended a funeral even though as of June 2005, 144 soldiers (of the 1,700 killed thus far) were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetary, about two miles from the White House. 26. Meanwhile, war profiteering surged. The list of top Bush administration officials whose former corporate employers made billions in Pentagon contracts starts with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, which made $39.5 billion, and included his daughter, Liz Cheney, who ran a $300 million Middle East partnership program. 27. Bush ignored international ban on torture. Suspected terrorists were captured and tortured by the U.S. military in Baghdad’s Abu Gharib prison, in the highest profile example of how the Bush White House ignored international agreements, such as the Geneva Convention, that banned torture, and created a secret system of detention that was unmasked when photos made their way to the American media outlets. 28. Created the blackhole at Gitmo and renditions. The Bush White House created the offshore military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as secret detention sites in eastern Europe to evade domestic and military justice systems. Many of the men still jailed in Cuba were turned over to the U.S. military by bounty hunters. 29. Bush violated U.S. Constitution as well. The Bush White House ignored basic civil liberties, most notably by launching a massive domestic spying program where millions of Americans’ online activities were monitored with the help of big telecom companies. The government had no search warrant or court authority for its electronic dragnet. 30. Iraq war created federal debt crisis. The total costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars will reach between $4 trillion and $6 trillion, when the long-term medical costs are added in for wounded veterans, a March 2013 report by a Harvard researcher has estimated. Earlier reports said the wars cost $2 billion a week. 31. He cut veterans’ healthcare funding. At the height of the Iraq war, the White House cut funding for veterans’ healthcare by several billion dollars, slashed more than one billion from military housing and opposed extending healthcare to National Guard families, even as they were repeatedly tapped for extended and repeat overseas deployments. 32. Then Bush decided to cut income taxes. In 2001 and 2003, a series of bills lowered income tax rates, cutting federal revenues as the cost of the foreign wars escalated. The tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy, with roughly one-quarter going to the top one percent of incomes compared to 8.9% going to the middle 20 percent. The cuts were supposed to expire in 2013, but most are still on the books. 33. Assault on reproductive rights. From the earliest days of his first term, the Bush White House led a prolonged assault on reproductive rights. He cut funds for U.N. family planning programs, barred military bases from offering abortions, put right-wing evangelicals in regulatory positions where they rejected new birth control drugs, and issued regulations making fetuses—but not women—eligible for federal healthcare. 34. Cut Pell Grant loans for poor students. His administration froze Pell Grants for years and tightened eligibility for loans, affecting 1.5 million low-income students. He also eliminated other federal job training programs that targeted young people. 35. Turned corporations loose on environment. Bush’s environmental record was truly appalling, starting with abandoning a campaign pledge to tax carbon emissions and then withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases. The Sierra Club lists 300 actions his staff took to undermine federal laws, from cutting enforcement budgets to putting industry lobbyists in charge of agencies to keeping energy policies secret. 36.. Said evolution was a theory—like intelligent design. One of his most inflammatory comments was saying that public schools should teach that evolution is a theory with as much validity as the religious belief in intelligent design, or God’s active hand in creating life. 37. Misguided school reform effort. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” initiative made preparation for standardized tests and resulting test scores the top priority in schools, to the dismay of legions of educators who felt that there was more to learning than taking tests. 38. Appointed flank of right-wing judges. Bush’s two Supreme Court picks—Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito—have reliably sided with pro-business interests and social conservatives. He also elevated U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pickering to an appeals court, despite his known segregationist views. 39. Gutted the DOJ’s voting rights section. Bush’s Justice Department appointees led a multi-year effort to prosecute so-called voter fraud, including firing seven U.S. attorneys who did not pursue overtly political cases because of lack of evidence. 40. Meanwhile average household incomes fell. When Bush took office in 2000, median household incomes were $52,500. In 2008, they were $50,303, a drop of 4.2 percent, making Bush the only recent two-term president to preside over such a drop. 41. And millions more fell below the poverty line. When Bill Clinton left office, 31.6 million Americans were living in poverty. When Bush left office, there were 39.8 million, according to the U.S. Census, an increase of 26.1 percent. The Census said two-thirds of that growth occurred before the economic downturn of 2008. 42. Poverty among children also exploded. The Census also found that 11.6 million children lived below the poverty line when Clinton left office. Under Bush, that number grew by 21 percent to 14.1 million. 43. Millions more lacked access to healthcare. Following these poverty trends, the number of Americans without health insurance was 38.4 million when Clinton left office. When Bush left, that figure had grown by nearly 8 million to 46.3 million, the Census found. Those with employer-provided benefits fell every year he was in office. 44. Bush let black New Orleans drown. Hurricane Katrina exposed Bush’s attitude toward the poor. He didn’t visit the city after the storm destroyed the poorest sections. He praised his Federal Emergency Management Agency director for doing a "heck of a job" as the federal government did little to help thousands in the storm’s aftermath and rebuilding. 45. Yet pandered to religious right. Months before Katrina hit, Bush flew back to the White House to sign a bill to try to stop the comatose Terri Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed, saying the sanctity of life was at stake. 46. Set record for fewest press conferences. During his first term that was defined by the 9/11 attacks, he had the fewest press conferences of any modern president and had never met with the New York Times editorial board. 47. But took the most vacation time. Reporters analyzing Bush’s record found that he took off 1,020 days in two four-year terms—more than one out of every three days. No other modern president comes close. Bush also set the record for the longest vacation among modern presidents—five weeks, the Washington Post noted. 48. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld. Not since Richard Nixon’s White House and the era of the Watergate burglary and expansion of the Vietnam War have there been as many power-hungry and arrogant operators holding the levers of power. Cheney ran the White House; Rove the political operation for corporations and the religious right; and Rumsfeld oversaw the wars. 49. He’s escaped accountability for his actions. From Iraq war General Tommy Franks’ declaration that “we don’t do body counts” to numerous efforts to impeach Bush and top administration officials—primarily over launching the war in Iraq—he has never been held to account in any official domestic or international tribunal. 50. He may have stolen the 2004 election as well. The closest Bush came to a public referendum on his presidency was the 2004 election, which came down to the swing state of Ohio. There the GOP’s voter suppression tactics rivaled Florida

Polls already show Americans have forgotten the worst of the Dubya years; however, it is going to be very difficult for history revissionists on the right to get away with major (false) rewrites without a two-for-one response from real (objective) historians. It's the responsibility of the various forms of media to keep Dubya History honest so that the best he can expect is an occasional pat on the back from the usual suspects. We've seen good results in keeping the Holicost truth flame lit now for nearly seventy years. Dubya will benefit from the Becks and other nut jobs, but their spin won't stick or last.

I think the best way for Americans to keep their freedom is to keep immigration down to a slow trickle of vacationers. There is enough unemployment today that we should not have to go looking for workers all over the world to do our work. There are enough qualified workers right here. And if there are not then let's get busy and educate the uneducated so they are qualified.

If we leave the floodgates of immigration open and at the same time tell the FBI and the CIA they can not monitor and observe people coming into our country I think we are opening ourselves up to more terror attacks.

Let's assume for a moment that everyone in the FBI and the CIA are all good guys with good intentions and fully competent. How can they do their jobs if they cannot monitor all of the vistors coming into the country? Escpecially if we open up the floodgates and let anyone and everyone cross the border?

We don't actually want a lot of monitoring going on so the only other option I see is to close down the borders to a trickle. If you don't want to do that then we are left with monitoring.

It does not logically follow that we can let anyone and everyone into the country and turn our backs on them and let them run wild. We are going to have more Boston Bombers if we do that.

Best Regards,

To answer you from yesterday Nachos:

KEND You Poor Dumb Animal! How many people do you employ?...full time?...part time? What's the starting wage for full time?...part time? How much does your lowest wage employee top out at? Do you offer Health Insurance to all your employees? How about maternity leave? What do you offer as far as retirement? Are you an employee owned company? Do you give your employees a paid vacation? How many weeks of vacation do they get a year? Do you pay out bonuses to ALL your employees?
In other words, lets hear how you treat those hard working worker bees...that make you such a Capitalist success!,

Only seven. all full time, $18.00 is the lowest but he is getting a $2.00 / hour raise at the end of the month he has been here for 6 months. I am Canadian so he gets our provincal health care to cover basics and the company gives him blue cross for there extended health care like, meds, teeth, glasses etc but that only costs me $100.00 month per employee so I am no hero. Maternity is covered under employment insurance by the government, one year. plus they keep all there benifits from here. I own it. yes to paid holidays 2 weeks for 2 years 3 after that etc , again holiday pay in Canada is min. 4% of there wage or the same in time off what ever they choose. The senoir guys / managers get 5% bonus on the net profit in there area. xmas bonuses are given on how well the company does for everyone any where from $500 to $5000. It generally costs me about 20% of there wages more in the companies portion of the employees taxes here for their pensions, IE etc. My employees are the life blood of my company I will all ways do what ever I can for them. I have given them personal loans, extra time off when ever needed. We don't have set sick days if they are sick they stay home thats it. We never had more than 3 sick days in a year in the whole company. I am a long way from walmart, Nachos. The truth is my investments make more for me than the company but with out the company and the employees that made the money I wouldn't have the money for the investments. I will never forget where I came from. I hope that answered all your questions.

"Poor dumb animal" come on be nice, Nachos. It is true I am not that smart, barely finished high school. Can't spell worth a crap. But that just hurt my feeling. Sorry i will let you get back to todays topic.

Quote chuckle8:
REDUCE THE DEBT BY INCREASING THE DEFICIT

"Fido, blah blah blah blah blah."

So most people would read your bumper sticker:

REDUCE THE Blah BY INCREASING THE Blah

And they might think "What is he, some kind of a communist?"

Although most people would have an inkling of what DEBT meant..but not on par with what it means on a national level. If you own the currency printing presses, you have a whole different level of understanding of what debt is than do most people.

What it really amounts to, I believe, is just another way of a few wealthy and powerful people to enforce slavery upon the masses. They'll use that game to squeeze people out of any rights or freedoms they thought they had...until...maybe...they'll snap and do something chaotic about it. Masses going berserk tend to change things really quickly....and it won't be pretty. That's why the ruling elite use mind games to slowly squeeze us.

They feed the people false hope with a corrupt two-party system and present one party as the savior of the people and then they screw the people even more while using the other party as the beast to avoid at all costs.

Very ingenious scam the ruling elite have going there. They win no matter who is in office. And the false hope they peddle, by getting the "savior party" elected, tends to let the built up pressure fizzle out. Then when the people start to realize they've been had...and start thinking about guillotining their local bankers and politicians, the ruling elite reload the people's heads with more false hope and promises.

The ruling elite know how to play us...because the majority of people have been fattened up for the slaughter...filled their heads full of superstitious ideas and non sequiturs combined with a strong desire of capitalist materialism...(want to super size those fries..buy a new car?)...glamorize those few who have managed to wheedle their way to the top...money-wise, power-wise. Give the herd the belief that they too can make it to the top. Make them all believe that if they just act now and buy a house, before the price goes up (bubble? what bubble?) then, they too can discover the road to riches...just like John McCain! And all the while the fattened up, lazy, superstitious cattle will be herded into the shoots for slaughter. Moooo!

By the way, last night I mentioned that some people believe that if they dream of snakes..they will get sick. Last night I dreamt of Obama and Bush (two snakes) holding hands. This morning I woke up and saw on TV the dedication of the new Bush Library in Texas where Obama was standing there giving his speech and the cameras panned over to where Papa and Baby Bush were sitting. I got sick! Just wanted to throw up! Maybe someone will do us a favor and demolish that building like they did the WTC towers and the Pentagon (but without anyone in them, of course!). But, since the only ones to have done something like that were sitting right there...I doubt the Bush's will destroy their own dedicated library...unless they used it, like they did on 911, to scare people into illegally invading another country.

How right you are, ptg0!

Kend says; "They like me, weird eh"!?
Don't pat yourself on the back just yet...A mentally broken dog will still come to his master when a can of food is opened.

You always put a little kernel of truth in your falsehoods so that they amount to ... ... FALSEHOOD! only, perhaps, ever more deceptive, quite skilled!

Goldman Sachs offered to sell to Greece a bogus product or derivative - from which they profitted quite handsomely, thank you very much, same as they did, all over the world, to governments and private entities alike, bringing about the great crash - to push the Greek debt back and hide it so Greece could retain membership in the EU.

Greece has been called - by lefty writers - an "economically rogue state" even before the crisis. Their tradition of a strong social system is not exemplified by their recent behavior. Many nations with such a tradition are quite solvent and in good economic health.

I didn't say you were dumb, Kend, I said you played dumb. It's all part of that fictional persona you project on this blog - to peddle your other fiction.

BTW, you, then, have dropped your straw man argument about the unfunded wars and the debt? It's OK, forget you ever tried it. That $20 must be already spent. Muddying the waters is the basic objective.

This is all theater. Neither party wants to pass a budget because they are hiding something.

Obama is a failure. His "look forward, not backward" was code to tell the political criminals that "anything goes". They are more interested in shop lifters than the bush crime family. They are concerned that people are going to wake up, thats why they insist we need new gun laws yet allow the banks and mortgage companies to continue to operate just as they have since clinton deregulated them.

Research the SS POET. The "government" is nothing more than a lying, criminal organization.