Steve’s Weblog
Enthusiastic crowd gathers to welcome Bush back
1/20/2009 10:24 PM
By: Associated Press
MIDLAND, Texas — “It is good to be home.”
That’s what former President George W. Bush today told thousands of people gathered in Midland to welcome him back to Texas.
More at News8Austin
Bush mostly down in polls
By The Associated Press Mon Jan 28, 3:46 AM ET
In February 2001, President Bush delivered an economic address to a joint session of Congress; in subsequent years he presented his annual State of the Union address. A look at his approval rating in the Gallup Poll around the time of each speech.
February 2001: 62 percent approval.
_January 2002: 84 percent.
_January 2003: 60 percent.
_January 2004: 53 percent.
_February 2005: 51 percent.
_January 2006: 43 percent.
_January 2007: 36 percent.
_January 2008: 32 percent.
Senate to stay in session to thwart Bush
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he would keep Congress in session over the holiday break solely to block President Bush from making recess appointments. It was an apt ending to one of the most bitterly partisan congressional sessions in memory.
“We’re going to go into pro forma session so the president can’t appoint people that we think objectionable,” Reid said on the Senate floor as the chamber prepared to wrap up business for the year.
The Senate must confirm major presidential appointments and judicial nominations, a constant source of confrontation between the White House and Senate Democrats. But when the Senate is off, as it will be for the rest of the month and much of January, the president can make recess appointments that are not subject to confirmation hearings. These appointees can serve until the end of the congressional session, which at this point would be until Bush leaves office.
What a way to welcome travelers to the US. As you get off an international flight in Los Angeles, and walk through the passageway into the US Customs and Immigration area, you’re greeted by two framed pictures like the ones below. It’s enough to make you want to turn around and go back to where ever you just came from!
Report says war on terror is fueling al Qaeda
By Kate Kelland 2 hours, 43 minutes ago
LONDON (Reuters) – Six years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, the “war on terror” is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements, a British think-tank said on Monday.
A report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG) said a “fundamental re-think is required” if the global terrorist network is to be rendered ineffective.
“If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut,” said Paul Rogers, the report’s author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.
“Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level.”
He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a “disastrous mistake” which had helped establish a “most valued jihadist combat training zone” for al Qaeda supporters.
The report — Alternatives to the War on Terror — recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region, including with Iran and Syria.
“I truly am not that concerned about him.”
Bin Laden slams capitalism in new video
By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
CAIRO, Egypt – In a new video released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden made no overt threats but lectured Americans on the Iraq war and criticized global capitalism, calling its leaders the real terrorists.
His emergence Friday comes at a time when terrorism experts believe bin Laden’s terror network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region — and it underlines the U.S. failure to catch him.
This guy is an embarrassment, who voted for him anyway?
Bush has bad day at Sydney Opera House
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 7, 6:49 AM ET
SYDNEY, Australia – President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.
He’d only reached the third sentence of Friday’s speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.
“Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit,” Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers.
Bush quickly corrected himself. “APEC summit,” he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).
The president’s next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard’s visit to Iraq last year to thank his country’s soldiers serving there, Bush called them “Austrian troops.”
That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying “Austrian,” the official text released by the White House switched it to “Australian.”
Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way.
He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.
Two words George: MORE ON.
Bush denies Congress access to key aides
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from former White House aides Sara Taylor and Harriet Miers.
It offered once more to make the pair available for private, off-the-record interviews on any role the White House might have played in the firings of several U.S. attorneys.
In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers’ demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.
Bad Behavior has blocked 1920 access attempts in the last 7 days.
