In 2000, when he dropped out of the Presidential race, GOP Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich called W. Bush his “soul brother.”
In a June 26, 2009 CNN story on the Bush years (featured on Kasich’s campaign website), Kasich said:
“The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master,” he said. “I mean I am here to try to bring prosperity back to this state, to make sure families are better off. I’m not here to carry anyone’s banner.”
…
“They [The Bush Administration] stopped solving problems,” said Kasich, who after his House tenure worked on Wall Street and as a cable TV political commentator and host. “Whenever you don’t have any ideas and are afraid to put things forward, you are going to lose energy. That’s what happened to the GOP and frankly I’m as mad as anybody in this country about what they did in the last 10 years, or since 2001.”
Today, in the Dispatch:“Jeb Bush in Ohio for Kasich”
I know I’m a little late in posting this- but it still seems worth mentioning that no one but George Bush – a guy with no tact and even less class – would make a speech in Irsael using a story about the Nazis to attack a political opponent.
During “an emotional Academy Awards-style celebration” of the 60th birthday of Israel, George Bush is seen crying after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert praises him.
Bush has cried many times during his presidency — when he’s met with the families of dead soldiers, after 9/11, at disaster scenes. But this was different. In this case, it seems his tears were for himself.
His theory: George Bush, despite his outward appearance of confidence, is actually really sad inside because most Americans think he’s a horrible President.
USA Today polled 52 economists asking “Do you think the U.S. economy is currently is a recession?”
67% said Yes.
Another 12% said we would be this year.
President Bush, however, still refuses to admit it- instead calling our current situation just a ‘very slow economy’.
His solution: make his 2001 tax cuts for the rich permanent.
Seven years after implementing these tax cuts that were supposed to stimulate the economy we are, by most measures, in a recession. Gas prices are at an all time high. The housing market in shambles.
“John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years,” McCain said Wednesday when pressed to squelch speculation about a Kerry-McCain ticket. “Obviously I would entertain it.”
How much fun is this gonna be? Hillary, come on. Step aside already so we can get the REAL party started!
One of Bush’s visitors tonight at the SOTU is actually prohibited by US law from being here in the states. HT Sullivan.
Tatu Msangi, a nurse and single mother from Tanzania: Tatu Msangi is a 35-year-old single mother from Tanzania. When Tatu became pregnant, she went to the antenatal clinic at KCMC and discovered she was HIV-positive. Tatu enrolled in a Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) program and delivered a healthy daughter, named Faith. As part of her treatment, Faith received a dose of nevirapine after she was born. She is now over two years old, and she is HIV-free. As part of her work at KCMC, Tatu counsels HIV-positive women and encourages them to participate in the PMTCT program. KCMC is supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief’s (PEPFAR) through the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Tatu and her daughter Faith are examples of the hope and compassion that is transforming lives with support from PEPFAR.
US law prohibits HIV-positive people from entering the US. One set of rules for the common man, another set for our betters like Dubya? Sure appears that way.
This economy of ours is on a solid foundation, but we can’t take economic growth for granted and there are signs that cause us to be ever more diligent to make sure that good policies come out of Washington
Yesterday he said he was thinking about some sort of “stimulus” package.
Oh boy! Isn’t that was his 2001 tax cuts were supposed to do? Stimulate the economy?
How’s that working out for you, Mr. Bush?
The housing markets are a mess, gas is over $3/gallon, oil just topped $100 a barrel, the dollar is at an all time low and the Labor Department is reporting that the unemployment rate up to a two-year high of 5%.
I am so freaking glad his term is ending before our country implodes from his failed policies.
A new report released today by the Campaign for America’s Future details the 62 times conservatives have used the filibuster to block legislation (or force modification of bills) in the first session of the 110th Congress. In just the first year of this two-year Congress, their use of the filibuster in the Senate topped the previous record, reached during the entire 107th Congress.
Eric Lotke, Campaign for America’s Future research director and lead author of the new report, calls the obstruction a “deliberate strategy.” He observes that the congressional Republicans block legislation, then blame the Democrats for getting nothing done. “It’s like mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail isn’t delivered on time.”
This isn’t the first time I’ve pointed out GOP obstructionism, and I’m certain it won’t be the last. A huge part of why Democrats haven’t been able to accomplish their agenda has been because the GOP has been unwilling to acquiesce to progress. There is a solution – replace more GOP Senators and Representatives with people willing to move America forward, and provide progress.
The OSCE’s election monitoring unit announced earlier this month that it would not attend Russia’s election, saying Moscow had refused to provide visas to its staff.
Mr Putin said the boycott decision “was taken on the recommendation of the American state department”.
“The aim is to discredit the elections, but they won’t achieve their goal,” he said.
“We will certainly take this into account with our bilateral ties with this state,” he added, referring to the US.
American prominence on the world stage has not been due to some issue of “national character”; our people are not inherently different than people anywhere else in the world. But we have, in the past, had better educational resources, and a greater emphasis on science and engineering. But no longer.
Back in September, I wrote that America is out of touch and behind the times on climate change and economic reform. It is mired in a stagnant war that the rest of the west has abandoned or is abandoning. American global influence is in decline, the country having lost the respect of allies and the credibility to lead. As we’ve seen yet again in last week’s brinkmanship by Turkey, American diplomacy has all the vim and vigour of Fred Thompson. For now America remains the world leader, but it’s moving steadily from superpower to first among equals. Nowhere is this more evident than in the sciences.
In the half-century following the second world war US universities were magnets for students and academics from around the world. Crucially, many foreign graduate students studying the physical sciences, biological sciences, IT and engineering stayed after graduation. As the Gathering Storm report notes: “Government spending on R&D soared after World War II, and … as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) reached a peak of 1.9% in 1964.” In the last six or seven years, however, that tide has turned. Overseas institutions and companies are increasingly competitive, and federal and state funding for science and engineering has fallen significantly, to just 0.8% of GDP. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are sucking up federal money, with President Bush last week asking Congress to raise the war budget for 2008 to $196bn. That’s quite an opportunity cost.
While the US is still a world leader in science and technology, the gap is closing, and rapidly. China and India crank out engineers at a rate that dwarfs ours. As we’ve documented here at Plunderbund, belief in scientific theories are alarmingly low here compared to other industrialized nations around the world. Federal research dollars – the stuff that funds core research with little immediate ROI (and thus rarely funded by private industry) are actually shrinking under the Bush Administration. One area where we remain far ahead of the rest of the world – where we spend more than everyone else combined and more than 10 times the next biggest spender – is in “defense”. That’s really the only thing keeping us afloat scientifically (and I should know – it’s how I make my living, and I see where the research dollars come from).
One interesting note from the AAAS data: the only reason the decline isn’t steeper is America’s increasing support for weapon systems development. This year’s Nobel prizes captured the mood. For the first time this century, Americans were not among those awarded the physics and chemistry prizes.
The era of American Exceptionalism is at an end. And it’s because our leaders would rather ban scientific research into stem cells and “teach the controversy” and undercut solid scientific education in our schools, rather than investing in the technology, infrastructure, and core science research necessary to keep us out in front of the rest of the world.
Q And the protests, themselves, seem to have been stilled. What do you make of that?
MS. PERINO: Well, unfortunately, intimidation and force can chill peaceful demonstrations. And reports about very innocent people being thrown into detention, where they could be held for years without any representation or charges, is distressing; and we understand that some of the monasteries have been sealed. Now, obviously, this has, again, a chilling effect on protestors, but we would ask that everyone show restraint and allow those who want to express themselves to be able to do so in Burma.
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American Exceptionalism
by Brian on October 30, 2007 · Comments
American prominence on the world stage has not been due to some issue of “national character”; our people are not inherently different than people anywhere else in the world. But we have, in the past, had better educational resources, and a greater emphasis on science and engineering. But no longer.
While the US is still a world leader in science and technology, the gap is closing, and rapidly. China and India crank out engineers at a rate that dwarfs ours. As we’ve documented here at Plunderbund, belief in scientific theories are alarmingly low here compared to other industrialized nations around the world. Federal research dollars – the stuff that funds core research with little immediate ROI (and thus rarely funded by private industry) are actually shrinking under the Bush Administration. One area where we remain far ahead of the rest of the world – where we spend more than everyone else combined and more than 10 times the next biggest spender – is in “defense”. That’s really the only thing keeping us afloat scientifically (and I should know – it’s how I make my living, and I see where the research dollars come from).
The era of American Exceptionalism is at an end. And it’s because our leaders would rather ban scientific research into stem cells and “teach the controversy” and undercut solid scientific education in our schools, rather than investing in the technology, infrastructure, and core science research necessary to keep us out in front of the rest of the world.
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