Stooping to weak tea? How would that work, exactly?

Expecting Fox's Bush fellating to be, you know, factual, is asking a lot.

He inherited these problems from God. God tested Bush, and I believe He found him sorely lacking.

hey, sure, he inherited these problems. fine. if that's' what you want to believe. you can then show us, I assume, how he spent the 8 years working on them? what, exactly, did he do to clean up his 'inherited' problems on Wall Street? oh wait, nothing you say? how odd. he didn't realize there was a problem for the first 7.75 years of his presidency? how does this make him look any better?

I'm sure Steve meant steeping in weak tea.

You would think that CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NBC, etc. would be only too thrilled to take out FOX News as competition by just pointing out their factual errors. Although that would take up quite a lot of air time. Keith Olberman does a good job of pointing out Hannity's and O'Reilly's errors, but he is too easily dismissed as a "liberal" (therefore biased) and focuses on competition in his time slot. If they all did it, maybe it would have an impact.

In briefing after briefing during the transition, Richard Clarke and others told those stupid motherfuckers that their biggest challenge would be terrorism, specifically Bin Ladin.

So Ashcroft makes pr0n his priority.

Is Bush gone yet?

"This president inherited a budget surplus..."

As far as the eye could see.

Which he turned into a deficit in six months.

"He inherited the 9/11 attacks."

Ah, no.

The four pilots did not even enter the country until April and June of 2001, to be followed later by the rest of the teams.

"He inherited the recession..."

Except there was no recession during President Clinton's two terms, and there were two recessions during Chimpy's two terms. So much for the RightWInger's excuse that recessions are merely cyclical.

"...and he inherited some tough times on Wall Street."

The DJIA started 2000 at 11,357 and ended 2000 at 10,786. A five percent correction is hardly "tough times".

stooping to some pretty weak tea here.

For you youngsters, stooping is now "schtupping" and Tea is a reference to Elton John's old band, T Rex, whose biggest hit was "Get it On". That song was often called "some pretty weak tea". Having sex to it was pretty much the definition of pathetic. But how would Steve know that?

Bushit also "inherited" millions of dollars from the economic policy Darth cobbled behind closed doors, oil revenues that he and his family's vast holdings slurped-up during that massive oil pricing scam he and his ilk perpetrated on the world, not to mention the massive good will he inherited from the electorate once he fumbled the 911 attack warnings and took the bull horn atop the rubble.

In addition lets not forget he inherited a lemming-like support from the "liberal Democrats" like Rockefeller, Pelosi, Ried, etc. for his secret spying initiative, and his equally bipartisan endorsed torture regime, and of course the good will he collected from his already wealthy cronies from their massive tax cut whose effects on us and our economy seemed to be our biggest inheritance from him. Wow. How ungrateful can we be.

If you add to the inheritance the collective ill will the world holds towards our exiting leader for his two wars and disastrous Middle eastern policies which places them in destructive harms way, we apparently are amassing quite a collective inheritance too.

If Bush "inherited" the 9/11 attacks, then any terrorist attacks on America between now and mid-September will be Bush's fault.

This is old hat. The first Reagan recession was, according to the right, caused by Jimmy Carter. So was the second in the later 80s. The Bush I recession was also, according to the right, the fault of Carter. The good economy of Clinton was, again according to the right, the result of Reagan and Bush. To blame everything that went wrong for Bush (which was, to be fair, everything) on Clinton is par for the course.

If there is another terrorist attack on US soil, though, it will be Obama and Clinton's fault, not Bush II (again, according to the right). If it is good, go back to the last Republican. If bad, refer to the last Democrat.

http://iambilly.wordpress.com

Goler, like many in Faux, indulge in exhibitionistic Bushterbation.

You have to love the claim that he inherited a recession, especially after all the time Republicans spent claiming that the '90's boom was because of the Republican congress.

And the tough times on Wall Street? I suppose he's talking about the Nasdaq bubble, but the bigger problem was with the Enron/Worldcom accounting scandals, which his party had a lot to do with. Furthermore, he didn't inherit Enron so much as ride in on its corporate jet.

Bush didn't "inherit" 9-11, his inattention allowed it to happen

Bush put Republican ideology into action.

Republican ideology has failed.

They are unwilling to concede that their beliefs are totally discredited.

"Second, how on earth does one "inherit" the 9/11 terrorist attacks? "

Where were the 911 attackers on the day Bush was inaugurated?

You're not this stupid. You're just pretending to be stupid for tactical reasons.

Where were the 911 attackers on the day Bush was inaugurated?

they were planning an attack that could have been thwarted by richard clarke's group, the fbi, or the faa.

but cheney disbanded clarke's anti-terror group the first time he met with him in january, he and condi rice telling him that al qaeda was not a big deal. despite all the warnings about an attack ashcroft cut the terrorism budget and made prostitution and pornography his main concern, bush didn't acct on a critical pdb, allowed pilots to be disarmed that summer, and never warned the faa.

the term for all of that is "criminal negligence."

The 2000 surplus was the combination of higher individual tax receipts as people cashed out of the NASDAQ on the way down, and social security receipts exceeding payments.
Spending by WJC in fiscal 2000, actually rose year over year. The surpluses came from SS receipts which was why Gore spoke of the lock-box.

Had there been a competent, objective media during the 1999-2000 presidential race, Gore would have inherited whatever situations existed.Nobody who has ever blogged here will say so.

From Trafalmadore we see that: there was no attack on 9/11, no massive wealth transfer, no war on Iraq and bin Laden is serving the 7th year or so of his concurrent life sentences for terrorist attacks in Kenya and on the USS Cole

Where were the 911 attackers on the day Bush was inaugurated?

Still in their home countries. As Joe Friday pointed out above:

The four pilots did not even enter the country until April and June of 2001, to be followed later by the rest of the teams.

You're not this stupid. You're just pretending to be stupid for tactical reasons.

Considering which one of you is wrong, it's pretty clear who's being stupid for tactical reasons in this situation.

It really is time to kill the "Surplus" lie once and for all. The National Debt has increased every year since 1957. It should be fairly obvious that if the debt increases there was no Surplus.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
Check out page 128 (of the doc) page 132 as presented.

TJM,

"The 2000 surplus was the combination of higher individual tax receipts as people cashed out of the NASDAQ on the way down..."

A) That would have been capital gains, not individual income tax.

B) The NASDAQ ended 2000 about where it was 16 months earlier in August of 1999, whereas that index PLUMMETED from 2470 at the start of 2001 down to 1114 in October of 2002.

C) The 2000 fiscal year ended on September 30th.

"The surpluses came from SS receipts which was why Gore spoke of the lock-box."

No.

They were from the highest level of federal income tax revenues in history.

bilejones,

"It should be fairly obvious that if the debt increases there was no Surplus.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf"

Instead of Chimpy's White House, which lies like normal people breathe, try the CBO:

1998 > $69.3B+
1999 > $125.6B+
2000 > $236.2B+

http://www.cbo.gov/budget/historical.shtml

Yeah, the guy who didn't want people in his administration using the 'R' word (recession) now claims there -was- one and he inherited it...

He deserves every bit of infamy he's earned.

I seem to remember Bush saying the country deserved tax cuts because the economy was doing so good and then saying the economy needed tax cuts because the economy wasn't doing so good. It didn't really matter WHAT was happening, he was obviously going to cut taxes.

And it was the same with terrorism. They ignored everything prior to 911 despite all the repeated warnings from the CIA and other agencies. Cofer Black said they did everything but put a gun to Condi Rice's head trying to convince her how serious the AQ threat was along with Richard Clarke trying desperately to get them to take action. THEY DID NOTHING except for Bush rather famously telling the CIA briefer he had covered his a$$.

As far as the current economic collapse, the Bush Presidency actually made this problem much worse and AGAIN ignored warning signs of impending problems for YEARS. Tax cuts during a war? More than DOUBLE the national debt in eight years? Lax or no regulation on Wall St? The subprime loan market is NOT was caused the problem, it's just where this economic house of cards finally collapsed. But the roots of this problem go all the way back to Reagan and his Republican voodoo free market BS.

Fox Noise: "People...he had hemorrhoids! My God what did you expect? For a man in constant pain he did remarkably well."

I would expect no less from the Fox prop.

bilejones - You will also find the numbers Joe Friday cites on page 327 (330) of your report.

What I find marvelous is that Fox news thinks that they can defend GWB's dismal record of damage to the US by arguing that he inherited problems. When Republicans took over from Democrats in 2000, it would seem to me that they would, of course, assume that they were inheriting problems created by Democratic "tax and spend" and anti-military policies, duh. One would also assume that Republicans believed that their policies would be just what was needed to fix these problems. So, after eight years of Republican political domination, what conclusions should be drawn if these "inherited problems" have become even worse?

Thus, to defend his administration by arguing that Bush inherited problems seems to me to be a tacit admission by Fox news that Republican policies are ineffective at best.

If Bush "inherited" the 9/11 attacks, then any terrorist attacks on America between now and mid-September will be Bush's fault.

maybe.

Bush "inherited" a strong wall between CIA and FBI, and weak internal surveillance of aliens. His administration reduced the wall between CIA and FBI, and is passing on (with Obama's supporting vote) stronger internal surveillance of aliens.

the FBI had perhaps enough information to prevent 9/11, but chose not to act on it (they didn't have the resources to investigate all pilot training programs in the U.S., and the suspicious pilots that they had identified were Arabs, and the FBI objected to a focus on Arabs). The CIA had information on the same suspicious potential terrorists, but didn't share that information with the FBI. Under current law, the FBI and CIA would have been sharing the same information. Although Bush had signaled FBI and CIA that he wanted tightened security in the future, no one in his administration had yet submitted to the Congress a law that would have changed the wall between CIA and FBI. If Bush had directly ordered Tenet to share with the FBI any information that CIA had on Arabs in the U.S. engaging in flying lessons, overstaying their student visas, or any of the other suspicious activities that led to apprehensions of thousands of "suspicious" Arabs after 9/11, it's likely that CIA and FBI upper management would have considered the order illegal, racist, or too time-consuming and unfocused to carry out.

Ironically, even after 9/11 there was public outcry against focusing attention on Arabs, Muslims, or any other class. Had Mohammed Atta been apprehended on 9/10, he'd have been in a good situation to sue the U.S. for false arrest or somesuch, and CAIR would have objected even more than it continued to object post 9/11.

The federal government has more authority directly relevant to preventing 9/11 in 2009 than it had in 2001 -- a development that has been deplored among civil libertarians. Anybody who wants to carry out another such large attack will have to find different weaknesses in our defenses.

So, to repeat, "maybe". It has to be a plot already underway, funded by a group already under partial surveillance, that eludes the protective measures initiated under Bush. Perhaps a plan already presented in a popular thriller.

Ahhh, yes, the infamous WALL.

Do you know where that wall stops? The White House

Do you know WHO therefore MUST TAKE ACTION? The White House

DO you know who knows that? The White House

Do you know who did NOTHING? The White House

Please throw more $hit on the wall - some may stick.

Had Mohammed Atta been apprehended on 9/10, he'd have been in a good situation to sue the U.S. for false arrest or somesuch, and CAIR would have objected even more than it continued to object post 9/11.

Did you miss the part where Atta was here on a fake visa? Even CAIR isn't going to stand up for you if your paperwork is forged.

By this logic, Fox agrees to just STFU for the next four years, because, shit, look at what Obama's inheriting.

Matthew,

"Bush 'inherited' a strong wall between CIA and FBI ... His administration reduced the wall between CIA and FBI"

The "Wall" was:

A) Constructed well before the Clinton administration

B) Continued by the Chimpy administration

The "Wall" never prevented the Clinton administration from stopping NUMEROUS terrorist attacks, obtaining warrants, and successfully prosecuting many terrorists, all who are still currently in federal prison.

"the FBI had perhaps enough information to prevent 9/11, but chose not to act on it (they didn't have the resources to investigate all pilot training programs in the U.S."

Actually, Chimpy cut the number of FBI agents assigned to counterterrorism.

Michael E. Rolince, a senior FBI official, testified to a Congressional committee that there were fewer FBI agents assigned to counterterrorism on September 10th, 2001 than there had been in August 1998, at the time of the embassy bombings in East Africa.

"The CIA had information on the same suspicious potential terrorists, but didn't share that information with the FBI. Under current law, the FBI and CIA would have been sharing the same information."

No.

The RightWing ginned up the "Wall" excuse in an attempt to deflect attention away from their incompetence which resulted in 9/11.

"Ironically, even after 9/11 there was public outcry against focusing attention on Arabs, Muslims, or any other class."

Actually, public outcry was not involved. Experts knew that "focusing attention on Arabs" would not only be stupid, but dangerous, as less than 12% of Muslims are Arab.

MatthewRMahler: ush "inherited" a strong wall between CIA and FBI, and weak internal surveillance of aliens. His administration reduced the wall between CIA and FBI, and is passing on (with Obama's supporting vote) stronger internal surveillance of aliens.

you left out one very important point about that..

it happened...AFTER...9-11...

the right always claims...

clinton was bad at fighting terror..

well...show me one thing bush changed...

BEFORE 9-11...

just one...

I think Nora Ephron got it right. She has parsed the Republican Talking points on Bush's legacy, and translated it for the rest of us. For those of you who missed it at Huffington Post, here it is:

"The exit appearances that Bush has made in recent weeks will be something future presidents will refer to as often as Lincoln's Second Inaugural, although for different reasons. Here's what he said:

* We did the best we could under the circumstances.

* It's not easy being President.

* It wasn't completely my fault.

* Everyone makes mistakes.

* I kept America safe, except for this one time.

* After that one time I worked really really hard almost every day and had to read a lot of stuff about foreign countries.

This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis. This is what he will crawl off to Texas with, hoping that it will fool a publisher into giving him a substantial book advance and contributors into giving him money for a library full of pilfered papers."

Read the rest here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/it-ought-to-be-a-word_b_158632.html

You need to recall that Republicans aren't particularly good at remembering sequences of events.

Bush could have inherited 9/11 if it had happened in 2000... maybe they are forgetting it happened a year later?

You think I jest but you need to remember John McCain distinctly remembered the surge came before the Sunni-Shiite mass murders began to subside and had to redefine "surge" to include all countermeasures that reduced violence whether it involved increases in teh numbers of troops or not.

Sloppy cover story to explain poor memory of history.

Same deal here?

Bush did inherit Clintons failed policy on terrorism. But Bush only acted when Bin Laden forced his hand after 9/11. If the attacks had been small like all the attacks on Clintons shift I think he would have ignored the American deaths just like Clinton did, and used the same old speech after the murder of innocent people like Clinton did. 10/12/2000 and 9/11 could have been stopped. But both presidents were fearful of political fallout.