Tag: Pres. Bush

Making America (History) Great Again–Part 34

I enjoy history and American history particularly….as a nation we have been through so much and we are still evolving…some say devolving…..the series written by Maj. Danny Sjursen is an excellent look at history from a slightly different perspective than mainstream.

Sjursen has taken the readers from the early days of this nation to the days of yore that we now live in……to help my readers I would like to give them the series so far……

Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21; Part 22; Part 23; Part 24; Part 25; Part 26; Part 27; Part 28; Part 29; Part 30; Part 31; Part 32; Part 33.

Please take some time and get caught up on the series……

Maj. Danny now looks at the Bush 41 years……

His vice president was everything Ronald Reagan was not. The Hollywood actor in chief had far less political qualification “on paper” than his 1980 Republican primary opponent, George H.W. Bush. Though Reagan oozed optimism and soothed the American people with his confident, digestible rhetoric, he was certainly no policy expert or Washington insider. Bush was both. He was a man born of privilege, scion of a prestigious, wealthy family and son of a Republican U.S. senator from Connecticut, Prescott Bush. However, the mid-20th century was different from our own time; it was an era when affluence and social standing didn’t obviate a sense of duty to country and family honor. Bush, like so many thousands of the other members of the American aristocracy, volunteered for the U.S. military in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

American History for Truthdiggers: Bush 41—Struggling in Reagan’s Shadow

I was not a supporter of Bush and worked hard to try and defeat him….he was replaced by Clinton…..and I cannot take credit for that for I was not a Clinton fan either.

But all that aside….I almost long for the discipline and issues of those days…..of Bush 41…… for we have nothing but slogans, insults and Tweeting….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Good-bye Barbara

FLOTUS 41 has died!

Sad news indeed…..Barbara Bush has passed away at 92…..

Barbara Bush didn’t hesitate to tell people that her trademark pearl necklaces were fake. Americans liked that everything else about the snowy-haired first lady was real. The wife of the nation’s 41st president and mother of the 43rd brought a plainspoken, grandmotherly style to buttoned-down Washington, displaying an utter lack of vanity about her white hair and wrinkles. “What you see with me is what you get. I’m not running for president—George Bush is,” she said at the 1988 Republican National Convention, where her husband, then vice president, was nominated to succeed Ronald Reagan. Mrs. Bush died Tuesday, the AP reports, citing a statement from family spokesman Jim McGrath. She was 92.

The Bushes, who were married on Jan. 6, 1945, had the longest marriage of any presidential couple in American history. And Mrs. Bush was one of only two first ladies who had a child who was elected president. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams. “I had the best job in America,” Bush wrote in a 1994 memoir describing her time in the White House. “Every single day was interesting, rewarding, and sometimes just plain fun.” The publisher’s daughter and oilman’s wife could be caustic in private, but her public image was that of self-sacrificing, supportive spouse who referred to her husband as her “hero.” In addition to a follow-up memoir, Bush wrote two other books; she had six children, one of whom died of leukemia at age 3. Click for more on her remarkable life.

A lovely lady…..may she rest in peace.

Where “Compassionate Conservatism” Falls Apart | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Remember GW?  I know many of us would like to try and forget him….but we cannot.  Remember when he was running for office he had what he called “compassionate conservatism”?

Looks like his master plan is starting to fall apart……read on…….enjoy.

 

Where “Compassionate Conservatism” Falls Apart | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com.

Should GW Be Held Accountable?

With the incoming House in January, there has been lots of copy on the possibility of hundreds of investigations by Rep. Issa…..there are some things that I agree need investigating and then there is my thought that all this drama is a witch hunt against Obama…political theater that will waste millions of taxpayers money…..but beyond that there are a few things that I feel need a closer look….like how government contracts are awarded or why lies and character assassination are allowed in campaigns……unfortunately I am talking about some of the stuff from GW presidency…..and from his days a gov of Texas….

First of all on the subject of torture….from his interview with NBC Matt Lauer…..

“The lawyer said it was legal and it did not fall under the Anti-Torture Act. I’m not a lawyer. I have to trust the people around me.”
Bush defended the tactics of CIA officers during the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who was suspected to be a member of al Qaeda with information on the 9/11 attacks. He said the tactics “saved lives” and that he was protecting America by allowing what many Americans, including President Barack Obama, would call torture.

The rest of the world considers water-boarding as torture…many people have been tried and convicted on this issue to include Japanese soldiers during WW2 and some police officers in the US…to mention just a few….and since it is recognized by the world as torture and GW admitted to knowing and approving of the technique……should he be held accountable?

Then there is when he was governor of Texas…..and he sent a bunch of people to the other side in the executions in the state….but there is one that stands out….

Claude Howard Jones was convicted of murder during a liquor store robbery in 1989 and put to death on December 7, 2000.

His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene — a strand of hair that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones.

The Texas Observer magazine on Thursday said the DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project indicate that Jones was “excluded as the contributor of this questioned hair.”The day before he was put to death in the Texas execution chamber, Jones had asked for a stay of execution so that the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing.

His request was denied by the then governor of Texas George W. Bush.

What could have it hurt to delay the execution to determine if the man was innocent of the crime?  Now how does the state of Texas repay for this abortion of justice?  How does it make amends?

Should GW be held accountable for these two cases?

What Are They Teaching Our Children?

I have heard a few horror stories about the schools and the students….but first what is “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB)

Thanks to wiki for the following definition:

NCLB is the latest federal legislation that enacts the theories of standards-based education reform, which is based on the belief that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state. The Act requires that the schools distribute personal information of every student enrolled to military recruiters and institutions of higher education, unless the student opts out.

Okay, now we know what the Bush admin had in mind for the future of our educational institutions….how has that worked out?

IMO, it has been a absolute bust….why?  Recently high school students in the state of Oklahoma were asked to name the first president of the United States of America…not a particularly difficult question, huh?  Only 23%, almost one in four, did not know that George Washington was the first president.  How scary is that?  These kids are the future leaders of the country.

What are they teaching our children?  Apparently it is not Civics or American History………. just what then?  I would almost bet that they are having to say the pledge of allegiance and are having their daily religious indoctrination….but they are not taught anything about this country’s beginning other than we broke with England….oh, there is so much more to it than that (a later post).

But our new president is not that much more education friendly.  Some of his plans sound a lot like those of Pres. Bush (see previous education post).  You know where all the problems are those of the teachers and moist reforms would effect teachers and the pay would not go with the added responsibility.

The AP is reporting another proposal the the Obama admin is considering:

Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

For one thing, the current school yeat is based on when the country was an agarian society and the kids were needed in the late speing and summer to work on the farm…those days are gone….I agree that it is time to update the schools to help our undereducated children compete in a every growinmg global society.

To answer one of the questions…..overscheduled children?  Yeah, they are so overscheduled that they have time to do this.

Investigators say a Philadelphia teenager wrapped a cat in duct tape, put it in a shopping bag and left it in a neighbor’s backyard.The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says 19-year-old James Davis was arrested Saturday on animal cruelty charges.

Official George Bengal says Davis admitted to taping up the cat from neck to tail after he spotted it in his yard Sept. 21.

The gray tabby was nicknamed Sticky by animal welfare workers. It was dehydrated and had to be sedated while the tape was cut off its fur.

Yep that is right, we do not want to overschedule the little shits so they have plenty of time to do stuff like that.

We are talking about kids that spend most of their time watching TV, playing games or playing on Facebook….where is the over scheduling?  Mom and Dad spend less than 6 hours a day with the kids….where is that over scheduled?

If there is going to be sweeping changes in education then someone needs to see that the teachers are compensated for the extra work….a teacher is the most important person your child will ever encounter, short of Mom and Dad, and sometimes that can be argued, but the pros that teach the children should be treated and paid for their efforts.