Bush Assails Those Who Offer Terrorists ‘Therapy’ — Though His Administration Sent Detainees to Saudi Counseling Center

Keep talking Bush.
Keep reminding us why….
But remember, anything you say can and will be held against you.

OMG! He needs to crawl back in that hole he has been in for 9 years now…

So, the Bush admin. sent Gitmo prisoners to the Saudi rehabilitation program, but is bashing Pres. Obama for sending them…the hypocrisy never ends!

Bush had over 6 years to properly deal with those dangerous people in Gitmo, instead he decided to just keep them in his own personal dungeon and pass the hat. Obama seems to be doing as well as can be expected in cleaning up this mess, and those who think keeping it open forever and keeping men, uncharged and untried, there until they die is an option are just delusional.
Gitmo was a lazy shortcut that only happened because Bush was unwilling to accept any oversight from the other branches of government in putting away or executing those actually guilty in there legally. Such measures have been taken in past times of war, but never deliberately outside the oversight of the other branches of government.

It is exactly because Bush released these guys and they went back to committing terrorism that Obamz is an idiot for trying to continue a policy that has not worked and endangers our troops and civilian officials abroad.

Perhaps Bush once thought sending them to rehabilitation would work, then when it was not entirely successful, he changed his mind.
He thought it would work, he tried it, it didn’t work, now he advises against it. How is that weird?
Still, I don’t blame the Obama administration for trying the same thing. If they are going to close Gitmo, the people being held have to go somewhere.

A 52% majority, though it is a majority, is hardly a solid one, and I can guarantee that at least 5% of those who bought into BOs BS are regretting it now… is there a reset button anywhere?

To answer Jake’s challenge: Perhaps at the time they thought it was worth a try, and might deliver results. The effort failed, just like all the Scamulus spending hasn’t gotten the desired results for it. Sometimes you try something, even if you’re not confident it’ll work. You figure, “what the hell, it’s worth a shot”, right? Whaddya got to lose?
I guess we’ve learned that we should just kill these guys on the battlefield, instead of capturing them, unless we think we can get some intel out of them. That’s war: kill or be killed.

Brad Northernscold:”I guess we’ve learned that we should just kill these guys on the battlefield, instead of capturing them, unless we think we can get some intel out of them.”
Sure, what’s a little more collateral damage? Keeping in mind that Bush has released hundreds that were completely innocent (and hundreds more that were innocent of being our enemy, but not just ‘walking in the wrong area’ innocent), including folks turned in by bounty hunters after a buck for catching an Arab and spinning a good tale about him.
Yeah, just kill them. Who cares if they are innocent? I’m sure our soldiers will be happy with the order to just start murdering men and children (14 year olds have been through Gitmo) who have never held a weapon against them for Brad’s convenience.

Concerned in OH:”Terrorists picked up on the battlefield with American soldiers blood on their hands should immediately be read their Miranda rights then flown to Bermuda for a 1st class tax payer paid for vacation. ”
Cute. You completely ignore that the detainees flown to Bermuda were turned in by people in Pakistan. As determined by the Pentagon, the Administrative Review Board, their interrogators, and President Bush’s Attorney General’s office, they NEVER ACTUALLY FOUGHT ANY AMERICAN. They NEVER WANTED TO FIGHT ANY AMERICAN.
Again: THEY WERE NOT PICKED UP ON THE BATTLEFIELD. THEY DID NOT FIGHT ANY AMERICANS. THEY WERE NOT AND ARE NOT OUR ENEMY.
How do you justify murdering men whose only crime was hating the oppression of their people by China?

Concerned in OH, please try to find out the facts before you go ranting about terrorists sent to Bermuda. The men sent to Bermuda were NOT terrorists. They were Chinese Uighurs who got caught up in a sweep. Soon after their capture, our own government declared that they were NOT enemy combatants. But we kept them locked up anyway because we didn’t know what to do with them.
These men, innocent of ANY terrorist activity toward the US, were NOT caught with American blood on their hands. They were innocent and yet they spent years in that hellhole prison, subjected to God knows what kind of treatment before we figured out they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Yes, there were and are some bad guys in Gitmo who will stay locked up forever. The one thing America is better at than any other country in the world is locking people up. Our prisons will be MORE than capable of keeping these guys rotting in small concrete cells until they die.

Obama idiotically closes gitmo with out a plan! He passes bills without reading them. He fires inspector general and breaks law he co-sponsered. He reniggs on his pledge to keep lobbyist out of his administration (and releases statement on friday 5:oo at the end of a news cycle). He spends money we dont have (bush spent money on a war) Needs oppossed to wants. But watch every country is starting to test us. Obama wont stop printing money till the dollar is debased. And then Whola! in comes socialism. The only way america would survive would be to sieze assets and wealth. The Goverment becomes a Monster.

Bush Derangement Syndrome lives! The first step is admitting your problem.

Bush has selective memory when it comes to Gitmo

Ha,Ha, does anyone really care what that clown says? Oh yeah, I forgot about the 20%(Faux News viewers) who still think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.

lovedori:”And since 9/11, how many times has the US been attacked? Say what you want about Bush, but the ### defended us pretty well, obviously.”
You seem to neglect that 9/11 WAS ON HIS WATCH. And he was handed warnings and the apparatus to heed them (just as Clinton was by Bush Sr, who was very much on top of the terrorism threat) but was distracted by his mission to cut taxes (we had a projected $5.6 trillion surplus he had to ‘give back’ if you remember) and reform education.
But I guess if we get attacked anytime in the next 3 months, Obama will get a pass too?

“These men, innocent of ANY terrorist activity toward the US, were NOT caught with American blood on their hands. They were innocent and yet they spent years in that hellhole prison, subjected to God knows what kind of treatment before we figured out they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”
So give them to China. If they are so innocent, send them to China. They are Chinese citizens, we have economic trade alliances with China. What’s the problem?
We all know the problem. They are not innocent. They trained to attack China. While we all may share the opinion of “so what”, China may think differently. So we are holding men that China beleives are terrorists and criminals, and we refuse to give them to China. So if China captures Bin Laden and 17 of his cronies, and refuses to give him to us, instead releasing him into Pakistan, how would you feel? I would imagine you would be outraged, just like China is.
Bush keeping them in GITMO, or in prison in general was both protecting them and avoiding political fallout from China. Agree or disagree is fine, just don’t fail to understand the full perspective because of the political rose glasses your wearing.

“the Bushies rounded up about 1000 “suspects”,
Who are these mythical “Bushies”? The military arrested the vast majority of these men. Are they “Bushies” as you call it? I’ve been in the military 13 years, have deployed overseas myself in the GWOT, know many who have gone to the sandbox. You think we are just “rounding up suspects” for the hell of it? You think our military is so unprofessional that we don’t know who a bad guy is? It astonishes me how an American can be made so dillusional by politics. No, it saddens me that great men are out there dying for you and this is what you think of them.

Punks think Obama that if just talk every thing will get better – has any body just talk to a play ground bully?
You only empower them, So give me a break. Why don’t the gays develop a dialog with with skin heads – let them know that you are just people trying to make it in this world just like them.
It just makes me laugh when I hear the lefts pathic logic – where did they grow up – what planet -

a citizen:”Punks think Obama that if just talk every thing will get better – has any body just talk to a play ground bully?”
Right – just like Obama just talked to the pirates holding Captain Philips hostage? Or how he’s just sending additional troops into Afghanistan to talk?
Go right ahead and make up strawmen, it just shows how out of touch with reality your opinions are.

“They were a bunch of angry young men running around in the woods of Pakistan, not Green Berets. You can find similar in the woods of Montana on random weekends ‘training’ to defeat the Socialist Evil Obama when he comes for their guns, but they aren’t locked up for thought crimes.”
Did you just put equivelance on a camp in Afghanistan to a militia group in Montana? Wow, why are we in Afghanistan at all then? Yeah, these guys were just having a joy weekend shooting AK 47′s with some AQ guys for kicks. Oh and I’m sure they had no intention with joining the insurgent activities going on in western China. While I would not label them terrorists, they are separatist/insurgents to China. I’m not an advocate for returning them to China though that may be the best course of action. If you believe China isn’t going to come after these men on these island with little security, then you are a little naive. They will wait till Americans with short memories forget they are there and they will get them. China is patient and they have long memories.
“As a rule, the US government doesn’t serve China by rounding up, torturing, and imprisoning their political dissidents.”
I believe China was quite happy with them where they were. I don’t believe they are happy with them free on an island. Given that they do much more overt torture tactics, and the Uighurs themselves described their most harsh moment in GITMO was when Chinese interrogators came, I believe your perspective is skewed.

Who better than President Bush to acknowlege and publicly let President Obama know that therapy didn’t work on enemy combatants?

KR said, “You think our military is so unprofessional that we don’t know who a bad guy is?” Uh, YES. How many innocent Afghani civilians have you carpet bombed with predator drones over the past 5 years? 1,000? 2,000?

The truth hurts and I guarantee you will hear Obama whining like a puppy on this one.

“Are they trying to set us up for thinking this admin. is the reason everything in the world that is wrong is Obamas fault?”
I thought everything in the world is Bush’s fault? These antiquated one liners are never true. No one man is responsible for everything, be it Obama or Bush. When people say Obama can fix the economy I know its hogwash, just like when people say Bush created the economic mess, yet again hogwash. Those are such shallow statements, either way, to think one man can do or undo anything that massive, even the President, is pure ignorance.
Policies are fair game, sure, but massive economic shifts or mass world opinion is so much more in depth than what people think.

“How many innocent Afghani civilians have you carpet bombed with predator drones over the past 5 years? 1,000? 2,000?”
How ignorant can you be? Not to mention how stupid technically that statement is, do you even know what carpet bombing is? Let me educate you on military targetting and technology since you display a complete lack of knowledge.
The Predetor carries ONE bomb, and not really a bomb, it’s a hellfire missile. It is a small missile designed to kill soviet tanks, modified for use on soft targets. Programs are in place for it to carry a larget payload, such as a 500lb bomb, but only a single bomb. The airframe isn’t large enough to “carpet bomb”.
Carpet bombing was used back in WW2 and was first used in the hedgerows of northern France. The thought was to saturate bombs on a concentrated area of defenders. It actually turned out to be resource intensive and have little results and was thus abandoned.
In Vietnam, it was somewhat resurrected to clear foliage for Helo LZ’s but again, abandoned as too resource intensive. Thus things like Agent Orange and other foliage clearing tactics were developed.
Since the advent of precision weapons, the US military hasn’t, and does not, carpet bomb. The most common weapon used in Afghanistan is the JDAM GPS guided bomb. This weapon can hit a single target with extreme accuracy.
If you took the time to look, you would see that collatoral damage since WW2 has dropped 99.5% to today. Yet people like you come out with these rediculous claims of thousands dead to carpet bombing predators. Are you that uneducated to believe such things? Apparently so.

“The majority of suspects in Guantanamo were not picked up by our military, unless you count holding them after bounty hunters turned them in until they could be transferred counts.”
And who picked them up? The tooth fairy? Talking about those picked up in Afghanistan and Iraq, which a couple of years ago were the vast majority of detainees.
And mercenaries? I guess local/national authorites or tribal leaders can be called mercenaries if it supports your point of view. And yes, they turned them over to the military because THEY WERE THERE. GITMO is also a MILITARY facility, not some cabinet in the old administration.

KR:”The Predetor carries ONE bomb, and not really a bomb, it’s a hellfire missile. ”
It’s payload capacity has increased significantly. The MQ-9 version (Predator-B, but I think they call it the Reaper now) has over 10 times the ordinance capacity. But yeah, this guy shows there are some left wingers as far off the sanity track as the right wingers who think Saddam was best buddies with Bin Laden.

===Either way, it doesn’t look good for you war mongers.===
I know. And I so hoped Obama wouldn’t continue Bush’s war mongering ways. Didn’t you?

“They were in a East Turkestan Islamic Movement camp, most of these men* never met anyone from Al Quaida and quite literally do not speak the same language. The ETIM leadership is alleged to be affiliated with Al Quaida – an assertion made at Chinese request as we were trying to get their support for the Iraq war.”
Not a far stretch to link AQ and these guys since the training camps, prior to us going into Afghanistan, was the primary target we wanted to get at. So we differentiate terrorists/insurgents as “these guys here, they are ok cause they want to attack China, but these guys here, we need to get because they want to attack us”. The mission was to shut down all of the camps, every last one of them, not just for our security but for friends/allies. I find it correct in that their camp was bombed and that they were locked up. I thought we were supposed to care about our friends?
And personally, like I said, I have no problem with these guys going to an island somewhere. Go for it. The Chinese will pick them up eventually. But don’t try and discern that they should have never been touched because that is bogus.

“The MQ-9 version (Predator-B, but I think they call it the Reaper now) has over 10 times the ordinance capacity.”
Yeah they were developing that but have had issues in deployment. The fight between the intel weenies and the direct action guys rages with this one. The intel guys want to take up that payload with more sniffing toys, while direct action guys want more payload for hard points. I think the latest version can carry 3 500lb ordinance or something like that, still well below conventional aircraft.

Even if the collateral damage has been reduced since WWII, we have not fought a WWII-type war since then. Airstrikes are wrong. Firing missiles from airplanes is guaranteed, by nature, to kill those who are near the target, civilian or not. America and Israel become so filled with righteous anger over “terrorists” killing civilians while relying heavily on airstrikes which leave a trail of corpses that used to be women and young children. I know that conservatives don’t care about dead civilians, so I’ll also point out that such indiscriminate killing might kill 5 insurgents, but motivates 25 more to join the insurgency or provide material/informational support to the insurgents. In other words, it costs the lives of OUR mass murderers (or, uh, soldiers).

Thanks for the fair and balanced article Jake! I had not read this information anywhere else.

Is there any, any, any possible way George W. Bush can be rehabilitated? I’d sign over my social security check for the therapy payments.

Bottom line? Bush is a jerk!

———-Killing 2,000 innocent people over 5 years with a “high precision” weapon can easily be considered “carpet bombing” by anyone with half a brain———–Then you have half a brain. Why are you not concerned with an enemy that actually hides in Mosques, behind women and children or within cities. This is where your collateral damage comes from. Don’t be a dolt.

ifrichar said, “Why are you not concerned with an enemy that actually hides in Mosques, behind women and children or within cities. This is where your collateral damage comes from. ”
Huh? Why don’t you read the last two dozen news reports from Afghanistan about the entire families that have been wiped out by Predator drones in the remote villages where they lived. There isn’t a “Mosque” or “city” within miles of these events. Again, we have the neo-conservative message machine lying to everyone again. Give it UP. The country has figured you war mongers out.

=== The country has figured you war mongers out.===
I can’t figure it out either. Why on earth is Obama doing this? Stop the madness!

“That was not the mission. The mission was retribution against Al Quaeda and its enablers, the Taliban – a fully justified and appropriate objective.”
No, the US asked the Taliban to raid/shot down those AQ camps and turn them over to us. They refused. We sent in SF forces to advise the Northern Alliance who was fighting to overthrow the Taliban. Since the Taliban refusal to help with AQ, we helped the Northern Alliance overthrow the Taliban, largely with arms and airstrikes. But the mission from the get go was to take out those camps and thus a safe haven for AQ eliminated. It wasn’t revenge or retribution, no where on military orders did it say “go forth for retribution”. That’s BS, those camps were training a threat and harboring a threat and our mission was to take out that threat, period. Now that threat has moved into villages in Pakistan where we don’t have access. Why would we go after camps of the northern alliance when we were helping them overthrow the Taliban? And what correlation does this have with a camp with men training to attack China?

Samayavajra:”Actually, Al Qaeda was responsible for such and a targeted attack using special forces would be an appropriate response.”
The Taliban was aiding and harboring Al Qaeda, and even after the attack they continued to aid and harbor them. And yes, we asked. Once they made their alliance with Al Qaeda clear in word and action, they are indeed culpable for the action.
Even the French consider Afghanistan a just war and have contributed troops.

Just to remind everyone, Elvis was drafted into the Army in 1957.

Axey – fair enough, you’re right. All the same, there is still the option of conscientious objector status or working out a deal to serve as a medic, cook, or some other position with the understanding that you’ll carry a gun if necessary but will never fire it at another person, regardless of the circumstances. So, actually that does preserve an element of choice.

KR:”And what correlation does this have with a camp with men training to attack China? ”
THATS THE POINT. This, and our attack on Afghanistan, by your own description have nothing to do with why we went into Afghanistan. We went after AL QAEDA camps. The Uighurs were not in an Al Qaeda camp (according to everyone including the Bush Administration’s interrogators and Attorney General).
“That’s BS, those camps were training a threat and harboring a threat and our mission was to take out that threat, period. Now that threat has moved into villages in Pakistan where we don’t have access. Why would we go after camps of the northern alliance when we were helping them overthrow the Taliban? ”
THE UIGHURS WERE NOT IN AN AL QAEDA CAMP.
I give up. Go ahead and support your fantasy land by believing they were. If you want to live in reality, look it up yourself.

KR said, “Go join the military and learn what its like to serve this nation, to be responsible for its safety”
On the contrary, I am doing my job keeping this country safe by assuring under no uncertain terms that people with mindsets such as yourself are completely marginalized and never, ever, return to the level of power you had between 2000-2008. That alone will keep us as safe as we possibly can be in general.

KR – Eric has a point, like it or not. You really can’t deny that the advent of tanks and aircraft created an imbalance of power in which convention warfare ceased to be a reasonable option for opposing a major world power. This type of asymmetrical warfare, in combination with extensive media coverage makes guerilla attacks and IEDs the only viable option for resistance.

“On the contrary, I am doing my job keeping this country safe by assuring under no uncertain terms that people with mindsets such as yourself are completely marginalized and never, ever, return to the level of power you had between 2000-2008. That alone will keep us as safe as we possibly can be in general.”
More sanctimonious BS. I’m glad posters like you come along, seeing this stuff in writing is all people need to see.

jhw539…for once i agree with you that afghanistan is a just war. especially the french comment.

KR – Actually, my position is based on both my own beliefs and the conviction, based on my experience, that violence ALWAYS begets violence. Violence cannot be stopped by more violence, only escalated and responding with violence to a threat is the easy, simple solution for those who aren’t smart or courageous enough to think outside the box and find a creative, nonviolent solution.

Yes and 70% of those that were sent to Saudi Arabia were released and returned to their original terrorist factions. This man really should keep his mouth shut. If it wasn’t for him and the rest of his administration we would not be in any of these situations at all.

The way ABC handled this story on Former Pres Bush just goes to show that they will handle the health care reform in the same liberal bias way….I will enjoy watching your ratings drop!!!!

To support my assertion, I’ll put forth two facts:
1. The surge in Iraq worked mostly because of creative efforts to address the concerns of the Sunni insurgents and offer them jobs an a place in the new gov’t in exchange for turning against Al Qaeda in Iraq.
2. Every expert who has weighed in on Afghanistan has said that the only way to win is to make protecting the citizens, developing infrastructure, and creating economic opportunities the primary mission while using the military only to drive the Taliban from an area so these can proceed.

The entire political order and stability was misaligned
Posted by: Eric
it’s worse than that, Bush & Cheney, along with comments by C. Rice and others all but admit they panicked after 9/11…
just look at the first 4 years of the misguided Iraq
invasion….complete bungling wasting American lives……… they blame everyone except themselves as they authored the policy lies.

When you use violence to “solve a problem,” it cannot actually fix it. Instead, people are dissuaded through fear and suffering from continuing at the present time. That, however, is not a cure. The underlying cause of the conflict remains and, added on top of it, are now the new greivances of those whose property was destroyed and whose loved ones were killed. Eventually, whether its political or economic, something happens which brings those issues to a breaking point and the conflict erupts again. For further understanding, see the Middle East, last 4,000 years….

KR – Actually, my position is based on both my own beliefs and the conviction, based on my experience, that violence ALWAYS begets violence. Violence cannot be stopped by more violence, only escalated and responding with violence to a threat is the easy, simple solution for those who aren’t smart or courageous enough to think outside the box and find a creative, nonviolent solution.
===============
You do have a point.
Incidents like the Rwandan genocide do show that reacting non-violently to violence does eventually end the violence.

Never forget: 100 detainees were murdered by torture.
For such war crimes and crimes against humanity, different only in scale, the judgment at Nuremberg: “death by hanging”.
Bush oversaw a tsunami of criminality far greater in magnitude than that of any previous administration.
For this, Bush and his minions must be brought before the bar of justice.
If they are not, the heinous policies they enacted will eventually be used against U.S. citizens.

“When you use violence to “solve a problem,” it cannot actually fix it. Instead, people are dissuaded through fear and suffering from continuing at the present time. That, however, is not a cure. The underlying cause of the conflict remains and, added on top of it, are now the new greivances of those whose property was destroyed and whose loved ones were killed.”
Wish it was that simple like I said earlier. Unfortunately, it is not. I think Nick Berg believed something of the same. When you understand these people, I have to refer to as the enemy because that is how they refer us, you have to get to know them. Once you do you realize quickly that violence is THEIR method of their choice. Our response cannot be to just let them exert that violence on us and our citizens, it is to prevent them from employing that violence.
While collatoral damage does do as you say in some cases, in Afghanistan they are beginning to kick the Taliban out of villages by force because they do not want US bombs falling in their village. So it can serve a double purpose, not just one. It just depends on how it is presented.

TJ: “when the new docs are released, they will add more info as to his criminal malfeasance.”
If there was any real “criminal malfeasance,” Bush would have been impeached or brought up on charges. Documents mean nothing if they aren’t presented against someone in a court of law. Bush never broke the law and the Democrats now it. They have played you liberals and the rest that believed them like a fiddle just so they could get elected. They counted on bias and laziness to pull off the charade, and with their cohorts in the liberal media, it couldn’t have worked better.
It amazes me what some will hold onto even in the face of the obvious. Democrats have full control of the Legislative and Executive branches. The only thing stopping them from prosecuting Bush is the truth.

I can’t think of one thing “Dumbya” has done for the betterment of mankind. I am so very happy he is no longer in a position to harm more people than he already has.

“…Bush administration also released Gitmo detainee … Now known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir … a leader against U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan…”
Here we have the proof of the GOP strategy of blaming Obama and the Democrats for THEIR OWN (Republicans’) costly and even deadly foul-ups. BUSH released suspected terrorists who are now known to be REAL terrorists, but Bush, Cheney and the GOP want to blame all such errors on Obama and the Dems.
This is PRECISELY the same thing the GOP is doing with regard to our financial crisis: heaping all blame on Obama for problems they themselves generated while the GOP was firmly in control of Congress, the White House AND had a firm majority on the Court!
Republicans are like bank robbers who point to arriving armed police officers and accuse the latter of trying to rob the bank! They are effectively psychotic and politically schizophrenic – and COMPLETELY unworthy to govern.

Trust ABC ( which has conclusively demonstrated it is TOTALLY in the tank for Obama – Health Care Ads, anyone???) to come up with this non-news piece of “fluff”
ABC….let’s wait until AFTER The One has delivered his Health Care commercial on your network. The ratings will show if the average American can be bothered to watch ‘Government News All The Time’.

TJ: “. . . Obama is protecting Bush & Co . . .”
Whatever gets you through the night. The rational among us know better.

I respect Bush for not directly criticizing Obama even after Obama uses every opportunity he gets to criticize Bush and complain “we inherited ….”. It’s a true statesman who can make his point without criticizing others. Sounds like Bush is standing behind his policies and whether or not you agree with him, it’s good to know that he is still confident about those decisions he made even six months after he’s been out of office.

“If they didn’t want to kill Americans before they were sent to Gitmo, they definately would want to kill them after being sent there.”
Posted by: Mack
Mack, you must have missed the interview with the Oighurs who said they were treated better in GITMO then they were in their own country. They appreciated the free dental and medical care they received while they were there too.

Jordan: “BUSH released suspected terrorists who are now known to be REAL terrorists . . .”
Right, we already tried the Saudi rehab route and it has proven ineffective at keeping us safe. Given that fact, why would Obama want to repeat the same mistake? The answer is because he has made a political promise to close Gitmo — certainly not because it will make us safer. Further, the terrorists Bush released weren’t “hard-liners” whereas Obama hasn’t made that distinction.
Jordan: “This is PRECISELY the same thing the GOP is doing with regard to our financial crisis: heaping all blame on Obama . . .”
Hardly. Conservatives are rightly critical of a president who in his first 2 months put us in more debt than all past presidents combined. By Obama’s own benchmark, his stimulus has failed. He claimed that if his stimulus was passed we wouldn’t see unemployment reach 8%. Despite the stimulus passing, not only did it reach 8%, Obama now admits we will see double-digit unemployment by the end of the year. What a joke.
Jordan: “problems they themselves generated while the GOP was firmly in control of Congress, the White House”
I’ll remind you that Democrats have had control of Congress since January of 2007, and I don’t recall them passing any bills that Bush vetoed that would have remedied the situation. Since you are certain Republicans are to blame, care to cite any Republican policies that you think caused the trouble? If anything the Democrat supported CRA, the Democrat run FMs, irresponsible homeowners, and the resulting housing boom and bust is largely to blame for the current crisis. There’s nothing like the lazy in society dragging the hard-working down. That’s liberalism and socialism in a nut-shell, and we have the king of both as President.

funny to see the Republican revisionism here…
at the end of their presidency
Reagan…… deficits
Bush 1……. deficits
Clinton …… surplus
Bush 2 …… deficit
Bush 2 …… bigger deficit
Obama …… 6 months into his term

This is just killing you Libs, ain’t it? Thanx for the chuckle!!!

Typical ABC biased reporting. Look it is very simple. GW Bush listened to opinions and tried out sending terrorists to rehabilitation and therapy and it did not work. Now he knows that and states from experience, as does anyone else paying attention, that it does not work.
Way to extol Bush bashing non-existent journalism standards ABC. You stay classy!

“I’ll remind you that Democrats have had control of Congress since January of 2007, and I don’t recall them passing any bills that Bush vetoed that would have remedied the situation”
Bills vetoed by Bush
1. July 19, 2006: Vetoed H.R. 810, Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, a bill to ease restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Override attempt failed in House, 235-193 (286 needed).
2. May 1, 2007: Vetoed H.R. 1591, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007. Override attempt failed in House, 222-203 (284 needed). A later version of the bill that excluded certain aspects of the initial legislation that the President disapproved of… H.R. 2206, was enacted as Pub.L. 110-28 with the President’s approval.
3. June 20, 2007: Vetoed S. 5, Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
4. October 3, 2007: Vetoed H.R. 976, Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (“SCHIP”). Override attempt failed in House, 273-156 (286 votes needed).
5. November 2, 2007: Vetoed H.R. 1495, Water Resources Development Act of 2007. Overridden by House, 361-54 (277 votes needed). Overridden by Senate, 79-14 (62 needed), and enacted as Pub.L. 110-114 over President’s veto.
6. November 13, 2007: Vetoed H.R. 3043, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2008. Override attempt failed in House, 277-141 (279 votes needed).
7. December 12, 2007: Vetoed H.R. 3963, Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007.[20] Override attempt failed in House, 260-152 (275 votes needed).
8. December 28, 2007: Pocket Vetoed H.R. 1585, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008[21]. A later version of the bill that changed a minor provision of which the President disapproved was quickly passed by Congress (H.R. 4986) and was enacted with the President’s approval as Pub.L. 110-181 on 28 January 2008.
9. March 8, 2008: Vetoed H.R. 2082, Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.[22][23] Override attempt failed in House, 225-188.
10. May 21, 2008: Vetoed H.R. 2419, 2007 U.S. Farm Bill.[24][25] Overridden by House, 316-108 (283 votes needed). Overridden by Senate, 82-13 (64 votes needed). Enacted as Pub.L. 110-234 over the President’s veto. Due to a clerical error, this act was repealed by Pub.L. 110-246.
11. 18 June 2008: Vetoed H.R. 6124, 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, re-passed by Congress to correct a clerical error in HR 2419.[26] Overridden by House, 317-109 (284 votes required). Overridden by Senate, 80-14 (63 votes needed). Enacted as Pub.L. 110-246 over the President’s veto.
12. July 15, 2008: Vetoed H.R. 6331, Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.[27] Overridden by House, 383-41 (283 votes required.) Overridden by Senate, 70-26 (64 votes required). Enacted as Pub.L. 110-275 over the President’s veto.

forgot to wish everyone a
Happy Watergate Day! yesterday….
It’s the 37th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee office at the Watergate Hotel, DC.

danita: “We all know what a mess the country was in when Obama became President.”
Yes, due largely to Democrat supported policies and institutes that finally imploded. Apparently, you blame Bush. As I’ve challenged the rest of the liberals, here, care to cite any Republican policies that you think caused our current troubles?

Wow: “funny to see the Republican revisionism here . . . Obama …… 6 months into his term”
Let me fix that for you:
Obama …… 2 months into his term — created more debt than all previous presidents combined. Look it up and do the math.

I’m very happy to hear ABC was not intimidated the the right wing extremists of the Repub party. To grant them equal time on T.V. to attempt to destroy plans to provide a comprehensive health care program would border on domestic terrorism. This country badly needs to catch with the rest of the world’s health care systems. We are living in the dark ages concerning affordable health care, unless of course you are someone like Repub Senator Shelby of Alabama who does have the best health care plan in the world since it’s provided by us tax payers. I wonder how he would like it if he had the same coverage that the majority of our citizens have.

KR | Jun 18, 2009 2:45:23 PM…..Clinton never had a yearly surplus. The national debt has gone up EVERY year since ???? the 60′s?

We can’t keep the Gitmo detainees in jail forever. They deserve a trial just like anyonelse. We don’t know who they are or what they did. The Bush administration lied about everything.
They got rid of any military official that spoke the truth. The military then lied about Pat Tillman and are still lieing about it, so why should we believe some of this intelligence about the ones they have let go. The Republican Party just pulls numbers from thin air and say what percentage that have been released are now back to terroism. They simply don’t know. But they will lie to you to invoke your fears and try to make you think they are the ones to protect us.
To me they are responsible for 5000 American deaths just to try and make them look better for the history books.
The Republican party cares about power.

texas outlaw 3:48:24 PM
“The Republican party cares about power. ” This is true. But the same is true for Democrats. Both parties will say whatever is necessary to get us to gfet them back to Washington. Why else are the programs they create (SS, Medicare, et al) good enough for you and I, but not for them? Do you think Ted Kennedy would opt for the health care program that bears his name?

texas outlaw: “Dems had control of Congres since 2007, blah, blah,blah. Bunch of Republican rhetoric.”
Nope, just a bunch of facts. Obama and liberals like to make the claim they inherited a “mess.” When Obama and his liberal buddies have had control of Congress since January of 2007, the claim proves dishonest.
texas outlaw: “Yes they had majority something like one vote, and everything they did get pushed through was Vetoed by the buswhacker.”
Wrong again. Ryan C was kind enough to post every bill vetoed by Bush in the comments below. Just scroll down and you will see nothing was vetoed that would have prevented our problems.
texas outlaw: “So get off this blame game.”
I suggest you ask the same of your beloved Obama. He continues to dishonestly blame the previous administration while he had the power to do something about it while he and his Democrats were in Congress. I guess he was too busy campaigning.

Ryan C: “The economic crisis was largely about oversight agencies not doing their job . . . The executive branch controls the oversight agencies.”
Sure, oversight was definitely one problem, but not all oversight is handled by the executive as you claim. Nothing stopped Obama and Democrats from passing legislation that would create new oversight (that’s the Legislative branch).
The Democrat supported CRA, the Democrat run FMs, irresponsible homeowners, and the resulting housing boom and bust are largely to blame for the current crisis, not the Bush administration. If anything starting back as far as 2003, Republicans favored reforming the FMs, but Democrats labeled them as against “poor families.” Imagine that, a Democrat using poor people to further their politics. Problem is, not just the poor lost, we all did.

“The Democrat supported CRA, the Democrat run FMs, irresponsible homeowners, and the resulting housing boom and bust are largely to blame for the current crisis, not the Bush administration”
You seem to be forgetting Bush’s push for a homeownership society that helped push that housing bubble.

“I’m very happy to hear ABC was not intimidated the the right wing extremists of the Repub party”
Janet? Janet Napolitano? Is that you?
How dare the Republican Party ask for a say in an informercial for ObamaCare! Since when has more information on a topic been a good thing?
Seriously, we need to hear all voices and sides on health care. ABC, you are not being an independent and free press.

Letting people (good Americans) vent in this area is no subsitute for fairness. You are either a news outlet or you are not.

“Janet? Janet Napolitano? Is that you?”
Looks like she was right on the mark.
So for 2 right wingers have shot and killed cops, 1 killed an abortion doctor, 1 killed a guard at the Holocaust Museum and some racist Minute Men killed a 9 year old girl while trying to slaughter her family to blame on illegals.

Bush needs somebody to explain to him that he’s not President anymore, and then to shut his mouth.
He’s got plenty to keep him busy. He needs to start writing his memoirs (assuming he can remember anything(, plus planning and fund-raising for his presidential library (probably the only library he’ll ever see the insides).
Of course, it’s true that he and Laura can no longer go on vacation outside the US, or he’ll get arrested for war crimes, but maybe they could go camping in Yellowstone for a couple of weeks, or something.
I’m sure other past presidents have disagreed with those who came after, but I don’t remember any other president in my life-time that’s been as intent on shooting his mouth off, slamming his successor once out of office, as this mental midget.

“Bush needs somebody to explain to him that he’s not President anymore, and then to shut his mouth.”
Posted by: Jaylah
Yes, by all means, free speech be darned, let’s silence all those who don’t sing the praises of the current administration. Of course, Bush refrained from criticizing Obama, but in defending his own actions, it’s seen as a criticism by people like Jaylah.

He’s still a Joke.

It’s about time you started defending your administration from this whiny, self-absorbed, thin-skinned, vindictive, prima donna, Mr. Bush. Thank you for keeping our country safe for almost 8 years. I never thought I would see the day that I would wish you were back at the helm but at least you loved your country AND its’ Constitution. And, God Bless you, you didn’t need a freakin’ Teleprompter 24/7. We miss you, President Bush! Big time!!!!!

Bush gets credit for keeping America safe? How delusional people can be ? Largest attack that killed 3000 people happened under BUSH’s watch. He invaded a wrong country sacrificing another 4000 young men/women. Under his watch, largest economic meltdown occured vanishing trillions of dollar. This 2.3 GPA history major, who clearly got into Harvard because of his daddy, screwed the country for last eight years and now he knows how to fix? Do not make me laugh.

GO BUSH! Tell the truth! We certainly aren’t going to get it from the administration we are currently under! All we’re going to get is Socialism!

PEOPLE, FORGET ABOUT THIS WHOLE BUSH SAID THIS AND THAT….. WE ALL KNOW WHAT HE WAS AND WHAT HE DID FOR 8 YEARS, WE HAD THE CHANCE TO KICK HIM OUT OF THE OFFICE AFTER FIRST 4YERS OF FIASCO, WHAT DO WE DO? BE MORE CONSERVATIVE AND PUT HIM IN TO SCREW US FOR 4 MORE. SO NOW AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS NO RIGHTS TO SAY A WORD, NOBODY PAYS ATTENTION TO WHAT BUSH SAYS NOW, HE IS HISTORY. AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE TO BE BLAMED FOR THIS MESS.
WE HAVE BIGGER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT. THINK ABOUT 228 PEOPLE WHO DIED AND SOME WHO’S BODIES WILL NEVER BE FOUND, THINK ABOUT THAT. DOES IT ALWAYS TAKE US AN INCIDENT TO LEARN ABOUT SAFETY? WHY HAVE WE NOT MORDENIZED OUR AIRCRAFTS WITH GPS TECHNOLOGIES FOR THEM TO BE TRACKED AT ALL TIMES. WE WORRY ABOUT UFO’S, WHEN WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS TO WORK ON….. LETS GET IT TOGETHER AMERICA.

It was good see former President Bush speak outin defense of presidency.History will accord his policies with bringing Islamic countries into the twenty-first century(as we already are occurring in Iran )

It was good see former President Bush speak outin defense of presidency.History will accord his policies with bringing Islamic countries into the twenty-first century(as we already are occurring in Iran )