What The Hell Is This!? Obama Heaps PRAISE On WAR CRIMINAL GHW Bush!?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

In Texas, Obama honors George H.W. Bush for public service

Obama gives a glowing tribute to the former president at the Points of Light Institute, which Bush founded 20 years ago.


President George H.W. Bush invited President Obama to the 20th anniversary celebration of the Points of Light Institute, a volunteer organization Bush founded. Each spoke of their admiration for the other. (Bob Pearson / European Pressphoto Agency / October 17, 2009)

Reporting from College Station, Texas - In a glowing tribute to a Republican predecessor, President Obama on Friday praised President George H.W. Bush as an example of someone who eschewed "a life of comfort and privilege" and instead devoted himself to public service -- inside government and out.

During an evening speech to honor the public service institute that Bush founded two decades ago, Obama called for cooperation between Republicans and Democrats. The former president, he said, proved that "the R or D next to your name is irrelevant" in challenging times.

"You might not always know it from watching the cable news shows or listening to folks on the radio," Obama said, but "I think we're standing in one of those moments."

...


"He didn't call for one blinding light shining from Washington," Obama said. "He didn't just call for a few bright lights from the biggest nonprofits. . . . He called for a vast galaxy of people and institutions working to solve problems in their own backyard."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-volunteer17-2009oct17,0,324337.story

[tsuki]

1. I refer to him as GWH Bush--

That's George "Willie Horton" Bush.

[Jamastiene]

2. That sickens me too.

:puke:

[Neecy]

3. lol

Nice of him to eschew the comfort and privilege of the Carlisle Group.

Oh, wait...

[ipaint]

4. A very special club where rule of law doesn't apply.

"In other words, by letting criminal bygones be bygones within the Executive branch (Ford's pardon of Nixon, the Iran-contra crimes, and now Bush lawbreaking), Presidents maintain their gentleman's agreement that they are free to commit crimes in office -- break our laws -- with total impunity.

Nobody believes that "policy differences" should be criminalized. That's a strawman -- an obfuscating term -- erected by those who are defending presidential lawbreaking license without having the intellectual honesty to admit they're doing that. This is about having laws in place that clearly and explicitly say that "X shall be a felony," only to then watch as the President does X, and thereafter have our political establishment announce that it's more important to avoid partisan anger than it is to hold high political officials accountable under the rule of law.

Here, X = "eavesdropping on Americans with no warrants," and "torturing detainees," and "destroying evidence relating to investigations," and "interfering in criminal prosecutions for political purposes." Those are crimes -- felonies -- in every sense of the word, not policy differences. And they are all actions in which Bush officials have clearly engaged.

But our political establishment venerates "centrism" and "bi-partisanship" as the highest religious concepts. Those terms are, in reality, nothing more than vehicles to insulate government officials and the political establishment generally from any accountability. Their only real meaning is that cooperation within the political establishment is paramount, regardless of political principles and the rule of law. Hence, investigations and especially prosecutions are scorned as terribly divisive and partisan, even when they involve crimes; good "non-partisans" and "centrists" eschew such unpleasantries, by definition."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/13/partisanship/


Obama is actively suppressing evidence of torture, it goes along that he would do a bit of PR for the cause.

[obliviously]

90. So you know of specific instances of torture Obama has

suppressed evidence on? I want names, times places, proof or shut the hell up!

[ipaint]

128. Your not paying attention.

SATURDAY OCT. 17, 2009 10:18 EDT
British High Court rejects U.S./British cover-up of torture evidence


The High Court's original ruling in Mohamed's favor contained seven paragraphs which described the torture to which Mohamed was subjected. It has been previously reported that those paragraphs contain descriptions of abuse so brutal that not even our own American media could dispute that it constitutes "torture":

"The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said."

snip

Throughout 2009, Mohamed's lawyers, as well as various international newspapers, repeatedly petitioned the British High Court to re-visit its decision on the ground that the Obama administration had replaced the Bush administration, and surely the anti-torture Obama would never embrace or maintain the same threat. But, obviously in conjunction with British officials, the Obama administration took numerous steps to convey to the British High Court that they were indeed re-iterating the same Bush threats, including:
(1) a February, 2009 statement issued by Obama's National Security Council praising the concealment of these paragraphs and pointedly noting that the decision "preserve(s) the longstanding relationship" between the U.S. and Britain;
(2) a May, 2009 letter from the CIA emphasizing that disclosure of those paragraphs "reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the United Kingdom's national security" and warning that in the event of disclosure: "we will have to review with the greatest care" information provided to Britain in the future (see British High Court ruling, paragraphs 48-49, 69 and 79);
(3) a June, 2009 letter from Obama's National Security Advisor Jim Jones -- in response to questions from the High Court as to whether the CIA's threats represented the view of Obama -- "emphatically affirming" that the CIA's letter "indeed speaks on behalf of the United States government" (see British High Court ruling, paragraph 79 and 87); and,
(4) according to the British Foreign Secretary in July, Hillary Clinton "personally intervened to suppress evidence of CIA collusion in the torture" by re-iterating the threats first made by the Bush administration that intelligence-sharing might be in jeopardy if those paragraphs were made public (see British High Court ruling, paragraph 42 and 83-84).

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

[TwilightGardener]

5. Gracious and classy of both men. Sometimes you need moments like these

to counteract the usual nastiness.

[chimpymustgo]

26. You have got to be kidding. Or you forgot your sarcasm tag.

:puke:

[TwilightGardener]

32. Nope. Not kidding at all. I don't mind moments of civility.

[glitch]

38. Civility is not the same as honoring. You can be civil to a war criminal

especially during prosecution. But you would never, ever honor him.

[TwilightGardener]

40. He was honored for his military service in WW2 and for his Points of Light thingie.

He wasn't honored for being a crappy President with an even crappier son as President. Important distinction.

[glitch]

44. Totally disagree, please see my post #43 nt

[sabrina 1]

69. You're kidding, right? n/t

[JackRiddler]

71. Very classy to be gracious to master war criminals and crack kingpins, it brightens the world.

[earth mom]

82. WTF?! Gracious and Classy?! Those * fuckers don't know the meaning of those words!!!

Quit living in denial and quit excusing their bullshit! :grr:

[omega minimo]

88. Yes a spoonful of sugar helps the stealing and the lying and the genocide go down.

:puke:

THIS IS THE MAN WHOSE WFIE SAID SHE THOUGHT THE DARK, FILTHY, DANGEROUS ASTRODOME WAS WORKING OUT VERY WELL FOR THE VICTIMS OF HER SON WHO PLAYED GAMES WHILE KATRINA DROWNED NEW ORLEANS AND BODIES FLOATED IN THE STREETS, EATEN BY DOGS.

[BeHereNow]

152. Yes we need these staged moments to keep the sheeple from stampeding.

Everything is GREAT America, now move along and DIE citizens.
I can't believe you buy this shit.

BHN:spank:

[rug]

6. Ronald Reagan must be very proud of his Vice President's legacy.

[asdjrocky]

7. He's in the club.

They're all friends in the club.

[bigwillq]

8. Obama's one of them now.

He was before too. A politician. They're all part of a special club.

[enid602]

9. GHW

No, it was GHW´s father and son that were the war criminals. Too bad GHW didn´t have more control over his spawn; we might have avoided Iraq altogether.

[Solly Mack]

10. ...

[WonderGrunion]

11. So Obama should have kicked out his cane

and curb stomped a senior citizen?

Mussolini made the trains run on time. Hitler liked puppies. It's easy to say good things about bad people. Going to Texas A&M and performing a scathing rebuke of Bush 41 is the wrong place and time for that. This was a celebration of volunteerism and President Obama was right to attend and speak there. He may have even won some converts in that very red state who will no longer call him a facist-commie-socialist and actually listen to him in the future.

[TheDebbieDee]

30. +10,000

To me, it seems as though people are disappointed that Obama doesn't have W and the rest of the Neocons rounded up, stood against a wall and shot on live TV.

Give President O a break, for goodness sake!

[ipaint]

45. No people are tired of him obstructing the evidence that would

allow others to do just that.

Throughout 2009, Mohamed's lawyers, as well as various international newspapers, repeatedly petitioned the British High Court to re-visit its decision on the ground that the Obama administration had replaced the Bush administration, and surely the anti-torture Obama would never embrace or maintain the same threat. But, obviously in conjunction with British officials, the Obama administration took numerous steps to convey to the British High Court that they were indeed re-iterating the same Bush threats, including:

(1) a February, 2009 statement issued by Obama's National Security Council praising the concealment of these paragraphs and pointedly noting that the decision "preserve(s) the longstanding relationship" between the U.S. and Britain;

(2) a May, 2009 letter from the CIA emphasizing that disclosure of those paragraphs "reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the United Kingdom's national security" and warning that in the event of disclosure: "we will have to review with the greatest care" information provided to Britain in the future (see British High Court ruling, paragraphs 48-49, 69 and 79);

(3) a June, 2009 letter from Obama's National Security Advisor Jim Jones -- in response to questions from the High Court as to whether the CIA's threats represented the view of Obama -- "emphatically affirming" that the CIA's letter "indeed speaks on behalf of the United States government" (see British High Court ruling, paragraph 79 and 87); and,

(4) according to the British Foreign Secretary in July, Hillary Clinton "personally intervened to suppress evidence of CIA collusion in the torture" by re-iterating the threats first made by the Bush administration that intelligence-sharing might be in jeopardy if those paragraphs were made public (see British High Court ruling, paragraph 42 and 83-84).

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

[classof56]

31. Well said and I thank you.

The context was the key, IMHO, and seems to me our President showed once again his class, consideration and ability to say the right words.

Tired Old Cynic

[glitch]

42. The choice is not EITHER kick the cane from an old man OR honor him. nt

[JackRiddler]

72. So, using your example, let me get it straight: If Hitler had invited Obama to the 1936 Olympics...

oh, never mind. This is just too stupid for words.

Yes, he should have curb-stomped Bush.

[WonderGrunion]

114. Hitler, as a matter of fact, invited Jesse Owens to the 1936 Olympics

To show the superiority of the Aryan athlete against the "mongrel American athlete". Jesse Owens, another groundbreaking African-American, accepted and proceeded to win 4 gold medals. Albert Speer wrote in "Inside the Third Reich":

"Each of the German victories and there were a surprising number of these made him happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.

A lot can be proven by showing up at the lair of the enemy and showing that you're a better person than them. Exactly what was your point again with the Hitler reference?

[JackRiddler]

125. Excuse me, YOU brought up Hitler, not me...

in your incoherent bit about civility (post 11). I started to respond, then saw that it was a mug's game because the premises are so illogical. Your new response only confirms. How could anyone come up with the idea that "Hitler... invited Jesse Owens to the 1936 Olympics"? That's insane. Owens competed as part of the US team. There was no way to stop him (unless one barred the team itself from taking part). Did Hitler ask Owens to speak from the podium?

[WonderGrunion]

131. Hitler prohibited ANY athlete of Jewish or Gypsy ancestry from competing

Regardless of country of origin. You really should read up on some history. Hitler refused to acknowledge Owens in any form. Several countries boycotted the '36 Olympics to protest fascism. Spain actually held a counter event for boycotting countries in Barcelona. Despite Hitler's continued frustration at Owens' success, the German people came to respect and admire Owens' accomplishments, much like some Texans will do from President Obama's appearance at Texas A&M.

[JackRiddler]

149. Thanks for wasting my time, but you're wrong.

The Nazi regime banned its own minorities. They did not (and could not) ban Americans from competing, or they might have. But they didn't.

Your bringing Hitler as an example into this - meaning what, that Obama would have rightly praised that man too? - is pure idiocy. Thank you & goodbye.

[JVS]

91. YES!

[Ruby the Liberal]

12. "the R or D next to your name is irrelevant" in challenging times...

Yep, because FDR and Hoover were interchangeable, right?

*sigh*

[ecstatic]

13. Where are the heaps of praise?

He's just referring to one aspect of GHWB's life--community service. I'm sure if the topic were neocons, Pres. Obama would have been far less generous.

[leftstreet]

14. Sick

:puke:

[Bonobo]

15. Unrec.

It is politics.

To pretend like this is more than that, that it in fact "shows Obama's true colors" is really stupid and naive.

[leftstreet]

17. You just got rid of my rec

x(

[Bonobo]

18. Sorry we disagreed on this one. It's just how I see it (this morning anyway). nt

[G_j]

16. as others have said, nice to be in the club

us peons will never get it, so we might as well just shut up..

:sarcasm:

[nc4bo]

19. Making my head ache something fierce.

I guess they don't call it the Good Ole Boys Club for nuttin'.

:puke:

[WonderGrunion]

21. Are you calling Obama "Boy"?

I know. It's a strawman argument and derailing the thread. It just seems that particular old expression could be a poor choice of words to describe President Obama.

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. For realz?

:eyes:

[nc4bo]

28. Hey I'm black!!!

And no, I'm not calling him a BOY. He simply belongs to "The Club".

[WonderGrunion]

37. I know you're black.

I was just pointing out that it was a poor phrase to use because of how the wording could be misconstrued. I understood what you intended to say in your original response. I'm not that dense. Just pointing out the issue with using that particular phrase.

[Karmadillo]

39. Yours isn't the lamest post ever, but I give you credit for your effort.

nt

[WonderGrunion]

41. I try. I try.

I'll work much harder next time to be truly lame. I'll make you proud.

[Rebubula]

120. Jebus....

...what a freaking stretch. You know...you might want to save your semantic outrage for real events of racism.

I call all of my friends 'my boys'- golly --- some of them are black!!!!!! Context is key and jumping all over something innocent just makes you look silly and opportunistic.

[WonderGrunion]

132. Silly and opportunistic was what I was going for with that post

I did well.

[patrice]

20. When a critter with a limited nature manages to do somethings that are the highest manifestation of

his/her limited nature, you praise those things.

Hopefully, you also authentically criticize the low manifestations of its nature too, but you MUST not deny that which s/he is getting right, because the only other alternative to their lowness is to ultimately do away with them totally, in one way or another and that would not be acceptable because doing so makes you them.

[stray cat]

22. Its wrong to praise something someone did right if you think they did something else wrong?

that sounds like logic from free republic at its worst

[Orwellian_Ghost]

35. Oh, how petty of me- now here's a reminder for you

Iraq: 19 years of intended destruction

The intended destruction — or genocide — of Iraq as a state and nation has been ongoing for 19 years, combining the imposition of the most draconian sanctions regime ever designed and that led to 1.5 million Iraqi deaths, including 500,000 children, with a war of aggression that led to the violent deaths of over one million more.

Destroying Iraq included the purposeful targeting of its water and sanitation system, attacking the health of the civilian population. Since 1990, thousands of tons of depleted uranium have been dropped on Iraq, leading in some places to a 600 per cent rise in cancer and leukaemia cases, especially among children. In both the first Gulf War and “Shock and Awe” in 2003, an air campaign that openly threatened “total destruction”, waves of disproportionate bombing made no distinction between military and civilian targets, with schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, shelters, residential areas, and historical sites all destroyed.

Destroying Iraq included promoting, funding and organizing sectarian and ethnic groups bent on dividing Iraq into three or more sectarian or ethnic entities, backed by armed militias that would terrorize the Iraqi people. Since 2003, some 4.7 million Iraqis — one fifth of the population — have been forcibly displaced. Under occupation, kidnappings, killings, extortion and mutilation became endemic, targeting men, women and even children and the elderly.

Destroying Iraq included purposefully dismantling the state by refusing to stop or stem or by instigating mass looting, and by engaging in ideological persecution, entailing “manhunting”, extrajudicial assassinations, mass imprisonment and torture, of Baathists, the entire educated class of the state apparatus, religious and linguistic minorities and Arab Sunnis, resulting in the total collapse of all public services and other economic functions and promoting civil strife and systematic corruption.

...

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=20484

[sabrina 1]

80. Why are you spoiling the lovely image of bi-partisanship

with those nasty reports of dead Iraqis? Why would we want to spoil our beautiful minds by thinking about such things now that a Dem is in the WH? :sarcasm:

Bush Sr. inducted Clinton into the club also. I remember being shocked when I read that it was Bush Sr. who introduced Clinton to the Bildebergers.

Obama is part of the club which I don't find surprising at all as he made it clear during the election who his heroes were.

Albright doesn't think it was a problem to kill half a million Iraqi children. Clinton was just another member of the club who serviced the ruling class also.

The way it seems to work is they alternate parties in the WH just to keep up the appearance of a two party system. But no one will get there if they show the least sign of caring more about the people than about the ruling class.

Best not to expect too much of this president as people will be very disappointed if they do. He has shown more than once, how willing he is to throw people who have been loyal to him overboard as fast as he can in order to retain his place in this exclusive club.

The Bushes are powerful, even when not in power. Keeping their approval appears to be very important to sitting presidents. I imagine there are many citizens of Central American countries who would not agree with Obama that it was so wonderful to have Bush Sr. in power in this country. There might be a lot more of them alive if certain US presidents had just stayed at home.

But hey, Obama has D after his name, and while he claims not to place much importance on that, partisans in both parties DO care which letter comes after the president's name.

We cannot count on the presidency anymore, to get anything done. It has long ago been taken over to the point that no one who is not willing to protect the ruling class, will ever make it to the WH.

Congress is where we should place our efforts. I really don't care anymore who is president. But I do care about taking Congress back as that is our only hope of containing these presidents, 'D's or 'R's.

[stray cat]

23. W increased aid for HIV in Africa - I guess all progressives condemn the aid?

[TwilightGardener]

25. It's the same as the wingnuts and teabaggers insisting that Obama

can't do anything right--just as irrational.

[glitch]

46. We get that you can't get it. But we do think if you apply yourself, do some research, you can.

Don't make me say "bless your heart" ;)

[TwilightGardener]

48. Don't condescend to me because I hold a different opinion.

[earth mom]

83. Back off from the Kool aid. nt

[TwilightGardener]

126. Huhn? What Kool aid?

[debbierlus]

53. Actually, the aid went mainly to the US drug companies for the medication

To treat Aids...

Money was denied any clinic that provided any sort of abortion counseling. The AIDS money was a gift to the US big pharm which jacked up prices, and made a fortune. Birth control and prevention were short shafted.

[elocs]

27. Has anyone ever known a current president to trash an ex-president?

It won't ever happen, particularly at an event like that. Reality sucks, doesn't it?

[nc4bo]

34. Well the only one that comes immediately to mind is Pres. Carter and it's well known how well

that goes over (RW and media crying foul) and yes, it does suck.

[leftstreet]

36. 'trashing' vs hugging

[glitch]

43. The more appropriate act would be to very civilly prosecute him for his war crimes AND

gently chastise him for creating the urgent need for volunteers here at home. If anyone else recalls, the volunteers were his solution to dismantling the "welfare state".

We could even do all of this and let him keep his cane.

[Liberation Angel]

50. +1

Prosecute not kiss his ass

[debbierlus]

51. Exactly. There is a difference between professionalism and singing praises

It is gross.

[JackRiddler]

73. Just because something never happened, doesn't mean it wouldn't the right thing.

[elocs]

77. We all should know that this President is far too gracious to be anything but gracious

to an ex-President. In this situation Obama would never consider anything but to be gracious. My guess is that Ted Kennedy would be exactly the same.

[JackRiddler]

78. And why shouldn't he show the same grace to Ahmedinejad?

Because there's no way on earth you could make a factual, logical case that Bush is not a thousand times more criminal than Ahmedinejad.

[elocs]

85. Is Ahmedinejad an ex-President of the U.S.? No need to be disingenuous

because anyone in touch with reality would know that Obama would be nothing but gracious in this situation. To believe otherwise is to live in a fantasy world where what you really wish to happen, happens. I'm really sorry this is such a difficult concept to understand.

[JackRiddler]

123. It's easy to find reason why you're not going to appear with a war criminal...

former "president" of the US or not.

[G_j]

29. a thousand points of light

sign I saw in DC while protesting the Gulf War.


under a photo of US bombs exploding over Iraq:
Now We Know What A Thousand Points Of Light Means.

[maryf]

67. good one, nt

[snagglepuss]

33. K & R nt

[Liberation Angel]

47. Harvard, Yale, Boy's Clubs, Secret Societies

anyone can play as long as you play nice with the fascists who really pull the puppet strings on wall street and globally with the nuke and oil and pharmaceutical industries (not to mention weapons and food)

Obama's failure to expose and prosecute the crimes of the Bushes will plague and threaten humanity for millennia.

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

54. Ummmmm no a post from Skinner

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Skinner/304

If the poster believes that Obama is a corporatist fraud, he/she has every right to express it here.

[TwilightGardener]

55. ...

"But insults, name-calling, or other expressions of contempt toward Barack Obama or his supporters are not welcome."

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

58. I believe

that the term corporatist fraud can be used. His selections for cabinet posts and advisers are corporatist and he is applauding Baucus' corporatist health insurance scheme..... throw in the bank give-aways, still not regulating Wall St., and unless he is playing 1000th dimensional chess, I don't know what you'd call his apparent leanings but that he too is a corporatist.

[Name removed]

57. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

61. This is not Obama Underground and criticism for the President is

allowed. You'll find that there are many people who are not thrilled with some of his actions to the point of questioning who he is.

I've been a Democrat my whole life, and was born into a very strong Democratic family. I was originally an Edwards supporter, because being pragmatic, I knew Kucinich didn't have a chance. I had to then select the better of the two picks and voted for Obama in the primary although I did have qualms about him. Same thing with the General Election. I had hoped against hope that I was wrong about him but with his first major selection as President elect I knew that I was right. Rahm Emanuel has helped destroy progressive bids for Congress and he is a zebra whose stripes won't change. Many other selections that Obama has made are just as offensive and so has his actions been in regard to many issues.

Here's a great one that was posted last night... btw, the article is by Jason Leopold who I usually don't trust with anything anymore, but he did report on this correctly.

White House "Ordered" Lawmakers to Amend FOIA in Order to Conceal Torture Photos
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6801479

This is my post where I researched his info.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6801479#6802467

Rep. Louise Slaughter is one of the best Congress critters we have.

[Texasgal]

56. Part of the Job...

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. :shrug:

[ProgressOnTheMove]

59. I don't think it defines who Pres. Obama is from way back from his days of studies...

he's tried to bring 2 sides together. It's just a part of his character.

[TBF]

60. Takes one to know one?

nt

[mamaleah]

62. The President is classy, unlike many here who would have preferred he spit on a former President.

Thank goodness the adults are in charge, and not whiny, petulant children who think "you either love someone or hate them". Kinda like, "you are either with me or against me".

[ipaint]

64. The same president who lied us into a war by stating repeatedly that

300+ iraqi babies where being thrown out incubators and bayonetted before they hit the ground. To back up his lie they found a teenage nameless iraqi girl to cry about it in front of congress. He then proceeded to drop 90,000 tons of explosives on innocent iraqi civilians targeting countless hospitals, mosques, relief centers and schools. The water system was specifically targeted for destruction resulting in the death of tens of thousands of children in the years following the gulf war massacre.

The pitiful iraqi army didn't launch one attack. Of course this was followed up by a decade of Clinton sanctions which killed millions more.

The adults are doing a bang up job. And now obama blocks torture evidence from becoming public and will soon have his own pile of war atrocities in afghanistan, confident that whoever follows him in power won't feel it necessary to ever look back.

And people like you will continue to "tsk tsk" people like me for being petulant.

Better petulant than an enabler.

[mamaleah]

66. He was lauding him for his military service in WW2

I know it's not in with the cool kids to ever say anything good about anyone, but that's why the cool kids aren't in control of anything except their fantasies.

[ipaint]

68. Turn a blind eye.

Essential for legitimizing war crimes/criminals and re-writing history.

Obama lavishes praise on elder Bush
Saturday, October 17, 2009 3:12 AM
BY CHRISTI PARSONS
McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS


COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- In a glowing tribute to a Republican predecessor, President Barack Obama praised the presidency and life work of former President George H.W. Bush yesterday, citing him as an example of someone who eschewed "a life of comfort and privilege" and devoted himself to public service.




:puke:

[obliviously]

92. This site is not about accusing Obama

and tearing him down. What are you doing here?

[ipaint]

96. Actually it's about the truth.

Nothing could be further from the truth than claiming ghwb led a life dedicated to public service. That's a whopper.

[obliviously]

111. Your calling Obamma a liar

back it up with facts not your opinion.

[ipaint]

122. I already did and so didn't several others in this thread.

Obama's words and actions, in light of the truth about bush sr., speak for themselves.

If obama can get up on the stage and praise the lifetime service of this particular past president he most certainly can't be all bad, right??

It's just so much easier to pretend.

[hfojvt]

116. well I was wondering how Bush Sr was considered a 'war criminal'

But since "Of course this was followed up by a decade of Clinton sanctions which killed millions more" does that mean that Clinton is a war criminal too, and that Obama should be attacked if he gave a speech praising Clinton?

[ipaint]

124. It was followed by more than just that.

"On June 26, 1993, Clinton bombed Baghdad in retaliation for an alleged but unproven Iraq plot to assassinate former President George Bush. Eight Iraqi civilians, including the distinguished Iraqi artist Layla al-Attar were killed in the raid, and 12 more were wounded. This kind of unilateral action in response to an unproven charge is a violation of international law. The legal excuse given by U.S. officials, which they relied on in justification of the bombing of Libya in 1986, is the right to self defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. But that Article requires that the response be to an immediate threat to the retaliating party, clearly not the case, and therefore a legal fraud. This was a crime-petty by the usual U.S. standard-but still a crime. And it had the further repellent feature that it was done almost surely for purely internal political reasons-to show Clinton's toughness, despite his Vietnam War record, and to countervail right-wing attacks on his lack of militancy.

The same point can be made as regards his 1998 bombing of Afghanistan and the Sudan. Unknown numbers were killed in Afghanistan (and by the missiles that accidentally landed in Pakistan), and the pharmaceutical factory destroyed in the Sudan was the major source of medical drugs in that poor country. All evidence points to the fact that the Sudan factory destroyed had no connection whatever to chemical weapons or Bin Laden, and was bombed on the basis of insufficient and poorly evaluated data. But following the attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa, Clinton felt compelled to act for internal political reasons once again, and there are no international constraints or costs to him or his country if he chooses to bomb small and weak countries to score political points at home. This was rogue and criminal behavior.

Clinton has given unstinting support to Turkey in its war against its indigenous Kurds. He has also escalated his aid to Colombia. In both of these countries the civilian casualties from counterinsurgency warfare and death squad operations during the Clinton years has exceeded the pre-NATO bombing deaths in Kosovo by a large factor.

...The most monumental of Clinton's war crimes, however, has been his policy of sanctions on Iraq, supplemented by the maintenance of intense satellite surveillance and regular bombing attacks that have often resulted in civilian casualties. UNICEF reports that in 1999 more than 1 million Iraqi children under 5 were suffering from chronic malnutrition, and some 4,000-5,000 children are dying per month beyond normal death rates from the combination of malnutrition and disease. Death from disease was greatly increased by the shortage of potable water and medicines, that has led to a 20-fold increase in malaria (among other ailments). This vicious sanctions system, causing a creeping extermination of a people, has already caused more than a million excess deaths, and it is claimed by John and Karl Mueller that Clinton's "sanctions of mass destruction" have caused "the deaths of more people in Iraq than have been slain by all so-called weapons of mass destruction throughout all history" (Foreign Affairs, May/June 1999). U.S. mainstream reporters, who have so eagerly followed the distress of the Kosovo Albanians, somehow never get to Iraq for pictures of the thousands of malnourished children."

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/International_War_Crimes/ClintonWarCriminal_Herman.html



Obama is free to give a speech with whomever he wants and say whatever he wants. Most people prefer not to have a clue regarding the truth hidden behind the white wash and platitudes.

Some don't.

[dionysus]

133. even if obama retroactively tried every prior president as a war criminal and then immolated himself

on the white house lawn, these guys would still be complaining. "WHY DIDN'T HE USE BIODEISEL INSTEAD OF GASOLINE!!!11!!11 THE CORPORATE SHILL!!11!1111111 ELEVENS!!1!11!11"

folks, here you have today's manufactured outrage...

[Orwellian_Ghost]

102. That's class?

Honoring some scum bag who arguably has as much blood on his hands as any single human being over the last 4 decades is class?

If that's so then class is over-rated.

[Orsino]

129. And is showing respect for the criminal we elected...

...because we elected him. It makes sense despite its odiousness.

[TicketyBoo]

63. Thanks for posting this.

I don't dislike all Republicans. GHWB is one of those I don't dislike. If he and Bill Clinton could get together, why not he and Barack Obama?

We don't have to be as irrational about their presidents as they are about ours.

[maryf]

65. K&Rnt

[inna]

70. "the R or D next to your name is irrelevant" - Barack Obama

wow, just wow.

:wtf:

[JackRiddler]

74. Saying the same thing on DU could get him tombstoned!

[sabrina 1]

115. He so much yearns for the approval of the Right. I don't know

why, but his claim of wanting to 'bring everyone together' is more a desire to make them love him. Something that will never happen as long as he has a 'D' after his name. Maybe he should start worrying about making the base of his own party have a reason to continue loving him before it's too late.

[Freddie Stubbs]

75. What specific war crimes did the elder Bush committ?

:shrug:

[Dreamer Tatum]

76. He's a Republican

which means he's guilty of anything you can possibly imagine. Just use your imagination. He probably has a boxful of pro baseball games he recorded, and he charges admission to watch them.

:sarcasm:

[dionysus]

141. ROFL

:spray:

[Octafish]

99. Invasion of Panama -- 2,000 civilians dead in hunt for CIA man Noriega

Gulf War I -- 100,000 retreating Iraqi conscripts killed on Highway of Death.

There are many more war crimes committed on the orders of Poppy.

These are just tip of an iceberg of evil.

Why does mention of them make you shrug?

[BzaDem]

79. Why did you vote for Obama?

He praised GHWB many times when talking about foreign policy before he was elected.

[earth mom]

81. Disgusting. Next Obama will be singing * Jr's praises.

And still people here on DU will ignore it because they've drank way too much kool aid. :puke:

[dionysus]

138. well, you've found today's excuse to be angry. good for you.

[Azathoth]

84. When the hell did GHWB become a war criminal?

His imbecile son's crimes are manifest, but what exactly did the old man do as President to justify a trial in the Hague? Gulf War I was justified and had strong international support; don't even pretend to compare it to Dubya's Operation BringEmOn clusterfuck.

[ipaint]

93. He killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians

by purposely bombing hospitals, schools, refugee camps and taking out the countries water supply, all after lying us into the war. He then proceeds to fail to achieve the sick objective that was somehow worth the violent death of hundreds of thousands of women, children and men, to get saddam, a former BFF in crime. And that was against a pitiful army that surrendered from the git go.

Or maybe it was the invasion and bombing of panama and the 5,000 innocent civilians killed and 25,000 left homeless all to get another rogue former CIA buddy.

The father was just as despicable and criminal as the son. The only thing he can claim to have achieved is having led a life of extreme self service for financial gain and the crimes he committed to achieve that goal. The whole families reason for living was and is to profit personally on any dirty deal they can get away with.

But in this country the highly touted "rule of law" doesn't apply to presidents so just don't look behind the curtain and we can all pretend we are dazzled by the thousand points of light and the genuine sacrifice of lifetime public service the most intelligent and gifted members of our country bestow on us out of the goodness of their hearts.

[omega minimo]

86. Somebody please throw "eschew" at him.

:evilfrown:

[Nye Bevan]

87. Am I the only DUer who thinks that GHWB actually did a reasonably good job in Desert Storm?

Especially when compared to the unmitigated disaster that his idiot son wreaked upon the world?

[leftstreet]

89. What was the objective of Desert Storm? I can't remember

:shrug:

And didn't it change names all the time, like Desert Shield, Desert Clusterfuck, something?

[Freddie Stubbs]

100. To kick the Iraqi army out of Kuwait

[Orwellian_Ghost]

101. You bought that lie?

Are you chaneling April Glaspie with fingers crossed behind back?

[Freddie Stubbs]

106. Are you suggesting that the Iraqi army was never in Kuwait?

:shrug:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

109. Are you suggesting

Kuwait wasn't doing slant drilling, and guess where they got that technology, and that Iraq did not get the okay from Glaspie to invade Kuwait?

:shrug:

Hey man you don't have to speculate on this one it's all public record and all ya' got to do is check the receipts. If you haven't done that by now I suspect you never will.

[Dr. Strange]

110. It was a hologram.

The same hologram machine that was used to make us think there were planes flying into buildings on 9/11.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

113. Remember this?

Late August 1990: US Ambassador Says US Didn’t Expect Iraq to Take ‘All of Kuwait’
Edit event

Shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (see August 2, 1990), US ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie is confronted with transcripts of her July meeting with Saddam Hussein, where she told Hussein that the US had “no position” on Iraq’s dispute with Kuwait, a statement that Hussein apparently took as tacit US permission to invade its neighbor (see July 25, 1990). A British reporter asks Glaspie, “You encouraged this aggression—his invasion. What were you thinking?” Glaspie replies, “Obviously, I didn’t think, and nobody else did, that the Iraqis were going to take all of Kuwait,” to which the astounded journalist asks, “You thought he was just going to take some of it? But how could you? Saddam told you that, if negotiations failed, he would give up his Iran goal for the ‘whole of Iraq, in the shape we wish it to be.’ You know that includes Kuwait, which the Iraqis have always viewed as an historic part of their country!” When Glaspie refuses to answer, the journalist continues, “America green-lighted the invasion. At a minimum, you admit signalling Saddam that some aggression was okay—that the US would not oppose a grab of the al-Rumalya oil field, the disputed border strip and the Gulf Islands—territories claimed by Iraq?” Again, Glaspie refuses to respond, and is driven away in a limousine before she can refuse to answer further questions. Speculation has always been rampant about why Bush, who formerly considered Hussein a staunch ally against Iran and Islamist influences in the Middle East, suddenly turned on his former ally. Author and investigative producer Barry Lando has a partial reason. Lando will write in 2007, “One of the reasons was Margaret Thatcher, who had a talking to him. She told him he had to act like a man and react. But it was also the fear that Saddam would take over Kuwait, and then have a much stronger position in the world oil market. That really scared George Bush…. At that point, he totally turned around. They began calling the man who had been almost a de facto ally a few months earlier, a man worse than Hitler. And Bush started shipping thousands of American troops to the Gulf.”


....

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=george_herbert_walker_bush

[eridani]

118. Nope. Only that our "war" was not to "kick them out" but to prevent them from leaving

--to make them run our gauntlet and get slaughtered first. Google "highway of death." Any bright suggestions about how blowing up every single water treatment plant in Iraq advanced the supposed goal of removing Iraq from Kuwait?

[SIMPLYB1980]

143. The Iraqis got what they deserved on the "Highway of Death".

imo.

[eridani]

151. So you have a problem with just letting them evacuate, as Russia convinced them to do?

Don't get why people cheer mass murder and then get all indignant about 9/11, which was exactly the same kind of thing.

[ipaint]

95. I hope so but realistically, I doubt it. n/t

[faithnotgreed]

104. ha - well said ipaint

[uppityperson]

97. You mean except for the lies in starting it? Compared to Jr, he still is evil, look at his 12 yrs in

power. Reagan yrs, then his own administration. Just looking at that, good lord. Don't know how he compared to babybush, as babybush yrs were also Fundie yrs, but papabush had his issues.


So, about Desert Storm. Didn't it turn out lies that Saddam had troops based along the border, that that was just an excuse?

[Orwellian_Ghost]

105. Like you mean

as in killing lots of people on the highway of death:


Portion of the "Mile of Death" in April 1991

[burning rain]

94. Obama has a weakness for civility, comity, consensus, graciousness,...

and other such things that in politics are just a load of shit that softheads like David Gergen wax lyrical over. Obama's toughened up with time and become better able to face confrontation; I have confidence he'll continue to do so.

[Initech]

98. Ew god, why would anyone praise that piece of shit?

[BolivarianHero]

103. Treason!

To stand shoulder to shoulder with a man who ran (and lost, thank God) against a good progressive Texas Democrat, Ralph Yarborough, on a White supremacist, anti-civil rights platform and who refused to recognize non-theists as Americans.

This is worse than Riok Warren to me; I'm an atheist and I'm a White man dating a multiracial woman.

[Kaleva]

107. President Obama is a class act. Some have problems with that.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

108. Nonsense

Bush is as disgusting as it gets. If you equate class with honoring such a man who has been in the business of death for decades then I suggest you need to re-examine your notions of class.

"A class act"

What a cop out.

[blindpig]

119. Ah, but which class?

There's the rub.

k&r

[EFerrari]

112. Boy, I can't wait until Rayguns 100th anniversary arrives in 2011.

I bet Obama will be "cooperating" all over that.

Sheesh.

[maryf]

117. morning kick, nt

[Hubert Flottz]

121. "R or D next to your name is irrelevant" in challenging times."

Let's see how that works out in 2012...

[dionysus]

127. did you really expect Obama to... oh geez never mind...

this takes poutrage to a whole new level.

[ipaint]

130. Of course not.

There is a long tradition of whitewashing and lying about recent history among the elite.

"President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tommy Franks, the now-retired Army general who led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; former CIA director George Tenet, who told Bush it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction; and L. Paul Bremer, who presided over the first 14 months of Iraq reconstruction.
...The president heralded Tenet for being "one of the first to recognize" the growing threat to America from "radical terrorist networks." He made no mention of the failures outlined by the 9/11 commission that forced the administration to overhaul the nation's intelligence operations.

He praised Franks for his Iraq war plan, which utilized "a force half the size of the force that won the Gulf War" to reach Baghdad in less than a month, "the fastest, longest armored advance in the history of American warfare." Bush did not note that more Americans have died after the toppling of Saddam Hussein than during that initial charge.

Bremer, Bush said, "worked day and night in difficult dangerous conditions" to rebuild Iraq and help leaders chart the country's political future. "Every benchmark . . . was achieved on time or ahead of schedule, including the transfer of sovereignty that ended his tenure," the president said. He did not add that the transfer was hurriedly arranged two days early because of fears insurgents would attack the ceremonies."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63623-2004Dec14.html

It seems when our guy accepts an invitation to honor the life's work someone who's entire existence has been dedicated to destroying democracy from within, both he and more surprisingly the criminal recipient get a pass.

[ipaint]

146. A couple of the "points of light award" recipients this year

Capital One and Eli Lilly.


You just can't make this stuff up.

"I caught up today with Neil Bush, the chairman of the board of the Points of Light Institute and the son of former president George H.W. Bush. He told me that he deeply admires the personal commitment to service that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, have made and he's particularly tickled that the president is using his "bully pulpit" to call Americans to action. "My dad used his presidency in the same way," Bush said, and indeed it was the first President Bush who coined the term "points of light" and connected it to volunteerism.

I asked Bush how his parents instilled the idea of service in their children and he said, "My mom volunteered every Monday at the local hospital. My dad sponsored an inner-city softball team...they lived it." And he spoke proudly about his daughter model Lauren Bush, 25, who used her interest in fashion to design a tote bag that is sold to fund United Nations hunger programs. Bush said Points of Light and Facebook folks have been talking about how to use the social networking site to invite youth into the service movement and he sees youth involvement growing noticeably.

In fact, Bush — who has been involved in volunteerism and service for 20-plus years — took a few seconds before he answered my question about whether serving one's country really will become cool. "It does feel different, he said," "there's a larger energy, a more compelling need, more awereness of the transformative nature of volunteerism and the impact it can have. It's like a tsunami wave — building."

http://www.pointsoflight.org/current-news/neil-bush-praises-obamas-use-bully-pulpit



WASHINGTON — The Education Department's inspector general says he will review whether federal money is inappropriately being spent on programs by a company founded by Neil Bush, the president's brother.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Washington-based watchdog group, called for the inquiry and released a letter this week from the department's inspector general, John Higgins Jr.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071107/neil-bush-company/



HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) -- Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, detailed lucrative business deals and admitted to engaging in sex romps with women in Asia in a deposition taken in March as part of his divorce from now ex-wife Sharon Bush.

According to legal documents disclosed Tuesday, Sharon Bush's lawyers questioned Neil Bush closely about the deals, especially a contract with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a firm backed by Jiang Mianheng, the son of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, that would pay him $2 million in stock over five years.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/25/bush.brother.reut/


Noted most for his involvement as director of the failed Silverado Savings and Loan, which cost the federal government $1 billion to clean-up during the S&L crisis. Regulators never pressed charges, but he paid $50,000 to settle a lawsuit lodged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Neil_Mallon_Bush


No Bush Left Behind
The President's brother Neil is making hay from school reform

Across the country, some teachers complain that President George W. Bush's makeover of public education promotes "teaching to the test." The President's younger brother Neil takes a different tack: He's selling to the test. The No Child Left Behind Act compels schools to prove students' mastery of certain facts by means of standardized exams. Pressure to perform has energized the $1.9 billion-a-year instructional software industry.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005059.htm


Mother Bush Takes Care of her Brood
by David Rossie

It's been said that a dog is man's best friend, but don't try to sell that argument to Neil Bush. The odd Bangkok prostitute aside, no one's taken better care of Neil than his dear old mom.

Neil's run over more than his share of road bumps as he's made his way down life's highway, including his involvement in the Silverado Savings and Loan scam that cost the taxpayer of this country an estimated $1 billion, a few other shady dealings and a messy divorce. But through it all, Mama Bush has stood by sonny boy, just as she has his older, disaster-prone brother.

Bar's most recent manifestation of mother love came in the form of a "charitable" donation to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, a donation with more strings attached to it than the ones connecting Number One son to Dick Cheney.

The gift, described in news accounts as "at least $30,000," was to the Bush-Clinton Huston Hurricane Relief Fund. So far so good. But with a stipulation: That the money be used to buy educational software from a company called Ignite Learning of Austin, Texas.

And who owns Ignite Learning? Brenda?

"Neil Bush?"

Very good.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0402-21.htm

[Orwellian_Ghost]

134. What are you saying?

That's just a cliche you are using their devoid of any substance.

Are you suggesting GHW Bush deserves such accolades?

Have you ever heard what GHW said about Paul Wellstone? And guess what, Obama also disparaged Wellstone. Who's policies do you agree with? I'm interested.

[dionysus]

136. Obama paid a simple courtesy to Bush senior, and you're blowing it way out of porportion.

you want to accuse me of agreeing with Bush policies? because he showed at this university for this? really? that's hillarious.

feel free to rage all you want, but this is just silly. :shrug:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

148. It validates

the acts of a heinous man.

Obama did not simply extend courtesy he heaped praise upon Bush Sr. and he has done this before lauding the way Bush Sr,. "prosecuted" the Desert Storm version of the massacre called the Iraq War.

You simply choose to ignore this fact.

[SIMPLYB1980]

135. Good for Obama, talking to our

enemies is important.

[dionysus]

137. no,no,no, he was supposed to spit in his face and stinkpalm him!

don't you see, now he's got blood on his hands!!11!!11

if you're not outraged, you're not a human being
:rofl:

[SIMPLYB1980]

139. LoL. Maybe he should have teabagged him?

:shrug:

[dionysus]

140. lol, teafragging, that's uh... new...

;)

[SIMPLYB1980]

142. You must not be a gamer. Tea bagging is

a right of passage and has been used since the late 90's by people playing online to show superiority.

[dionysus]

144. i only do single player. waiting for them to make a new brothers in arms...

and half life 2 episode 3

[bridgit]

145. If people don't do that every so often the old man will start crying

Either way it's the same old bush family shtick over & over

[Starbucks Anarchist]

147. Yeah, why didn't he call him an asshole and kick him in the shin?

:eyes:

[RyboSlybo]

150. Obama showed class and maturity like he always does...

Why are you all so upset?

You should be happy we have a President mature enough to speak good on the opposition.

I know there is a lunatic segment of right wingers but honestly there are more republicans and democrats who are more in the middle than to one extreme or the other and this is where the real fight matters and the centrists do not get enough attention when they should as this is truly the majority.

Most of us in the center whether we are democrats or republicans are interchangeable. We want unification. We want the hate to stop. We want our nation to pull together and work together. We have to find a way for the good of our nation. If we can't I am fearful for the outcome.....

President Obama was setting an excellent example for all of us to follow and I for one salute him for it.

[ipaint]

153. Centrists and republicans do have one unifying value in common.

They will jettison the lower classes from any reform if it'll save them a buck.