President Bush

President Bush celebrated his final Independence Day in office by leading a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, former home to Thomas Jefferson. The ceremony was marred, however, by protests. From The AP:(via NBC)

On his final U.S. Independence Day as president, Bush told an audience Friday at the home of the Declaration of Independence's author that he was honored to be present for the naturalization. Shouts from protesters were heard during Bush's remarks, and the president responded by saying he agrees that "we believe in free speech in the United States of America."

There are several videos of the incident that are getting heavy traffic on Youtube (MSNBC has the whole speech here). Here are two that I think best showcase the unprecedented impact of these activists.

Check these out, and then tell me if you think activism is dead. I saved the best one for last.

With a little over 200 days left until the end of Bush II--either the worst presidency of all time or a wholesome and exciting eight years depending on whom you talk to--the President has finally come to his senses.

Thanks to The Onion, which has evolved from a simple but effective Smoove B vehicle into a flash-tastic news powerhouse, we have this breaking story concerning President Bush's efforts to observe the crushing damage caused to America... by his own presidency. (When you're done with this one, check out the one on Fastfood Feedbags!)



Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

A 700-page study of the Iraq war and its aftermath by the United States Army released yesterday concludes that the post-war occupation phase of the conflict suffered from under-staffing and from incorrect assumptions by commanders as to just what the Army's role would be.

"Few commanders foresaw that full spectrum operations in Iraq would entail the simultaneous employment of offense, defense, stability, and support operations by units at all echelons of command to defeat new, vicious, and effective enemies.

[The] post-war situation in Iraq was severely out of line with the suppositions made at nearly every level before the war."

That means that the Army was operating in a "liberate and go home" mindset in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad, and expected Iraqis to take control of the country in very short order.

Critics of the Bush Administration's pre-war planning will seize on the report's conclusions as proof that the president led the nation to war without adequate preparations for the aftermath. That charge is necessarily informed by hindsight, however. Everyone agrees that the post-war occupation plan turned out to be insufficient to handle the conditions in the country, but that is not proof that there was no plan.

And they call Obama an elitist...

On a recent White House visit with Phillipine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, US President George W. Bush tried this funny on for size:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Thank you.

Yeah, George. And I get get all misty-eyed about Mexico whenever I see Jorge and Jesus mowing my lawn...

President Bush announced today that the United States will drop North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the communist regime's cooperation in the Six Party Talks. After months of stalling and diplomatic wrangling, North Korea turned over a declaration of all its past nuclear activities today to China, the host of the Six Party Talks, which will share the information with the U.S, Russia, Japan, and South Korea. The de-listing of the North as a terror sponsor clears the way for food and fuel aid, desperately needed by its impoverished people, to be delivered. Until today, North Korea had been resisting releasing the new declaration, saying that it had already made a complete declaration of its nuclear activities at the end of last year. The Bush Administration disputed that and insisted that the North provide more details about its clandestine nuclear programs. It appears that Kim Jong-Il, the North's reclusive and eccentric leader, gave in to that demand today.

At the White House today, President Bush said that the new developments were the "beginning of a process of action for action."

"If North Korea continues to make the right choices, it can repair its relationship with the international community. If North Korea makes the wrong choices, the United States and its partners in the six-party talks will act accordingly.

If they don't fulfill their promises, more restrictions will be placed on them."

Critics of the announcement said that the North had routinely violated international agreements, including with the United States, and could not be trusted. Former Assistant Secretary of State and United Nations Ambassador John Bolton declared it, "shameful," saying the deal represented, "the final collapse of Bush's foreign policy."

Bolton is right to be suspicious, and it may well be that the agreement will not be able to be fully judged for several years and without full verification in the form of inspections. But the Bush Administration is content to call this a major diplomatic victory and is optimistically looking forward to putting the United States on firm footing with respect to the threat from North Korea before the president's term expires.

I just listened to President Bush renew his call to allow drilling in the country's Outer Continental Shelf and to let states help to decide where to allow drilling. Oh, and he also wants to go ahead and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, too. And then I got angry.

The Shelf is defined as "all submerged lands lying seaward of state coastal waters (3 miles offshore) which are under U.S. jurisdiction." That includes the frigid Alaskan waters, the coral reefs of the Florida Keys, Maine's rocky coasts and other shorelines in between where, the Sierra Club points out, thousands of plant and animal species thrive. Bush's reasoning is that $4+ per gallon gas at the pump is just cause to mutilate our shorelines and decimate the surrounding environments and ecosystems with our drills. It reportedly could take up to 10 years to even get that oil out.

This same week, Congress once again failed again to pass a bill extending tax credits that would continue to fuel the growth of the solar and wind industries. The incentives are due to expire at the end of the year. Because the industries are capital intensive to get off the ground, tax credits are required to help get them up and running - and to encourage residents to lean green. Apparently our lawmakers are fighting over who is going to pay for those incentives.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that there are currently 22 major solar power plants in the planning phase in the U.S., many of them in Southern California. But all those deals were signed based on the assumption Congress would extend the solar energy tax incentives.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said yesterday that President Bush supports lifting the ban on oil and gas exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf and will formally ask Congress to lift the federal moratoria preventing drilling off the nation's coasts.

"The president believes Congress shouldn't waste any more time. He will explicitly call on Congress to ... pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling."

The move by the White House is something of a coordinated effort with Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, who yesterday called for lifting the drilling ban.

Congress has prevented the Interior Department from initiating offshore drilling leases since 1981 by refusing to approve funds for that purpose. There is also an Executive Order, signed by the first President Bush, preventing drilling. The Executive Order has been extended by President Clinton and President George W. Bush until 2012. The president has not yet announced whether he would rescind the order as part of his effort to get Congress to act on the drilling ban; but should he do so, it would be a strong indication that his Administration intends to pressure Congress over gas prices throughout the summer driving season and the fall election season. For its part, Congress has other plans. A group of lawmakers is considering an extension to the drilling ban, with the House Appropriations Committee set to consider the measure today.

CNN's Rebecca Sinderbrand points out that for only the second time in nearly three decades, there won't be a Bush on the presidential ballot this November. On Sunday, in an interview with SkyNews President Bush was asked about the future of the Bush family in American Presidential politics. Bush alluded to his brother, saying, "Well, we've got another one out there who did a fabulous job as governor of Florida, and that's Jeb. But you know, you better ask him whether or not he's thinking of running. But he'd ." Watch the President's interview with Sky news here.

The idea of another Bush presidency prompted a round of derision from left-wing bloggers. Shakesville's Melissa McEwan wrote, "I'd literally vote for a bag of vomit before I'd vote for Jeb Bush. Or any Bush. And, no, I don't care that Jebby would probably be a better president than Dubya." Wonkette's Jim Newell wrote, "[s]ince everyone in this country forgets everything, he can easily run in 2012." Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report asked, "Can't that family just stop tormenting our nation?"

Yesterday Frank Dwyer jokingly (I think) predicted that Jeb Bush would replace McCain later this year. "Jeb and the country have a lot in common," Dwyer writes, "Jeb himself may be George's biggest victim! Imagine if you were George's brother. He got such a bad deal. Voters will vote for poor Jeb because they feel sorry for him."

This is that special time of year when, as a cheap afterthought to Mother's Day, we sort of vaguely celebrate that other parent who may or may not be around. We call it Father's Day, and our nation's various recent presidential people aren't very good at it, either.

The dad who best represents lousy parenting and America's image-over-substance marketing economy is, of course, our greatest president, Father Ronald Reagan. Married, divorced and married again, Reagan fathered children by two different women and adopted a boy with his first wife, shortly before he divorced her. The children who survived to adulthood described him as mysterious, distant, detached and cruel, while his personal diaries show absolutely no affection for Maureen, Michael, Patti or Ron Jr.

The Reagan child who turned that distant relationship with President Reagan into a full-time career -- adopted son and right-wing talk show performer Michael Reagan -- wrote in one of his autobiographies that "we were raised by nannies and maids." Th-th-that's not ch-change we can be-believe in!

Speaking at a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the close of his stop in Germany, President Bush said that he had no regrets about his decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and topple Saddam Hussein. Bush did say that the tone of some of the rhetoric he has employed in furtherance of U.S. policy goals in the broader war on terror could have contributed to international divisions over the war, telling the UK Times newspaper that phrases such as, "dead or alive," and, "bring it on," could have been expressed less stridently. But the president remained firm on the initial decision to go into Iraq and said that the recent progress there, brought about by the troop surge, would, "change the Middle East for the better." "Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place," he said.

Bush addressed the casualties in Iraq, sure to be seized upon by his critics as one area where the president should have expressed some regret, by saying that he found it particularly difficult, "to put youngsters in harm's way," and said that he had a duty to make sure that the lives lost were not in vain. One way the Administration is trying to do that is by negotiating an agreement with the government of Iraq that would spell out the role of U.S. forces in the country into the future. The U.S. and Iraq plan to have a final Status of Forces Agreement in place by the fall, and the president was optimistic about its eventual completion while seeking to dispel some concerns about its likely provisions. "I think we'll get the agreement done," he said. "This will not involve permanent bases nor will it bind any future president to troop levels."

President Bush has been asked on several occasions if he continues to believe that the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do at the time. Each time, he has answered that he does. The president is not given to much introspection or second-guessing of himself, so it remains a wonder why the media continues to ask these questions. Bush will make comparatively small admissions around the edges of his policy, such as that over his heated war rhetoric, but he will likely not admit that the war was a mistake, as the press would certainly like him to. Ultimately, the final answer on that question doesn't belong to President Bush. It will be up to the Iraqi government, and successive U.S. Administrations, to see that the U.S. effort to build a democracy in the heart of the Middle East is a successful one.