by Teh Nutroots | Give the man this: he kept his mouth shut for five whole months. Between them, Bush and Cheney are setting a whole new precedent for past administrations to abuse new ones -- just as they set new precedents for current administrations to abuse their power and to create an atmosphere of fear and represession.
But give Bush this as well....he didn't go on national TV to do his blathering. Yet.
"I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in," the former president said to applause from members of a local business group. "You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money."
Repeatedly in his hourlong speech and question-and-answer session, Mr. Bush said he would not directly criticize the new president... Several times, however, he took direct aim at Obama policies as he defended his own during eight years in office.
"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States," he said to huge cheers....
Mr. Bush weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the election in Iran, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and his administration's interrogation policies of terrorists held there and elsewhere. The former president has not commented on Mr. Obama's decision to ban "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding, which the current president has called "off course" and "based on fear."
"The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," he said, adding that the country needs to stay on offense, not defense. On Guantanamo, which while in office Mr. Bush said he wanted to close, the former president was diplomatic.
"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."
Not that anyone was proposing to change their minds by therapy, but anyway. George Bush, ladies and gentlemen, private citizen, and all-round former worst president ever!
RECENT BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS
- Mike Madden: The Same GOPpers Who Wanted to Bomb Iran Now Want to Love Bomb It
- Poll Shows Public Support for Obama, with Increasing Public Doubt About Obama's Economic Plan & Continuing Lack of the GOP
- TPMtv for June 17, 2009: Iranian Media Crackdown...
- Conflicts of Interest at Florida's Public Service Commission?
- Turn About Can be Fair Play: Creditors Negotiate with Debtors
- Finally, a Plan for Better Financial-System Regulation?
- Turn to the Left: a Bloggerama
- It's the Hypocrisy, Stupid Part ####: Clinton Critic Ensign (R-NV) Admits to Extramarital Affair with Married Staffer
- Colbert Interviews Obama Economic Adviser & Harry Potter Teacher, Austan Goolsbee
- Needful Diversions: Baby Porcupine Eats a Banana
And Obama, momentarily candid, throws himself and his whole administration, as well as the Pelosi/Reid CongressCrats, under his own bus:
"President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”
Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.
Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
Posted by: flowerplough | June 20, 2009 at 11:08 AM