Thoughts for today

Worst President ever?

Bob Cesca has a great article in the Huffington Post, discussing how President George W. Bush is now only being called one of the worst presidents ever, but might in fact be the worst ever. That is right, Richard Nixon, Herbert Hoover and Andrew Johnson can now rest a little easier, since they may no longer be considered the worst ever.

Cesca argues that Bush has wasted all the political capital which the US earned and deserved after the September 11 attacks. He has done or said nothing memorable or historic since that time. He has followed the extreme wing of his party into a unjustified war in Iraq, and allowed the real prize to escape into the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He then goes on to paint a picture of what the world might have looked like had Bush made some different decisions

Imagine if President Bush had been a better man and used 9/11 to appeal to the better angels of our nature.

What if he hadn't withdrawn much of his financial pledge to help the heroes of 9/11 with medical costs, and, now that they're no longer useful in photo ops, has allowed them to die slow, choking deaths mired in bankruptcy? What if the president had pledged as much money and support for the surviving first responders as he has for Halliburton and the Iraq War?

What if the president had kept his eye on Bin Laden rather than pulling out, leaving Afghanistan to flounder and Bin Laden to escape unharmed?

What if, like Lincoln (the president's unlikely roll model), the president had used 9/11 as a catalyst to inaugurate an era of renewed equality?

All very good questions, but unfortunately only hypothetical and rhetorical.

Stalag 9/11 and ignoring the Geneva Convention

Another interesting posting from the Stalag 17. He states that the basic premise of the movies was that regardless of how bad the Nazi's were, they at least had the good sense to honor the Geneva Convention and there were things that were and were not done to prisoners of war. It is pretty sad, when in historical perspective the Nazi's have a leg up on the current administrative on human rights and the Geneva Convention.

Why Hillary Can't Win

I am glad someone else is now saying what I have been for the past 6-8 years:

...some Democrats still believe the odds are against her actually being elected president. Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party not aligned with any presidential hopeful, is among the nay-sayers.

"She's a senator, she'd be the first woman running, and she's Hillary Clinton," he said. "All of that is almost insurmountable for a general election."

He added: "There are people who would write a check and die for her, but there are plenty of others who wouldn't vote for her if she promised to eliminate the income tax and give free ice cream to everyone. People have made up their minds about her, and that doesn't give her much room to maneuver."

Humor of the Day

French police admitted Sunday they now face a permanent intifada from Muslim youths rioting in the Paris suburbs. The French blame the United States. If America had not liberated Paris, the suburbs would still be under German supervision.