President-Elect Obama, wife Michelle, Vice-President-Elect Biden and wife, Jill
Obama will overturn many of the Signing Statements from Bush and will end his negative role as America’s “Bully in Chief”.
Here is a quote from the Associate Editor of the Washington Post, and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Mr. Bob Woodward, who wrote the following in his latest #1, New York Times Best Seller, “The War Within”:
The following is an excerpt from Woodward’s book regarding inputs from Mr. David Satterfield, Senior Advisor on Iraq to the current US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice:
“Satterfield could barely listen to Bush’s inflated rhetoric. It was too over stated, too triumphant, too victorious. Bush was feeling renewed confidence because of the lower levels of violence, thanks to [General] Petraeus’s and [Iraq Ambassador] Crocker’s work.
From watching the president up close for several years, Satterfield had reached some conclusions. If Bush believed something was right, he believed it would succeed. Its very rightness ensured ultimate success. Democracy and freedom, were right. Therefore, they would win out.
Bush, Satterfield observed, tolerated no doubt. His words and actions constantly reminded those around him that he was in charge. He was “the decider”. As a result, he often made biting jokes or asides to colleagues that Satterfield found deeply wounding and cutting. In one instance, Rice had raised a budget issue at a meeting. Bush had said, ‘I told you I don’t want to hear about that.’
Satterfield found it offensive.
The president had little patience for briefings. ‘Speed it up. This isn’t my first rodeo!’, he would say often to those presenting. It was difficult to brief him because he would interject his own narrative, questions or off-putting jokes. Presentations and discussions rarely unfolded in a logical, comprehensive fashion. Satterfield thought this reflected insecurity in Bush. [He felt] The president was just a bully. “
ABOVE THE LAW:
From the beginning of his first term, George W. Bush has take the position that as the President of the United States, he was above the law.
Even though the war and occupation of Iraq have been one of the key issues to support Bush’s record breaking “most unpopular president ever,” with a long-term, almost permanent approval rating of below 30%, there are additional areas of concern by most Americans that reinforce such a lack of support for President Bush.
SIGNING STATEMENTS / EXECUTIVE ORDERS:
As an example of the citizens disapproval, in 2008, Bush has already enacted 23 executive orders, and he has presented a record total of 279 signing statements to date.
Virtually all of these executive orders are demonstrations of Bush and his administration’s blatant arrogance and their attempts to circumvent US law and to bypass any interference by the US Congress.
Today, most of America is eagerly awaiting for President-Elect Barack Obama to take the oath of office so that he can fulfill one of his campaign promises. That promise is that, if elected, he would “have his newly designated Attorney General review all of Bush’s uses of executive powers with a special eye to those that have trampled on American’s liberty.”
With so many executive orders from Bush over the past eight years, the review activity could take years for a legal review to be completed and to be reacted to, which I’m sure is exactly what Bush, and his side-kick Dick Cheney, had intended from the beginning.
The following are some examples of the obvious areas from Bush’s executive orders that Obama and his team will be tackling soon after the inauguration:
>>> Stop allowing the drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive areas of the United States.
>>> Overturning the ban on stem cell research.
>>> The return of Habeas Corpus to all American citizens.
>>> The closing of the Military Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay.
>>> Overturn the so called "Mexico City" policy that prevents the US from funding groups that perform or promote abortions overseas.
>>> Banning the abusive use of interrogation tactics such as “Water-Boarding”.
>>> Remove the Bush ban saying health organizations accepting US funding “cannot” provide lifesaving condoms to African countries.
>>> Allow the State of California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.
President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office.
John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said this week that; “Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on these issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule.” He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.
"There's a lot that the president can do using his own executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."
Author’s Note:
It is sad that these kind of comments are being made at the end of any US President’s two-terms.
This week, the beginning of the end of the “W” era, Bush finally made a comment that he had regretted some comments that he made over the last 8 years.
Back in the beginning of his second term, when asked by a reporter, he was dumb-struck and unable to think of even one mistake that he had made in his first term.
Why he waited until now to express himself of some minor misgivings is beyond my comprehension…?
The comments that he admitted he could probably have stated more appropriately, were when he said “bring em on;” regarding the al Qaeda attacks in Iraq, “dead or alive;” regarding capturing Osama bin Laden and about the “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the aircraft carrier when he announced that the “US had prevailed” in the War in Iraq.
And by-the-way, today, he now says that the “Mission Accomplished” banner was hung by the navy and at the time, was only meant for the sailors aboard the carrier, not for the US troops on the ground in Iraq.
If that’s really true, which I seriously doubt, why wasn’t that message conveyed back five years ago…?
What is even more disturbing, is that even though the president regrets these incidental comments, he doesn’t seem to regret any of the important issues of his past eight years.
What about regret for needlessly sending US troops into harm’s way, and their wounds or deaths for reasons that were false and for a mission statement that was changed every few months?
(Remember……..first it was going after WMD’s, then it was to rid the world of Saddam the dictator, and then it was to have a democratic Muslim nation within the Middle East.)
And let’s also not forget that Iraq just happened to have the 2nd largest oil reserves on the globe.
What about developing and opening the abomination know as the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, while also ignoring the Geneva Convention and employing the use of torture techniques?
What about removing American citizen’s availability of Habeas Corpus and the illegal wire tapping of innocent Americans?
What about the poor response of FEMA and Homeland Security in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina?
And worst of all, how about the deaths and displacement of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and the total botching of the management of the country by the Bush Administration and the US State Department while spending Billions of US taxpayer dollars?
Unfortunately, the only reason that we will miss this president, is that as a writer, I’m fairly confident that with President Obama’s administration, we won’t have so much negative material on the new administration available for us to write about.
With that comment, I’ll just say “Good bye President Bush, and good riddance.”
Copyright G.Ater 2008
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