a running list of bush’s achievements

there still seem to be about 40% of americans that say they are happy with bush. i don’t know why, but just to help those people, i will start a list here with some of his achievement: 

• a failed strategy to fight al qaeda — with the terrorist group regrouping and getting stronger in pakistan 
• a war in iraq that can only be described as a failure, has cost more than 4,000 american lives, will cost in the trillions of dollars, and has taken troops that were needed to fight al qaeda to fight in iraq
• oil at records prices (i don’t even know how much it costs these days, but it is still above $100 for the barrel) 
• an economy is shambles … the other day i heard someone (that was a fairly well known economist) say that it is in its worst situation since the great depression 
• a dollar at record lows — i remember when you could get 0.86 euros for a dollar now it is somewhere around 1.5 euros
• a housing market that is going to make lives even harder to americans as they find their investments going sour 
• ever increasing debt — that national debt clock in ny is running out of numbers as it is going to hit $10 trillion in national debt this year
• an increasing gap between the rich and the poor 
• an economy that is producing less and less but borrowing more and more 
• no energy policy what-so-ever that addresses changing oil demands and energy needs in a time of global warming 
• … there are probably a ton of other achievement 

so if you are a bush supporter can you please enlighten me why that is the case? 

american enterprise institute once again showcases its stupidity

think tanks are supposed to employ smart, independently thinking people that provide expert opinions on issues at hand. ok, stop laughing. i know, this is just the ideal. reality is that think tanks employ yes-men (and women) that are hired to come up with “analysis” and “reports” that will support a predefined opinion. the american enterprise institute is one such think tank. “experts” that have worked there include lynne cheney and paul wolfowitz. i guess it is quite clear what kind of opinions the american enterprise institute supports. and yes, they wrote quite a bit how advantageous it would  be if the US would invade iraq … well so much for that. but one would think that a think tank will keep on thinking and learning. but, no. no such luck.  michael rubin one of the thinking fellows at the american enterprise institute today gave an interview to cnsnews.com in which he commented on nancy pelosi’s comments that the iraq war is a failure (not really hard to argue with that). but here is what the thinker (or maybe tanker?) had to say: 

 “I used to give Nancy Pelosi benefit of the doubt, but I don’t think she’ll be happy until we have a Rwanda-like genocide. Pelosi is perhaps the worst example of a liberal racist: She sees Iraqis as nothing more than a template upon which to fight a partisan battle. It really is disgraceful,” he added.  

 hm, this makes me wonder… i would assume that if you work in a think tank and think and research all day long  you follow the news and keep on-top of what is going on in the world. but not so for mr. rubin it seems like. let’s provide him with a couple of data points here: 

• estimated death toll in rwanda:  937,000 
• estimated death toll in iraq (until the end of 2006): 655,000 

ok, i admit that there is a 300,000 dead difference, but then the iraq war is still going on with people nearly dying daily (although i have to admit that it is getting harder and harder to find news about there bombings, not because they don’t happen but mostly because it seems western media have gotten bored by them). but besides the 300,000 dead difference i would say  that a rwanda like genocide is pretty much already underway in iraq with sunnis, shias, and kurds killing each other for a couple of years now.so, maybe, just maybe it is not pelosi, but bush, cheney, mccain, and yes, also mr. rubin who are fighting a partisan battle over a lost war which so far has cost thousands of american lives and is costing way more than half a million iraqi lives (those are by the way the people that the US and people like mr. rubin wanted free).