Of all George Bush’s many hobbies (such as pretending, hoping, praying, believing, and decidering being just a few) his most favoritest is ignoring—his dad, responsibility, reason, the Constitution and of course, polls.
And well he should as his approval rating in the US has lately been no higher than 30%.
Let me put it this way: If ten randomly selected Americans got on a plane piloted by George Bush, seven of them would rush the cockpit.
Well, now there’s a new poll for Bush to ignore.
Every year a survey of six Arab countries is conducted in which the respondents are asked this simple question: Who do you dislike the most? The respondents aren’t given a list of likely people they’d dislike but are free to choose absolutely anyone.
And the winner is…
George Dubya Bush!
The award invariably goes to whoever is the Israeli Prime Minister but this year for the first time ever an American president has received this distinction! (In fact Bush got more votes than Ehmud Olmert and ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon combined--kudos to the comatose Sharon for such a strong showing!).
Congratulations, George! All that freedomating and democratizing finally paid-off!
The mystery prize package will be addressed to you, George W. Bush, but when you hear the doorbell ring don’t bother to get up, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls—the American people will get it.
11 comments:
Get ready to reap the whirlwind my Yankee friends.
The Arab does not fight wars like you. He is like the sand. He will erode you, slowly and surely - interspersed by raging sand storms and drought.
I really hate to use the desert analogy, but it does represent the Islamic approach to waging this battle.
The US does not have the patience of the Muslim Radical. One can see that now ...
The loons responsible for the whirlwind were predominantly non-Yankee, at least in the US parlance. Sometimes I think it would have been preferable that the South had gained their separation from the Union.
It's ironic that "Yankee" is a slur not only in the world outside the US, but in the American South as well.
Oh, who cares what they think?!? They're just jealous of our way of life.... You know, the minimum wage jobs that you can barely make ends meet on, rising inflation, jobs being shipped overseas, over one-third of the deficit in loans and interest owed to the Chinese, tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, over 3,000 dead in a war with no end in sight and another war on the horizon.
And we still have lotteries and casinos. Hey! You never know.
* BTW, I think the smarter move would be to put Barney in the Oval Office. The worst he could do is crap on Laura's yellow rug.
More votes than Olmert? Shit...That is a sign that we either impeach the s.o.b. or bend over. I find polls irritating, but in many cases, this one, they tell more than we care to imagine. I suggest we get to imagining the lone superpower is likely to be drained and soon.
int. junkie,
Ha!
This is one thing that I actually admire GWB for, and I am serious. The fact that he Governs (if one can call it such) from his gut and beliefs (right or wrong), and on the ideals he feels mimic the mindset of the voters who put him in office; rather than dubious science of shifting polling results,... I hate Government by polling...
If Roosevelt would have listened to the resounding voices of opposition or public dissent in the fall of 1941, there is a good chance Europeans would be speaking German today.
Please note that I am not comparing GWB to FDR, I only make the analogy for comparisons of cause/effect... but there is grudging admiration on my part to any politician who has that kind of stubborness, regardless of ideology.
Truth-Pain...you're kidding right?
Am I kidding?.... hang on, let me take a look at the polls....
TP... let's see now; acting on his "gut and beliefs" Bush's Governance has resulted in record trade deficit, record natioanal debt, an ineffectual campaign in Afghanistan, an ineffectual occupation of Iraq, higher medical costs,gas prices, 46 million incapable of maintaining health insurance, no net gain in jobs,a relative reduction in real wages, 3 million more poor and NOLA still devastated.
You don'r fuck around with the lives of 300 million people based upon what you "feel".
FDR DID listen to polls in 1941--he didn't commit the US to war even though he felt that's what should have been done. And after Pearl Harbor ( and simultaneous attacks on Guam and the Phillipines)did the general US population demand that the US NOT got to war? No it didn't. It was all for it.
Bush wanted to attack Iraq right after 9-11 but was obliged to attack Afghanistan first because he'd have no support then to attack Iraq--he had to engineer that support through media manipulation.
You also forget how uninformed the US population was, how uniformed most populations were back then--no TV and radio devoted mostly to entertainment.
And here's a merry thought for you. If the US hadn't offered the lend-lease program and stayed out of Europe then Britain would have lost to Germany. Germany's invasion of Russia would have been bigger--more troops tanks and planes and Moscow and Leningrad would have fallen. WIth millions more POWS as slave labor and Russia's resources Germany would have built the Horten intercontinental jet bombers, their jet fighters and turned the V-2 into an ICBM, quite possibly equipped with nuclear warheads and would have expanded their submarine fleet.
The US in its splendid isolation would have scrambled to meet the threat without radar(which came from the british) with no nuclear bomb (again a British component enabled that), they would have had to build jets from scratch instead of being givven a leg-up from the British(again) and then the US would be faced bombing and missile attacks and U-boat embargoes or arragne a non-aggression pact. The US economy would then be much smaller and of course it wouldn't have been the bastion of freedom and democracy it so proudly claims--instead it would have capitulated and Germany would have been the sole super-power. Of course this super-Germany lead by Hitler's gut and feelings would ultimately be streched too thin--I'd guess over 20-40 years perhaps.
5th,
I note your comments with appreciating. I myself could have pointed to all the negative effects of Bush's presidency, and could have added more to your shopping list as well. My initial thought was based on the fact that the precedent of governance via polls and focus groups is dangerous, and at the very least, clinically lazy. Its leadershop by concensus. Your own compatriot (Thatcher) said it best, "Consensus is the void of leadership"... (as I paraphrase).
Don't confuse an observation of someone's style as approving of their policy or idealogy.
Lastly, every single President from Washington until present has done SOME good and SOME bad things. I am pragmatic enough to see past hyperbole and media prisms,... Every man and woman in politics has SOME redeeming qualities, no matter how hidden they may be. Of course it takes independence of ideology and blogger rhetoric to see that clearly.
Cheers my friend.
TP -
Unfortunately, I do not believe that George W. Bush governs from his "gut" as you put it. I, like many others, believe that he governs based on greed and bad advice. Instead of listening to older and wiser minds (such as James Bakker and his father), he has listened to the power brokers, namely Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld.
If he was governing from his "gut", then why isn't there a greater push for an end to abortion rights or gay marriage? Bush has done what he thinks is best for his base including tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% and lucrative contracts for defense contractors and private contractors like Halliburton. He and his cronies have turned the Republican party into a shell of its former glory and for that alone he should be run out of office by his own constituents.
As for each president doing some good and some bad things, I have yet to see one good thing that Bush has done for the middle class. I'd be happy to hear your side if you think differently.
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