Should be interesting book

[Lanya]

Bush's great ambition: wealthy boredom


? President tells of regrets in office and retirement plans
? Dead Certain author given rare vision of private life

Ed Pilkington in New York
Monday September 3, 2007
The Guardian


Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life after the White House to conflict resolution around the world. Presidents George Bush the elder and Bill Clinton have campaigned together on behalf of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So how does President George Bush junior imagine spending his retirement years?

"I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch," he says. He also has big plans for making money. "I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," says Mr Bush, who is already estimated to be worth $20m. "I don't know what my dad gets - it's more than 50-75 [thousand dollars a speech], and "Clinton's making a lot of money".

Article continues
The insights into Mr Bush's ambitions once he steps down from the most powerful job on Earth in January 2009 are contained in a series of interviews he gave to a journalist from GQ magazine. It may be that the writer, Robert Draper, comes from Texas, like his subject, but whatever the reason, Mr Bush has chosen to be singularly open with the author and provide a rare glimpse into the inner life of a very private president.

During the course of six one-hour interviews, Mr Bush, feet up on his desk, munching on low-fat hotdogs, tells Draper of the loneliness of the US commander-in-chief. "Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity," Mr Bush says.

When it all gets too much for the president, his wife Laura storms to the rescue. "She reminds me that I decided to do this," he tells Draper.

The interviews came after Draper lobbied the president for several years to give him access, arguing that he would write the first draft of history on the Bush presidency.

The book to emerge from their conversations will be published tomorrow, but an early taste was given in yesterday's New York Times.

The book's title, Dead Certain, is ominously ambiguous, given the 3,728 US personnel - and by some estimates more than 70,000 civilians - who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. For those around the world who are already perplexed by Mr Bush's strategy in Iraq, his comments to Draper will not be reassuring.

The president says to the writer that one of the failings of his prosecution of the war was that Saddam Hussein's army was broken up, in contravention of Washington policy and leading to looting and chaos across Iraq. "The policy was to keep the army intact; [it] didn't happen," Mr Bush says.

But, Draper points out, it was Paul Bremer, the man chosen by the president to administer country after the invasion, who ordered the disbandment of the Iraqi army. What did Mr Bush think when he learnt of that?

"Yeah, I can't remember. I'm sure I said: 'This is the policy - what happened?'"

It gets worse. Mr Bush reveals that whenever he feels depressed about the death toll in Iraq, he turns to God for comfort. "I've got God's shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot," he says. "I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count."

Mr Bush says when his time in office is up, he will be only 62 and "really young". Apart from the joy of getting bored, he is looking forward to setting up a "fantastic freedom institute in Dallas" for young democratic leaders around the world.

There is at least one point on which the president and his detractors will agree. In a moment of breathtaking candour, Mr Bush laments the fact that the media no longer listens to him. "I've been here too long," he says.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2161205,00.html

[Lanya]

And another one:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/09/takeover-return-of-imperial-presidency.html

"Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy"
by Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe

[sirs]

*snicker*.....but Lanya doesn't hate Bush       

[hnumpah]

"Yeah, I can't remember. I'm sure I said: 'This is the policy - what happened?'"

Seems he and Gonzalez suffer from the same type of memory problem.

"I've been here too long," he says.

Yep, about four and a half years and several thousand dead bodies too long.

[sirs]

"I've been here too long," he says.

Yep, about four and a half years and several thousand dead bodies too long.

Boy, I can't imagine how much anger H has towards FDR, what with the 400,000+ dead bodies there, for the U.S. alone, in nearly have the time     

[Richpo64]

>>Boy, I can't imagine how much anger H has towards FDR, what with the 400,000+ dead bodies there, for the U.S. alone, in nearly have the time <<

You never going to get any kind of consistency from these people. They're way beyond intellectual honesty. I think they're deranged myself.

[hnumpah]

Boy, I can't imagine how much anger H has towards FDR, what with the 400,000+ dead bodies there, for the U.S. alone, in nearly have the time 

None. He had an actual reason to declare war on Japan, whereas Bushco had to make theirs up. Oh, yeah, and keep changing them.

Gad, you're a nitwit.   

[sirs]

Boy, I can't imagine how much anger H has towards FDR, what with the 400,000+ dead bodies there, for the U.S. alone, in nearly have the time 

None. He had an actual reason to declare war on Japan,

And ironically, Bush had an acutal reason to declare war on Militant Islam.  Go figure

Gad, you're a nitwit.    

Ooooo, gotta love the vast vocabulary repertoire being unleashed

[hnumpah]

...Bush had an acutal reason to declare war on Militant Islam...

Then why did he declare war on Iraq?

[sirs]

...Bush had an acutal reason to declare war on Militant Islam...

Then why did he declare war on Iraq?

He didn't.  He went after where one of the connections to terrorists & Militant Islam were

[hnumpah]

So we should add that to WMDs, freedom for the Iraqi people, et cetera and so on and so forth? And if he didn't declare war on Iraq, why'n hell are we there? Seems to me you don't go in bombing a country back to the last century (well, they still have electricity a couple of hours a day) without declaring war.

[sirs]

No, you should stick to what it's always been, and has never changed since the get go, the threat of WMD getting into the hands of militant Islamists, following the events of 911.  Unless of course the idea is to be intellectually dishonest and add all the other rationales as supposed primary reasons.  And we are there because after taking out that threat, it would have been morally reprehensible to have left the Iraqi populace in such a state, with the extreme liklihood of Iran & Syria taking over the Terrorist movement, with a brand new country to use, and it's people to abuse

[Xavier_Onassis]

Iraq was not where the militant Islamists were in 2002, Thatr would have been Afghanistan. Bin Laden could have been wiped out there, but the forces that could have done the job were pulled out and sent to Iraq.

There was no reason to invade Iraq. The US cannot win an Iraqi civli war, so there is little room to stay there, either.

Juniorbush will go down in history as one of the greatest f*ckups of the XXI Century.

I am not sure whether the money corporations pay to have their head honchos will be worse in Juniorbush's hands or their hands. Certainly Juniorbush is not any sort of leader to emulate.

He has to be a prime dolt to announce publically that he is going to "replenish his coffers heh, heh". I seriouslyu doubt that his families coffers have been depleated one cent since he took office.

It may not be doltish to do this, but it sure as hell is doltish to say it. What a total knucklewalking slackjawed  ass this simpleton is!

[Mr_Perceptive]

Iraq was not where the militant Islamists were in 2002, That would have been Afghanistan. Bin Laden could have been wiped out there, but the forces that could have done the job were pulled out and sent to Iraq.

There was no reason to invade Iraq. The US cannot win an Iraqi civil war, so there is little room to stay there, either.

Juniorbush will go down in history as one of the greatest f*ckups of the XXI Century.

I am not sure whether the money corporations pay to have their head honchos will be worse in Juniorbush's hands or their hands. Certainly Juniorbush is not any sort of leader to emulate.

He has to be a prime dolt to announce publically that he is going to "replenish his coffers heh, heh". I seriouslyu doubt that his families coffers have been depleted one cent since he took office.

It may not be doltish to do this, but it sure as hell is doltish to say it. What a total knucklewalking slackjawed  ass this simpleton is!

Not capturing Osama Bin Laden is one of the most serious gaffes of the current Administration. It could have been accomplished and wasn't. Heads should have rolled. All the excuses in the world will not convince me it could not been done. I have been in situation similar to this and I ALWAYS achieved my primary objective, ALWAYS. The operational plan was flawed and no backup plans were adequate.

[hnumpah]

No, you should stick to what it's always been, and has never changed since the get go, the threat of WMD getting into the hands of militant Islamists, following the events of 911.

Ah, the manufactured reason. Sure, whatever you say.

Unless of course the idea is to be intellectually dishonest...

I'll leave that to you. You do it so well.

And we are there because after taking out that threat, it would have been morally reprehensible to have left the Iraqi populace in such a state, with the extreme liklihood of Iran & Syria taking over the Terrorist movement, with a brand new country to use, and it's people to abuse

Yeah. Better we abuse them.