You're too funny.

"According to an August 2003 article in the Washington Post, President Bush has spent all or part of 166 days during his presidency at his Crawford, Texas, ranch or en route. Add the time spent at or en route to the presidential retreat of Camp David and at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation. Although to be fair, much of this time is classified as a "working vacation."

What about Clinton? As of December 1999, President Bill Clinton had spent only 152 days on holiday during his two terms, according to CBS News. A former staffer noted Clinton was such a workaholic that "it almost killed Clinton to take one-week vacations during August."...And in barely three years in office, George W. Bush has already taken more vacation than Clinton did in seven years"

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"Go yell at an M&M"

"Dewey Defeats Truman"

A rather famous headline from the past.

Just a thought.

Brett

so Ken, who do really think is in charge? Reminds me of an article I just read about Reagan - he met for an hour alone with Gorby and afterwards couldn't recall a single thing they talked about. Yeah, Ron was a great President, too.

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As I said before, the president is rarely on vacation. No matter where he goes he's always on duty. An entourage of people go with him to ensure he's always in the know. One doesn't have to be at the White House sitting at the desk to be working.

yeah, you go on telling yourself that, if it makes you feel better

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Telling oneself the truth make me feel good...it's up to others to believe what they want...

Follow the money...and the ideology. I believe that Bush is totally out of the loop for important things: he's said he's a delegator, and I believe him. He lacks the intellectual curiosity that is required to make decisions as important as the ones assigned to his office, so he lets others make those decisions for him.

Cheney (the Money) and Rumsfeld (the Ideology) are in charge. Cheney for his background (and current investment!) in the energy industry, Rumsfeld for his Vulcan background (and further back than that). You hear that report today that Cheney used the F-word on the Senate floor while arguing with Pat Leahy? Gotta love it.

As for the Reagan thing: anyone remember when a reporter's directional microphone picked up Nancy Reagan telling her husband (word for word) how to respond to a question? How scary is it that this woman, who consulted an astrologer for cryin' out loud, was a driving force in the latter years of Reagan's presidency?

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Ken, I thought he was a uniter, not a divider! lol

"Rumsfeld for his Vulcan background"

does Spock know about this?

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I'm still waiting for him to hire experts.

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He's got a tremendous team surrounding him. Rice, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld...All have outstanding resumes and are all true experts.

yeah, like the parking garage attendants from "Ferris Bueller"

"relax, we're professionals"

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So when the hired experts fuck up, who takes the responsibility? For instance, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al. fell for Chalabi's nonsense hook, line and sinker. His "intelligence" appears to be the basis for much of the rationale for the war in Iraq; he's now persona non grata. He was nothing that Rumsfeld thought he was, but he was and is a self-serving liar who served up on a silver platter the nonsense that tied in neatly to Rumsfeld's comfy world view.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Point taken but this is an election like no other.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

Thanks for your informative rant. I feel better now. Bye!

Thanks for clearing that up and indicating that you don't need to "dig into" the facts underlying the investigations of Clinton and the impeachment. I feel better now.

Outstanding resumes? Are you serious? This is how you judge leadership and expertise? I've got some news for you - expertise and leadership are about knowing what to do and getting it done.

You seem to have suspended all judgment for their performance this term. I'm sure their resumes are fine, but at the end of the day this is about performance, and given that Iraq is in shambles, the planning was shoddy, and the security situation is this close to completely breaking down, I think even the most casual observer would suggest that it's pretty much a disaster.

Now at this point you will be looking for somebody else to blame. It's the fault of the French. No, it's the fault of the insurgents. Hey, it's Saddam's fault. Or Bin Laden. And if all fails, it's Clinton's fault. Well guess what - we were under compulsion to invade Iraq. If one takes on that awesome responsibility, one should plan for all contingencies, including occupations, including insurgencies, including post-war reconstruction with the appropriate NGOs and the UN.

Instead, what did they do? Well, it's pretty well-documented that they in fact strongly discouraged any post-war reconstruction planning because it felt to them like creating barriers to invasion. Even Zinni himself said that securing the cities against looting is the absolute first thing you do when removing a government. I mean, Jesus, its the first thing we do here if there's a blackout. And the fact that NGOs, who's sole purpose in life is to rebuild societies weren't brought into the process until shit started to fall apart is beyond incompetent - it's simply indefensibly crooked. And given that you're occupying a nation, and most nations in my experience don't like being occupied, especially with a power vacuum, you can expect nasty insurgencies like this. Especially in the Middle East.

So your admiration of these folks, with the exception of Powell, is frankly puzzling. Rice is a Sovietologist by training, which has made her transition to this monopolar terrorist world quite difficult, as documented. Rumsfeld is a 70s retread whose great contributions are underreporting the forces necessary for the occupation and redefining the word "torture", while Cheney is a hard-bitten political warrior who helps his friends and hurts his enemies, regardless of what is good for the people. Oh, and he likes to tell Senators in the Congressional Chamber to "fuck off".

Judge them on their performance, no more, no less.

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"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here." - Alvy Singer, "Annie Hall"

I always feel better when I can impart information to people who were previously unaware...

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Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
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