Everyone on the wrong side of the political spectrum love to bitch that the financial disaster that the U.S. is suffering is due to Bush’s spending. I will agree that domestically GW was a lousy President, his tax cut package after 9/11 was the only thing he did right. He tried 15 times to reign in the Democrats on Fannie and Freddie, but was unable to do it. Those two banks caused the economic collapse.
Lets look at reality, in GWs 8yrs as President he ran up a a 4.9 Trillion Dollar Deficit. A debt level unheard of. In that debt is included the 910 Billion dollar cost of both the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters in the War on Terror.
Now lets look at Barry, President Obama will reach the 4.9 Trillion Dollar Deficit mark from his Presidency on March 15th 2012. If you extrapolate it out to the end of his term, if not god forbid re-elected, the number is 6.2 Trillion. That’s over 22% more than Bush in HALF the time. And even though those numbers do include his spending of 600 Billion of his cost for pulling out of Iraq, and the failing Obama Surge in Afghanistan, those numbers do NOT include his illegal war in Libya, since the cost of that truly illegal war are still classified.
Now the icing on the cake is ole Bouncing Barry campaigned calling Bush UNPATRIOTIC for accruing such a debt over 8 years, and even though congress voted and authorized ALL action and spending for the War on Terror, he called Iraq an illegal war.
So his answer to two of his biggest campaign attacks was to spend the same amount of money in half the time, and open a third military theater in direct defiance of, the Constitution, The War Powers Act, and the vote of Congress. Yes a true historical figure……LOL
My numbers can be verified by going to The Debt to the Penny and Who Holds It a nifty little site run by the Treasury Dept (but the left will be challenged, because you have to figure out what you want to know)
Interesting to see that those new Libyan leaders have shown their sincere thanks for our militray help in toppling Gadaffi by…..making it clear that the Libyan Pan Am Bomber Megrahi will NOT be released to the US or the UK. They have also made it crystal clear that the alleged killer of UK PC Yvonne Fletcher will NOT be released to the UK if located. Replacing one monster with a multiheaded hydra may not be a great result.
“History is the most inescapable of subjects: we inherit it, we make it, and we are fated to become part of it. In our education system, however, its study is increasingly neglected: indeed, in a large number of British schools, the end of history is already a reality.
Last year, a total of 159 secondary schools did not put a single pupil forward for history GCSE. In state comprehensives, the number of pupils taking the subject has fallen to 29.9 per cent; in private schools, it has dipped to 47.7 per cent. The only sector where numbers are rising is state grammars, where it is taken by 54.8 per cent.
What the statistics suggest is that the least well-off pupils are also fated to be the most ignorant both of their personal cultural history, and that of the country in which they live. This is, in part, because history is perceived as a “hard” subject. Eager to shine in the league tables, schools with an academically problematic intake shepherd pupils towards “softer” subjects, in which higher marks can more easily be guaranteed. I cannot think of a more depressing illustration of the gulf between “performance” and education.
The pitiful irony is that it is children from poorer, and often more dysfunctional backgrounds that have the greatest need – and thirst – for history. For history, whether of family or nation, is the story of identity, the construction of which is the most primitive, deep-seated urge there is. If you cannot articulate where you came from or what you believe in, and are given few intellectual or emotional tools with which to do so, you are fated to become the most unstable, combustible human material of all.”
Our caring NHS – this time around a hospital trust’s decision to give nurses ‘Do Not Disturb’ uniforms to wear during routine ward duties to prevent patients from speaking to them.
Yes, that’s right – it’s about stopping patients talking to nurses
When nurses are wearing the bright red tabards, patients have to address any concerns to care assistants, who do not have clinical qualifications. The hospital says interruptions, such as patients asking questions about toilets and meal times, stop nurses from doing their jobs properly and could lead to patients being given the wrong medication.
Perhaps it would be best if patients could avoid going to hospital and thus freeing up even more time for the nurses concerned?
They include LIFG leader Abdelhakim Belhaj, described in recent days as the rebel commander in Tripoli. Another rebel leader and LIFG member, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, is also an ex-Gitmo detainee, as The New York Times has pointed out. And another rebel leader, Abdul Hakim al-Hasadi, as John Rosenthal has reported, admitted to Italian media earlier this year not only to “fighting against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but also to recruiting Libyans to fight against American forces in Iraq.” Some of those same recruits “have come back and today are on the front at Ajdabiya,” al-Hasadi explained, referring to a northeastern Libyan town. “They are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists. The members of al-Qaida are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader,” al-Hasadi added.
Is this entire “Arab Spring” a phantasm of a largely deluded media? I have maintained this from day one and others are coming to the same conclusion. Here’s Peter Hitchins today…
” The moment has come to admit that I loathe the Arab Spring and almost everything about it. It looks to me pretty much like a football crowd armed with AK-47s and bazookas, with the added ingredient of Islamic militancy. Why am I expected to like it? For we are all supposed to approve of it. Every media outlet, every politician, every church pulpit, treats it as an unmixed Good Thing. Not me. I look at these wild characters in baseball caps and tracksuit bottoms blasting ammunition into the sky (often killing or injuring innocents far away, but they don’t care) and I am mainly thankful that they are a long way off. I suppose it is possible that this lot will miraculously create a law-governed democracy with freedom of speech and conscience. But I somehow shan’t be surprised if they don’t.”
Watching tyrants overthrown from Tunisia, to Egypt and now in Libya is a pleasure BUT we have to be very careful that we are not actively collaborating in the emergence of an arc of militant Islam right across this area. The law of unintended consequences has a tradition of making fools of us all.
( Red areas on map could flood over the weekend. Click to enlarge )
Wednesday, the great Northeast had an earthquake. Which was an interesting topic of conversation, and not much more than that.
Three days later, a hurricane is about to hit. This has done damage down south, and it will do damage here.
Here in NYC, our authorities shut down the subway and all the local rail and bus lines 12 noon ( almost nine hours ago ). This was WAY too early, but the mayor was roasted over the coals when the city didn’t shovel the snow after an earthquake last January. Little Mike will never allow himself to be criticized again. It’s a wonder they didn’t shut down the trains on Thursday.
The Phantom Estate rests on a reasonably high elevation, so I don’t fear flooding at home, but lower Manhattan is low lying and close to the water and things may not be so good. It is quite possible that the area around my office on Water Street / Fulton Street ( near Wall St ) will be flooded over the weekend. It is also possible that even without major flooding that the subway won’t be up Monday morning. If there is no subway but the office is open, I will commute by bicycle. Cuz the work’s gotta get done.
Here’s Algore saying that those that don’t swallow his con-game on the environment are racists. What I really enjoy is his lies about his reaction back in the day. Back in the day, Al Gore Sr. Algores daddy was the leading Senator AGAINST civil rights in America.
So just as we are supposed to believe Oil the greatest substance on Earth has doomed us all to a fiery death, we are to believe that while daddy was keeping blackey in his place, Jr was what marching with King?….lol File it under his believing also that he invented the internet.
ATW does not operate on fresh air! We have running costs and if you want to give us a hand, once a year, then HIT THE TIP and feed the beast that is our hosting company!
You do not defeat terrorism by rewarding terrorists, regardless of how many bleeding heart liberals argue otherwise. Want to know where that flawed approach leads to? Read UNIONISM DECAYED 1997-2007 - It's my first book and it explains what happens when you seeek to appease terrorists and call it peace. It's available right now for ATW readers so make sure you get your copy by emailing the editor! This is the book that dissents from the herd mentality that doing wrong can lead to being right. It doesn't and this book spells out WHY.
