If This President Never Concerned You...

If this President and Presidency hasn't, to date, concerned you, he and it should now.

Donald Trump 'considered invading Venezuela'

US president briefed not to mention the topic at dinner with leaders from four Latin American allies – but he did so anyway

Why on Earth would we, the United States, invade and attack Venezuela?

Because they're Socialists?

And then, when you get there, what do you do? Whom do you attack? What, precisely, would you be trying to do and/or undo?

What the heck?

Pres. Obama: 15th best president ever. So far

I love this:

Scholars Rank Obama the 15th Best President

A group of presidential scholars has ranked President Obama as the 15th best U.S. president of all time, a new survey shows...

Mr. Obama also has an advantage in the rankings over President Ronald Reagan, who came in 18th, but President Bill Clinton beats them both in 13th place.

The Siena College Research Institute's Survey of U.S. Presidents, which has been conducted five times since 1982, asked 238 presidential scholars to rank the 43 U.S. presidents on a number of characteristics.

The presidents were given rankings for six personal attributes (background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck and willingness to take risks), five forms of ability (compromising, executive, leadership, communication and overall), and eight areas of accomplishment (economic, other domestic affairs, working with Congress, party leadership, Supreme Court appointments, executive branch appointments, avoiding mistakes and foreign policy).

But here's the best part--the favorite part, for me, on top of Obama getting a good, solid ranking:

"his predecessor, President George W. Bush, is relegated to the bottom five.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

God I love that.

It gets better, too:

While he has only been in office a year and a half, Mr. Obama was rated highly in areas such as imagination, communication and intelligence.

By comparison, Mr. Bush was ranked 23rd when the survey was conducted in 2002, after his first year in office. This year, Mr. Bush was ranked 39th after receiving poor ratings in communication, foreign policy, intelligence, the economy and his ability to compromise. 

But wait, there's more!

Mr. Bush's best ranking came in the category of "luck," for which he was rated the 18th best president.

The four presidents who were ranked more poorly than Mr. Bush were Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, and Franklin Pierce.

That is some strongly negative company he's got there.

Give him time, too.  Ol' Dubya' may well get to the bottom yet.

(Thanks and a hat tip to friend Dave H for bringing this to my attention).

Link:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20009531-503544.html

Quote of the day--on the Iraq War

Those who brought this disaster down on us must be called to account for the fabrications, the embarrassment to our honor, and the waste of so many lives and resources. Until then, the conclusion to this sad chapter in Iraq will not have been written. --James Zogby, From "Lies and the War That Has Not Ended", President of the Arab American Institute, Author of Arab Voices (Palgrave Macmillan 10/10) Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/lies-and-the-war-that-has_b_705742.html

Sen. Robert Byrd, redux, after the arbitrary Iraq War began

And now, again from Sen. Robert Byrd, rest his soul, from September 13, 2006, long after George W. Bush, VP Dick Cheney and their administration arbitrarily took us into the long, wrong and humanly and materially costly war we now know: September 11 has come and gone, and as we remember those lost on that fateful day, and contemplate events since the horrific attack, one truth stands out. The war in Iraq has backfired, producing more recruits for terrorism, and deep divisions within our own country. It is a war we should never have begun. The detour from our attack on Bin Laden and his minions, hiding in the cracks and crevices of the rough terrain of Afghanistan, to the unwise and unprovoked attack on Iraq has been a disastrous one. … Where is the America of restraint, of peace and of inspiration to millions? Where is the America respected not only for her military might, but also for her powerful ideas and her reasonable diplomacy? Our country may have deviated occasionally from its positive global image in the past, but Abu Ghraib, the body snatching for torture, euphemistically called rendition, Presidential directives which unilaterally alter conditions of the Geneva Convention -- these are not the stuff of mere slight deviations from the America of peacefulness, fairness, and goodwill.… I cannot remember a time in our history when our elected leaders have failed the people so completely, and yet, so far, are not held accountable for costly misjudgments and outright deceptions. …Secretary Rumsfeld… President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. These men continue to try to make the American public swallow whole the line that the war in Iraq is the front line of a global war on terror, which must be continued at all costs. Stay the course, they say, despite three years of discouragingly little progress in Iraq.… Some of our citizens have apparently been convinced that it is unpatriotic to criticize one’s country when that country is engaged in an armed conflict. In fact, in our land today, there is a troubling tolerance for government overreaching on fronts at home as well as abroad. This Administration has repeatedly used fear and flag-waving to blunt the traditional American insistence on the Bill of Rights, personal freedom of thought and action, privacy, and one’s right to speak and write as one pleases. Such a cynical exercise on the part of high officials of our government is unconscionable. It is shameful behavior for which there is no excuse. The Congress, under the control of the President’s party has been submissive, a lap dog wagging its tail in appreciation of White House secrecy and deception. Even the vast majority of the opposition party has been too quiet for too long -- unable to find its voice, stunted by the demand to “support the troops.”… President Bush insists that his war must go on. He defends warrantless wiretapping of our own citizens as essential to his cause, despite a court decision that the President has no such authority under our Constitution. He defends torture and rendition, and says that they have produced valuable evidence which has subverted several terror attacks on our country. But, his credibility is so damaged that it is difficult to believe him. He demands the authority to hold terror suspects indefinitely, and then to try them using military tribunals which deny basic rights, also in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling. He seems convinced that he can “win” a global war on terror despite the demonstrated failure of his policies of unilateralism, militarism, overheated rhetoric, and a pathological dislike of diplomacy. It is up to the Congress to change course and to stop the heinous raiding of constitutionally protected liberties by a White House which does not fully appreciate the true meaning of the word freedom. I hope that we may find the courage. Link to original post: http://byrd.senate.gov/speeches/2006_september/rumsfeld_resignation.html