Bush Cheered at 9/11 Service

Hard to believe the New York Times even mentioned this.

At 9:03, the readers fell silent and the silver bell rang twice to mark the time that United Airlines flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.

Former President George W. Bush took his place behind the same lectern with the presidential seal where Mr. Obama had just stood.

Unlike Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush drew a brief cheer from the crowd before his reading.

Applause followed Mr. Bush as he left the stage.

President Bush Speaks in Shanksville

President Bush speaking at the dedication of a memorial to Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA. I had forgotten what it was like to have a president speak while not alternating back and forth to different teleprompters.

Behind Enemy Lines: Bush 'Miss Me Yet' T-Shirts Spotted on Martha's Vineyard

Won't be long before the Secret Service is confiscating this dangerous paraphernalia.

There seems to be a bit of a sea change regarding President Obama’s popularity, as judged by the offerings of businesses along Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs.

In past years, shops displayed mainly supportive stuff, like t-shirts extolling Obama’s virtues. However, this year a smirking George W. Bush t-shirt is getting laughs from window shoppers. It reads: “Miss Me Yet? How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?”

Also, Sharky’s Cantina, a Mexican joint on Circuit Avenue has discontinued their Barack-O-Taco and Barack-O-Guaco (guacamole) “due to the tough economy,” according to a sign outside the restaurant. The Obamarita still survives on the drinks menu, but it has been joined by a Perry Berry Tea-ni, a martini named for the Texas governor and Republican presidential nominee. Sharky’s is currently holding a (drinking) straw poll to gauge the popularity of the two contenders…

Next thing you know rebel tea party forces will be advancing on the Obama compound.

'It Was Like Walking Into Hell'

George W. Bush explains what was going through his mind as he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.

He said: 'My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children.'

Bush was sitting with a group of children who were reading aloud when he said he saw reporters at the back of the room getting the news on their cellphones, which he described as like 'watching a silent movie'.

Then his chief of staff Andy Card walked behind him and whispered in his ear: 'A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack.'

He said he realized a lot of people beyond that classroom would be watching for his reaction.

'So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm,' he said.

A sense of calm. Unlike his successor, who uses every "crisis" he can find to instill panic in the public.

He goes on to describe his most iconic moment in the aftermath.

In the hour-long interview, which will be broadcast on August 28 as part of a week of programmes on the cable network that mark the tenth anniversary of the attacks, Bush also said that visiting the site was like walking into hell.

He said: 'From the air it looked like a giant scar. But when I actually got to the site, it was like walking into hell.

Bush Nixes Appearance at Obama's Crass Ground Zero Victory Lap

Apparently it occurred to Obama that holding a Ground Zero pep rally might not be in good taste. So he tried to get George W. Bush to join in the festivities.

President Obama invited former President George W. Bush on a visit to Ground Zero on Thursday but Bush has declined, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Obama will travel to the site of the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11 in the days following the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. special forces operation in Pakistan. He will meet with families of Sept. 11 victims, according to the Associated Press.

Obama has had three recent fundraising trips to New York City, including one just last Wednesday. I guess he couldn't find the time during any of those trips to visit Ground Zero.

Info From Club Gitmo Detainees Eventually Led to bin Laden Killing

For all the caterwauling over the years about "harsh" interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, it must pain the New York Times to acknowledge that information obtained there eventually led us to Osama bin Laden.

Detainees at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had given the courier’s pseudonym to American interrogators and said that the man was a protégé of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

American intelligence officials said Sunday night that they finally learned the courier’s real name four years ago, but that it took another two years for them to learn the general region where he operated.

Still, it was not until August when they tracked him to the compound in Abbottabad, a medium-sized city about an hour’s drive north of Islamabad, the capital.

C.I.A. analysts spent the next several weeks examining satellite photos and intelligence reports to determine who might be living at the compound, and a senior administration official said that by September the C.I.A. had determined there was a “strong possibility” that Bin Laden himself was hiding there.

It was hardly the spartan cave in the mountains where many had envisioned Bin Laden to be hiding. Rather, it was a mansion on the outskirts of the town’s center, set on an imposing hilltop and ringed by 12-foot-high concrete walls topped with barbed wire.

The property was valued at $1 million, but it had neither a telephone nor an Internet connection. Its residents were so concerned about security that they burned their trash rather putting it on the street for collection like their neighbors.

While the death of bin Laden came on Barack Obama's watch, let's not forget George W. Bush remained steadfast all those years while the left whined and moaned about Club Gitmo.

Lupica: If That Dummy Bush Can Become President, So Can Palin

According to the miniature sportswriter, Palin's road to the White House is littered with potholes, mostly because she's really, really stupid, unlike a guy with a glaring factual error in his column.

Maybe nothing should surprise us at a time in America when Bush's popularity is as high it has been since he was starting wars under false pretenses. And when the only person who can knock him off the top of the best seller lists is Palin, whose new book comes out Wednesday.

Bush was the one-term governor of Texas who became President because his last name was Bush, because he was the affable son of a great American, because people liked him. Palin didn't even last a full term as governor of Alaska, quitting to become rich and famous and a darling of the media on the right the way Obama was the darling of the media from the other side in the last presidential election.

For a guy so busy telling us how dumb Bush and Palin are he might want to check his facts. Bush was elected governor of Texas twice.

But he and Palin are the idiots, not some little jocksniffer.

It is why you nearly fall down laughing when you hear Palin portraying herself as some victim of the media, even though the author of "America By Heart" - bless her heart - isn't trying to be funny. She certainly can't be talking about all the big, loud media guys in this country who get so tongue-tied and star-struck around her it's as if they're trying to ask her to the prom.

Her book will go to No. 1 and beat Bush. She has her own television show, produced by Mark Burnett, huge reality TV guy. Her fans try to fix "Dancing with the Stars" for her kid. She is Rupert Murdoch's current queen of all media. And her own best dance moves - about whether or not to run for President - are analyzed constantly.

Palin hates the media? It would be like Derek Jeter announcing he hates baseball.

It is unlikely that she can be elected President, mostly because she doesn't have an original thought in her head. But is it impossible, especially in the country we've got now? Are you kidding? Just look at how the current No. 1 on the best-seller lists, Barbara Bush's son George, is doing. All he had to do to make eight train-wreck years as President go away was go on a two-week book tour. Dick Cheney must be waiting for his own publication date like kids wait for Christmas.

All Bush had to do was be funny and self-deprecating, talk about how people were surprised he could "write a book, much less read one," and his approval ratings were right back where they used to be.

It had nothing to do with the book, by the way. Bush merely had to present himself as the good ol' boy people thought they were electing when he came out of Texas. Just like that, he found out he didn't even need to rewrite history. Everybody else was doing it for him.

Suddenly the dead and wounded of Iraq weren't supposed to matter. Or imaginary weapons of mass destruction. Or Katrina, or torture, or the economy holding as well on his watch as the levees of New Orleans.

No need to rewrite history when you have clowns like Lupica doing it for you.

Ironically, Palin actually has a journalism degree, unlike Lupica.

A Class Act: 'W' Refuses to Criticize Obama

Too bad Obama will never return the favor.

Even CNN is compelled to pay homage to Bush's decency.



Miss him yet?

Via RealClearPolitics. Cross-posted here.

Olmert Claims Bush Offered to Take 100,000 Palestinian Refugees

Well, nobody in the Arab world ever takes these people in, so why not us? No doubt this would have gone over well, if indeed there's any truth to it. Surely Obama would rather not take in 100,000. He'd probably prefer half a million.

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that the Bush administration had assured him that the United States would be willing to absorb some 100,000 Palestinian refugees immediately as American citizens, should Israel reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinian Authority.

The former premier told a Geneva Initiative conference in Tel Aviv that during negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 he had offered a solution to the refugee problem that would have been in line with the Arab League peace plan and promised that any measures would be the result of a coordinated agreement.

The Bush administration had offered this American contribution to the refugee problem as part of what would be a framework of international compensation, he said.

"I think that if the refugees - many of whom are already second or third generation [Palestinians] living outside of the territories – were given a choice between returning to Israel or the United States, we could guess what they would choose," he said.

How about choosing to go to a country like Jordan or Syria?

Now It Can Be Told: 'George W. Bush Was Very Smart'

Gee, he wasn't really dopey chimp whose puppet strings were pulled by the evil Darth Cheney? You mean a guy who flew fighter jets and ran businesses isn't really the dolt portrayed by the media elites?

Whodathunkit?

FORMER British Prime Minister Tony Blair said US President George W. Bush was "very smart," but his predecessor Bill Clinton was the smartest politician he ever met.

Speaking on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, Mr Blair was asked to talk about his relationships with Mr Clinton and Mr Bush.

Ms Amanpour read a section of Blair’s new memoir entitled A Journey in which the former prime minister wrote: "George W. Bush was very smart. He had an immense simplicity in how he saw the world. Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership."

In response, Mr Blair said: “Yes, it did. And I think, you know, it's easy to mock that simplicity. And it's easy to ignore the strength that sometimes comes with that.”

But when it came to Mr Clinton, he was even more effusive in his praise.

Asked if Mr Clinton was one of the smartest political minds he had ever come across, Mr Blair replied: “Oh, he's phenomenally smart. I mean, I think the smartest politician I ever came across, yes, I would say, Bill Clinton, yes.”

No doubt the reaction of the left will entail ridiculing Blair's intelligence for his assessment of Bush.

Ouch: Bush T-Shirts Outselling Obama on Martha's Vineyard

Please let there be a photo op where someone is seen wearing a t-shirt like this.

One barometer of the plunge in excitement has been the sale of Obama-themed T-shirts, which designers had been banking on after the craze of last year. Clothing labeled with the president’s name sold by the thousands, helping to salvage a tough economic year for the island.

But this year’s T-shirt sales are much less brisk, merchants say.

“Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year,’’ said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 “I vacationed with Obama’’ T-shirts last year. But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, “Miss me yet?’’

Residents have also noticed a drop in the number of stores with Obama posters on their front windows and homes with signs that welcome the first family.

What's remarkable is the Boston Globe even mentioned this and Obama's getting destroyed in the comments.

This will probably change soon once Obama's media fan club all shows up and dutifully scoops up their Obama gear.

'After This Obama Nightmare, the Bush Brand is Looking Pretty Good'

Time for a second look at Jeb Bush? Maybe. If he were actually to ascend to the presidency we could at least get back to legitimately blaming Bush for all our perceived ills.

Jeb Bush -- who was always derisively referred to as the smartest of the Bush brothers -- seemed presidential at the state Republican convention at the Sheraton New York on Wednesday night.

After Fox News pundit Monica Crowley fired up the crowd and Mayor Bloomberg drew surprisingly enthusiastic applause considering he left the GOP, Jeb spoke and brought down the house, leading to speculation that the former Florida governor will run for president.

Overhead from a top GOPer: "After this Obama nightmare, the Bush brand is looking pretty good."

The Republicans were also talking about how President Obama spent Memorial Day weekend in Chicago and VP Joe Biden vacationed in Southampton -- as the BP oil leak kept gushing.

"Imagine if George W. Bush or Dick Cheney had escaped to the Hamptons for some R&R in the middle of Katrina," scoffed one party loyalist.

Speaking of Dubya, he says if given the chance he'd be more than happy to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed again. That makes at least two of us. HuffPosters are outrageously outraged.

Laura Bush: Hey, You Ever Notice the Media Has a Double Standard When It Comes to the Obamas?

Yes, we're all painfully aware.

President Obama benefits from a double-standard in the press compared to her husband, Laura Bush said today — and Michelle Obama has managed to escape the pigeon hole Bush and other first ladies have gotten jammed in.

Asked on “Fox News Sunday” if the press would have been howling over the White House’s reaction to the BP oil spill even louder if it happened on George Bosh’s watch, the ex-First Lady said, “I think that’s right, probably.” And she didn’t think anyone should be surprised. “But you know, it’s just — that’s just how it is.”

It’s not just just President Obama who’s getting a break from the media, she said. Michelle Obama has escaped being stereotyped the way Laura was as “mumsy” staying home baking cookies.

“The press in general typecasts every woman that lives in the White House, the other first ladies, because always our first ladies have been a lot more interesting, a lot more complicated, than their box that they’re sort of put in,” Bush said.

But not Michelle.

“I think that she’s — and maybe this is just her age, that she’s younger,” Bush said. “But I think she’s been given the benefit of doubt more by the press than former first ladies,” Bush said.

Better look out, Laura, or you'll be called raaaaacist!

Of course nothing is ever Obama's fault since he's not responsible for anything, unlike Bush.

“I think that, you know, one of the things that happened when George was president was that everything, including the weather, became his fault,” she said.

Here's her interview today with Chris Wallace.

Crazed Teabagger Wanted to Shoot President 'Seven Hundred Times' and Said He 'Is the Anti-Christ'

Thank goodness we've got the Southern Poverty Law Center on the job otherwise we wouldn't have tracked down this wild-eyed extremist, who no doubt honed his hate skills out with the Democrat militia men in the Michigan woods. And if it weren't for those crack investigative reporters at Newsweek uncovering the spike in hate, maniacs like this would still be roaming free uttering lunatic statements like the commander-in-chief "is the anti-Christ and if Allah does not kill him then a brother will."

Oh wait, all this crazy talk was about Bush? This guy was plotting against Jews?

Never mind.

The alleged leader of a terror plot to bomb Jewish synagogues in Riverdale and shoot down military aircraft upstate is a "hate-filled, anti-Semite" who called Osama bin Laden his "brother," prosecutors allege in court papers filed today.

James Cromitie also told a government informant that he wanted to shoot former President Bush "seven hundred times," saying the 43rd commander-in-chief "is the anti-Christ and if Allah does not kill him then a brother will," the papers charge.

Federal prosecutors in White Plains say Cromitie was repeatedly caught on tape making "lengthy rants" inside a house wired by the FBI after he unwittingly introduced himself to a government informant at the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque in upstate Newburgh in June 2008.

Responding to Cromitie's claims that he was entrapped, the feds say the informant -- who's been identified by the defense as Shaheed Hussain -- "was actually working on another investigation" at the time and "had no idea who Cromitie was."

But after the informant told Cromitie he was a member of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, Cromitie allegedly responded "without hesitation" that he wanted to join up and "do jihad."

Funny how the kook left who called BS on these arrests are quick to link the aformentioned militia members as tea partiers and ominous threats to America.

At least they're consistent. Consistently idiotic.

As it was throughout the Bush years. Whenever a terror plot was disrupted, be it Fort Dix or the Lackawanna Six as a couple of examples, the left reflexively "questioned the timing" and accused Bush and Cheney of "scaring" people. Yet now the slightest inkling of anything "anti-government" and the immediate reaction is to blame tea partiers in a lame attempt to smear and discredit them. They cannot see that there indeed are bad guys who want to do harm
and refuse to see that people voicing their honest distrust of government are not the same as them.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Obama Saves or Creates Jobs at CafePress

As a result of Barack Obama's disastrous presidency, sales of George W. Bush goods has skyrocketed at Web merchandiser CafePress. Expect Obama to take credit for this before long.

Apparently someone really DOES miss Dubya.

Items featuring a smiling former President George Bush and the question, "Miss Me Yet?" are doing a brisk business as sales of pro-President Obama items lag, reports the Web shopping site CafePress.

Demand for the items spiked after a billboard featuring the ex-commander in chief appeared alongside a rural Minnesota highway last week, stirring up buzz.

CafePress spokeswoman Jenna Martin said sales of Bush-related products virtually disappeared after Obama replaced him.

But last week, she said, 10 of the firm's top-selling 100 designs were "Miss Me Yet?" items, moving to the tune of up to 500 orders a day.

Ridicule is quite popluar these days. More items goofing on Obama are sure to be big sellers.

'I Was Ready to Put Him Back in Office'

Looks like George W. Bush really did motivate someone in his debut last night as a motivational speaker.

Joining the ranks of Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins and several past leaders of the free world, former President George W. Bush made his first foray into motivational speaking Monday at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

"Every single day, I was honored to be your president by bringing honor and dignity to the office," Bush said to more than 11,000 people as the premier guest of the Get Motivated business seminar.

Bush, who lives in Dallas, spoke in a relaxed tone about how he stands by the decisions he made as president and encouraged others to stick to their principles and live each day to its fullest.

"It’s so simple in life to chase popularity, but popularity is fleeting," said Bush, who battled low approval ratings during his second term. "It’s not real."

The former Texas governor was greeted warmly by the Metroplex crowd.

"I was ready to put him back in office," said Richard Jones of Cleburne following Bush’s speech.

Get Motivated is the latest incarnation of Peter and Tamara Lowe’s traveling convoy of celebrity-delivered entrepreneurial optimism, still strong after more than 20 years.

The couple launched Tampa, Fla.-based Get Motivated Seminars Inc., after Success Events International shut down in 2001, owing millions in unpaid bills and facing complaints from attendees of false advertising. Before that, the Lowes’ daylong events had been held under other company names including Peter Lowe International, a nonprofit.

Bush joins a long line of presidents, including his father, George H.W. Bush, who have spoken at Lowe seminars.

Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford have all headlined Lowe’s events. Other Texans who have been a part of the series include former first lady Laura Bush and late Gov. Ann Richards.

Other speakers at Monday’s event included long-standing Lowe speakers: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and motivational speaker Ziglar.

A spokesperson for Get Motivated would not say how much the company pays its speakers, but personal finance disclosure forms filed by Giuliani in 2007 during his presidential campaign showed that he was paid $100,000 per Get Motivated speech in 2006.

There's one obvious difference between Bush and his successor.

Speaking without a tele-prompter, Mr Bush didn’t make any of the verbal gaffes for which he has become famous.

Yes, he's famous for his gaffes. When Obama makes them it the TelePrompter's fault.

Desperate Dems Still Running Against Bush: 'It Will Be a Failed Strategy'

Well, it's not as if they have any accomplishments of Obama's to point to and considering how they're losing both of these races, is it any surprise they're going back to the bash Bush playbook?

Sure, it reeks of desperation, but what else have they got?

Facing the increasing likelihood of losses in the 2010 midterm congressional and gubernatorial elections, President Obama and his fellow Democrats are returning to a tried-and-true campaign strategy — run against former President George W. Bush.

In speech after speech since taking office, Mr. Obama has pointed back to the problems he inherited from the Bush administration when he took office. And earlier this month, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine catalogued a slew of perceived Bush failures to the delight of supporters.

Already, Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey are testing the strategy — so far, however, unsuccessfully.

"It will be a failed strategy," said Karl Rove, former senior political adviser to Mr. Bush. "They have been doing that very intentionally in New Jersey and Virginia thus far, and both their candidates are behind."

As a New Jersey resident I cannot come up with a single significant accomplishment of Jon Corzine's outside of surviving his stint as a crash-test dummy a couple of years ago.

Corzine is already playing the abortion card, a tried-and-true staple in New Jersey, along with bashing gun owners. I expect those ads to be rolled out before long.

He has nothing else.

Joe Biden admitted yesterday it's game over if they lose big in 2010.

They're running scared.

Cue up the Democrat theme song:

NBC Hires Bush Daughter

She's kept a very low profile in recent years and I must say the last network that you'd think of hiring a Bush--or any Republican for that matter--is NBC.

You can imagine Keith Olbermann's head exploding right about now.

NBC's "Today" show has hired someone with White House experience as a new correspondent — former first daughter Jenna Hager.

The daughter of former President George W. Bush will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television's top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, said she has always wanted to be a teacher and a writer, and has already authored two books. But she was intrigued by the idea of getting into television when Bell contacted her.

"It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

Leftwing Icon To Be Released From Prison

I know, I know, you say there are plenty of leftwing heroes in jail, but this one in particular became an instant icon for an attempted assault on President Bush last year. He'll likely start a speaking tour of college campuses and do the rounds on the news chat shows pretty soon. Probably will become a HuffPost blogger in the not-too-distnt future since he's already got his journalist credentials.

An Iraqi journalist jailed after hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said Saturday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world amid anger over the 2003 invasion.

He has been in custody since the Dec. 14 outburst, which occurred as Bush was holding a joint news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He was initially sentenced to three years after pleading not guilty to assaulting a foreign leader, then the court reduced it to one year because the journalist had no prior criminal history.

'Therapy Isn't Going to Cause Terrorists to Change Their Mind'

Sure, maybe not therapy, but that smooth Obama charm no doubt will.

Won't it?

Mr. Bush weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the election in Iran, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and his administration's interrogation policies of terrorists held there and elsewhere. The former president has not commented on Mr. Obama's decision to ban "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding, which the current president has called "off course" and "based on fear."

"The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," he said, adding that the country needs to stay on offense, not defense. On Guantanamo, which while in office Mr. Bush said he wanted to close, the former president was diplomatic.

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

How long this morning until the left collectively flips out over the fact George W. Bush has something to add to the debate?

Repeating a mantra from his presidency, he called the current war against terrorism an "ideological conflict," asserting that in the long term, the United States needs to press freedom and democracy in corners across the world.

Would be nice if the Great Flyslayer helped push for democracy in Iran. Actually, why do that when you're busy stripping away freedom and democracy in this country?

Mr. Bush did not directly address Mr. Obama's response to the election in Iran, which some critics have called tepid, but he did make clear that the outcome is very much in dispute. For a fifth straight day, as the Obama administration walks a tightrope by issuing little criticism, protesters gathered in Tehran to demand a new election.

"Clearly, there's a level of frustration on the Iranian streets," Mr. Bush said. "It looks like it's not a very fair election."

Whatever happened to Obama's spine of steel?

When the Iranian regime begins slaughtering protesters, will Obama come out from under his desk and issue another call for dialogue?