You lefties think I'm a blind-sheep follower? Well, you're wrong. I have two serious criticisms of W. 1. He has recently broken Clinton's spending record at this point in his administration. The man cannot stop spending our money. I understand that their is a war on and everything, but we ought to be required to make some sacrifices to attain victory, like the home front in the two world wars did. We're all grown ups, we can handle it. It is time to reign in spending Mr. President. NOW! 2. Saudi Arabia IS NOT OUR FRIEND! Saudi Arabia has NEVER been our friend. Stop pretending that they are. Stop covering for them! Stop apologizing for them! Open your eyes and realize that the evil Wahhabi cult of Saudi Arabia is the engine driving the car that is global radical Islam. And oil money is their gasoline, literally. You may choose to keep the 28 pages classified, but it's too late. We all know what they say. We've known since Sept. 12th, when it became public knowledge that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi and that Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi, was the mastermind. The Saudi royals have been bankrolling Al-Qaida and other Shar'ia worldwide nut groups to keep them from fomenting Islamic Revolution in the Kingdom. So what do they do instead? They foment it around the globe. Everything from madrassahs in Pakistan to train young boys to become new Islamic kill-bots to paying cash bounties to the families of Hamas suicide bombers to building "religious institutions" and "charities" in the U.S. And all the while, the Administration and most major oil companies and We the People gleefully fund our own destruction and pretend things aren't so bad or shrug and say, "We can handle the fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia if we just keep supporting the House of Saud." WRONG! The royal house is part of the problem. None of ya'll can see that all you're doing is holding a garbage can lid down on a volcano. Sooner or later it's gonna blow, and a lot of innocent people are gonna get burned. Deal with Saudi Arabia Mr. President. NOW! Or the day will not be far off when we will be forced to send another 300,000 man army to the Gulf region. Or, God forbid, retarget our ICBMs a thousand miles to the south.
Not to mention his administration's stance on Affirmative Action. Had I known his administration would file an amicus supporting Affirmative Action, I would have supported another Republican for the nomination in 2000. Talk about alienating his base.
On AA, Bush is trying to play both sides against the middle while appealing to black voters for 2004. I don't exactly agree with what he said, but I understand why he did it. I'm very outspoken against affirmative action myself, and am a firm believer that any kind of unequal race-based treatment, pro or con, is unconstitutional. That said, Bush thinks he has to at least give tacit support to "soft affirmative action" (non quota) at least to get enough centrists and blacks to vote for him. I don't think he's going to get ahead on that front though. I can live with that. One day very soon AA will run it's course, and believe it or not, it won't be the GOP or shafted white folks who pull the trigger. It will be highly successful blacks who are insulted that the liberal establishment thinks giving them a booster seat is the only way for them to reach the grown-ups table. But that's still a long way off. Saudi Arabia and their tacit support of terror is an issue of grave national concern RIGHT NOW! We need to deal with this the right way.
The 28 pages are blank not to protect the Saudi's but rather to protect the ongoing war against terrorism. To declassify this info would be to jeopardize ongoing investigations/operations. The military and to an extent, the government must operate on a right and need to know basis. The constitution does not grant John Q. the right to have access to everything.
I'm not exactly against W. Biggs. I concur with about 80% of his foreign policy. Besides Saudi Arabia, I have a list of nations who are not really our friends that I'd like him to deal with (Germany, China, Mexico, and Russia for starters.) And I would like him to get REAL TOUGH with North Korea and Iran. Other than that, all cool. I approved of the Iraq war, I approve of national missile defense, I approve of the way he is handling issues with Israel (although I don't like that Holocaust denying scum Abbas being allowed to defile the White House, peace sometimes means negotiating with people you don't like), and honestly, I approve of his handling of the War on Terror and I could care less what "world opinion" says. On domestic issues, I once again, agree with 75 to 80 percent of his agenda. He is doing what he can with a razor thin majority in Congress and screaming moonbat leftists hounding him at all turns. I approve of the tax cuts, but it don't make much since to cut taxes and continue spending. Like I said, we are in a war, and I can make sacrifices if everyone else can. Let's ration gas and cut some social programs if we have too. Let's scale back a little bit on tax cuts. Let's do what we have to do to wipe out radical Islam and pacify the remnants of the Axis of Evil. I approve of his education reform (Leave No Child Behind) but I don't think it goes far enough. I'd like vouchers (on the state level though), and I'd like to abolish the Dept. of Education and re-establish local control of public schools. Most of my gripes are like that. He's conservative, but not conservative enough for my tastes. In short, I guess I'm like any other armchair quarterback who just knows I could do better. But what do I know. Besides, call it a gut feeling, but I think W.'s going to go quite a bit further to the right once he wins re-election. Right now, he's trying to keep everybody happy, which is IMPOSSIBLE. That would be my number one bit of advice to him.
SabanFan, I would concur with your analysis if I believed Bush could possibly get fed up enough with the Saudis, despite all their oil and money, to finally drop the hammer on them. But even if an investigation is ongoing, nothing will come of it. So why even bother with the charade? Everybody knows the Saudis have been funneling millions (if not BILLIONS) to Al-Qaida and other radical groups for years. When are we finally going to do something about it? Does the House of Saud have to fall to a bloody Wahhabi revolution and does Saudi Arabia have to acquire nukes, then launch on Israel and our boys in Iraq, before the White House finally understands that Saudi Arabia is not our friend?
A lot of latent discrimination exists in the business world - some system needs to be developed to stop it. I saw it a lot when I came out of college in the early 1980s, see it less now but it exists. Lily white boardrooms are not a good thing and that's the good thing AA brings - or should bring. It's true it usually helps those that don't need it or don't deserve it
That is another issue entirely. I was speaking only to the blank 28 pages. I would love to debate the wisdom of coming down hard on the Saudis, however, I suspect there are many potential (downside) ramifications and we observers are not privy to that information.
