GWB Foundation???

With a Reunion Planned, Bush Eases Back Into the Public Eye
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/us/politics/11web-baker.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1

Good thing the shindig is in Dallas, or any number of them could be arrested for war crimes!

Seriously, though, a future George W. Bush Policy Institute?? This is just puzzling to me. Optimistically speaking, maybe it will have absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy. I mean, Iraq, 48 hour ultimatums, pre-emptive war, going to war based on WMD rumors and cartoons, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo, illegal combatants, declaring "war on terror", warrantless wiretapping, NSEERS, blind support for Israel (including its violations of law), double standard-requiring Palestinians to meet criteria that Israel refuses to meet, etc. There is a long list of really bad directions and wrong turns that were never corrected.

Maybe someone has learned a lot and will set up a foundation to study how all of these horrendous things happened- or how Bush's original plans (I'd like to think they started out noble enough) went so horribly, horribly wrong. Judging from Cheney and likes of others Bush surrounded himself with, though, I suspect it will be a foundation dedicated to correcting a few glitches (not teh torture, but the getting caught; not the secret prisons, but the public finding out about them, etc) in an otherwise grand and successful plan for a war on Islam, ahem terrorism, and forced American democratization (only recognized if your leader is approved by us, of course!) of the Middle East.

The guy has strong points. He did some good in Africa. Why not expand on that?

Please, please, please stay away from foreign policy!

Obama's War

Obama’s War on Terror May Resemble Bush’s in Some Areas
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/politics/18policy.html?ref=us

“Civil liberties groups praise Mr. Obama’s early executive orders on national security, but say other signs are discouraging.”

I have to concur. I was excited about the closing of Guantanamo, statement that waterboarding is torture, the administration is against torture (I know Bush said the same, but Obama seems to have policy to support that, rather than blatantly contradict it to some extent). However, the news about the loophole in the anti-torture policy, extraordinary renditions and state secrets policy were very disappointing.

Obama should take this opportunity to set things right. Stop using this “War on Terror” phrase. It is ridiculous to keep POWs for the duration of so-called wartime in this so-called war. It’s indefinite, unfocused, unending, and unwinnable. Like the War on Drugs. Did we win that one?

We should go back to the pre-Bush use of the state secrets policy (item by item rather than dismiss the whole thing based on one or two things) and extraordinary rendition (send the person back to their home country for legal proceedings rather than sending him to a 3rd party country to be held in detention indefinitely and probably tortured). Oh, I guess it’s not torture, it’s enhanced interrogation. Republicans (in my experience) are usually all about bashing PC language, but I guess Bush made it cool again with enhanced interrogation and illegal combatants, etc. Obama needs to draw a line in the sand and make a clear break with Bush’s more questionable policies and language. I'll cut him some slack on the posting a bill online for 48 hours (I heard an angry Republican blasting Obama for that on the radio the other day), but there's no excuse for continuing Bush's abuses of power, civil liberties, human rights and the like.

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

This is from one list I'm on. It mentions an interesting book where people detail their experiences with the Occupation, from 1948 or so to the present. It sounds really good. I like reading political stuff and stuff about the conflict, but this has the human interest aspect that I really really love.

“The U.S. president is not above international law”

Interview of Sam Bahour, Palestinian businessman and human-rights spokesperson
Mentions an interesting book…
http://www.michiganpeaceteam.org/LTT_Jan05_2008.htm

*******
This is from another list I'm on. I haven't gotten a chance to read most of this, but these are the highlights that sounded interesting and that I plan to read when I get a second.

ACTION 3: Racist Zionist says: “The Quran is a book of Hate”
Write to advertisers to stop advertising at this Islamophobe and racist show of Michael Savage. See this link for audio and action item details/contact information for advertisers:
http://nosavage.org?utm_source=rgemail
In the New York Times article on the subject of Savage and his background, we find:
“At one point Mr. Savage — who was born Michael Weiner, and who still is, legally, Michael Weiner — led a visitor to a glass case that included a photo of him as a boy wearing a tallit, or Jewish prayer shawl.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/arts/17sava.html
Jews especially need to disassociate themselves from bigots and racists like Weiner/aka Savage and David Frum. Their racism and bigotry if unchallenged by fellow Jews encourages anti-Semitism and hatred
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Must see debate between Zionist Neocon David Frum and George Galloway
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19099.htm
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Zionist Jews attack Barak Obama. See this vitriolic article that equates calling for an end to the occupation and balanced US foreign policy with “Anti-Semitism”. Bizarre but relevant to understand and to challenge.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/barack_obama_and_israel.html
The reality is that Obama has gone out of his way to ignore human rights to satisfy the political need to get the Israel-First Lobby
For a an article "How Obama Learned to Love Israel" http://www.electronicintifada.net/v2/article6619.shtml
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So, President Bush is in the Middle East trying to push a settlement of some sort. Could he be trying to make history for something besides unjustly attacking Iraq, Bushisms, and cowboy politics? It just isn’t going to happen. What did Annapolis accomplish? Nothing. Palestinians are still in a virtual (and actual) prison and Israelis are still running scared of suicide attacks. Israelis still say peace and moving forward is conditional upon Palestinian compliance with Israel’s list of demands. Israel is still not being held accountable for it’s human rights and international law violations and collective punishment of Palestinians. Conferences over the years are called and they talk about talking about peace. Deadlines come and go- didn’t Bush say near the beginning of his presidency there’d be a Palestinian state by 2006?

Bush: `Iran is a threat to world peace'

"Am I nudging them forward? Well, my trip was a pretty significant nudge because yesterday they had a meeting," he said.

-Ha! This is priceless. Classic Bush. Thinking he did more than he did. Trying to claim anything that happens as his doing in case something actually comes out of it. Then, he’d have his “Oslo” moment with photo op.

Rice's comments, published in The Jerusalem Post daily, marked the U.S. administration's strongest criticism yet of Israeli policies in disputed east Jerusalem.

Of unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank, Bush said simply: "The agreement was get rid of outposts -- illegal outposts. And they ought to go."

-Great about the outposts. He’s actually calling Israel out, but all settlements and enlargements of such are illegal by international law, not just new outposts.

I wrote this yesterday.