How can we forget about the publicity photos of Air Force One with military aircraft and Air Force One flying low over Manhattan. Bunch of smart folks we have.

 

Ha, ha, yeah, and how about the Iraq war? Oh wait, that was Bush.

Ok, ok, how about when the executive branch intentionally leaked the name of one of OUR spies to the media? Crap, Bush again.

How about that joke of an agency, TSA (trained scam artists)? My bad, Bush again.

Did you hear that Obama appointed over 100 former lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee? Wrong again, Bush again.

I'm no Obama cheerleader but I think there was enough corruption and screw-ups on both sides of the tracks.

 

But Obama was supposed to be the savior of hope and change......Bush was just a dumb redneck from Texas remember?

 

Slam bush all you want, but don't make up stuff to make him look worse. "One of our spies" lol... She wasn't an undercover operative or spy or even a field operative of any kind. She was a desk jockey, and one who had previously posed in vanity fair, wearing sunglasses to hide her identity (as if it needed to be hid). Which coincidentally, it didn't.

 

Sorry, Benny, but I must respectfully disagree.

She was accepted into the 1985–86 CIA officer training class and began her training for what would become a twenty-year career with the Agency and Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald affirmed that Plame "was a CIA officer from January 1st, 2002, forward" and that "her association with the CIA was classified at that time through July 2003. Due to the nature of her work for the CIA, many details about Plame's professional career are still classified, but it is documented that she worked for the CIA in a clandestine capacity relating to counter-proliferation.

Plame served the CIA as a non-official cover (or NOC), operating undercover in (at least) two positions in Athens and Brussels. While using her own name, "Valerie Plame", her assignments required posing in various professional roles in order to gather intelligence more effectively. Two of her covers include serving as a junior consular officer in the early 1990s in Athens and then later an energy analyst for the private company (founded in 1994) "Brewster Jennings & Associates," which the CIA later acknowledged was a front company.

A former senior diplomat in Athens remembered Plame in her dual role and also recalled that she served as one of the 'control officers' coordinating the visit of President George H.W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991. After the Gulf War in 1991, the CIA sent her first to the London School of Economics and then the College of Europe, in Bruges, for Master's degrees. After earning the second one, she stayed on in Brussels, where she began her next assignment under cover as an "energy consultant" for Brewster-Jennings. Beginning in 1997, Plame's primary assignment was shifted to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

She resumed travel overseas in 2001, 2002, and 2003 as part of her cover job. She met with workers in the nuclear industry, cultivated sources, and managed spies.[ Part of her work involved ensuring that Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.

On March 16, 2007, Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, at hearings about the disclosure of Plame, Waxman read a statement about her CIA career that had been cleared by CIA director Gen. Michael V. Hayden and the CIA, stating that she was undercover and that her employment status with the CIA was classified information prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958.

Whether or not she was 007, the "leak" of her name as being employed at the CIA in a covert capacity was against the law and against the nation's interests. It was orchastrated out of spite by an administration who played fast and loose with the Constitution and the rights of all american people in the name of "national security". Ben Franklyn said in 1759, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

 

You should read the book, "Sabotage" by Rowan Scarborough. He has the inside scoop on Valerie Plame, et al.

Richard Armitage could have ended that whole fiasco, but didn't. He basically held his peace when he knew who at the CIA leaked.

Keep in mind that the CIA has "career employees" and most of these "employees" are Democrats who absolutely hated GWB and incessantly leaked information the entire 8 years he was in office.

 

Did you hear Bush declared that, "lobbyists won't find a job in my White House"? Oh wait that was Obama. As of May thirty of 267 senior administration officials, about 11 percent of the president's top staff, had lobbied within the past five years. That's just five months into his presidency. That's JUST lobbyists.

Did you hear that Bush appointed a self avowed communist to be a special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation? Wrong again, Obama again. Should we talk about some of his other "advisors"?

So, for every wrong that Bush did, should we give Obama a pass for his wrongs? Because if that's what we're going to do, we can kiss our freedom loving country good bye. These wrongs should be an accumulation that motivates the people to demand that our government do the job that they swore an oath to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Wow, you have much insight. In any case, I present you with the "Plagiarism Medal" for your efforts.

Bravo....to another Obama "Kool Aid Drinker."

 

As I said, I'm no Obama fan either. Wrong is wrong and there should be no score card of acceptable wrongs. On his first day in office, Obama signed an executive order that requires any presidential appointees to sign a pledge precluding an appointee from participating “in any particular matter on which I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment” or accepting “employment with any executive agency that I lobbied within the two years before the date of my appointment.” As far as I can tell he made "an exception", read changed his mind, with two positions - William J. Lynn III, a former Raytheon Company lobbyist, to be deputy secretary at the Department of Defense and William Corr, a former anti-tobacco lobbyist, was named as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services. Supposedly Corr agreed not to involve himself with any issue related to tobacco. That's all I could find with a cursory search for lobbyist within the two year limit. The thirty of 267 is reaching back 5 years - 3 years further than the self imposed ban.

The point is people are making blanket statements with no facts to back them up. The same is true for health care reform. I know very little about the specifics of the plan, mostly because it will not effect me. But one think I keep hearing in the press and video of town hall meetings is, "I have insurance and don't want government health care" or "I like my coverage and don't want to change." Every objective source I've read states that the "government option" is for those with no coverage and those that have coverage will not be forced to change.

People criticize Bush for a momentary pause when he was told of the attack on 09/11 - gimme a break. I think when receiving such startling news from out of the blue it may take a moment to wrap your brain around it. Even for the president.

Sorry for the rambling. I just wonder why people, in general, refuse to hear other points of view or respect another side of an issue. Present a reasonable argument in a respectful tone and people will listen. They may not agree and may not be swayed by the information but all sides should be heard and respected. Back to the town hall meetings, if there was a lot less screaming and shouting perhaps their points may have been better received and not blown off as a conservative generated non-issue.

BTW - Kool-Aid is too sugary and will rot your teeth.