Thread: Is Pres. Bush stupid or just plain dumb?

Grumble Grumble Grumble

To quote from the CNN news article located here...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/09/pak....ap/index.html

Musharraf has asked other nations for help, particularly cargo helicopters to bypass roads that have been made impassible by mudslides.

The U.S.-led coalition and a separate NATO-led peacekeeping force have dozens of heavy-lift choppers and transport airplanes in Afghanistan. Many are based near Kabul, about 300 miles from areas worst hit by the earthquake.

So are you saying that Bush should have ordered all military cargo choppers back to the US to help hurricane relief, (though the weeks that would have been required to fly them back, by the time they arrived, they would no longer be needed...) Or are you saying that the US should give up being a world superpower, recall all of it's military forces, fortify the borders and isolate itself from the world... But this would make it hard import oil, cars, clothing, and other materials that keep the US economy going...

If the military helicopters are in the region, what's wrong with using them to help a US ally. And if the US didn't help with earthquake relief in the region, don't you think that bin Laden and his al Qaeda cronies would point this out for propaganda to further turn the people in the region against US interests...

My problem is the money. It's not at all the choppers. I couldn't care less about the choppers. It's the fact that it's already costing the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars to fix our own country, yet we continue to spend money on foreign problems. It's just a bit shocking to me how everyone wants to point out how bad the U.S. debt problem is, but we're doing nothing to fix it. We're too eager to be the good guy. It's not so bad to be a little selfish and call someone else out to put forth more effort in helping with foreign problems every now and then.

Let the French take over our part of it!

Here's the thing with all this. I'm not necessarily saying it's "wrong". I just wish that I'd hear stories about how much we're doing for ourselves instead of how much we're doing for everyone else. There's always a price to pay for fixing something, I realize this. I'd much rather pay that price now than have to pay it all at one time 30-40 years down the road, however. If this keeps up, we may be considered a 3rd-world country askin' for the same help we've been giving and never having the ability to be independent again by 2525. Again, personal opinion, to an extent.

Grumble Grumble Grumble

Originally Posted by Agent Orange 216

My problem is the money. It's not at all the choppers. I couldn't care less about the choppers. It's the fact that it's already costing the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars to fix our own country, yet we continue to spend money on foreign problems. It's just a bit shocking to me how everyone wants to point out how bad the U.S. debt problem is, but we're doing nothing to fix it. We're too eager to be the good guy. It's not so bad to be a little selfish and call someone else out to put forth more effort in helping with foreign problems every now and then.

Let the French take over our part of it!

Here's the thing with all this. I'm not necessarily saying it's "wrong". I just wish that I'd hear stories about how much we're doing for ourselves instead of how much we're doing for everyone else. There's always a price to pay for fixing something, I realize this. I'd much rather pay that price now than have to pay it all at one time 30-40 years down the road, however. If this keeps up, we may be considered a 3rd-world country askin' for the same help we've been giving and never having the ability to be independent again by 2525. Again, personal opinion, to an extent.

The problem your describing isn't so much a problem with stupidity of the national leadership, it's stupidity of the majority of the voting public. There was a plan created by President Clinton and agreed to by the congress to balance the federal budget, but was abandoned by the current administration during it's first term. Yet despite abandoning the plan for fiscal responsibility, Bush was re-elected for a second term and claimed having a mandate from the voters for his policies. Evidently, balanceing the budget was not an important enough issue to vote Bush out of office. And as long as the majority of the voting public don't care enough about the issue to change their decision at the ballot box, don't expect any changes to happen...

(There's an old European saying that goes... 'People always get the Goverment they deserve...')

Originally Posted by LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

The problem your describing isn't so much a problem with stupidity of the national leadership, it's stupidity of the majority of the voting public. There was a plan created by President Clinton and agreed to by the congress to balance the federal budget, but was abandoned by the current administration during it's first term. Yet despite abandoning the plan for fiscal responsibility, Bush was re-elected for a second term and claimed having a mandate from the voters for his policies. Evidently, balanceing the budget was not an important enough issue to vote Bush out of office. And as long as the majority of the voting public don't care enough about the issue to change their decision at the ballot box, don't expect any changes to happen...

(There's an old European saying that goes... 'People always get the Goverment they deserve...')

I like it. Good point. Stupid voters.
Since I turned 18 I've put in some time at the ol' booth. Everything I vote for seems to be the opposite of what the nation's majority chooses though. It leads me to believe, in a lot of cases, that the people voting have no idea what they're voting on. It takes a lot of reading to understand some of these propositions and what not, but it seems that the majority sees a commercial on TV that says "Vote YES on Prop 303" and they figure, "Sure, I'll do that."
I would support a monarchy. People are too dumb to think for themselves, generally speaking. Besides, if your dad's a football star, you should play football. If your dad's a king, you should probably be a king.

Originally Posted by Agent Orange 216

How about some feedback... How do you feel about this?

How about this?

You're a selfish little bugger if you think that we shouldn't send a few choppers to assist our allies to save lives. You complain that we spend money to kill people then complain when we spend money to save people. We send money and equipment to help anyone we can, ally or not. It's called having charity for our fellow man. I only pray that the day doesn't come that the most prosperous nation on the earth isn't to stingy to care about people who are dying simply because they are not our citizens.

If you want the government to save money try yelling at your Represetitive about all the pork that goes into every budget instead of insulting the President for trying to help save lives.

My point is STILL not that it's a problem that he's saving lives and I say AGAIN that I'm not saying it's necessarily "wrong". My point is, take care of your own first, worry about the others second.
There's such a thing as being TOO generous. Generosity can drive this country right out of prosperity.
Also, it's not just Bush and like I said before, the title of the thread is more of a joke than anything else. The government as a whole needs to take a step back and look at it from a different perspective.
Wonderful, we're the good guys. We're prosperous. We're driving ourselves into a hole we'll never be able to get out of. I'm more concerned about how we're going to remain prosperous than anything else. Not really trying to bash President Bush or take any sort of "verbal bashing" myself. I simply asked if anyone else sees a problem with it. I didn't ask what you think about what I have to say.
By the way, it's a bit strange to me to consider a nation that's billions upon billions of dollars in debt the "most prosperous" country in the world. We may be, in some weird way, I just don't get how. I guess it's some political stuff that I don't care enough to understand.

Ummm... What's wrong with trying to help PEOPLE?????? Don't forget that the govn't wastes BILLIONS AND BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars ALL THE TIME. Almost 30,000 people have died in Pakistan, and over 50,000 are terribly wounded. Our fellow man is suffering. Money has no meaning when human lives are in need of help. A couple of helicopters and a little bit of cash - WOW. I don't think America will be in any worse shape than it's in already.

I've been out of prosperity since gas prices went up, and since the job market went to hell. In fact, I've never truly known "prosperity." I've had to work my hands to the bone for many years, and so has my family, and we still have don't have a whole lot to show for it. So I can care less about poor little America. IT WILL NEVER GET BETTER AS LONG AS THERE ARE TWISTED POLITICIANS AND GREEDY MONEY HUNGRY PIGS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY.

By the way, Hurricane Katrina was terrible. And so is the situation in Pakistan. YOU CANNOT COMPARE TRAGEDIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!