Compare and Contrast Obama and GW Bush

I've heard people on the right saying Obama is a lousy president. Of course they were saying it before he was even president and without any facts to back them up so their saying it now means nothing to anyone.

Still, though, is Obama a good president? The best way to tell is to compare him to his predecessor, George W. Bush.

From a glance, here are the big accomplishments and disasters of the Bush presidency:

1. Lying us into an illegal war in Iraq
2. Partying while thousands of Americans drowned during Katrina
3. Vacationing while al Qaeda planned and executed 9/11
4. Invading Afghanistan even though none of the 9/11 terrorists were from there
5. Invading two countries without an exit plan for either
6. Opening America's first and only torture camp, Gitmo
7. Black site torture camps around the world
8. Defended torture
9. Protected us against terrorists attacks after 9/11 except the hundreds of cases where he didn't, including the shoe bomber, the anthrax attacks and more
10. The government outed a covert CIA anti-terrorist team for political gain but no investigation has ever been done to bring justice to the traitor
11. Actively participated in the greatest economic collapse in the past 80 years
12. Illegally spying on Americans
13. Pushed through the Patriot Act which has stripped Americans of most of our civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
14. States forbidden from enacting federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
15. Higher drug costs for seniors
16. Implemented countless obstructions to save and legal abortions even when medically necessary
17. Advanced failed abstinence-only sex education
18. Destroyed the founding fathers' separation of church and state
19. Destroyed America's economy while giving his base trillions of dollars in tax breaks through tax cuts for the billionaires and failing to tax estates of deceased billionaires
20. Passed the No Child Left Behind act that gave billions of dollars to his brother's school testing company
21. Unilaterally withdrew from the Kyoto Treaty and opened the doors for the carbon energy industry to increase profits while poisoning our air and waters
22. Started the bogus War on Terror which as no border and no definition for winning
23. Signed nuclear arms reduction agreements with Russia
24. Increased defense spending by billions and billions of dollars

I have diligently tied to find a reasonable list to link to but all I can find on the Internet are posts about what an honorable and upstanding person he is which contradicts any reason as well as the opinions of presidential scholars around the world. However I did find a couple sites that do a good job of listing Bush's not so beneficial accomplishments.

Okay, if I've missed anything, either good or bad, feel free to add to the list.

Now for Obama's accomplishments and disasters:

1. Hasn't closed Gitmo yet though he is working on cleaning it out
2. Stopped the black ops torture sites
3. Hasn't rescinded the Patriot Act
4. Continues Bush's policies of stripping Americans of our liberties
5. Working on getting America out of Iraq while escalating Afghanistan.
6. Stopped the one million job losses per month from the Bush years
7. Passed enforcement for equal pay for women
8. Passed the Matthew Shepard Act to help reduce hate crimes
9. Families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB
10. Ended media blackout on war casualties
11. Honoring Freedom of Information requests
12. Limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration
13. Removed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research
14. States are permitted to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards
15. Financial industry reform
16. Promoting hybrid autos with tax breaks
17. Ended Bush's policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions
18. Lower drug costs for seniors
19. Ended Bush's policy of awarding no-bid defense contracts
20. Passed Health Care Reform which America has been trying to do for many decades

You can see a whole lot more items at ThePoliticalCarnival.net.

It is pretty obvious that Bush and Obama are about as different as fire and ice. Does anyone really want to bring back the Bush years? God I hope not.

Another Example of Failed Policies

There are some pretty obvious examples of failing policies that have gotten America and the rest of the world into this mess. The foolish chant of smaller and smaller government only means unethical corporations can run rampant over the lives of the people. Take BP as an obvious disaster. If that's not obvious enough, look at the failed banking industry. Neither of these would be plaguing America if we hadn't listened to the failed conservative policies.

But, let's talk about the crucial need for unions in a successful society. In the years before Reagan, over one fourth of Americans were union members. Since those jobs competed with non union jobs, the non union shops had to provide better working conditions and better pay in order to get anyone to apply. So, in effect, almost half of America was benefiting from unions.

Today, union members make up less than 7% of the private workforce.

Is it just a coincidence that our working conditions have fallen similarly? The unions are a big part of what made America strong. Now many of us believe the right-wing marketing saying that unions are bad or have outlived their usefulness. The opposite is obviously the case. The less unions membership, the worse YOUR working conditions.

It really can't be any more obvious.

Who Hates Harry Reid?

So, who hates Harry Reid?

With all the hate being spewed by the right-wing about Harry, Pelosi, and Obama, one would think America is nothing but a bunch of barbarians. So, who hates Harry Reid?

There are millions of dollars being spent to try to defeat Reid. Do the people who voted in Reid want him out? Of course not. It's the same people who hate any democratically elected representatives that they didn't vote for who want to defeat Reid.

But, go ahead and ask any of them what they hate about Reid and the answer is always the same, "duh, um, oh, I don't know, he's a socialist or a commie or a hitler, um, duh, what did you ask?"

Yes, these people hate what America stands for and hate that the majority can elect representatives who don't agree with the failed right-wing ideologies. Yes, Obiwan, the Hate is strong in those droids.