[Nan]

[color=#000000ost_uid0][quoteost_uid0="PointyHairedJedi"]CG - Bah. He's still an idiot. Not to mention he's completely at the beck and call of American Big Buisness.[/quoteost_uid0]
You may want to skip this. It's a boring analysis, and I'll shut up after this so as to avoid alienating too many people.

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Pointy has a... well, point.

Bush Jr. has a number of black smears on his career, starting with the fact that he may or may not have actually been ELECTED.

Then there was his pulling out of Kyoto. The US being, by far, the greatest polluter on the planet makes that a decision of DUBIOUS moral standing at best.

Then there was the anti-landmine treaty. I had a relative who, while chopping wood inthe forest in Poland years after the war, stepped on an unexploded landmine and got his leg blown off. Mines = evil. Mind, Russia also refused. Of course, the Russians have a truly and unabashedly [bost_uid0]barbarous[/bost_uid0] history with landmines. Systematically seeding Afghanistan from the air with mines designed to fall slowly and spread over as wide an area as possible counts as barbarous. As does boobytrapping little girl's dolls with mines. And, I believe, China refused to sign. China, who makes the family pay for the bullets required to execute their relative. Truly [sarcasm]stellar[/sarcasm] company.

Then there's the illegal (according to the WTO for I believe the THIRD time) tariffs on softwood. And the tariffs on wheat. Supposedly, wheat farmers in Canada are "subsidized." Bit rich coming from an administration which openly subsidizes ITS farmers.

Then there was his administration's plan to pipe oil from Alaska to the States proper. Which would go through Canada. He neglected to realize that would involve asking the Canadian government for permission. That's just pertaining to Canada. That doesn't count the alienation of the UN, the wider destabilization of the world, the Iraq debacle, Afghanistan, the alienation of NATO, the somewhat steep decline in international esteem for the US, the attempts to put weapons in space, etc etc.

Though Condoleezza Rice is fairly competant (IIRC), his attorney general has disconcerting fascistic leanings. John Ashcroft. They guy who lost a lower level election to a dead man. They guy on a KKK list of people they'd like to see in the White House (him and Pat Buchanan, Mr. AIDS is divine revenge on gay people). The guy who accepted an honourary degree from a university which has a ban on interracial dating (bit of a political gaffe, that).

Bush DOES have the AIDS thing to his credit, though.

For me it's not a partisan issue, but one of basic lack of experience, and to a degree, creative thinking.

------ end rant.

I heard Kissinger's new book is good. Anybody read it?[/colorost_uid0]