The Legacy of Bush’s Presidency

Winning The Hearts and Minds of our Allies?

What is this country becomming? From The Guardian Unlimited

Holiday girls held in orphanage after mother fell ill

Martin Hodgson
Thursday January 24, 2008
The Guardian

A mother whose two teenage daughters were placed in an orphanage when she fell ill during a post-Christmas shopping trip to New York has been told she is under investigation because her children were taken into care.Yvonne Bray, took her daughters Gemma, 15, and Katie, 13, to New York shortly after Christmas for a shopping trip but was taken into hospital when she fell ill with pneumonia during their visit.

The girls were then told they could not wait at the hospital and as minors would have to be taken into care.

Social workers took them to a municipal orphanage in downtown Manhattan, where they were separated, strip-searched and questioned before being kept under lock and key for the next 30 hours.

The two sisters were made to shower in front of security staff and told to fill out a two-page form with questions including: “Have you ever been the victim of rape?” and “Do you have homicidal tendencies?”

One question asked “are you in a street gang?” to which Gemma replied: “I’m a member of Appledore library.”

Their clothes, money and belongings were taken and they were issued with regulation white T-shirt and jeans. Katie said: “It was like being in a little cage. I tried to go to sleep, but every time I opened my eyes, someone was looking right at me.”

Eventually Bray discharged herself, and - still dressed in hospital pyjamas - tracked down the girls.

She said: “It is absolutely horrendous that two young girls were put through an ordeal like that. They were made to answer traumatic questions about things they don’t really understand and spend over 24 hours under surveillance.”

Since returning home, Bray has received a letter from the US Administration for Children and Families, notifying her that, because the children were admitted to the orphanage, she is now “under investigation.”

The Day Before sCaturday

Another dedication to Blue Girl/Red State’s Friday Cat Blogging:

Sniffers The Cat

GOP Causes Recessions

John W Dean shares an article at Smirking Chimp in which he shows that it is the GOP that takes the USA into recession:

As the stock market gyrated wildly this week, given the precarious state of the American economy, the New York Times published a table relating to anti-recession efforts in times past. In scanning it, I could not help but notice that among the last eight recessions, all but the first, in 1948, occurred during Republican presidencies. (The first occurred when Republicans controlled Congress.)

Here are the recessions and their Republican presidents: August 1957 to April 1958 (Eisenhower), April 1960 to February 1961 (Eisenhower), December 1969 to November 1970 (Nixon), November 1973 to March 1975 (Nixon and Ford), July 1981 to November 1982 (Reagan), July 1990 to March 1991 (Reagan), and March 2001 to November 2001 (Bush II).

As we all have watched the stock market this week, thoughts of past major crashes have no doubt popped into the minds of many. Republican presidents oversaw them. Herbert Hoover, of course, was president when the great crash of 1929 occurred, and Ronald Reagan was president with the most recent serious crash - Black Monday in 1987.

The Republican Party has long been the favorite of the business world. But when one steps back to look at the facts objectively - as business leaders who want to remain in business must do, and now seem to be doing - the question must be asked: Is a Republican bias actually good business?

I keep seeing and hearing reports from the Idiot Box where the financial experts suggest that the Democratic Party is not the business party… that Republicans make better businessmen, etc. Herr Bushilicious proves that fallacy wrong quite well, but who’s to notice?

Dean makes the point that the top 1% of Big Business LOVES the THUGS. But Medium to small business (I am small), the overwhelming majority of business in America, BTW, is losing its love for the GOP (because it is failing US). My personal social beliefs would never allow me to be a Republican, much less a ReTHUGlican (not necessarily the same thing), but I cannot allow myself to “BE” a Democrat. I can’t “BE” anything for any body at all times and every circumstance.

But I am all about looking at the reason why folks stay with these idiots ruining this country with lies and the stealing of our treasury, especially when related to Rednecks such as myself. Maybe I just have more foresight… or intuition… or can read a lying scumbag when his lips move (935 times and I knew from the damn beginning he and the rest were lying to us). Whatever, John lists the reasons (and ranks them) that small to medium sized business owners are beginning to turn their back (I just wish they were a bit smarter or quick minded than they obviously have been):

The War In Iraq. Just as many other Americans find the war in Iraq an unqualified disaster, businesspeople tell reporters that they do not like the lies Bush and Cheney told, to take us into a war that will likely only create more terrorists hating America. Like many others, they see this as dangerous folly. In addition, the war has been a fiscal disaster, with billions thrown away and no accounting whatsoever. As a retired Westinghouse manager and lifelong Republican told the Wall Street Journal, “‘We’ve lost control of spending,’ and the administration’s execution of the Iraq war has been ‘incompetent.’” Businesspeople have little tolerance for incompetence; only true ideologues can over look it.

Excessive Deficit Spending. Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan is a very high-profile Republican in the business and finance communities. Greenspan told the Journal, “The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize.” Similarly, New York City Mayor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg recently left the GOP, complaining - as reported by the Journal- that “conservative politicians in the U.S. [are] guilty of ‘lunacy’ for running up deficits for future taxpayers to pay.” The GOP’s gigantic deficits have also weakened the dollar, making business for many much more expensive.

Focus On Social Issues. Countless businessmen I know tell me they are exhausted with the Republicans’ focus on abortion, gay marriage, and the host of social issues the party insists on putting on the front burner. Business journals have similar reports. This is not surprising, for all polls show that for most Americans, these are not the centrally important issues.

Immigration Policy. Business Week has reported that as the Republican presidential candidates have increased their who-can-talk-the-toughest-on-immigration efforts, they are also losing support in the business community. Business Week pointed out that “in industries like agriculture, construction, landscaping, and restaurants, most employers want comprehensive immigration reform that allows undocumented workers to join a guest worker program or pursue a path to citizenship, as well as an effective way for new immigrants to work in the U.S.” With the exception of John McCain, all the GOP presidential candidates start their day with a hefty dose of xenophobia.

Health Care Policy. Many industries want the federal and state governments to address the soaring cost of health care. Not only do they need healthy workers, but health care costs are narrowing profits. Few savvy businesspeople think well of the Republican health care plans, which make health care providers and insurance companies richer at the expense of everyone else.

Environmental Responsibility. American business is the leading polluter in America, and for years business has rebelled against efforts to regulate the damage it causes to the environment. Even now the pre-Enlightenment attitude of certain conservative Republicans toward science has enabled them to actually believe that global warming is merely a hoax. Yet more sophisticated businesspeople understand they must clean up their acts. Many know that short-term gains are leading to long-term and potential irreversible damage. Accordingly, outside the auto and fossil-fuel-related industries, businesspeople are increasingly disgusted with the failure of recent Republican Administrations (Reagan, Bush I and Bush II) to develop a realistic, responsible and comprehensive environmental policy.

Now I agree with every one of these, and closely in order. If many other small business owners are GOP and feel the same way, what the hell have you people been waiting on? Total devastation?

Wake Up, Dammit!