Comments on: Two perspectives on the President’s Iraq trip http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/04/12/two-perspectives-on-the-presidents-iraq-trip/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:49:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: gs http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/04/12/two-perspectives-on-the-presidents-iraq-trip/#comment-320836 gs Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:32:55 +0000 http://www.dinocrat.com/?p=9494#comment-320836 Rigging VIP visits? That sounds like the Army I remember from the Vietnam era. Psst, Barack: they really brainwash you over there, don't they? ;-) The Bush administration <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6661835/" rel="nofollow">extended enlistments</a> beyond their scheduled expiration date. The usually profligate Bush managed to summon fiscal rectitude when it came to the <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/110-2/saphr5658-h.pdf" rel="nofollow">size</a> of military pay raises and to <a href="http://www.military.com/news/article/bush-threatens-veto-over-gi-bill-adds.html" rel="nofollow">veterans' benefits</a>. Accordingly, when I see images of Bush having chow with happy troopers, I take them with a lot of salt. Dinocrat:<blockquote>Maybe it’s just us, but that Jennifer Loven AP piece seems to have a creepy totalitarian feel to it — the uniformity and wild overreaction of the people to the dear leader. Ugh.</blockquote>Agreed, but Orrin Hatch's Flag Desecration Amendment, which barely failed in the Republican Senate more than once, also had a creepy totalitarian feel afaic. I'm not defending the current administration. On the contrary, I <a href="http://www.dinocrat.com/archives/2009/03/21/the-presidents-strange-priorities/#comment-320061" rel="nofollow">recanted</a> my vote for it. At this time Obama is shaping up to be worse than Bush, but <i>both</i> of them are symptomatic of an underlying national decline. (IMO the decline, like our decline in the 1970s, is not fated even though I don't see what will reverse it.) Rigging VIP visits? That sounds like the Army I remember from the Vietnam era. Psst, Barack: they really brainwash you over there, don’t they? ;-)

The Bush administration extended enlistments beyond their scheduled expiration date. The usually profligate Bush managed to summon fiscal rectitude when it came to the size of military pay raises and to veterans’ benefits. Accordingly, when I see images of Bush having chow with happy troopers, I take them with a lot of salt.

Dinocrat:

Maybe it’s just us, but that Jennifer Loven AP piece seems to have a creepy totalitarian feel to it — the uniformity and wild overreaction of the people to the dear leader. Ugh.

Agreed, but Orrin Hatch’s Flag Desecration Amendment, which barely failed in the Republican Senate more than once, also had a creepy totalitarian feel afaic.

I’m not defending the current administration. On the contrary, I recanted my vote for it. At this time Obama is shaping up to be worse than Bush, but both of them are symptomatic of an underlying national decline. (IMO the decline, like our decline in the 1970s, is not fated even though I don’t see what will reverse it.)

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