Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

I found myself defending George Bush the other night when I was out with some friends, liberal friends as it is. I didn’t defend him cause I am a big George Bush supporter although I admit I did vote for him in both elections. What can I say? My other two choices were Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. My only hope is that Ron Paul wins the nomination so I can vote for a libertarian this time.

So here is my rant. I am tired of hearing people talk politics and say broad statements like George Bush is ruining this country. Of course when you ask why, those saying it don’t give anything backed by facts. They say stuff like he lied and got us into this war, that he is the reason the gas prices are so high and he is taking all the profits from it. I heard some others but those are the most recent. And of course they defended their hero- Bill Clinton.

So lets look at some facts. While I agree Bush’s approval rating is the worst of any president, I do blame some of that on the media. The media does everything it can to make republicans look bad, and why not, 90% of the mainstream media is liberal.

Of course when you bring up the fact that Clinton lied, the only thing they say is yeah he did lie about cheating on his wife, then they say what is the big deal? Women who like Clinton even say that. I don’t know about you but a lie is a lie and cheating on your wife, the 1st lady, while you are in the White House, then lie about it on a Grand Jury. It is a big deal to me. So I can only conclude that liberals aren’t upset about lying, they are just upset at what the lie is? I say all politicians lie. To be a good politician by all standards means you have to be a liar. These days you don’t even have to be a good liar.

So George Bush lied and got us into an unjust war because of it. Does it matter that it is a known fact that Saddam Hussein was bluffing about having WMDs. It is also known that he was bribing those in the UN to lift the sanctions from Iraq, after which he would then seek a nuclear weapon. If you go back 2 decades you will know that we gave Saddam WMDs during the Iraq-Iran war in an effort to help Iraq defeat Iran. If you go back 1 decade you will find the fact that Saddam gassed his own countrymen. He used his own weapons on his own people. So I ask, did Bush lie? Was he given false information? According to the CIA, the KGB, the British and other intelligence agencies around the world, they all say Saddam did have WMDs. Not to mention the other little fact that Saddam had committed genocide. Genocide you say isn’t that the reasons Clinton lead a force to remove Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo and Mohamed Farrah Aidid in Somalia. Of course Clinton didn’t send us there under false pretense, however if you argue that Clinton did a good thing by removing those bad men then couldn’t you say Bush did a good thing by removing Saddam. I am sure all that hasn’t convinced anyone to change his or her mind about Bush lying to us. Bush sold the war on the information he had at the time, that information was bad, it was bad cause Saddam was bluffing, and he was making it look like he did have WMDs. Like Milosevic and Aidid, a brutal dictator has been removed, the only problems the liberals have with that is it wasn’t their candidate that did it. Also it amazes me, if an American leader bombs an American city all of America would be in an uproar and most of the world as well. If Saddam does it, nobody seems to care, he had oil and he had money we better keep our mouth shut about the hundreds of thousands of people he is killing. So meet the new boss same as the old boss, doesn’t matter if you are a republican or a democrat, you feel it is America’s job to police the world. The only thing that matters is if it is your candidate that is doing it or not.

So Bush is ruining this country. Seems to me it is still running the same as it did a decade ago. Americans still wake up in the morning, go to work come home eat dinner and watch network television and then repeat the process the next day. We still have people like athletes and entertainers making millions of dollars. We still have corporations and business in America as usual. The standard of living in America is one of the best in the world even with Bush in office. What is ruined? Some things are not good in this country. The 2nd amendment is under attack all the time, civil liberties have been violated, not just from the Patriot Act either. Taxes are to high, gas prices are to high, and big brother is bigger then ever. Our spending is out of control on the federal level. Wow, I could go on and on about all the bad stuff. If you could put the blame on one person like George Bush for all the problems in this country, I would laugh at you, then I would say wow that is one powerful individual. Or I would tell you to reevaluate it, maybe it is Government in general maybe it is all the politicians that make up the Federal Government. Of course when you are a republican or democrat it is just easier to blame the other party for it and even easier to take the blame all the way to the top and blame the commander in chief. Liberals talk about the great things Clinton did for the economy, however they don’t seem to want to mention the good economy we have now under Bush. I wonder what president, the commander in chief is doing take blame or credit for our economy but that is an argument for another time. Under Clinton we had one scandal after another, Monica, Paula, Water Gate, and so on. Under Bush we have scandals also, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame to name a few. Under Clinton we had 2 wars, under Bush we have the War on Terror. So again meet the new boss same as the old boss, we have had wars and scandals then and we have them now. Do we really need to play the game of whose scandals and wars were worst or were justified?

Now we are at one of my favorites, gas prices. It is said that the war is for oil that Bush wants all the oil in the world, he is the one making the gas prices so high and taking all the profits. Of course no liberal has shown me any evidence that this is true, they just keep repeating themselves. Truth is most people don’t know where oil comes from and how it works. Taxes, including federal and local, account for about 14 percent of the total price of gas in the United States. So for every dollar you spend on gas, 14 cents goes to taxes. You spend $10 on gas you gave the government $1.40. About 50% of the money you spend goes to Crude oil suppliers, mostly to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Let me point out George Bush doesn’t manage, run or own OPEC. The new legislation to input ethanol comes from environmental standards that have been in place in some parts of the country for several years. In some areas, gasoline was required to meet higher environmental standards in order to reduce the amount of smog created by burning gasoline. Producing this cleaner-burning gasoline caused problems in refining, distribution and storage, which increased the cost of gas. Individual states also make their own regulations on gasoline, this causes cost to go up because once again the problems with refining, and distributing gas with different standards across the country. And of course supply and demand have a big impact on oil prices, since the United States depends heavily on foreign oil supplies we have to compete with other countries like China and India for purchasing crude oil and such it drives the price up. It is common sense to know price of oil increases when the world crude-oil market tightens and lowers inventories. Another thing that people don’t take in to consideration is refineries only have so much capacity. So lets look back and some of the causes of rising oil prices.
1. Taxes
2. Supply and Demand
3. Different legislation and standards in every state in America
4. OPEC being the biggest supplier of oil
5. America’s dependency on foreign oil
6. Lack of room, no capacity

I really don’t see George Bush on that list because I can’t find any facts that support he is controlling the oil prices for his own greed. Economist view oil prices being influenced by things like weather, labor strikes, and of course war. So if you want to make the argument that because George Bush is fighting a war then you could blame him for the rise in gas prices. The conclusion I am trying to draw is that a lot of things that have an affect on oil prices and George Bush is not one of them. He does come from Texas, which is the countries largest domestic oil producers, however we still rely so heavily on foreign oil for our every day needs. And a lot of people come from Texas, have oil on their land however they are not to blame for the rising gas prices. Look it up yourself if you don’t believe me.

In the end nothing changes too much from one president to the other, the federal government is to blame for a lot of this countries problems, not one man. If you are going to talk politics please support your argument with facts not just broad statements that do not mean anything. I couldn’t get those I was debating with the other night to talk to me once they knew I seen it different then them. They decided they hate George Bush and they need not say anymore. They are entitled to their opinion and can like or dislike any person they want. My point to defended Bush was the reasons they choose to bash him, they were not based on anything solid that I could find, and they really didn’t want to have an open discussion with anyone who appeared to like Bush. They turned their backs to me and went about their conversation, I can only assume because they knew it was an emotional reason for their hate. That what they are saying is the common talking points of their party and no facts are needed. I either see it their way or I don’t. I just hope that people stop hating so much and start working to solve the real problems and issues, and stop blaming the person that is affiliated with the opposite party they are in. Both parties are capable of going to war, to allow spending to get out of control, to have scandals and tell lies, and to make legislation based on the special interest groups that surround them. Like I said meet the new boss, same as the old boss.