YOUR PRESIDENT, WORKING HARD FOR YOU.

[sspadowsky]

This from some lady's blog:

http://www.barzey.com/archives/000582.html

Presidential Vacations
President Bush is on yet another vacation. Does anyone know how much vacation time he gets officially? He seems to be on vacation like every other month. I know being the President is a 24 hours/7 days a week job, and as such he deserves a little rest and relaxation every now and then, but when American soldiers continue to die at 1 a day in Iraq and the economy is in the crappers, I don't want to hear that my President is on a month-long vacation in Crawford, Texas. I want to hear that he's holding court in the White House trying to figure out how to get the economy going again and more importantly how to bring our soldiers home safely.

Update: Below is an excerpt from Washington Post article re the vacation matter:

A CBS News tally shows this is Bush's 26th presidential trip to Crawford. He has spent all or part of 166 days at the ranch or en route -- the equivalent of 5 1/2 months. When Bush's trips to Camp David and Kennebunkport, Maine, are added, according to the CBS figures, Bush has spent 250 full or partial days at his getaway spots -- 27 percent of his presidency so far.

Yikes! Am I the only person who thinks there is a problem here? If I were to spend 27 percent of my time away from my job, I'd be fired. Hmmm. Maybe I'm just jealous because I only get two weeks vacation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Washington Post article is here. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15546-2003Aug2.html)

[mburbank]

Sspad, be fair, these are WORKING vacations. The President just went on a huge fundraising trip to California. It may not have anything to do with the economy or the war or... well... really anything except raising a grotesque amount of money from various corporate schill 'pioneers' in a Karl Rove strtegy based on Pyramid Schemes, but hey, you can't say it ain't work!

Besides, being Preident pay less than any Job W's ever been given before. Why should he have to work hard?

Oh, EDIT: I just thought of some folks who probably really sympathize with Bush, because they have to work 24-7 too. National Guardsmen and Reservists currently on indeffinite deployment. The fact that they don't get vacation at all shouldn't bother them, they knew what they were getting into whn they signed up, unlike George who had every right to expect the Presidency of the worlds only superpower would be cakewalk. Say, I know what would cheer our weary servicemen up! Reducing their endangerment pay!

[BombsBurstingInAir]

be thankful. The President is just saving the taxpayers money. The less he is at the White House, the less electricity he uses there. Let him use all the juice he wants on the ranch...he is paying for it :)

[mburbank]

Concidering the quality of his Presidenting, I think you may be onto something.

[bluedisc]

i dont like bush. he is bad. we deserve better. who said it was okay for him to be president anyway? why can't i, a 19 year old be president? i bet i'd do a better job. i bet we all wish we had clinton back... i want my clinton!!! or gore to a lesser extent... i blame florida! you really had to f*ck it up florida!

[El Blanco]

The preceding message was brought to you by a total fucking moron.

I mean, aside from my belief that Clinton was probably the 3rd worst president ever (Buchanan and Grant beat him out), you just spout "Bush bad".

Why can't a 19-year old be president? Are you serious? Do you have any fucking clue as to what is involved with that position?

[Perndog]

I didn't know you could be 19 years old and still be such a dipshit...though I guess we do need some of those folks who get blue-collar jobs from the fall after high school until retirement in order to hold up the social pyramid...

[The One and Only...]

I'm a 15 year old and would probably be a better president than Bush. That's not saying much, though...

[CaptainBubba]

I'm 17 and I would tottally ruin the country if I were president. though at our age we can be of sound mind and logical reasoning we haven't lived long enough to gain all the working knowledge of politics and the specific and trivial details that make it so utterly and unnessecarily confusing.

It would be better to say that I would run a very good tribal village of kindly hunter and getherer folk. :)

As for Bush, there really isn't much to say. Does anyone know if this is the most vacation time ever taken by a president? It would be interesting to find out.

[bluedisc]

bull shit, clinton rocked. you just let the media tell you otherwise. also i would be a great prez at 19. maybe you couldnt handle the job, but i could. first order of biz, outlaw cars! he's radical, so am i. and why did you call me a moron? that was mean, thats why i said you can't handle the job! that was my witty come back!

[glowbelly]

good lord.

[O71394658]

Shut the fuck up, please. :)

[ziggytrix]

I'd wager 95% of the people who offer their opinions on the performance of US presidents, past or current, don't know what the fuck they're talking about.


PS. I think our current one shows that any imbecile can be president if he has a solid Cabinet behind him.

[glowbelly]

http://www.justcabinets.com/images/readytofinish/mc5220_full.jpg

[Ninjavenom]

I don't like to think of him as destroying our country, but rather as him doing what everyone wanted to do when they were a kid: Be president. You didn't wanna be good at it, you just wanted to force your parents to eat their peas. >:

[Immortal Goat]

PS. I think our current one shows that any imbecile can be president if he has a solid Cabinet behind him.

Bush didn't have a solid cabinet so much as an influential daddy and a brother who was the governor of *GASP* the state that screwed up the election in his favor!

[mburbank]

I don't know if he's taken the most vcation time. His Daddy took an awful lot. I DO know he's given less press conferences than Reagan, and that in and of itself is an achievement.

[Anagram]

Anyone can be President in America - the whole country's open to everyone, like the Ritz Hotel.

[El Blanco]

bull shit, clinton rocked.

How? What specific actions did he do to make him a great president?

We will take your list and then put it next to some of the ways he disgraced the office.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Isn't it presumably more "conservative" to have a less involved, more hands off executive??? I always thought Eisenhower fit sort of an ideal mold in that sense. Whenever I picture him in my head, it's always him swinging a golf club. :/

[El Blanco]

There are certain duties a president has. Duties that Clinton ducked.

[mburbank]

I swear to god, if Bush got caught on video tape strangling a puppy the first response out of some corners would be "Yeah, well, Clinton was worse."

Is it even remotely possible to think critically about W. without making an instant comparison to his predecessor?

It's arguable that W. isn't as bad as Taft, but so the fuck what? Is Taft President?

Is the fact that Clinton Spooged in the oval office some sort of get of jail free card for W? If I fail in my job, do I get to tell the Boss "You should have seen what the last guy who had this job did!"

It's not relevant.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Yeah, but it's always nice to keep his name around to toss blame upon for stuff like 9/11 and the economy. :/

[Zhukov]

And where were you complaining too when Clinton was in power?

Well?

Hear that? Thats the sound of hypocricy.

Didnt think so dumbass.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Hey, I'm not a Democrat, nor was I a big fan of Clinton. If I had problems with Clinton I complained about him, and I didn't compare him to the sanctimonious wonderfulness or rottenness of previous presidents. So shove it up your ass, dumbass.

[sspadowsky]

Uh.... I'm pretty sure that most of us were complaining. I know I was. I didn't like Clinton at all. But I'd rather have him than the current monkey.

[Perndog]

I look at Bill Clinton in light of GWB, and that puts Clinton on pretty high ground in my opinion. For me, it's not a matter of good things they've done, but bad things they shouldn't have. Clinton: extramarital sex in the office. Big. Fucking. Deal. The President should not have to be our moral compass - we have our respective religions for that. He would have disgraced the office if he let the country go to shit, but he didn't; for all his faults, I'd say we were in better straits in 2000 than we were in 1992. But I'll try to reduce my bias a little and give him two bad guy points for being too horny and lacking self control.

Now, we've got Dubya, and while I blame his administration for a lot of these things, they wouldn't go through without at least his implicit support. Faith-based initiatives, ESPECIALLY financial support to Christian churches - one point. Patriot Act. Another point. Coercion of the UN. Another point. Blocking stem cell research. Another point. He's already way in the hole; I don't feel the need to continue.

I admit that since I'm older now and all of this stuff is more recent, there may have been things about the Clinton administration that I forgot or overlooked, but overall, I think Clinton was miles ahead of Bush, or for that matter, Daddy Bush and Reagan as well.

[mburbank]

I think Zuhkov was just doing a Vinth immitation.