SERIOUS THREAD**** Nominations for best thing Bush did in office

• do not call registry
• AIDS relief to Africa
• northwest Hawaiian islands protection

that white house dog christmas video

^^that's the winner right there

Wrong board?

SERIOUS THREAD!!!!! (although I do agree)

glycerine for sure

whoops someone move to ILE

soliciting bqq take out orders during that one press conference

SERIOUS THREAD IDIOTS!!!!!

AIDS relief, which also gets a nomination for the best thing Bono did in his life.

AIDS relief to Africa

Noooooooooooooooo!

PEPFAR is full of right-wing nutjob stuff! Don't believe the hype!

"I Want Some Ribs" seconded.

I really can't think of anything he did as president that made me go, okay, I can go along with that. Even the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress at least resulted in more lenient speed limits.

The AIDS relief thing is commendable, but I think it just sticks out because this is George Walker Bush we're talking about here.

ive talked to a couple people who work for african ngos and they both said bush has been hands down the best president for their work - right wing nutjobbery notwithstanding - of course they both agreed that this wasnt saying much

^^^ yes, i have heard this as well.

i honestly can't think of anything besides the stuff you named.

this is the one thing i always think of

http://www.slate.com/id/2109228/

AIDS relief largely tempered by reimplimenting the Reagan gag rule that stopped NGOs talking about abortion they received federal money:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_gag_rule

I just stopped in to post about "I Want Some Ribs"

AQ Khan network falling apart

^^ it's an open question how much bush is responsible for this, and, if he is, it was the war that got the ball rolling -- an accidental bonus side effect to a huge disaster

http://www.faniq.com/images/blog/BushButt(2).jpg

^^ this

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/08/11/0811_beachbush_460x276.jpg

northwest Hawaiian islands protection

when this story broke ppl were immediately saying it'd be the best thing he did

not using tactical nukes

Well, not *yet*.

completely discredit the gop for at least a couple of election cycles </kos>

i've been wondering myself what they will list as his "accomplishments" when he's finally gone. I can't think of anything that he accomplished that didn't also fuck something else up at the same time.

http://i34.tinypic.com/1238kxs.jpg

lololololololol

history tends to remember warmongering presidents better than they are. if iraq hands on, nominally, as a democracy for another generation bush will be remembered just fine.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

shift of Daylight Savings

discredited privatizing Soc Sec for all time (we hope)

killed the GOP

i'm not kidding que! not that i, or "we", will forget what he was. i just have serious doubts about how truly awful a president he was remaining in memory.

got rid of steroids in baseball

sorry v. hard to keep SERIOUS THREAD serious

shift of Daylight Savings

Now how was this a good thing?

killed the GOP

OTM

I was going to say probably shake michael strahan's hand but then I noticed:
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/giants/2008/04/president-bush-welcomes-giants.html

Several Giants were missing from the event, including Jeremy Shockey, Michael Strahan, Antonio Pierce, Osi Umenyiora. Former Giants safety Gibril Wilson did attend.

DISSED.

Jeremy Shockey? ReallY?

He did some good with Darfur.

That pretzel choking incident was pretty good.

I heard on Naked Scientist around a year ago that he declared the world's biggest no fish zone! In the world! Which is both startling and incredible. But I am having difficulty finding sources to back this. Will continue searching.

was it a desert?

cuz I can totally see the president declaring the mojave desert a "no fish" zone

there is this

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/science/earth/15hawaii.html?pagewanted=print

Here we go!

President Bush today will create the world’s largest marine protected area, a total of 140,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean surrounding a necklace of islands and atolls that stretch from the main Hawaiian Islands to Midway Atoll and beyond, senior administration officials said.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument will be larger than all of America’s national parks combined. Fishing will be phased out, and the mining of coral for jewelry will be prohibited, along with other practices that can damage delicate reefs.

“With a stroke of a pen, the president not only can accomplish the single largest act of conservation in U.S. history, but he can inspire the American public on the broader importance of our ocean and coastal environments,” said a senior administration official who requested anonymity so as to not upstage Bush’s announcement today.

This is incredible.

That is an enormously commendable thing, and I always point it out as the one nice thing about Bush.

of course that is what Grady meant in original post but...

my nominations:

— handled the afghanistan war well (tho he subsequently dropped the ball on it so badly it's hard to give him much credit for this)
— IIRC, was very careful to emphasize that "terrorist" and "muslim" are not synonymous in the weeks after 9/11
— by many accounts, a surprisingly nice guy on a personal basis (though one with somewhat bullying tendencies — humiliating nicknames, etc.)

lol, j/k u guyz!

"liberating"

takes one to overthrow one

Bush allowed the Bin-Ladin family to leave the country when all other planes were grounded across the U.S. after 9-11

ok, seriously tho:

beating kerry in 04 so you could have obama in 08.

You can imagine Mark Steyn writing: "Carter's victory over Ford in '76 had a silver lining: it made Reagan president in 1980."

so we're still basically at the three i mentioned in my OP

I'll go along with the wingnuts who credit him for keeping us safe from another terrorist attack -- a genuine achievement, I suppose, when you consider that, shortly after 9-11, we thought there would be plenty more.

Eh, see, I chalk this up more to all of the al Qaeda organization and operational capacity having gone into 9/11 and them really having nothing on the burner after that. I don't think it's any more a Bush achievement than it was a Clinton achievement that there were no domestic Islamic terrorist attacks between the first WTC attack in 1993 and 9/11.

I think arranging for the bin-Ladins to leave was a genuinely good act. He did go out-of-the-way to help some vulnerable foreigners (i.e the rich ones)

Here's something I hadn't heard about at all until last week: a 30% drop in chronic homelessness in the last couple years thanks to HUD's new "housing first" strategy.

http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1269290.html

"I'll go along with the wingnuts who credit him for keeping us safe from another terrorist attack -- a genuine achievement, I suppose, when you consider that, shortly after 9-11, we thought there would be plenty more."

Uh nevermind what "we you thought", I haven't gotten the impression that Al Qaeda has actually tried anything else here in the States (yet, mind you) so basically he's prevented an attack that wasn't slated going to happen anyway.

Mind you as soon as Al Qaeda (or whomever) figures out a way to top blowing up two of the most symbolic buildings in the world and killing nearly 3,000 people, we'll get a chance to see how good the intelligence infrastructure Bush "built" is at the preventing it (hint: I'm still not too confident.)

I haven't gotten the impression that Al Qaeda has actually tried anything else here in the States (yet, mind you)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot

I missed the part where anyone Bush was responsible caught that group.

hahaha

syntax error

i was unaware that england and the atlantic ocean were parts of the united states

well... they were going to the united states, and... uhhh... oh, fuck it. touche.

killin the talibans was a p good idea, but i guess that isnt going so well at this point either

his dog is a pimp

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Barney_oval_office.jpg

tax refund helped buy my xbox 360

His dog bit that reporter.

Use the words "Palestinian" and "State" in the same sentence.

(Has Obama?)

killin the talibans was a p good idea, but i guess that isnt going so well at this point either

― ಥ﹏ಥ (cankles), Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9:06 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kind of off topic but did anyone watch this little cheerer-upper: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warbriefing/view/ ?

Under Bush the DOJ, FBI, USAOs, have been pretty gung-ho about going after perps of involuntary servitude & sex trafficking. That in and of itself seems not a bad thing.

xpost
i watched that last night. all the waziristan stuff leading up to a commentator saying "Pakistan is perilously close to being a failed state, and one with 50 nuclear warheads" was very frightening. not that i wasn't aware, but my awareness mirrored the secondary treatment it gets in the press, so it has remained a vague and not especially pressing threat. after watching that i got the sense that it's just a matter of time before their "delicate" gov't gets toppled. i've been thinking about it all day, actually. thanks for taking your eye off the ball, bush.

i think the most scary thing is how unfuckingstoppable the taliban is simply because of 1) the region they inhabit (and the historical deck that is stacked against the US there) 2) their willingness to put civilians at risk to fuck w/ US strategy 3) religious extremism

there is a good article in the new rolling stone (ac/dc cover) abt the taliban's hold on afghanistan

^^this is why i was pumped when obama was like YAAAAAAH WE GONNA TAKE THE FIGHT TO PAKISTAN!!! during the debates, while mccain was still going on about dumb ol iran

Here's something I hadn't heard about at all until last week: a 30% drop in chronic homelessness in the last couple years thanks to HUD's new "housing first" strategy.

http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1269290.html

― Ari, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 5:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have not seen this where I live.

well anecdotal evidence is always the strongest

Depending on how you feel about nuclear energy and/or India's past record regarding nuclear testing and not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (not to mention that the internal Indian debates nearly broke up their govt):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States-India_Peaceful_Atomic_Energy_Cooperation_Act

When the Russia-Georgia thing was happening at McCain was howling for America to go to war with Russia, I was actually grateful that Bush was stupid + mean, and not batshit crazy. So... not bringing us to the brink of nuclear holocaust -- he gets points for that.

AND McCain*

I'll go along with the wingnuts who credit him for keeping us safe from another terrorist attack

*cough* ANTHRAX *cough*

shakey that ANTHRAX sounds bad you should see a doctor

HAW

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/11/images/20081112_d-0077-5-515h.jpg

trying to remember whether thats a folk or people nation gang symbol

Back-to-back black Secretaries of State.

its the shocker duh xp

Serving as Exhibit A for the cause of world peace?

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace. . . .

The Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,” Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. “Hang him?” — he asked.

“Why not?” Mr Putin replied. “The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein.”

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: “Yes but do you want to end up like Bush?”

Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: “Ah -- you have scored a point there.”

omg i wanted to post that shocker picture first

cocaine?

best thing? one could argue for a general consistency as a massive fuckup. GAO Study catalogs the damage
kudos on screwing the federal workforce. yayyy! I'm a federal employee so it's a really proud moment for me. yes we already had a bad reputation but that whole putting-morons-in-charge EVERYWHERE kicked it up a notch.

what the... can someone tell me the context of that shocker pic!?

its the gang sign for their college what predates the shocker

He proposed putting petroleum refining facilities on surplus military bases.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/04/23/bush-is-back/

Hey, he’s not so bad! In fact, to some degree his qualities and accomplishments were taken for granted. Only when we see a robotic, cold president like Obama do we remember fondly the tender, tearful love of country Bush often conveyed and the steely anger directed at our enemies.

his library is "interactive"