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Why We Can't Trust Our President

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Sat Feb 11, 2006 at 11:53:21 PM EST
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The New York Times, in a single editorial, lays out the reasons Americans can't trust the man they elected President:

  • Illegal Spying on Americans
  • Secret Prisons and Guantanamo
  • The War in Iraq

It's time for Bush to can the "trust me" card. As the Times points out:

We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers -- and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has deserved that trust less.

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    Why We Can't Trust Our President | 27 comments (27 topical)
    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 11, 2006 at 11:20:32 PM EST
    Also this week, heckuva job brownie reminds us that we can't trust DHS to rescue us during times of national emergencies. 2008 cannot come quickly enough.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#3)
    by Edger on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 01:34:47 AM EST
    TK: look to the future and to plan how we're going to drive these crooks from power, unscramble the mess they've made I agree fully with you there Terry, as well as with everything else you said above. It's a very frustrating situation for most, and for many the most we can do is try to continually point out the bs that emanates from bushco in the hope that one at a time, slowly, we can convince or teach enough people who have supported bush of the realities of the situation. But I believe that it's lawyers like yourself that are eventually going to be the ones who are going to push over the first small dominoe in the series that will cause the sequential toppling of the house of cards. Sorry for the mixed metaphors, but I think you get my drift... The time has is long past for the good people of this country (and the words "good people" are meant to include both good, i.e., genuine, conservatives and good liberals I too think that most people on either side of this divide have in common the desires for peace, honesty, security, and the restoration of the US as the high ideal and example for the world that it once was, in my view is not any longer, but also in my view can be again. Best wishes for you in the case you are working on. I understand there is little you can say about it, but I hope that you feel confident about the outcome.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 01:57:12 AM EST
    Why not trust him? maybe becuase he is a rat? a low life a pig a loving of total evil? but one can always love that, can't one? maybe his father loves little bush. I understand the laden father loves bush, the oil business love bush and trust him all to hell, so a rat can have love and trust, so what, hitler was loved and trusted, wasn't he?

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 05:29:19 AM EST
    TK, my fathers' family comes from Texas, and one of my cousins who grew up there said that Bush was chosen because he 'looks normal', but as many Americans have found to their dismay, looks aren't everything. But of course, anyone who says that Bush has any responsibility for anything that hasn't turned out perfectly since Jan of 2001 is a BHAW. Fred, remember that when anything was untowards in Nazi German(even before Sept. 1939), gut Deutchlanders would tell each other "If only the Furher knew?" Fred, remind me again, where's Osama these days?

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#6)
    by john horse on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 05:34:01 AM EST
    The relationship between Bush and the American public is a little like that running gag in the cartoon strip Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football. Just think of Charlie Brown as the American public and Lucy as George Bush. Bush has gotten away with lying to the American public because the Republican Congress has acted as his enabler, looking away instead of investigating his lies. They should remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, "If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 05:59:03 AM EST
    You can't stop us on the road to freedom You can't stop us 'cause our eyes can see -- Van Morrison


    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#8)
    by cpinva on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 08:16:39 AM EST
    trust the ny times to be about three steps behind the rest of us. hell, i didn't trust bush before it was fashionable. of course, they neglected to note that it was their very own scribes (maureen dowd, frank rich, et al) who provided the fodder to bush and co. to defeat both gore and kerry. ah, how quickly we forget. it wouldn't be convenient to admit their own culpability in electing this "normal looking" twit. actually, bush and george allen both have that same smarmy look, hardly what i'd describe as "normal looking".

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 08:33:15 AM EST
    "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful - and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." --George W. Bush
    Who Would You Trust?

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#10)
    by Molly Bloom on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 09:50:35 AM EST
    Trust us, its too complicated for you too understand, so just trust us Wasn't that what Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling told analysts? Remember Jeffrey Skilling's testimony regarding Fortune reporter Bethany McLean before Congress?
    "Enron, at its own expense" flew a team up to New York to "help her understand her question."
    What was the question? Where are the numbers? Enron's answer was "your too stupid to understand, so just trust us and keep buying our pig in a poke." Substitue pundits for financial analysts and what you have is the Enron Presidency. I am reminded of the WC Fields quote: Never give a sucker an even bread
    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#11)
    by Molly Bloom on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 09:53:36 AM EST
    that should be: Never give a sucker an even break

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#12)
    by Edger on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 10:08:03 AM EST
    Trust us, its too complicated for you too understand, so just trust us
    Yes, you've nailed it right there, Molly. They, bush & cheney, the GOP, their supporters, and the religious right fanatical fake christians denigrate everyone they can bamboozle into buying their BS, with the disgusting and insulting assumption that people are too stupid to see through their crap. W.C. Fields knew how to make it work. So did P.T. Barnum, whose competitor, not old P.T., said "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute".

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#13)
    by squeaky on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 10:16:34 AM EST
    MB-Add the Terminator soon to be Terminated to your list of those saying 'just trust me'. The neocons and their hero Loe Strauss seem to be losing their grip on America.
    Many neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz are disciples of a philosopher who believed that the elite should use deception, religious fervor and perpetual war to control the ignorant masses.
    link Looks like it is time for another war to spark up some new fear. Iran? They wouldn't. Yes they would and yes they could. link

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#14)
    by squeaky on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 10:21:38 AM EST
    Terry and Fred- Iguanas, Pigs and Rats have more ethics and morality that our President. The analogy only serves as an insult to the animals you compare him to.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 11:36:11 AM EST
    Squeaky, thanks for that link about Strauss. A very revealing analysis.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 12:44:56 PM EST
    Squeaky-- Excellent point about my iguana comment. Looking back, I've come to realize that I just didn't think it through. It was early, I was in a rush and I was looking for some way to avoid using that old chestnut about how "they're-all-just-like-the-Nazis." I know how much that particular "N" word upsets W, Ms. Colter, Rush and the rest of the gang. I will try to do better in the future. For now, however, I humbly and sincerely apologize to all of the world's iguanas, even the ones that spend their nights ridiculing global warming and promoting intelligent design. mea maxima culpa, tk

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#17)
    by jondee on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 01:09:16 PM EST
    A slime ball who will execute a 150 poorly represented defendants for political traction is capable of anything.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 01:25:31 PM EST
    TerryKindlon- Even given that you horrifically slurred Iguanas, I thouroughly enjoyed your concise one sentence smackdown. The best I have seen in a long time. Nice one and worth repeating. (Sorry to all you iguanas out there)
    We knew at the start, and events have confirmed our worst nightmares, that Bush was A Name in name only--a well-dressed thug and a serial failure with a fourth-rate intellect and the morality of an iguana.
    link

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 03:18:05 PM EST
    Fun quiz! Test yourself at home! Who wrote this? And regarding which President? From Volokh Conspiracy via Kevin Drum: (answer below quote)
    President ____ exercised the powers of the imperial presidency to the utmost in the area in which those powers are already at their height -- in our dealings with foreign nations. Unfortunately, the record of the administration has not been a happy one, in light of its costs to the Constitution and the American legal system. On a series of different international relations matters, such as war, international institutions, and treaties, President ____ has accelerated the disturbing trends in foreign policy that undermine notions of democratic accountability and respect for the rule of law.
    answer: (Professor John Yoo, discussing President Bill Clinton. Source: John C. Yoo, The Imperial President Abroad, in Roger Pilon, ed., The Rule of Law in the Wake of Clinton 159 (2000).)

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 06:29:49 PM EST
    What's been invigorating about this series of comments is that we got all the way through 19 of them before the first troll crawled out from under his rock to stink the place up. When one finally did he quotes--and this is really rich--John Yoo(!), right wingnut law professor and author of the freaking torture memos that have brought global discredit and shame down upon the United States! And, better still, the troll is quoting the torture professor criticizing Bill Clinton! Get a clue young Troll, we can smell your desperation right through the internet! As Ralph Cramden would say: "Hardy, har har!"

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Feb 12, 2006 at 08:53:18 PM EST
    No surprises here in the Great Northeast. Just about everybody whose opinion I respect didn't trust him, and his co-conspirators, long before the illegal spying on Americans, their secret prisons and Guantanamo and the insane war in Iraq. We knew at the start, and events have confirmed our worst nightmares, that Bush was A Name in name only -- a well-dressed thug and a serial failure with a fourth-rate intellect and the morality of an iguana. The time has is long past for the good people of this country (and the words "good people" are meant to include both good, i.e., genuine, conservatives and good liberals, and it excludes the weirdos, psychos, trolls and assorted robots from the "Bush-can-do-no-wrong-and- if-you-don't-completely-agree-you're- an-evil-traitor-Bush-hater") to waste their breath complaining about Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. We know they're an evil cabal that has raped our country, embezzled our treasure, burned our constitution, murdered thousands of people and robbed us of our national dignity. The time has come to stop just complaining and to Do Something About It--to look to the future and to plan how we're going to drive these crooks from power, unscramble the mess they've made, resurrect our constitution and return our country to the place it occupied for 200 years as a moral beacon for the world.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#21)
    by Slado on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:13:31 AM EST
    Oh my gosh the President isn't approved of by the NYT's. Since I can't think for myself because I'm a troll I guess I better vote democratic because the NYT's always tells the truth and is objective. (heavy sarcasm) Maybe I should send some links from the Washington Times saying how great the president is. They are just as unbiased.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#22)
    by Edger on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:17:01 AM EST
    Slado, I think you have a sense of humor! ;-)

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:22:40 AM EST
    TK, It might be my imagination, but I think Punisher quoted John Yoo to be ironic. Amazing Yoo is the same person who thinks Bush can do pretty much whatever he wants. Gotta love hypocrites. So when do we start the impeachment proceedings already?

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#24)
    by squeaky on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:26:18 AM EST
    Terry Kindlon- I agree with Lemur. the Yoo quote has been all over the left blogosphere as am example of double standards. Punisher is not a TL troll.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#25)
    by Edger on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 09:43:36 AM EST
    TK: I have to second Lemur and Squeaky - Punisher regularly debunks and refutes the trolls BS.

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#26)
    by Slado on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 10:39:38 AM EST
    Edgar if I didn't have such a great sense of humor I wouldn't keep putting posts on this lefty site. TK, does another opinion threaten you that much? I prefer to express my opinion to those who don't always share it because reading what I believe already over and over doesn't interest me. Isn't that what a troll does? Who's the troll?

    Re: Why We Can't Trust Our President (none / 0) (#27)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Feb 13, 2006 at 02:06:30 PM EST
    The New York Times.....lays out the reasons Americans can't trust the man they elected President: Well stop the freakin presses!! The New York (liberal rag) Times doesn't like Bush??? Now there's a real news flash!!!! Can't wait to read that cause I know they aren't biased or anything!!!! LMAO

    Why We Can't Trust Our President | 27 comments (27 topical)