Ted Rall for April 21, 2014

Could have had another panel where the Rapture Ready crowd gets excited for End Times.

Almost 6 years of the worst president ever and you still can’t get off of Bush.

No, Bush still holds that title.

Once upon a time, Herbert Hoover held the title of worst president ever, baby bush easily stole it from him and made it very difficult for anyone to take away his title..Bush, the WORST president EVER.

Good heavens. You are comparing one ambassador murdered to starting two inappropriate wars? And finding BUSH to be better? May I suggest learning to count?

Hey, Ted, “Boston Strong” is not commercialization of grief, it is, if you want to be picky, commercialization of pride. It had nothing to do directly with the wars (except insofar as Bush managed to get the entire Islamic world even angrier at us).It is pride in that at last year’s Marathon bombing, people ran toward the explosion to help the injured. It is pride that marathon runners ran two miles MORE to get to the hospital to give blood. It is pride in people who put up and fed stranded runners in their homes, strangers who needed our help.And it is pride that we shut down our city to get the guys who did it, and succeeded. It is pride in a city that not only acted swiftly, but rightly. There’s no comparison with George “let’s go attack someone who didn’t attack us” Bush.

Calm down, and let’s look at the facts, shall we? 9/11, which might have been prevented had Bush not deliberately blown off a CIA report, was primarily done by Saudi Arabians. Osama was Saudi. Bush not only did nothing to Saudi Arabia (since he had close ties there), he permitted all members of the bin Laden family to LEAVE THE COUNTRY when all other planes were shut down after 9/11.After that, he launched a war against Iraq. Iraq? They had nothing to do with 9/11, and indeed had been dealt with adequately through sanctions. But there were people in his administration who thought they could rebuild Iraq as an American stronghold of oil — the same people and same plan that George H W Bush shut down, because HE knew it was a bad idea.Afghanistan made more sense since bin Laden was there, but we didn’t need a war, we needed a crack team to go and find Osama bin Laden — which is what Obama DID, in case you forgot, and successfully.And now, a decade later, Iraq is still disastrous, the Taliban is coming back in Afghanistan, and we have lost many American lives.I can (and do) criticize Obama for his drone war and his continuation of Bush-era policies on torture, political prisoners, and keeping troops in the Middle East, but you cannot possibly claim that Bush is better than Obama or Carter. Obama because he practically IS Bush, and Carter because he may not have been a great leader, but he didn’t give us two unfunded wars!

Wow, responding one sentence at a time does a lot for your count, but not a lot for response.Bush is documented as telling the CIA directly that the bin Laden report was a “CYA” report. No, it was not lost in the shuffle, it was brought to him — and responded to by him — directly. Don’t blame Clinton for that; Bush clearly got the message and refused to hear it.I have no idea what you are talking about with most of your other comments; you seem to be lashing out without data. I could cite chapter and verse on all of this, but why bother? You won’t respond to it anyway. If you’re accusing me of paranoia because of the known links between Bush and the bin Ladens, that’s kind of hilarious. The bin Laden family is a well-known oil family — like many Islamic families, it is quite large — and Bush and his family have been linked to them for decades, as oil barons themselves. Osama’s older brother was an investor in George W’s Arbusto Energy company. I am not saying Bush knew or collaborated with Osama in any way; I am saying he cut them an awful lot of slack when it was not deserved.

Fair point on Reagan’s support of Osama.

Each panel is spot – on. Good one, Ted.

Harley, when Clinton was handing over the office to George W., he told him firmly that Al Qaeda was the most serious threat to the United States. I think that George, Dick and Donald already had Iraq on their minds.

Also, Although I have my gripes with President Obama’s priorities, I don’t think he has the ability to wrest the crown: no; jinled-belled conical hat, from George W. Bush. Yes, buuuuush!. We are still suffering the consequences of Dick’s and his actions, and will be for years to come.