Debate Questions for Mr. Bush

It�s really wonderful that in this contentious political climate all Americans can agree on something: that their president isn�t much of an impromptu public speaker. His supporters find his grammatical blunders and lapses in coherence "charming," acknowledging that he�s not perfect but hey, he�s our George. Critics, on the other hand, stand agog at the fact that any American finds it acceptable that the leader of our country is commonly seen by people in both parties and abroad as a buffoon.

Well, here come the debates. Your president has made it no secret that debates are a liability for him, squirming at the idea of a town meeting where he�d have to answer questions from actual citizens because they might be too "partisan" and trying to reduce the number of debates in general. Many folks, myself included, wonder why so many people trust this president to lead us against terrorists when he�s afraid to answer questions from his own citizens. How many press conferences has this president had total since the war in Iraq started? Three? It seems that Karl Rove�s genius goes unfettered; the people can�t ask you unanswerable questions if they�re never given the opportunity to ask.

Unfortunately, you probably won�t hear the tough questions this week. Us Kerryites know that this is pretty much the last chance our candidate has to make this an actual race come November (don�t kid yourselves) and so here�s hoping that the media knows what I know: that there are a few questions that, if asked, George W. Bush will simply not have an answer to. Let�s take a look at what questions this president should answer (please note the total absence of references to military service records and general mudslinging) before America gives him another term:



1. Mr. President, why can�t the American people be told who met with Dick Cheney during the formation of his National Energy Policy?


This is a contentious issue in which the General Accounting Office actually threatened to sue Cheney to release the names of the members of the National Energy Task Force. The questions all but forgotten by the citizens of this country, we�ve never learned (thanks to a decision by the same Supreme Court that elected our president) who was on that task force or what was discussed. These proceedings have remained secret despite allegations of corporate pandering (Ken Lay of Enron fame is suspected to be among the senior members of this task force) under the guise of �executive privilege.�

The formation and meetings of this �task force� are responsible for an energy policy that has affected the entire American economy (especially California) and affects you directly if you pay for gas or electricity in your home. Why then, is this all a big secret to this day, and why is there no outcry? In short, Mr. President, what is your administration hiding?



2. Mr. President, why were members of Osama Bin Laden�s family allowed to leave the country immediately after the worst attack on our soil in American history without being detained and questioned?

Michael Moore�s liberal pandering aside, based upon what is now public record (as admitted by the FAA after almost three years of claiming otherwise) authorization to fly on September 13th was granted only to the members of the Bin Laden family by someone very high up the federal chain of command. While the FBI and CIA detained and arrested hundreds of Middle Eastern citizens in the aftermath of 9/11 (none of whom were ever charged with terrorist-related activities), family members of the top suspect in the bombings left the country without being detained or asked a single question on the only private planes allowed to fly on 9/13. Mr. President, who authorized their chartered flight and wouldn�t it have made sense to question them? Also, why did the FAA claim that no flights were in the air immediately after 9/11 for three years when they have now admitted that they were lying?



3. Mr. President, after 9/11 you promised that those responsible would be swiftly brought to justice. Is the hunt for Osama Bin Laden now over, and can you justify your administration�s failure to capture him despite your earlier promises?

Osama was deemed responsible for the attacks by the Bush Administration, and we now know that he was very close to capture by coalition forces at Tora Bora but escaped due to the strategic failure of your administration to commit more ground forces. To this day, Osama Bin Laden remains at large and is never mentioned by your administration unless asked a direct question regarding him. Operations in Iraq have diverted strategic resources and attention away from Afghanistan, where the Taliban are regrouping, and Osama is believed to be alive and well in Pakistan. Mr. President, you promised the American people and the families of 9/11 victims that Osama would be brought to justice. Do you consider that promise fulfilled?



4. Mr. President, your administration continues to imply publicly that there was a strategic relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, thus linking Saddam to 9/11. To date, no credible evidence exists to support this claim. Does your administration have any evidence that Saddam and al Qaeda had a strategic relationship, and if so, why was it not presented to the 9/11 commission?

The bipartisan 9/11 commission has bluntly stated that no relationship existed between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Colin Powell�s remarks on the subject echo this assertion. This stands in contrast to Dick Cheney�s constant insinuations to the contrary, yet he has presented no new evidence that would suggest that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11 or Osama Bin Laden. The Iraq war is justified daily by your administration as a front in the global war on terror, yet they have never attacked us nor have they conspired to do so. Is your administration withholding evidence to support the assertion that Iraq was planning to attack us, as you claimed in your State of the Union address before the start of the war?



5. Mr. President, the tax cuts passed by congress are part of your administration�s economic policy slated to create new jobs and cause an economic recovery. Despite your recent claims that the economy is recovering, nonpartisan economic studies show that this recovery is not being felt by middle-class Americans. What changes, if any, do you propose to your current economic policy in order to get America back to work?

As the end of this presidential term nears, job and market growth during your presidency have fallen far short of expectations, and you face the reality of having a net loss of almost 1 million jobs since you took office. Nonpartisan census and independent study figures show that as job growth stagnates, more and more American families slip below the poverty line and many working Americans are making lower wages. In your four years as president, you have failed to close tax loopholes for large corporations which encourage them to move their operations overseas, eliminating millions of American jobs in the process. How do your current economic policies help any group of Americans other than large corporations and the wealthy? Why do you continue to say the economy has "turned the corner" when most accepted indicators of economic recovery suggest otherwise?



6. Mr. President, many Americans consider 9/11 a defining moment during your presidency. This tragedy is one without closure for many victims and their families. Why has there not been a single conviction on American soil on the charge of murder for anyone who participated or helped plan these attacks?

The Bush administration and the John Ashcroft-run Justice department has made a lot of noise by imprisoning enemy combatants and prisoners of war in Gitmo. If the War on Terror is being won, why have none of the terrorists complicit in the 9/11 attacks been brought to justice in this country for murdering almost 3,000 of its citizens? Isn�t this an embarrassment to an administration that claims to be winning this war and promised retribution and justice for the victims of 9/11?


I've got a lot more of these, myself. Maybe you have some. We might as well ask ourselves these questions, because you're not going to get answers at the debates.

Here would be his typical response.


1. Mr. President, why can�t the American people be told who met with Dick Cheney during the formation of his National Energy Policy?


Well, for matters of national security, I regret I cannot discuss that.


2. Mr. President, why were members of Osama Bin Laden�s family allowed to leave the country immediately after the worst attack on our soil in American history without being detained and questioned?

Well, for matters of national security, I regret I cannot discuss that.



3. Mr. President, after 9/11 you promised that those responsible would be swiftly brought to justice. Is the hunt for Osama Bin Laden now over, and can you justify your administration�s failure to capture him despite your earlier promises?

Well, for matters of national security, I regret I cannot discuss that.



4. Mr. President, your administration continues to imply publicly that there was a strategic relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, thus linking Saddam to 9/11. To date, no credible evidence exists to support this claim. Does your administration have any evidence that Saddam and al Qaeda had a strategic relationship, and if so, why was it not presented to the 9/11 commission?

Well, for matters of national security, I regret I cannot discuss that.



6. Mr. President, many Americans consider 9/11 a defining moment during your presidency. This tragedy is one without closure for many victims and their families. Why has there not been a single conviction on American soil on the charge of murder for anyone who participated or helped plan these attacks?

Well, for matters of national security, I regret I cannot discuss that.

This is the governments typical response when they don't want to answer these questions honestly.


[edit on 27-9-2004 by mrmulder]

oppodeldoc,

Very good questions!! I am curious if you have any for Kerry too?? I would like to see what you would ask both canidates.

Originally posted by XxaudioholicxX
oppodeldoc,

Very good questions!!

I am curious if you have any for Kerry too?? I would like to see what you would ask both canidates.

Thanks. I'm working on those to be put up under a different post...

Gosh--there are so many questions, but you really asked the important ones. As a follow up to #4, I would ask why Douglas Feith was not fired when it became clear that he was working in concert with Ahmed Chalabi to exaggerate evidence to implicating Saddam Hussein prior to the war and was deliberately creating alarmist reports knowing that his boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would be presenting the reports to Vice President Donald Cheney via Donald Rumsfeld? Also, why did you and Vice President Cheney decide to use the recommendations provided by Feiths' intelligence as a basis to go to war instead of the opposing recommendations submitted by the CIA and Mideast Experts in the State Department?

It is clear that Rumsfeld created the OSP to cook up evidence as a basis to link Al Qaeda with Iraq and to provide justification for the war. Bush & Cheney were aware of this--and this is why they chose to ignore the CIA reports and the State Department reports that did not make a case for war in Iraq. I'd like to see Bush defend the OSP and justify why they would choose to ignore the CIA and State over Feith--a neoconservative and buddy Wolfie, Rummy, Cheney, Chalabi, Perle et al from way back when.

Originally posted by lmgnyc
Gosh--there are so many questions, but you really asked the important ones.

I don't think we've even begun to scratch the surface.

I am truly curious how some of these questions will be addressed. and I have some more (short form this time):

7. Why does your administration continue to claim that we went to war to "liberate the Iraqi people" when in fact your authorization to go to war was based on evidence that Saddam had WMDs?

8. Since your administration has already conceded that we had "faulty" intelligence before the war in Iraq, why hasn't anyone been held accountable for these lapses in intelligence? What is being done to ensure it doesn't happen again?

9. Why did your administration openly oppose the creation of the 9/11 commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attacks?

10. Why did you refuse a public hearing with the 9/11 comission, and why wouldn't you testify before them under oath?

11. How many American servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq since you declared an end to hostilities aboard the Lincoln?

I'm exhausted. I don't think he'd be able to answer a single one of these without bumbling around, but I'd really like to know the answers...

What are we doing in Iraq?
What is the long term goal?
What does this have to do with the USA?
How do you propose to make this happen?
Are we better off with what has been done there, or worse off?

Why is the USA MORE worried about some small country half a world away that was no threat to us? Why aren't we discussing this Nation's economy, our place in the economics and politics of the World?

THIS CAMPAIGN & OUR FOCUS HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE IRAQ FIASCO
.

Since your administration has already conceded that we had "faulty" intelligence before the war in Iraq, why hasn't anyone been held accountable for these lapses in intelligence? What is being done to ensure it doesn't happen again?

Isn't this a question for Kerry? After all, the Intelligence Oversight Committee is the Senate, not the President. You know, that committee that Kerry was on for 8 years but didn't bother to show up?

President Bush, is it true Kerry hazed you when you joined Skull and Bones, and that's why the two of you don't get along? Candidate Kerry, is it true that for initiation Bush made you serenade the Skull and Bones members by imitating a girl's voice, while performing an 'ugly lady,' after which you drank till you puked, and spend a night naked in a coffin?

I would make them multiple choice, he�s not really that bright. For example:

1)There is a terrorist in Afganistan, which country do you declare war on:

A) Afganistan
B) Iraq
C) Iran
D) Korea
E) In All the above in the order of the amount of Oil they have.

[edit on 9/28/2004 by defcon5]

Originally posted by vatar

Since your administration has already conceded that we had "faulty" intelligence before the war in Iraq, why hasn't anyone been held accountable for these lapses in intelligence? What is being done to ensure it doesn't happen again?

Isn't this a question for Kerry? After all, the Intelligence Oversight Committee is the Senate, not the President. You know, that committee that Kerry was on for 8 years but didn't bother to show up?

Hehe, that's a good one. So you're saying Kerry should have to answer for all the intelligence that congress was given by the Bush Administration? Funny stuff. Also, if he didn't show up (another lie you are peddling) how can you hold him responsible? Clutching at straws, are we?

Some very good questions on here that are IMO at the heart of what's important to Americans. I'm following your election in the States with great interest as the outcome affects Canada and the World.

I'm sure Bush's campaign people are having #fits right now trying to figure out how to prepare Bush. THe man just can't think for himself.