DESCRIBE PRESIDENT BUSH'S BELIEFS...LADIES WELCOME

President Bush is a Christian. He's been observed with a Bible leaving a Christian Church following Sunday services.

Bush is a Christian. He says so.

January 31, 2001
on Democracy NOW!

While Bush was Govenor, Texas ranked:

2nd - number of children living in poverty (from U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends)

2nd - number of children without health insurance (from U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends)

1st - children without health insurance (U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends)

1st - poor working parents without insurance (U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends)

2nd - population without health insurance (U.S. Bureau of Census, Current Populations Trends)

5th - Teen Birth Rate (U.S. Dept Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics)

48th - Per capita funding for public health (U.S. Dept Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics )

45th - Mothers receiving prenatal care (Children's Rights Council )

46th - High school completion rate (U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Development)

50th - Teacher salaries plus benefits (National Education Agency)

1st - Pollution released by manufacturing plants (U.S. EPA, Office of Pollution and Prevention)

49th - Spending for the environment (Texas Observer)

48th - Best place to raise children (Children's Rights Council)

From the information above, I can safely say that I do not think healthcare, education, or environment are at the top of his priority list.

What does "while Governor of Texas, ____ individuals were executed" have to do with his beliefs?

It was a sample of a possibly fact. Consider the Governor of Illinois released individuals in death row to the general population while Governor Bush set a record for annual deaths in the State of Texas. The DEMOCRACY NOW quote also mentioned: It would appear that he supports the death penalty as a deterent to crime. Perhaps you have information wherein his behavior does not support the death penalty. It was not my intent to color him bad; it was a fact that popped into my mind.

Apparently President Bush:

believes that religious groups are places where Federal funds should be spent to provide social services.

believes that Federal funds can be used for construction of religious edifices, so long as the building contains a social service component.

is against partial birth abortion, and wants to see it abolished.

believes that lowering taxes will pour money into the economy, and spur its growth.

believes that Saddam Hussein has a connection to the Al Queda.

believes that Saddam Hussein is lying, and either has, or is close to having, WMD.

appoints women and minorities to top posts in government.

Is observing the work of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, while at the same time preparing for war. This is demonstrated by airfields that are being built in the middle east, as well as troops being called up for duty in that area.

is reappointing judges who were not confirmed by the last congress, before the Republicans had a majority.

Interesting exercise. One of my points originally was, "believes in diversity by appointing women and minorities to top posts in government."

Then I realized that I WAS drawing a conclusion, about his motivation for the appointments. I changed it to read, "appointed women and minorities to top posts in govermnent." That is all that I can factually say. I don't have the foggiest notion why those people were appointed. It might be because :

*he felt they they WERE the best people for the job.

*he really believes in diversity.

*he wanted to curry favor amongst women and minorities, to in order to build a broader coalition for his ideas.

*Some other motivation of which I have no clue.

Looks like when you look at things unemotionally, and strip away the bullshit, you get a much clearer picture of what is happening.

Thanks, Mapleleaf!

Mapleleaf - The reason I asked is because, unlike the Gov. of IL, Bush had no ability to pardon people in TX on his own. The Gov. of IL made a decision that he had the authority to make. The Gov. of TX has no such authority. Bush (nor any other recent Gov in TX) can remove someone from death row IF the Panel of Pardons and Parole makes the reccomendation he do so. If they don't make that recommendation the Gov. can't stop the execution. As a result the number of people put to death in TX has little bearing on his beliefs. The Gov. of TX could be 100% against the death penalty but unable to stop a single execution.

While this is an interesting exercise the caution is that the "acts" have to be something that Bush actually has some control over before they can be interpreted as representative of his beliefs. Beyond that, let the chips fall where they may...

as texas governor Seventy-seven percent of Bush's state appointees have been white, 13 percent Hispanic, 9 percent black and 1 percent from other ethnic or racial groups. Sixty-three percent of his appointees have been men and 37 percent women.

That's a lower proportion of minorities and women than his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ann Richards. And it's considerably lower than the state's ethnic and gender percentages. But it's about the same as Mark White, the last Democratic governor before Richards, and higher than that of Bill Clements, the last Republican governor before Bush.

:

Thank-you fishin'. Should I modify the title of the thread? Any suggestions?

No need to modify anything Malpeleaf!

It was just an awareness thing. I'm a big believer in the "actions speak louder than words" thing. It's just important to look at the actions that are really displays of the person and weed out those they they don't have any control over.

I heartily agree; in fact, I was hoping some folks would do just what you did.

Well, which is it? Were they 2nd, or were they 1st?

And please tell me how anyone is supposed to derive any meaning from these numbers--assuming some of them are accurate--if we don't know what they were before and after his tenure as Governor?

A state might have the worst record for X in the nation when a man took office. That tells us nothing of how he acquitted himself in that office. Numbers such as those you offered mean nothing. Show us TRENDS. Those would mean something.

Tres, valid point.

My apologies


2nd - children without healthcare.

Having a hard time with the edit option for the previous post - will try again later.

Also, I will research for trend information to bring some clarity. This is research I did a while ago. When I have some more time today I will dig around.

President Bush believes in equal opportunity. Evidence: appointments of
C. Rice and C. Powell.

I like the direction this is taking. I don't think I could have done this on Abuzz.

Actually, mapleleaf, you may have been clobbered for that "ladies welcome" appendage.

I don't know what Bush believes. I listened to his state of the union speech, in which he said, in part, that he believed one of the excuses for going to war with Iraq was the existence of aluminum tubes that could be used for weapons of destruction. This was after the Atomic Energy inspector debunked that. Does Bush believe this? Or is it a matter of expediency?

It's hard for me to figure out what Bush truly believes. He has backtracked so many times - on pollution control, on prescription drugs, on this axis of evil, on cleaning up corporate America and the way it does business (meanwhile, Harvey Pitt lives on)....this lady wonders if any core beliefs exist.