Unfortunately we do only have one prez at a time

and what we have is a lame duck. I don't know what will happen with Obama but Bush has left him a huge moutain of problems to deal with. I expect Bush will replace Herbert Hoover in history as the worst president in history. Of course the republicans will try to blame his 8 years in office on the previous 8 years and the next 8 years. Sad thing is, some people will believe it, but not many I guess with his approval ratings.

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The way I look at it, the Obamas will have more help taking care of the dog (they can be a lot of work!) and also, IMHO, the girls are old enough now to have one and learn responsibility.

Off topic, but if I were in White House, I would follow in Calvin Coolidge's footsteps: He had 6 dogs, a bobcat, a goose, a donkey, a cat, 2 lion cubs, an antelope, a wallaby and a pygmy hippopotamus.

really does need that teleprompter to get it right . . . What's this I hear about him being such a great orator? Sorry, but I think not.

Obama apologizes for gaffe on Special Olympics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) � President Barack Obama has apologized for a gaffe in which he described his bowling skills as akin to participants in the Special Olympics, a sports program for people with intellectual disabilities.

Obama made the mistake during an interview on Thursday night on "The Tonight Show" with host Jay Leno, the first time a sitting U.S. president had been on the show.

Talking about living in the White House, Obama said he had been practicing his bowling in the home's bowling alley and had scored a 129 out of a possible 300.

It was an improvement on the embarrassing 37 he had rolled during a stop on the presidential campaign trail a year ago.

"It's like -- it was like Special Olympics or something," Obama said.

The Special Olympics is a global nonprofit organization serving some 200 million people with intellectual disabilities, with a presence in nearly 200 countries worldwide. They compete in sporting events like the real Olympics.

Soon after the Jay Leno interview, Obama telephoned Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver to apologize.

Shriver told ABC's "Good Morning America" television show that Obama had apologized "in a way that I think was very moving" and that he said "he did not intend to humiliate the population, didn't want to embarrass or give anybody any more reason for pain or kind of suffering."

Shriver said people should gain a lesson from the incident.

"I think it's important to see that words hurt. Words do matter. And these words in some respect, can be seen as humiliating or a put-down to people with special needs, do cause pain. And they do result in stereotypes," Shriver said.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama "made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics."

"He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world," Burton said.

Shriver said he knows of a Special Olympian in the Detroit area who has bowled three perfect games of 300 and "he said he would be more than welcome to find the time to come to the White House and teach the president."

(Reporting by Caren Bohan and Steve Holland, editing by Vicki Allen)

backwards stance he is taking and all the trips Michele is taking, or are we going to sit here and take it?

Sorry, but at least GW mostly stayed in Washington if not in Texas and ran the government. They did not take "geography" classes on the road. How's the garden doing Michele? Do we hear about that? Nope. Just another publicity stunt.

When O became president, I figured I would give him a chance....but I figured okay, some of those bailouts he did might work Today, he is pushing for the CLNE, clean energy bill, which Pelosi has a big stake in, and now I know he is just a puppet of Pelosi and the others. I will not sit here and take his lies any longer. If i have to I will send an email every day to the WH telling him where to get off.

We get a magazine on country living and they are telling us to brace ourselves for the coming new policies on food. They are telling us to stock up on food for at least 3 years especially if H.R. 875 passes. Now, I don't know when this is coming up for a vote but I read the bill and it doesn't make me happy with the wording. If what the magazine is stating, they can stop us from producing family gardens if they will it. I'm hoping they straighten this out because as I read through it, it directly aims at the larger food production facilities, but the words that bother me are "any farm, .....or facility.... that produces food for resale." That means you will not be able to sell your garden grown extra foodstuffs unless you have a registration number....which also means government intervention. If anyone is interested, I can post the article pertaining to that.

O is finding out that his words aren't penetrating those who hate us a lot, so, as of this week, he has decided to pull back on international "friendship" and just deal with the USA because he knows we are getting disheartened with his policies. This gets our minds off the real issues of the world and we are supposed to believe every word he says, yet some are still idolizing him. Just wait another year. Then it will be too late..

Sorry, not in my book. I think it's time for all Americans to stand up and fight, deluge the goverment with emails, etc., whatever gets through to our President. Heck, I've been emailing every time I hear something new that goes against the laws of the land. Does it fall on deaf ears? Certainly....but I still do it. Guess I wil lbe on he UnAmerican list soon but I don't care. I've been quiet too long and am actively taking a stance in the American way of life....which is almost gone already after the 100 days. So sad.....

My, how classy. That so-called retardate graduated Yale & Harvard. Now who's retarded? Bill Clinton is plenty of things, too, but stupid, retarded, etc. are things that I've never heard a conservative say...ever.

WASHINGTON � President George W. Bush's "after-life," as Laura Bush calls the post-presidency, is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, Secret Service protection, a travel budget, medical coverage and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers' expense.

However, Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection.

"He'll be the first one to receive it for 10 years," said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal protection for only 10 years.

The Bushes will move to their new $2 million, 8,500-square-foot Dallas home � not paid for by taxpayers � on Jan. 20, and there Bush will be close to his future presidential library at Southern Methodist University.

"We're working on a conceptual design for the building," said Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Foundation. The president will help develop the $300 million structure, which will include a library, museum and policy institute.

Fundraising is just beginning, Langdale said. Once the project is finished in 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration will take over the operation of the library and museum, at federal expense. Construction will be paid for with private funds, and Bush is expected to be involved in organizing the fundraising drive.

"He is enthusiastic about spending a lot of his time and effort working on the programs of the institute," Langdale said.

Bush will maintain an office nearby in space acquired by the General Services Administration, which, under the Former Presidents Act, will pay for the office suite and staff to assist him for the rest of his life.

Bush's pension, which is tied to the base pay of the most senior government executives and increases with federal cost-of-living adjustments, will be about half the $400,000 annual presidential salary. He and Vice President Dick Cheney will receive transition expenses as well for seven months � one month before the inauguration and six months afterward � "to facilitate their transition to private life," according to the Congressional Research Service.

The GSA also covers travel expenses for any official activities attended by a former president, as well as two staff members. Former President Bill Clinton was allocated $50,000 for travel in fiscal year 2008 and former President George H.W. Bush, $56,000.

Former presidents and their families are entitled to health care in military hospitals, although they have to pay a reimbursement rate set by the Office of Management and Budget.

Bush will receive a state funeral upon his death, with full military honors for the former commander in chief.

When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. That is the mission of the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity. The first session will be held October 21-22 in New York City. This tribunal will, with care and rigor, present evidence and assess whether George W. Bush and his administration have committed crimes against humanity. Well-established international law will be referenced where applicable, but the tribunal will not be limited by the scope of existing international law.

The tribunal will deliberate on four categories of indictable crimes: 1) Wars of Aggression, with particular reference to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. 2) Torture and Indefinite Detention, with particular reference to the abandonment of international standards concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and the use of torture. 3) Destruction of the Global Environment, with particular reference to systematic policies contributing to the catastrophic effects of global warming. 4) Attacks on Global Public Health and Reproductive Rights, with particular reference to the genocidal effects of forcing international agencies to promote abstinence only in the midst of a global AIDS epidemic.

The Commission's jury of conscience will be composed of internationally respected jurists and legal scholars, prominent voices of conscience, and experts and monitors in relevant fields. The tribunal's legitimacy is derived from its integrity, its rigor in the presentation of evidence, and the stature of its participants. Representatives of the Bush administration will be invited to present a defense.

Prior to the meeting of the Commission, teams with sufficient expertise will prepare preliminary indictments in each of the four areas, setting forth the scope of the Bush administration's actions and how they contravene legal and moral norms for international behavior. At the meeting of the Commission, there will be four prosecution teams that organize the presentation of the evidence. This evidence will be documents as well as eyewitness testimony by victims and observers of the crimes alleged. The formal proceedings will be held in a public venue and all attempts will be made to publicize and broadcast its deliberations internationally. The Commission's jury of conscience will come to verdicts and its findings will be published.

The holding of this tribunal will frame and fuel a discussion that is urgently needed in the United States: Is the administration of George W. Bush guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity? The Commission will conduct its work with a deep sense of responsibility to the people of the world.

The Commission is sponsored by the Not In Our Name statement of conscience, joined by the following individuals and organizations:

This board will return to a dead state too

The stupid rules have made these boards a place where only crickets chirp. Its sad that people are so childish and cannot discuss things like mature adults. This is why these boards will remain a snoozeville, because some people are not capable of mature conversation and get insulted by anyone who does not believe exactly like they do, but if you like it dead here...by all means enjoy the silence.

I watched a TV broadcast; it evoked thoughts in my mind. The thoughts irritated me. I FELT uneasy and I THOUGHT I could print the same on this board and why. This is, after all, still America despite the speech police and this is, after all still the liberal board.

I couldn't disagree more. I think Obama is going to be torn apart if he is the nominee, more so than Clinton would. Really, I just do not like the guy. I think he is totally arrogant, along with his wife

, and I do not believe for a minute that he is honest. Of course, Clinton isn't either. They're both lousy.

Yes, Ron Paul is out of the race...that's what I said, loooool. In my opinion, he was the only person who ran that would be worthy of the presidency.

cuddle session for the cameras he can whisper it into Bush's soft, pink shelllike ear.