Author Topic: Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED  (Read 144 times)

Woodrow

Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« on: September 12, 2003, 02:27:16 PM »
Ran across this urban legend website that debunks popular Urban legends. Not just political ones, but I gathered some to clear up some common misconceptions.

Claim:   According to a study by the Lovenstein Institute, President Bush has the lowest IQ of all presidents of past 50 years.
Status:  False.

Debunked here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/presiq.htm

Exceprt:  "No, this isn't a real news report, nor does it describe a real study. There isn't a "Lovenstein Institute" in Scranton, Pennsylvania (or anywhere else in the USA), nor do any of the people quoted in the story exist, because this is just another spoof that  was taken too seriously. "
As obvious as this joke was, at least two publications were taken in by it: The [London] Guardian and the New Zealand Southland Times. Both ran the "Presidential I.Q." tale as a factual item (on 19 July and 7 August 2001 respectively). The Associated Press publicized The Guardian's error on 12 August, moving The Guardian to post a retraction on 14 August, and U.S. News & World Report clearly reported the I.Q. item as a hoax on 20 August, 2001."
-----------------------

Claim:   Hoping to attract the singer's attention at the March 2002 Presidential Gala, George W. Bush waved at Stevie Wonder.
Status:  False.

Debunked here: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/bushwave.htm

Excerpt: "Although Stevie Wonder did perform at the 3 March 2002 Presidential Gala held at the Ford Theatre in Washington where President Bush was in attendance, the "wave" was both far less than initially made out to be and appears to have been directed at someone else.

After running the item as true and being challenged upon it by the Ford's Theatre Artistic Director, who was seated by the President that night and didn't at all recall this incident, Washington Post writer Lloyd Grove delved further into the story. Editors working on turning film of that event into a television special (which is scheduled to air April 12) went frame by frame through the video captured by the "presidential isocam" (as the camera trained on Bush is called). At the point where Wonder was getting settled behind his keyboard, Bush briefly raised his palm and smiled. The gesture was not the excited, enthused wave it is now comically portrayed to be; it was a small motion of the sort one routinely makes to an acquaintance across a crowded room. Moreover, the motion appears to have been directed at Kelsey Grammer, the emcee of the evening"
---------------------------

Claim: Photograph captures President George W. Bush holding a book upside-down in a classroom.
Status: False.

Debunked here: http://www.snopes.com/photos/bushbook.asp

Exceprt: The photo does show some tell-tale signs of digital editing, so the real explanation is that someone took an existing picture and flipped the image of the book in President Bush's hands. Note, for example, that the picture on the back of the book in the student's hands and the one on the back of the book President Bush is holding are the reverse of each other, a dead giveaway that the photo was manipulated.

Here is the OG photo:
--------------------------------------

Claim: Photographs show Presidents Clinton and Bush peering through binoculars with the lens caps still in place.
Status: Undetermined.

Debunked here: http://www.snopes.com/photos/binoculars.asp




Excerpt: Whether real or manipulated, these photographs demonstrate nothing beyond the trivial. As much as we may enjoy poking fun at our politicians, they aren't so clueless that they don't know binoculars don't work with the lens caps in place, or would stand confusedly staring through capped binoculars at total blackness for several minutes at a time. Hardly anyone among us hasn't accidentally raised a capped pair of binoculars to his eyes for a few moments before realizing the problem; the difference is that most of us don't have a crowd of photographers hanging around us all day long just waiting to snap such a picture of the moment. Also, there are reasons why binoculars (especially types used by the military) shown in a photograph might appear to be capped when they really aren't: the lenses could be coated with a non-reflective material to cut down on glare and prevent gleams of light from reflecting off the lens and revealing one's position to the enemy, or the binoculars could be NVD (night vision devices) which also work in daylight (provided they have caps with small holes in place to block out most of the light).

"And another photograph of President Bush taken from the same sequence as the one above demonstrates that even if his binoculars did initially have their lens caps in place, they weren't there for long:




 

Woodrow

Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2003, 02:30:06 PM »
We have all seen this:

GEORGE W. BUSH RESUME
The White House, USA

* ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:
* I attacked and took over two countries.
* I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the Treasury.
* I shattered the record for biggest annual deficit in history.
* I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
* I set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
* I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
* I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
* In my first year in office I set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.
* I set the record for most campaign fund raising trips by any president in US history.
* In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
* I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history.
* I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
* I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
* I set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president since the advent of TV.
* I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any other president in US history.
* I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
* I presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
* I cut health care benefits for war veterans.
* I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
* I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
* I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
* Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (The 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).
* I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
* I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.
* I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
* I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
* I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other president in US history.
* I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.
* I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Elections Monitoring Board.
* I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
* I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
* I withdrew from the World Court of Law.
* I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
* I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections.
* I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
* The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
* I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
* I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
* I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.
* I took the world's sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
* I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
* I am the first US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than by their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
* I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
* I set the all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling their huge investments in corporations bidding for gov't contracts.
* I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history. In a little over two years I have created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided that the US has been since the civil war.
* I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.


* RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
* I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
* I was AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during a time of war.
* I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
* All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father¹s library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* All minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

* PERSONAL REFERENCES:
* For personal references, please speak to my dad or uncle James Baker (They can be reached in their offices at the Carlyle Group where they are helping to divide up the spoils of the US-Iraq war and plan for the next one.)
 

Woodrow

Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2003, 02:44:06 PM »
So this guy decided to debunk it:
http://www.crossbearer.com/resume/The_Truth.pdf

Here are some nuggets:

With father’s help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
No evidence is provided of any illegal, immoral, or unethical influence exerted by George Bush
in his son’s election. It is true that George W Bush has a famous surname that may have
helped him get elected. The same might be said of Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton.


Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state
in the Union.

Here are the facts: Texas leads the nation in reduction of toxic releases. Texas has led the
nation in the reduction of toxic releases by 43 million pounds from 1995 to 1998 (during GWB’s
tenure as governor). It is not the most polluted state in the nation. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency's 1998 Toxic Release Inventory (the most recent data
available from the EPA, released in May 2000), Texas dropped from first to fifth place in 1998
(while GWB was still governor) for total emissions to the air, water and soil.

Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my
father’s appointments to the Supreme Court.

Once again, a quick read of the constitution will clear up the “popular vote” matter:

http://freedom.house.gov/electoral/constitution.asp

The popular vote doesn’t elect the president: the Electoral College does.

Incidentally, George W. Bush received more popular votes than did his father in 1992 and Bill
Clinton in both his elections. In fact, you have to go back to Ronald Reagan’s landslide in
1984 to find a candidate with more popular votes. (http://www.presidentelect.org/)


Of the nine justices currently serving on the Supreme Court, two were appointed by George
Bush Sr.—Clarence Thomas and David Souter. This is important, so please take note. Two
appointments. (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/members.pdf)

The “resume” says that GWB became president “with the help of my father’s appointments to
the Supreme Court. “ There’s only one problem with that: President Bush the elder appointed
two justices to the Supreme Court. The ruling that ended the recounts in Florida was a 7-to-2
vote. Even if President Bush’s two appointees had voted in favor the Florida Supreme Court,
the vote would have still been 5-to-4. (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0884144.html)

To counter the critics’ claim that the US Supreme Court’s decision was “bought”, there is a 65-
page opinion (and dissent) which enumerates the precedents that the Supreme Court used in
making their ruling: (http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/election2000/scotusruling.pdf)

Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
As a quick reading of the Constitution will attest, the President has no power to spend. That
power lies with Congress.

Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by
the Geneva Conventions.


This is blatantly false. Red Cross officials have reviewed the conditions at Guantanamo Bay,
where the Afghan detainees are being held, as well as the conditions of the Iraqi POWs. CNN
has written a story addressing the Geneva Convention and its salient points:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/31/timep.rules.tm/index.html


I'd check the whole thing out if I were you... Lots of misconceptions cleared up.
 

Woodrow

Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2003, 02:45:44 PM »
On Bush being a "Draft Dodger"

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030411.html

"Yeah, the mainstream media have really kept a lid on this one. We wouldn't know anything about Bush going AWOL if it hadn't been for that obscure underground newspaper the Boston Globe, which broke the story nationally in May 2000. But you're right that coverage has been pretty thin. A few months after the 2000 election, former Bill Clinton adviser Paul Begala said he'd done a Nexis search and found 13,641 stories about Clinton's alleged draft dodging versus 49 about George W. Bush's military record. Why the disparity? We'll get to that. First the basics: Yes, it's true, Bush didn't report to his guard unit for an extended period--17 months, by one account. It wasn't considered that serious an offense at the time, and if circumstances were different now I'd be inclined to write it off as youthful irresponsibility. However, given the none-too-subtle suggestion by the Bush administration that opponents of our Iraqi excursion lack martial valor, I have to say: You guys should talk.

Here's the story as generally agreed upon: In January 1968, with the Vietnam war in full swing, Bush was due to graduate from Yale. Knowing he'd soon be eligible for the draft, he took an air force officers' test hoping to secure a billet with the Texas Air National Guard, which would allow him to do his military service at home. Bush didn't do particularly well on the test--on the pilot aptitude section, he scored in the 25th percentile, the lowest possible passing grade. But Bush's father, George H.W., was then a U.S. congressman from Houston, and strings were pulled. The younger Bush vaulted to the head of a long waiting list--a year and a half long, by some estimates--and in May of '68 he was inducted into the guard.

By all accounts Bush was an excellent pilot, but apparently his enthusiasm cooled. In 1972, four years into his six-year guard commitment, he was asked to work for the campaign of Bush family friend Winton Blount, who was running for the U.S. Senate in Alabama. In May Bush requested a transfer to an Alabama Air National Guard unit with no planes and minimal duties. Bush's immediate superiors approved the transfer, but higher-ups said no. The matter was delayed for months. In August Bush missed his annual flight physical and was grounded. (Some have speculated that he was worried about failing a drug test--the Pentagon had instituted random screening in April.) In September he was ordered to report to a different unit of the Alabama guard, the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery. Bush says he did so, but his nominal superiors say they never saw the guy, there's no documentation he ever showed up, and not one of the six or seven hundred soldiers then in the unit has stepped forward to corroborate Bush's story.

After the November election Bush returned to Texas, but apparently didn't notify his old Texas guard unit for quite a while, if ever. The Boston Globe initially reported that he started putting in some serious duty time in May, June, and July of 1973 to make up for what he'd missed. But according to a piece in the New Republic, there's no evidence Bush did even that. Whatever the case, even though his superiors knew he'd blown off his duties, they never disciplined him. (No one's ever been shot at dawn for missing a weekend guard drill, but policy at the time was to put shirkers on active duty.) Indeed, when Bush decided to go to business school at Harvard in the fall of 1973, he requested and got an honorable discharge--eight months before his service was scheduled to end.

Bush's enemies say all this proves he was a cowardly deserter. Nonsense. He was a pampered rich kid who took advantage. Why wasn't he called on it in a serious way during the 2000 election? Probably because Democrats figured they'd get Clinton's draft-dodging thing thrown back at them. Not that it matters. If history judges Bush harshly--and it probably will--it won't be for screwing up as a young smart aleck, but for getting us into this damn fool war."

 

King Tech Quadafi

  • His Royal Highness
  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 7297
  • Karma: -221
  • i think you betta recognize...
Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2003, 09:35:23 PM »
Hmmff....he still a stupid warmongering coward.
"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

- Lewis Carroll
 

UnstoppableForce

  • Guest
Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2003, 10:47:54 PM »
Could you make a list of all the words Bush mispronounced on national TV?  ;D
 

Javier

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 8585
  • Karma: 284
Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2003, 10:57:27 PM »
is this an urban legend....

At $455 billion, the new deficit would eclipse the previous record of $290 billion in 1992 when Bush's father was president.

hmmm wonder what was happening between the bush's

Oh yea the biggest surplus in the history of the U.S
 

UnstoppableForce

  • Guest
Re:Bush Urban Legends DEBUNKED
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2003, 11:05:36 PM »


hmmm wonder what was happening between the bush's


Clinton was between the Bushes
... literally. :D ;D :D ;D :D ;D
« Last Edit: September 12, 2003, 11:06:02 PM by The Governator »