George W. Bush

Rick Snyder, the businessman from Ann Arbor who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor of Michigan, has some stern words of warning for Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, and any other GOP member who might conflate GM’s bankruptcy woes with President Barack Obama’s agenda: Cut it out.
In a statement released by Snyder’s [...]

WASHINGTON — During George W. Bush’s ill-fated push to privatize Social Security, conservatives condemned the use of surplus retirement taxes to help offset the deficit. But few Democrats or Republicans decry the government’s custom of padding its coffers with fees from an agency with a mission that’s more significant than ever: the Securities and Exchange Commission.

BENTON HARBOR — Former President George W. Bush, in a nearly 90-minute-long unscripted address to the local economic development club in this down-trodden southwest Michigan city, said Thursday evening he was honored to have served during “some unusual times,” making repeated references to the challenges he faced as commander in chief amid the “fog of war.”

Former President George W. Bush is expected to make his first major post-presidency speech this evening in Benton Harbor, one of Michigan’s poorest cities.
Bush’s visit is sponsored by the Economic Development Club of Southwest Michigan which was founded by Louis Upton, the co-founder of the locally-headquartered Whirlpool Corp. and grandfather of longtime local Republican U.S. [...]

The U.S. Department of State announced today it was reversing an earlier decision by the Bush administration and will support the United Nations statement on “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.”

Discussion of torture in public policy on radio program Declaring Independence

Within moments of becoming President Barack Obama, incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dispatched a memo to all federal agencies ordering all “midnight rules” issued by the administration of outgoing Republican President George W. Bush to be frozen pending a review by the new administration.

The House Judiciary Committee, headed by Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit), has released a report called Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush. The document lays out the case against the Bush administration for rampant lawbreaking and constitutional violations ranging from warrantless wiretaps to presidential signing statements [...]

Over at our sister site Minnesota Independent, Andy Birkey reports that outgoing President George W. Bush signed into law the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA). The new law will mandate that a business roll over retirement benefits to same-sex partners in the event of the death of the retiree.

President George Bush announced that General Motors and Chrysler will receive $13.4 billion in loan money from the Wall Street bailout fund, in a move to keep the companies afloat through March. He also wants to see Congress allocate another $4 billion for bridge loans.
By the spring, the auto makers will need to provide the [...]