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George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States, Dies At 94 (washingtonpost.com)
George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, has passed away tonight at the age of 94. As The Washington Post reports, he was "the last veteran of World War II to serve as president, he was a consummate public servant and a statesman who helped guide the nation and the world out of a four-decade Cold War that had carried the threat of nuclear annihilation." From the report: Although Mr. Bush served as president three decades ago, his values and ethic seem centuries removed from today's acrid political culture. His currency of personal connection was the handwritten letter -- not the social media blast. He had a competitive nature and considerable ambition that were not easy to discern under the sheen of his New England politesse and his earnest generosity. He was capable of running hard-edge political campaigns, and took the nation to war. But his principal achievements were produced at negotiating tables.
Despite his grace, Mr. Bush was an easy subject for caricature. He was an honors graduate of Yale University who was often at a loss for words in public, especially when it came to talking about himself. Though he was tested in combat when he was barely out of adolescence, he was branded "a wimp" by those who doubted whether he had essential convictions. This paradox in the public image of Mr. Bush dogged him, as did domestic events. His lack of sure-footedness in the face of a faltering economy produced a nosedive in the soaring popularity he enjoyed after the triumph of the Persian Gulf War. In 1992, he lost his bid for a second term as president. Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath announced his death on Twitter, but didn't provide the cause of death. In 2012, he announced that he had vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that limited his mobility.
UPDATE: George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has issued a statement on the passing of his father: "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
Despite his grace, Mr. Bush was an easy subject for caricature. He was an honors graduate of Yale University who was often at a loss for words in public, especially when it came to talking about himself. Though he was tested in combat when he was barely out of adolescence, he was branded "a wimp" by those who doubted whether he had essential convictions. This paradox in the public image of Mr. Bush dogged him, as did domestic events. His lack of sure-footedness in the face of a faltering economy produced a nosedive in the soaring popularity he enjoyed after the triumph of the Persian Gulf War. In 1992, he lost his bid for a second term as president. Bush's spokesman Jim McGrath announced his death on Twitter, but didn't provide the cause of death. In 2012, he announced that he had vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that limited his mobility.
UPDATE: George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, has issued a statement on the passing of his father: "Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H. W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
Eisenhower wasn't responsible for McCarthy and by all accounts didn't like or approve of him. It's not as if the president can just fire a congressman he doesn't like.
Seriously, there isn't even a hint of a tech or geek angle to post this story on slashdot.
GHWB lived most of his life before computers or the Internet were widespread, but he wore glasses, was socially inept, and few women found him attractive. I always felt he was a geek in his heart, the "Calvin Coolidge" of his time. In many ways, he was "one of us".
Set the stage for the 2003 homicide spree in Iraq (Gulf War II).
No he didn't. He very eloquently and clearly explained why "going to Baghdad" would have been a supremely stupid thing to do in 1991. Everything he said applied just as much in 2003.
It is not his fault that his son was a moron.
But it should also be noted that when Soviet archives were opened in the 1990s, some of the people that Joe McCarthy was accused of unjustly persecuting turned out to have actually been commie agents.
Not really surprising, if you let the cops break down doors at random in violation of the 4th amendment they'd probably find a lot of guilty people too. In retrospect you can always claim the times you were right were justified and the times you were wrong were honest mistakes. There's no doubt more guilty people would go to jail if you lowered the standard from "beyond a reasonable doubt" to "probably", but a whole lot more innocent men too. And beyond that you have guilt by association and "no smoke without fire", statistically you're probably more likely to be a communist if your friends are communists than the general population. And there's probably more rapists among those accused of rape than those who've never been accused. It's just a terrible way to run a justice system. And beyond that lies putting the blame on entire populations, which is how you end up with genocide.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Dan Quayle? The man who spoke out against single mothers? Remember when Murphy Brown stopped her hit TV show, broke character, and spoke directly to him and all the misogynist bigots just like him, vigorously defending single mothers?
History judges such people harshly.
There is nothing wrong with single mothers (or fathers) /per se/, but it's not something that should be encouraged or looked on as an ideal situation. At the time that is how I interpreted his message (regardless of what he did or did not actually intend).
OK, I'll bite: who were some of the people who were accused who were innocent?
Quoting from Wikipedia:
Nelson Algren, Lucille Ball, Alvah Bessie, Elmer Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein, David Bohm,
Bertolt Brecht, Archie Brown, Esther Brunauer, Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copland, Bartley Crum,Howard Da Silva, Jules Dassin, Dolores del RÃo, Edward Dmytryk, W.E.B. Du Bois, George A. Eddy, Albert Einstein, Hanns Eisler, Howard Fast, Lion Feuchtwanger, Carl Foreman, John Garfield, C.H. Garrigues,
Jack Gilford, Allen Ginsberg, Ruth Gordon, Lee Grant, Dashiell Hammett, Elizabeth Hawes, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Healey,Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, Marsha Hunt, Sam Jaffe, Theodore Kaghan,
Garson Kanin, Benjamin Keen, Otto Klemperer, Gypsy Rose Lee, Cornelius Lanczos,Ring Lardner Jr., Arthur Laurents, Philip Loeb, Joseph Losey, Albert Maltz, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, Thomas McGrath, Burgess Meredith, Arthur Miller, Jessica Mitford, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Zero Mostel, Joseph Needham, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Dorothy Parker, Linus Pauling, Samuel Reber, Al Richmond, Martin Ritt, Paul Robeson, Edward G. Robinson, Waldo Salt, Jean Seberg, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw, Irwin Shaw, William L. Shirer, Lionel Stander, Dirk Jan Struik, Paul Sweezy, Charles W. Thayer, Dalton Trumbo, Tsien Hsue-shen, Sam Wanamaker, Orson Welles, Gene Weltfish.
and that is just some of the notable people. Think of the thousands of others fired, blacklisted, and deported. Also read Yates v. United States, Watkins v. United States.
We aren't talking about people going to jail here. You just can't serve in the US government when your goal is to overthrow said government. That's all.
Somebody isn't familiar with the history of Red Scares in America, which preceded McCarthy, and include false accusations of violence(Haymarket Square), imprisonment (Debs), deportation, subversion(cointelpro), blacklisting(Dalton Trumbo), and more acts of oppression like forbidding the flying of the Bolshevik flag.
Even school children were punished for not saying the pledge of allegiance.
Only a few percent of their population were Communists, and they nonetheless dominated over a hundred million of their countrymen. They invented the GULAG.
Gulags were actually implemented under the Russian Tsars, they just called them Katorga. And of course, the idea of deportation to the colonies existed in Great Britain (Australia, the Americas), and even older examples like the Babylonian Captivity exist.