WHAT? ME WORRY?

George W. Bush has his own library. He spent more hours planning that library than he ever did planning anything else during his eight years as President of the United States of America.

Now we are being notified that George W. Bush is putting together a think tank.

WASHINGTON - Former President George W. Bush took a step closer Thursday to establishing an "action-oriented think tank" alongside his future presidential library by naming James K. Glassman, the longtime journalist and former administration official, as its founding executive director. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/

What follows are the names of some of the finest minds in George W. Bush's administration:

Feith joined the administration of President George W. Bush as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in 2001.

Responding to criticism of a report that linked Al-Qaeda with Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Douglas Feith called the office's report a much-needed critique of the CIA's intelligence. "It's healthy to criticize the CIA's intelligence", Feith said. "What the people in the Pentagon were doing was right. It was good government." Feith also rejected accusations he attempted to link Iraq to a formal relationship with Al Qaeda. "No one in my office ever claimed there was an operational relationship", Feith said. "There was a relationship."[9] Feith stated that he "felt vindicated" by the report of the Pentagon inspector general.[10] He told the Washington Post that his office produced "a criticism of the consensus of the intelligence community, and in presenting it I was not endorsing its substance."[7]

n 1998, Feith was one of a number of U.S. officials who signed an open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for the United States to oust Saddam Hussein. Feith was part of a group of former national security officials in the 1990s who supported Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress and encouraged the U.S. Congress to pass the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. Congress approved the Act, and Clinton signed it into law.

Described by General Tommy Franks as either "the dumbest fucking guy on the planet" (according to Franks' autobiography) or "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the Earth" (according to Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack),  http://www.nndb.com/people/100/000047956/

They have involved co-operation between the Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda operatives on training and combined operations regarding bomb making and chemical and biological weapons.

Douglas Feith  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/d/douglasfei206249.html

What the UN inspectors can do is demonstrate to the world, help the Iraqi government demonstrate to the world that the Iraqis are cooperatively disarming if that is in fact what the Iraqi government decides to do. ibid

I'm not concerned about weapons of mass destruction. Ibid

Peace, of course, is different from divorce; indeed, in essential respects, divorce is the opposite of peace. ibid

Richard Perle

I have been widely but wrongly depicted as deeply involved in the making of administration policy, especially with respect to Iraq. Facts notwithstanding, there are some fifty thousand entries on Google in which I am described as an "architect," and often as "the architect," of the Iraq War. I certainly supported and argued publicly for the decision to remove Saddam, as I do in what follows. But had I been the architect of that war, our policy would have been very different. [...]http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/08/perle-iraq-architect/

If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage a total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now.    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/richardper183725.html

There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they've been liberated.  Ibid

The lax multiculturalism that urges Americans to accept the unacceptable from their fellow citizens is one of this nation's greatest vulnerabilities in the war on terror. Ibid

Michael D. Brown

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --President George W. Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his job performance, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005  http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushism-brownie.htm

"I'm very concerned about people in Mississippi and Louisiana who have watched these storms the past two years hit Florida and Alabama and may have a little lackadaisical attitude toward this thing."

 "I am looking forward to working with the IIBA community for the third time.  I don't usually work with such a tightly profiled group on this scale, and my previous experiences have been exhilarating.  I think it's fair to say, as an off-the-scale intuitive, spontaneous and unstructured thinker with no eye whatsoever for detail, that my profile is somewhat different to the typical Business Analyst.  The result is that we tend to eye each other up a little warily in the opening moments, trying to work out which of us walked off the spaceship.  Once we get over this it tends to be a refreshing change for both parties, and everyone seems to walk away with a new perspective."  (2009-  http://uk.theiiba.org/index.php/chapter-events/conference-2009/74-michael-brown-quote

I,m going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep, ... And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help

You've got to know where the machinery is and how it works before you can throw a monkey-wrench into it.  http://www.andiquote.co.za/authors/Michael_H_Brown.html (I know that this is a different Michael Brown, but it kind of fits here, do you not think?)

There are few cities with so many good as New Orleans and also few cities where there is such a stark coexistence with the bad. It is this city, the Big Easy, that is home to kind and...

John Yoo

A decision by the Supreme Court to subject Guantanamo to judicial review would eliminate these advantages.

If the Court were to extend its reach to the base, judges could begin managing conditions of confinement, interrogation methods, and the use of information.

In light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, critics are arguing that abuses of Iraqi prisoners are being produced by a climate of disregard for the laws of war.

It is important to recognize the differences between the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. The treatment of those detained at Abu Ghraib is governed by the Geneva Conventions, which have been signed by both the U.S. and Iraq.

President Bush and his commanders announced early in the conflict that the Conventions applied.

The effort to blur the lines between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib reflects a deep misunderstanding about the different legal regimes that apply to Iraq and the war against al Qaeda.

This is not to condone torture, which is still prohibited by the Torture Convention and federal criminal law.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_yoo.html

The Honorable Jay S. Bybee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bybee_Memo

 http://www.tomjoad.org/bybeememo.htm

I mean who can forget this brand spanking new interpretation of the Statutes and Constitutional provisions.  The protections guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment might not cover a victim of torture who has never been convicted of anything.   

Gonzo

The top 10 Alberto Gonzales quotes:

10. "I have searched my memory."

9. "I don't have any recollection about..."

8. "I have no recollection."

7. "I have no memory of this."

6. "I don't remember."

5. "I don't know."

4. "I don't recall ever saying this."

3. "I don't recall ever doing that."

2. "I can't recall."

1. "I don't recall."

http://thethoughtsontheworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/top-10-alberto-gonzales-quotes.html

GEORGE W. BUSH

Are you kidding? Who has the time to read twenty five pages of his famous sayings?

Dick Cheney

Come on, I just ate.

Paul Wolfowitz

• A new regime would have become the United States' responsibility. Conceivably, this could have led the United States into a more or less permanent occupation of a country that could not govern itself, but where the rule of a foreign occupier would be increasingly resented.
• Quoted in John Calabrese, The future of Iraq (The Middle East Institute, 1997, ISBN 0916808467, 9780916808464) [1]

• "There has been a good deal of comment -- some of it quite outlandish -- about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army -- hard to imagine."
• House Budget Committee testimony on Iraq (February 27, 2003)

• Firing employees, that's unfortunately a part of doing business. [2]

• "I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign. It's not going to stop if a few criminals are taken care of."
• Dept of Defense News Briefing (September 13, 2001)

• "I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years."
• House subcommittee on Iraq testimony (February 28, 2003)

• "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not."(2003)
• Press conference in Mosul, Iraq (July 21, 2003) Commentary on comments by Wolfowitz

• "...the importance of leadership and what it consists of: not lecturing and posturing and demanding, but demonstrating that your friends will be protected and taken care of, that your enemies will be punished, and that those who refuse to support you will regret having done so." [3]

• "Fuck you."
• To Al Franken
•  

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz

Collin Powell

You could offer him Rio, I mean full ownership, and he would not have anything to do with a George W. Bush think tank. ha

We can only hope that the new think tank will have as its members individuals with the stunning thought processes we were able to witness over George W. Bush's two terms as President.