Please read and forward on
the 100 facts below that argue "The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush
Administration." This can be printed out as a one page PDF
document for distribution: http://www.thenation.com/special/pdf/100facts.pdf
Please also listen to and forward on this MoveOn video where Bush is
publicly making jokes about looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction and
not finding them. Bush thinks that this is funny but it is
definitely not. Many people will be outraged by this like I am: https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/winback-QT.html
Making people aware of these facts will help motivate John Kerry's
voter base, will cause even more disillusionment with Bush, and will
help to counter Bush's distortions of the issues which will help to win
over more of the remaining undecided voters!
So much is on the line now as this article concludes: "If the past
informs the future, four more years of the Bush Administration will be
a tragic period in the history of the United States and the
world." With that I heartily agree and I am sure that people who
see these things will agree as well that it is time for a fresh
start!
Let's make more people aware of these facts in the time remaining
before the election to help get more votes for John Kerry!
Mitch Dworkin
http://www.johnkerry.com/index.html
http://blog.johnkerry.com/rapidresponse/
John Kerry Rapid Response Center: Here is where you can see the truth
about John Kerry and the issues through the Bush campaign's distortions!
http://blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/cat_what_would_bush_learn.html
What Would Bush Learn If He Read the Paper Today?
This link contains excellent documentation of Bush's record!
https://www.moveonpac.org/donate/winback-QT.html
Short MoveOn video of Bush openly making jokes about not finding WMD!
--------------------
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041108&s=facts
100 Facts and 1 Opinion
The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration
by Judd Legum
Click here
to download, circulate and distribute a PDF version of this article.
http://www.thenation.com/special/pdf/100facts.pdf
IRAQ
1. The Bush Administration has spent more than $140 billion on a
war of choice in Iraq.
Source: American
Progress
2. The Bush Administration sent troops into battle without
adequate body armor or armored Humvees.
Sources: Fox News,
The
Boston Globe
3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates from Gen. Eric
Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be required to
secure Iraq.
Source: PBS
4. Vice President Cheney said Americans "will, in fact, be
greeted as liberators" in Iraq.
Source: The
Washington Post
5. During the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, more than 1,000
US troops have lost their lives and more than 7,000 have been injured.
Source: globalsecurity.org
6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in
a flight suit, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished,"
and triumphantly announced that major combat operations were over in
Iraq. Asked if he had any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would
do it all over again.
Source: Yahoo
News
7. Vice President Cheney said that Iraq was "the geographic base
of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but
most especially on 9/11." The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that
Iraq had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative
operational relationship with Al Qaeda.
Source: MSNBC , 9-11
Commission
8. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that
high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited
for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we don't want the smoking gun
to be a mushroom cloud." The government's top nuclear scientists had
told the Administration the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too
long" to be of use in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for
other purposes.
Source: New
York Times
9. The Bush Administration has spent just $1.1 billion of the
$18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction.
Source: USA
Today
10. According to the Administration's handpicked weapon's
inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no evidence that Hussein had
passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist
organizations, or had any intent to do so." After the release of the
report, Bush continued to insist, "There was a risk--a real risk--that
Saddam Hussein would pass weapons, or materials, or information to
terrorist networks."
Sources: New
York Times, White
House news release
11. According to Duelfer, the UN inspections regime put an
"economic strangle hold" on Hussein that prevented him from developing
a WMD program for more than twelve years.
Source: Los
Angeles Times
TERRORISM
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled
"Bin Laden Determined to Attack America," President Bush continued his
monthlong vacation.
Source: CNN.com
13. The Bush Administration failed to commit enough troops to
capture Osama bin Laden when US forces had him cornered in the Tora
Bora region of Afghanistan in November 2001. Instead, they relied on
local warlords.
Source: csmonitor.com
14. The Bush Administration secured less nuclear material from
sites around the world vulnerable to terrorists in the two years after
9/11 than were secured in the two years before 9/11.
Source: nti.org
15. The Bush Administration underfunded Nunn-Lugar--the program
intended to keep the former Soviet Union's nuclear legacy out of the
hands of terrorists and rogue states--by $45.5 million.
Source: armscontrol.org
16. The Bush Administration has assigned five times as many
agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama
bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money.
Source: sfgate.com
17. According to Congressional Research Service data, the Bush
Administration has underfunded security at the nation's ports by more
than $1 billion for fiscal year 2005.
Source: American
Progress
18. The Bush Administration did not devote the resources
necessary to prevent a resurgence in the production of poppies, the raw
material used to create heroin, in Afghanistan--creating a potent new
source of financing for terrorists.
Source: Pakistan
Tribune
19. Vice President Cheney told voters that unless they elect
George Bush in November, "we'll get hit again" by terrorists.
Source: Washington
Post
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists
come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush
Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban.
Source: sfgate.com
21. Despite repeated calls for reinforcements, there are fewer
experienced CIA agents assigned to the unit dealing with Osama bin
Laden now than there were before 9/11.
Source: New
York Times
22. Before 9/11, John Ashcroft proposed slashing
counterterrorism funding by 23 percent.
Source: americanprogress.org
23. Between January 20, 2001, and September 10, 2001, the Bush
Administration publicly mentioned Al Qaeda one time.
Source: commondreams.org
24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11 Commission $3
million to investigate the September 11 attacks and $50 million to the
commission that investigated the Columbia space shuttle crash.
Source: commondreams.org
25. More than three years after 9/11, just 5 percent of all
cargo--including cargo transported on passenger planes--is screened.
Source: commondreams.org
NATIONAL SECURITY
26. During the Bush Administration, North Korea quadrupled its
suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight weapons.
Source: New
York Times
27. The Bush Administration has openly opposed the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty, undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
Source: commondreams.org
28. The Bush Administration has spent $7 billion this year--and
plans to spend $10 billion next year--for a missile defense system that
has never worked in a test that wasn't rigged.
Sources: www.gao.gov/new.items/d04409.pdf,
Los
Angeles Times
29. The Bush Administration underfunded the needs of the
nation's first responders by $98 billion, according to a Council on
Foreign Relations study.
Source: nationaldefensemagazine.org
CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION
30. The Bush Administration awarded a multibillion-dollar no-bid
contract to Halliburton--a company that still pays Vice President
Cheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred compensation each
year (Cheney also has Halliburton stock options). The company then
repeatedly overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks
from subcontractors and served troops dirty food.
Sources: The
Washington Post, The
Tapei Times, BBC News
31. The Bush Administration told Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan
about plans to go to war with Iraq before telling Secretary of State
Colin Powell.
Source: detnews.com
32. The Bush Administration relentlessly pushed an energy bill
containing $23.5 billion in corporate tax breaks, much of which would
have benefited major campaign contributors.
taxpayer.net,
Washington
Post
33. The Bush Administration paid Iraqi-exile and neocon darling
Ahmad Chalabi $400,000 a month for intelligence, including fabricated
claims about Iraqi WMD. It continued to pay him for months after
discovering that he was providing inaccurate information.
Source: MSNBC
34. The Bush Administration installed as top officials more than
100 former lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they
oversee.
Source: Source: commondreams.org
35. The Bush Administration let disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay--a
close friend of President Bush--help write its energy policy.
Source: MSNBC
36. Top Bush Administration officials accepted $127,600 in
jewelry and other presents from the Saudi royal family in 2003,
including diamond-and-sapphire jewelry valued at $95,500 for First Lady
Laura Bush.
Source: Seattle
Times
37. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge awarded lucrative
contracts to several companies in which he is an investor, including
Microsoft, GE, Sprint, Pfizer and Oracle.
Source: cq.com
38. President Bush used images of firefighters carrying
flag-draped coffins through the rubble of the World Trade Center to
score political points in a campaign advertisement.
Source: The
Washington Post
THE ECONOMY
39. President Bush's top economic adviser, Greg Mankiw, said the
outsourcing of American jobs abroad was "a plus for the economy in the
long run."
Source: CBS
News
40. The Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a
$422 billion deficit.
Sources: Fortune,
dfw.com
41. The Bush Administration implemented regulations that made
millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay.
Source: epinet.org
42. The Bush Administration has crippled state budgets by
underfunding federal mandates by $175 billion.
Source: cbpp.org
43. President Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover
to have a net loss of jobs--around 800,000--over a four-year term.
Source: The
Guardian
44. The Bush Administration gave Accenture a multibillion-dollar
border control contract even though the company moved its operations to
Bermuda to avoid paying taxes.
Sources: The
New York Times, cantonrep.com
45. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said "the vast majority of
my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum." He passed the tax
cuts, but the top 20 percent of earners received 68 percent of the
benefits.
Sources: cbpp.org,
vote-smart.org
46. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to pay down the
national debt to a historically low level. As of September 30, the
national debt stood at $7,379,052,696,330.32, a record high.
Sources: www.georgewbush.com
, Bureau of
the Public Debt
47. As major corporate scandals rocked the nation's economy, the
Bush Administration reduced the enforcement of corporate tax
law--conducting fewer audits, imposing fewer penalties, pursuing fewer
prosecutions and making virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax
crimes.
Source: iht.com
48. The Bush Administration increased tax audits for the working
poor.
Source: theolympian.com
49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to protect the
Social Security surplus. As President, he spent all of it.
Sources: georgewbush.com,
Congressional
Budget Office
50. The Bush Administration proposed slashing funding for the
largest federal public housing program, putting 2 million families in
danger of losing their housing.
Source: San
Francisco Examiner
51. The Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the minimum
wage from falling to an inflation-adjusted fifty-year low.
Source: Los
Angeles Times
EDUCATION
52. The Bush Administration underfunded the No Child Left Behind
Act by $9.4 billion.
Source: nwitimes.com
53. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to increase the
maximum federal scholarship, or Pell Grant, by 50 percent. Instead,
each year he has been in office he has frozen or cut the maximum
scholarship amount.
Source: Source: edworkforce.house.gov
x
54. The Bush Administration's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige,
called the National Education Association--a union of teachers--a
"terrorist organization."
Sources: CNN.com
HEALTHCARE
55. The Bush Administration, in violation of the law, refused to
allow Medicare actuary Richard Foster to tell members of Congress the
actual cost of their Medicare bill. Instead, they repeated a figure
they knew was $100 billion too low.
Source: Washington
Post, realcities.com
56. The nonpartisan GAO concluded the Bush Administration
created illegal, covert propaganda--in the form of fake news
reports--to promote its industry-backed Medicare bill.
Source: General
Accounting Office
57. The Bush Administration stunted research that could lead to
new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal injuries,
heart disease and muscular dystrophy by placing severe restrictions on
the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem-cell research.
Source: CBS
News
58. The Bush Administration reinstated the "global gag rule,"
which requires foreign NGOs to withhold information about legal
abortion services or lose US funds for family planning.
Source: healthsciences.columbia.edu
59. The Bush Administration authorized twenty companies that
have been charged with fraud at the federal or state level to offer
Medicare prescription drug cards to seniors.
Source: American
Progress
60. The Bush Administration created a prescription drug card for
Medicare that locks seniors into one card for up to a year but allows
the corporations offering the cards to change their prices once a week.
Source: Washington
Post
61. The Bush Administration blocked efforts to allow Medicare to
negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices for seniors.
Source: American
Progress
62. At the behest of the french fry industry, the Bush
Administration USDA changed their definition of fresh vegetables to
include frozen french fries.
Source: commondreams.org
63. In a case before the Supreme Court, the Bush Administrations
sided with HMOs--arguing that patients shouldn't be allowed to sue HMOs
when they are improperly denied treatment. With the Administration's
help, the HMOs won.
Source: ABC News
64. The Bush Administration went to court to block lawsuits by
patients who were injured by defective prescription drugs and medical
devices.
Source: Washington
Post
65. President Bush signed a Medicare law that allows companies
that reduce healthcare benefits for retirees to receive substantial
subsidies from the government.
Source: Bloomberg
News
66. Since President Bush took office, more than 5 million people
have lost their health insurance.
Source: CNN.com
67. The Bush Administration blocked a proposal to ban the use of
arsenic-treated lumber in playground equipment, even though it conceded
it posed a danger to children.
Source: Miami Herald
68. One day after President Bush bragged about his efforts to
help seniors afford healthcare, the Administration announced the
largest dollar increase of Medicare premiums in history.
Source: iht.com
69. The Bush Administration--at the behest of the tobacco
industry--tried to water down a global treaty that aimed to help curb
smoking.
Source: tobaccofreekids.org
70. The Bush Administration has spent $270 million on
abstinence-only education programs even though there is no scientific
evidence demonstrating that they are effective in dissuading teenagers
from having sex or reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted
diseases.
Source: salon.com
71. The Bush Administration slashed funding for programs that suggested
ways, other than abstinence, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
Source: LA Weekly
ENVIRONMENT
72. The Bush Administration gutted clean-air standards for aging power
plants, resulting in at least 20,000 premature deaths each year.
Source: cta.policy.net
73. The Bush Administration eliminated protections on more than 200
million acres of public lands.
Source: calwild.org
74. President Bush broke his promise to place limits on carbon dioxide
emissions, an essential step in combating global warming.
Source: Washington
Post
75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration told people living near
Ground Zero that the air was safe--even though they knew it
wasn't--subjecting hundreds of people to unnecessary, debilitating
ailments.
Sierra Club , EPA
76. The Bush Administration created a massive tax loophole for
SUVs--allowing, for example, the write-off of the entire cost of a new
Hummer.
Source: Washington
Post
77. The Bush Administration put former coal-industry big shots in the
government and let them roll back safety regulations, putting miners at
greater risk of black lung disease.
Source: New
York Times
78. The Bush Administration said that even though the weed killer
atrazine was seeping into water supplies--creating, among other bizarre
creatures, hermaphroditic frogs--there was no reason to regulate it.
Source: Washington
Post
79. The Bush Administration has proposed cutting the budget of the
Environmental Protection Agency by $600 million next year.
Source: ems.org
80. President Bush broke his campaign promise to end the maintenance
backlog at national parks. He has provided just 7 percent of the funds
needed, according to National Park Service estimates.
Source: bushgreenwatch.org
RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft has detained 5,000
foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps; none have been convicted of
a terrorist crime.
Source: hrwatch.org
82. The Bush Administration ignored pleas from the International
Committee of the Red Cross to stop the abuse of prisoners in US custody.
Source: Wall
Street Journal
83. In violation of international law, the Bush Administration hid
prisoners from the Red Cross so the organization couldn't monitor their
treatment.
Source: hrwatch.org
84. The Bush Administration, without ever charging him with a crime,
arrested US citizen José Padilla at an airport in Chicago, held
him on a naval brig in South Carolina for two years, denied him access
to a lawyer and prohibited any contact with his friends and family.
Source: news.findlaw.com
85. President Bush's top legal adviser wrote a memo to the President
advising him that he can legally authorize torture.
Source: news.findlaw.com
86. At the direction of Bush Administration officials, the FBI went
door to door questioning people planning on protesting at the 2004
political conventions.
Source: New
York Times
87. The Bush Administration refuses to support the creation of an
independent commission to investigate the abuse of foreign prisoners in
American custody. Instead, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
selected the members of a commission to review the conduct of his own
department.
Source: humanrightsfirst.org
FLIP FLOPS
88. President Bush opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission before
he supported it, delaying an essential inquiry into one of the greatest
intelligence failure in American history.
Source: americanprogressaction.org
89. President Bush said gay marriage was a state issue before he
supported a constitutional amendment banning it.
Sources: CNN.com,
White
House
90. President Bush said he was committed to capturing Osama bin Laden
"dead or alive" before he said, "I truly am not that concerned about
him."
Source: americanprogressaction.org
91. President Bush said we had found weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq, before he admitted we hadn't found them.
Sources: White
House, americanprogress.org
92. President Bush said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and
Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," before he admitted
Saddam had no role in 9/11.
Sources: White
House, Washington
Post
BIOGRAPHY
93. George Bush didn't come close to meeting his commitments to the
National Guard. Records show he performed no service in a six-month
period in 1972 and a three-month period in 1973.
Source: boston.com
94. In June 1990 George Bush violated federal securities law when he
failed to inform the SEC that he had sold 200,000 shares of his
company, Harken Energy. Two months later the company reported
significant losses and by the end of that year the stock had dropped
from $3 to $1.
Source: The
Guardian
95. When asked at an April 2004 press conference to name a mistake he
made during his presidency, Bush couldn't think of one.
Source: White
House
SECRECY
96. The Bush Administration refuses to release twenty-seven pages of a
Congressional report that reportedly detail the Saudi Arabian
government's connections to the 9/11 hijackers.
Source: philly.com
97. Last year the Bush Administration spent $6.5 billion creating 14
million new classified documents and securing old secrets--the highest
level of spending in ten years.
Source: openthegovernment.org
98. The Bush Administration spent $120 classifying documents for every
$1 it spent declassifying documents.
Source: openthegovernment.org
99. The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars and defied
numerous court orders to conceal from the public who participated in
Vice President Cheney's 2001 energy task force.
Source: Washington
Post
100. The Bush Administration--reversing years of bipartisan
tradition--refuses to answer requests from Democratic members of
Congress about how the White House is spending taxpayer money.
Source: Washington
Post
OPINION
If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush
Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the United
States and the world.