If you see these two at your door, tell them
you've had enough of their tricks. They're
not getting any treats and go back to Crawford,
and Haliburton. Just Get Out!
A Bush win is Scary
Vote Kerry!
 |
Sunday, October 31, 2004
If you see these two at your door, tell them you've had enough of their tricks. They're not getting any treats and go back to Crawford, and Haliburton. Just Get Out! A Bush win is Scary Vote Kerry! posted by txpoollover, 10:15 | link | comments
Saturday, October 30, 2004 posted by txpoollover, 10:30 | link | comments
posted by txpoollover, 09:41 | link | comments
Friday, October 29, 2004 Hey Bush,Where is Osama?
read: It's Not Just Al QaqaaBy PAUL KRUGMAN Al Qaqaa is hardly the only tale of incompetence and mendacity to break to the surface in the last few days. The unmaking of the president posted by txpoollover, 06:32 | link | comments
If you can't find enough reasons to vote Bush out then, IT'S THE ENVIRONMENT STUPID! more: '100 Facts and 1 opinion' 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. 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: Philadelphia Inquirer 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. Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week! If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation. posted by txpoollover, 06:10 | link | comments
Thursday, October 28, 2004 from:Attention Fence Sitters: 101 Points to Ponder Before Taking to the Polls by Maureen Farrell Threats to Core Values "Give us back the America we loved, and your friends will be waiting for you." – John Le Carre, the Los Angeles Times 62. "Unilateral preventive war is neither legitimate nor moral. It is illegitimate and immoral. For more than 200 years we have not been that kind of country." 63. Bush "will go down in history as the first president to try to write bias back into the Constitution." 64. "[Bush’s] international policies have been based on the hopelessly naïve belief that foreign peoples are eager to be liberated by American armies -- a notion more grounded in Leon Trotsky's concept of global revolution than any sort of conservative statecraft. His immigration policies -- temporarily put on hold while he runs for re-election -- are just as extreme." 65. "Bush has shown an ideological commitment to the literalist Christian tradition at the expense of the broader view of the larger religious community. He is the first president not to meet with the leadership of mainline Christian traditions since George Washington." 66. "The nation's founders, smarting still from the punitive pieties of Europe's state religions, were adamant about erecting a wall between organized religion and political authority. But suddenly, that seems like a long time ago. George W. Bush -- both captive and creator of this moment -- has steadily, inexorably, changed the office itself. He has created the faith-based presidency." 67. "How did eight or nine neoconservatives who believed that a war in Iraq was the answer to international terrorism get their way? How did they redirect the government and rearrange long-standing American priorities and policies with so much ease? How did they overcome the bureaucracy, intimidate the press, mislead the Congress, and dominate the military? Is our democracy that fragile?" Threats to America’s Worldwide Reputation "Never before have so many climbed into the underbelly of U.S. foreign policy and left holding their noses." -- The Toronto Star 68. 'America's reputation as land of the free looking increasingly tarnished.' 69. "[In] eight out of 10 nations, those polled said - often in landslide proportions - that they hoped to see Democrat John Kerry beat President Bush in next month's election." 70. Brits lobby to get rid of George W. Bush. 71. Germany has signaled that if Kerry wins, they’d reconsider sending troops to Iraq. 72. "Probably no American president in history has been so universally hated abroad as Bush." War Profiteering "Between now and the November election, it's crucial that Americans come to understand how four generations of the current president's family have embroiled the United States in the Middle East through CIA connections, arms shipments, rogue banks, inherited war policies and personal financial links." -- Kevin Phillips, the Los Angeles Times 73. ‘Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya his former business partner’? 74. ‘The Bush Crony Act’ 75. "‘Bush ally set to profit on war on terror." 76. ‘Bush and the Saudis Sitten’ in a tree’. 77. "Donald Rumsfeld, the US defense secretary, sat on the board of a company which three years ago sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea - a country he now regards as part of the "axis of evil. . . " 78. "Nowhere is the revolving U.S.-Saudi money wheel more evident than within President Bush's own coterie of foreign policy advisers, starting with the president's father, George H.W. Bush." 79. "Bush Family Values." 80. "Cheney claimed that he supported the U.S. sanctions on Iraq, but the Financial Times of London reported that through foreign subsidiaries and affiliates, Halliburton became the biggest oil contractor for Iraq, selling more than $73 million in goods and services to Saddam Hussein's regime." 81. "A U.S. grand jury issued a subpoena to Halliburton Co. seeking information about its Cayman Islands unit's work in Iran, where it is illegal for U.S. companies to operate. . . " Non-Presidential Behavior "The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions." – Ron Suskind, the New York Times 82. The reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis." 83. "A blind man in a room full of deaf people." 84. A "shot across the bow." Human Rights Abuses "[A] secret U.S. military unit has been ‘disappearing’ people since December 2001, and America has no idea how irreparably its torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has damaged its image in the Middle East." – Summary of Seymour Hersh speech 86. 'Bush Administration lawyers greenlight torture.' 87. The US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison. 88. Rumsfeld knew of prisoner abuse and possible war crimes as early as 2002, but did nothing to stop it. The Religious Right "The outcome [of this election] threatens to transform the U.S. into an ironfisted theocracy." – Neal Gabler, the Los Angeles Times 89. ‘Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power: US Christian fundamentalists are driving Bush's Middle East policy.’ 90 "The Rev. Jerry Falwell said yesterday that evangelical Christians, after nearly 25 years of increasing political activism, now control the Republican Party and the fate of President Bush in the November election." 91. "It is one of the saddest ironies of our time that as America tries to calm the fires of theocracy abroad, it should be stoking milder versions of the same at home." 92. When former Council for National Policy member Pat Robertson resigned as head of the Christian Coalition, some saw it as a sign. "I think Robertson stepped down because the position has already been filled," Gary Bauer said, referring to President Bush's role as head of the Religious Right. 93. "The only way Americans will have a presidency in which neoconservatives and the Christian Armageddon set are not holding the reins of power is if Kerry is elected." The Home Front "Voters should reject the notion that the current administration ‘inherited’ a bad economy or was the victim on 9/11 of previous White House policies. The state in which this nation finds itself can be traced to a single misfortune: four years of the Bush administration." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 94. "Nearly 2.7 million manufacturing and 1 million professional-services and information-technology jobs have been lost since President Bush took office." 95. "Mr. Bush's foreign policy. . . has undoubtedly boosted the cost of gas and fuel oil to all Americans." 96. "The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million, the Census Bureau reported. . ." 97. "The Bush Social Security plan poses a major threat to the economic security of future generations of older Americans. And it also poses major risks for current beneficiaries." Weird Science 98. "The administration's stem-cell stand is just one of many examples, from climate change to abstinence-only sex-education programs, in which the White House has made policies that defy widely accepted scientific opinion." 99. "George W. Bush will go down as the worst environmental president in our nation’s history." 100. "Under Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed." And finally. . . "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." -- The Nation posted by txpoollover, 14:35 | link | comments
more of : 100 Facts and 1 Opinion
The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration
by Judd Legum
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 posted by txpoollover, 06:19 | link | comments
Wednesday, October 27, 2004 posted by txpoollover, 20:42 | link | comments
BUSH LIES! Deception "Sometimes the truth is so precious it must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies." -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld paraphrasing Winston Churchill 29. Even while publicly making mushroom cloud claims, hawks in the U.S. government privately admitted that Iraq was not a threat to the United States. 30. Early on, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell both publicly asserted that Saddam was not capable of attacking America. 31. The Pentagon constructed its own "lie factory" to justify a pre-planned war. 32. Paul Wolfowitz skirted the human and monetary costs of the war in Iraq, causing one lawmaker to note: "I think you're deliberately keeping us in the dark." 33. The Bush administration relied on "misrepresentation [and] manipulation" to make its case for Iraq. 34. As of Oct. 25, 2004, the White House Web site still contained a list of Iraq-related whoppers. Trickery "President Bush may not be dumb, but he sure does think the rest of us are." – Molly Ivins 35. "The Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, struck a deal with the US not to seize Bin Laden after the Afghan war for fear of inciting trouble in his own country." 36. "The White House withheld information about North Korea's nuclear weapons program until after Congress passed its resolution authorizing war with Iraq." 37. The White House instructed Rep Dick Armey to insert a provision blocking lawsuits against vaccine makers into homeland security legislation. "Why would anyone want to save Eli Lilly on our children's backs?" one mother asked. 38. The Bush administration knew that claims about aluminum tubes and "uranium from Africa" were not true, but "cooked information" made its way into President’s speeches anyway. 39. 'The quickest way home is through Baghdad', they told us. So we took the city, and here we are still," one staff sergeant complained, long before troops were forced to stay in the military. Weirdness "First it is clear the US authorities did little or nothing to pre-empt the events of 9/11. It is known that at least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks.. . . Was this inaction simply the result of key people disregarding, or being ignorant of, the evidence? Or could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September 11?" -- Former British environmental minister Michael Meacher 40. "On Sept. 10, Newsweek has learned, a group of top Pentagon officials suddenly canceled travel plans for the next morning, apparently because of security concerns." 41. Former FBI translator: "I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with airplanes." 42. In 2000, the U.S. military conducted exercises to see how many would perish if a plane flew into the Pentagon and on Sept. 11, 2001 the CIA ran a similar simulation. 43. Days after the 9/11 attacks, Bin Laden family members were flown out of the country. 44. "Judicial Watch is aggressively pursuing the disclosure of the facts and the decision for White House staff, and President Bush as well, to begin taking Cipro nearly a month before anthrax was detected on Capitol Hill." 45. Bush knew. Threats to Civil Liberties "It's bombs away for Iraq and on our civil liberties if Bush and his cronies get their way." – Helen Thomas 46. ‘Bush gets "f" on Civil Rights.’ 47. "Patriot Act sequel worse than original" 48. School teachers threatened with arrest and tossed out of a Bush rally for wearing T-shirts that read ‘Protect our civil liberties.’ 49. Mother of a slain solider arrested for interrupting Laura Bush. 50. Solider tossed out of a Bush rally for befriending a Democrat. 52. ‘Uncle Sam will soon want your kids.’ Threats to Democracy "It's not an overstatement to say that on Nov. 2, the fate of traditional American democracy will hang in the balance." – Neal Gabler, the Los Angeles Times 53. "On the issue of war and peace, the United States is no longer a democracy." 54. ‘Threats to Democracy at Code Red.’ 55. Former Reagan official bemoans the "Brownshirting of America." 56. Bush-Connected Clear Channel raises questions about censorship and the merger of government and the media. 57. ‘Dirty Tricks return to the sunshine state’ 58. "So even before most of the country votes on November 2, it is likely that John Kerry will have been denied thousands upon thousands of votes, well in excess of one or two hundred thousand possibly, due to a national GOP strategy of voter suppression, intimidation and dirty tricks, using multiple strategies." 59. 'U.S. spies on chat rooms.’ 60. Congress kept in dark about Bush’s Shadow Government 61. ‘The end of Democracy.’ posted by txpoollover, 18:46 | link | comments
More of :100 Facts and 1 Opinion
The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration
by Judd Legum
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 posted by txpoollover, 06:51 | link | comments
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 Undecided? Points to ponder before you go into the polling booth. by Maureen Farrell "Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for -- but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him." – Hunter S. Thompson Though the country is more polarized than it’s been since the Vietnam War, a palpable sense of "we’re in it togetherness" exists below the rancor and angst. Because of this, the question, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" has been replaced with the broader, "Is the country better off"? At this particular fork in the road, we have to imagine where each path might lead. Where will we be five years from now? Twenty years from now? Should we "stay the course," even though the course is headed into a ravine? Of course, the Bush campaign has been trying to scare Americans with images of wolves, suggesting that this administration will keep danger at bay. But George Bush has made us decidedly less safe by driving us deeper into the forrest. Should we reward the man who's steered the country into a ditch by giving him the keys to the company car? One week from now, our collective futures will be decided. If you're still undecided, I beg you to consider the following: The last presidential election ["George Bush’s presidency was] signed, sealed and delivered months before anyone entered a voting booth." – Investigative reporter Greg Palast 4. Another debacle in the making. Incompetence prior to 9/11 "I don't believe any longer that it's a matter of connecting the dots. I think they had a veritable blueprint, and we want to know why they didn't act on it." — Sen. Arlen Specter 5. In addition to the Aug. 6, 2001 PDB entitled 'Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US,' the president saw a string of reports, including ones entitled: 'Bin Laden planning multiple operations,' 'Bin Laden network's plans advancing' and 'Bin Laden threats are real.'" 6 "Bush acknowledged that bin Laden was not his focus or that of his national security team. ‘I was not on point,' the president said [to Bob Woodward in Bush at War]. ‘I didn't feel a sense of urgency.' Well, how can you not feel a sense of urgency when George Tenet is telling you in daily briefings, day after day, that a major al Qaeda attack is coming?" 7. "'Something really spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon," Richard Clarke told White House staffers in July 2001. "For six weeks. . . the U.S. government was at its highest possible state of readiness. . . By the time Bush received his briefing at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, the government had begun to stand down from the alert." 8. FBI officials complained after Bush took office, intelligence agencies were instructed to "'back off' from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan." 9. Former Sen. Gary Hart says he warned Condoleezza Rice "about an imminent terror attack on two occasions before 9/11." 10. Senator: "incompetence. . . a contributing factor toward Sept. 11." Incompetence on 9/11 "For more than two hours after the Federal Aviation Administration became aware that the first plane had been violently overtaken by Middle Eastern men, the man whose job it was to order air cover over Washington did not show up in the Pentagon's command center. It took him almost two hours to 'gain situational awareness'. . . "-- Gail Sheehy, the Los Angeles Times 11. Bush’s Pet Goat. 12. "How much in command was the commander in chief?" 13. John Dean: "It seems very probable that those in the White House knew much more than they have admitted, and they are covering up their failure to take action." 14. "Why don’t we have answers to these 9/11 questions?" 15. "FBI rewarding incompetence?" 16. "The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names." Incompetence in Iraq "Iraq is a terrible mess because of the criminal incompetence of the Bush national security team, and we are more alone in the world than ever."—Thomas Friedman, the New York Times 17. Zinni: "In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption." 18. "As the toll of mayhem inspired by terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi mounts in Iraq, some former officials and military officers increasingly wonder whether the Bush administration made a mistake months before the start of the war by stopping the military from attacking his camp in the northeastern part of that country." (Shades of bin Laden's escape?) 19 The Bush administration failed to guard Iraq’s military and nuclear sites and, as a result, explosives and nuclear materials have been pilfered. As one writer put it, "your chances of getting nuked in your jammies have gone way up." 20. Career CIA officer: "America is losing the war on terror, in part because of the invasion of Iraq." 21. "Iraq war 'helped al-Qaeda recruit.' and "succeeded only in stimulating terrorism." 22. Brigadier General: "If we continue to proceed the way we are proceeding with the current strategy, there's going to become a point in time where the draft could be very necessary." 23. "If Bush is re-elected there are only two possible outcomes in Iraq" – and neither is good for America. Bush Administration Secrecy "This White House. . . is the most secretive ever to run the United States." – Former Nixon counsel John Dean 24. "I believe a veil of secrecy has descended around the administration and I think that's unseemly," Republican Congressman Dan Burton remarked, after Bush signed an Executive Order restricting access to Presidential records. 25. Cheney’s Energy Task force forced the question, "What are they hiding?" 26. As of Feb. 2003, there were more than 300 rollbacks of the Freedom of Information Act. 27. 9/11 family members said the White House "smothered every attempt to get to the bottom of the outrageous intelligence failures that took place on its watch." posted by txpoollover, 18:24 | link | comments (1)
Yes, George Bush, John Kerry does have a September the 10th attitude, he believes as Bill Clinton did---IN STOPPING THE TERRORISTS BEFORE THEY ATTACK! Certainly not the attitude you seem to have, to sit on your duff reading "My Pet Goat" allowing a terrorist attack, so you can later scream into a bull horn rhetoric designed to make you appear to be the hero you aren't! Give me John Kerry any day over George Bush, give me a man with real courage and determination. I am fed up with the coward pretending to be president!! from: Barbara's Daily Buzz * * *
posted by txpoollover, 05:20 | link | comments
Monday, October 25, 2004 Today's Top Five Headlines on BuzzFlash.com: Questions Mount Over Bush's Failure to Hit Zarqawi's Camp 10/25 posted by txpoollover, 17:58 | link | comments
These from:100 Facts About The Bush Administration 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. 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. posted by txpoollover, 05:57 | link | comments
Sunday, October 24, 2004 Bush Supporters MisledA new study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) shows that supporters of President Bush hold wildly inaccurate views about the world. For example, "a large majority [72 percent] of Bush supporters believe that before the war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction."1 Most Bush supporters [57 percent] also believe that the recently released report by Charles Duelfer, the administration's hand-picked weapons inspector, concluded Iraq either had WMD or a major program for developing them.2 In fact, the report concluded "Saddam Hussein did not produce or possess any weapons of mass destruction for more than a decade before the U.S.-led invasion" and the U.N. inspection regime had "curbed his ability to build or develop weapons."3 According to the study, 75 percent Bush supporters also believe "Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda."4 Most Bush supporters [55 percent] believe that was the conclusion of the 9/11 commission.5 In fact, the 9/11 commission concluded there was no "collaborative relationship" between al-Qaeda and Iraq.6 Bush supporters also hold inaccurate views about world public opinion of the war in Iraq and a range of Bush's foreign policy positions.7 Sources:
posted by txpoollover, 08:37 | link | comments
POLITICS – BUSH SUPPORTERS DIVORCED FROM REALITY: According to a new survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, Bush supporters have a skewed perception of reality. "Majorities of Bush supporters and Kerry supporters agree that if Iraq did not have WMD or was not providing support to al Qaeda, the US should not have gone to war with Iraq." How to reconcile this with the facts? For Bush supporters, it's easier to ignore them. Against all known intelligence, "large percentages of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war, and that Iraq was providing substantial support to Al Qaeda." Both of these have been widely disproved: the Duelfer report found Iraq had no WMD nor even a weapons plan before the war, while the 9/11 Commission Report found there was no operational relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda from 100 Facts About The Bush Administration : 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 posted by txpoollover, 08:30 | link | comments
Saturday, October 23, 2004 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 posted by txpoollover, 21:36 | link | comments
Bush the Man Who Failed to Prevent 9/11, The Man Who Misled Us Into War, The Man Who Makes the Nation More Vulnerable Through His Incompetence Continues to Attack Kerry on "National Security." Our Lives ARE on the Line, That's Why We Need a New Leader.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041022/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_rdp posted by txpoollover, 20:43 | link | comments
Friday, October 22, 2004 OP-ED COLUMNIST
Bush's Blinkers By BOB HERBERT The White House doesn't recognize the real-world consequences to the policies of the president. OP-ED COLUMNIST Voting and Counting By PAUL KRUGMAN We must acknowledge the possibility that a narrow Bush win, especially if it depends on Florida, rests on the systematic disenfranchisement of minority voters. posted by txpoollover, 14:16 | link | comments
100 Facts About The Bush AdministrationJudd LegumI will post ten per day until Nov. 1st , 2004 Election Day Eve
posted by txpoollover, 14:04 | link | comments
Thursday, October 21, 2004
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