Top Bush Scandals of 2003, Part II By Ted Kahl and Bob Fertik -great read!

[papau]

http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=18951

http://www.democrats.com/view2.cfm?id=18951

Top Bush Scandals of 2003, Part II
By Ted Kahl and Bob Fertik January 19, 2003

<snip>We devoted Part I entirely to the constellation of scandals surrounding Bush's illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. Since we published Part I, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has revealed that the invasion was in the works right after Bush's inauguration. The implication is clear -- the Bush White House criminally exploited the aftermath of September 11 for their march to War on Iraq.<snip>

2. Treasongate: The Valerie Plame Affair -In Part I, we listed "The Treasonous 'Outing' of Valerie Plame" near the top of our list of Iraq scandals. But even if it were unrelated to the lies about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, this scandal in-and-of-itself would rank as perhaps the single greatest criminal act by an American administration. So while Iraq (which includes this scandal) is #1, the Plame Affair still deserves its own spot on our master list. So here it is at #2 -- with a bullet."<snip>

3. Ground Zero Lies-Shortly after 9/11, the Bush White House pressured the EPA to lie to New Yorkers that it was safe to return to work in lower Manhattan. EPA statements were changed to mislead New Yorkers that the air met OSHA standards, and cleanup guidelines were suppressed from the public. This was done, despite the fact that the EPA knew that high levels of toxic substances, including asbestos, had been released in the fallout. The reason? The Bush administration wanted the Stock Market to open as soon as possible. Ultimately, this information was kept from the public for two years, until an Inspector General's report finally exposed the public health danger -- and the cover-up.<snip>

4. 9/11 Cover-up-The 9/11 cover-up continued, as the Bush administration threw every roadblock it could in the way of the 9/11 commission. While various agencies delayed releasing documents to the 9/11 Commission, the White House itself proved to be the most uncooperative.<snip>

5. Big Brother
Back in February a whistleblower leaked a copy of Ashcroft's Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (dubbed the "Patriot Act II") to the Center for Public Integrity. With the first Patriot Act as its starting point, this monstrosity went even further in empowering law enforcement officials to wiretap and collect records on all US residents -- including law-abiding citizens. Specifically, it would allow the courts to be bypassed, so that surveillance could be conducted without a judge's order.<snip>

2003's Hall of Shame
• Bribery of Members of Congress to pass the "Medicare" Bill that mainly enriches pharmaceutical companies
• record-breaking $400 billion deficit, and lies about future deficits
• Bush and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman's negligence over Mad Cow Disease
• FCC Chairman Michael Powell pushing for greater Media Monopolization
• Richard Perle's resignation as head of the Defense Policy Board (but not from the board itself) for influence peddling on behalf of Global Crossing
• Perle's influence peddling through his firm, Trieme Partners
• Perle giving a seminar on how to profit from conflicts in Iraq and North Korea, two weeks after a DIA briefing
• continued coverup of Cheney's Energy Task Force
• Halliburton overcharging the US for gas imported to Iraq -- to the tune of $61 million
• Dick Cheney's possible indictment by a French Court for Halliburton's Nigerian Gas scandal
• Iran-Contra criminal John Poindexter's resignation from the Pentagon over his Terrorism Betting Parlor scheme -- that would allow traders to speculate on the likelihood of terrorist events
• Poindexter's plan for Total Information Awareness -- a Big Brother database that would collect all records on everyone
• Bush's failure to secure the infrastructure from terrorist attacks -- or from a major power outage such as happened in the Northeast
• Bush's refusal to provide California with emergency funds to clear dead trees and brush to prevent wildfires, in the months before the fires blazed in Southern California
• Bush's failure to secure nuclear, chemical and biological facilities and other hazardous material sites
• underfunding first responders, such as firefighters
• the failure to find Osama Bin Laden
• failure to find the Anthrax terrorist
• the mess in Afghanistan, with Opium production booming since Bush's War
• fake terror alerts such as the Duct Tape hysteria
• underfunding Homeland Security
• pushing ahead with plans for mini-nukes
• Bush's trashing of the Clean Air Act and the leaked documents of a similar fate planned for the Clean Water Act
• tripling the amount of Mercury that power plants can release into the environment
• logging 300,000 acres of Alaska's forests
• opening 9 million acres of Alaska for exploration and drilling
• the AIDS funding hoax
• empty promises about the African AIDS crisis
• the underfunded "No Child Left Behind" mandate
• pressing ahead with the plan to undermine Head Start
• cutting Americorps in half after promising to increase it by half in Bush's 2002 State of the Union
• attacking overtime pay
• Housing Bill lies
• politically-motivated manipulations with steel tariffs
• the thimerosal vaccine (autism) lawsuit shield for Eli Lilly, where Bush Sr. was once on the board
• gutting Veterans' and Soldiers' benefits
• abandonment of all efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• appeasing China with anti-democracy statements against Taiwan
• the Homeland Security Search for a Texas D's Airplane in the Texas Re-Districting battle
• dictatorial detention of prisoners without legal rights
• the concentration camp at Guatanamo Bay -- where children are still being held
• sending suspects to foreign countries to be interrogated by members of the CIA's global torture network
• the CIA's pursuit of a new Operation Phoenix-type program for targeted assassinations
• special forces units trained as death squads
• the revival of Cointelpro, as John Ashcroft's FBI was revealed to be spying on anti-war groups, under the Patriot Act
• use of the Patriot Act for non-terrorist investigations...

[isbister]

1. That raises the question...

How many investigations of bush and the republican leadership are going on at this very moment?

I don't know... Oh, I can check to web site of my favorite corporate media outlet, I'm sure they have some sort of tally board going.

Here's a few that I can think of (and are mentioned in the list):

1) Treasongate
2) 9-11 Commission
3) 9/11 EPA-gate (isn't someone looking into this one?)
4) Bribery of Members of Congress to pass the "Medicare" Bill
5) Cheney's Energy Task Force (& the Scalia-Cheney affair soon perhaps)
6) WMD Intelligence/ bush administration lies
7) Cheney's Nigerian Gas scandal (France but still counts)
8) Cheney's Halliburton (on the payroll, still counts & there's a few on this front)

and in addition to those there are number of ongoing cases involving Guatanamo Bay, detention of Americans without rights, and other Patriot Act type of things.

It's like re-living the "best" of the reagan years!