and here's the link. Later tonight nam78_two said he/she was going to compile the track record of Bush Admin's environmental record and put it in the same thread to add to list:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x23492621. Lying to Congress: cost of Medicare bill
2. Crony Appointment: Michael Brown, fundraiser, to FEMA head
3. Disastrous Legislation: Healthy Forests
4. Theft of 2000 Election
5. Theft of 2004 Election
6. Rescinding the Davis-Bacon act requiring paying employees of govt. contractors the area's prevailing wage for work. Not even sure its legal for a president to unilaterally suspend an act of congress.
7. Alteration of Presidential Records Act through Executive Order to effectively nullify the law.
8. Increasing government secrecy through reclassification of documents and encouraging Executive branch agencies to resist FOIA requests.
9. Failure to act immediately on Aug. 6, 2001, PDB.
10. War crimes: Total annihilation of Fallujia
11. War crimes: Use of white phosphorus as a weapon
12. War misdeeds: failure to secure weapons stockpiles after invasion
13. War misdeeds: Intentional use of smaller military force than needed
14. Lying about Clinton staffers trashing the White House.
15. Fake "terror" alerts whenever Bush fell behind in the polls during the 2004 election campaign.
16. Exposing an active undercover CIA agent.
17. Flouting the Geneva Conventions and making torture legal.
18. Republican Congress suspends Habeas Corpus.
19. Circumventing the 1978 FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) to engage in illegal surveillance of people residing within the United States since 9/11/2001 without judicial review, in *direct* conflict with the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefor an impeachable offense. (Note: during the 2004 campaign, Bush *specifically* addressed "roving wiretaps" as part of the Patriot Act and defended them on the grounds that they were still required obtaining a warrant.) Link
20. Used the NSA to wiretap both the offices and private residences of UN Ambassadors in 2002-2003 to try and discern how members were likely to vote on the Iraq war resolution before the crucial vote in 2003.
21. According to Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff, claims he was given authorization to leak details of the still classified National Intelligence Estimate (with regards to the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame) by Cheney, who received that authorization by President Bush himself. If true, never before has a President selectively "declassified" classified information without going through the normal National Security vetting process and then pass that information along only to specific individuals (eg: Bob Novak) in the media rather than broad public disclosure. The White House claims it did nothing wrong, but why then would Novak attribute his source to "a former high-ranking WH official" if nothing improper was taking place?
--------- Reasons to hate Bush - by Mugsy (not all are crimes) ---------
o A draft-dodging, coke snorting, professed former (and current?) alcoholic that got *everything* he ever "achieved" in life thanks to who his daddy is.
o Despite best evidence that Osama bin Laden was in hiding out in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December 2001, President Bush did not send in ANY U.S. ground troops to surround the area and move in to capture bin Laden ("Sadly, there were more American journalists on the ground at the battle of Tora Bora than there were U.S. soldiers" - Vanity Fair, January 2005, pg 153), instead relying on Afghani rebel fighters coordinated by a handful of CIA agents, supported only by air-to-ground bombing runs. 300 Taliban and al-Qa eda forces managed to hold off Afghani forces long enough for bin Laden to escape. General Tommy Franks, who ridiculed Senator John Kerry's allegation during the 2004 Presidential campaign that President Bush allowed bin Laden to slip away at Tora Bora, wrote in his autobiography "American Soldier" that in December 2001 he advised President Bush, "Unconfirmed reports have it that Osama has been seen in the White Mountains, Sir. The Tora Bora area."
o Ignoring the Aug 6, 2001 PDB that warned of a possible terrorist attack by bin Laden, and his first meeting with his "terrorism czar" not taking place until just ten days before 9/11 and lasting all of ten minutes.
o Spending over a quarter of his entire time in office "on vacation" (the most in history, surpassing even Reagan) clearing brush on his "ranch" ("Ranch" is in quotes because there are no animals on it, and you'll never see a photo of Dubya on a horse because he is rumored to be afraid of them).
o Took the focus off Osama... the guy who actually attacked us... not just on 9/11, but the USS Cole just before the 2000 election... to go after someone who was not a threat to the United States, on wildly exaggerated accusations of "stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons", "mobile weapons laboratories" and "uranium yellowcake from Niger"
o The infamous "17 words" from his 2003 State of the Union Address where he knowingly lied before Congress and the American people by citing a long-disproved report as "proof" of Saddam's actively attempting to build a nuclear weapon, in order to frighten the American people into supporting a costly, unnecessary and illegal revenge war.
o "Mission Accomplished"
o Nation Building
o Starting a war with no exit strategy that is costing $135 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY.
o The vindictive outing of an undercover CIA agent (former President Bush Sr... former head of the CIA himself under Ford... once called anyone that outed a covert CIA agent "the most insidious of traitors") in a veiled attempt to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson who dared reveal that he told the Bush White House that the claim of Saddam seeking uranium from Niger, later found to be based upon some REALLY badly forged documents, was completely false.
o Telling reporters "Anyone involved in leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent would no longer be working in my administration", but when it is discovered that it was his own top advisor Karl Rove that leaked the information, changed his promise to "Anyone convicted of leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent...". Is that really the bar we want to set for working in the White House? Anyone just short of conviction is welcome to work in this administration? Apparently so, Republicans tried to change the House ethics rules for Tom DeLay that say "you can not remain Majority Leader if you've been indicted", but were shamed into backing off pushing for the rules change once the press got ahold of it.
o 13 major negative news stories for the Bush Administration are coincidentally followed, sometimes by just mere hours, by "major terrorism events", many of which result in the raising of the White House's color-coded "Traffic Light of Fear" (link)
o The Vice President's former company, of which he still has financial ties to, raking in BILLIONS in hand-delivered no-bid contracts that last for years
o Appointing unqualified cronies to positions of power within the government, even resulting in a massive logistical failure that costs over 1,000 lives (and counting).
o Giving coveted "day passes", intended for visiting reporters from out of town access to the WH Press Briefing room, to a gay-prostitute owing $20,000 in back taxes (can you say "blackmail risk"?) from an extreme Right-Wing "web-only" news outlet, every day for over a year, often within 15 feet of the President of the United States in a time of war?
o The doubling of the price of gas, $66/barrel oil, a 142% increase in the price of natural gas in just one year after condemning the previous administration during the 2000 campaign for "not getting tough with the Saudis" to bring oil prices down (gas was under $1.40/gal at the time).
o Raising the National Debt ceiling to $9 TRILLION DOLLARS (3/16/06) and rubber-stamping some of the most pork-laden spending bills in history while continuing to push for further tax cuts that benefit only the top 1/2 of 1% of the wealthiest Americans while cutting food stamps, student loans and social services.
o "Uniter not a divider"
o "A new era of morality and personal responsibility"
o Fake reporters & paying reporters to push propaganda: Other than Gannon/Guckert mentioned above, "fake news" propagandists include Armstrong Williams, who was paid to promote/praise President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" (a program Williams had previously criticized). Various other, lower-profile reporters were also paid to push WH propaganda, and the WH itself produced "Fake News" segments, complete with authentic looking "reporters" using fake names, that were distributed to TV stations across the country for broadcast.
....Finally in 2005, after "fake news" was disavowed in the U.S., it was revealed that the Pentagon had started paying Iraqi reporters to print "news stories" touting successes in Iraq, that were written by a public relations firm in the U.S. and printed in Iraqi newspapers with no mention or attribution to the United States government as having written them. The White House justifies the stories as "counter-propaganda", but never explained the need for "deception" in not revealing the source of the story.
o Enron - During the 2000 Presidential campaign, Presidential Candidate Governor George W. Bush flew around the country on the personal private jet of family friend Ken "Kenny-Boy" Lay, CEO of Houston-based Enron. Candidate Bush even floated the possibility of appointing Lay to the job of "Energy Secretary". Following the scandalous fall of Lay's company Enron and the loss of hundreds of millions of pension dollars owed to employees, only two people (CFO Andrew Fastow and his wife) have yet to be convicted of any crime.
o 6,700+ dead Americans as a direct result of incompetence. (3,000 on 9/11, 2,300 in Iraq/Afghanistan and at least 1,400 - and growing - from hurricane Katrina)
o The Patriot Act
o Cherry picking Iraq intelligence
o Party-girl daughters arrested for underage drinking with "fake ID's" (like no one would recognize them???)
o Staged photo ops, then claimed they weren't staged.
o "Loyalty oaths" to attend campaign rallies "open to the public".
o Protester "free speech zones".
o Incessant lying to the media.
o "The Nuclear Option"
o Repeatedly breeching the separation of Church and State.
o Flying back early to "save" Teri Schiavo, but attends John McCain's B-day Party the day after Katrina hits.
o "Conservatizing" PBS.
o Massive media conglomeration (Clear Channel, etc.)
o The crippling of stem-cell research (only one usable line among the few that were permitted.)
o "No Child Left Behind", an unfunded mandate
o The "Clear Skies initiative"
o Ignoring the UN to bomb Iraq for "ignoring the UN".
o Trying to privatize Social Security.
o Banned the re importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.
o Abu Ghraib
o Army recruitment in the toilet.
o Deploying the National Guard overseas for three years (use of the National Guard as "active duty troops" was meant to be permitted only in "extreme circumstances" where a direct threat to the security of the United States exists. Most states have laws limiting NG/R deployment to a maximum of 18 months as anything longer is an undo burden on the families, employers and communities to be without their services.
o A White House that's overrun with draft dodging Chicken Hawks that don't hesitate to send others off to die, but had "other priorities" when their time to serve came.
o Sending troops into harms way in a war of choice w/o the necessary armor.
o Paul Bremmer disbanding the Iraqi Army.
o George Tenant's "Slam Dunk".
o "Purple heart band-aids"
o Pissing away a ground-swell of global compassion after 9/11.
o Author of most costly Medicare entitlement program in history with a "Prescription Drug Program" that actually forbids bargaining and competition to control costs (showing just how loyal Republicans really are to the concept of a "free market economy").
o Too "buddy buddy" with the religious right.
o Diebold/CS&S
o Bush always "flipping off" someone.
o Bush is in fact inconsequential. They don't even bother to interrupt his bike ride when Capitol Hill is evacuated (Cessna violates airspace).
o Appoints "I'm not qualified" Porter Goss to head CIA.
o Appoints "UN hating" John Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N.
o Spirted away members of the bin Laden family in the U.S. immediately after 9/11.
o Long-time family ties to the bin Laden family.
o Disturbingly close ties to the Saudi royal family.
o Never said "imminent threat".
o The looting after the fall of Baghdad.
o Attempting to cut veterans benefits while soldiers are at war.
o Rampant chronyism: Michael "Brownie" Brown (7 of top ten FEMA officers)
o Harriet "Harry" Miers
o Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan - Undercover "double agent" spying for Brittish Intelligence (MI6) within al-Qaeda, outed by the Bush Administration in mid-sting during the 2004 Presidential Campaign in order to justify the raising their "Traffic light of Fear" terrorist threat level immediately following the Democratic DNC Convention that gave Kerry a boost in the polls. Exposing Khan forced MI6 to move in before they were ready, sweeping up only minor terrorism figures, while simultaneously destroying a valuable intelligence asset and jeopardizing future investigations.
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