Saturday, January 17, 2009
Our Long National Nightmare is Over
As we near the end of the Bush administration, the words of Ford following the corrupt Nixon administration seem appropriate: "Our long national nightmare is over." Of course, Ford said this in the context of pardoning Nixon, and there's no excuse for Bush's record. Here are some highlights:
CORRUPT POLITICIZATION OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
--Politicized every government office, including installing political appointees in the Justice Dept. who actively worked to hire only "right-thinking Americans" (aka Republican loyalists)
--Has overseen rampant cronyism, mismanagement in many government agencies like FEMA
--Stayed on vacation and let New Orleans drown for several days while he did nothing
--Allowed energy industry to write US energy policy
--Allowed political appointees to rewrite environmental policy
--Filled EPA positions with former oil lobbyists and Forestry division with former timber lobbyists
PUTTING CEOs before CITIZENS:
--Signed legislation designed to benefit pharmaceutical industry against interest of the American people
--Signed legislation designed to benefit banking & credit industry against interest of the American people, thus leading to the current crisis
--Deliberately withheld true cost of Medicare bill from Congress, threatened job of actuary who wanted to reveal truth
--Prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
--Has sabotaged clean air and water regulations in favor of industry and to the detriment of the environment
IGNORED RULE OF LAW & CONSTITUTION:
--Abrogated multiple international treaties the U.S. had signed and long honored, allowing torture
--Allowed illegal wiretapping of innocent Americans
--Administration blew cover of CIA operative in retribution for operative's husband exposing Bush lie about Iraq
--Lied about obtaining court warrants for wiretaps before the program was made public
--Lied excessively about his reasons for authorizing illegal wiretaps
--Pretended to speak to the American public but closed events and only allowed in supporters even when taxpayer dollars funded events
--Removed protesters to "free speech zones" far from appearance areas or even travel routes
--Had protesters arrested on bogus charges even when they just wore T-shirts critical of him
STARTED UNNECESSARY WARS (and ignored real threats):
--Ignored memos that predicted 9-11 and that planes would be used to strike US targets
--Failed to capture Osama bin Laden
--Has enabled al Qaeda to make massive recruitments
--Lied about Iraq having "massive stockpiles" of WMD
--Lied about Iraq's ties with al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's involvement in 9/11
--Established dangerous and unethical policy of pre-emptive warfare
--Mismanaged the War in Iraq from the start
--Failed to prepare an exit strategy from Iraq
--Failed to send enough troops as per the advice of the generals
--Failed to supply troops with necessary gear, especially armor
--Lied about the cost of the war
--Has allowed massive corruption and mismanagement causing billions of US tax dollars to be stolen
DESTROYED THE ECONOMY:
--Turned a historic budget surplus into a string of record deficits
--Has overseen weakest overall job growth in nearly a century
--Anemic "recovery" from recession is the weakest and latest-coming in more than half a century
--Has overseen a surge of McJobs: low-paying and benefit-free employment exploding
--Has given multiple massive tax cuts and payoffs to wealthy individuals and to industries while short-changing lower- and middle-class Americans
Bush's Record
CORRUPT POLITICIZATION OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
--Politicized every government office, including installing political appointees in the Justice Dept. who actively worked to hire only "right-thinking Americans" (aka Republican loyalists)
--Has overseen rampant cronyism, mismanagement in many government agencies like FEMA
--Stayed on vacation and let New Orleans drown for several days while he did nothing
--Allowed energy industry to write US energy policy
--Allowed political appointees to rewrite environmental policy
--Filled EPA positions with former oil lobbyists and Forestry division with former timber lobbyists
PUTTING CEOs before CITIZENS:
--Signed legislation designed to benefit pharmaceutical industry against interest of the American people
--Signed legislation designed to benefit banking & credit industry against interest of the American people, thus leading to the current crisis
--Deliberately withheld true cost of Medicare bill from Congress, threatened job of actuary who wanted to reveal truth
--Prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
--Has sabotaged clean air and water regulations in favor of industry and to the detriment of the environment
IGNORED RULE OF LAW & CONSTITUTION:
--Abrogated multiple international treaties the U.S. had signed and long honored, allowing torture
--Allowed illegal wiretapping of innocent Americans
--Administration blew cover of CIA operative in retribution for operative's husband exposing Bush lie about Iraq
--Lied about obtaining court warrants for wiretaps before the program was made public
--Lied excessively about his reasons for authorizing illegal wiretaps
--Pretended to speak to the American public but closed events and only allowed in supporters even when taxpayer dollars funded events
--Removed protesters to "free speech zones" far from appearance areas or even travel routes
--Had protesters arrested on bogus charges even when they just wore T-shirts critical of him
STARTED UNNECESSARY WARS (and ignored real threats):
--Ignored memos that predicted 9-11 and that planes would be used to strike US targets
--Failed to capture Osama bin Laden
--Has enabled al Qaeda to make massive recruitments
--Lied about Iraq having "massive stockpiles" of WMD
--Lied about Iraq's ties with al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's involvement in 9/11
--Established dangerous and unethical policy of pre-emptive warfare
--Mismanaged the War in Iraq from the start
--Failed to prepare an exit strategy from Iraq
--Failed to send enough troops as per the advice of the generals
--Failed to supply troops with necessary gear, especially armor
--Lied about the cost of the war
--Has allowed massive corruption and mismanagement causing billions of US tax dollars to be stolen
DESTROYED THE ECONOMY:
--Turned a historic budget surplus into a string of record deficits
--Has overseen weakest overall job growth in nearly a century
--Anemic "recovery" from recession is the weakest and latest-coming in more than half a century
--Has overseen a surge of McJobs: low-paying and benefit-free employment exploding
--Has given multiple massive tax cuts and payoffs to wealthy individuals and to industries while short-changing lower- and middle-class Americans
Bush's Record
