Yellow Dog

As this article notes, one of the first things Bush did when he became President was lift environmental regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, he made it "voluntary" for big cmpanies and power plants to reduce pollution. Now that the GAO has had a chance to review these voluntary reductions, how are they working? As you might have guessed, not so well.

"The EPA still has no system of tracking how long it takes companies to set reduction goals, which only half of the 74 participants had done by the end of last year. At least 13 companies that joined the program in 2002 had yet to set targets, the GAO found.

The energy department hasn't even established deadlines for trade groups to report their emissions. That seems like one of the first things it would do.

It's hard to believe that these programs were ever about reducing emissions. Rather, they seem designed to provide the administration with political cover, an excuse to do nothing about global warming. If that was the mission, mission accomplished."

At least Bush has accomplished one mission--to increase pollution and increase the profits of big companies. Cough, cough.

STLtoday - News - Editorial / Commentary

"The [Haditha] affair, which centres on claims that members of Kilo Company of the 1st Marine Regiment coldly killed 24 civilians, including infants and a man in a wheelchair, in Haditha in western Iraq last November after a roadside bombing killed one of their own, may also become a defining moment in the American public's view of the war."

Actually, some of us knew this war was wrong before marines started killing innocent children.

"So, Haditha becomes another of the names at which we wince, along with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and My Lai," Molly Ivins, the columnist and author noted yesterday. "Tell you what: Let's not use the "stress of combat" excuse this time. According to neighbours, the girls in the family of Younis Khafif – the one who kept pleading in English: "I am a friend. I am good" – were 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1 What are they going to say? ‘Under stress of combat we thought the baby was 2'?"

It's too late for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. And it's too late for winning, period. We need to get out of there.

Independent Online Edition > Middle East

The following numbers explode the myth of Bush's economic boom:

Health care, gas, housing and college costs have risen since President Bush took office as the purchasing power of paychecks drop.

Median family income has dropped every year of the Bush Administration. [Census, BLS]

The typical family is paying $1,200 more a year for health insurance. [KFF, 2005]

College tuition has gone up about 40 percent in real terms. [College Board, 2005]

Gas prices have doubled to nearly $3.00 a gallon. [Energy Information Administration, 5/06]

Housing is the least affordable it has been in 14 years. [U.S. Census]

Real wages have been flat since 2001, while the cost of families’ big-ticket items (medical care, housing, food, cars and household operations) rose 11 percent. [Center for American Progress, 5/06]

Median household debt has climbed 34 percent to $55,300 in 2004. [Federal Reserve Board, 2/06]

The Federal Reserve interest rate has climbed to the highest level in five years – pinching the pocketbooks of families with credit card debt, car loans, and adjustable rate mortgages.

The number of people in employer-sponsored retirement plans dropped from 50 percent to 48 percent from 2001 to 2004, and about 3.7 million employees have lost employer-provided health insurance since 2000. [Congressional Research Service, 5/06; CPS, 8/05]

Republicans’ record budget deficits are out of control and driving our country deeper into debt to foreign investors and governments, as more American jobs are being shipped overseas.

Republicans have turned President Clinton’s projected 10-year $5.6 billion surplus into a $3.2 trillion deficit.

America has accumulated more debt to foreigners, nearly $1.1 trillion, than this country had accumulated in its first 224 years. [Treasury Department, 12/05]

Interest payments are growing faster than all other items in the Bush Administration budget. America’s total debt has climbed by nearly 50 percent to nearly $9 trillion.

Republicans voted to protect more than $5 billion in oil industry giveaways.

In most recent Republican tax bill, most middle-class families will receive less than $30 from any tax relief, while the average tax cut for millionaires is about $43,000.


Under President Clinton, all families prospered; they saw their income grow, opportunities for good-paying jobs increase, and a better standard of living:

In the Clinton years, nearly 23 million new jobs were created (or 237,000 per month).

In the Clinton years, nearly 23 million new jobs were created (or 237,000 per month).

Only 42,000 jobs per month have been created and 2.9 million manufacturing jobs lost under the Bush Administration

In the Clinton years, America had five years of real wage growth, and middle-income families saw their incomes grow 10 percent in real terms.

I remember having conversations with Republicans during the 2000 election who thought that Gore was "too extreme" on his environmental policies. Little did they know that the right-wing extremists they elected to office would turn back decades of environmental regulations to appease their big business contributors.

At least Gore is out there spreading the truth about global warming while Bush still resides in his bubble. In the years since the 2000 campaign, Gore "has been a steady critic of specific Bush administration policies. He opposed the war on Iraq at a time when most prominent Democrats were supporting it, and more recently spoke out against what he called "a gross and excessive power grab" by the administration over phone tapping."

It's interesting to consider where we might be today had the Supreme Court not handed the presidency to Bush--no war, cleaner air, a balanced budget, a surplus to use on things like renewable energy or universal healthcare. Instead, we're stuck with a renegade band of right-wing extremists for 3 more years. God help us.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Gore: Bush is 'renegade rightwing extremist'

I like this suggestion to start referring to Republicans as Republican'ts. It's the perfect reflection on their incompetence and mismanagement of just about everything, from the budget to the Iraq War to Katrina:

As in:
Can't balance the budget;
can't stop raising the national debt ceiling;
can't manage federal emergencies;
can't find Osama bin Laden;
can't control our borders;
can't stop smearing and leaking;
can't answer tough questions from the media;
can't find weapons of mass destruction...

(I can't spend all day doing this, but you get the point.)

The Gadflyer: Fly Trap