reinform.org

Resume Update (previous below) via Jim Hightower

Where Bush's Arrogance Has Taken Us
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown
Posted on August 23, 2006, Printed on August 28, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/40678/

[Editor's Note: The August issue of The Hightower Lowdown contains a poster-sized chart detailing the many grievances, lies and miscues of the Bush Administration. Below is the story in text form, you can also download the full poster from The Hightower Lowdown.]

During his gubernatorial days in Texas, George W let slip a one-sentence thought that unintentionally gave us a peek into his political soul. In hindsight, it should've been loudly broadcast all across our land so people could've absorbed it, contemplated its portent?and roundly rejected the guy's bid for the presidency. On May 21, 1999, reacting to some satirical criticism of him, Bush snapped: "There ought to be limits to freedom."

Gosh, so many freedoms to limit, so little time! But in five short years, the BushCheneyRummy regime has made remarkable strides toward dismembering the genius of the Founders, going at our Constitution and Bill of Rights like famished alligators chasing a couple of poodles.

Forget about such niceties as separation of powers, checks and balances (crucial to the practice of democracy), the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and open government-these guys are on an autocratic tear. Whenever they've been challenged (all too rarely), they simply shout "war on terror," "commander-in-chief," "support our troops," "executive privilege," "I'm the decider," or some other slam-the-door political phrase designed to silence any opposition. Indeed, opponents are branded "enemies" who must be demonized, personally attacked, and, if possible, destroyed. Bush's find-the-loopholes lawyers assert that a president has the right to lie (even about going to war), to imprison people indefinitely (without charges, lawyers, hearings, courts, or hope), to torture people, to spy on Americans without court or congressional review, to prosecute reporters who dare to report, to rewrite laws on executive whim?and on and on.

Here, we are pleased to give you a sense of the enormity of what Bush & Company are doing under the cloak of war and executive privilege in a handy-dandy poster format.

The War President

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
-George W., August 2004

• Number of Americans killed in Bush's Iraq war as of August 2006: 2577

• What Bush press flack Tony Snow said the day the total number of American dead reached 2,500: "It's a number"

• Number of Americans killed since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003: 2,438

• Number of Americans wounded (a vague term that includes such horrors as brain damage, limb blasted off, eyes blown out, psyche shattered, etc.) in Bush's war:
• Official count: 18,777
• Independent count: up to 48,000

• Estimated number of Iraqi civilians (men, women, and children) killed in Bush's war since Saddam Hussein was ousted: 38,960

• For Iraqis, the bloodiest month of the war so far: June 2006 (more than 100 civilians killed per day)

• Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit's advice to Iraqis who see TV reports of innocent civilians being killed by occupying troops: "Change the channel."

• Percent of Iraqis who want American troops to leave: 82

• Stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq since Bush committed Americans to war in 2003 on the basis that Saddam had and was about to use WMDs: 0

• Number of nations in the world: 192

• Number that joined Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" (COW) to invade Iraq: 48
(The list includes such military powers as Angola, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Latvia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Romania, Solomon Islands, and Uganda.)

• Number of COW nations that actually sent any troops to Iraq: 39
(Of these, 32 sent fewer than 1,000 troops. Many sent no fighting units, deploying only engineers, trainers, humanitarian units, and other noncombat personnel.)

• Number of the 39 COW nations contributing troops that have since withdrawn them: 17
(An additional 7 have announced plans to withdraw all or part of their contingents this year.)

• Number of COW troops in Iraq: 150,000

• Number of these that are U.S. troops: 139,000

• Number of White House officials and cabinet members who have any of their immediate family in Bush's war: 0

Follow the Money

We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
-"Howling Paul" Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary, in testimony to Congress, March 2003

• The official White House claim before the invasion of what the war and occupation would cost U.S. taxpayers: $50 billion

• As of July 2006, the total amount appropriated by Congress for Bush's ongoing war and occupation: $295,634,921,248

• Current Pentagon spending per month in Iraq: $8 billion (or $185,185.19 per minute)

• Assuming all troops return home by 2010, the projected "real costs" for the war: More than $1 trillion
(includes veterans' pay and medical costs, interest on the billions Bush has borrowed to pay for his war, etc.)

Bonus Stat!

• Annual salary of Stuart Baker, hired by the Bushites to be the White House "Director for Lessons Learned": $106,641

• Number of lessons that Bush appears to have learned: 0

The Imperial Presidency

"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
George W., August, 2002.

Signing Statements

When signing a particular congressional act into law, a few presidents have occasionally issued a "signing statement" to clarify their understanding of what Congress intended. These have not had the force of law and have been used discreetly in the past.

Very quietly, however, Bush has radically increased both the number and reach of these statements, essentially asserting that the president can arbitrarily decide which laws he will obey.

• Number of signing statements issued by Bush as of July 2006: more than 800
(This is more than the combined total of all 42 previous presidents.)

A few examples of congressionally passed laws he has effectively annulled through these extralegal signing statements:

• a ban against torture of prisoners by the U.S. military

• a requirement that the FBI periodically report to Congress on how it is using the Patriot Act to search our homes and secretly seize people's private papers

• a ban against storage in military databases of intelligence about Americans that was obtained illegally

• a directive for the executive branch to transmit scientific information to Congress "uncensored and without delay" when requested

• Provision of the Constitution clearly stating that Congress alone has the power "to make all laws": Article 1, Section 8

• Provision of the Constitution clearly stating that the president "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed": Article 2, Section 3

• Name of the young lawyer in the Reagan administration who wrote a 1986 strategy memo on how to pervert the use of signing statements in order to concentrate more power in the executive branch, as Bush is now doing: Samuel Alito, named to the U.S. Supreme Court by Bush this year

National Security Letters

These are secret executive writs that the infamous 2001 Patriot Act authorizes the FBI to issue to public libraries, internet firms, banks, and others. Upon receiving an NSL, the institution or firm is required to turn over any private records it holds on you, me, or whomever the agents have chosen to search.

Who authorizes the FBI to issue these secret writs? The FBI itself.

• Surely the agents have to get a search warrant, a grand jury subpoena, or a court's approval? No

• But to issue an NSL, an agent must show probable cause that the person being searched has committed some crime, right? No

• Well, don't officials have to inform citizens that their records are being seized so they can defend themselves or protest? No

• Number of NSLs issued by various FBI offices last year alone: 9,254

NSA Eavesdropping

In 2001, Bush issued a secret order for the National Security Agency to begin vacuuming up massive numbers of telephone and internet exchanges by U.S. citizens, illegally seizing this material without any judicial approval or informing Congress, as required by law.

• Number of Americans who have had their phone and internet communications taken by NSA: Just about everyone!
(NSA is tapping into the entire database of long-distance calls and internet messages run through AT&T and probably other companies as well.)

• In May of this year, the Justice Department abruptly halted an internal investigation that was trying to uncover the name of the top officials who had authorized NSA's warrantless, unconstitutional program. Who killed this probe, which was requested by Congress? George W himself! (He directed NSA simply to refuse security clearances for the department's legal investigators.)

• What happened to NSA Director Michael Hayden, who was the key architect of Bush's illegal eavesdropping program and the one who would've formally denied clearances to Justice Department investigators? In May, Bush promoted him to head the CIA.

• This past May, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales warned that journalists who report on NSA's spy program could be prosecuted under the antiquated Espionage Act of 1917.

• Times in U.S. history this act has been used to go after the press: 0

• Margin by which the U.S. House in 1917 voted down an amendment to make the Espionage Act apply to journalists: 184-144

Interesting Fact

The New York Times reported this June that Bush was running another spy program. This one was snooping through international banking records, including millions of bank transactions done by innocent Americans. George reacted angrily to the exposure, branding the Times report "disgraceful" and declaring that revelation of his spy program "does great harm to the United States." The White House and its right-wing acolytes promptly launched a "Hate-the-Times" political campaign.

Name the guy who was the first to reveal that such a bank-spying program was in the works: George W. Bush! At a September 2001 press conference, he announced that he'd just signed an executive order to monitor all international bank transactions.

Watch Lists

From the Bushites' ill-fated Total Information Awareness program (meant to monitor all of our computerized transactions) to the robust efforts by Rumsfeld's Pentagon to barge into the domestic surveillance game, America under Bush has fast become "The Watched Society."

• Number of data-mining programs being run secretly on us by the federal government: Nearly 200 separate programs at 52 agencies

• Number of "local activity reports" submitted to the Pentagon in 2004 under the "Threat and Local Observation Notice" program (TALON), which directed military officers throughout our country to keep an eye on suspicious activities by civilians: More than 5,000
(They included such "threats" as peace demonstrators and 10 activists protesting outside Halliburton's headquarters.)

• Number of official "watch lists" maintained by the feds: More than a dozen run by 9 different agencies

• Number of Americans on the Transportation Security Administration's "No- Fly" list: That's a secret.
(TSA concedes that it's in the tens of thousands. In 2005 alone, some 30,000 people called TSA to complain that their names were mistakenly on the list.)

• Most famous citizen who is on the No-Fly list and has been repeatedly pulled aside by TSA for additional screenings at airports: Sen. Ted Kennedy

• How can you get your name removed from TSA list? That's a secret.

Name That Guy!

In 1966, a young Republican congressman stood against his party's elders to cosponsor the original Freedom of Information Act, valiantly declaring that public records "are public property." He said that FOIA "will make it considerably more difficult for secrecy-minded bureaucrats to decide arbitrarily that the people should be denied access to information on the conduct of government."

Who was that virtuous lawmaker? Donald Rumsfeld!

Only eight years later, Gerald Ford's chief of staff strongly urged him to veto the continuation of FOIA. Who was that dastardly staffer? Donald Rumsfeld!

Who is now one of the chief "secrecy-minded bureaucrats" who routinely violates OIA's principles? Right, him again!

Regime of Secrecy

"Democracies die behind closed doors."
-- Appeals court judge Damon Keith, ruling in a 2002 case that the Bushites cannot hold deportation hearings in secret

• Increase in the number of government documents marked "secret" between 2001 and 2004: 81 percent

• Number of government documents stamped "secret" in 2001: 8.6 million

• Number of government documents stamped "secret" in 2004: 15.6 million (a new record)

• Cost to taxpayers of classifying and securing documents in 2004: $7.2 billion ($460 per document)

• Number of previously declassified documents that the CIA tried to reclassify as "secret" under a 2001 secret agreement with the National Archives, even though many had already been published and some date back to the Korean War: 25,315

• Number of different "official designations" the government now has to classify nonsecret information so it still is kept out of the public's reach: Between 50 and 60
(They include such stamps as CBU: Controlled But Unclassified, SBU: Sensitive But Unclassified, and LOU: Limited Official Use Only.)

• The only vice-president in history who has claimed that he, like the president, has the inherent authority to mark "secret" on any document he chooses: "Buckshot" Cheney

• Number of documents Cheney has classified: That's a secret.
(He claims he does not have to report this to anyone -- not even the president.)

• Of the 7,045 advisory committee meetings held by the Bushites in 2004, percentage that were completely closed to the public, contrary to the clear intent of the Federal Advisory Committee Act: 64 percent (a new record)

• Number of times from 1953 to1975 (the peak of the Cold War) that presidents invoked the "state secrets" privilege, which grants them unilateral power in extraordinary instances literally to shut down court cases on the grounds they could reveal secrets that the president doesn't want disclosed: 4

• Number of times the same privilege was invoked between 2001 and 2006: At least 24

• Under Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno issued an official memo instructing agencies to release as much information as possible to the public. In October 2001, AG John Ashcroft issued a memo canceling Reno's approach, expressly instructing agencies to look for reasons to deny the public access to information and pledging to support the denials if the agencies were sued.

• 2005 FOIA requests still awaiting a response at year's end: 31 percent
(a one-third increase over the 2004 backlog)

• Median waiting time to get an answer on FOIA request from Bush's justice department: 863 days

Halliburton

"Halliburton is a unique kind of company."
-- Dick Cheney, September 2003

• Total value of contracts given to Halliburton for work in the Bush-Cheney "War on Terror" since 2001: More than $15 billion

• Amount that Halliburton pays to the Third World laborers it imports into Iraq to do the work in its dining facilities, laundries, etc.: $6 per 12-hour day (50 cents an hour)

• Amount that Halliburton bills us taxpayers for each of these workers: $50 a day

• Amount that Halliburton bills U.S. taxpayers for:
? A case of sodas: $45

? Washing a bag of laundry: $100
• Halliburton's campaign contributions in Bush-Cheney election years:
? In 2000: $285,252 (96 percent to Republicans)
? In 2004: $145,500 (89 percent to Republicans)
Plus $365,065 from members of its board of directors (99 percent to Republicans)
• Increase in Halliburton's profits since Bush-Cheney took office in 2000: 379 percent

• Halliburton's 2005 profit: $1.1 billion
(highest in the corporation's 86-year history

"Since leaving Halliburton to become George Bush's vice-president, I've severed all of my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind."
Former CEO Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, September 2003

• Annual payments that Cheney has received from Halliburton since he's been vice-president:
? 2001: $205,298
? 2002: $162,392
? 2003: $178,437
? 2004: $194,852
? 2005: $211,465
• Cash bonus paid to Cheney by Halliburton just before he took office: $1.4 million

• Retirement package he was given in 2000 after only 5 years as CEO: $20 million
• Number of times in the past two years that Republicans have killed Sen. Byron Dorgan's amendment to set up a Truman-style committee on war profiteering to investigate Halliburton: 3
• Naughty word Cheney used during a Senate photo session in 2004 to assail Sen. Patrick Leahy, who had criticized Cheney's ongoing ties to Halliburton: "Go #@! percent yourself.

Jim Hightower is the author of "Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush" (Viking Press). He publishes the monthly Hightower Lowdown.

© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/40678/

The Resume of George W. Bush

A few weeks ago a family member sent me an email titled "John Kerry's Resume". It misrepresented Kerry on more than a few points and the mean-spirited tone seemed to get in the way of serious arguments but it got me wondering what a Bush resume would look like. I found a few "George W. Bush's Resume" versions online but they were filled with the same sort of distortions and inaccuracies, and seemed written for an audience of people who already dislike Bush and support Kerry. It annoys me when people who share my view make their case so poorly that it undermines our position. I thought I could do better.

As I wrote this I started realizing the problem with our current president. Rewarding excellence and limiting failure is a deeply held value in America, especially in conservative circles. It is essential that we recognize the competence of juniors and promote them. By promoting our smartest, most efficient, highest-skilled workers to positions of responsibility we don't just reward them: we reward ourselves as we benefit from the good decisions they make in their new position.

Bush is the antithesis of this story. From Yale to the Champagne Unit to Harvard to Arbusto to Spectrum 7 to Harken to Texas Rangers to Governor to President, his failure was rewarded with ever-greater responsibility as the sphere of those damaged by his incompetence continued to expand. And that's how we got where we are today: the entire world is paying the piper because nobody had the guts to pull the brakes on this man's train of unearned, undeserved privilege.

My target audience is Bush supporters for whom their choice of candidate is still a rational decision. As a former Bush supporter in 2000 I don't see how anyone can support this president's run for a second term. Even if you believe his goals are sound, his ability to achieve those goals and the means he chooses to achieve them remain highly questionable. I have avoided points such as drilling in ANWR or Bush's enthusiastic execution record as governor of Texas because I don't fault him for those reasons: points such as those have reasonable positions on either side. I'm sticking to points like exposing the secret identity of CIA agents as revenge for their spouses' public statements, or creating an agency to re-inject discredited intelligence reports back into circulation - points that, to me, seem beyond any rational defense.

It is quite likely that this is not the final version of this document. I consider myself a rational person, and I'm expecting to revise the document as new information becomes available. While I don't have time to get into extended one-on-one political arguments with strangers I welcome the sort of input and rational criticism that will clarify my misconceptions. I expect to add new points and remove weaker ones throughout Bush's remaining term: I've found his resume to be a useful crib sheet to remember details like the name of Bush's personal criminal defense attorney, or the vote tally for the Federal Marriage Amendment, and I'd like it to remain "live". - MonkeyDyne.com

For an up to date copy of this page, please visit http://monkeydyne.com/bushresume/forward.html

Hello. My name is George Bush and I'm running for President (originally posted 2004). Please consider my accomplishments as set forth in the following resume[1].

EARLY RECORD
• Please See Attached Page[2]

POLITICAL RECORD (DOMESTIC)
• I ran for President in 2000. My campaign was destined to be a miserable failure until I used a whispering campaign of lies[3] in the South Carolina Presidential Primary organized by my chief political strategist, Karl Rove,[4] to destroy genuine war hero and fellow Republican John McCain, claiming he had fathered an illegitimate negro child[5] was emotionally unstable due to his torture as a POW in Vietnam and a possible brainwashed Manchurian Candidate[6].

• In July 2001 I appointed Harvey Pitt to be the chairman of a "kinder, gentler SEC"[7] to ease regulation of foreign businesses. The results have been the largest and most miserable failures of corporate accountability in modern corporate history: Enron[8], Worldcom[9], and now Fannie Mae[10].

• I am the first President to unconstitutionally restrict my opponents' First Amendment rights[11] by allowing my supporters to remain at the venue[12] while restricting my detractors to "free speech zones[13]," fenced-off areas up to half mile away[14] from the media, the audience, and especially myself.

• I've communicated less with the American people than any other president in the history of televised news, holding only one White House press conference every 3.25 months[15], compared to my father's 1.6 per month.

• To prevent activist judges from rewriting the constitution to serve an agenda that Congress would never approve, I attempted to rewrite the constitution to serve an agenda they never came close to approving. My campaign for the Federal Marriage Amendment[16] was a miserable failure: it failed to pass either house of congress. In the Senate the cloture call to end debate yielded only 48 votes, not the 67 required to pass the Senate, not the 60 votes required for cloture, not even the 50 votes of a simple majority.

• My 2004 budget set the record for the largest deficit in history[17]: either $477 billion or $521 billion (CBO[18] and OMB[19] numbers, respectively).

• The value of the dollar has collapsed 30% during my term[20].

• Nearly every major economic indicator has deteriorated since I took office in January 2001. Real GDP growth during my term is the lowest of any presidential term in recent memory. Total non-farm employment has contracted and the unemployment rate has increased. Bankruptcies are up sharply, as is our dependence on foreign capital to finance an exploding current account deficit. All three major stock indexes are lower now than at the time of my inauguration. The percentage of Americans in poverty has increased, real median income has declined, and income inequality has grown.[21]

POLITICAL EXPERIENCE (FOREIGN)
• As president I ignored Clinton's warnings about Al Qaeda, mentioning that organization only once in public statements on national security between January 20, 2001 and September 10, 2001. In the same time period I mentioned Saddam Hussein 104 times and missile defense 101 times[22].

• On August 6, 2001 I received a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States[23]" which warned that "the FBI indicates patterns of suspicious activity in the United States consistent with preparations for hijacking[24]." For one month I dealt with numerous other issues[25] until the unfolding of the most successful terrorist attack in US history on September 11, 2001.

• With broad international approval I temporarily disrupted the Taliban government, which has now re-emerged to control much of southern Afghanistan after I abandoned this campaign for Iraq.

• I campaigned strongly for war in Iraq. I claimed that:

• Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (none have been found).

• Iraq had ties to Al Qaeda[26] (Iraq opposed Al Qaeda and successfully kept their operatives out of the country before September 2001[27]. The strongest claim to support a connection came from Czech intelligence services[28] and is now retracted[29]. The 9/11 commission "did not believe that such a meeting occurred"[30].)

• Iraq would give their weapons of mass destruction to terrorists[26] (A secular Saddam would never give his "ace card" to religious elements he opposed throughout his life and could not control[31])

• The war would be "self-financing" through oil sales[32] ($200 billion total has been allocated[33], and $138 billion has already been spent[34] with more to follow).

• The war would end quickly, with troop deployments down to 30,000 troops by Autumn 2003[32] (March 2004 troop deployment: 114,000 US plus 23,000 Coalition troops in Iraq; 26,000 US and Coalition logistical support troops in Kuwait[35]).

• Americans would be greeted as liberators (Public perception of Americans as liberators dropped from 43% at the time of invasion[36] to 2% after Abu Ghraib[37]).

• By invading I would make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain Weapons of Mass Destruction (The only WMD 'discovered' in Iraq was successfully obtained by terrorists and used against Americans[38]. As a result of the invasion, nuclear equipment and materials in Iraq formerly monitored by the IAEA has disappeared and may have fallen into the hands of terrorists or rogue countries[39]. The results have been overwhelmingly negative for U.S. interests.[40])

• I punished those who spoke unwelcome truth:

• I sent Joseph Wilson[41] to Africa in February 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium, where Wilson determined that those claims were based on forged documents[42]. Despite his report I continued to make public Iraq/Nigeria statements as late as January 2003[43]. When Wilson publicly contradicted me[44], one of my senior officials exposed the CIA cover of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame[45], in an article written by Robert Novak and printed in the New York Times on July 14 2003[46]. No one is sure which senior White House official leaked the order or who was aware, but the fact that I hired James Sharp in June 2004 to represent me[47] as a personal criminal defense attorney is significant when you consider that there is no attorney-client privilege between a president and a White House counsel that allows the counsel to withhold information from a Federal grand jury.[48]

• I fired Lawrence Lindsey[49] as my economics advisor in early December 2002 for claiming that the Iraq War would cost between $100 and $200 billion[50]. ($138 billion has been spent and $200 billion has been budgeted... so far)

• I fired Jay Garner as US Administrator of Iraq in March 2004[51] for calling for immediate elections instead of allowing American companies to privatize government-owned assets. (American privatization and lack of a legitimate Iraqi government is one of the major reasons for unrest in Iraq.)

• I made US Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki[52] a lame duck in June 2003, defying precedent and announcing his successor 14 months in advance of his retirement[53] after he announced that "several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq"[54].

• I threatened to have Medicare analyst Richard Foster fired[55] if he replied to Congressional requests[56] and reported that the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill[57] would cost $551 billion, $156 billion over the White House's favored estimate of $395 billion[58].

• After the Iraq Health Ministry released figures showing that US and Coalition forces killed twice as many Iraqis as the Insurgents the Iraqis are supposedly being protected from[59], I acted decisively by ordering the Iraq Health Ministry to not release any more figures[60].

• I rewarded those who spoke welcome lies, paying Ahmed Chalabi[61] and the Iraqi National Congress[62] $340,000 per month for their false intelligence gathered about Iraq[63]. Although Chalabi and the INC had been dropped from the CIA payroll in 1996 for being an unreliable source and also dismissed by the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency[64]) for the same reason, I continued to use Chalabi and the INC to support claims of WMDs in Iraq. Even after their information proved false and no weapons were found[65] I remained so close to Chalabi that he sat with Laura Bush as my "Special Guest" during my September 2003 State of the Union address[66]. I continued to pay the INC regularly until May 2004[67], when allegations surfaced that Chalabi had passed classified American intelligence to Iran.

• I put tremendous pressure on the CIA to come up with information to support policies that have already been adopted[68] (as determined by the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq[69]). When the CIA and DIA refused to verify intelligence items I wanted to believe, Donald Rumsfeld and I created the Office of Special Plans[70]. This independent department within the Pentagon was designed to bypass the CIA and feed the discredited and unreliable information I wanted to believe was true[71] back into the intelligence stream in order to support conclusions that the CIA and DIA could not. The OSP took much of the discredited information from Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress.

• I opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security for nine months, before turning around to take credit for its creation[72].

• I opposed the creation of an independent 9/11 panel[73]. After being forced to accept the commission, I gave it only $12 million in funding to do its work (compared to $50 million combined for Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky investigation[74]) before turning around to take credit for its creation.

• My war against Al Qaeda has been a miserable failure:

• The International Institute for Strategic Studies[75]' most conservative estimate (May 25, 2004) is that the occupation of Iraq has helped Al Qaeda recruit 18,000 operatives in more than 60 countries[76].

• The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University[77] has found that The war in Iraq did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually "created momentum" for many terrorists. On a strategic level as well as an operational level, the war in Iraq is hurting the war on international terrorism.[78]

• By my State Department's own estimates, world terror attacks are now at their highest level in 20 years, up 36% since 2001[79].

• I have held 660 prisoners in Guantanamo, Cuba[80] for over two years without trial or formal charge. My prisoners, several of whom were between the ages of 13 and 16, have never been formally charged. They are kept in steel cages, subjected to ongoing torture, and denied access to legal counsel in opposition to Supreme Court rulings (Rasul v. Bush[81]). These prisoners are "the worst of the worst", "hard core, well trained terrorists[82]" and their guilt is beyond doubt, which is why I've set 87 of them free without explanation or apology[83].

• In the past year I claim to have trained 100,000 Iraqi police forces, but only 8,169 of those have passed the required 8-week training course[84]. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained".

• My Secretary of Defense is the first in US history to have acknowledged ordering an intentional violation of the Geneva Conventions[85], in which Abu Ghraib prisoners were held "off the books" and hidden from the Red Cross. When this order was made public I refused to discipline him in any way, instead complimenting him on his job performance[86].

• After being informed of abuses at Abu Ghraib on January 16[87] (first reported on January 13[88]) which included "Threatening male detainees with rape[89]" and "Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick[89]" I made "freedom from torture chambers and rape rooms[90]" a centerpiece in my speeches until April 29 when the story finally broke on 60 Minutes II.

• My administration is the first since the Civil War to imprison US Citizens (Jose Padilla) as "enemy combatants" without charges, trial, or access to legal counsel. In a 5-4 decision (Rumsfeld v. Padilla[91]) the Supreme Court dodged the opportunity to rule on the legality, ruling that the case had been improperly filed.

• My administration broke new legal ground by using material witness warrants to give effective life sentences to US citizens[92] without charge, trial, access to legal counsel, or even plans to prosecute[93].

• My justice department was the first in US history to attempt to enforce federal regulations while refusing to disclose what those regulations are[94].

• My legal war against terror has been a miserable failure: I have detained more than 5,000 people[95] on suspicion of terrorist ties, some of whom have been held without charge or without access to a lawyer. I have successfully convicted zero[96].

to be continued... (sadly)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
It can be freely published commercially or noncommercially as long as the content is attributed to MonkeyDyne.com.

FOOTNOTES:
Note that if you copy these links and email them to yourself, they will turn into clickable links for easy reference to source material.

[1] http://monkeydyne.com/bushresume/forward.html
[2] http://www.monkeydyne.com/bushresume/early.html
[3] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/
[4] http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20010305&s=dubose
[5] http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2004/07/06/mccain/
[6] http://www.scdp.org/blog.php?blog_id=22
[7] http://securities.stanford.edu/news-archive/2002/20020300_Headline16_Knauer.htm
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldcom
[10] http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/30/news/fortune500/fannie_doj.reut/
[11] http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=13693&c=86
[12] http://www.amconmag.com/12_15_03/feature.html
[13] http://reason.com/links/links020504.shtml
[14] http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=11796
[15] http://www.towson.edu/polsci/whc/readings/PressConference.pdf
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Marriage_Amendment
[17] http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=148
[18] http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5003&sequence=0
[19] http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/sheets/hist01z3.xls
[20] http://www.monkeydyne.com/bushresume/dollar_collapse.jpg
[21] http://www.openlettertothepresident.org/
[22] http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/numbers.asp
[23] http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/08/rice.transcript/index.html
[24] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3617289.stm
[25] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2676-2004Apr10&notFound=true
[26] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-1.html
[27] http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/terrornet/12.htm
[28] http://www.rushonline.com/visitors/linkconfirmed.htm
[29] http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021020-092811-8185r
[30] http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/16/911.commission/
[31] http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-05-03.html
[32] http://www.cato.org/dailys/04-21-04.html
[33] http://factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=253
[34] http://costofwar.com/
[35] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_orbat.htm
[36] http://www.cato.org/dailys/05-18-04.html
[37] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5223494/
[38] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3722255.stm
[39] http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6469984
[40] http://www.sensibleforeignpolicy.net/letter.html
[41] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_wilson
[42] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_Forgery
[43] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html
[44] http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm
[45] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame
[46] http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/printrn20030714.shtml
[47] http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/061404Ramares/061404ramares.html
[48] http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040604.html
[49] http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040103.shtml
[50] http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/transcripts/2003/feb/030226.ludden.html
[51] http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1171880,00.html
[52] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki
[53] http://www.intellivu.com/main.asp?brand=&fnum=142&pathb=/articles1/rnovak/novak050103.htm
[54] http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0228pentagoncontra.htm
[55] http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/03/12/rtr1297339.html
[56] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6339-2004Mar18
[57] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031208-2.html
[58] http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=22867
[59] http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm
[60] http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2004/09/23/640763-ap.html
[61] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi
[62] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_National_Congress
[63] http://www.cato.org/dailys/05-27-04-2.html
[64] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Intelligence_Agency
[65] http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/11/1078594496135.html?oneclick=true
[66] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040120-5.html
[67] http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/20/chalabi.raid/
[68] http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V13/22/dreyfuss-r.html
[69] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Report_of_Pre-war_Intelligence_on_Iraq#Conclusions_of_the_Report
[70] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans
[71] http://www.cato.org/dailys/07-12-04-2.html
[72] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/19/politics/main522605.shtml
[73] http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/107-2/107PDFs/hr4628-h.pdf
[74] http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/67/administrationsFacade.htm
[75] http://www.iiss.org/
[76] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3746205.stm
[77] http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/
[78] http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-israel-terrorism,0,788148,print.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
[79] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31971-2004May16.html
[80] http://www.pollycyber.com/courses/G245-F03/final/NYT-2003N11-Greenhouse.html
[81] http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1706/resources
[82] http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/09/usdom6917.htm
[83] http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2004/nr20040129-0934.html
[84] http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=590914&section=news
[85] http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/Evening_Newscasts_June1604.html
[86] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3699453.stm
[87] http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact
[88] http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/may2004/a050704h.html
[89] http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2004/800-mp-bde.htm
[90] http://slate.msn.com/id/2100014/
[91] http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1730/
[92] http://www.bluetriangle.org/old/id74.htm
[93] http://secure.cppax.org/Iraq/background/materialWitness11-24-02.html
[94] http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/09/06/airline.id.ap/
[95] http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=128&wit_id=83
[96] http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041004&s=cole

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