I need to write up a list of why I oppose Bush. Maybe Bernie can help me with it.
Hope you brought a snack, Doug.
To start with, he's a PHONEY TEXAN born in New Haven, CT., plus he CONSTANTLY misquotes or short-quotes Kerry! If Kerry is such a miserable bastard, Bush shouldn't have to edit a damn word.
Here's a short list of a few other things:
Joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. Refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.
Let's start with a good one I've heard a lot about, having proximity to the financial end of the energy business:
- The Harken Oil insider trading scandal. One key trade just a few weeks before Iraq invaded Kuwait -- but reported some eight months late after the Gulf War was over -- netted Bush close to $1 million in profit as he sold stock in Harken Energy, an oil company doing business in the Middle East wherein some of his father's largest contributors also maintained substantial positions.The SEC under President Bush carried out an incomplete investigation of the younger Bush's pre-Gulf War trade in 1991 after key presidential advisor George Jr. claimed that he filed a report, but that the SEC had most likely lost it. Chairman of the SEC was Richard Breedon who received his SEC appointment after the elder Bush became president. Breedon is a former lawyer with Houston firm Baker and Botts and deputy counsel to Bush's father when he was vice president. And Martha Stewart is in jail over ink??!
-bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
-With the help of father and right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), was elected Governor of Texas.
WHILE GOVERNOR:
- changed Texas pollution laws to favor powet and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
- Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America.
- cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
-With the help of brother, the Governor of Florida, and father's appointments to the Supreme Court, became president after losing by over 500,000 votes.
WHILE PRESIDENT:
- invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
- spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
- shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
- set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
- set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
- became the first president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
- set the the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period.
-After taking-off the entire month of August, presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
-supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD.
-In State Of The Union Address, lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on Great Britain, one of the few remaining U.S. allies.
- set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S president.
-during first year in office over 2-million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
- set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
- appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any president in U.S. history.
- set the record for least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
- presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
- presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
- cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in war time.
- set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest in public venues (15 million people) shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
- broken more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
- members of his cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. The "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
- first president in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive-attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. Did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
-created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
- first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
-withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
- refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners of war detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
- first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
- all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
- largest lifetime campaign contributor and close friend Kenneth Lay (now known in the Bush household as “Ken Who?”), presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history.
- protected cronies at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution for years. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate ripoffs in history.
- garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
- first president in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
- changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
- so far failed to fulfill pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.
- first president in U.S. history to attempt writing discrimination against U.S. citizens back into the Constitution
RECORDS:
-All records of tenure as Governor of Texas are sealed, and unavailable for public view.
-All records of SEC investigations into insider trading and bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
-All records or minutes from meetings that he or Dick Cheney attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
One Week....guess there's no chance someone could send him that video from The Ring, huh?
