This reads like a sad history lesson of the past (almost) eight years of the Bush Administration. We couldn't believe we'd forgotten many of them. He should write a book...visit his website, and you'll get a spiffy up-to-date look at the recent and sad history of the United States. Vote accordingly...here are some of Hugh's List of Bush Scandals highlights...
Walter Reed outpatient treatment
Firing of US attorneys
Plamegate
Iraq
Afghanistan
Iran and saber rattling
North Korea
Osama bin Laden, where are you?
Civilian contractors; also no bid contracts
The Military Commissions Act: torture, indefinite detention, the end of habeas corpus, and kangaroo courts
Hurricanes Rita and Katrina
Bush authorized warrantless NSA wiretapping in October 2001
SWIFT surveillance of international financial transactions
Black prisons and extraordinary rendition to facilitate interrogation by torture
Homeland Security: white elephant (organization), black hole (money), Tom Ridge and threat levels, Michael Chertoff and general incompetence.
K Street Lobbyists, Jack Abramoff
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, No. 3 at the CIA under Porter Goss, tied to the Duke Cunningham scandal, and poker "read money laundering" parties with limos and hookers for government officials and representatives
Duke Cunningham
Tom Delay
Mark Foley
Larry Craig
David Vitter
Cheney's Energy Policy
Tax cuts for the wealthiest
Global warming: denial of manmade origin
Terri Schiavo
Big budget deficits and vastly increased national debt
The stacking of SCOTUS with right wing conservatives
Medicare: a bigger time bomb than Social Security left unaddressed
Medicare Part D
Healthcare (in general)
Cooked intelligence and the Office of Strategic Plans
2000 Presidential election; voter suppression and cooked felons list
2004 Presidential election; Ohio voter irregularities that consistently favored Bush
Attempts to torpedo the 911 Commission
Failure to implement the 911 Commission recommendations
Marginalization of the UN; UN hating John Bolton
Preventive war doctrine, aka Cheney's one percent doctrine and the Bush doctrine
Loss of US reputation internationally after massive post-911 world support
No serious attempt to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians
Underfunding of basic research
Alberto Gonzales
FDA: drug testing; food safety: underfunding
EPA: mercury levels for coal plants, delay in release of climate change reports
Porter Goss and the gutting of the CIA
Militarization of intelligence
Rampant cronyism
Signing statements
Unilateral (aka Unitary) Executive doctrine
Overuse and abuse of the National Guard and Reserves
Increasing unpreparedness of US ground forces (Army and Marines)
US balance of trade deficit
2005 Grassley Bankruptcy bill heavily favoring lenders
Mexican cross border trucking and safety concerns
Karl Rove did not lose his security clearance after his participation in the Valerie Plame case
Detention of families for immigration violations; large ICE raids which leave children of detainees unaccounted for
Dubai Ports deal
The Patriot Act
Attempts to privatize Social Security
The War on Science
Conviction of David Safavian for lying and obstruction June 20, 2006 re his dealings with Jack Abramoff
Presidential adviser Claude Allen stealing from Target
Bush casually admits to lying about decision to fire Rumsfeld
Armstrong Williams and paid propagandists
Decimation of the Labor Department presided over by Elaine Chao
Net neutrality and media content and ownership policies
Backing Israel while it destroyed Lebanon
Presidential Daily Brief August 6, 2001: Bin Laden determined to attack in US
EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman declares toxic filled Ground Zero safe for cleanup. On August 9, 2003 the EPA Inspector General finds differently
Sago mining disaster hearings and MHSA's David Dye who walked out of the hearings; Bush push for reduction in fines for safety violations and non-collection of them since 2001
Bush nominates Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court
Bush vetoes a stem cell research bill
Attack on Plan B contraception
so-called "Clear Skies Act"
Missile defense shield that doesn't work
Leandro Aragoncillo naturalized Filipino-American in Cheney's office (previously Gore's) accused of spying for the Philippines and possibly France, pled guilty to unlawfully possessing secret US government documents
Defunding overseas AIDS programs that promoted condom use for prevention; ineffective abstinence only programs
Call for a constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman
Opening up Bristol Bay, the last pristine large-scale salmon fishery in the world, to oil drilling
Gannon/Guckert a working male prostitute in the White House press corps
OK, Hugh lists a current total 258 "scandals" and we don't have time or room for them all.
VIA
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