Bush will be givning his last address to the nation tonight. I won’t be watching. Bush doesn’t “give a darn” what I think and I don’t give a damn what he has to say.
Instead, I thought I would post entries from Harper’s Magazine’s retrospective of the Bush era that pretty much say it all.
Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1
Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4
Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000
Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000
Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000
Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4
Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000
Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400
Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42
Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2
Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02
Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0
Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02
Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677
Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9
Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295
Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6
Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400
Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3
Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4
Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000
Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172
Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15
Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5
Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113
Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466
Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
Popular News says:
Honestly I dont think Bush has done too much bad. You can point to the economy, but that shits unpredictable.
1/15/2009, 10:53 pmHarmony says:
That’s quite a lot of statistics there.
1/15/2009, 10:54 pmT Shirts says:
Just hope that this recession period will end soon, all this thing is happening because of the bad financial conditions of the market.
1/15/2009, 11:19 pmshea says:
That pretty much sums it up.
1/16/2009, 3:47 pmI hope he lives to be 120 and is alive to see that he is not Harry Truman.
Wayne36301 says:
It is real easy to judge from the “cheap seats”. The facts left out is that we are safer from terrerist. Hundred of attemps to attack us again have been fouled due to Home Land sec. measures. But people seem to only beleive what the media wants them to believe.
1/16/2009, 6:24 pmYour just another news clone.
Laura says:
PN,
Have you been paying attention to what’s been done in the last 8 years? Just because the economy is right in front of our face right now doesn’t mean that is all that Bush has touched.
Massive deregulation and expecting business to do the right thing has been a big factor in this economy. Especially in the financial markets. These companies weren’t doing the right thing, they were doing the greedy thing. The resulting economy problems were predictable as a result. Bush and Co were just surprised by how quickly the problems hit.
Wayne,
Just where do you get your facts? Only a few arrests have been made for people who might have been conspiring to attack us and so far there have only been two convictions. That’s hardly hundreds of attempts. Sure, the administration can tell us that there have been hundreds of attempts that they have thwarted, but they never present any evidence to prove their statement. It has nothing to do with the media. If they want us to believe what they are claiming, they need to show us the proof.
Stop drinking the cool-aide Fox News is putting out.
mamaholler says:
Wow. Would it be totally obnoxious to send this to every Bush supporter I know? I mean, it’s only one guy!
1/18/2009, 2:15 pmLuke says:
I find these debates to be so interesting, especially now, but honestly if you’re oblivious to the fact that Bush’s policies and values aren’t partly to blame for the state of the economy than you’re not looking at the big picture. The real issue I have with Bush is that he seems incredibly short sighted, and on major decisions like Iraq, the idea was ‘let’s just do it, we’ve got to go now, terrorism terrorism!’. To those who argue that America hasn’t had another terrorist attack, you’re right, but consider the millions who have had their lives devasted by poor planning and support in Iraq and Afghanistan alone. The goal is to stop terrorism, but ignorant and selfish action creates an image, one that paints the US as an enemy to people truly hurt by the cost of this war. This notion that terrorism was being defeated by invading Iraq has actually created an entire new generation of people who hate the US. Not to mention that on the world stage, America went from being seen as a victim of an attack, to now the aggressor behind countless attacks of their own (and I’m talking about how this has affected the life of your average Iraqi citizen, despite that the attacks are all labelled as the war on terror).
The US has such amazing potential, but time and time again I watched it get diminished by censorship and generic statements made by the Bush administration, who would play the 9/11 card regularily to avoid discussing what was really going on. The end doesn’t always justify the means, and as proof, it seems Bush has left a hell of a lot more to clean up than to work with. Some legacy. Just my two cents.
1/18/2009, 9:55 pmJerry says:
HANG ON BABY….YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET11111……Wait till the end of 2012! After Chicago style politics has run its course.
1/19/2009, 2:08 pmMike B says:
A great list of foul ups by BushCo but I am very interested on how historians will will record his presidency.
1/19/2009, 3:22 pmSteve Hayes says:
I don’t think many people will miss George Bush. Though one journalist said that it was a solace when our politicians stuffed up to think that there was someone who was worse.
1/20/2009, 8:44 amAnlina says:
Wow, that’s a pretty interesting and damning list of statistics. Thanks for sharing – very neat (if depressing) read.
Anlina
1/21/2009, 2:24 pmhttp://abnormalloveofcats.com
Йошкар-Ола says:
The US has such amazing potential, but time and time again I watched it get diminished by censorship and generic statements made by the Bush administration, who would play the 9/11 card regularily to avoid discussing what was really going on. The end doesn’t always justify the means.Just hope that this recession period will end soon, all this thing is happening because of the bad financial conditions of the market.
1/21/2009, 3:14 pmEuroYank says:
What amazes me are not so much some of the BIG LIES Bush told, but how easily the American people accepted them.
Regarding Bush, and the Media
One thing that irritates me is how the media and bloggers never properly research statistics, or how they are compiled, and how the propaganda is continued for example …
On June 29 2005, the Veterans Administration (an official U.S. body) admitted to the U.S. Congress that while there were over 103,000 U.S. military casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the official figures at the time were showing 13,000 casualties.
A senior Pentagon official confirmed on the condition of anonymity that the actual death toll of U.S. service personnel as of 1st May 2006 in Iraq was in excess of 12,000. The real number of casualties – i.e. those unable to return to active service – is in excess of 150,000. He also confirmed that all reports from the U.S. military in Iraq confirmed that Iraqi resistance to the occupation growing better organized and more deadly by the day.
1. Soldiers killed or injured in any other way other than a direct bullet or bomb not counted.
2. Soldier shot and/or wounded but died on a flight to a U.S. military hospital not counted.
3. Anyone who dies in hospital or a U.S. military base not counted.
4. Severe mental illnesses those who are medically diagnosed as depressed and/or suicidal not counted.
5. Long term physical or mental problems resulting from brain damage not counted.
6. 15,000 or more US casualties not battle casualties are not counted.
7. Soldiers not American citizens are not counted.
Also over 40,000 American soldiers have deserted.
The US army is reported to be 40 per cent short of its recruitment target. Despite a joining bonus of $ 90,000 paid over three years, of which $ 20,000 is in cash and $ 70,000 in benefits, along with a cancelling of the loans many a young American must take to afford to go to college.
There are reports also that people almost 40 years old are now eligible to join the military, and that the physical and intellectual standards for recruits have been lowered. Almost 30 per cent of new recruits leave within six months.
<a href=”http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html”>Unknown News</a>
1/23/2009, 5:54 pm