last update: 6-30-05
-Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Dec. 14 to former CIA Director George Tenet, retired Gen. Tommy Franks and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer: A man who gave the president faulty intelligence, and men who took us to war with no exit strategy. (Oregonian 12-19-04)
-Nominated Alberto Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as U.S. attorney general; the architect of arguments that the United States should ignore treaties such as the Geneva Conventions in interrogations of prisoners in Iraq or at the base in Guantanamo Bay. This essentially paved the way to the Abu Ghraib torture pictures and video segments we all saw on the news and in magazines.
-Sends only  a form letter with a stamped signature to the families of deceased troops (Oregonian, 10-26-04).
- Wishes to medicate as many children as possible.
- Dick Cheney: "It is my opinion that anyone who genuinely wants a job with health care, can get it."
-Had to appear before the 9-11 commission with Dick Cheney, to make sure their stories agreed! (4-29-04)  Lied about what he knew on Sept. 11th.  Was briefed on Aug. 6th and told that airliners may be hijacked.  Said on Dec. 21st and later, "America never dreamt before Sept. 11th anybody would attack us."  Cheney: said there was "no specific threat" while actually been briefed by CIA director George Tenet that there would be an impending domestic attack. Ashcroft: Said "We'll get to the bottom of this", while he had actually rejected FBI requests for counterterrorism analysts.  Rumsfeld: Vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism, and stopped using the Predator spyplane (as Clinton had done) to track bin-Ladin.  (Newsweek, May 27, 2002).
-Showing caskets of 9-11 victims is dignified, if it supports my campaign commercials. But showing caskets of soldiers returning from Iraq is not respectful of the families.  Hmmm. Did not attend their memorial services-- having the deceased return to Dover AFB at 2 am in the morning, (putting us on a slippery slope toward censorship), while attending $2,000-a-plate fundraisers to raise that $175 million re-election campaign mark!  (11-09-03 Oregonian).
Questioned the patriotism of such Vietnam War heroes as Hon. Sens. John McCain, and Max Cleland, then accused reporters investigating his absent months from the national Guard as engaging in "gutter politics"!  (2-04)
-Attempted to gut the pay of soldiers stationed in Iraq, because "all combat operations have ended" (Rumsfeld).  Seems to me that if a soldier still comes back in a body bag each day, and people are still trying to fire RPGs and rifles at you during night patrol, that is combat, and deserves combat pay!   (8-20-03)
-Allowed a senior advisor, to disclose the identity of a CIA operative, because her husband disagreed with Bush (Oregonian, 10-02).
-Refused to prosecute Halliburton, tricky Dick Cheney's old oil company from overbilling the govt. for gasoline by $61 million.
-Nominated a man to UN Ambassadorship to had tried to fire the leading investigator for WMD at the UN, because his findings didn't square with Bush's desire to go to war against Iraq.
-Dick Cheney, "The insurgency is in it's death throes." Rumsfeld, "We could be in Iraq for 5, 8, 10, 12 years."  (June, '05).  Which is it, boys?
-Petitioned the EPA to raise the allowable levels of mercury coming from power plants (12-16-03 Oregonian).  Called it the "Clear Skies Initiative"!!!  Mercury causes neurological damage, esp. in unborn children.
-Has signaled his intentions to sign legislation protecting gun manufacturers from liability when their distributors knowingly sell to criminals.  (60 Mins., 5-11-03)  Next, we'll see him protect Ford from liability when their SUVs roll-over.
- Is letting the Hubble Space Telescope fall-into re-entry, because all monies and efforts are to be placed in to MARS!  (On the other hand, perhaps we should send him, and Cheney too).
-Fired our best credentialed scientists at govt. agencies (EPA, FDA, etc.) and replaced them with industry lobbyists and officials.
- Rescinded the nuclear test-ban treaty.  Offered 3 scenarios when he feels the use of these WMD would be justified, and none of them include self-defense.  (Oregonian, 5-10-03).
-In a time of war, pushed for a tax-cut for the wealthiest 1%, while the families of our troops applied for food stamps.  (3-22-03)  Then cut $14.6 billion in benefits to our veterans!!! in his '03 budget (Oregonian, 4-06-03)
- Is attempting to get exemptions from an ozone protection treaty that his own father put in place.  National security?  Nope-- golf courses, and strawberry growing, plus a host of others.  Our ozone shield protects us from skin cancer.
-Stood idly by as companies exported thousands of manufacturing jobs, then after the jobless rate soared; reclassified fast food hamburger assembly as "manufacturing"!!!
-Attempted to devalue a human life (3-17-03, Oregonian) from $6 million so that more deaths could occur from air quality, water quality, etc. before certain pollution control devices would need to be installed as a part of his cost/risk analysis, establishing that a newborn would be around 2 million, while an elderly person would be $96,000.
-Allowed the US military to use depleted uranium munitions in Iraq, which have been proven to cause a variety of blood and lung cancers as they vaporize into dust and are inhaled.  Of course, since it only affects Iraqis and US infantry/artillerymen, who gives a damn, right?  (Daily Courier, 5-24-03)
-Got a Pentagon official to lie about the extent of Jessica Lynch's injuries and had our troops stage an unneeded raid in a bizarre "wag-the-dog, made-for-TV" episode, despite the fact that Iraqi hospital doctors and staff had given great care, there was no military presence at the hospital, and they had actually tried to deliver her to the American force there (Oregonian, 5/29/03).  Refuses to turn over documents of the independent investigation of 9/11, likely because it contains incriminating information of what he knew from presidential briefings.
-Illegally uses the secret service to quarantine free speech against his policies, during campaign appearances, under the guise of "terrorism prevention."
-First day of his presidency, said "I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct.  This means avoiding even the appearance of problems.  This  means checking, and if need be doublechecking that the rules have been obeyed."  He promptly allowed Ken Lay, CEO of Enron, and top GOP donor ($1.6 million) to interview the Dept. of Energy nominees who would be regulating the energy industry!  Finally, he refused to turn over documents because of this serious impropriety. (Wonder if Rupert Murdoch interviewed candidates for the FCC)?  Had maps of Iraq oil fields present at this energy committee meeting!!!
-Lied about a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda  (2-11-03).  Still hasn't found a way to pay for increased anti-terrorism work except to pass the debt to future generations.  If it's not about oil, then why can't you just tell us the truth; 1) It's unfinished business from 1991; Hussein is a thug, and his kids are rapists.  2) He should never have attempted to assassinate my dad, and daddy and his staff never should've sold them the chemical weapons technology to use against Iran; 3)  My advisors, Richard Perle, who stands to make $755,000 because of his ties to telecom firm "Global Crossing"-- and Dick Cheney whose old firm Halliburton Oil has already been awarded a $7-billion contract to build in a post-war Iraq said that we can spread democracy all over the Middle East by installing a democracy in Iraq.  (Dear God, I hope they're right...)
-Pardoned Charles and David Koch, despite them knowingly releasing 91 metric tons of cancer-causing benzene into the air and water, then covering it up!  Is it a surprise they donated $800,000 to the Bu$h campaign?
- Deleted damaging information about the effects of global warming.  (Of course, this parallels what he did with Iraq and WMD; you don't like the findings, lie about them; ignore them, etc). 7-3-03
- Began the practice of releasing his most destructive or illegal initiatives on Fridays and over the holidays, when public outcry will be lowest.  (Sierra Club, 7-03).
-Nominated Miguel Estrada for the high court; a man who has never served as a judge, and who apparently "has no opinion" on many legal matters!  (03-03-03).
-Campaigned against a "gutted military", then used equipment bought and paid for by Pres. Clinton to subdue the Taliban with precision and speed.
-Shelved a proposal by President Clinton to ban the carcinogenic gasoline additive MTBE.  (2-17-04, Daily Courier).
-Campaigned for state's rights, but when CA attempted to clean up their air, filed legal briefs on behalf of domestic auto makers to prohibit Californians to clean up their air!
-Allowed his atty. gen. to attack OR's physician assisted suicide law, twice backed by voters (10-12-02).
-First day of his presidency, said "I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct.  This means avoiding even the appearance of problems.  This  means checking, and if need be doublechecking that the rules have been obeyed."  He promptly allowed Ken Lay, CEO of Enron, and top GOP donor ($1.6 million) to interview the Dept. of Energy nominees who would be regulating the energy industry!  Finally, he refused to turn over documents because of this serious impropriety.  (Wonder if Rupert Murdoch interviewed candidates for the FCC)?
-Nominated Rod Paige to Secretary of Education, despite the fact that he radically doctored the test statistics of Texas students, kept him on after he labeled our nation's largest professional union of teachers, a "terrorist organization" because they opposed his implementation of No Child Left Behind (2/27/04).
-Attempted to make it easier for insurance companies to get the private medical files of patients!  (3-22-02).
-Engaged in some of the same kinds of business practices he's now (7/4/02) promising to clean up in response to a wave of corporate scandals: Was a board member of Harken Energy Corp. in 1989 when the company was forced by the SEC forced the company to amend its books to reflect millions of dollars in losses that had been masked by the sale of a subsidiary to a group of insiders. Bush, was on the company's audit committee, and was the subject of a separate insider stock trade investigation by the SEC.  He had failed to promptly disclose the 1990 sale of his Harken stock as required by federal law. The notice of the sale was filed with the SEC 34 weeks after it took place.  The president sold Harken stock for $848,000 two months before the company reported millions of dollars in losses. The stock price plunged from $4 when Bush sold it in June 1990 to a dollar a share by the end of the year.  Campaigned by badmouthing "big government", then after corporate lying about profits, (7-9-02) asked for $100 million more in funds for the SEC!
-Transferred toxic waste cleanup costs from corporations to taxpayers (2-24-02).
-Badmouthed "big government", then handed out $40 billion in corporate welfare to the largest corporations in the US.  (11-'01) Raised our debt to the largest in history: $7.2 trillion.  Asked for $36 billion in surplus defense appropriations (1-'02) without concurrently setting a way to pay for it other than passing it on to our children in the form of debt.
- Opposes campaign finance reform, while accepting bribes (above) from major corporations; examples: MBNA (later passed bankruptcy legislation for them), and ENRON.  In fact, the CEO of Enron, top GOP campaign donor Lay, left the company with $150 million, while stockholders were left with pennies on the dollar.
- Opposes paying off the 18% of the US budget that is publicly held debt.  Said that "we overpaid our taxes" during the 90's, since we have a surplus.  (Hmmm, if our country is 7 trillion dollars in debt, does that mean we underpaid during the 80's and '00-08?)  Deficit spending  of more than 1 billion dollars more per day than the gov't takes in during his presidency.
- Reduced arsenic standards for drinking water, favoring industry over public saftety (Mar. 21, '01), then needed to be sued in court to enforce even those standards after missing a deadline (June 29th, '01).
-Jeopardizes our national security with attempts to drill for, and extract the oil in ANWR while the price of crude oil is at an historic low (Feb. 22, '02).  Ignored Robert McFarlane, National Security Adviser to President Reagan, Admiral Thomas Moore, Former Chairman, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and James Woolsey, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency, who sent a letter, released by
the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, advocating the development of renewable energy sources; increased efficiency standards for vehicles, appliances and facilities; and an extension and expansion of energy production tax credits, for the purpose of achieving energy independence  (Mar. 22nd, '02).
- Took $135,615 from the Energy Department's solar and renewable energy and energy conservation budgets to pay for the cost of printing its 170-page national energy plan.  Another $1,317.39 was spent for producing 16 "briefing boards" used by administration officials to illustrate and explain the White House energy plan.  $176.40 was taken from the energy conservation program to pay for an Alaska trip by Andrew Lundquist, the White House energy task force's staff director, to promote the energy plan. which calls for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (4-2-02)
- As governor of Texas, signed legislation allowing corporate polluters to avoid reporting emissions of toxic materials.  As president, shifted cost of toxic cleanups from industry to taxpayers (Feb. 02).
- Attempted to get the US Dept. of Agric. to stop testing for salmonella in school lunch beef.
- Favors trading with China, despite numerous human rights violations including suppression of religion.  (Commies are bad unless your uncle Prescott Bush owns a multinational corp. and does business with them).
- Turned his back on carbon dioxide limits first agreed to by his own father at worldwide talks in 1992 (Mar. 13, '01), resulting in our getting kicked off of two United Nations committees and the enmity of our allies around the world.  This after campaigning, "We need to protect our environment... and we must" and after 75 percent of American voters surveyed (Reuters, 7-12-02) want the United States government to require greenhouse gas reductions by power plants and industry.
- Rolled back worker safety regulations designed to prevent repetetive stress injuries in the workplace (Mar 11, '01).
-Tainted the Vice Presidential mansion by accepting $23 million in campaign bribe money (5/31/01).
- Is forcing women in the Third World to have unplanned children by eliminating financial support for United Nations' family planning division thereby destroying even more resources through overpopulation; and causing more immigration to the US as a source of cheap labor. (Only 1% of 1% of family planning funds were used in providing abortions worldwide).
- Misspending defense money on an unproven missile defense system, despite it causing enmity of other countries such as Russia and China and undermining our troops' standard of living, and despite the inability of such a system to help secure our nation against another 9-11 attack.  The initiative violates the Helsinki Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that dates back to 1963, (as well as keeping the superpowers at peace). Missed an opportunity to have Russia dismantle 1,500 nuclear weapons by refusing to abide by the ABM treaty! (July 3, 01)
- Vowed to allow illegal immigrants amnesty (free citizenship) to the United States! Apparently keeping wages low is more important than following our laws, and Mexican illegal immigrants are more important than those from other countries!  (Nixed by Congress in the wake of 9-11).  Then asked for $2 billion in border protection money.  Which is it, are we allowing everyone in to suppress worker wages, or securing our borders against terrorism?
- Chose a vice president who never bothered to register to vote until he became a vice-presidential candidate!  Dick Cheney's Halliburton also did $23.8 million in business with Saddam Hussein so that Iraq could have funds for weapons of mass destruction.  (Oregonian, Tues, Aug. 29, '02)
- Recommends that "any public monument be considered for energy production"  (Mar. 17, '01).  (Presumably this includes Yellowstone National Park for geothermal production, and Yosemite Falls for hydroelectric).
- Hired an Attorney General who believes a woman should have no say in carrying a pregnancy caused by rape or incest; and granted interviews to white supremacist magazines.
-Bush's Attorney General also acted to have data on weapon sales destroyed almost immediately (one day) after the purchase of a handgun!  And he attempted to settle claims against cigarette manufacturers out of court, since the GOP took $8 million in campaign contributions from them.
- Undermines the "establishment clause" (First Amendment) of the US Constitution and religious doctrine by providing funds to churches for social programs (this guy is not a real Methodist)!
.- Took presidential action (60-day cooling off period) in a Northwest airlines strike weeks before a strike had even been called.
- Attempted to cut funds for birth control for our troops and all other federal employees (overturned by Congress, July 27, '01)
- Significantly cut a program aimed at preventing child abuse; cut "Reading is Fundamental (RIF); cut "Women, Infants, and Children" program.  (Mar. 24, '01)
- Hired a Secretary of the EPA (Norton) who made a career out of fighting the removal of lead from paints even though it was found to cause mental retardation in children.
- Attempted to hire as Secretary of Labor, a woman who used an illegal immigrant and opposed unionizing to raise standards of living.
- Attempted to dismantle mercury emissions regulations from coal-burning power plants, and set aside fines on midwest power plants levied by the Clinton who failed after eight years to clean up their acid emissions.
- Under the leadership of Governor George W. Bush, Texas was ranked:
49th in  spending on the environment, 48th in per-capita funding for public health, 47th in delivery of social services, 42nd in  child-support collections, 41st in  per-capita spending on public education and ... 1st in air and water pollution,1st in percentage of poor working parents without insurance,1st in percentage of children without health insurance, 1st in executions  (average 1 every 2 weeks for Bush's 5 years as Governor)
-Hired as deputy administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, a chief lobbyist and political fund-raising coordinator for Monsanto Co., a biochemical and pesticide producer.
- Hired as nominee for the Justice Department's top job enforcing environmental and natural resource laws, responsible for reviewing Clean Air Act enforcement actions against some of the nation's biggest polluters: aging gasoline refineries and coal-fired power plants a Wyoming lawyer and lobbyist for coal mining operations and other industries seeking access to public lands.
- Denied health coverage to thousands of Texas children as governor, because getting the $450 million in federal money would have required he spend the same amount of Texas' tax money, (then campaigned that "no child get left behind").
- Made campaign speeches at a university which bans interracial dating.  (Colin Powell, what were you thinking!)
- Lied about supporting an HMO patient's bill of rights in Texas during the presidential debates, when in fact he vetoed it.
- Lied to a magazine about serving on active duty, even though he was a "FANGer."  In fact, he  didn't show up for his military duty from May 1972 to May 1973, and never faced any consequences for not doing so; in fact, he rec'd an honorable discharge?!
- Apparently wants unlicensed, non-english speaking truckers in unsafe trucks driving in the US.
-Hypocritical Bush/Cheney approach to energy:
-Photo op with hybrid- and fuel cell SUVs as a backdrop for his energy plan, which calls for more drilling of oil; (understand that FCVs use less oil/gasoline (Feb. 02), even though these vehicles won't be on the market for another 3 years.  Denied Toyota and Honda, both of whom have hybrids on the US market now, the opportunity to participate.
-Bush has geothermal and solar heating on his new house in Texas, but said that "alternative energy is not a viable alternative"!
-Attempted to charge the US Navy for the electric bill on the Vice Presidential Mansion (Cheney- July 27, '01)
Cheney in an interview with a MSNBC or CBS(?) in October:
"...if you're one of those people who has solar panels on the roof and drives an electric car, you might as well just vote for Gore/Lieberman..." (... so there are no environmentally-minded republicans)?!
Bush, in an interview with Jay Leno in October @ New York:
"...the electric car isn't practical because you couldn't drive from LA to New York in one..." now aside from how seldom we actually, do that, THE VERY SAME EVENING as the Bush interview, an EVlister was just completing another fun road trip...this time (funny)...from Los Angeles to the Big Apple in his NiMH EV1 along with another EV1 driver (Greg Hanssen) and his EV1. So I guess you really COULD.
Dick Cheney, 3/27/01: "If you're really serious about greenhouse gases, one of the solutions to that problem is to go back and let's take another look at nuclear power, use that to generate electricity without having any adverse consequences."  (Hmmm, wonder how Nevadans living near Yucca Mtn. National Nuclear Waste Repository, or Washingtonians near the Hanford Nuclear Research Facility feel about that).
-Cut $39 million from fed. spending on libraries while his wife is pushing literacy!
-Cut renewable energy research by 50%.
-Broke a campaign promise to invest $100 million in rainforest conservation.
-Reduced by 86% the Community Access Program, which coordinated care for people without health insurance among providers... not big GOP donors, so who gives a damn about them, right?
-Cut funding for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America by $60 million.  (See above)
-Cut $200 million from the Childcare and Development Grants which provides childcare to low income families as they are forced from welfare to work.
-Cut $500 million from the Environmental Protection Agency.
-Overturned workplace ergonomic rules designed to protect workers' health & safety.
-Cut 15.7 million from programs dealing with child abuse and neglect.
-Sought dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed in the US against Japan by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves in WWII.
- Dick Cheney, proudly denouncing US senator Patrick Leahy, (d. Vermont) on June 24, 2004 on the floor of the senate:  "Go f--k yourself."
George W. Bush  March 2002: "F--k Saddam. We're taking him out!"
George W. Bush, July 6: "God speaks through me."

NOTE:  Congratulations if you've made it to the bottom of this page!  The average American adult spends 99 hours per year reading books, and 1,460 hours watching television.  Tell a lie often enough, to enough ignorant people, and clearly that explains why Bu$h came so close (well within 539,898 votes) of winning the 2000 election.  And it explains why he won by 3% in '04.