Sunday, January 11, 2009

From Harper's Magazine: A DAMNING Indictment of George W. Bush (and His Era)

It's from the Harper's Index for January 2009. It requires a subscription to view, but I'd like to give you some of the more shocking highlights:

Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400

Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98

Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02

Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6

Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182

Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100

Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0

Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6

Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120

Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6

Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4

Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4

Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677

Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3

Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500

Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8

Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200

Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897

Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110

Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62

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

Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196

Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890

Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60

Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4

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

Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4

Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 

Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31

Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3

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

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000

Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1

Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37

Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

G. W. Bush will go down as one of the best presidents ever in the United States.

G. W. Bush has changed the world for the better. He is the ONLY president that had the back bone to follow through.

The rest were COWARDS. Especially Clinton who just watched as the United States was attacked on his watch.

What fools you are!

Joseph Miller said...

Anonymous, I don't know what color the sky is on your planet, or what drugs you're taking, or what other alternate reality you're living in but I got a news flash for ya: your boy is crawling out of office for a reason. The Iraq War, which was the product of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld lies and manipulation, has killed or wounded 40,000 Americans, killed 200,000+ Iraqis, and weakened our military preparedness--and it wasn't necessary!! BTW, in case you forgot, 9/11 happened on Bush's watch, after he ignored REPEATED warnings and actually DECREASED emphasis on terror in the early months of 2001. He also sat with his thumb up his ass for SEVEN G-D DAMNED MINUTES after he heard we were struck. He will rank with James Buchanan on the scale of failed presidents.

Changed the world for the better? Is that why the entire international community was hoping Obama would win? The world hates Bush--and I don't blame them.

Addendum:

J, your comment got lost. Please post it again.