Bush's American Nightmare

*** Highlights from Bush's presidential career. ***

501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning
of the war - so far

9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day
since the invasion in March last year

29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a
whole army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or
become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the
Pentagon

0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi
surrender to the Allies in May 1945

100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President *****
Cheney in 2003

0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended
for soldiers killed in Iraq

0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that
the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed

10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the
streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time
record for simultaneous protest

16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war

10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the
beginning of the conflict

80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed

$100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens
by the end of 2003

36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999

92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable
water a year ago

60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable
water today

45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that
Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US

1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of
golden spurs

$127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became
President in 2001

$374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003

1st: This year's deficit is on course to be the biggest in United
States history

$1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases
each day

$23,920: Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of
19 January 2004

1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57
million) was set in 2002

1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per
capita

10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since
beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his
administration, and Bill Clinton 33

$113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign,
setting a record in American electoral history

$200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in
2004

$40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine
Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003

88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on
their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and
dividends taxes

$42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to
enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends
taxes

$116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year
in taxes

9: Number of members of Bush's defence policy board who also sit on
the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defence contractor

$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original
16-person cabinet

$300 million: Amount cut from the federal programme that provides
subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes

2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the
three years of the Bush administration

1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December.
Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000

+6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in
poverty

28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second
longest holiday of any president in US history (Record holder: Richard
Nixon)

13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each
year

1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since
1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during
its complete term in office

9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003

43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002

$1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April
2003 to offset the "burdens" of the US war on Iraq

58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road
building, logging and drilling

200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted
to downgrade or weaken

3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US
in 2002. America is only country that officially allows the execution
of children

1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40
years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at
federal level

1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152)
than any governor in modern US history

1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the
Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held
prisoners of war

700: Number of Muslims from around the world the US has incarcerated
in the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

40%: Percentage of the world's military spending for which the US is
responsible

35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance
after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from
prosecution before the International Criminal Court

130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognised by the United
Nations) with an American military presence

54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately
elected to his post

44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President's economic
growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy

90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way
George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26
September, 2001

53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was
handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004

SOURCE:

The Independent (UK), "George W Bush and the real state of the Union",
front-page, 20 January 2004.
[ http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=482947
]


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