| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
28 Jan 2008 03:27:30 PM |
| Object: |
Georgie Bush and his gang have dropped 99 huge turds on our nation... |
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems.html
January 28, 2008
We’ve Got 99 Problems, But A Human-Animal Hybrid Ain’t One
A Look at the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers Under the Bush
Administration
By MicCheck Radio
As President Bush’s days of power draw to a close, one thing is clear:
We’ve got a lot more problems now than we did seven years ago.
Here are 99 of them, everything from less money to more war and a
planet in crisis.
It’s not a comprehensive list, so we have one question for you:
What’s your problem?
Email us at and join the
conversation.
Check out everyone's responses here.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems_responses.html
Economic Problems
Problem: Staggering National Debt
After declining significantly during the 1990s, the combination of
expensive Bush tax cuts and reckless spending pushed the national debt
from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to $9.2 trillion in 2008. [Department of
Treasury]
Problem: Poverty
There are 4.9 million more Americans living in poverty today than
there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Bankruptcies
A total of 603,139 Americans filed for bankruptcy in the first three
quarters of 2007, a 40.15 percent increase over the same period in
2006. [American Bankruptcy Institute] [Consumer Affairs]
Problem: Foreclosures
In the third quarter of 2007, there were 635,159 foreclosure filings
in the United States. When you crunch the numbers, that’s one
foreclosure filing for every 196 U.S. households. That’s 100 percent
more than in the same period of 2006. [Daily Herald]
Problem: Credit Card Debt
Today, Americans owe more than $813 billion in credit card debt.
Additionally, Americans are falling behind on their credit card
payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults
surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting
warnings of worse to come. [American Progress] [MSNBC]
Problem: High Gas Prices
The average price of a gallon of gas has skyrocketed, from $1.39 a
gallon in January 2000 to $3.07 a gallon in January 2007. [Energy
Information Administration]
Problem: Freezing Families
In 2008, the average U.S. household will have to spend $986 to heat
their homes in winter, up 11 percent from the year before. Millions of
the elderly and poor rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program to heat their homes, yet in 2007, President Bush asked
Congress to slash funding for LIHEAP by $379 million. [Associated
Press]
Problem: Starvation
According to the USDA, the number of hungry families in the United
States rose 26 percent between 2001 and 2006. Worse, the number of
families with the least access to enough food rose 32 percent. That’s
1.3 million American families, not including the homeless. [USDA]
Problem: Sorry, We Meant to Say “Low Food Security”
In 2006 the U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to sugarcoat the
hunger issue by banning the word “hunger” from official documents,
replacing it with the more opaque “very low food security.”
[Washington Post]
Problem: Small Businesses Struggle
Under the Bush administration, corporate giants like Microsoft and
Wal-Mart managed to finagle $12 billion in small business grants from
the federal government. Federal law says, based on population, small
businesses must receive 23 percent of federal contracts. The
government claims at least a quarter of federal contracts are going to
help small business owners (small business = one employing fewer than
100 people), but in reality, it’s more like 5 percent. [Globe and
Mail]
War Problems
Problem: Surge Failure
In January 2007, President Bush announced a plan to send a
20,000-troop “surge” to Iraq to quell the violence and provide
military cover while the Iraqi government took over the ruling of its
own nation. The U.S. military was able to staunch much of the violence
in the country—though at the price of 896 American troops killed in
2007—but the Iraqi government remains in chaos. The Iraq Inspector
General calls government corruption “the second insurgency,”
Parliament rarely is able to get a quorum together to conduct
business, and even the Iraqi Minister of Defense says the government
will be unable to take over its own security until at least 2012.
[Chicago Tribune] [The Guardian]
Problem: Iraq Reconstruction in Shambles
Despite spending $488 billion (so far) on the Iraq war, many of the
U.S.-led reconstruction projects in Iraq, fraught with corruption,
security problems, and inept contractors, “have been abandoned,
delayed or poorly constructed.” Hospitals, prisons, and police
training centers were all abandoned, while the guard-house for the
U.S. Embassy became such a toxic fire hazard, they had to evacuate
everyone who tried to move in. [Boston Globe] [International Herald
Tribune] [National Priorities Project]
Problem: The Taliban’s Resurgence
Today, Al Qaeda along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is back to
pre-9/11 strength. The Taliban increased the number of roadside and
suicide bomb attacks in 2007 to the highest level since the war in
Afghanistan began. The two groups are flush with money from the
Afghanistan opium trade, which “grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching
record levels for the second straight year.” [Mic Check] [USA Today]
Problem: Afghan Women Still Live in Fear
Despite a new constitution that enshrines women’s rights, insufficient
resources devoted to the war in Afghanistan mean “the state cannot
protect women and ensure that they can go about their work safely.” In
some regions controlled by the resurgent Taliban, they “have
restricted possible employment, education and health care
opportunities for women, often resorting to violence to enforce their
edicts.” [Quazen]
Problem: Refusing Iraqi Refugees
The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes quadrupled over 2007,
bringing the totals to “2.3 million internally displaced persons
within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country.”
The United States took in only 7,000. [CNN]
Health Care Problems
Problem: Expensive and Inefficient Health Care
In 2006, America’s health care costs spiraled to an all-time high of
over $2 trillion (or $7,026 per person). In a report by the World
Health Organization, America ranks 37th in health care quality,
despite spending more per person than any other country in the world.
[LA Times] [WHO]
Problem: No Health Insurance
There were 47 million Americans living without health insurance in
2006; that’s 8.6 million more uninsured than there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Government in Bed with Drug Companies
An independent report found that from October 2005 to December 2006,
“Food and Drug Administration officials met 112 times with industry
representatives but only five times with consumer and patient groups.”
According to Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), “the FDA has
essentially become the government affairs office of the pharmaceutical
industry." [USA Today]
Problem: Medicare Cheats Off the Hook
A 2007 audit by the Government Accountability Office showed private
insurance companies pocketed $59 million in overpayments from Medicare
that instead should have gone to better benefits and lower co-payments
or lower premiums for older Americans. At the same time, the White
House a) refused to audit these companies and b) refused to try to
recover the missing money. [NY Times]
Problem: Seniors Can’t Afford Their Meds
In April 2007, Bush refused to sign a Senate bill that would have
allowed Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices from
pharmaceutical companies. [Reuters]
Problem: Blocked Stem Cell Research
In 2001, Bush placed a federal ban on future funding of embryonic stem
cell research, which holds the promise of developing cures for
Parkinson’s, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other degenerative
diseases. In 2006, he used his veto pen for the first time to kill a
bill expanding funding for stem cell research. In 2007, he again
vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. [Time] [MSNBC] [Time]
Problem: Cheating the Disabled
Social Security’s draconian standards keep even the “severely
disabled” from receiving Social Security disability benefits. The
source of the problem? A poorly managed agency where there are
“doctors making decisions outside their specialties, and inexperienced
examiners under pressure to keep costs down.” [CBS]
Problem: Manipulating Access to Health Info
In 2002, the National Cancer Institute posted on their Web site the
scientific conclusion that there was no link between abortion and
breast cancer. The White House removed the analysis and replaced it
with a statement which “erroneously suggested that whether abortion
caused breast cancer was an open question with studies of equal weight
supporting both sides.” [House Government Oversight]
Planet Problems
Problem: Blocking International Efforts
At the beginning of his presidency, Bush blocked the Kyoto Protocol, a
landmark global agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions
signed by 174 other nations. Then, at the 2007 G8 summit, U.S.
negotiators attempted to water down the language of a different
international climate change declaration. [USA Today] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Sticking Poor Countries with the Bill
Countless reports have said that poor, developing nations will bear
the brunt—think: drought, famine, floods, and disease—of climate
change. Yet, at the recent climate change talks in Bali, U.S.
delegates tried to block a proposal that would require rich nations to
do more to help poor nations fight global warming. [Der Spiegel]
Problem: Killing Us with Carbon Emissions
After President Bush pledged a cap on carbon emissions in 2000,
President Cheney filled the White House Committee on Environmental
Quality with industry representatives. Following their appointment,
the group released a report saying “the current state of scientific
knowledge about causes of and solutions to global warming is
inconclusive” and no caps were needed. [Rolling Stone]
Problem: Killing the Polar Bears
In January of 2008, the Bush administration missed a deadline
requiring a final decision on whether to give polar bears—often the
poster children of global warming—federal protection under the
Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Geological Survey’s September report,
meanwhile, found that melting Arctic sea ice could wipe out polar
bears in Alaska and kill off two-thirds of the species’ global
population. [ABC]
Problem: Destruction of the Alaskan Wilderness
Also in January of 2008, the federal government decided to open up
nearly 46,000 square miles off Alaska’s northwest coast to petroleum
leases, available in February. Goodbye wildlife, hello oil spills.
[AP]
Problem: The EPA vs. California
At the end of 2007, head of the EPA Stephen Johnson denied
California’s quest for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to allow the
state and up to 17 others to set stricter regulations on automobile
pollution. Senate investigators later found EPA scientists and career
staffers fought for the EPA to grant California’s waiver. [Kansas City
Star] [AP]
Problem: Melting the Arctic Ice
Thanks to global warming, the Arctic Sea ice has decreased nearly 20
percent in the past 20 years. [USA Today]
Racial Problems
Problem: Ignoring Civil Rights
The Bush administration changed the civil rights mission of the
Justice Department “by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases
while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional
area of race.” [NY Times]
Problem: Affirmative Action Under Siege
Bush has consistently attacked affirmative action policies in higher
education, including suing the University of Michigan for taking race
into account in its admissions process. [CNN]
Problem: Rolling Back Brown v. Board of Education
A half century ago, with the landmark case Brown v. Board of
Education, the Supreme Court ordered the nation’s schools to
desegregate. In 2007, with two of President Bush’s Court appointees in
the 5-4 majority, the Roberts Court rolled back desegregation, ruling
local officials “cannot take modest steps to bring public school
students of different races together.” [NY Times]
Problem: African Americans Without Health Care
Since 2000, the percent of African Americans without health insurance
has increased from 18.5 percent to 20.5 percent. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Hispanics Without Health Care
In 2006, there were 15.3 million uninsured Hispanics in the United
States, an estimated 3.4 million of whom are children. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Disparities in Cancer Treatment
The American Cancer Society finds that, while cancer deaths may be
dropping, that statistic does not apply to African Americans. Experts
cite inadequate access to quality health care for minorities as one of
the main reasons for the tragedy. [Reuters]
Problem: Minorities and Mortgages
Experts are calling the current economic crisis “the greatest loss of
wealth for communities and individuals of color in modern U.S.
history.” Black and Hispanic homeowners could lose up to $256 billion
in the subprime mortgage crisis. [Boston Herald]
Problem: Blocking Immigrants Seeking Citizenship
At the onset of 2007, the Bush administration jacked up immigration
fees by more than 80 percent, shooting up the cost of applying for
citizenship to $595. Also, today more than 1.4 million legal permanent
residents are facing an 18-month delay in their citizenship
applications due to administrative backlogs. [Washington Post]
Regulation Problems
Problem: Toxic Lack of Prosecution of Polluters
Under the current administration, the EPA sharply decreased the
prosecution of criminal cases against polluters. New prosecutions, new
investigations, and total convictions all plummeted by a third.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Arsenic in Our Drinking Water
In April 2007, Bush waited until Congress went into recess to appoint
Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Dudley, “who made no secret of her hostility toward government
regulation,” was a corporate insider who said the EPA “should not
value the lives of older people as highly as the lives of younger
people when calculating the effect of arsenic in drinking water.” [NY
Times] [LA Times]
Problem: Toxic, Mutating Weed Killer in the Water
The White House has fought against regulating the weed killer
atrizine, even though the chemical has seeped into U.S. water supplies
and created a new mutant breed of hermaphroditic frog. They have no
idea what the effect the chemical has on humans besides the higher
prostate cancer rate among those men who work around the chemical.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Air at Ground Zero
In September 2001, just days after the attacks on the World Trade
Center, the White House pressured the EPA to delete warnings from a
press release about air quality at Ground Zero and falsely reassure
the public that the air was safe to breathe. Later studies show
roughly 70 percent of workers from Ground Zero now suffer from
respiratory illnesses. [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Toxic Air on the Highways
In November 2007, a federal appeals court threw out the federal
government’s fuel efficiency standards for trucks because they were a)
too weak and b) broke the law, as they “didn’t properly assess the
risk to the environment and failed to include heavier SUVs and trucks,
among several other deficiencies the court found.” [MSNBC]
Problem: Testing Pesticides on Kids
The EPA used camcorders to bribe parents into offering up their
toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on
children. The study was paid for in part by the chemical industry. [SF
Chronicle] [Washington Post]
Military Problems
Problem: A Hobbled National Guard
A congressional report found that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
worn down the National Guard so much that almost 90 percent of Army
National Guard Units are “not ready ... jeopardizing the Guard's
ability to respond to crises at home and abroad.” [Washington Post]
Problem: A Hobbled Marine Corps
In 2007, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway,
said the strain of the Iraq war was forcing Marines to skip vital
combat training that made up the traditional backbone of the Corps.
[AP]
Problem: A Hobbled Army
After five long years in Iraq, General George Casey says the Army is
“out of balance” after the military strategy in Iraq “sucked all of
the flexibility out of the system.” He also said the Army is “so
consumed by current operations that we can't do the things we need to
do to prepare ourselves organizationally or institutionally.” [Army
News] [WSJ]
Problem: Squalid Conditions at Vet Hospitals
In 2007, a Washington Post expose revealed squalid conditions at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including “mouse droppings, belly-up
cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses” in facilities for
injured soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A
separate investigation revealed a similar pattern of neglect and
“depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases
around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in
New Jersey.” [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Problem: Habeas Corpus Denied
Article One, Section Nine of the United States Constitution states the
basic human right of habeas corpus can not be suspended except for
cases “of rebellion or invasion.” In September 2006, at President
Bush’s urging, the Republican-led Congress passed the Military
Commissions Act, which stripped terror detainees of this basic right.
Thirty-three former U.S. diplomats warned “to deny habeas corpus to
our detainees can be seen as prescription for how the captured members
of our own military, diplomatic and NGO personnel stationed abroad may
be treated.” [LA Times]
Problem: Homeless Veterans
A 2007 study from the National Alliance to End Homelessness found
there are nearly 200,000 homeless veterans on America’s streets. Many
fought in the Vietnam War, but the Veterans’ Association also found an
increasing number of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were
using VA homeless shelters. [Washington Post]
Problem: Extended Tours in Iraq
In April of 2007, the Bush administration announced that it was
extending troop tours from 12 months to 15 months. During these tours,
the troops are only allowed a single two-week break to return to their
families. [Military.com]
Problem: Veteran Suicides
Fact: Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than
people with no military service. Tragedy: A third of returning
soldiers seek mental health treatment after returning from combat, but
they are welcomed home with military health insurance (TriCare) whose
mental health coverage is “hindered by fragmented rules and policies,
inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement.” [Reuters] [USA
Today]
Torture Problems
Problem: White House Enables Torture
In January 2002, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales agreed with
a memo drafted by the Justice Department’s John C. Yoo, suggesting
“Mr. Bush should declare the Taliban and Al Qaeda outside the coverage
of the Geneva Conventions.” In August 2002, Gonzales signed off on a
Justice Department memo stating extreme interrogation techniques on
terror suspects abroad “may be necessary,” and dramatically narrows
the definition of “torture” to actions “equivalent in intensity to the
pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure,
impairment of bodily function, or even death.” [NY Times] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Defense Department Enables Torture
In November 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved
interrogation techniques for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. They
included “‘removal of clothing’ and ‘inducing stress by use of
detainee’s fears (e.g. dogs)’” and “stress positions.” [USA Today]
Problem: The Horrors at Abu Ghraib
In August 2003, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was sent from the prison at
Guantanamo Bay to the prison at Abu Ghraib to help “get more
information out of Iraqi prisoners.” Once there, he encouraged harsh
interrogation methods, including the “use of dogs.” Later, once
reports of gross abuse at the prison surfaced, Major General Antonio
Mario Taguba, in his classified report, “blames Miller’s policies.”
Miller then won the “Distinguished Service Medal.” No officers have
ever been convicted of a crime concerning the atrocities. [Washington
Post] [MSNBC] [Army News]] [USA Today]
Problem: Guantanamo Bay
Since opening its doors in 2004, the U.S. detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay has held—and presumably tortured—more than 500
detainees. The lack of basic legal rights—such as habeas corpus—at
Gitmo has been one of the White House’s biggest scandals, and has
helped to ruin the U.S. reputation around the world. According to
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen: “More than anything
else it’s been the image—how Gitmo has become around the world, in
terms of representing the United States. ... I believe that from the
standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty
damaging.”[American Progress] [USA Today] [AP]
Problem: Kidnappings and Secret Prisons
The United States is “secretly transferring terror suspects to
locations where they have faced torture and other ill-treatment,
enforced disappearances and indefinite detention without charge.” A
2004 Washington Post report uncovered “an elaborate CIA and military
infrastructure whose purpose is to hold suspected terrorists or
insurgents for interrogation and safekeeping while avoiding U.S. or
international court systems.” [Amnesty International] [Washington
Post]
Problem: The CIA Torture Tapes
In 2005, lawyers for the CIA gave the green light for the agency to
trash hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting the
interrogation—and torture—of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, despite a
previous court order requiring the government to keep all materials
“regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees” at
Guant·namo. The tapes allegedly included waterboarding, a practice the
U.S. military has prosecuted as torture since the Spanish American
war. [NY Times] [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Privacy Problems
Problem: Government Tapping Our Phones
Under the Bush White House, the National Security Agency illegally
intercepted phone calls of countless Americans without first obtaining
court warrants—a direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. Last year, the White House strong-armed a new
warrantless wire-tapping bill through Congress that gave Bush even
more power—an act that Speaker Pelosi said did “violence to the
Constitution.” [Washington Post]
Problem: Government Reading Our Mail, Checking Our Banks
President Bush gave himself the power to read our mail: In 2006,
during the Christmas recess, President Bush quietly attached a signing
statement to a postal reform bill giving the White House the authority
to open U.S. mail without a warrant. The CIA and Pentagon also gave
themselves the power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds
of Americans. [Washington Post] [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Losing the Right to Protest
A Defense Department database, known as the Talon program, was
designed to catalogue domestic threats to the Pentagon but included
data on anti-war demonstrators and peaceful protestors. [Washington
Post]
Power Grabbing Problems
Problem: A Presidency Above the Law
Bush has used signing statements—caveats to bills that presidents tack
on when they sign them into law—to amend more than 1,100 sections of
legislation. (That’s more than all other presidents combined.) Some of
the more controversial signing statements: President Bush gave himself
the power to bypass a law requiring the Justice Department to report
to Congress about how the FBI uses the Patriot Act to search American
homes. In another instance, President Bush gave himself the power to
waive the congressional ban on torture. [Boston Globe]
Problem: A Vice Presidency Above the Law
In June 2007, Vice President ***** Cheney announced he did not have to
comply with the law requiring members of the executive branch to
report to the National Archives on information his office has
classified because, according to the vice president, he was not
actually part of the executive branch of the government. [Seattle P-I]
Problem: White House Quest for Secrecy
In 2000, the federal government spent $452,807 on contracts for paper
shredding services. By 2006, that number skyrocketed to $2.9 million.
And what they couldn’t shred, they stonewalled. Since 1998, the number
of exemptions to the Freedom Of Information Act cited to support the
withholding of information increased 83 percent. Two out of five FOIA
requests weren’t even processed by 2006. [USA Spending] [Coalition of
Journalists for Open Government]
Problem: Politicized the Office of U.S. Attorneys
After the 2004 presidential election, the Bush administration canned
eight U.S. attorneys who wouldn’t play partisan ball even though many
of them were working on high-profile corruption cases, and replaced
them with political operatives. [NY Times]
Problem: Politicized Executive Branch
At the onset of 2006, GAO queen bee Lurita Doan threw the Hatch Act to
the wind and held a video conference with a Karl Rove deputy to
discuss ways to help Republican candidates. During the January 2006
meeting, Doan apparently asked J. Scott Jennings, the White House
deputy political director how they “could help our candidates in the
next elections.” Suggestions included “targeting public events, such
as the opening of federal facilities around the country.” [Washington
Post]
Problem: Politicized Scientists
In 2004, White House official Philip Cooney, chief of staff of its
Council on Environmental Quality, doctored a report on global warming
to downplay scientific warnings. (He now works for Exxon.) In 2006,
NASA scientist James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for
Space Studies, accused the White House of preventing his research from
reaching the public. In October 2007, the administration altered a
draft of congressional testimony to be given by Dr. Julie Gerberding,
director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the
negative health implications of climate change. According to a CDC
source, her testimony was “eviscerated.” [AP] [NY Times] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Pre-War Deception
In the two years after 9/11, Bush and senior administration officials
made 935 false statements alleging Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction and attempting to connect Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. A
non-partisan study by the Center for Public Integrity said they
represented “an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized
public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under
decidedly false pretenses.” [Center for Public Integrity]
Problem: Outed Covert CIA Agent
Bush administration officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, an
undercover CIA agent, in order to discredit the work of her husband,
Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, after Wilson exposed the White House was
bending the truth on Saddam’s quest for WMD. [NY Times]
Problem: Fake News
The Department of Health and Human Services got caught producing fake
“news” segments on the prescription drug benefit that were “sent to TV
stations, along with government-prepared scripts for news anchors to
read.” In 2005, the Department of Education was discovered paying
conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to write columns promoting
No Child Left Behind. In October 2007, the Department of Homeland
Security staged a fake press conference (complete with staffers posing
as reporters) to offer a glowing report of how well they handled the
California wildfires. [USA Today] [San Francisco Chronicle]
Problem: Criminals in the White House
Bush’s top procurement official and former chief of staff of the
General Services Administration, David Safavian, pleaded guilty in
2006 to lying about his shady dealings with Jack Abramoff, a former
Republican lobbyist who showered Washington officials with gifts and
dinners in exchange for information and influence. [MSNBC] [Washington
Post]
Kid Problems
Problem: Kids in Poverty
There are 1.2 million more kids living in poverty today than in 2000.
[EPI]
Problem: Kids Without Health Insurance
There are 8.7 million kids in the United States without health
insurance (that’s 11.7 percent of all American children.) In 2007,
President Bush vetoed SCHIP legislation not once but twice, unwilling
to raise taxes on the price of a pack of smokes to add more kids to
the program. The president finally signed the legislation to extend
the existing program at the end of December 2007, but the new,
watered-down bill left 9 million uninsured children without coverage.
[Children’s Defense Fund]
Problem: Kids Dying in the South
After years of decline, infant mortality rose sharply in Mississippi
and across the south, especially among African-American families. [NY
Times]
Problem: Kids with Weight Problems
In 2007, Bush asked Congress to eliminate the preventive health
services block grant, “which provided $99 million a year to help
states prevent obesity and other chronic conditions.” [NY Times]
Problem: Kids with Brain Damage
In 2004, White House staffers were caught having “deleted or modified
information on mercury” from an EPA report to downplay the toxic
health effects emissions have on the brains of babies and unborn
fetuses. [NY Times]
Problem: Kids Having Kids
Bush spent over $1 billion on the federal financing of
“abstinence-only” education which leaves young people without vital
sexual health information and has never been shown to “prevent
unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases.” In 2007, new
analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that, for
the first time in 14 years, the teen birth rate went up, to 3 percent
[CDC] [San Francisco Chronicle]
Problem: Kids Playing with Poisoned Toys
Last year, in the wake of date-rape-drug-filled AquaDots and Elmo
dolls laced with lead, the White House-appointee head of the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord, sided with manufacturers and
fought against measures in the Senate that would require the toy
industry to tell consumers which toys were under investigation or to
increase penalties against companies that knowingly violated toy
safety laws.[Consumer Affairs]
Problem: Kids on Drugs
The GAO reports that a “$1.4 billion anti-drug advertising campaign
conducted by the U.S. government since 1998 doesn’t appear to have
helped reduce drug use and instead might have convinced some youths
that taking illegal drugs is normal.” Soon after, the White House
asked for $120 million more to fund it. [USA Today] [Mic Check]
Gay Rights Problems
Problem: Anti-Gay Surgeon General Nominee
In June 2007, President Bush nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. to
become U.S. Surgeon General. Holsinger’s resume includes founding a
church to “cure” homosexuals, penning an infamous paper about the
“pathophysiology of male homosexuality” and voting on the United
Methodist Church council to allow ministers to keep gay men and
lesbians out of their churches. [Washington Post]
Problem: Denying Marriage Equality
In every year of the 109th Congress, President Bush urged lawmakers to
pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage. (Every year, public opinion
wins out and the bill fails.) [MSNBC]
Problem: Perpetuating Workplace Discrimination
In 2007, the House of Representatives passed the landmark Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (or ENDA) bill, which seeks to eliminate sexual
orientation-based discrimination in the workplace. This year, the
Senate is looking to pass the same bill. The White House, though, has
boasted that it’ll veto any version of the bill that crosses its desk.
[Washington Blade]
Homeland Security Problems
Problem: Unsafe Trains
President Bush did not act to secure the “thousands of tons of highly
toxic chlorine gas [that] travel by rail in the United States.” These
cans, if ruptured, could “release a dense, lethal plume for miles
downwind, potentially killing or injuring thousands of people.”
[American Progress]
Problem: Unsafe Seaports
A study by the Department of Homeland Security found that “serious
lapses by private companies at foreign and American ports, aboard
ships, and on trucks and trains would enable ... materials or weapons
of mass destruction to be introduced.” [AP]
Problem: Unsafe Airports
Airline security is consistently the top complaint of air travelers
.... but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good. In airport tests, the
TSA consistently fails to detect test bombs. In one example,
“screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the
starting points for the Sept. 11 hijackers, failed 20 of 22 security
tests conducted by undercover U.S. agents.” [Seattle Times] [AP]
Problem: An Unmanageable “No-fly List”
Before 9/11, the list of people barred from plane travel in the United
States topped out at 16 people. Now, it has over 44,000 names on it,
plus an additional 75,000 people who should be pulled over for extra
screening. On the list? Dead people, 14 of the deceased 9/11
hijackers, toddlers, a member of the U.S. Senate, and thousands of
common names like “Gary Smith, John Williams or Robert Johnson.” [CBS]
Disaster Problems
Problem: Ignoring Katrina
Although President Bush was notified that the levees had been breached
on August 29, 2005 (the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall) it wasn’t
until aides made him watch a DVD of news reports on September 2 that
the devastation actually “sank in.” New Orleans victims of the
hurricane still were trapped in the dirty, crime-ridden Superdome
until September 3. [AP] [Fox News] [Newsweek] [AP]
Problem: Toxic FEMA Trailers
Although they were warned more than a year before the problem became
public, FEMA purposely ignored reports that the trailers they set up
for families affected by Hurricane Katrina were filled with toxic,
carcinogenic formaldehyde gas. More than 75,000 families lived in
these trailers. [Washington Post]
Problem: Unqualified Disaster Officials
Five out of eight top FEMA officials came to their posts with no
crisis management experience. Former FEMA head Michael Brown,
personally appointed by Bush, was formerly head of the International
Arabian Horse Association with a seriously padded resume. [Washington
Post] [Time Magazine]
Problem: A Strained National Guard
The White House, unwilling to spend the money or PR to beef up the
military before going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead leaned
heavily on the National Guard and Army Reserves. As a result of this
unprecedented pressure on these domestic forces, governors across the
country are saying they’ve been short of both manpower and equipment
in handling massive disasters and emergencies like the California
wildfires, the Kansas floods and hurricane recovery. [ABC]
Diplomatic Problems
Problem: The World Doesn’t Like Us
In 2007, a Pew research poll showed that the United States was even
less popular with our allies now than we were five years ago. In 2002,
Britain had a 75 percent favorable rating of the United States. A year
ago, it sank to 51 percent. Germany had a 60 percent favorable view of
the United States in 2002; in 2007, it was 30 percent. [Pew]
Problem: Hurting Our Diplomatic Corps
President Bush slashed 10 percent of diplomatic posts around the
world; in the meantime, Condoleezza Rice warned foreign service agents
that they would be forced to “volunteer” in Iraq if the 250 embassy
jobs weren’t filled with actual volunteers. The diplomats aren’t
happy; only 18 percent of them say that Rice is doing a good job
protecting their profession. [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Problem: Inflating the Iranian Threat
In public, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney ratcheted up
talk about the nuclear threat from Iran despite private intelligence
reports that showed Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in
2003. [Wall Street Journal]
Problem: Bungled Diplomacy with North Korea
In October 2006, Bush failed to prevent North Korea from becoming the
first country since 1998 to conduct a nuclear test. Leading up to the
big bang, Bush allowed North Korea to acquire enough plutonium for 4
to 13 weapons, stoked North Korea’s ire by naming the country part of
the “Axis of Evil,” and botched diplomacy efforts, having to call back
former U.N.-ambassador John Bolton for jeopardizing crucial talks by
insulting North Korea just days before. [ISIS Study; FOX News; CNN]
Problem: Bringing Back Nukes
In January 2008, former State Department official Linda Gallini told
reporters the Bush White House “gutted” nuclear counter-proliferation
initiatives by pushing out career diplomats at the State Department
and replacing them with inexperienced, ideological political
appointees. The Pentagon also fought to create a new generation of
American nuclear weapons, including “bunker busters” and “mini-nukes.”
[UPI] [BBC]
Education Problems
Problem: Poor Kids Need a Head Start
This administration cut funds for Head Start, the national program
dedicated to getting low-income kids ready for school, 11 percent
since 2002. In 2007 alone, the amount cut was equal to the amount
needed to include 26,500 kids. [Center On Budget And Policy
Priorities]
Problem: College Students Get Overcharged
Due to an uncorrected computer error, the Department of Education
caused “more than 3 million student loan borrowers to be billed
hundreds of millions of dollars more than they owed.” [Washington
Post]
Problem: Student Loans Slashed
President Bush attempted to get rid of the Perkins Loan program, a
program which offers low-interest loans to needy students, and froze
money for Pell Grants at a maximum of only $4,050 per student for six
consecutive years. [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Student Debt Skyrockets
Total student debt in the United States is more than $471 billion—and
that’s not including private loans. What’s more, the average student
today graduates with debt twice that of graduates a decade ago—and
enters a job market where the average job pays them less than it would
have in 2000. [Student Debt Alert] [Economic Policy Institute]
What’s your problem?
____________________________________________________
The Five Who Had a Good Ride
Of course not everyone had a tough time over the past seven years.
Here are the five who came through their Bush Years relatively
footloose and problem-free.
Big Oil
Even as oil companies raked in record profits, the White House fought
to make sure they kept $7.6 billion in tax subsidies and the legal
loophole that lets them dodge paying $10.7 billion in royalties from
oil found in public U.S. lands in the Gulf of Mexico. IHT IHT
Contractor Mercenaries
President Bush has thrown billions of dollars—and undue faith—behind
corrupt contractor mercenaries to fight his wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And like members of his administration, the president
lets these contractors act outside the law. Take Blackwater: top State
Department officials knew about incidents of the contractor killing
innocent civilians in Iraq for more than two years—and it turned a
blind eye. ABC
The Filthy Rich
Welcome to the new Gilded Age. From 2003 to 2005, the increase in
income from the richest one percent of Americans was higher than the
total income of the poorest 20 percent. How’d we get this way? Bush’s
tax cuts for the uber-wealthy.NY Times
Cronies and Bushies
From the Department of Justice to FEMA, from the Coalitional
Provisional Authority to the FDA, Bush has packed his administration
with friends and partisans, prizing loyalty over experience and
ideology over competence. Washington Post Washington Post CNN NY Times
People Who Fear Human-Animal Hybrids
President Bush was able to keep one promise from his previous State of
the Union addresses. In 2006, he pledged to fight the creation of
“human-animal hybrids,” sparking visions of fearsome ManBeasts
terrorizing the nation. As of today, we’ve spotted no
half-man/half-animal creatures. Breaking News: We may have given the
president credit too soon—just this week, we’ve discovered, British
scientists created a ManCow clone. State Of The Union BBC
Harry
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| User: "Bob Eld" |
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| Title: Re: Georgie Bush and his gang have dropped 99 huge turds on our nation... |
28 Jan 2008 03:49:14 PM |
|
|
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:16isp3158ubts5jpeapk1oc0jcgmmmf97h@4ax.com...
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems.html
January 28, 2008
We've Got 99 Problems, But A Human-Animal Hybrid Ain't One
A Look at the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers Under the Bush
Administration
By MicCheck Radio
As President Bush's days of power draw to a close, one thing is clear:
We've got a lot more problems now than we did seven years ago.
Here are 99 of them, everything from less money to more war and a
planet in crisis.
It's not a comprehensive list, so we have one question for you:
What's your problem?
Email us at and join the
conversation.
Check out everyone's responses here.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems_responses.html
Economic Problems
Problem: Staggering National Debt
After declining significantly during the 1990s, the combination of
expensive Bush tax cuts and reckless spending pushed the national debt
from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to $9.2 trillion in 2008. [Department of
Treasury]
Problem: Poverty
There are 4.9 million more Americans living in poverty today than
there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Bankruptcies
A total of 603,139 Americans filed for bankruptcy in the first three
quarters of 2007, a 40.15 percent increase over the same period in
2006. [American Bankruptcy Institute] [Consumer Affairs]
Problem: Foreclosures
In the third quarter of 2007, there were 635,159 foreclosure filings
in the United States. When you crunch the numbers, that's one
foreclosure filing for every 196 U.S. households. That's 100 percent
more than in the same period of 2006. [Daily Herald]
Problem: Credit Card Debt
Today, Americans owe more than $813 billion in credit card debt.
Additionally, Americans are falling behind on their credit card
payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults
surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting
warnings of worse to come. [American Progress] [MSNBC]
Problem: High Gas Prices
The average price of a gallon of gas has skyrocketed, from $1.39 a
gallon in January 2000 to $3.07 a gallon in January 2007. [Energy
Information Administration]
Problem: Freezing Families
In 2008, the average U.S. household will have to spend $986 to heat
their homes in winter, up 11 percent from the year before. Millions of
the elderly and poor rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program to heat their homes, yet in 2007, President Bush asked
Congress to slash funding for LIHEAP by $379 million. [Associated
Press]
Problem: Starvation
According to the USDA, the number of hungry families in the United
States rose 26 percent between 2001 and 2006. Worse, the number of
families with the least access to enough food rose 32 percent. That's
1.3 million American families, not including the homeless. [USDA]
Problem: Sorry, We Meant to Say "Low Food Security"
In 2006 the U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to sugarcoat the
hunger issue by banning the word "hunger" from official documents,
replacing it with the more opaque "very low food security."
[Washington Post]
Problem: Small Businesses Struggle
Under the Bush administration, corporate giants like Microsoft and
Wal-Mart managed to finagle $12 billion in small business grants from
the federal government. Federal law says, based on population, small
businesses must receive 23 percent of federal contracts. The
government claims at least a quarter of federal contracts are going to
help small business owners (small business = one employing fewer than
100 people), but in reality, it's more like 5 percent. [Globe and
Mail]
War Problems
Problem: Surge Failure
In January 2007, President Bush announced a plan to send a
20,000-troop "surge" to Iraq to quell the violence and provide
military cover while the Iraqi government took over the ruling of its
own nation. The U.S. military was able to staunch much of the violence
in the country-though at the price of 896 American troops killed in
2007-but the Iraqi government remains in chaos. The Iraq Inspector
General calls government corruption "the second insurgency,"
Parliament rarely is able to get a quorum together to conduct
business, and even the Iraqi Minister of Defense says the government
will be unable to take over its own security until at least 2012.
[Chicago Tribune] [The Guardian]
Problem: Iraq Reconstruction in Shambles
Despite spending $488 billion (so far) on the Iraq war, many of the
U.S.-led reconstruction projects in Iraq, fraught with corruption,
security problems, and inept contractors, "have been abandoned,
delayed or poorly constructed." Hospitals, prisons, and police
training centers were all abandoned, while the guard-house for the
U.S. Embassy became such a toxic fire hazard, they had to evacuate
everyone who tried to move in. [Boston Globe] [International Herald
Tribune] [National Priorities Project]
Problem: The Taliban's Resurgence
Today, Al Qaeda along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is back to
pre-9/11 strength. The Taliban increased the number of roadside and
suicide bomb attacks in 2007 to the highest level since the war in
Afghanistan began. The two groups are flush with money from the
Afghanistan opium trade, which "grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching
record levels for the second straight year." [Mic Check] [USA Today]
Problem: Afghan Women Still Live in Fear
Despite a new constitution that enshrines women's rights, insufficient
resources devoted to the war in Afghanistan mean "the state cannot
protect women and ensure that they can go about their work safely." In
some regions controlled by the resurgent Taliban, they "have
restricted possible employment, education and health care
opportunities for women, often resorting to violence to enforce their
edicts." [Quazen]
Problem: Refusing Iraqi Refugees
The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes quadrupled over 2007,
bringing the totals to "2.3 million internally displaced persons
within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country."
The United States took in only 7,000. [CNN]
Health Care Problems
Problem: Expensive and Inefficient Health Care
In 2006, America's health care costs spiraled to an all-time high of
over $2 trillion (or $7,026 per person). In a report by the World
Health Organization, America ranks 37th in health care quality,
despite spending more per person than any other country in the world.
[LA Times] [WHO]
Problem: No Health Insurance
There were 47 million Americans living without health insurance in
2006; that's 8.6 million more uninsured than there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Government in Bed with Drug Companies
An independent report found that from October 2005 to December 2006,
"Food and Drug Administration officials met 112 times with industry
representatives but only five times with consumer and patient groups."
According to Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), "the FDA has
essentially become the government affairs office of the pharmaceutical
industry." [USA Today]
Problem: Medicare Cheats Off the Hook
A 2007 audit by the Government Accountability Office showed private
insurance companies pocketed $59 million in overpayments from Medicare
that instead should have gone to better benefits and lower co-payments
or lower premiums for older Americans. At the same time, the White
House a) refused to audit these companies and b) refused to try to
recover the missing money. [NY Times]
Problem: Seniors Can't Afford Their Meds
In April 2007, Bush refused to sign a Senate bill that would have
allowed Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices from
pharmaceutical companies. [Reuters]
Problem: Blocked Stem Cell Research
In 2001, Bush placed a federal ban on future funding of embryonic stem
cell research, which holds the promise of developing cures for
Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other degenerative
diseases. In 2006, he used his veto pen for the first time to kill a
bill expanding funding for stem cell research. In 2007, he again
vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. [Time] [MSNBC] [Time]
Problem: Cheating the Disabled
Social Security's draconian standards keep even the "severely
disabled" from receiving Social Security disability benefits. The
source of the problem? A poorly managed agency where there are
"doctors making decisions outside their specialties, and inexperienced
examiners under pressure to keep costs down." [CBS]
Problem: Manipulating Access to Health Info
In 2002, the National Cancer Institute posted on their Web site the
scientific conclusion that there was no link between abortion and
breast cancer. The White House removed the analysis and replaced it
with a statement which "erroneously suggested that whether abortion
caused breast cancer was an open question with studies of equal weight
supporting both sides." [House Government Oversight]
Planet Problems
Problem: Blocking International Efforts
At the beginning of his presidency, Bush blocked the Kyoto Protocol, a
landmark global agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions
signed by 174 other nations. Then, at the 2007 G8 summit, U.S.
negotiators attempted to water down the language of a different
international climate change declaration. [USA Today] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Sticking Poor Countries with the Bill
Countless reports have said that poor, developing nations will bear
the brunt-think: drought, famine, floods, and disease-of climate
change. Yet, at the recent climate change talks in Bali, U.S.
delegates tried to block a proposal that would require rich nations to
do more to help poor nations fight global warming. [Der Spiegel]
Problem: Killing Us with Carbon Emissions
After President Bush pledged a cap on carbon emissions in 2000,
President Cheney filled the White House Committee on Environmental
Quality with industry representatives. Following their appointment,
the group released a report saying "the current state of scientific
knowledge about causes of and solutions to global warming is
inconclusive" and no caps were needed. [Rolling Stone]
Problem: Killing the Polar Bears
In January of 2008, the Bush administration missed a deadline
requiring a final decision on whether to give polar bears-often the
poster children of global warming-federal protection under the
Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Geological Survey's September report,
meanwhile, found that melting Arctic sea ice could wipe out polar
bears in Alaska and kill off two-thirds of the species' global
population. [ABC]
Problem: Destruction of the Alaskan Wilderness
Also in January of 2008, the federal government decided to open up
nearly 46,000 square miles off Alaska's northwest coast to petroleum
leases, available in February. Goodbye wildlife, hello oil spills.
[AP]
Problem: The EPA vs. California
At the end of 2007, head of the EPA Stephen Johnson denied
California's quest for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to allow the
state and up to 17 others to set stricter regulations on automobile
pollution. Senate investigators later found EPA scientists and career
staffers fought for the EPA to grant California's waiver. [Kansas City
Star] [AP]
Problem: Melting the Arctic Ice
Thanks to global warming, the Arctic Sea ice has decreased nearly 20
percent in the past 20 years. [USA Today]
Racial Problems
Problem: Ignoring Civil Rights
The Bush administration changed the civil rights mission of the
Justice Department "by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases
while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional
area of race." [NY Times]
Problem: Affirmative Action Under Siege
Bush has consistently attacked affirmative action policies in higher
education, including suing the University of Michigan for taking race
into account in its admissions process. [CNN]
Problem: Rolling Back Brown v. Board of Education
A half century ago, with the landmark case Brown v. Board of
Education, the Supreme Court ordered the nation's schools to
desegregate. In 2007, with two of President Bush's Court appointees in
the 5-4 majority, the Roberts Court rolled back desegregation, ruling
local officials "cannot take modest steps to bring public school
students of different races together." [NY Times]
Problem: African Americans Without Health Care
Since 2000, the percent of African Americans without health insurance
has increased from 18.5 percent to 20.5 percent. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Hispanics Without Health Care
In 2006, there were 15.3 million uninsured Hispanics in the United
States, an estimated 3.4 million of whom are children. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Disparities in Cancer Treatment
The American Cancer Society finds that, while cancer deaths may be
dropping, that statistic does not apply to African Americans. Experts
cite inadequate access to quality health care for minorities as one of
the main reasons for the tragedy. [Reuters]
Problem: Minorities and Mortgages
Experts are calling the current economic crisis "the greatest loss of
wealth for communities and individuals of color in modern U.S.
history." Black and Hispanic homeowners could lose up to $256 billion
in the subprime mortgage crisis. [Boston Herald]
Problem: Blocking Immigrants Seeking Citizenship
At the onset of 2007, the Bush administration jacked up immigration
fees by more than 80 percent, shooting up the cost of applying for
citizenship to $595. Also, today more than 1.4 million legal permanent
residents are facing an 18-month delay in their citizenship
applications due to administrative backlogs. [Washington Post]
Regulation Problems
Problem: Toxic Lack of Prosecution of Polluters
Under the current administration, the EPA sharply decreased the
prosecution of criminal cases against polluters. New prosecutions, new
investigations, and total convictions all plummeted by a third.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Arsenic in Our Drinking Water
In April 2007, Bush waited until Congress went into recess to appoint
Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Dudley, "who made no secret of her hostility toward government
regulation," was a corporate insider who said the EPA "should not
value the lives of older people as highly as the lives of younger
people when calculating the effect of arsenic in drinking water." [NY
Times] [LA Times]
Problem: Toxic, Mutating Weed Killer in the Water
The White House has fought against regulating the weed killer
atrizine, even though the chemical has seeped into U.S. water supplies
and created a new mutant breed of hermaphroditic frog. They have no
idea what the effect the chemical has on humans besides the higher
prostate cancer rate among those men who work around the chemical.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Air at Ground Zero
In September 2001, just days after the attacks on the World Trade
Center, the White House pressured the EPA to delete warnings from a
press release about air quality at Ground Zero and falsely reassure
the public that the air was safe to breathe. Later studies show
roughly 70 percent of workers from Ground Zero now suffer from
respiratory illnesses. [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Toxic Air on the Highways
In November 2007, a federal appeals court threw out the federal
government's fuel efficiency standards for trucks because they were a)
too weak and b) broke the law, as they "didn't properly assess the
risk to the environment and failed to include heavier SUVs and trucks,
among several other deficiencies the court found." [MSNBC]
Problem: Testing Pesticides on Kids
The EPA used camcorders to bribe parents into offering up their
toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on
children. The study was paid for in part by the chemical industry. [SF
Chronicle] [Washington Post]
Military Problems
Problem: A Hobbled National Guard
A congressional report found that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
worn down the National Guard so much that almost 90 percent of Army
National Guard Units are "not ready ... jeopardizing the Guard's
ability to respond to crises at home and abroad." [Washington Post]
Problem: A Hobbled Marine Corps
In 2007, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway,
said the strain of the Iraq war was forcing Marines to skip vital
combat training that made up the traditional backbone of the Corps.
[AP]
Problem: A Hobbled Army
After five long years in Iraq, General George Casey says the Army is
"out of balance" after the military strategy in Iraq "sucked all of
the flexibility out of the system." He also said the Army is "so
consumed by current operations that we can't do the things we need to
do to prepare ourselves organizationally or institutionally." [Army
News] [WSJ]
Problem: Squalid Conditions at Vet Hospitals
In 2007, a Washington Post expose revealed squalid conditions at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including "mouse droppings, belly-up
cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses" in facilities for
injured soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A
separate investigation revealed a similar pattern of neglect and
"depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases
around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in
New Jersey." [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Problem: Habeas Corpus Denied
Article One, Section Nine of the United States Constitution states the
basic human right of habeas corpus can not be suspended except for
cases "of rebellion or invasion." In September 2006, at President
Bush's urging, the Republican-led Congress passed the Military
Commissions Act, which stripped terror detainees of this basic right.
Thirty-three former U.S. diplomats warned "to deny habeas corpus to
our detainees can be seen as prescription for how the captured members
of our own military, diplomatic and NGO personnel stationed abroad may
be treated." [LA Times]
Problem: Homeless Veterans
A 2007 study from the National Alliance to End Homelessness found
there are nearly 200,000 homeless veterans on America's streets. Many
fought in the Vietnam War, but the Veterans' Association also found an
increasing number of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were
using VA homeless shelters. [Washington Post]
Problem: Extended Tours in Iraq
In April of 2007, the Bush administration announced that it was
extending troop tours from 12 months to 15 months. During these tours,
the troops are only allowed a single two-week break to return to their
families. [Military.com]
Problem: Veteran Suicides
Fact: Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than
people with no military service. Tragedy: A third of returning
soldiers seek mental health treatment after returning from combat, but
they are welcomed home with military health insurance (TriCare) whose
mental health coverage is "hindered by fragmented rules and policies,
inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement." [Reuters] [USA
Today]
Torture Problems
Problem: White House Enables Torture
In January 2002, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales agreed with
a memo drafted by the Justice Department's John C. Yoo, suggesting
"Mr. Bush should declare the Taliban and Al Qaeda outside the coverage
of the Geneva Conventions." In August 2002, Gonzales signed off on a
Justice Department memo stating extreme interrogation techniques on
terror suspects abroad "may be necessary," and dramatically narrows
the definition of "torture" to actions "equivalent in intensity to the
pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure,
impairment of bodily function, or even death." [NY Times] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Defense Department Enables Torture
In November 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved
interrogation techniques for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. They
included "'removal of clothing' and 'inducing stress by use of
detainee's fears (e.g. dogs)'" and "stress positions." [USA Today]
Problem: The Horrors at Abu Ghraib
In August 2003, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was sent from the prison at
Guantanamo Bay to the prison at Abu Ghraib to help "get more
information out of Iraqi prisoners." Once there, he encouraged harsh
interrogation methods, including the "use of dogs." Later, once
reports of gross abuse at the prison surfaced, Major General Antonio
Mario Taguba, in his classified report, "blames Miller's policies."
Miller then won the "Distinguished Service Medal." No officers have
ever been convicted of a crime concerning the atrocities. [Washington
Post] [MSNBC] [Army News]] [USA Today]
Problem: Guantanamo Bay
Since opening its doors in 2004, the U.S. detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay has held-and presumably tortured-more than 500
detainees. The lack of basic legal rights-such as habeas corpus-at
Gitmo has been one of the White House's biggest scandals, and has
helped to ruin the U.S. reputation around the world. According to
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen: "More than anything
else it's been the image-how Gitmo has become around the world, in
terms of representing the United States. ... I believe that from the
standpoint of how it reflects on us that it's been pretty
damaging."[American Progress] [USA Today] [AP]
Problem: Kidnappings and Secret Prisons
The United States is "secretly transferring terror suspects to
locations where they have faced torture and other ill-treatment,
enforced disappearances and indefinite detention without charge." A
2004 Washington Post report uncovered "an elaborate CIA and military
infrastructure whose purpose is to hold suspected terrorists or
insurgents for interrogation and safekeeping while avoiding U.S. or
international court systems." [Amnesty International] [Washington
Post]
Problem: The CIA Torture Tapes
In 2005, lawyers for the CIA gave the green light for the agency to
trash hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting the
interrogation-and torture-of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, despite a
previous court order requiring the government to keep all materials
"regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees" at
Guant·namo. The tapes allegedly included waterboarding, a practice the
U.S. military has prosecuted as torture since the Spanish American
war. [NY Times] [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Privacy Problems
Problem: Government Tapping Our Phones
Under the Bush White House, the National Security Agency illegally
intercepted phone calls of countless Americans without first obtaining
court warrants-a direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. Last year, the White House strong-armed a new
warrantless wire-tapping bill through Congress that gave Bush even
more power-an act that Speaker Pelosi said did "violence to the
Constitution." [Washington Post]
Problem: Government Reading Our Mail, Checking Our Banks
President Bush gave himself the power to read our mail: In 2006,
during the Christmas recess, President Bush quietly attached a signing
statement to a postal reform bill giving the White House the authority
to open U.S. mail without a warrant. The CIA and Pentagon also gave
themselves the power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds
of Americans. [Washington Post] [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Losing the Right to Protest
A Defense Department database, known as the Talon program, was
designed to catalogue domestic threats to the Pentagon but included
data on anti-war demonstrators and peaceful protestors. [Washington
Post]
Power Grabbing Problems
Problem: A Presidency Above the Law
Bush has used signing statements-caveats to bills that presidents tack
on when they sign them into law-to amend more than 1,100 sections of
legislation. (That's more than all other presidents combined.) Some of
the more controversial signing statements: President Bush gave himself
the power to bypass a law requiring the Justice Department to report
to Congress about how the FBI uses the Patriot Act to search American
homes. In another instance, President Bush gave himself the power to
waive the congressional ban on torture. [Boston Globe]
Problem: A Vice Presidency Above the Law
In June 2007, Vice President ***** Cheney announced he did not have to
comply with the law requiring members of the executive branch to
report to the National Archives on information his office has
classified because, according to the vice president, he was not
actually part of the executive branch of the government. [Seattle P-I]
Problem: White House Quest for Secrecy
In 2000, the federal government spent $452,807 on contracts for paper
shredding services. By 2006, that number skyrocketed to $2.9 million.
And what they couldn't shred, they stonewalled. Since 1998, the number
of exemptions to the Freedom Of Information Act cited to support the
withholding of information increased 83 percent. Two out of five FOIA
requests weren't even processed by 2006. [USA Spending] [Coalition of
Journalists for Open Government]
Problem: Politicized the Office of U.S. Attorneys
After the 2004 presidential election, the Bush administration canned
eight U.S. attorneys who wouldn't play partisan ball even though many
of them were working on high-profile corruption cases, and replaced
them with political operatives. [NY Times]
Problem: Politicized Executive Branch
At the onset of 2006, GAO queen bee Lurita Doan threw the Hatch Act to
the wind and held a video conference with a Karl Rove deputy to
discuss ways to help Republican candidates. During the January 2006
meeting, Doan apparently asked J. Scott Jennings, the White House
deputy political director how they "could help our candidates in the
next elections." Suggestions included "targeting public events, such
as the opening of federal facilities around the country." [Washington
Post]
Problem: Politicized Scientists
In 2004, White House official Philip Cooney, chief of staff of its
Council on Environmental Quality, doctored a report on global warming
to downplay scientific warnings. (He now works for Exxon.) In 2006,
NASA scientist James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for
Space Studies, accused the White House of preventing his research from
reaching the public. In October 2007, the administration altered a
draft of congressional testimony to be given by Dr. Julie Gerberding,
director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the
negative health implications of climate change. According to a CDC
source, her testimony was "eviscerated." [AP] [NY Times] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Pre-War Deception
In the two years after 9/11, Bush and senior administration officials
made 935 false statements alleging Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction and attempting to connect Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda. A
non-partisan study by the Center for Public Integrity said they
represented "an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized
public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under
decidedly false pretenses." [Center for Public Integrity]
Problem: Outed Covert CIA Agent
Bush administration officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, an
undercover CIA agent, in order to discredit the work of her husband,
Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, after Wilson exposed the White House was
bending the truth on Saddam's quest for WMD. [NY Times]
Problem: Fake News
The Department of Health and Human Services got caught producing fake
"news" segments on the prescription drug benefit that were "sent to TV
stations, along with government-prepared scripts for news anchors to
read." In 2005, the Department of Education was discovered paying
conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to write columns promoting
No Child Left Behind. In October 2007, the Department of Homeland
Security staged a fake press conference (complete with staffers posing
as reporters) to offer a glowing report of how well they handled the
California wildfires. [USA Today] [San Francisco Chronicle]
Problem: Criminals in the White House
Bush's top procurement official and former chief of staff of the
General Services Administration, David Safavian, pleaded guilty in
2006 to lying about his shady dealings with Jack Abramoff, a former
Republican lobbyist who showered Washington officials with gifts and
dinners in exchange for information and influence. [MSNBC] [Washington
Post]
Kid Problems
Problem: Kids in Poverty
There are 1.2 million more kids living in poverty today than in 2000.
[EPI]
Problem: Kids Without Health Insurance
There are 8.7 million kids in the United States without health
insurance (that's 11.7 percent of all American children.) In 2007,
President Bush vetoed SCHIP legislation not once but twice, unwilling
to raise taxes on the price of a pack of smokes to add more kids to
the program. The president finally signed the legislation to extend
the existing program at the end of December 2007, but the new,
watered-down bill left 9 million uninsured children without coverage.
[Children's Defense Fund]
Problem: Kids Dying in the South
After years of decline, infant mortality rose sharply in Mississippi
and across the south, especially among African-American families. [NY
Times]
Problem: Kids with Weight Problems
In 2007, Bush asked Congress to eliminate the preventive health
services block grant, "which provided $99 million a year to help
states prevent obesity and other chronic conditions." [NY Times]
Problem: Kids with Brain Damage
In 2004, White House staffers were caught having "deleted or modified
information on mercury" from an EPA report to downplay the toxic
health effects emissions have on the brains of babies and unborn
fetuses. [NY Times]
Problem: Kids Having Kids
Bush spent over $1 billion on the federal financing of
"abstinence-only" education which leaves young people without vital
sexual health information and has never been shown to "prevent
unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases." In 2007, new
analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that, for
the first time in 14 years, the teen birth rate went up, to 3 percent
[CDC] [San Francisco Chronicle]
Problem: Kids Playing with Poisoned Toys
Last year, in the wake of date-rape-drug-filled AquaDots and Elmo
dolls laced with lead, the White House-appointee head of the Consumer
Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord, sided with manufacturers and
fought against measures in the Senate that would require the toy
industry to tell consumers which toys were under investigation or to
increase penalties against companies that knowingly violated toy
safety laws.[Consumer Affairs]
Problem: Kids on Drugs
The GAO reports that a "$1.4 billion anti-drug advertising campaign
conducted by the U.S. government since 1998 doesn't appear to have
helped reduce drug use and instead might have convinced some youths
that taking illegal drugs is normal." Soon after, the White House
asked for $120 million more to fund it. [USA Today] [Mic Check]
Gay Rights Problems
Problem: Anti-Gay Surgeon General Nominee
In June 2007, President Bush nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. to
become U.S. Surgeon General. Holsinger's resume includes founding a
church to "cure" homosexuals, penning an infamous paper about the
"pathophysiology of male homosexuality" and voting on the United
Methodist Church council to allow ministers to keep gay men and
lesbians out of their churches. [Washington Post]
Problem: Denying Marriage Equality
In every year of the 109th Congress, President Bush urged lawmakers to
pass a constitutional ban on gay marriage. (Every year, public opinion
wins out and the bill fails.) [MSNBC]
Problem: Perpetuating Workplace Discrimination
In 2007, the House of Representatives passed the landmark Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (or ENDA) bill, which seeks to eliminate sexual
orientation-based discrimination in the workplace. This year, the
Senate is looking to pass the same bill. The White House, though, has
boasted that it'll veto any version of the bill that crosses its desk.
[Washington Blade]
Homeland Security Problems
Problem: Unsafe Trains
President Bush did not act to secure the "thousands of tons of highly
toxic chlorine gas [that] travel by rail in the United States." These
cans, if ruptured, could "release a dense, lethal plume for miles
downwind, potentially killing or injuring thousands of people."
[American Progress]
Problem: Unsafe Seaports
A study by the Department of Homeland Security found that "serious
lapses by private companies at foreign and American ports, aboard
ships, and on trucks and trains would enable ... materials or weapons
of mass destruction to be introduced." [AP]
Problem: Unsafe Airports
Airline security is consistently the top complaint of air travelers
... but it doesn't seem to be doing much good. In airport tests, the
TSA consistently fails to detect test bombs. In one example,
"screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the
starting points for the Sept. 11 hijackers, failed 20 of 22 security
tests conducted by undercover U.S. agents." [Seattle Times] [AP]
Problem: An Unmanageable "No-fly List"
Before 9/11, the list of people barred from plane travel in the United
States topped out at 16 people. Now, it has over 44,000 names on it,
plus an additional 75,000 people who should be pulled over for extra
screening. On the list? Dead people, 14 of the deceased 9/11
hijackers, toddlers, a member of the U.S. Senate, and thousands of
common names like "Gary Smith, John Williams or Robert Johnson." [CBS]
Disaster Problems
Problem: Ignoring Katrina
Although President Bush was notified that the levees had been breached
on August 29, 2005 (the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall) it wasn't
until aides made him watch a DVD of news reports on September 2 that
the devastation actually "sank in." New Orleans victims of the
hurricane still were trapped in the dirty, crime-ridden Superdome
until September 3. [AP] [Fox News] [Newsweek] [AP]
Problem: Toxic FEMA Trailers
Although they were warned more than a year before the problem became
public, FEMA purposely ignored reports that the trailers they set up
for families affected by Hurricane Katrina were filled with toxic,
carcinogenic formaldehyde gas. More than 75,000 families lived in
these trailers. [Washington Post]
Problem: Unqualified Disaster Officials
Five out of eight top FEMA officials came to their posts with no
crisis management experience. Former FEMA head Michael Brown,
personally appointed by Bush, was formerly head of the International
Arabian Horse Association with a seriously padded resume. [Washington
Post] [Time Magazine]
Problem: A Strained National Guard
The White House, unwilling to spend the money or PR to beef up the
military before going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, instead leaned
heavily on the National Guard and Army Reserves. As a result of this
unprecedented pressure on these domestic forces, governors across the
country are saying they've been short of both manpower and equipment
in handling massive disasters and emergencies like the California
wildfires, the Kansas floods and hurricane recovery. [ABC]
Diplomatic Problems
Problem: The World Doesn't Like Us
In 2007, a Pew research poll showed that the United States was even
less popular with our allies now than we were five years ago. In 2002,
Britain had a 75 percent favorable rating of the United States. A year
ago, it sank to 51 percent. Germany had a 60 percent favorable view of
the United States in 2002; in 2007, it was 30 percent. [Pew]
Problem: Hurting Our Diplomatic Corps
President Bush slashed 10 percent of diplomatic posts around the
world; in the meantime, Condoleezza Rice warned foreign service agents
that they would be forced to "volunteer" in Iraq if the 250 embassy
jobs weren't filled with actual volunteers. The diplomats aren't
happy; only 18 percent of them say that Rice is doing a good job
protecting their profession. [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Problem: Inflating the Iranian Threat
In public, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney ratcheted up
talk about the nuclear threat from Iran despite private intelligence
reports that showed Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in
2003. [Wall Street Journal]
Problem: Bungled Diplomacy with North Korea
In October 2006, Bush failed to prevent North Korea from becoming the
first country since 1998 to conduct a nuclear test. Leading up to the
big bang, Bush allowed North Korea to acquire enough plutonium for 4
to 13 weapons, stoked North Korea's ire by naming the country part of
the "Axis of Evil," and botched diplomacy efforts, having to call back
former U.N.-ambassador John Bolton for jeopardizing crucial talks by
insulting North Korea just days before. [ISIS Study; FOX News; CNN]
Problem: Bringing Back Nukes
In January 2008, former State Department official Linda Gallini told
reporters the Bush White House "gutted" nuclear counter-proliferation
initiatives by pushing out career diplomats at the State Department
and replacing them with inexperienced, ideological political
appointees. The Pentagon also fought to create a new generation of
American nuclear weapons, including "bunker busters" and "mini-nukes."
[UPI] [BBC]
Education Problems
Problem: Poor Kids Need a Head Start
This administration cut funds for Head Start, the national program
dedicated to getting low-income kids ready for school, 11 percent
since 2002. In 2007 alone, the amount cut was equal to the amount
needed to include 26,500 kids. [Center On Budget And Policy
Priorities]
Problem: College Students Get Overcharged
Due to an uncorrected computer error, the Department of Education
caused "more than 3 million student loan borrowers to be billed
hundreds of millions of dollars more than they owed." [Washington
Post]
Problem: Student Loans Slashed
President Bush attempted to get rid of the Perkins Loan program, a
program which offers low-interest loans to needy students, and froze
money for Pell Grants at a maximum of only $4,050 per student for six
consecutive years. [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Student Debt Skyrockets
Total student debt in the United States is more than $471 billion-and
that's not including private loans. What's more, the average student
today graduates with debt twice that of graduates a decade ago-and
enters a job market where the average job pays them less than it would
have in 2000. [Student Debt Alert] [Economic Policy Institute]
What's your problem?
____________________________________________________
The Five Who Had a Good Ride
Of course not everyone had a tough time over the past seven years.
Here are the five who came through their Bush Years relatively
footloose and problem-free.
Big Oil
Even as oil companies raked in record profits, the White House fought
to make sure they kept $7.6 billion in tax subsidies and the legal
loophole that lets them dodge paying $10.7 billion in royalties from
oil found in public U.S. lands in the Gulf of Mexico. IHT IHT
Contractor Mercenaries
President Bush has thrown billions of dollars-and undue faith-behind
corrupt contractor mercenaries to fight his wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And like members of his administration, the president
lets these contractors act outside the law. Take Blackwater: top State
Department officials knew about incidents of the contractor killing
innocent civilians in Iraq for more than two years-and it turned a
blind eye. ABC
The Filthy Rich
Welcome to the new Gilded Age. From 2003 to 2005, the increase in
income from the richest one percent of Americans was higher than the
total income of the poorest 20 percent. How'd we get this way? Bush's
tax cuts for the uber-wealthy.NY Times
Cronies and Bushies
From the Department of Justice to FEMA, from the Coalitional
Provisional Authority to the FDA, Bush has packed his administration
with friends and partisans, prizing loyalty over experience and
ideology over competence. Washington Post Washington Post CNN NY Times
People Who Fear Human-Animal Hybrids
President Bush was able to keep one promise from his previous State of
the Union addresses. In 2006, he pledged to fight the creation of
"human-animal hybrids," sparking visions of fearsome ManBeasts
terrorizing the nation. As of today, we've spotted no
half-man/half-animal creatures. Breaking News: We may have given the
president credit too soon-just this week, we've discovered, British
scientists created a ManCow clone. State Of The Union BBC
Harry
Reminds me of a song....99 problems on the wall 99 problems in all... if one
of them problems should happen to fall.......
Of course none are likely to fall until we get rid of the number one
problem....Bush and the Repugs!
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| User: "Zeno" |
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| Title: Re: Georgie Bush and his gang have dropped 99 huge turds on our nation... |
28 Jan 2008 06:54:38 PM |
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On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:49:14 GMT, "Bob Eld" <nsmontassoc@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Of course none are likely to fall until we get rid of the number one
problem....Bush and the Repugs!
One political "ball team" is better than another, are they ?
.
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| User: "Miles Long" |
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| Title: Re: Georgie Bush and his gang have dropped 99 huge turds on our nation... |
28 Jan 2008 05:55:51 PM |
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Harry Hope wrote:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems.html
January 28, 2008
We’ve Got 99 Problems, But A Human-Animal Hybrid Ain’t One
A Look at the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers Under the Bush
Administration
By MicCheck Radio
As President Bush’s days of power draw to a close, one thing is clear:
We’ve got a lot more problems now than we did seven years ago.
Here are 99 of them, everything from less money to more war and a
planet in crisis.
It’s not a comprehensive list, so we have one question for you:
What’s your problem?
Email us at and join the
conversation.
Check out everyone's responses here.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/01/99problems_responses.html
Economic Problems
Problem: Staggering National Debt
After declining significantly during the 1990s, the combination of
expensive Bush tax cuts and reckless spending pushed the national debt
from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to $9.2 trillion in 2008. [Department of
Treasury]
Problem: Poverty
There are 4.9 million more Americans living in poverty today than
there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Bankruptcies
A total of 603,139 Americans filed for bankruptcy in the first three
quarters of 2007, a 40.15 percent increase over the same period in
2006. [American Bankruptcy Institute] [Consumer Affairs]
Problem: Foreclosures
In the third quarter of 2007, there were 635,159 foreclosure filings
in the United States. When you crunch the numbers, that’s one
foreclosure filing for every 196 U.S. households. That’s 100 percent
more than in the same period of 2006. [Daily Herald]
Problem: Credit Card Debt
Today, Americans owe more than $813 billion in credit card debt.
Additionally, Americans are falling behind on their credit card
payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults
surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting
warnings of worse to come. [American Progress] [MSNBC]
Problem: High Gas Prices
The average price of a gallon of gas has skyrocketed, from $1.39 a
gallon in January 2000 to $3.07 a gallon in January 2007. [Energy
Information Administration]
Problem: Freezing Families
In 2008, the average U.S. household will have to spend $986 to heat
their homes in winter, up 11 percent from the year before. Millions of
the elderly and poor rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program to heat their homes, yet in 2007, President Bush asked
Congress to slash funding for LIHEAP by $379 million. [Associated
Press]
Problem: Starvation
According to the USDA, the number of hungry families in the United
States rose 26 percent between 2001 and 2006. Worse, the number of
families with the least access to enough food rose 32 percent. That’s
1.3 million American families, not including the homeless. [USDA]
Problem: Sorry, We Meant to Say “Low Food Security”
In 2006 the U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to sugarcoat the
hunger issue by banning the word “hunger” from official documents,
replacing it with the more opaque “very low food security.”
[Washington Post]
Problem: Small Businesses Struggle
Under the Bush administration, corporate giants like Microsoft and
Wal-Mart managed to finagle $12 billion in small business grants from
the federal government. Federal law says, based on population, small
businesses must receive 23 percent of federal contracts. The
government claims at least a quarter of federal contracts are going to
help small business owners (small business = one employing fewer than
100 people), but in reality, it’s more like 5 percent. [Globe and
Mail]
War Problems
Problem: Surge Failure
In January 2007, President Bush announced a plan to send a
20,000-troop “surge” to Iraq to quell the violence and provide
military cover while the Iraqi government took over the ruling of its
own nation. The U.S. military was able to staunch much of the violence
in the country—though at the price of 896 American troops killed in
2007—but the Iraqi government remains in chaos. The Iraq Inspector
General calls government corruption “the second insurgency,”
Parliament rarely is able to get a quorum together to conduct
business, and even the Iraqi Minister of Defense says the government
will be unable to take over its own security until at least 2012.
[Chicago Tribune] [The Guardian]
Problem: Iraq Reconstruction in Shambles
Despite spending $488 billion (so far) on the Iraq war, many of the
U.S.-led reconstruction projects in Iraq, fraught with corruption,
security problems, and inept contractors, “have been abandoned,
delayed or poorly constructed.” Hospitals, prisons, and police
training centers were all abandoned, while the guard-house for the
U.S. Embassy became such a toxic fire hazard, they had to evacuate
everyone who tried to move in. [Boston Globe] [International Herald
Tribune] [National Priorities Project]
Problem: The Taliban’s Resurgence
Today, Al Qaeda along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is back to
pre-9/11 strength. The Taliban increased the number of roadside and
suicide bomb attacks in 2007 to the highest level since the war in
Afghanistan began. The two groups are flush with money from the
Afghanistan opium trade, which “grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching
record levels for the second straight year.” [Mic Check] [USA Today]
Problem: Afghan Women Still Live in Fear
Despite a new constitution that enshrines women’s rights, insufficient
resources devoted to the war in Afghanistan mean “the state cannot
protect women and ensure that they can go about their work safely.” In
some regions controlled by the resurgent Taliban, they “have
restricted possible employment, education and health care
opportunities for women, often resorting to violence to enforce their
edicts.” [Quazen]
Problem: Refusing Iraqi Refugees
The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes quadrupled over 2007,
bringing the totals to “2.3 million internally displaced persons
within Iraq, and over 2.3 million Iraqis who have fled the country.”
The United States took in only 7,000. [CNN]
Health Care Problems
Problem: Expensive and Inefficient Health Care
In 2006, America’s health care costs spiraled to an all-time high of
over $2 trillion (or $7,026 per person). In a report by the World
Health Organization, America ranks 37th in health care quality,
despite spending more per person than any other country in the world.
[LA Times] [WHO]
Problem: No Health Insurance
There were 47 million Americans living without health insurance in
2006; that’s 8.6 million more uninsured than there were in 2000. [EPI]
Problem: Government in Bed with Drug Companies
An independent report found that from October 2005 to December 2006,
“Food and Drug Administration officials met 112 times with industry
representatives but only five times with consumer and patient groups.”
According to Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), “the FDA has
essentially become the government affairs office of the pharmaceutical
industry." [USA Today]
Problem: Medicare Cheats Off the Hook
A 2007 audit by the Government Accountability Office showed private
insurance companies pocketed $59 million in overpayments from Medicare
that instead should have gone to better benefits and lower co-payments
or lower premiums for older Americans. At the same time, the White
House a) refused to audit these companies and b) refused to try to
recover the missing money. [NY Times]
Problem: Seniors Can’t Afford Their Meds
In April 2007, Bush refused to sign a Senate bill that would have
allowed Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices from
pharmaceutical companies. [Reuters]
Problem: Blocked Stem Cell Research
In 2001, Bush placed a federal ban on future funding of embryonic stem
cell research, which holds the promise of developing cures for
Parkinson’s, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's, and other degenerative
diseases. In 2006, he used his veto pen for the first time to kill a
bill expanding funding for stem cell research. In 2007, he again
vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. [Time] [MSNBC] [Time]
Problem: Cheating the Disabled
Social Security’s draconian standards keep even the “severely
disabled” from receiving Social Security disability benefits. The
source of the problem? A poorly managed agency where there are
“doctors making decisions outside their specialties, and inexperienced
examiners under pressure to keep costs down.” [CBS]
Problem: Manipulating Access to Health Info
In 2002, the National Cancer Institute posted on their Web site the
scientific conclusion that there was no link between abortion and
breast cancer. The White House removed the analysis and replaced it
with a statement which “erroneously suggested that whether abortion
caused breast cancer was an open question with studies of equal weight
supporting both sides.” [House Government Oversight]
Planet Problems
Problem: Blocking International Efforts
At the beginning of his presidency, Bush blocked the Kyoto Protocol, a
landmark global agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions
signed by 174 other nations. Then, at the 2007 G8 summit, U.S.
negotiators attempted to water down the language of a different
international climate change declaration. [USA Today] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Sticking Poor Countries with the Bill
Countless reports have said that poor, developing nations will bear
the brunt—think: drought, famine, floods, and disease—of climate
change. Yet, at the recent climate change talks in Bali, U.S.
delegates tried to block a proposal that would require rich nations to
do more to help poor nations fight global warming. [Der Spiegel]
Problem: Killing Us with Carbon Emissions
After President Bush pledged a cap on carbon emissions in 2000,
President Cheney filled the White House Committee on Environmental
Quality with industry representatives. Following their appointment,
the group released a report saying “the current state of scientific
knowledge about causes of and solutions to global warming is
inconclusive” and no caps were needed. [Rolling Stone]
Problem: Killing the Polar Bears
In January of 2008, the Bush administration missed a deadline
requiring a final decision on whether to give polar bears—often the
poster children of global warming—federal protection under the
Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Geological Survey’s September report,
meanwhile, found that melting Arctic sea ice could wipe out polar
bears in Alaska and kill off two-thirds of the species’ global
population. [ABC]
Problem: Destruction of the Alaskan Wilderness
Also in January of 2008, the federal government decided to open up
nearly 46,000 square miles off Alaska’s northwest coast to petroleum
leases, available in February. Goodbye wildlife, hello oil spills.
[AP]
Problem: The EPA vs. California
At the end of 2007, head of the EPA Stephen Johnson denied
California’s quest for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to allow the
state and up to 17 others to set stricter regulations on automobile
pollution. Senate investigators later found EPA scientists and career
staffers fought for the EPA to grant California’s waiver. [Kansas City
Star] [AP]
Problem: Melting the Arctic Ice
Thanks to global warming, the Arctic Sea ice has decreased nearly 20
percent in the past 20 years. [USA Today]
Racial Problems
Problem: Ignoring Civil Rights
The Bush administration changed the civil rights mission of the
Justice Department “by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases
while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional
area of race.” [NY Times]
Problem: Affirmative Action Under Siege
Bush has consistently attacked affirmative action policies in higher
education, including suing the University of Michigan for taking race
into account in its admissions process. [CNN]
Problem: Rolling Back Brown v. Board of Education
A half century ago, with the landmark case Brown v. Board of
Education, the Supreme Court ordered the nation’s schools to
desegregate. In 2007, with two of President Bush’s Court appointees in
the 5-4 majority, the Roberts Court rolled back desegregation, ruling
local officials “cannot take modest steps to bring public school
students of different races together.” [NY Times]
Problem: African Americans Without Health Care
Since 2000, the percent of African Americans without health insurance
has increased from 18.5 percent to 20.5 percent. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Hispanics Without Health Care
In 2006, there were 15.3 million uninsured Hispanics in the United
States, an estimated 3.4 million of whom are children. [Census Bureau]
Problem: Disparities in Cancer Treatment
The American Cancer Society finds that, while cancer deaths may be
dropping, that statistic does not apply to African Americans. Experts
cite inadequate access to quality health care for minorities as one of
the main reasons for the tragedy. [Reuters]
Problem: Minorities and Mortgages
Experts are calling the current economic crisis “the greatest loss of
wealth for communities and individuals of color in modern U.S.
history.” Black and Hispanic homeowners could lose up to $256 billion
in the subprime mortgage crisis. [Boston Herald]
Problem: Blocking Immigrants Seeking Citizenship
At the onset of 2007, the Bush administration jacked up immigration
fees by more than 80 percent, shooting up the cost of applying for
citizenship to $595. Also, today more than 1.4 million legal permanent
residents are facing an 18-month delay in their citizenship
applications due to administrative backlogs. [Washington Post]
Regulation Problems
Problem: Toxic Lack of Prosecution of Polluters
Under the current administration, the EPA sharply decreased the
prosecution of criminal cases against polluters. New prosecutions, new
investigations, and total convictions all plummeted by a third.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Arsenic in Our Drinking Water
In April 2007, Bush waited until Congress went into recess to appoint
Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Dudley, “who made no secret of her hostility toward government
regulation,” was a corporate insider who said the EPA “should not
value the lives of older people as highly as the lives of younger
people when calculating the effect of arsenic in drinking water.” [NY
Times] [LA Times]
Problem: Toxic, Mutating Weed Killer in the Water
The White House has fought against regulating the weed killer
atrizine, even though the chemical has seeped into U.S. water supplies
and created a new mutant breed of hermaphroditic frog. They have no
idea what the effect the chemical has on humans besides the higher
prostate cancer rate among those men who work around the chemical.
[Washington Post]
Problem: Toxic Air at Ground Zero
In September 2001, just days after the attacks on the World Trade
Center, the White House pressured the EPA to delete warnings from a
press release about air quality at Ground Zero and falsely reassure
the public that the air was safe to breathe. Later studies show
roughly 70 percent of workers from Ground Zero now suffer from
respiratory illnesses. [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Toxic Air on the Highways
In November 2007, a federal appeals court threw out the federal
government’s fuel efficiency standards for trucks because they were a)
too weak and b) broke the law, as they “didn’t properly assess the
risk to the environment and failed to include heavier SUVs and trucks,
among several other deficiencies the court found.” [MSNBC]
Problem: Testing Pesticides on Kids
The EPA used camcorders to bribe parents into offering up their
toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on
children. The study was paid for in part by the chemical industry. [SF
Chronicle] [Washington Post]
Military Problems
Problem: A Hobbled National Guard
A congressional report found that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
worn down the National Guard so much that almost 90 percent of Army
National Guard Units are “not ready ... jeopardizing the Guard's
ability to respond to crises at home and abroad.” [Washington Post]
Problem: A Hobbled Marine Corps
In 2007, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James T. Conway,
said the strain of the Iraq war was forcing Marines to skip vital
combat training that made up the traditional backbone of the Corps.
[AP]
Problem: A Hobbled Army
After five long years in Iraq, General George Casey says the Army is
“out of balance” after the military strategy in Iraq “sucked all of
the flexibility out of the system.” He also said the Army is “so
consumed by current operations that we can't do the things we need to
do to prepare ourselves organizationally or institutionally.” [Army
News] [WSJ]
Problem: Squalid Conditions at Vet Hospitals
In 2007, a Washington Post expose revealed squalid conditions at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including “mouse droppings, belly-up
cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses” in facilities for
injured soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A
separate investigation revealed a similar pattern of neglect and
“depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases
around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in
New Jersey.” [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Problem: Habeas Corpus Denied
Article One, Section Nine of the United States Constitution states the
basic human right of habeas corpus can not be suspended except for
cases “of rebellion or invasion.” In September 2006, at President
Bush’s urging, the Republican-led Congress passed the Military
Commissions Act, which stripped terror detainees of this basic right.
Thirty-three former U.S. diplomats warned “to deny habeas corpus to
our detainees can be seen as prescription for how the captured members
of our own military, diplomatic and NGO personnel stationed abroad may
be treated.” [LA Times]
Problem: Homeless Veterans
A 2007 study from the National Alliance to End Homelessness found
there are nearly 200,000 homeless veterans on America’s streets. Many
fought in the Vietnam War, but the Veterans’ Association also found an
increasing number of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were
using VA homeless shelters. [Washington Post]
Problem: Extended Tours in Iraq
In April of 2007, the Bush administration announced that it was
extending troop tours from 12 months to 15 months. During these tours,
the troops are only allowed a single two-week break to return to their
families. [Military.com]
Problem: Veteran Suicides
Fact: Male U.S. veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than
people with no military service. Tragedy: A third of returning
soldiers seek mental health treatment after returning from combat, but
they are welcomed home with military health insurance (TriCare) whose
mental health coverage is “hindered by fragmented rules and policies,
inadequate oversight and insufficient reimbursement.” [Reuters] [USA
Today]
Torture Problems
Problem: White House Enables Torture
In January 2002, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales agreed with
a memo drafted by the Justice Department’s John C. Yoo, suggesting
“Mr. Bush should declare the Taliban and Al Qaeda outside the coverage
of the Geneva Conventions.” In August 2002, Gonzales signed off on a
Justice Department memo stating extreme interrogation techniques on
terror suspects abroad “may be necessary,” and dramatically narrows
the definition of “torture” to actions “equivalent in intensity to the
pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure,
impairment of bodily function, or even death.” [NY Times] [Washington
Post]
Problem: Defense Department Enables Torture
In November 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved
interrogation techniques for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. They
included “‘removal of clothing’ and ‘inducing stress by use of
detainee’s fears (e.g. dogs)’” and “stress positions.” [USA Today]
Problem: The Horrors at Abu Ghraib
In August 2003, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was sent from the prison at
Guantanamo Bay to the prison at Abu Ghraib to help “get more
information out of Iraqi prisoners.” Once there, he encouraged harsh
interrogation methods, including the “use of dogs.” Later, once
reports of gross abuse at the prison surfaced, Major General Antonio
Mario Taguba, in his classified report, “blames Miller’s policies.”
Miller then won the “Distinguished Service Medal.” No officers have
ever been convicted of a crime concerning the atrocities. [Washington
Post] [MSNBC] [Army News]] [USA Today]
Problem: Guantanamo Bay
Since opening its doors in 2004, the U.S. detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay has held—and presumably tortured—more than 500
detainees. The lack of basic legal rights—such as habeas corpus—at
Gitmo has been one of the White House’s biggest scandals, and has
helped to ruin the U.S. reputation around the world. According to
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen: “More than anything
else it’s been the image—how Gitmo has become around the world, in
terms of representing the United States. ... I believe that from the
standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty
damaging.”[American Progress] [USA Today] [AP]
Problem: Kidnappings and Secret Prisons
The United States is “secretly transferring terror suspects to
locations where they have faced torture and other ill-treatment,
enforced disappearances and indefinite detention without charge.” A
2004 Washington Post report uncovered “an elaborate CIA and military
infrastructure whose purpose is to hold suspected terrorists or
insurgents for interrogation and safekeeping while avoiding U.S. or
international court systems.” [Amnesty International] [Washington
Post]
Problem: The CIA Torture Tapes
In 2005, lawyers for the CIA gave the green light for the agency to
trash hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting the
interrogation—and torture—of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, despite a
previous court order requiring the government to keep all materials
“regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees” at
Guant·namo. The tapes allegedly included waterboarding, a practice the
U.S. military has prosecuted as torture since the Spanish American
war. [NY Times] [Washington Post] [Washington Post]
Privacy Problems
Problem: Government Tapping Our Phones
Under the Bush White House, the National Security Agency illegally
intercepted phone calls of countless Americans without first obtaining
court warrants—a direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. Last year, the White House strong-armed a new
warrantless wire-tapping bill through Congress that gave Bush even
more power—an act that Speaker Pelosi said did “violence to the
Constitution.” [Washington Post]
Problem: Government Reading Our Mail, Checking Our Banks
President Bush gave himself the power to read our mail: In 2006,
during the Christmas recess, President Bush quietly attached a signing
statement to a postal reform bill giving the White House the authority
to open U.S. mail without a warrant. The CIA and Pentagon also gave
themselves the power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds
of Americans. [Washington Post] [NY Times] [NY Times]
Problem: Losing the Right to Protest
A Defense Department database, known as the Talon program, was
designed to catalogue domestic threats to the Pentagon but included
data on ant | |
