I want to preface this very clearly. No, I don't think Americans should weigh the opinions of a terrorist when making their decisions on Nov. 2. It's obvious that that is the intent of this latest message. I also think Osama bin Laden is a very bad, very misguided, very disturbed individual (I hesisitate to use the word "evil" because that carries with it certain connotations I don't think I believe in - but that's a blog for another time). With that said, some of the things he's said in this latest communique are very relevant, and are in fact, similar to many things Bush's opposition has been saying from day 1. Reading it does not mean you agree with his beliefs as a whole, nor does thinking some of his points are valid make you a Bin Laden groupie (even Hitler had a couple good ideas, just look at Volkswagen)...
Transcript of bin Ladin's speech
Saturday 30 October 2004, 16:53 Makka Time, 13:53 GMT
From Al Jazeera English Website
Following is the English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape aired by Aljazeera on Friday 29 October. In the interests of authenticity the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.
To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.
People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.
Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.
If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.
And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.
No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.
We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.
But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.
So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.
I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.
But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.
The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.
And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.
In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.
We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.
Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.
This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.
In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.
And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.
It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah.
30 October 2004
25 October 2004
100 Facts and 1 Opinion
I had to post this article for all to read. Also, see the resources Carl posted - remember to vote Nov. 2nd and to vote what your consience tells you is the right thing to do and don't give into their fearmongering:
"... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
--Hermann Goering, Nazi defendant at the Nuremburg Trials
100 Facts and 1 Opinion by Judd Legum (Click the link to see the full article with the links to sources)
Click here to download, circulate and distribute a PDF version of this article.
IRAQ
1. The Bush Administration has spent more than $140 billion on a war of choice in Iraq.
2. The Bush Administration sent troops into battle without adequate body armor or armored Humvees.
3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates from Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq.
4. Vice President Cheney said Americans "will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" in Iraq.
5. During the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, more than 1,000 US troops have lost their lives and more than 7,000 have been injured.
6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and triumphantly announced that major combat
operations were over in Iraq. Asked if he had any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would do it all over again.
7. Vice President Cheney said that Iraq was "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11." The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative operational relationship with Al Qaeda.
8. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we don't want the
smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The government's top nuclear scientists had told the Administration the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too long" to be of use in developing
nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes.
9. The Bush Administration has spent just $1.1 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction.
10. According to the Administration's handpicked weapon's inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do so." After the release of the report, Bush continued to insist, "There was a risk--a real risk--that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons, or materials, or information to terrorist networks."
11. According to Duelfer, the UN inspections regime put an "economic strangle hold" on Hussein that prevented him from developing a WMD program for more than twelve years.
TERRORISM
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack America," President Bush continued his monthlong vacation.
13. The Bush Administration failed to commit enough troops to capture Osama bin Laden when US forces had him cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November 2001. Instead, they relied on local warlords.
14. The Bush Administration secured less nuclear material from sites around the world vulnerable to terrorists in the two years after 9/11 than were secured in the two years before 9/11.
15. The Bush Administration underfunded Nunn-Lugar--the program intended to keep the former Soviet Union's nuclear legacy out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states--by $45.5 million.
16. The Bush Administration has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money.
17. According to Congressional Research Service data, the Bush Administration has underfunded security at the nation's ports by more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2005.
18. The Bush Administration did not devote the resources necessary to prevent a resurgence in the production of poppies, the raw material used to create heroin, in Afghanistan--creating a
potent new source of financing for terrorists.
19. Vice President Cheney told voters that unless they elect George Bush in November, "we'll get hit again" by terrorists.
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban.
21. Despite repeated calls for reinforcements, there are fewer experienced CIA agents assigned to the unit dealing with Osama bin Laden now than there were before 9/11.
22. Before 9/11, John Ashcroft proposed slashing counterterrorism funding by 23 percent.
23. Between January 20, 2001, and September 10, 2001, the Bush Administration publicly mentioned Al Qaeda one time.
24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11 Commission $3 million to investigate the September 11 attacks and $50 million to the commission that investigated the Columbia space shuttle crash.
25. More than three years after 9/11, just 5 percent of all cargo--including cargo transported on passenger planes--is screened.
NATIONAL SECURITY
26. During the Bush Administration, North Korea quadrupled its suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight weapons.
27. The Bush Administration has openly opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
28. The Bush Administration has spent $7 billion this year--and plans to spend $10 billion next year--for a missile defense system that has never worked in a test that wasn't rigged.
29. The Bush Administration underfunded the needs of the nation's first responders by $98 billion, according to a Council on Foreign Relations study.
CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION
30. The Bush Administration awarded a multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton--a company that still pays Vice President Cheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred
compensation each year (Cheney also has Halliburton stock options). The company then repeatedly overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks from subcontractors and served troops dirty food. [Laura's note: A congressional committee determined Cheney's unactivated stock-options were "retained ties" to the company].
31. The Bush Administration told Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before telling Secretary of State Colin Powell.
32. The Bush Administration relentlessly pushed an energy bill containing $23.5 billion in corporate tax breaks, much of which would have benefited major campaign contributors.
33. The Bush Administration paid Iraqi-exile and neocon darling Ahmad Chalabi $400,000 a month for intelligence, including fabricated claims about Iraqi WMD. It continued to pay him for
months after discovering that he was providing inaccurate information.
34. The Bush Administration installed as top officials more than 100 former lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.
35. The Bush Administration let disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay--a close friend of President Bush--help write its energy policy.
36. Top Bush Administration officials accepted $127,600 in jewelry and other presents from the Saudi royal family in 2003, including diamond-and-sapphire jewelry valued at $95,500 for First Lady Laura Bush.
37. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge awarded lucrative contracts to several companies in which he is an investor, including Microsoft, GE, Sprint, Pfizer and Oracle.
38. President Bush used images of firefighters carrying flag-draped coffins through the rubble of the World Trade Center to score political points in a campaign advertisement.
THE ECONOMY
39. President Bush's top economic adviser, Greg Mankiw, said the outsourcing of American jobs abroad was "a plus for the economy in the long run."
40. The Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit.
41. The Bush Administration implemented regulations that made millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay.
42. The Bush Administration has crippled state budgets by underfunding federal mandates by $175 billion.
43. President Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs--around 800,000--over a four-year term.
44. The Bush Administration gave Accenture a multibillion-dollar border control contract even though the company moved its operations to Bermuda to avoid paying taxes.
45. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum." He passed the tax cuts, but the top 20 percent of earners received 68 percent of the benefits.
46. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to pay down the national debt to a historically low level. As of September 30, the national debt stood at $7,379,052,696,330.32, a record high.
Sources: www.georgewbush.com , Bureau of the Public Debt
47. As major corporate scandals rocked the nation's economy, the Bush Administration reduced the enforcement of corporate tax law--conducting fewer audits, imposing fewer penalties, pursuing fewer prosecutions and making virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes.
48. The Bush Administration increased tax audits for the working poor.
49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to protect the Social Security surplus. As President, he spent all of it.
50. The Bush Administration proposed slashing funding for the largest federal public housing program, putting 2 million families in danger of losing their housing.
51. The Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the minimum wage from falling to an inflation-adjusted fifty-year low.
EDUCATION
52. The Bush Administration underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act by $9.4 billion.
53. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to increase the maximum federal scholarship, or Pell Grant, by 50 percent. Instead, each year he has been in office he has frozen or cut
the maximum scholarship amount.
54. The Bush Administration's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called the National Education Association--a union of teachers--a "terrorist organization."
HEALTHCARE
55. The Bush Administration, in violation of the law, refused to allow Medicare actuary Richard Foster to tell members of Congress the actual cost of their Medicare bill. Instead, they repeated a figure they knew was $100 billion too low.
56. The nonpartisan GAO concluded the Bush Administration created illegal, covert propaganda--in the form of fake news reports--to promote its industry-backed Medicare bill.
57. The Bush Administration stunted research that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal injuries, heart disease and muscular dystrophy by placing severe
restrictions on the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem-cell research.
58. The Bush Administration reinstated the "global gag rule," which requires foreign NGOs to withhold information about legal abortion services or lose US funds for family planning.
59. The Bush Administration authorized twenty companies that have been charged with fraud at the federal or state level to offer Medicare prescription drug cards to seniors.
60. The Bush Administration created a prescription drug card for Medicare that locks seniors into one card for up to a year but allows the corporations offering the cards to change their
prices once a week.
61. The Bush Administration blocked efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices for seniors.
62. At the behest of the french fry industry, the Bush Administration USDA changed their definition of fresh vegetables to include frozen french fries.
63. In a case before the Supreme Court, the Bush Administrations sided with HMOs--arguing that patients shouldn't be allowed to sue HMOs when they are improperly denied treatment. With the Administration's help, the HMOs won.
64. The Bush Administration went to court to block lawsuits by patients who were injured by defective prescription drugs and medical devices.
65. President Bush signed a Medicare law that allows companies that reduce healthcare benefits for retirees to receive substantial subsidies from the government.
66. Since President Bush took office, more than 5 million people have lost their health insurance.
67. The Bush Administration blocked a proposal to ban the use of arsenic-treated lumber in playground equipment, even though it conceded it posed a danger to children.
68. One day after President Bush bragged about his efforts to help seniors afford healthcare, the Administration announced the largest dollar increase of Medicare premiums in history.
69. The Bush Administration--at the behest of the tobacco industry--tried to water down a global treaty that aimed to help curb smoking.
70. The Bush Administration has spent $270 million on abstinence-only education programs even though there is no scientific evidence demonstrating that they are effective in dissuading teenagers from having sex or reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
71. The Bush Administration slashed funding for programs that suggested ways, other than abstinence, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
ENVIRONMENT
72. The Bush Administration gutted clean-air standards for aging power plants, resulting in at least 20,000 premature deaths each year.
73. The Bush Administration eliminated protections on more than 200 million acres of public lands.
74. President Bush broke his promise to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions, an essential step in combating global warming.
75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration told people living near Ground Zero that the air was safe--even though they knew it wasn't--subjecting hundreds of people to unnecessary,
debilitating ailments.
76. The Bush Administration created a massive tax loophole for SUVs--allowing, for example, the write-off of the entire cost of a new Hummer.
77. The Bush Administration put former coal-industry big shots in the government and let them roll back safety regulations, putting miners at greater risk of black lung disease.
78. The Bush Administration said that even though the weed killer atrazine was seeping into water supplies--creating, among other bizarre creatures, hermaphroditic frogs--there was no reason to regulate it.
79. The Bush Administration has proposed cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by $600 million next year.
80. President Bush broke his campaign promise to end the maintenance backlog at national parks. He has provided just 7 percent of the funds needed, according to National Park Service estimates.
RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft has detained 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps; none have been convicted of a terrorist crime.
82. The Bush Administration ignored pleas from the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop the abuse of prisoners in US custody.
83. In violation of international law, the Bush Administration hid prisoners from the Red Cross so the organization couldn't monitor their treatment.
84. The Bush Administration, without ever charging him with a crime, arrested US citizen José Padilla at an airport in Chicago, held him on a naval brig in South Carolina for two years, denied him access to a lawyer and prohibited any contact with his friends and family.
85. President Bush's top legal adviser wrote a memo to the President advising him that he can legally authorize torture.
86. At the direction of Bush Administration officials, the FBI went door to door questioning people planning on protesting at the 2004 political conventions.
87. The Bush Administration refuses to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate the abuse of foreign prisoners in American custody. Instead, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld selected the members of a commission to review the conduct of his own department.
FLIP FLOPS
88. President Bush opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission before he supported it, delaying an essential inquiry into one of the greatest intelligence failure in American history.
89. President Bush said gay marriage was a state issue before he supported a constitutional amendment banning it.
90. President Bush said he was committed to capturing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" before he said, "I truly am not that concerned about him."
91. President Bush said we had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, before he admitted we hadn't found them.
92. President Bush said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," before he admitted Saddam had no role in 9/11.
BIOGRAPHY
93. George Bush didn't come close to meeting his commitments to the National Guard. Records show he performed no service in a six-month period in 1972 and a three-month period in 1973.
94. In June 1990 George Bush violated federal securities law when he failed to inform the SEC that he had sold 200,000 shares of his company, Harken Energy. Two months later the company reported significant losses and by the end of that year the stock had dropped from $3 to $1.
95. When asked at an April 2004 press conference to name a mistake he made during his presidency, Bush couldn't think of one.
SECRECY
96. The Bush Administration refuses to release twenty-seven pages of a Congressional report that reportedly detail the Saudi Arabian government's connections to the 9/11 hijackers.
97. Last year the Bush Administration spent $6.5 billion creating 14 million new classified documents and securing old secrets--the highest level of spending in ten years.
98. The Bush Administration spent $120 classifying documents for every $1 it spent declassifying documents.
99. The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars and defied numerous court orders to conceal from the public who participated in Vice President Cheney's 2001 energy task force.
100. The Bush Administration--reversing years of bipartisan tradition--refuses to answer requests from Democratic members of Congress about how the White House is spending taxpayer money.
OPINION
If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the United States and the world.
"... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
--Hermann Goering, Nazi defendant at the Nuremburg Trials
100 Facts and 1 Opinion by Judd Legum (Click the link to see the full article with the links to sources)
Click here to download, circulate and distribute a PDF version of this article.
IRAQ
1. The Bush Administration has spent more than $140 billion on a war of choice in Iraq.
2. The Bush Administration sent troops into battle without adequate body armor or armored Humvees.
3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates from Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq.
4. Vice President Cheney said Americans "will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" in Iraq.
5. During the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, more than 1,000 US troops have lost their lives and more than 7,000 have been injured.
6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and triumphantly announced that major combat
operations were over in Iraq. Asked if he had any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would do it all over again.
7. Vice President Cheney said that Iraq was "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11." The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative operational relationship with Al Qaeda.
8. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we don't want the
smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The government's top nuclear scientists had told the Administration the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too long" to be of use in developing
nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes.
9. The Bush Administration has spent just $1.1 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction.
10. According to the Administration's handpicked weapon's inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do so." After the release of the report, Bush continued to insist, "There was a risk--a real risk--that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons, or materials, or information to terrorist networks."
11. According to Duelfer, the UN inspections regime put an "economic strangle hold" on Hussein that prevented him from developing a WMD program for more than twelve years.
TERRORISM
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack America," President Bush continued his monthlong vacation.
13. The Bush Administration failed to commit enough troops to capture Osama bin Laden when US forces had him cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November 2001. Instead, they relied on local warlords.
14. The Bush Administration secured less nuclear material from sites around the world vulnerable to terrorists in the two years after 9/11 than were secured in the two years before 9/11.
15. The Bush Administration underfunded Nunn-Lugar--the program intended to keep the former Soviet Union's nuclear legacy out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states--by $45.5 million.
16. The Bush Administration has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money.
17. According to Congressional Research Service data, the Bush Administration has underfunded security at the nation's ports by more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2005.
18. The Bush Administration did not devote the resources necessary to prevent a resurgence in the production of poppies, the raw material used to create heroin, in Afghanistan--creating a
potent new source of financing for terrorists.
19. Vice President Cheney told voters that unless they elect George Bush in November, "we'll get hit again" by terrorists.
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban.
21. Despite repeated calls for reinforcements, there are fewer experienced CIA agents assigned to the unit dealing with Osama bin Laden now than there were before 9/11.
22. Before 9/11, John Ashcroft proposed slashing counterterrorism funding by 23 percent.
23. Between January 20, 2001, and September 10, 2001, the Bush Administration publicly mentioned Al Qaeda one time.
24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11 Commission $3 million to investigate the September 11 attacks and $50 million to the commission that investigated the Columbia space shuttle crash.
25. More than three years after 9/11, just 5 percent of all cargo--including cargo transported on passenger planes--is screened.
NATIONAL SECURITY
26. During the Bush Administration, North Korea quadrupled its suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight weapons.
27. The Bush Administration has openly opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
28. The Bush Administration has spent $7 billion this year--and plans to spend $10 billion next year--for a missile defense system that has never worked in a test that wasn't rigged.
29. The Bush Administration underfunded the needs of the nation's first responders by $98 billion, according to a Council on Foreign Relations study.
CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION
30. The Bush Administration awarded a multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton--a company that still pays Vice President Cheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred
compensation each year (Cheney also has Halliburton stock options). The company then repeatedly overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks from subcontractors and served troops dirty food. [Laura's note: A congressional committee determined Cheney's unactivated stock-options were "retained ties" to the company].
31. The Bush Administration told Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before telling Secretary of State Colin Powell.
32. The Bush Administration relentlessly pushed an energy bill containing $23.5 billion in corporate tax breaks, much of which would have benefited major campaign contributors.
33. The Bush Administration paid Iraqi-exile and neocon darling Ahmad Chalabi $400,000 a month for intelligence, including fabricated claims about Iraqi WMD. It continued to pay him for
months after discovering that he was providing inaccurate information.
34. The Bush Administration installed as top officials more than 100 former lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.
35. The Bush Administration let disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay--a close friend of President Bush--help write its energy policy.
36. Top Bush Administration officials accepted $127,600 in jewelry and other presents from the Saudi royal family in 2003, including diamond-and-sapphire jewelry valued at $95,500 for First Lady Laura Bush.
37. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge awarded lucrative contracts to several companies in which he is an investor, including Microsoft, GE, Sprint, Pfizer and Oracle.
38. President Bush used images of firefighters carrying flag-draped coffins through the rubble of the World Trade Center to score political points in a campaign advertisement.
THE ECONOMY
39. President Bush's top economic adviser, Greg Mankiw, said the outsourcing of American jobs abroad was "a plus for the economy in the long run."
40. The Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit.
41. The Bush Administration implemented regulations that made millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay.
42. The Bush Administration has crippled state budgets by underfunding federal mandates by $175 billion.
43. President Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs--around 800,000--over a four-year term.
44. The Bush Administration gave Accenture a multibillion-dollar border control contract even though the company moved its operations to Bermuda to avoid paying taxes.
45. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum." He passed the tax cuts, but the top 20 percent of earners received 68 percent of the benefits.
46. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to pay down the national debt to a historically low level. As of September 30, the national debt stood at $7,379,052,696,330.32, a record high.
Sources: www.georgewbush.com , Bureau of the Public Debt
47. As major corporate scandals rocked the nation's economy, the Bush Administration reduced the enforcement of corporate tax law--conducting fewer audits, imposing fewer penalties, pursuing fewer prosecutions and making virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes.
48. The Bush Administration increased tax audits for the working poor.
49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to protect the Social Security surplus. As President, he spent all of it.
50. The Bush Administration proposed slashing funding for the largest federal public housing program, putting 2 million families in danger of losing their housing.
51. The Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the minimum wage from falling to an inflation-adjusted fifty-year low.
EDUCATION
52. The Bush Administration underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act by $9.4 billion.
53. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to increase the maximum federal scholarship, or Pell Grant, by 50 percent. Instead, each year he has been in office he has frozen or cut
the maximum scholarship amount.
54. The Bush Administration's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called the National Education Association--a union of teachers--a "terrorist organization."
HEALTHCARE
55. The Bush Administration, in violation of the law, refused to allow Medicare actuary Richard Foster to tell members of Congress the actual cost of their Medicare bill. Instead, they repeated a figure they knew was $100 billion too low.
56. The nonpartisan GAO concluded the Bush Administration created illegal, covert propaganda--in the form of fake news reports--to promote its industry-backed Medicare bill.
57. The Bush Administration stunted research that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal injuries, heart disease and muscular dystrophy by placing severe
restrictions on the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem-cell research.
58. The Bush Administration reinstated the "global gag rule," which requires foreign NGOs to withhold information about legal abortion services or lose US funds for family planning.
59. The Bush Administration authorized twenty companies that have been charged with fraud at the federal or state level to offer Medicare prescription drug cards to seniors.
60. The Bush Administration created a prescription drug card for Medicare that locks seniors into one card for up to a year but allows the corporations offering the cards to change their
prices once a week.
61. The Bush Administration blocked efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices for seniors.
62. At the behest of the french fry industry, the Bush Administration USDA changed their definition of fresh vegetables to include frozen french fries.
63. In a case before the Supreme Court, the Bush Administrations sided with HMOs--arguing that patients shouldn't be allowed to sue HMOs when they are improperly denied treatment. With the Administration's help, the HMOs won.
64. The Bush Administration went to court to block lawsuits by patients who were injured by defective prescription drugs and medical devices.
65. President Bush signed a Medicare law that allows companies that reduce healthcare benefits for retirees to receive substantial subsidies from the government.
66. Since President Bush took office, more than 5 million people have lost their health insurance.
67. The Bush Administration blocked a proposal to ban the use of arsenic-treated lumber in playground equipment, even though it conceded it posed a danger to children.
68. One day after President Bush bragged about his efforts to help seniors afford healthcare, the Administration announced the largest dollar increase of Medicare premiums in history.
69. The Bush Administration--at the behest of the tobacco industry--tried to water down a global treaty that aimed to help curb smoking.
70. The Bush Administration has spent $270 million on abstinence-only education programs even though there is no scientific evidence demonstrating that they are effective in dissuading teenagers from having sex or reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
71. The Bush Administration slashed funding for programs that suggested ways, other than abstinence, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
ENVIRONMENT
72. The Bush Administration gutted clean-air standards for aging power plants, resulting in at least 20,000 premature deaths each year.
73. The Bush Administration eliminated protections on more than 200 million acres of public lands.
74. President Bush broke his promise to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions, an essential step in combating global warming.
75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration told people living near Ground Zero that the air was safe--even though they knew it wasn't--subjecting hundreds of people to unnecessary,
debilitating ailments.
76. The Bush Administration created a massive tax loophole for SUVs--allowing, for example, the write-off of the entire cost of a new Hummer.
77. The Bush Administration put former coal-industry big shots in the government and let them roll back safety regulations, putting miners at greater risk of black lung disease.
78. The Bush Administration said that even though the weed killer atrazine was seeping into water supplies--creating, among other bizarre creatures, hermaphroditic frogs--there was no reason to regulate it.
79. The Bush Administration has proposed cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by $600 million next year.
80. President Bush broke his campaign promise to end the maintenance backlog at national parks. He has provided just 7 percent of the funds needed, according to National Park Service estimates.
RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft has detained 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps; none have been convicted of a terrorist crime.
82. The Bush Administration ignored pleas from the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop the abuse of prisoners in US custody.
83. In violation of international law, the Bush Administration hid prisoners from the Red Cross so the organization couldn't monitor their treatment.
84. The Bush Administration, without ever charging him with a crime, arrested US citizen José Padilla at an airport in Chicago, held him on a naval brig in South Carolina for two years, denied him access to a lawyer and prohibited any contact with his friends and family.
85. President Bush's top legal adviser wrote a memo to the President advising him that he can legally authorize torture.
86. At the direction of Bush Administration officials, the FBI went door to door questioning people planning on protesting at the 2004 political conventions.
87. The Bush Administration refuses to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate the abuse of foreign prisoners in American custody. Instead, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld selected the members of a commission to review the conduct of his own department.
FLIP FLOPS
88. President Bush opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission before he supported it, delaying an essential inquiry into one of the greatest intelligence failure in American history.
89. President Bush said gay marriage was a state issue before he supported a constitutional amendment banning it.
90. President Bush said he was committed to capturing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" before he said, "I truly am not that concerned about him."
91. President Bush said we had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, before he admitted we hadn't found them.
92. President Bush said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," before he admitted Saddam had no role in 9/11.
BIOGRAPHY
93. George Bush didn't come close to meeting his commitments to the National Guard. Records show he performed no service in a six-month period in 1972 and a three-month period in 1973.
94. In June 1990 George Bush violated federal securities law when he failed to inform the SEC that he had sold 200,000 shares of his company, Harken Energy. Two months later the company reported significant losses and by the end of that year the stock had dropped from $3 to $1.
95. When asked at an April 2004 press conference to name a mistake he made during his presidency, Bush couldn't think of one.
SECRECY
96. The Bush Administration refuses to release twenty-seven pages of a Congressional report that reportedly detail the Saudi Arabian government's connections to the 9/11 hijackers.
97. Last year the Bush Administration spent $6.5 billion creating 14 million new classified documents and securing old secrets--the highest level of spending in ten years.
98. The Bush Administration spent $120 classifying documents for every $1 it spent declassifying documents.
99. The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars and defied numerous court orders to conceal from the public who participated in Vice President Cheney's 2001 energy task force.
100. The Bush Administration--reversing years of bipartisan tradition--refuses to answer requests from Democratic members of Congress about how the White House is spending taxpayer money.
OPINION
If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the United States and the world.
21 October 2004
Happy Birthday to Me!
So John was in California for work. He left Monday and was getting back on Friday. I wasn't that upset because really what was I going to do on a Wednesday for my birthday anyway. So Sean and Niki invite me out for dinner, and I said lets do Tapas since John's not here and he would hate that (i.e. I go to places he hates when he's out of town).
So we meet at Cafe Ba Ba Re Ba at 7pm. We order a couple Tapas and some Sangria and in walks Donna. I thought she was busy Wednesday night - but she drove in just for me.
So when Donna walks in, I litterally did a double take and just kept saying "wait, what, what...wait". I was very confused. So I thought Sean and Niki had arranged for Donna to come out so I'd have a little more of a "party" - even though I wasn't planning on doing anything that night anyway.
So we're eating, and drinking and talking. And then, in walks John...
My first thought was "I didn't drink THAT much yet". So he faked his whole having to be in California until Friday, and he flew back wednesday morning and was at home this afternoon (looking back now I realize why the dog didn't have to make a b-line for the door to go pee when I got home). He planned the whole thing. He made sure I thought Donna was busy, and that I would go out with Sean & Niki. Isn't that sweet?!
So I had a great birthday.
So we meet at Cafe Ba Ba Re Ba at 7pm. We order a couple Tapas and some Sangria and in walks Donna. I thought she was busy Wednesday night - but she drove in just for me.
Side Note: I felt bad though since I thought we were getting together for our
birthdays tonight, thursday, so I haven't wrapped her gift yet- had I known she
was coming I would have done that and brought it).
So when Donna walks in, I litterally did a double take and just kept saying "wait, what, what...wait". I was very confused. So I thought Sean and Niki had arranged for Donna to come out so I'd have a little more of a "party" - even though I wasn't planning on doing anything that night anyway.
So we're eating, and drinking and talking. And then, in walks John...
My first thought was "I didn't drink THAT much yet". So he faked his whole having to be in California until Friday, and he flew back wednesday morning and was at home this afternoon (looking back now I realize why the dog didn't have to make a b-line for the door to go pee when I got home). He planned the whole thing. He made sure I thought Donna was busy, and that I would go out with Sean & Niki. Isn't that sweet?!
So I had a great birthday.
11 October 2004
An interesting weekend
If you would have told me before this past weekend that I would be sitting in room 650 of the Hilton Milwaukee watching the U Wisc vs. Ohio State football game with the Secret Service I would have said you were insane. No this is not my last communique before they ship me off to Gitmo, I'm fine. How did I get there? Well I'm glad you asked:
One minute Donna and I are at the Milwaukee Democratic HQ "reporting for duty" - we signed up to be Kerry Travelers to help out with whatever. Though the person I talked to on the phone about volunteering was Greg, we found ourselves talking to Chris at 9am on October 9th. Chris said he needs people for the John Edwards motorcade because he's making a last minute stop in Milwaukee. Donna's face lit up like a Christmas tree. We were a bit confused because Chris asked us if we had a car - like we were going to drive our own cars in the motorcade - but have you ever seen that? So before we figured out what was going on, Donna is wondering if we should go to the car wash. We were going to meet at the Milwaukee Hilton at 12:30pm. Between now and then, we were going to a rally in the park where Barack Obama was helping democrats in Wisconsin like Russ Feingold campaign. Everyone is riding on Obama's coattails, even in other states - he's a rock star.
Chris didn't know where the Hilton was, how to get there, who we would be meeting, or know anyone in the office who could tell us any more detail. But he got our cell phone numbers and said he would call us with details. I know it was last minute, trying to pull people together, but still...
We get to Washington Park for the Obama/Feingold rally and it was fun. We figured we could find someone who knew where the hotel was. There was another couple in front of us at HQ who we saw at the rally, but didn't think to ask them. Incidentally, the husband of that couple looked exactly like Colin Mochrie from Who's Line is it Anway? We also saw an Edward Norton twin. We find someone who thinks it's the Hilton on Wisconsin & 6th - which would take us right back past the HQ, so we decided to stop back at the HQ to get more details. Chris doesn't know where it is, and says to ask the people who are from Milwaukee. So I do. They 'don't have an address' so I ask if they know the cross streets... no. Do you have a phone book? No. At this point, I'm getting annoyed and thinking to myself "and they wonder why the Republicans always win - they're FRIGGIN ORGANIZED". One woman says it's the Hilton across from the convention center, somewhere between 9th and 6th. So basically, I, who have never been to Milwaukee before, figured out that if the streets reduce in number toward downtown, that if we drive that way, we'll hit it... Rocket Science I tell you.
We get there, find parking, decide we're hungry, grab a quick grilled cheese at the hotel bar, and meet up with several people in the lobby. We met some very cool people, including a 30-something, freelance videographer and treehugger from the northwest side that Donna thought was cute. Bob - if you're out there, find Donna.
So we wait, and wait... finally more people show up and we found out that several of the people were contacted the night before to be in the motorcade, so they probably won't need us (the people who signed up this morning). So we wait more. The motorcade people said "someone from upstairs" will come to get us. We wait. Marcus has a contact number, calls someone, and they tell us they're in room 650 and to come up. We get put to work putting information in the staff rooms, being escorted around by staffers because the secret service can't have unknowns wandering too close to "the Suite". They're restricting movement, sweeping the floor with dogs. I see on the table a room key for John and Elizabeth Edwards - weird. They will be staying just down the hall, relaxing with the kids.
So we wait a little while longer, and the staff arrives. At this point, we missed the airport rally that we were supposed to be a part of as part of the motorcade, and we give up all hope of meeting John Edwards. We hear kids run down the hall and figure they're here. We were dismissed about a half hour later, and went back to Donna's place.
The whole experience was rather surreal. I mean, I wouldn't call the day a total waste, but I feel I could have accomplished more as a canvasser or something.
We went back for a few hours Sunday and did some data entry.
Oh well...
One minute Donna and I are at the Milwaukee Democratic HQ "reporting for duty" - we signed up to be Kerry Travelers to help out with whatever. Though the person I talked to on the phone about volunteering was Greg, we found ourselves talking to Chris at 9am on October 9th. Chris said he needs people for the John Edwards motorcade because he's making a last minute stop in Milwaukee. Donna's face lit up like a Christmas tree. We were a bit confused because Chris asked us if we had a car - like we were going to drive our own cars in the motorcade - but have you ever seen that? So before we figured out what was going on, Donna is wondering if we should go to the car wash. We were going to meet at the Milwaukee Hilton at 12:30pm. Between now and then, we were going to a rally in the park where Barack Obama was helping democrats in Wisconsin like Russ Feingold campaign. Everyone is riding on Obama's coattails, even in other states - he's a rock star.
Chris didn't know where the Hilton was, how to get there, who we would be meeting, or know anyone in the office who could tell us any more detail. But he got our cell phone numbers and said he would call us with details. I know it was last minute, trying to pull people together, but still...
We get to Washington Park for the Obama/Feingold rally and it was fun. We figured we could find someone who knew where the hotel was. There was another couple in front of us at HQ who we saw at the rally, but didn't think to ask them. Incidentally, the husband of that couple looked exactly like Colin Mochrie from Who's Line is it Anway? We also saw an Edward Norton twin. We find someone who thinks it's the Hilton on Wisconsin & 6th - which would take us right back past the HQ, so we decided to stop back at the HQ to get more details. Chris doesn't know where it is, and says to ask the people who are from Milwaukee. So I do. They 'don't have an address' so I ask if they know the cross streets... no. Do you have a phone book? No. At this point, I'm getting annoyed and thinking to myself "and they wonder why the Republicans always win - they're FRIGGIN ORGANIZED". One woman says it's the Hilton across from the convention center, somewhere between 9th and 6th. So basically, I, who have never been to Milwaukee before, figured out that if the streets reduce in number toward downtown, that if we drive that way, we'll hit it... Rocket Science I tell you.
We get there, find parking, decide we're hungry, grab a quick grilled cheese at the hotel bar, and meet up with several people in the lobby. We met some very cool people, including a 30-something, freelance videographer and treehugger from the northwest side that Donna thought was cute. Bob - if you're out there, find Donna.
So we wait, and wait... finally more people show up and we found out that several of the people were contacted the night before to be in the motorcade, so they probably won't need us (the people who signed up this morning). So we wait more. The motorcade people said "someone from upstairs" will come to get us. We wait. Marcus has a contact number, calls someone, and they tell us they're in room 650 and to come up. We get put to work putting information in the staff rooms, being escorted around by staffers because the secret service can't have unknowns wandering too close to "the Suite". They're restricting movement, sweeping the floor with dogs. I see on the table a room key for John and Elizabeth Edwards - weird. They will be staying just down the hall, relaxing with the kids.
So we wait a little while longer, and the staff arrives. At this point, we missed the airport rally that we were supposed to be a part of as part of the motorcade, and we give up all hope of meeting John Edwards. We hear kids run down the hall and figure they're here. We were dismissed about a half hour later, and went back to Donna's place.
The whole experience was rather surreal. I mean, I wouldn't call the day a total waste, but I feel I could have accomplished more as a canvasser or something.
We went back for a few hours Sunday and did some data entry.
Oh well...
06 October 2004
Oh the Irony!
Anyone watch the Veep debates? Among the things Cheney mentioned that "factcheck.com" had debunked many of the claims made by Edwards regarding Halliburton.
He meant factcheck.org, which is a non-partison group who analyze the claims and content of political advertising - here is what they wrote about Cheney's referring to them:
As if that weren't enough of a smack in the head for Cheney... check out factcheck.com... go ahead, I'll wait: www.factcheck.com
Funny eh?
He meant factcheck.org, which is a non-partison group who analyze the claims and content of political advertising - here is what they wrote about Cheney's referring to them:
" Cheney got our domain name wrong -- calling us "FactCheck.com" -- and
wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton.
In fact, we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn't
profited personally while in office from Halliburton's Iraq contracts,
as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad. But Edwards was talking about Cheney's
responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly
right."
As if that weren't enough of a smack in the head for Cheney... check out factcheck.com... go ahead, I'll wait: www.factcheck.com
Funny eh?
04 October 2004
Faux News: At it again
I regularly check The Guardian for news, since they tend to have a different perspective on things than what is spoon fed to us by our own media. Anyway, apparently Fox was caught fabricating quotes from John Kerry - trying to paint him as an urban girly-man. Obviously this was an attempt to try and turn the rural and somewhat conservative vote against Kerry. This is a common tactic of the Right (detailed in What's the Matter with Kansas), which attempts to paint democrats & liberals as latte-drinking, urban snobs who hold rural people in contempt.
Thankfully, the Guardian isn't the only place this story appears - which means some Americans who may have seen/heard the "quotes" will hopefully realize they're incorrect.
Now, Fox is maintaining that this was "an attempt at humor" by their chief political correspondent. If I want satrical news, I'll watch The Daily Show. However, if FOX purports to be a source of unbiased NEWS (insert laugh track), then why are they attempting humor to begin with. In my opinion, this is a blantant example of how partisan news outlets attempt to blur the line between entertainment and news. And you can't tell me that they don't run the copy by editors before it's posted!
"...Democratic challenger was quoted telling a rally in Florida: "Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" Comparing himself to the president, Mr Kerry was supposed to have said: "I'm metrosexual - he's a cowboy." Women voters, he purportedly added, "should like me! I do manicures."
Thankfully, the Guardian isn't the only place this story appears - which means some Americans who may have seen/heard the "quotes" will hopefully realize they're incorrect.
Now, Fox is maintaining that this was "an attempt at humor" by their chief political correspondent. If I want satrical news, I'll watch The Daily Show. However, if FOX purports to be a source of unbiased NEWS (insert laugh track), then why are they attempting humor to begin with. In my opinion, this is a blantant example of how partisan news outlets attempt to blur the line between entertainment and news. And you can't tell me that they don't run the copy by editors before it's posted!
01 October 2004
What about Poland?
It turns out that while debating Kerry last night, Bush forgot one small point about Poland - they're pulling their troops out of Iraq. So, Mr. President, given that news, I ask again: so what about Poland?
Total troops deployed by U.S. and "coalition:"
Total troops - 133,000*
U.S. - 112,000 (84.2%)
Poland - 2,400 (1.8%)
*Remember also that General Shinseki said the operations would require several hundred thousand troops and Rumsfeld ignored him. At his book signing this week, Richard Clarke made a fantastic point about the consequences of ignoring expert military advice. In the battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down) American military officers requested tanks and armor-protected troop carriers from Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. They were repeatedly rebuffed. Aspin resigned shortly thereafter, and Clarke calls for Rumsfeld to resign for his mistakes, both in ignoring Gen. Shinseki and for the violations at Abu Graib. As a side note, if you haven't gotten a chance to read Clarke's book, I highly recommend picking it up.
Casualties as of September 30, 2004
U.S. - 1,056 (88.4%)
Briton - 68 (5.7%)
Italy - 19 (1.6%)
Poland - 13 (1.1%)
Spain - 11 (0.9%)
Ukraine - 9 (0.8%)
Bugaria - 6 (0.5%)
Slovakia - 3 (0.3%)
Netherlands - 2 (0.2%)
Thailand - 2 (0.2%)
Denmark - 1 (0.08%)
El Salvador - 1 (0.08%)
Estonia - 1 (0.08%)
Hungary - 1 (0.08%)
Latvia - 1 (0.08%)
Total - 1,194 (100.1%)*
Total % may not equal 100% due to rounding.
The United States is bearing the brunt of the human and financial resources for the mess in Iraq, and we need a viable exit strategy. It is imperitive that that strategy not involve neocons like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who as Bush alluded to, want regime change in Iran and Syria in order to protect Israel. No mention of regime change in Saudi Arabia though -they're just as bad as Iran and Syria in terms of political and social oppression of their own people - oh, wait-they LIKE us so it's ok.
As for Bush's constant referral to "freedom" in Afghanistan and especially women in Afghanistan. He seems to be forgetting that even though the Taliban is no longer officially in power, the cultural norms espoused by the Taliban still exist. Most women still wear the burqa for fear of being beaten or raped in the streets. In the rural areas, girls' schools are being burned down and poor farmers are selling their daughters into marriages with drug lords to pay off debts. I'm not saying they were better off with the Taliban in power. I'm just saying it's morally wrong to use "liberation" of women as a political tool. It's even worse to do this when the liberation is only on paper, not in practice. In a way, Afghan women are worse off now because at least with the Taliban in power the liberation movements gained international attention. If everyone belives that with the Taliban gone, they're "liberated" they run the risk of forgetting there is still a long way to go for Afghan women to truly be free.
Total troops deployed by U.S. and "coalition:"
Total troops - 133,000*
U.S. - 112,000 (84.2%)
Poland - 2,400 (1.8%)
*Remember also that General Shinseki said the operations would require several hundred thousand troops and Rumsfeld ignored him. At his book signing this week, Richard Clarke made a fantastic point about the consequences of ignoring expert military advice. In the battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down) American military officers requested tanks and armor-protected troop carriers from Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. They were repeatedly rebuffed. Aspin resigned shortly thereafter, and Clarke calls for Rumsfeld to resign for his mistakes, both in ignoring Gen. Shinseki and for the violations at Abu Graib. As a side note, if you haven't gotten a chance to read Clarke's book, I highly recommend picking it up.
Casualties as of September 30, 2004
U.S. - 1,056 (88.4%)
Briton - 68 (5.7%)
Italy - 19 (1.6%)
Poland - 13 (1.1%)
Spain - 11 (0.9%)
Ukraine - 9 (0.8%)
Bugaria - 6 (0.5%)
Slovakia - 3 (0.3%)
Netherlands - 2 (0.2%)
Thailand - 2 (0.2%)
Denmark - 1 (0.08%)
El Salvador - 1 (0.08%)
Estonia - 1 (0.08%)
Hungary - 1 (0.08%)
Latvia - 1 (0.08%)
Total - 1,194 (100.1%)*
Total % may not equal 100% due to rounding.
The United States is bearing the brunt of the human and financial resources for the mess in Iraq, and we need a viable exit strategy. It is imperitive that that strategy not involve neocons like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who as Bush alluded to, want regime change in Iran and Syria in order to protect Israel. No mention of regime change in Saudi Arabia though -they're just as bad as Iran and Syria in terms of political and social oppression of their own people - oh, wait-they LIKE us so it's ok.
As for Bush's constant referral to "freedom" in Afghanistan and especially women in Afghanistan. He seems to be forgetting that even though the Taliban is no longer officially in power, the cultural norms espoused by the Taliban still exist. Most women still wear the burqa for fear of being beaten or raped in the streets. In the rural areas, girls' schools are being burned down and poor farmers are selling their daughters into marriages with drug lords to pay off debts. I'm not saying they were better off with the Taliban in power. I'm just saying it's morally wrong to use "liberation" of women as a political tool. It's even worse to do this when the liberation is only on paper, not in practice. In a way, Afghan women are worse off now because at least with the Taliban in power the liberation movements gained international attention. If everyone belives that with the Taliban gone, they're "liberated" they run the risk of forgetting there is still a long way to go for Afghan women to truly be free.
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