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ENVIRONMENTALLY
DESTRUCTIVE: |
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has weakened, gutted, and dismantled countless environmental regulations and standards, compromising clean air, clean water, climate stability, and the protection of public health and safety. There are far too many actions to enumerate here, but one example is the rollback of laws requiring upgrades to make coal-burning power plants less polluting (under the guise of a so-called "Clear Skies" initiative), and the opening up of national forests to increased logging (under the guise of the "Healthy Forests" initiative). During this Administration, multiple high-ranking EPA officials have resigned, including the Bush-appointed EPA Administrator (a Republican) and the head of the EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement. When President Bush first took office, one of his first acts was to try to roll back arsenic standards for drinking water; fortunately, this attempt was defeated. Unfortunately, the Administration has gotten away with most of its other anti-environmental measures, which have been overshadowed in the media by news of Homeland Security and war. (See
www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/ and
www.bushgreenwatch.org for a list of the hundreds of anti-environmental actions the Administration has taken.) |
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ECONOMICALLY
DESTRUCTIVE: |
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has quickly created the largest federal deficit in history, after inheriting a record surplus from the previous Administration. Meanwhile, unemployment levels have increased dramatically since President Bush took office. While Bush promised to create 2.6 million new jobs by the end of 2004, Americans have instead experienced record job losses in the millions since he took office, the worst losses seen since the Great Depression days of Herbert Hoover's administration. Recent job growth trends are artificial, as they are fueled by reckless deficit spending: debt that will have to be paid off by Americans in future years. (News stories abound on this topic; see:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A538-2004Feb23.html, and
www.bushwatch.org/economy.htm) |
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SOCIALLY
DESTRUCTIVE: |
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has given substantial tax breaks to huge corporations and the wealthiest 5% of the population to reward millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the middle class, necessitating major cutbacks on critical social services including school funding and police and firefighter/public safety services, potentially stealing Social Security funds away from seniors and seniors-to-be, and broadening the gap between rich and poor. Meanwhile, several million more Americans don't have health insurance since President Bush took office, and those who do have health coverage are paying much more for it. (A couple of articles on these issues are at:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A538-2004Feb23.html, and
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,963529,00.html) |
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UNDEMOCRATIC: |
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has eroded our privacy, civil liberties, and constitutional rights through increasingly totalitarian measures: has allowed for greater internet surveillance and has given the FBI the right to access citizens' personal medical, mental health, financial, and student records without notification or permissions. The Administration also routinely holds closed-door meetings for discussions that should be open to the press and public scrutiny for democratic discourse. (See
www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12126&c=207 for more information about "Patriot Act" provisions.) |
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UNJUST: |
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has withheld due process protections from prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay military base, meaning that potentially innocent people are being detained indefinitely with no charges, no contact with the outside world, and no legal recourse to make their case. The Administration has also called for secret military tribunals to judge "enemy combatant" cases, instead of allowing proper access to the justice system. (See
www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13079&c=207 for details.) |
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CORRUPT: |
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is bought out by and beholden to special interest groups (rather than serving the public interest); policy is being influenced by and created by campaign donors such as oil and coal companies. There are blatant conflicts of interest between the corporate roles and government roles of various members of the Administration (case in point: Cheney's role in Halliburton and Halliburton's contracts for rebuilding Iraq). (See CBS' 60 Minutes story on Halliburton's business interests in Iraq and the Middle East:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/22/60minutes/main595214.shtml) |
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DISHONEST: |
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knowingly used faulty intelligence about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction (and Saddam Hussein's supposed ties to Al Qaeda) as propaganda to scare and deceive Congress and the American people, in an attempt to justify going to war. (For more detailed information on the Administration's deceptions, check out
www.misleader.org and www.moveon.org/censure/censure-resources.html) |
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UNETHICAL: |
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set an immoral and uncivilized precedent for the U.S. by waging a pre-emptive war of aggression for the purpose of regime change, causing the unnecessary deaths of both civilians and military personnel, and decimating the infrastructure of Iraq through massive bombing campaigns. (See an article on this topic published in The American Conservative and in the Journal of Ethics and Globalization at
www.parallaxonline.org/fagainstprewar5.html) |
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EXTREMIST: |
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is strongly influenced by the agenda of the Christian Coalition and the fundamentalist "religious right," which is staunchly anti-abortion (even in cases of rape and incest), is intolerant of gays, and is trying to remove the separations between Church and State. The Administration has continually nominated judges who hold far-right ideological positions, which do not reflect the beliefs and values of most Americans, including mainstream Christians. (For details on the extremist agenda shared by the religious right and the Bush Administration, check out this website of
TheocracyWatch.org: www.4religious-right.info/) |
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ANTAGONISTIC: |
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squandered the global good will and sympathy that the United States received from almost every country after 9/11 and alienated the U.S. from many countries in Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere, as well as from the United Nations, through an arrogant, non-diplomatic, isolationist, and often unilateral foreign policy approach and a refusal to cooperate in critical international treaties. Far from being seen as a "liberator," the U.S. is widely seen as a global bully. (Countless news articles have documented this; one example is at:
www.abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/foreign_journalists020908.html) |
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| We've never seen a record worse than this one. What's most frightening are the long-lasting consequences that this Administration's policies will have. Irreversible environmental and social damage and the appointment of lifelong judges with regressive, rightwing agendas will affect generations of people in our country and the world. The situation is likely to become worse in the Bush Administration's second term. |
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For all of these reasons and more, we are truly saddened that the Bush Administration has (apparently) won the 2004 presidential election.
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© 2004, Amusing Musings.com
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| For
more information on George W. Bush and his Administration,
check out these websites, articles, and books: |
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www.CenterForAmericanProgress.org |
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www.Misleader.org |
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www.UDecide.org |
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“The Case Against George W. Bush,” by Ron Reagan, Esquire magazine, www.truthout.org/docs_04/073104Y.shtml |
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"Vote for a Man, Not a Puppet," by Charley Reese (conservative columnist for Kerry), www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese74.html |
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"The Bubble of American Supremacy," by George Soros, The Atlantic Monthly, www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/12/soros.htm |
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BOOKS: |
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The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity, by Joseph Wilson |
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The
Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and
the Education of Paul O’Neill, by Ron Suskind |
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American
Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit
in the House of Bush, by Kevin Phillips (Republican
strategist) |
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Against All Enemies, by Richard Clarke |
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Worse than Watergate, by John Dean |
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House of Bush, House of Saud, by Craig Unger |
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Plan of Attack, by Bob Woodward |
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Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, by James Moore |
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The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century, by Paul Krugman |
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Imperial War: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia, by Gore Vidal |
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Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta, by Gore Vidal |
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Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by Al Franken |
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Thieves in High Places, by Jim Hightower |
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Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush, by Jim Hightower |
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Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, by Molly Ivins |
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The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, by Greg Palast |
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| To
become active in making a change, we recommend getting
involved with one of these groups: |
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www.MoveOnPAC.org |
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www.AmericaComingTogether.com |
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www.TrueMajority.org |
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