We must all think positive in this time of
war, the environment getting trashed, and the rich and corporations getting
richer while the poor get poorer. In this optimistic spirit, the following exhaustive list is a
comprehensive tally of all the stuff I can think of that is good that the Bush
Administration has done. I was going to create "Good", "Great", "Fantastic", and
"Wonderful" categories, but I have a feeling they aren't necessary at this time.
BUSH's GOOD DEEDS:
Cut off California from taking more than its legal allocation of Colorado River water
JUST TO MAKE SURE NO ONE MISSES THE POINT, I'VE STARTED A LIST OF BAD THINGS THE AXIS OF EVIL (Bush Administration: Bush + Cheney + Rumsfeld + Ashcroft) HAVE DONE. THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. I STOPPED UPDATING IT IN SPRING 2003 DUE TO SHEER MENTAL EXHAUSTION.
Bush's main failure was to use 9/11 to further his own agenda. Instead, he should have talked about how terrorism is related to our addiction to foreign oil, and he could have created an ambitious program to power our lives and economy from domestic oil sources. Shifting subsidies from oil companies to renewable energy was almost all he had to do to protect us from terrorism and give us a sustainable, peaceful future. He blew it big time.
"The Bush Administration's Nuclear Posture
Review is a national call to
catastrophe. ...We intend, once more, to stop this
nuclear insanity." --Physicians for Social
Responsibility
The United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset the doomsday clock from 9 minutes to midnight to 7 minutes to midnight in early 2002. This is only the third time since the end of the cold war that the minute hand has moved closer to midnight.
Seeking to weaken radiation exposure regulations just to save money. (Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
The Un-American USA PATRIOT ACT. Note the intolerant and authoritarian language intended to stifle healthy debate: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this. Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national security and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends." --John Ashcroft before the Senate Judiciary Committee (Source: ACLU) Benjamin Franklin has a little more credibility: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Secret arrests and trials. (Source: ACLU--I joined the ACLU 6 months after Sept. 11th in order to help them fight the evil Bush Administration for our liberties.)
Assuming powers not granted by the
constitution, without congressional approval or consultation. (Source:
ACLU)
Using the status "enemy combatant" to deny constitutional rights.
Insulting the American people and making the U.S. look bad by ignoring our traditions of fairness and liberty and freedom.
Racial profiling of Arab-Americans. (Source: ACLU)
Proposing Operation TIPS, a domestic spy program. (Source: ACLU)
Proposing a standardized national ID card. (Source: ACLU)
Assaults on religious liberty. (Source: ACLU)
Attempting to censor the internet. (Source: ACLU)
Appointing ultra-conservative imbalanced
judges out of touch with Americans.
"Americans must oppose the Administration's preemptive posture, which would allow the President to wage war almost entirely on his say-so." --Physicians for Social Responsibility
In its first months in office, the Bush Administration rejected a historic U.S.--South Korea peace initiative with the north, eventually redefining North Korea as a member of the "axis of evil"--a self-fulfilling prophesy. The last time a president called an entire nation "evil" was, I think, Ronald Reagan, when he dubbed the Soviet Union the "evil empire". Seems like Bush wants to copy quite a bit of Reagan's destructive policies. Simplistic language like "evil" does nothing for international diplomacy and just polarizes people. I personally know people in the former Soviet Union who are not evil. Ironically, now America has become the "evil empire" to most of the world.
EPA announcing "changes to rules under the Clean Air Act that directly threaten the health of all Americans... late in the afternoon on the Friday before Thanksgiving." What is he (and the corporations) afraid of? --Physicians for Social Responsibility
"...plans called 'Healthy Forests' that
destroy trees and 'Clear Skies'
that produce more air pollution." --Physicians
for Social Responsibility
The $7 billion Ballistic Missile Defense Program, whose missiles work less than 1/2 the time.
"...Heath and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has been stacking science advisory panels with industry advocates who are more concerned with an anti-regulatory political agenda than with sound scientific assessments of public health threats. ...the President is serving the constituencies that paid his way to the Oval Office by appointing them to the very decision-making bodies that monitor their industries. This is an abandonment of core protections that all Americans expect and deserve." --Physicians for Social Responsibility
A war with Iraq would
-defy international law, including Article 51 of the UN Charter which only
permits self-defense.
-increase anti-American sentiment worldwide and stimulate, not reduce terrorism.
-cost lives of U.S. Armed Forces in a war without clear justification, goals, or
American consensus.
-destabilize the Middle East
-risk the possible use of weapons of mass destruction in the region.
-cost an estimated $100-200 billion, not counting rebuilding Iraq, when needs at
home are not met.
-lead to an insecure world for our children where might makes right and the U.S.
is seen not as a leader in international cooperation and law, not in health and
human rights, but as an arrogant superpower seeking to impose its will.
(Source: Physicians for Social Responsibility)
Failing to increase the corporate fuel economy standards, subsidizing SUVs, and instead diverting attention to hydrogen fuel cells, which will require even more energy to run and won't help us become independent of foreign energy. See http://drivingthefuture.com/fuelcell.htm.
Philip Morris sent a 32-page letter to the administration outlining 11 provisions it wanted struck from an international tobacco treaty (treaty language included things like bans on advertising to children). A month later, Philip Morris contributed $57,764 to the Republican Party. A week later, our top negotiator in Geneva was ordered to back down from anti-smoking stands and the U.S. delegation began advocating for 10 of the 11 deletions. (Source: Mother Jones)
Creating the "Information Awareness Office" which is building the "Total Information Awareness System", a vast database of employment records, ISP accounts, medical histories, and credit-card information of average Americans. The project is led by someone that was involved in the Iran/Contra scandal. (Source: Mother Jones)
Pre-emptive strike on Iraq, with no imminent threat to the US, without the support of the UN. “Sometimes people who believe that their cause is a correct one, lose sight of the procedural violations and believe that the means they pursue are justified by the goodness of the ends they desire.” --Commissioner Redenbaugh, US Commission on Civil Rights (regarding a leak of a report on the 2000 Florida election irregularities, but it works for Bush's illegal behavior now pretty well.)
Endangering thousands of Americans by failing to ban the one device that has been used to try and blow up a plane since 9-11 because of pressure from the tobacco industry. (Source: Michael Moore)
At the same time Bush is giving tax cuts to the wealthy, and sending our troops to war, he is slashing veteran's benefits for those same troops when they come home. Can't you feel the gratitude of this former deserter?
Baselessly and falsely accusing Iraq of seeking uranium from Niger and using this as a reason to go to war. (Source: Washington Post)
Using depleted uranium (a weapon of mass destruction) in Iraq (a country unable to harm us with any weapons of mass destruction).
Blindly supporting terrorist states such as Israel as it genocidally pummels the human rights of the Palestinians, instead of attaching humanitarian peace-promoting strings to our monetary aid.
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Gregory J. Reis
