Farewell Mr. Bush « ruminatus

Farewell Mr. Bush

Someone recently asked me what President Bush has done to me. And as I sat down to write this list I got so infuriated that I couldn’t even formulate my thoughts into sentences. So just to make things obviously clear on why he is a fuckwad, here is a list and a brief explanation of some Bush Administration highlights mostly taken from Wikipedia.

We have a long way to go Obama, America. Are you ready?

1. Economic Policy: Under the Bush Administration, real GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 2.5 percent, considerably below the average for business cycles from 1949 to 2000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked in October 2007 at about 14,000, 30 percent above its level in January 2001, before the subsequent economic crisis wiped out all the gains and more. Unemployment originally rose from 4.2 percent in January 2001 to 6.3 percent in June 2003, but subsequently dropped to 4.5 percent as of July 2007. Inflation-adjusted median household income has been flat while the nation’s poverty rate has increased. By August 2007, due to increases in domestic and foreign spending, the national debt had risen to US$8.98 trillion dollars, an increase of over 70% from the start of the year 2000 when the debt was US$5.6 trillion.

2. No Child Left Behind: Over the time of this law, Congress increased federal funding of education, from $42.2 billion in 2001 to $54.4 billion in 2007. This equates to an increase which outpaced inflation by 5%. No Child Left Behind received a 40.4% increase from $17.4 billion in 2001 to $24.4 billion. The funding for reading quadrupled from $286 million in 2001 to $1.2 billion. A 2008 study from the Department of Ed, “Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report,” analyzes the performance of students in 12 states who were in grades one to three during the 2004-5 and 2005-6 school years and concluded that the Reading First Program, a major billion dollar a year NCLB effort, had proven “ineffective.” Not to mention all the problems with standardized tests, “gaming” the system, narrow curriclulum, military recruitment access, oh yea and if you don’t comply 100%, well then you don’t get any federal funding .

3. Healthcare: After being re-elected, Bush signed into law a Medicare drug benefit program that resulted in “the greatest expansion in America’s welfare state in forty years;” the bill’s costs approached $7 trillion. In 2007, Bush opposed and vetoed State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation, which was added by the Democrats onto a war-funding bill and passed by Congress. The SCHIP legislation would have significantly expanded federally funded health care benefits and plans to children of some low-income families from about 6 million to 10 million children. It was to be funded by an increase in the cigarette tax. Bush viewed the legislation as a move toward the liberal platform of socialized health care, and claimed that the program could benefit families making as much as US$83,000 per year who would not have otherwise needed the help.

4. Social Security: In his 2005 State of the Union Address, Bush discussed the potential impending bankruptcy of the program and outlined his new program, which included partial privatization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments. (Phew, glad that never passed)

5. Environment: President Bush believes that global warming is real and has noted that global warming is a serious problem, but he asserted there is a “debate over whether it’s manmade or naturally caused”. The Bush Administration’s stance on global warming has remained controversial in the scientific and environmental communities. Many accusations have been made against the administration for allegedly misinforming the public and not having done enough to reduce carbon emissions and deter global warming. President Bush would not ratify the Kyoto protocol and have lifted the ban of offshore drilling, which is basically worhtless and will not provide any relief from oil prices and supply anyway.

6. Stem Cell Research: President Bush opposes stem cell research because he feels that embryonic stem cell technologies are a slippery slope to reproductive cloning and can fundamentally devalue human life. Those in the pro-life movement argue that a human embryo is a human life and is therefore entitled to protection. I just find this so hypocritical, because we genetically modify shit all the time for our benefit, i.e. plants. Which I am also opposed to for a long list of reasons.

7. Civil Liberties: Following the events of September 11, Bush issued an executive order authorizing the NSA to monitor communications between suspected terrorists outside the U.S. and parties within the U.S. without obtaining a warrant pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, maintaining that the warrant requirements of FISA were implicitly superseded by the subsequent passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force. The program proved to be controversial, as critics of the administration, as well as organizations such as the American Bar Association, claimed it was illegal. In August 2006, a U.S. district court judge ruled that the Terrorist Surveillance Program was unconstitutional, but the decision was later reversed. On January 17, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales informed U.S. Senate leaders that the program would not be reauthorized by the President, but would be subjected to judicial oversight.

8. Patriot Act: In particular, the law authorizes indefinite detentions of immigrants; allows searches through which law enforcement officers search a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge; allows the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the FBI to search telephone, email and financial records without a court order; and allows the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records. Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and Federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional.

9. Treatment of Detainees: On October 17, 2006 Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a bill passed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which allows the U.S. government the ability to prosecute unlawful enemy combatants by military commission rather than the standard trial. The bill also denies them access to habeas corpus and, while barring torture of detainees, allows the president to determine what constitutes torture.

10. Torture: On March 8, 2008, Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, a bill that would have expanded Congressional oversight over the intelligence community and banned the use of waterboarding as well as other forms of enhanced interrogation techniques, saying that “the bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror.” President Bush has consistently stated that the United States does not torture. Bush can authorize the CIA to use the simulated-drowning method under extraordinary circumstances. The CIA once considered certain enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, legally permissible. The CIA has exercised the technique on certain key terrorist suspects and were given permission to do so from a memo from the Attorney General. While the Army Field Manual argues “that harsh interrogation tactics illicit unreliable information.”

11. Hurricane Katrina: As the disaster in New Orleans intensified, critics claimed that the president was misrepresenting his administration’s role in what they saw as a flawed response. Leaders attacked the president for having appointed perceived incompetent leaders to positions of power at FEMA, notably Michael D. Brown; it was also argued that the federal response was limited as a result of the Iraq War and President Bush himself did not act upon warnings of floods. Deaths: 1,836 confirmed, 705 missing. Damage $81.2 billion (2005 USD), $89.6 billion (2008 USD).

12. Midterm dismissal of US Attorneys: During Bush’s second term, a controversy arose over the Justice Department’s midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys. The White House maintains the U.S. attorneys were fired for poor performance. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would later resign over the issue, along with other senior members of the Justice Department. The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas for advisers Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten to testify regarding this matter, but Bush directed Miers and Bolten to not comply with those subpoenas, invoking his right of executive privilege. Bush has maintained that all of his advisers are protected under a broad executive privilege protection to receive candid advice. The Justice Department has determined that the President’s order was legal, but In November 2007, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), stated that the executive privilege claim was strange considering “the President had no involvement in these firings.” Although congressional investigations have focused on whether the Justice Department and the White House were using the U.S. Attorney positions for political advantage, no official findings have been released. On March 10, 2008, the Congress filed a federal lawsuit to enforce their issued subpoenas. On July 31, 2008, a United States district court judge ruled that President Bush’s top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas.

13. Foreign Policy: The Bush Administration proceeded to assert a right and intention to engage in preemptive war, also called preventive war, in response to perceived threats. This would form a basis for what became known as the Bush Doctrine. The broader “War on Terror”, allegations of an “axis of evil”, and, in particular, the doctrine of preemptive war, began to weaken the unprecedented levels of international and domestic support for Bush and United States action against al Qaeda following the September 11 attacks. Some national leaders alleged abuse by U.S. troops and called for the U.S. to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and other such facilities. Dissent from, and criticism of, Bush’s leadership in the War on Terror increased as the war in Iraq expanded. In 2006, a National Intelligence Estimate expressed the combined opinion of the United States’ own intelligence agencies, concluding that the Iraq War had become the “cause celebre for jihadists” and that the jihad movement was growing.

14. Public Opinion: During the Bush presidency, attitudes towards the United States and the American people have become less favorable around the world. In 2006, a majority of respondents in 18 of 21 countries surveyed around the world were found to hold an unfavorable opinion of Bush. Respondents indicated that they judged his administration as negative for world security.

15. Genocide in Sudan: Bush condemned the attacks by militia forces on the people of Darfur, and denounced the killings in Sudan as genocide. Bush said that an international peacekeeping presence was critical in Darfur, but opposed referring the situation to the International Criminal Court. A 21 September 2006 article by the official UN News Service stated that “UN officials estimate over 400,000 people have lost their lives and some 2 million more have been driven from their homes.” However, the UN disclosed on 22 April 2008 that it might have underestimated the Darfur death toll by nearly 50 percent. “Rape is used as a weapon to terrorize individual women and girls, and also to terrorize their families and to terrorize entire communities,” she said in an interview with the UN News Service. “No woman or girl is safe.” WE HAVE DONE NOTHING

16. The Illegal War in Iraq: As of August 2008, US Dead: 4,138; Between 100,000 and 650,000 Iraqis dead. US Cost: $845 Billion. Need I say more.

17. Outing Valerie Plame and putting her life and our security in jeopardy: Novak’s disclosures in his column, which resulted in Plame’s public outing on July 14, 2003, ended her career with the CIA, from which she later resigned in December 2005. Official legal documents published in the course of the CIA leak grand jury investigation, United States v. Libby, and Congressional investigations fully establish her classified employment as a covert officer for the CIA at the time that Novak’s column was published in July 2003. Official court documents released later, on April 5, 2006, reveal that Libby testified that “he was specifically authorized in advance” of his meeting with New York Times reporter Judith Miller to disclose the “key judgments” of the October 2002 classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). According to Libby’s testimony, “the Vice President later advised him that the President had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE [to Judith Miller].” According to his testimony, the information that Libby was authorized to disclose to Miller “was intended to rebut the allegations of an administration critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.”

So farewell Mr. Bush, you will not be missed here.