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10.04.2004 ||>
I used an old issue of Vanity Fair and looked up articles in Newsweek, The New York Times and Salon.com to come up with why I'm not real sure that Bush 2004 is a good idea. I can come up with more anecdotally with why I disagree with the "No Child Left Behind" or how I know Cheney is in kahoots with Halliburton down there in Afghanistan. But that stuff can't be verified. This can:
- In 2001 there was a budget surplus of $127 billion. By the end of 2003, there was a $374 billion deficit. In fact, 2003 broke the record for the largest deficit in US history. Our total national debt totals in the quadrillions.
- Bush is the first president to execute a federal prisoner in 40 years. In fact, when he was governor, he executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in US history.
- Due to Bush's tax cuts, his Cabinet members (the richest Cabinet in US history) enjoyed an average savings of $42,000 last year. How much does the average American family make? $42,228.
- Nine members of his defense policy board during the Afghan and Iraqi invasions either advise or sit on the board of at least one defense contractor.
- He is the first American president to ignore the Geneva conventions.
- He has opened more than 58 million acres of public lands to road building, logging and drilling. As if that weren't bad enough, he then has worked to weaken over 200 public health/environmental laws.
- He is exceeded only by Richard Nixon in the number of vacation days taken at one time by a US president.
- Another way he reminds me of Nixon? He signed an executive order allowing him to suppress the release of his presidential papers and those of Clinton, Bush I, and Reagan.
- It is the first administration since Herbert Hoover's to see an overall loss of jobs during its four years.
- Reports coming in of protesters at the Republican National Convention being held in jail pens for over 24 hours, without benefit of counsel, despite a New York law demanding otherwise.
- Dick Cheney said at the RNC that John Kerry was unfit for service. A bit hypocritical when he had five deferments to keep from serving himself. While I'm on the topic, I'll point out that no one who got Bronze Star or Purple Heart medals should ever be called 'unfit.' Nor should anyone else that voluntarily puts his or her life on the line to protect our freedom unless they committed atrocities during war. What he said was disgusting.
- Two large intelligence faults have cost the lives of thousands of Americans: Sept. 11 and on Iraq's WMD capabilities. Yet there hasn't been any major housecleaning done and no department head has been called to account. Compare to Pearl Harbor when President Roosevelt fired or moved anyone remotely responsible for the lack of intelligence on those attacks, including the men at the top.
I'm not really expecting to sway anyone here. But before you go out an cast your ballot, just look at this and ask yourself if you want this for another four years.
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