Via TomPaine.com comes 101 facts about the Bush administration, all with sources linked. It makes for unsurprisingly enraging reading. Why are people still planning on voting for this guy?
Some choice facts:
1. The Bush Administration has spent more than $140 billion on a war of choice 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.
9. The Bush Administration has spent just $1.1 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction.
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack America,” President Bush continued his monthlong vacation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
35. The Bush Administration let disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay–a close friend of President Bush–help write its energy policy.
40. The Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit.
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.
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.
49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to protect the Social Security surplus. As President, he spent all of it.
66. Since President Bush took office, more than 5 million people have lost their health insurance.
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.
84. The Bush Administration, without ever charging him with a crime, arrested US citizen Jos� 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.
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.
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.”
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.