CNN is reporting Vice President Cheney will attend the inauguration tomorrow… in a wheelchair… because he pulled a muscle, get this, while moving. OK, two questions. First, doesn’t he have people to move his belongings for him? And second, what the hell was he moving (that the people who he’s supposed to have doing this didn’t move for him)? Was he moving his man-size safe?
After I said I was thankful for 20 January 2009, a former professor of mine sent me a link to a National Review article by Mona Charen. Whether from personal ignorance and total dismissal of anything positive or from skewed media and lack of coverage, I didn’t know this admirable thing about President Bush:
From the beginning of his administration, President Bush has pushed for more aid to Africa. Motivated perhaps by his deeply felt Christian faith (relieving poverty in Africa has become a major charitable push among evangelicals), the president has pressed for greater aid to Africa across the board. The original PEPFAR legislation (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which passed in 2003, was the largest single health investment by any government ever ($15 billion). At the time the initiative was launched, only about 50,000 sub-Saharan Africans were receiving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. Today, 1.7 million people in the region, as well as tens of thousands more around the globe, are receiving such treatment. PEPFAR has also funded efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus, provided compassionate care to the sick and dying, and cared for 5 million orphans. One aspect of the program has been to reduce the stigma of the AIDS diagnosis in Africa.
In July of this year, the president requested that funding for PEPFAR be doubled to $30 billion. The new funding will be used to train 140,000 new health-care workers. It would also address other illnesses, like tuberculosis, that often complicate AIDS.
The president also backed a malaria initiative that has provided an estimated 25 million Africans with nets, spraying, and other prevention and treatment options. Separate from the AIDS funds, the president has tripled development assistance and humanitarian aid to Africa since taking office.
This victory and accomplishment for President Bush is, sadly, lost amongst his administration’s many failures and controversies. I am disappointed I didn’t know this. As my professor pointed out, “he’s not all bad.” President Bush certainly deserves some well-deserved credit here.
(Nod: The Daily Dish)
Just in case we’ve all forgotten, George W. Bush is still president. And just in case we’ve all forgotten, there have been more than a few administration officials who are, shall we say, no longer serving. And just in case we’ve all forgotten, many of those officials left for questionable or controversial reasons. To remind us, the DC Shuffle has compiled a list of Bush appointees who have “resigned under a cloud of controversy.” A must read.
For example, let us not forget:
Alberto Gonzales- Attorney General
As reported by the Washington Post:
- Mr. Gonzales resigned as a result of the controversy surrounding selective U.S. Attorney firings that appeared to be politically motivated.
- He was also mired in controversy regarding the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, his redefinition of what legally qualifies as torture, and other applications of the Patriot Act.
- He has been accused of destroying the credibility of the Justice Department’s political independence by politicizing the department’s hiring and prosecution priorities
- Repeated calls for his resignation came from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
- Mr. Gonzales repeatedly angered lawmakers by saying that he could not recall key episodes and details related to the U.S. attorneys’ dismissals, testifying nearly 70 times at one hearing alone that he could not remember specific events.
- Justice investigators have said they are examining whether Gonzales purposely misled Congress or attempted to improperly influence a witness in his employ.
(Nod: Dad)
A disturbing report on the Big Brother front:
A terrorist surveillance program instituted by the Bush administration allows the intelligence community to monitor phone calls between the United States and overseas without a court order—as long as one party to the call is a terror suspect.
Adrienne Kinne, a former U.S. Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News the NSA was listening to the phone calls of U.S. military officers, journalists and aid workers overseas who were talking about “personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.”
This is how it starts—and one reason why the Patriot Act is dangerous. We already have “unpersons” (enemy combatants), and now surveillance is being stepped-up. Next come the Thought Police and the Ministries of Truth and Love. George Orwell is someone I’d not like to see proven right.
Eventually, the Bush Administration will be held accountable for the war crimes they authorized and pursued.
(Nod: The Daily Dish)
Just a thought on the $700 billion (+) bailout: the last few times the Bush Administration told us we were in a dire crisis and needed to act fast, Congress cowed to the administration and gave us:
How did all those turn out? Yeah, so let’s take the time to think about this one.
Disgraced former Attorney General Albert Gonzales gave a speech at the University of Florida Monday night. Unfortunately for Gonzales, he was not afforded the luxury his former boss has in only speaking to friendlies, as the First Amendment was on full display at the event (the jump suit of the guy in the video says “Civil Liberties”). (This is off-topic, but leave it to the main-stream-media, in this case CNN, to tie this story in with the student taser incident a few months ago at a John Kerry event—what does this event have to do with the other? Nothing, except the MSM can blow past stories that actually matter, like torture and civil liberties, and instead report on silly, fluff stories.)
The former AG said in his speech about the Bush Administration:
It will take years for the entire story to be told. We know the first manuscripts of administrations are often incomplete, and they can be inaccurate, and they have to be discarded.
Yes, he’s exactly right on this one. It will take years to hear the entire story of what went on in this administration. The “first manuscript” of this administration is incomplete because we’re only being told what they want us to hear. Expect more stories like this one from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (on the Valerie Plame case):
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.
From Political Wire: “Most Think Bush and Cheney Abused Powers.”
A new American Research Group poll finds that 64% of American voters say that President Bush has abused his powers as president and 70% say that Vice President Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president.
Well that’s great, but how many people in Congress believe that too and are actually willing to do their job and do something about it? Two? Maybe three?
A quick look at the numbers for environmental programs in Bush’s FY2008 budget:
(Nod: ThinkProgress)
Since when are there sides to take when dealing with children’s health? Either you’re for or against making kids healthy? Well, according to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, there are, in fact, sides to take. After the House voted to sustain President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP legislation, she had this to say:
We won this round
on SCHIP.
Won? What exactly did the White House win? We know, though, that 10 million kids are the losers, that’s for sure.
The president’s veto earlier this month was completely unfounded. He didn’t have the facts straight then, and he still doesn’t. Be against a bill, but don’t lie and make up falsities about the bill.
One of most egregious canards being propogated by the White House about the SCHIP expansion is that it will provide health insurance for the wealthy. President Bush claimed at a press conference last week that Congress “made a decision to expand the eligibility up to $80,000.” He repeated it in his [September 22] radio address:
BUSH: Their proposal would result in taking a program meant to help poor children and turning it into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year.
And the White House echoed the false talking point today in its official veto message to Congress:
[T]he current bill goes too far toward federalizing health care and turns a program meant to help low-income children into one that covers children in some households with incomes of up to $83,000 a year. If H.R. 976 were presented to the President in its current form, he would veto the bill.
However, no such proposal exists. The $83,000 figure comes from a request from New York to cover children in some slightly higher-income households because of the state’s high cost of living, but the final Congressional agreement put the poorest children “first in line” for benefits.
More fact-checking here.
The president can’t defeat the bill on the bill’s merits alone. Instead, he has to make things up and then argue against the bill with lies. Well done, Mr. Compassionate Conservative. The best thing Congress can do is pass this bill every month and let the president veto it again and again to really make the president and other Congressional Republicans look like the ridiculous mess they’ve made themselves to be.
More evidence that the war in Afghanistan, the original front in the War on Terror where our top target still is hiding out, is becoming the forgotten war by this administration.
A senior House Democrat said Gates told the group the U.S. focus on Iraq was hurting the effort in Afghanistan. Gates said that while the multinational force has held the Taliban at bay, it hasn’t defeated the insurgents, according to the lawmaker, who requested anonymity. Two additional Democrats also said Gates linked the U.S. commitment in Iraq to shortfalls in Afghanistan.
And yet, this administration is seriously considering starting a THIRD war, this time with Iran. Perhaps the president’s plan is indeed to start withdrawing troops from Iraq… by sending them to Iran instead.
The president doesn’t want to give health insurance to an additional 4 million uninsured children, in addition to the already 6 million covered by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
ThinkProgress links to an article that says $12.2 billion dollars would be needed to pay for insurance for these children. The kicker? The amount of money the U.S. spends in Iraq in only 41 days would fully fund the program.
And then there’s this article about the president not wanting to spend $22 billion on such frivolous things as “veterans health care, infrastructure improvements, education, and other domestic priorities.”
The $22 billion is only for the first year. With every passing year the number gets bigger and bigger, and so over the next five years the increase in federal spending would add up to $205 billion.
—President Bush
If the president is worried about spending an addition $200 billion, then why this:
President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure—totaling nearly $200 billion—to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.
There’s a real problem when we can’t spend money on domestic programs because it’s seen as excessive spending but we have an open wallet to the president’s train wreck Iraq policy. I suppose we can thank Congress for that, though.
The Los Angeles Times writes on the dangers, disappointments, and disillusions of Afghanistan:
In reality, Afghanistan—former Taliban stronghold, Al Qaeda haven and warlord-cum-heroin-smuggler finishing school—feels more and more like Sept. 10, 2001, than a victory in the U.S. war on terrorism.
The country is, plain and simple, a mess. Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies have quietly regained territory, rendering wide swaths of the country off-limits to U.S. and Afghan forces, international aid workers and even journalists. Violent attacks against Western interests are routine. Even Kabul, which the White House has held up as a postcard for what is possible in Afghanistan, has become so dangerous that foreign embassies are in states of lockdown, diplomats do not leave their offices, and venturing beyond security perimeters requires daylight-only travel, armored vehicles, Kevlar and armed escorts.
Has the president forgotten about Afghanistan? Perhaps we’re too busy creating an al Qaeda stronghold in Iraq?
The president has finally decided on an exit strategy for Iraq. The strategy? Leave it for the next guy. From the Washington Post:
The talk in Washington on Monday was all about troop reductions, yet it also brought into sharp focus President Bush’s plans to end his term with a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq, and to leave tough decisions about ending the unpopular war to his successor.The plans outlined by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, would retain a large force in the country—perhaps more than 100,000 troops—when the time comes for Bush to move out of the White House in January 2009.
More of the same from this man without a plan.
President Bush called Osama bin Laden’s new tape:
a reminder of the dangerous world
in which we live
Perhaps a reminder of the original intent of the War on Terror? Perhaps a reminder that he’s still out there somewhere and hasn’t been caught “dead or alive” like the president promised how many years ago?
The president went on to say:
If al Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it is because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out and to develop a safe haven.
This apparently is either in addition to or to replace the safe haven they already have in Pakistan.
A reminder no doubt. Perhaps the president should do a little remembering.
Found this blurb on the White House website while looking for a news article:
The success of the Bush-Cheney administration will depend on the quality appointees we choose to join us to lead this nation in the years ahead. I will look for people who are willing to work hard to do what is best for America, who examine the facts and do what is right whether or not it is popular. I will look for people from across the country and from every walk of life. I welcome all who are ready for this great challenge to apply.
Quality appointees, eh? And people who examine the facts? Who forgot to give the president his own memo?
More bad news for the Bush Administration from the Government Accountability Office:
The Homeland Security Department has failed to meet even half its performance expectations in the four years it has been in existence. [...]
The report measures progress in 14 mission and management areas. Auditors identified 171 performance expectations and found that the department had achieved fewer than half.
Good thing the department isn’t in charge of natural disaster clean-up. Oh wait….
Sidney Blumenthal over at Salon writes that President Bush was given a report prior to the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein had NO weapons of mass destruction. Bush ignored the report.
On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam’s inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. [...]
“Tenet told me he briefed the president personally,” said one of the former CIA officers. According to Tenet, Bush’s response was to call the information “the same old thing.” Bush insisted it was simply what Saddam wanted him to think. “The president had no interest in the intelligence,” said the CIA officer. The other officer said, “Bush didn’t give a f**k about the intelligence. He had his mind made up.” [...]
In the congressional debate over the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, even those voting against it gave credence to the notion that Saddam possessed WMD. Even a leading opponent such as Sen. Bob Graham, then the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who had instigated the production of the NIE, declared in his floor speech on Oct. 12, 2002, “Saddam Hussein’s regime has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to get nuclear capacity.” Not a single senator contested otherwise. None of them had an inkling of the Sabri intelligence.
And finally this:
While one Iraqi source told the CIA that there were no WMD, information that was true but distorted to prove the opposite, another Iraqi source was a fabricator whose lies were eagerly embraced. “The real tragedy is that they had a good source that they misused,” said one of the former CIA officers. “The fact is there was nothing there, no threat. But Bush wanted to hear what he wanted to hear.”
Not only did he ignore the report, but in doing so, he knowingly and willfully manipulated and deceived Congress into granting authorization of force and the American people into supporting this venture. Knowingly and willfully. Is there any question, really, as to the absolute danger this president and administration has on the United States and the rest of the world?
(Nod: ThinkProgress)
Yet another low priority for the Bush Administration. The Natural Resources Defense Council from 2001 to 2005 “compiled a comprehensive account of his administration’s actions on environmental matters.” The account is despicable, to say the least, but not surprising.
The main page has links to each of the six sections, but the links are broken. You can, however, access each section once inside a section. Air, Energy, and Global Warming is the first section.
Something I learned the other day: Remember back in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush gave a speech in Jackson Square in New Orleans, saying:
And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
The thing I learned, thanks to Hilary Bok guest-blogging at Andrew Sullivan’s, is that the electricity was turned on in the area for the president’s speech, and then promptly turned off again. NBC’s Brian Williams reported this back in 2005:
I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before [the president] drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It’s enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it… jump to certain conclusions.
How is it not possible to jump to certain conclusions?
Anyway, Time Magazine offers a special report on Katrina, two years later:
Two years after Katrina, the effort to protect coastal Louisiana from storms and restore its vanishing wetlands has become one of the biggest government extravaganzas since the moon mission—and the Army Corps [of Engineers] is running the show, with more money and power than ever. Many of the same coastal scientists and engineers who sounded alarms about the vulnerability of New Orleans long before Katrina are warning that the Army Corps is poised to repeat its mistakes—and extend them along the entire Louisiana coast. If you liked Katrina, they say, you’ll love what’s coming next.
(Photo: The White House)
From the New York Times, a five-page article discussing further proof the Bush Administration favors corporations over regular Americans. Here are some highlights:
Under the Bush administration, which promised to ease what it viewed as costly rules that placed unnecessary burdens on businesses, industry-friendly officials have been installed at agencies that oversee the nation’s workplaces, food suppliers, environment and consumer goods. [...]
At the agency’s cramped laboratory, a lone employee is charged with testing suspected defective toys from across the nation. At the nearby headquarters, safety initiatives have been stalled or dropped after dozens of jobs were eliminated in budget cutbacks.
Other workers quit in frustration. The head of the poison prevention unit, for example, resigned when efforts to require inexpensive child-resistant caps on hair care products that had burned toddlers were delayed so industry costs could be weighed against the potential benefit to children.
More:
The commission’s shrinking budget is just $62 million this year, even though the agency regulates an industry that sells $1.4 trillion annually. The Food and Drug Administration, with a $2 billion budget, spends nearly twice as much monitoring the safety of animal feed and drugs than the Consumer Product Safety Commission spends to ensure the safety of products as diverse as toys, tools and televisions used every day by millions of Americans.
Chinese imports surge:
In just the last decade, imports of Chinese consumer products nationwide have surged to $246 billion from $62 billion, according to agency statistics. Nearly 20 percent of the consumer products for sale in the country today are Chinese-made, compared to 5 percent in 1997. [...]
[Nick Marchica, an engineer and former agency senior aide,] said some Chinese products, like electrical extension cords or children’s jewelry, frequently violate the standards. But the consumer agency is handicapped in finding those goods or blocking them from reaching American buyers. The commission has no inspectors at factories overseas. And at ports in the United States, the agency is overwhelmed.
The agency’s workforce:
Back in the 1970s, the safety commission had nearly 1,000 employees. [...]
During the Reagan administration, the work force was slashed nearly in half. Under Mr. Bush, it has reached a low of about 420, a 12.5 percent cut since 2002.
An insider’s view:
“It is a complete disaster,” said the [senior agency] official, one of nearly a dozen who spoke anonymously because the agency had instructed employees not to talk to reporters. “There is just no other word for it.”
What’s being done?
Congress has begun by adopting budgets that allow for modest funding increases for the agency next year. The Bush administration proposed more cuts, which would have forced the agency’s staff to shrink still more. [...]
The agency is also negotiating with toy makers and officials in China to try to ensure that many more products meet United States standards. They would be inspected overseas by independent testing companies, and the costs would be borne by manufacturers or importers.
On impeaching the vice president, Andrew Sullivan writes:
the only language Cheney understands is force. And even if it were to fail, the instructive power of the exercise would be considerable.
The exercise, of course, is impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney. On one hand, the administration will be out of office in a year and a half, so is all the trouble and mess that will evolve really worth it? On the other hand, though, this administration and specifically this vice president are setting a dangerous and frightening precedent for subverting the Constitution. A precedent that must be checked. If there is a more effective way to check the power of this administration than to at least impeach (conviction may be unlikely) a principle architect of the power grab and constitutional subversion, then please let me know.
