The Bush Years: by the numbers
Note from Editor: Harper’s magazine was my first magazine subscription. They have amazing stories, insights and political essays. Here is an outstanding example of a tradition called the Harper’s Index.
Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206
Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser: 1
Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6
Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9
Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01
Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182
Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0
Number charged with an immigration violation: 762
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20
Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075
Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39
Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5
Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate: 1, 2, 3
Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1
Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000
Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100
Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02
Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1
Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25
Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s mansion: 2
Number by then–New York Times reporter Judith Miller: 1
Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6
REPORT NAMES 30 HIGH BUSH OFFICIALS COMPLICIT IN TORTURE
Sherwood Ross
WAR CRIMES REPORT SAYS WHITE HOUSE REJECTED ALL ADVICE FROM GOVERNMENT AGENCIES THAT TORTURE WAS ILLEGAL
President Bush and his aides repeatedly ignored warnings that their torture plans were illegal from high State Department officials as well as the nation’s top uniformed legal officers, the Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, a new published report states.
“These warnings of illegality and immorality given by knowledgeable and experienced (government) persons were ignored by the small group of high Executive officers who were determined that America would torture and abuse its prisoners and who had the decision-making power to secretly require this to be done,” said Lawrence Velvel, chairman of the “Steering Committee of the Justice Robert H. Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals.” The Steering Committee’s Report was drafted for the entire committee by Chair Velvel, a noted legal education reformer.
The Thirteen Days of Christmas!
sherry clark
To the tune of the Twelve Days of Christmas…
On the first day of his term,
George Bush swore to serve:
The Constitution, and you and me.
The new Prez who took office,
Was not the people’s choice!
Our votes do not count!
And the Constitution served you and me!
Nine months into his George’s service,
The New Pearl Harbor came,
9-1-1!
Our votes do not count!
And the Constitution served you and me!
Within days we suffered terror
Beyond our wildest dreams!
Anthrax in the mail!
9-1-1!
Our votes do not count!
And the Constitution served you and me!
Without the Fair Reporting Act,
TV’s a grave threat,
ALL SEEING EYE!
Anthrax in our mail,
9-1-1!
Our votes do not count!
And the Constitution served you and me!
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Shocking Lies, Torture and Mind Slaves
The Milgram experiments from the early 1960′s are classic (but shocking) studies that demonstrated the “sheeple-ness” of people everywhere. In the experiments — which have been replicated numerous times across multiple cultures, races and age ranges — subjects willingly engaged in administering extremely painful electric shocks to other human beings for no reason other than the fact they were ordered to do so by an apparent authority figure.
These studies have long demonstrated the “do what I’m told” mentality of approximately 70 percent of the population. Only 30 percent of the study subjects refused to torture fellow human beings when so ordered.
Obama & Biden To Protect Bush Administration Criminals
Nuremberg trials also judged “a waste of time”
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, December 22, 2008
It’s par for the course for Obama and Biden, the men who promised “change” but in every step of their preparations for assuming office have pursued nothing but continuity, to acknowledge that they will protect criminals in the Bush administration from prosecution for authorizing torture, a complete violation of both the U.S. constitution and the Geneva Conventions.
When asked by ABC host George Stephanopoulos if top level Bush administration officials would be prosecuted for mandating prisoner abuse, Biden said that he and Obama would be “focusing on the future,” adding “I think we should be looking forward, not backwards.”
[Not-So Funny] The Word: “Opposition Party”
The Liberty Voice Transcript Service
This segment of Steven Colbert’s “The Word” on the Colbert Report (Comedy Channel) aired on September 26, 2006. Bracketed comments denote text which appeared on-screen as part of Colbert’s monologue.
Now listen folks. We all know about the big dust-up between President Bush and Senate leadership over his wanting to change the language of the Geneva Conventions, right? Well, on Thursday, they reached a compromise. And that’s not just a victory for Bush—it’s a victory for the country. Because basic human rights is something we all need to compromise on.
You see, his opponents are a group of rebels within the Republican party, John McCain, Lindsay Graham and John Warner who stood up and said “NO!” to the President’s plan. Meanwhile, the Democrats also stood up and said, “We’re just gonna wait over here. You tell us when you’re done.”
Which brings us to tonight’s word, “Opposition Party.”
Will, You, Marri [and] Me
The United States has once again declared war, but this time it is a war on basic human rights.
The Bush administration has been fighting for the power to lock people up indefinitely simply on the nod of the president. The assurance that harsh treatment is reserved only for “terrorists” is meaningless when the process for determining who is a terrorist depends on the sole discretion of the executive. Strong constitutional procedures must be enforced through all three branches of government or basic human rights can not prevail.
Unfortunately, basic human rights deniers scored a disturbing victory on July 18, when a federal appeals court ruled that Ali al-Marri would likely continue his seven and a half year wait without ever having had the chance to defend himself. Now that the designation “enemy combatant,” applies to someone held inside the United States who was denied basic human rights, and that treatment is now unchallenged by US courts, the chilling implication is that the ruling may not only apply to foreign nationals, but to US citizens as well.
And I Didn’t Speak Up Because I Wasn’t an Immigrant
[T]he president can order the military to seize from his home and indefinitely detain anyone in this country— including an American citizen—even though he has never affiliated with an enemy nation, fought alongside any nation’s armed forces, or borne arms against the United States anywhere in the world.
