TERROR | MILITARY | MIDDLE CLASS | CHRISTIAN

When you compare Bush's campaign rhetoric with the facts, it's clear that Bush's public personae is just as out of touch with reality as he is.

Myths about George W. Bush exposed

THE Myth: Bush is tough on terrorism

THE REALITY:

Pre 9/11:

• In January 2001, the bipartisan Commission on the “National Security/21st Century” report (the Hart Rudman Report) flatly stated that the proliferation of unconventional weapons combined with the rise of international terrorism would ultimately result in the vulnerability of the U.S. to a catastrophic attack. Bush rejected this report’s findings and worked to kill all legislation in congress that this report had inspired. In rejecting the Hart/Rudman findings, Bush appointed Cheney and Joe Allbaugh (director of FEMA) to study the matter further. Eight months later, when 9/11 happened, Cheney and Allbaugh had done nothing.

• Under Bush, the Justice Department sought to cut anti-terrorism funding in order to concentrate on more important matters such as cracking down on prostitution and the use of medical marijuana.

• Bush was warned about the impending threat of Osama bin Laden in an Aug 6th, 2001 Presidential Memo titled “Bin Laden determined to strike in US”. Subsequently Bush did not even hold one meeting on the subject.

• During the summer of 2001, the Bush administration was repeatedly warned by foreign governments that a large scale terrorist attack on U.S. soils was coming, but did nothing in response.

• Cheney sought to block intelligence gathering on terrorist threats from Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan when such investigations might interfere with the formation of his energy policy

Post 9/11:

• Bush tried to thwart the Congressional investigation into 9/11 and the formation of the 9/11 Commission, even though these investigations were meant to discover what went wrong in order to help prevent another attack.

• Although 1182 people were arrested within two months of the 9/11 attacks, as of August 2003 none of those arrested were shown to have any connection to terrorism.

• Immediately after 9/11, the Bush team began it’s battle plan on Iraq, even though it was already clear that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. The Bush administration continues to maintain that the war with Iraq has been central to the war on terrorism even though there is no evidence of this. Even the 9/11 commission has concluded that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and little if anything to do with al Qaeda.

• In 2002, Bush took away Congress’s attention from debate on the Office of Homeland Security to focus on the authorization of the use of force against Iraq. The authorization against Iraq stated that an invasion would be mounted only after all diplomatic means had been exhausted and it could be shown that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the safety of the United States. Neither of these conditions were satisfied before the invasion of Iraq began.

• Bush invaded Afghanistan with a force of less than 20,000 troops. After the Afghanistan conflict, only the area surrounding Kabul was made secure and the rest of the country continued to be controlled by warlords and a resurgence of the Taliban. In February 2002, only four months after combat began in Afghanistan, the Bush administration ordered General Tommy Franks to move vital military resources out of Afghanistan for an operation against Iraq, despite Franks’s privately stated belief that there was a job to finish in Afghanistan, and that the war on terrorism should focus next on terrorist targets in Somalia and Yemen.

• Bush claims that the threat from the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan has been removed. But currently, U.S. troops are facing some of the strongest Taliban resistance of the war.

• Opium production in Afghanistan has skyrocketed. Afghanistan currently grows 75% of the world's opium. It is all but certain that part of the money obtained in the illegal drug trade goes into the pockets of terrorists.

• Numerous analysts insist that al Qaeda is as strong or stronger today than it was on September 11, 2001. The International Institute for Strategic Studies states that al Qaeda has "fully reconstituted, set its sights firmly on the USA and its closest Western allies in Europe and established a new and effective modus operandi that increasingly exploited local affiliates".

• On September 17th, 2001 Bush said that he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." But by March 2002, Bush was already preoccupied with Iraq and said that bin Laden was of little importance, that he didn’t care where bin Laden was and that it was not a priority.

• Bush invaded Iraq without exhausting the role of diplomacy or proving that Iraq was a threat to the U.S. Iraq was invaded with a force of 200,000 soldiers; enough to win the war but not enough to win the peace.

• Bush invaded Iraq without an exit strategy, ignoring advice from his own State Department that more troops would be needed to secure the peace.

• The current situation in Iraq has become a recruitment ground for terrorism, where none existed before.

Failure to fund Homeland Security:

• By the end of 2004, the war with Iraq will have cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $200 billion dollars. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security was only given a budget of $27 billion, in the form of programs most of which were already in place before 9/11. Many experts believe that the money spent on Iraq should have been spent on programs to secure U.S. borders and infrastructure and give first responders the tools they needed to deal with another terrorist attack.

• Bush cut funding by $800 million to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness, which supplies a variety of first-responder grants to state and local governments.

• Bush cut grants for equipment and personnel to local fire departments by $246 million in his 2005 budget. According to the International Association of Firefighters, "The FIRE Act grant program has received $5 billion worth of requests," and "has awarded grants totaling just 10% of that need."

• Bush cut state and local grant funding for first responder training, exercise, and technical assistance by nearly half, from $320 million in 2004 to $178 million in 2005. It is estimated that funding for emergency responders will fall $98.4 billion short over the next five years.

• The Government Accounting Office (GAO) report released in March 2003 noted that even though U.S. chemical facilities are "attractive targets for terrorists," the ability of any facility to respond to an attack was "unknown." A chemical plant attack, according to the GAO, could endanger more than 1 million Americans; the Justice Department has called the terrorist threat to chemical plants "real and credible."

• The GAO also found that the administration backed down from new regulations due to concerns of litigation from the chemical industry.

• The initial federal air security screening force of more than 55,000 has been cut by thousands. The Transportation Security Administration reports that its force will number only 48,000 screeners by the end of 2004, and the GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee has required TSA to cut the force even more, to 45,000 screeners.

• Bush's 2005 budget calls for $50 million for port security grants, down from $200 million in his 2004 budget. Seven million cargo containers arrive in US ports each year, but as few as 2 percent of those are screened. The CIA reported, "The United States is more likely to be attacked with a weapon of mass destruction smuggled into the country aboard a ship than one delivered by a ballistic missile."

• Only 1,000 border agents patrol the United State's border with Canada, compared to 9,500 that patrol the nation's southern border. While the US-Mexico border is 2,000 miles long, the US-Canada border is 5,000 miles, meaning that only one agent patrols for every 5 miles of border. The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, Canada's domestic anti-terrorism agency, has acknowledged that Al Qaeda maintains cells and personnel in Canada, which possess "the capability and conviction to provide support for terrorist activities in North America.

• Various terrorist watch lists have not been integrated into a central database with the result that no one agency maintains a comprehensive list.

• Bush tried to cut funding for a program to destroy nuclear material, potentially sold on the black market to terrorists, which was left in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. After 9/11, Bush stopped trying to cut funds from this program, but has resisted increasing this program's funding and timetable from past levels put in place by Clinton.

References:

Bush’s 9/11 Secrets

Transcript: Bin Laden determined to strike in US

Bush Campaign Lie #67: Bush is 'Bringing Terrorists to Justice'

9/11 Commission: No Link Between Al-Qaida and Saddam

Bush Campaign Lie #68: Bush Policy in Afghanistan Has Made the American People Safer

Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America's War on Terror

Bush: bin Laden 'prime suspect'

Bush quotes about bin Laden

The Iraq Gamble: We Are Not As Safe As We Should Be

How Iraq 14.4 Billion could have been spent Aug 7, 2004

Nickel and Diming Homeland Security

Red Alert

NUMBER PLEASE! Did Commander Bush bungle the number of troops?

The Bush Record: Homeland Insecurity

Bush and Loose Nukes

TERROR | MILITARY | MIDDLE CLASS | CHRISTIAN
THE Myth: Bush cares about the troops

THE REALITY:

• Over 1,000 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and up to 18,000 troops have been wounded, 9,000 of them seriously. Bush has rarely visited the hospitals to visit wounded troops and has so far not attended a single funeral.

• Bush only visited the troops in Iraq once for a two and a half hour photo op in which he notably posed with a fake turkey.

• The Bush administration tried to block funding which would provide the military with Kevlar vests and other protective gear.

• Bush sought to cut $75 a month from the “imminent danger” pay and $150 a month to the family separation allowance from soldiers serving in Iraq.

• Bush’s budget for Veterans Affairs cut $3 billion from VA hospitals. VA spending today averages $2,800 less per patient than nine years ago.

• Bush proposed levying a $250 annual charge on all Priority 8 veterans who had “non-service-related illnesses”

• The Pentagon has announced plans to shutter 19 commissaries that offer discounted food and merchandise which helps low-paid enlisted troops and their families survive. They are also considering closing 19 more commissaries which serve military families.

• Bush’s Pentagon is considering shutting down 58 military-run schools for soldiers’ children at 14 military installations.

• The Bush administration is seeking to block a federal judge’s award of damages to a group of servicemen who sued the Iraqi government for torture during the 1991 Gulf War. The White House claims that this money which has been confiscated from Iraqi assets, is needed for that country’s reconstruction.

• The Bush administration blocked the attempt of Congress to add $1.3 billion for VA hospitals to Bush’s request of $87 billion for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Bush has proposed cutting $200 million in Impact Aid educational assistance to children in military families. During the 2000 campaign, Bush promised to increase this funding by $310 million, but this is an obligation that Bush is no longer interested in meeting.

References:

Bush Mistreats Iraq Troops

The Bird Was Perfect But Not For Dinner

Dishonorable Discharge

The Bush Record: Every Child Left Behind

TERROR | MILITARY | MIDDLE CLASS | CHRISTIAN
THE Myth: BUSH CARES ABOUT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

THE REALITY:

Bush's Tax Cuts & Jobs:

• As a result of Bush’s tax cuts, one-fifth of households in the middle of the income spectrum will receive an average tax cut of $647. The top one percent of households will receive tax cuts averaging almost $35,000. Households with incomes above $1 million will receive tax cuts averaging about $123,600.

• In 2004, the middle 20 percent of households will receive 8.9 percent of the tax cuts. Millionaires, totaling just 0.2 percent of U.S. households, will receive 15.3 percent of the tax cuts. In other words, the small handful of millionaires will receive total tax cuts far larger than those received by the entire middle 20 percent of households. The tax cuts will confer more than $30 billion on the nation’s 257,000 millionaires in 2004 alone.

• President Bush said that his tax cuts would mean that people would have more money in their pocket. However, for the majority of Americans, the tax cuts meant very little. By next year, for instance, 88% of all Americans will receive $100 or less from the Administration's latest tax cuts. Sixty-four million taxpayers (48 percent) will receive $100 or less under the Bush "growth" plan

• Bush’s tax cuts and the deficits they have created have forced the Administration to raise fees and cut services for most Americans which is an effective tax increase on average Americans.

• Bush’s latest budget proposes a 3% decrease to federal grants to states, a $16 billion decrease in state tax revenues. Bush’s tax proposal have cost states $4-5 billion. Because of this millions of American individuals and businesses effectively face tax hikes this year.

• Since President Bush took office, states have raised taxes by a total of $14.5 billion. The total 2003 net tax increase was $6.9 billion for the 42 reporting states – following a 2002 net tax increase of $9.1 billion. Seventeen states raised taxes by more than 1% with four states raising taxes by at least 5%.

• The Administration has left a $9 billion hole in funding its own education bill. This along with cuts in federal taxes and unfunded federal programs have transferred the tax burden to states and municipalities forcing property tax hikes to pay for schools and other services. On average, property tax collections rose more than 10% last year alone.

• Bush’s tax cuts which promised to created jobs has instead resulted in the net decrease in jobs.

• Bush predicted that with the passage of his tax-cuts, 5.5 million jobs would be created in the 18 months from June 2003 through December 2004. In the first nine months of this 18-month period, only 689,000 jobs were created, just 13 percent of the Administration’s projection.

• Bush is the first president since Hoover to lose jobs during his term. Since March 2001, 940,000 jobs have disappeared from the U.S. economy, representing a 0.7% contraction. In the three previous economic downturns since the early 1970s, the economy had not only recovered from any job loss but had also generated 4.3% more jobs. By this standard, the economy would have had a positive job gain of 5,750,000 by the 42nd month, or 6,691,000 more jobs than we have today.

• Bush has cut job training by almost $1 billion in real dollars. In addition to limiting resources, the Bush budget continues to propose drastic changes for job training and re-employment programs that will greatly diminish the federal role in this area of key national importance, reduce accountability and increase outsourcing of public employment service programs.

• Bush has repeatedly blocked a raise in the minimum wage. The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 24 percent lower today than it was in 1979 and in real dollars, $5.15 an hour minimum wage is worth just $4.75. If the wage had just kept pace with inflation since 1968 when it was a $1.60 an hour, minimum wage would be $8.46 an hour in 2003. Nearly 7 million workers would benefit from the raise.

• Since the last quarter of 2001, real G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) has risen 7.2 percent. But wage and salary income, after adjusting for inflation, is up only 0.6 percent.

• The Republican Congress recently voted to deny overtime pay to more than 8 million Americans. Under the rule change, those making between $22,100 and $65,000 would also be excluded if they were deemed an executive, administrator or professional.

• According to the US Conference of Mayors, the average wage for new jobs created during 2004-2005 is forecast to be significantly lower than those jobs lost between 2001-2003. A new study also showed that the bulk of the new jobs created between now and 2012 will not require as much education as previous jobs.

• Household bankruptcies set a record in 2003 at 1.6 million and experts believe the number will be even higher in 2004. In addition, an estimated 11 million families are carrying enough debt that they are at high risk of bankruptcy. Ninety percent of these families are in the middle class.

• The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year while the ranks of the uninsured grew by 1.4 million. Approximately 35.8 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, or about 12.5 percent of the population. That was up from 34.5 million, or 12.1 percent in 2002. The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002.

Education:

• Bush's proposed budgets have broken his promise to fully fund No Child Left Behind, falling short by $33.2 billion, including $22.4 billion less for Title I programs for low-income children.

• The National Governors Association has voted unanimously to label No Child Left Behind as an unfunded mandate. Twenty-two states are considering challenging portions of the legislation.

• Bush wants to cut federal Head Start funding and move it to state programs with lower quality standards and less accountability. His 2005 budget freezes enrollment in Head Start programs. Fourty percent of children eligible for Head Start and 97 percent eligible for Early Head Start won't qualify if they aren’t already enrolled.

• Bush's budget eliminates the $247 million Even Start program that encourages young children and parents to read together at home.

• State budget cuts fueled by the Bush recession have forced colleges to hike tuitions and fees which may stop access to higher education for low-income students. In 2003, public universities and colleges in 49 states increased their tuition.

Health Care:

• Under Bush, health care spending rose 9.3 percent in 2002 and 8.5 percent in 2001 -- more than four times the rate of inflation.

• Annual out-of-pocket expenses for health care is up 52% for individuals and 49% for families. Job-based health insurance costs are rising at the highest rate in 13 years, with average annual premiums for employer-based health plans rising 14 percent in 2003.

• The average cost of the top 10 most-used prescription drugs went up 8.7 percent in 2003 alone. But the Bush Medicare initiative makes it illegal for the government to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, adding an extra $139 billion in corporate profits to the cost of Bush’s medicare bill.

Seniors:

• To cover the cost of his tax cuts, Bush will have to spend the entire projected Social Security surplus of $2.4 trillion from 2005 through 2014

• Bush has announced that he will privatize Social Security if he is elected. Independent analysis of the President's proposals to privatize Social Security have noted that this plan would cost at least $1 trillion. Bush has not said where this money would come from.

• Bush's Social Security reform commission released three final plans in December 2001, all promoting privatization. The New York Times reported: "President Bush's Social Security Commission set out three options today for allowing workers to establish individual investment accounts and acknowledged that the proposals would have to be accompanied by benefit cuts or other painful steps if the retirement system was to avert a long-term financial crisis."

• Seniors will not see cheaper prescription prices when Bush’s prescription drug plan is becomes a part of Medicare in 2006, because it does nothing to control the rising cost of drugs. According to Consumers Union, "most beneficiaries will face higher out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs after full implementation, despite the benefit."

• The Bush plan makes it illegal for the government to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, which results in a windfall of $139 billion for drug companies. HMOs and health insurers will receive $46 billion in incentives just for agreeing to participate in the plan. And employers can reduce benefits or increase retirees' premiums without losing $89 billion in tax breaks and subsidies.

Environment:

• Bush’s Clear Skies legislation sets targets that are weaker than those that would be put in place if the Bush administration simply implemented and enforced the existing law. Compared to current law, the Clear Skies plan would allow three times more toxic mercury emissions, 50 percent more sulfur emissions, and hundreds of thousands more tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides. It would also delay cleaning up this pollution by up to a decade compared to current law and force residents of heavily-polluted areas to wait years longer for clean air compared to the existing Clean Air Act.

• The Superfund program was created to ensure that corporate polluters bore the brunt of the costs of cleaning up the worst environmental disasters. But under President Bush, funding cuts and a failure to collect penalties from polluters is creating a shift in costs right to the taxpayer. Superfund assets have declined to nearly zero. Now your tax dollars will pay for 80 percent of the program in 2004, and all Superfund cleanups in 2005.

References:

The Bush Economic Record: What a Difference Three Years Makes

The Bush Tax Increase

Bush Campaign Lie #22: The Bush Plan Will 'Double the Number of Workers Receiving Job Training'

Weakest job recovery since the 1930s

A Real Minimum Wage Raise or...?

The Bush Record: The Middle Class Squeeze

TAX RETURNS: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Bush Administration’s Record on Cutting Taxes

Census: More Americans living in poverty

The Bush Record: Every Child Left Behind

The Bush Record: The Middle Class Squeeze

The Bush Record: Costs Up, Coverage Down, Companies Cash In

The Bush Record: Robbing Social Security to Pay for Risky Tax Schemes

Bush Said the "P" Word

The Bush Record on Medicare: Seniors Lose, Special Interests Win

The Bush Administration's Air Pollution Plan

The Bush Record: Industry Runs Roughshod Over Environment

TERROR | MILITARY | MIDDLE CLASS | CHRISTIAN
THE Myth: Bush is a good Christian

the REALITY: (chapter & verse)

• Bush launched a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq for no reason except that he could. While Saddam Hussein may have been loathsome, he did not pose a threat to the U.S.
  Jesus was not pro-war:
  “ Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” [Matthew 5:9]
  “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite-fully use you, and persecute you;” [Matthew 5:44]

• While governor of Texas, Bush presided over 155 executions.
  Jesus was not pro-death penalty:
  " You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'” [Matthew 5:21]

• Most of Bush’s tax policy heavily favors the rich at the expense of the poor. The amount of people living in poverty has increased substantially under Bush’s policies.
  Jesus sought to help the poor:
  “ Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” [Luke 12.15.]
  
  “ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.” [Luke 14:13 &14.]

• Bush ignored the findings of the IRC (Red Cross) and Amnesty International that abuse of prisoners in Iraq was a widespread and serious problem.
  Jesus would not have condoned this torture.

• Bush has adopted a "theology of empire" that suggests God is on America's side and regularly transposes “America” with “Christ.” Bush likes to use Christian metaphors but regularly replaces the power of Christ with the power of American empire or his own power as president.

• Bush likes to suggest that his appointment to the Presidency and America’s position in the world is analogous to the role of Christ. This allows him to make statements like “you are either with us or you are against us.” But suggesting that his actions come directly from Christ runs counter to the idea of the divinity of Christ.

• Bush speaks about compassionate conservatism, yet his policies disadvantage the poor. Bush speaks about freedom, yet his policies are deplored by civil liberties groups. Bush speaks about peace, yet administration policies are decried by peace activists around the world,

• Bush’s invasion of Iraq cannot be defined as a “just war”. According to Catholic doctrine, a just war must conducted by legitimate civil authority. The means that 1) the use of force must be proportional to the actual threat. 2) There must be a good chance of winning. 3) After the fighting is over, there may be no acts of vengeance. None of these requirements fit the case of the invasion of Iraq.

References:

Why is Jesus a Liberal?

Bush's 'Christian values'

TEXAS RANKS ALMOST LAST AMONG THE 50 STATES IN CHRISTIAN VALUES

Openly Religious, to a Point

Bush's policies don't reflect his Christian beliefs