Reply #21: Addition of Tora Bora (how'd anyone forget that?)

[Mugsy]

Large and incomplete list of Republicans who have been indicted, or are under investigation



1. Lying to Congress: cost of Medicare bill
2. Crony Appointment: Michael Brown, fundraiser, to FEMA head
3. Disastrous Legislation: Healthy Forests
4. Theft of 2000 Election
5. Theft of 2004 Election
6. Rescinding the Davis-Bacon act requiring paying employees of govt. contractors the area's prevailing wage for work. Not even sure its legal for a president to unilaterally suspend an act of congress.
7. Alteration of Presidential Records Act through Executive Order to effectively nullify the law.
8. Increasing government secrecy through reclassification of documents and encouraging Executive branch agencies to resist FOIA requests.
9. Failure to act immediately on Aug. 6, 2001, PDB.
10. War misdeeds: Total annihilation of Fallujia
11. War misdeeds: Use of reviled white phosporus as a weapon
12. War misdeeds: failure to secure weapons stockpiles after invasion
13. War misdeeds: Intentional use of smaller military force than needed
14. Lying about Clinton staffers trashing the White House.
15. Fake "terror" alerts whenever Bush fell behind in the polls during the 2004 election campaign.
16. Exposing an active undercover CIA agent.
17. Flouting the Geneva Conventions and making torture legal.
18. Republican Congress suspends Habeas Corpus.
19. Circumventing the 1978 FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) to engage in illegal surveillance of people residing within the United States since 9/11/2001 without judicial review, in *direct* conflict with the 4th Amendment to the Constitution, and therefor an impeachable offence. (Note: during the 2004 campaign, Bush *specifically* addressed "roving wiretaps" as part of the Patriot Act and defended them on the grounds that they were still required obtaining a warrant.) Link
20. Used the NSA to wiretap both the offices and private residences of UN Ambasadors in 2002-2003 to try and decern how members were likely to vote on the Iraq war resolution before the crucial vote in 2003.

--------- Reasons to hate Bush - by Mugsy (not all are crimes) ---------

o A draft-dodging, coke snorting, professed former (and current?) alcoholic that got *everything* he ever "achieved" in life thanks to who his daddy is.

o Despite best evidence that Osama bin Laden was in hiding out in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December 2001, President Bush did not send in ANY U.S. ground troops to surround the area and move in to capture bin Laden ("Sadly, there were more American journalists on the ground at the battle of Tora Bora than there were U.S. soldiers" - Vanity Fair, January 2005, pg 153), instead relying on Afghani rebel fighters coordinated by a handful of CIA agents, supported only by air-to-ground bombing runs. 300 Taliban and al-Qaeda forces managed to hold off Afghani forces long enough for bin Laden to escape. General Tommy Franks, who ridiculed Senator John Kerry's allegation during the 2004 Presidential campaign that President Bush allowed bin Laden to slip away at Tora Bora, wrote in his autobiography "American Soldier" that in December 2001 he advised President Bush, "Uncomfirmed reports have it that Osama has been seen in the White Mountains, Sir. The Tora Bora area."

o Ignoring the Aug 6, 2001 PDB that warned of a possible terrorist attack by bin Laden, and his first meeting with his "terrorism czar" not taking place until just ten days before 9/11 and lasting all of ten minutes.

o Spending over a quarter of his entire time in office "on vacation" (the most in history, surpassing even Reagan) clearing brush on his "ranch" ("Ranch" is in quotes because there are no animals on it, and you'll never see a photo of Dubya on a horse because he is rumored to be afraid of them).

o Took the focus off Osama... the guy who actually attacked us... not just on 9/11, but the USS Cole just before the 2000 election... to go after someone who was not a threat to the United States, on wildly exaggerated accusations of "stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons", "mobile weapons laboratories" and "uranium yellowcake from Niger"

o The infamous "17 words" from his 2003 State of the Union Address where he knowingly lied before Congress and the American people by citing a long-disproven report as "proof" of Saddam's actively attempting to build a nuclear weapon, in order to frighten the American people into supporting a costly, unnecessary and illegal revenge war.

o "Mission Accomplished"

o Nation Building

o Starting a war with no exist strategy that is costing us $135 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY.

o The vindictive outing of an undercover CIA agent (former President Bush Sr... former head of the CIA himself under Ford... once called anyone that outed a covert CIA agent "the most insidious of traitors") in a veiled attempt to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson who dared reveal that he told the Bush White House that the claim of Saddam seeking uranium from Niger, later found to be based upon some REALLY badly forged documents, was completely false.

o Telling reporters "Anyone involved in leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent would no longer be working in my administration", but when it is discovered that it was his own top advisor Karl Rove that leaked the information, changed his promise to "Anyone convicted of leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent...". Is that really the bar we want to set for working in the White House? Anyone just short of conviction is welcome to work in this administration? Apparently so, Republicans tried to change the House ethics rules for Tom DeLay that say "you can not remain Majority Leader if you've been indicted", but were shamed into backing off pushing for the rules change once the press got ahold of it.

o 13 major negative news stories for the Bush Administration are coincidentally followed, sometimes by just mere hours, by "major terrorism events", many of which result in the raising of the White House's color-coded "Traffic Light of Fear" (link)

o The Vice President's former company, of which he still has financial ties to, raking in BILLIONS in hand-delivered no-bid contracts that last for years

o Appointing unqualified cronies to positions of power within the government, even resulting in a massive logistical failure that costs over 1,000 lives (and counting).

o Giving coveted "day passes", intended for visiting reporters from out of town access to the WH Press Briefing room, to a gay-prostitute owing $20,000 in back taxes (can you say "blackmail risk"?) from an extreme Right-Wing "web-only" news outlet, every day for over a year, often within 15 feet of the President of the United States in a time of war?

o The doubling of the price of gas, $66/barrel oil, a 142% increase in the price of natural gas in just one year after condemning the previous administration during the 2000 campaign for "not getting tough with the Saudis" to bring oil prices down (gas was under $1.40/gal at the time).

o A national debt pushing $7 TRILLION DOLLARS and rubber-stamping some of the most pork-laden spending bills in history.

o "Uniter not a divider"

o "A new era of morality and personal responsibility"

o Fake reporters & paying reporters to push propoganda. - List includes James Guckert (aka "Jeff Gannon"), secretly working as a gay male prostitute owing over $10,000 to the IRS and thus ripe for blackmail, was allowed into the coveted White House Press Briefing Room (somestimes within feet of the President of the United States in a time of war) almost daily for over two years via "Day Passes" that allowed him to circumvent the more thorough background check that comes with a permanent "hard pass", all to allow him to lob softball questions to Press Secretary's Fleicher and McClellan (and President Bush himself) for a fake web-only news service called "Talon News" that did little more than reprint White House press releases and post them to their website.
.....Other "fake news" propogandists include Armstrong Williams, who was paid to promote/praise President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" (a program Williams had previously criticized). Various other, lower-profile reporters were also paid to push WH propoganda, and the WH itself produced "Fake News" segments, complete with authentic looking "reporters" using fake names, that were distributed to TV stations across the country for broadcast.
....Finally in 2005, after "fake news" was disavowed in the U.S., it was revealed that the Pentagon had started paying Iraqi reporters to print "news stories" touting successes in Iraq, that were written by a public relations firm in the U.S. and printed in Iraqi newspapers with no mention or attribution to the United States government as having written them. The White House justifies the stories as "counter-propoganda", but never explained the need for "deception" in not revealing the source of the story.

o Enron - During the 2000 Presidential campaign, Presidential Candidate Governor George W. Bush flew around the country on the personal private jet of family friend Ken "Kenny-Boy" Lay, CEO of Houston-based Enron. Candidate Bush even floated the possibility of appointing Lay to the job of "Energy Secretary". Following the scandalous fall of Lay's company Enron and the loss of hundreds of millions of pension dollars owed to employees, only two people (CFO Andrew Fastow and his wife) have yet to be convicted of any crime.

o 6,400+ dead Americans as a direct result of incompetence. (3,000 on 9/11, 2,200 in Iraq/Afghanistan and at least 1,200 - and growing - from hurricane Katrina)

o The Patriot Act

o Cherry picking Iraq intelligence

o Party-girl daughters arrested for underage drinking with "fake ID's" (like no one would recognize them???)

o Staged photo ops, then claimed they weren't staged.

o "Loyalty oaths" to attend campaign rallies "open to the public".

o Protestor "free speech zones".

o Incessant lying to the media.

o "The Nuclear Option"

o Repeatedly breeching the separation of Church and State.

o Flying back early to "save" Teri Schiavo, but attends John McCain's B-day Party the day after Katrina hits.

o "Conservatizing" PBS.

o Massive Media Conglomeration (Clear Channel, etc.)

o Stem cell research (only one usuable line)

o "No Child Left Behind" unfunded mandate

o The "Clear Skies initiative"

o Ignoring the UN and bombing Iraq for "ignoring the UN".

o Trying to privatize Social Security.

o Banned the reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

o Abu Ghraib

o Army recruitment in the toilet.

o Deploying the National Guard overseas for two years.

o A White House that's overrun with draft dodging Chicken Hawks that don't hesitate to send others off to die.

o Sending troops into harms way in a war of choice w/o the necessary armor.

o Paul Bremmer disbanding the Iraqi Army.

o George Tenant's "Slam Dunk".

o "Purple heart band-aids"

o Pissing away a ground-swell of global compassion after 9/11.

o Author of most costly Medicare entitlement program in history with the "Prescription Drug Program".

o Made "competitive bidding" in his "Prescription Drug Program" to keep costs down illegal.

o Too "buddy buddy" with the religious right.

o Diebold/CS&S

o Always "flipping off" someone.

o Is so inconsequential, they don't even interrupt his bike ride when Capitol Hill is evacuated (Cessna).

o Appoints "I'm not qualified" Porter Goss to CIA.

o Appoints "UN hating" John Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N.

o Spirted away members of the bin Laden family in the U.S. on 9/11.

o Long-time family ties to the bin Laden family.

o Disturbingly close ties to the Saudi royal family.

o Never said "imminent threat".

o The looting after the fall of Baghdad.

o Attempting to cut verterans benefits while soldiers are at war.

o Rampant chronyism:

o Michael "Brownie" Brown (7 of top ten FEMA officers)

o Harriet "Harry" Miers

o Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan - Undercover "double agent" spying for Brittish Intelligence (MI6) within al-Qaeda, outed by the Bush Administration in mid-sting during the 2004 Presidential Campaign in order to justify the raising their "Trafficlight of Fear" terrorist threat level immediately following the Democratic DNC Convention that gave Kerry a boost in the polls. Exposing Khan forced MI6 to move in before they were ready, sweeping up only minor terrorism figures, while simultaneously destroying a valuable intelligence asset and jeopardizing future investigations.

------------------- End Mugsy additions ---------------

Thought for a while that a master list would be good. There have been so many that we may forget last week's disaster to focus on the current one. Perhaps the first few words of each entry could set forth the general topic (ie Lying to Congress, Crony Appointments, Deceipt, False Statements, Disastrous Legislation, etc).

Might get unwieldy pretty quickly. Perhaps each topic deserves its own thread (War Misdeeds, Lies to Congress, False Public Statements, Disastrous Legislation, etc). Yep, I think so. -- wiggs

From Mugsy: I started this list a short while ago. These are not all "crimes" but "failures" of the Bush Administration that should give anyone reason to vote against Bush Republicans. I have only gone into detail on less than half of it, but I wanted to get all of the major points "on paper" before they were forgotten. I invite and encourage everyone to clarify any point in my list. Please excuse if my additions are not posted in any proper manner as I learn to use this forum. - Mugsy.

would it be possible to organize this list by perpetrator?
---MC