HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH YET PEOPLE!?

[Jcrowley]

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 crimes: Total annihilation of Fallujia
11. War crimes: Use of white phosphorus 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 offense. (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 Ambassadors in 2002-2003 to try and discern how members were likely to vote on the Iraq war resolution before the crucial vote in 2003.
21. According to Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff, claims he was given authorization to leak details of the still classified National Intelligence Estimate (with regards to the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame) by Cheney, who received that authorization by President Bush himself. If true, never before has a President selectively "declassified" classified information without going through the normal National Security vetting process and then pass that information along only to specific individuals (eg: Bob Novak) in the media rather than broad public disclosure. The White House claims it did nothing wrong, but why then would Novak attribute his source to "a former high-ranking WH official" if nothing improper was taking place?

--------- 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-Qa eda 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, "Unconfirmed 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-disproved 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 exit strategy that is costing $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 Raising the National Debt ceiling to $9 TRILLION DOLLARS (3/16/06) and rubber-stamping some of the most pork-laden spending bills in history while continuing to push for further tax cuts that benefit only the top 1/2 of 1% of the wealthiest Americans while cutting food stamps, student loans and social services.

o "Uniter not a divider"

o "A new era of morality and personal responsibility"

o Fake reporters & paying reporters to push propaganda: Other than Gannon/Guckert mentioned above, "fake news" propagandists 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 propaganda, 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-propaganda", 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 6,700+ dead Americans as a direct result of incompetence. (3,000 on 9/11, 2,300 in Iraq/Afghanistan and at least 1,400 - 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 Protester "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 The crippling of stem-cell research (only one usable line among the few that were permitted.)

o "No Child Left Behind", an unfunded mandate

o The "Clear Skies initiative"

o Ignoring the UN to bomb Iraq for "ignoring the UN".

o Trying to privatize Social Security.

o Banned the re importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

o Abu Ghraib

o Army recruitment in the toilet.

o Deploying the National Guard overseas for three years (use of the National Guard as "active duty troops" was meant to be permitted only in "extreme circumstances" where a direct threat to the security of the United States exists. Most states have laws limiting NG/R deployment to a maximum of 18 months as anything longer is an undo burden on the families, employers and communities to be without their services.

o A White House that's overrun with draft dodging Chicken Hawks that don't hesitate to send others off to die, but had "other priorities" when their time to serve came.

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 a "Prescription Drug Program" that actually forbids bargaining and competition to control costs (showing just how loyal Republicans really are to the concept of a "free market economy").

o Too "buddy buddy" with the religious right.

o Diebold/CS&S

o Bush always "flipping off" someone.

o Bush is in fact inconsequential. They don't even bother to interrupt his bike ride when Capitol Hill is evacuated (Cessna violates airspace).

o Appoints "I'm not qualified" Porter Goss to head 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. immediately after 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 veterans benefits while soldiers are at war.

o Rampant chronyism: 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 "Traffic light 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.

[Spazito]

1. Wow, excellent work!

thanks for this, bookmarked!

[babylonsister]

2. Jcrowley, you've outdone yourself, as have the rethugs. Time to

throw the bums out!

[Jcrowley]

4. What's not included here

is the list of International treaties that the Bush Mafia has violated, I have carried around the list for five years it is lengthy, and the list of international conferences that they have either sent low-level delegations and/or put up obstacles and/or simply walked out on, another lengthy list.

[babylonsister]

5. So at your leisure, start some threads. We love

ammo to bookmark and use for future reference, as I will be using this detailed list.
Again, thanks for compiling it!

[PADemD]

3. Great Work !

This list will come in handy when I call my neighbors to get out the vote.

[Mnemosyne]

6. This IS a keeper! knr n/t

[H2O Man]

7. Very well done!

This is an intense OP, the type that makes DU so valuable .... and so much fun to read!

Thank you for this.

[cornermouse]

8. I don't hate him.

I think he's a lowlife slime who should be impeached at the very least, but I don't hate him. I'm not going to give him that much importance.

[Stuckinthebush]

35. Sorry...I hate him with a burning passion

I don't hate many people, and would be hard pressed to tell you who I did hate, but George is top on the list.

What he has done to this country and to the world deserves our scorn and hatred. The fact that he doesn't give a damn makes my hatred boil over.

I give him that much importance because he has the power to inflict massive damage to people of the world.

My hate is strong and it drives me to make sure he is politically neutered this November.

[Dystopian]

9. Thank you!!! Great Job! k&r eom

[smirkymonkey]

10. Kicked & Recommended....

[BluePatriot]

11. Nice list! (K&R)

[Jcrowley]

12. Thanks

One could go on. Any additions?

[Justice Is Comin]

13. Um don't you think the word Foley should be on there?

[Jcrowley]

14. Actually I don't

Many, many things will impact our lives for years to come and I'm afraid the Foley scandal won't be one of those in the long view. I'm sure much has ben omitted.

[nam78_two]

24. Global warming negligence

With the suppression of the report on the increased intensity of hurricanes due to global warming, being only the latest in the suppression of environmental science.And just in general, from day one this administration has targetted the environment-oil men at work.

Seriously, their negligence and straight up "destroy the environment" attitude is going to affect many generations. America could have been a world leader on environmental policies at this critical point in the planet's future and we missed the boat.

They have also quietly been rolling back so many many regulations and turning back environmental policies, while trying to declare environmentalists terrorists (Greenpeace and "sailor-mongering" anyone?)-its sickening....

There is a war on science and a war on the environment being waged by these people....Awful....

[Jcrowley]

25. Definitely

How would you feel about putting together a list strictly related to the Bush Admin's environmental record. I use to have a link that had the entirety of their environmental record but think it is gone now. It was frighteningly lengthy. It just goes on and on...

[nam78_two]

26. sure thing-all I have to do is look at all the alerts I got over 5 years!

That alone would give me a partial idea.

I will put it together and post it in this thread later....

[oasis]

15. America's had enough of Bush's lies. Will send him a message next month.

[ninkasi]

16. I had enough

when Bush was proclaimed the winner by the SCOTUS. I am a native Texan, and had seen what having one of the Bush boys in charge of politics meant. This Bush family is one of the most corrupt ones in American history.

The sad thing is that some of his more delusional followers consider his worst attributes to be his most appealing. He is without any doubt the worst president ever to occupy the Oval Office.

[ginnyinWI]

17. me too--since the debates in 2000

Let me tell ya, it's been a long six years.

[MrScorpio]

18. I see you pulled out the "Short List"

It'd take weeks to read the entire list

[marions ghost]

19. whew

the cesspool runneth over...

Had our septic tank emptied last week and well...let's just say it was very full. I was thinking that it smelled like the legacy of the B*sh administration. Washington needs a good pump-out too. Somebody has to do the job.

Thank you for this Jcrowley. It will come in handy.

[malaise]

20. Save the planet

Throw the rascals out
http://www.rickieleejones.com/rlj-have-you-had-enough.m...

[civildisoBDence]

32. Bob Marley could have been talking about Bush when he sang,

"Eating up all the flesh from off the earth"

"Hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs"

"Stiff necked fool, you think you are cool to deny me for humanity"

"Would you let the system make you kill your brotherman, NO DREAD NO!
Would you make the system let you kill your brotherman, NO DREAD NO!"

"If you are the big tree, we are the small axe
Ready to cut you down, sharpened to cut you down."

"Ob-a-ob-a-serving, the hypocrites mingle with the good people we meet"

And just about any other lyric he ever wrote about fucking pigshit motherfuckers like DUUUUUUUUUHbya and his cabal of assholes!!!!

And I'd add to crowley's list the least important but most absurd of Bush's follies:
Jailing Tommy Chong for calling a bong a bong!

Satire as thick as a president's skull

[hsher]

41. Civil, that is beautiful

>>"If you are the big tree, we are the small axe
Ready to cut you down, sharpened to cut you down."

This needs to become the motto of the Revolution. Who's for summer 2007 as the season of change? I just do a wee comic strip, but next summer I'm stepping into the phone booth and emerging from it a revolutionary. Four more Gen X'ers I know pledged two nights ago they're doing the same thing. We're meeting to make plans and, yes, watch "It's The Great Pumpkin" together. Anyone want to join the summer revolution? It'll be nonviolent, but it's also going to do things nobody's ever seen before, that the right wing doesn't expect, and by the end of it they're going to feel it.

The small axe is now poised and ready, sharpened to cut down a large, corrupt, gnarled tree dropping poison across our fair shores. Seize the axe!


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
The Daily Show as a comic strip

[B Calm]

21. Did they ever recover the museum pieces that were looted?

[nam78_two]

22. PLUS all the crimes against the environment/K&R

Not trivial those....

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. K & R

[Kablooie]

27. I'll have another helping of the same please.

The Gay Old Pedophile party is so much more colorful than the
stodgy Democrats.

[bdamomma]

28. I think the World has had enough

[stepnw1f]

29. Bush and the Republicans are "evil"...

they profit directly from people suffering around the World, including here in their own country. They hold no allegiance to anything moral.

[chill_wind]

30. GREAT list of reminders, Jcrowley! K&R'd and bookmarked. Thnx. nt

[corkhead]

31. KBR Great reference, but too depressing to read in its entirety.

wow.

[nam78_two]

33. Bush's Environmental Record for 2001

Via NRDC (http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/2001.asp )

2001:

USFS guts protections for undeveloped forest lands (12/14/01)

DOE weakens standards for Yucca nuclear storage (12/14/01)

NRDC sues Department of Energy to expose Cheney energy task force secrets (12/11/01)

Snowmobile ban unlikely to be implemented in Yellowstone and Grand Teton (12/10/01)

Voyageurs National Park reopening areas to snowmobiles (11/29/01)

EPA may lift ban on human testing of pesticides (11/28/01)

White House plans deep cuts in environmental spending (11/28/01)

Forest Service makes hasty salvage logging decision, forces court battle (11/27/01)

Bush administration shutting down Everglades restoration office (11/06/01)

Bush signs Interior bill that boosts spending, but includes harmful riders (11/05/01)

Corps of Engineers ignores "no net loss" wetlands policy (11/02/01)

EPA issues an arsenic-in-tap-water standard higher than that recommended by public health advocates (10/31/01)

Norton Guts Tough Mining Protections (10/25/01)

EPA considers standards that could slow cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River (10/04/01)

Forest chief asks Norton to end Oregon mining ban (10/02/01)

GAO slams Forest Service for poor fiscal management (10/01/01)

White House rule change could inflict "paralysis by analysis" on regulatory process (09/24/01)

Corps official uses terrorist attacks as excuse to weaken environmental protection (09/21/01)

USFS to reduce public participation (09/20/01)

Bush administration wants farm policy overhaul (09/19/01)

Bush backing away from pledge to clean up federal facilities (09/07/01)

Bush administration considers disposing of radioactive waste in consumer products (08/28/01)

Bush administration seeks to fast-track missile defense program, but coalition sues to force drafting of environmental impact statements (08/28/01)

Norton reneges on agreement to protect endangered desert tortoise (08/27/01)

Forest Service stalls roadless protection, allows logging to continue (08/22/01)

Bush administration appeals federal judge's decision to ban drilling off California's coast (08/17/01)

EPA postpones action on power plants, expected to favor limited approach (08/14/01)

Tongass and other forests open to roadbuilding, logging (08/12/01)

Army Corps of Engineers to weaken wetlands protections (08/08/01)

EPA wants to scrap air pollution regulations for power plants (07/26/01)

Bush unlikely to offer alternative global warming plan (07/26/01)

Norton balks at defending wildlife in the face of local opposition (07/23/01)

Bush seeking to weaken federal environmental enforcement (07/23/01)

White House favors limiting president's authority to protect federal lands (07/17/01)

Bush outlines an 'all talk, no action' approach to global warming (07/13/01)

The Bush-Cheney Energy Plan: Players, Profits and Paybacks (06/20/01)

U.S. Department of Energy sued over final rule on air conditioners (06/19/01)

Bush will not change fuel efficiency standards (06/19/01)

EPA announces final radiation standards for Yucca Mountain waste repository (06/06/01)

EPA moves ahead with Clinton-era rule that will reduce haze over wildlands (05/29/01)

Bush administration formally suspends arsenic-in-drinking-water protections(05/22/01)

Agriculture secretary undercuts forest management process (05/17/01)

BLM fails to comply with agreement to protect threatened desert tortoises (05/12/01)

Bush administration won't release information on industry participants in Cheney energy task force (05/10/01)

NRDC's John Adams to President Bush: Don't take the teeth out of the Clean Air Act (05/07/01)


Bush administration marks 100 days in office (04/29/01)

EPA drops objections to Florida rule that undermines Clean Water Act protections (04/26/01)

Interior will not reintroduce grizzly bears into Idaho, Montana wildlands (04/25/01)

Gale Norton nominates William G. Myers III as solicitor for Department of the Interior (04/24/01)

Bush seeks to relax requirements of Endangered Species Act (04/09/01)

Bush administration suspends the "contractor responsibility rule" (03/30/01)

Bush administration rejects Kyoto Protocol (03/28/01)

Bush administration delays hard-rock mining regulations that protect watersheds (03/21/01)

Bush withdraws new arsenic-in-drinking-water standard (03/20/01)

Bush administration settles pesticides lawsuit brought by NRDC against EPA (03/19/01)

Bush administration seeks to roll back Roadless Area Conservation Plan (03/16/01)

Bush retreats from campaign promise to reduce carbon pollution (03/13/01)

President nominates J. Steven Griles as deputy secretary of Interior (03/09/01)

EPA upholds Clinton decision to clean up diesel pollution (02/28/01)

Bush administration to try to adjust the boundaries of 19 new national monuments (02/20/01)

EPA delays, then upholds, new rule protecting wetlands (02/15/01)

Administration seeks to weaken efficiency standards for air conditioners (02/12/01)

Bush seeks to open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development (01/20/01)

New raw-sewage rules delayed by Bush regulatory freeze (01/20/01)

White House announces regulatory freeze (01/20/01)


More to come....

[nam78_two]

37. Bush Environmental Record in 2002

EPA exempts oil and gas industry from stormwater pollution rules (12/30/02)

Bush administration backtracking on policy of 'no net loss" of wetlands (12/26/02)

Judge deals setback to Bush oil drilling plans in Utah (12/23/02)

Bush administration weakens federal program for cleaning up dirty waters (12/21/02)


White House begins process of relaxing government regulations for industry (12/19/02)


Forest Service rewriting rules to increase logging, remove wildlife safeguards (11/26/02)


Bush administration wants to expedite logging at expense of fish in Northwest forests (11/25/02)


EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act (11/22/02)


Bush administration opens national park to drilling (11/22/02)


Interior plans to limit environmental reviews for grazing (11/18/02)


Bush administration reverses snowmobile ban for national parks (11/12/02)


EPA approves Louisiana's controversial pollution-trading program (10/29/02)

New EPA water quality report shows U.S. waters are getting dirtier (09/30/02)


Bush administration rewriting rules to boost logging in Northwest (09/30/02)

Bush administration relinquishing federal water rights (09/30/02)

Bush administration revives controversial California gold mine (09/27/02)

Bush administration plans to lift federal protection on wolves (09/25/02)

Bush administration to reconsider Clean Water Act protections (09/19/02)

Forest Service smoothing the rails for Bush's logging proposals (09/19/02)


Bush's new wildfire expert no friend of forests (08/30/02)

U.S. undermines renewable energy proposal at World Summit (08/27/02)

White House Utah drilling plans under fire from local businesses (08/26/02)

Bush administration abandons California water plan (08/23/02)

Bush calls for increased logging in the name of fire prevention (08/22/02) typical

Interior Department allows more air pollution at national park (08/22/02)

Bush administration weakens whale protections that hindered oil and gas industry (08/22/02)

Bush uses national security to gain corporate secrecy and immunity (07/26/02)

Another EPA official resigns in protest over Bush policies (07/25/02)

Bush administration plans to give away oil and coal holdings in Utah (07/25/02)

Fish and Wildlife Service reneges on manatee protection plan (07/24/02)

Bush's revised Everglades plan falls short of restoration goals (07/23/02)


Bush slashing EPA funding for toxic cleanups (06/30/02)

FWS flip-flops on trout protection (06/26/02)

EPA stymied investigation of Yucca Mountain radiation standards (06/25/02)

Bush administration blames wildfires on environmentalists (06/25/02)

EPA backs off mandatory plan to clean up stormwater pollution (06/24/02)

Bush administration backtracks on land preservation (06/19/02)


Judge rejects Corps request to lift ban on mining pollution (06/17/02)

Bush blocks Florida Gulf, Glades drilling (05/29/02)

Bush administration lets construction companies off the hook for protecting environment (05/24/02)

Bush-Putin Summit Produces Deeply Flawed Nuclear Arms Treaty (05/24/02)

Bush administration rolls back air conditioner energy efficiency standards (05/23/02)

Army Corps of Engineers' flip-flops on project reviews further damage its credibility (05/23/02)

Bush administration sends conflicting signal on Clean Air Act enforcement (05/21/02)

Bush administration lifts ban on mining in Oregon national forest (05/21/02)

White House rejected more stringent EPA air-pollution proposal before issuing so-called "Clear Skies" plan (04/28/02)

EPA watchdog resigns in protest over Bush policies (04/22/02)

Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental laws (03/29/02)

Energy Department papers show industry is the real author of administration's energy policy (03/27/02)

White House misuses clean energy funds to print dirty energy plan (03/25/02)

Endangered species habitat under attack (03/19/02)

Energy Dept. ordered to release task force records to NRDC (02/27/02)

Top EPA official resigns in protest of Bush's pro-polluter policies (02/27/02)

EPA official admits that Bush clean air plan is weak (02/26/02)

Bush administration intends to shift Superfund cleanup from polluters to taxpayers (02/23/02)

BLM rule could block federal land protection (02/22/02)

Corps doesn't give a dam for Snake River salmon (02/21/02)

Snowmobile ban dealt another blow (02/19/02)

Court asked to force immediate release of secret energy task force details (01/30/02)

Bush administration refusing to release energy task force records (01/28/02)

Agency pushes oil exploration near Utah park (01/24/02)

New NRDC report documents sweeping rollback of environmental protections by federal agencies (01/23/02)

Forest Service appeals salvage logging legal decision (01/22/02)

BLM backs gas drilling in national monument (01/21/02)

Interior proposes spending boost for refuges (01/21/02)

Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific Northwest (01/18/02)

[nam78_two]

38. Phillip A Cooney, James Hansen, Ashcroft and Greenpeace,

Phillip A Cooney

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10710F...

Bush Aide edited Climate Reports:
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Internal documents show that White House official Philip A Cooney, who once led oil industry fight against limits on greenhouse gases, has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming; Cooney is now chief of staff for White House Council on Environmental Quality; dozens of wording changes convey air of doubt about findings that most climate experts say are robust; examples of altered pages; Cooney, lawyer with no scientific training, was American Petroleum Institute lobbyist leading 'climate team' until 2001; documents were obtained by The New York Times from Government Accountability Project, which helps whistle-blowers and is representing Rick S Piltz, who resigned in March from government office that issued documents edited by Cooney; Piltz says White House editing and other actions threaten to taint effort to clarify climate issue

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Philip_A._Co...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Hansen

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D13F...

CLIMATE EXPERT SAYS NASA TRIED TO SILENCE HIM
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ashcroft, Greenpeace and "sailor-mongering"

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/bush-vs-greenpe...
http://www.csrwire.com/synd/business-ethics/article.cgi...

(CSRwire) Washington – At a press conference here today, leaders from national environmental and civil liberties groups called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to drop a criminal case against Greenpeace USA pending in Miami, which could set a dangerous precedent threatening Americans' First Amendment right to peaceful protest.

The criminal prosecution of an advocacy group for the free speech activities of its members – and the chilling effect on its activities – is unprecedented in the U.S. A Greenpeace motion to dismiss will be heard in Miami federal court tomorrow in the case, which charges Greenpeace with criminal conspiracy and unlawful boarding.

The federal charges were filed one year after two Greenpeace activists boarded a ship carrying illegal mahogany from the Amazon and attempted to unfurl a banner that said "President Bush: Stop Illegal Logging." In bringing the charges, the Justice Department dredged up an obscure 1872 law against "sailor-mongering" that legal experts believe has not been used since the 19th century.

"Instead of prosecuting the smugglers, the Justice Department wants to brand Greenpeace a criminal operation," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "Greenpeace will resist this overreaching by Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department. We hope that all defenders of endangered freedoms, as well as protectors of endangered forests, will stand with us."

Longtime civil rights activist and chairman of the board of the NAACP, Julian Bond, discussed how such selective prosecution would have devastated the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

"If John Ashcroft had done this in the 1960s, black Americans would not be voting today, eating at formerly all-white lunch counters or sitting on bus front seats," Bond said. "This is a government assault on time-honored nonviolent civil disobedience as practiced by Martin Luther King and thousands of other Americans."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nam78_two]

39. Bush Environmental Record in 2003

Federal court blocks EPA plan to cripple Clean Air Act (12/24/03)

Court blocks Bush administration's Clean Air Act changes (12/24/03)

EPA revs up motorcycle pollution plan (12/23/03)

Another senior EPA official resigns in protest to Bush administration policies (12/23/03)

Forest Service clears way for logging in Tongass (12/23/03)

Bush administration streamlining oil and gas permits (12/23/03)

Forest Service opens grizzly bear habitat to snowmobiles (12/22/03)

New EPA mercury rule fails to account for 'lost' emissions (12/19/03)

Bush administration finally takes blame for Klamath fish kill (11/18/03)


Judge criticizes White House pro-industry mining rules (11/18/03)

EPA moves to fill landfills with radioactive waste (11/18/03)

Bush administration seeks increase in use of ozone-depleting pesticide (11/14/03)

Park Service workers speak out against Bush policies (11/13/03)

EPA considers exempting small business from toxic release reporting (11/12/03)

Revised Everglades recovery plan not worth the wait (11/04/03)

Superfund cleanups lag for third straight year (11/04/03)

White House considers dropping some fish protections to promote logging (10/31/03)

EPA tricks public, treats industry on dangerous pesticide (10/31/03)

Bush administration ignores damming evidence (10/29/03)

EPA refuses to tackle rising mercury pollution in Great Lakes region (10/29/03)

EPA may allow continued phosphate dumping in Gulf of Mexico (10/28/03)

Costly USFS and BLM outsourcing studies prove unhelpful (10/23/03)

EPA changes rule to exempt hazardous waste requirements (10/23/03)

EPA developing ways around the Clean Water Act (10/22/03)

White House study: benefits of environmental regulation far outweigh costs (09/29/03)

BLM opens millions of acres of wilderness to energy development (09/29/03)

EPA strikes deal with polluting factory farms (09/25/03)

White House recommendations could shut the public out of environmental review (09/24/03)

GAO finds that energy production pollutes wildlife refuges (09/24/03)

Corps of Engineers violates judge's ruling, won't lower Missouri River flows for wildlife (09/24/03)

Forest Service to sell Tongass timber at a loss (09/23/03)

EPA passes the buck on regulating global warming pollution from cars (08/28/03)

EPA on global warming gases: Bring 'em on! (08/28/03)

EPA officially rolls back Clean Air Act protections (08/27/03)

New EPA rules ignore mercury pollution from chlorine plants (08/27/03)

Corporations shaped Bush energy policy, GAO says (08/25/03)

Park Service spending less than promised (08/21/03)

Oily deal on offshore drilling rights (08/21/03)

President making empty promises on parks funding, critics say (08/15/03)


EPA hides research on Senate clean air plan (07/30/03)


Forest Service rewriting Yellowstone plans with a grizzly ending (07/26/03)

Out with outsourcing, Bush administration decides (07/25/03)

EPA reconsidering proposal to weaken Clean Air Act rule (07/25/03)

Criticism forces NPS not to raid Mount Rainier repair funds (07/24/03)

Bush climate plan all study, no action (07/24/03)


EPA rejects temporary ozone waiver for power plants (06/26/03)

Bush administration calls for more gas drilling on public lands (06/24/03)

White House whitewashes EPA environment report (06/23/03)

Fish and Wildlife Service reduces protected habitat for threatened mouse by half (06/23/03)

EPA concerned about Yellowstone snowmobiles (06/21/03)

DOD reneges on plan to test for perchlorate pollution at U.S. bases (06/20/03)

BLM vows to fix maligned land appraisal process (06/19/03)

Bush administration undermines critical habitat designations (06/18/03)


White House buries mountaintop mining regulation (05/30/03)


White House forest-fire plan axes environmental protections (05/30/03)

Park Service opens Maryland seashore to Jet Skis (05/30/03)

Interior giving up on endangered species protection (05/29/03)

EPA failing to keep track of water quality (05/27/03)

BLM opens fragile dunes ecosystem to off-road recreation (05/23/03)


Bush administration cuts wildlife protection, boosts logging in Northwest forests (05/23/03)

EPA reports record drop in fuel economy (04/30/03)

White House bans EPA from discussing perchlorate pollution (04/28/03) ; what you don't know won't kill you!

EPA Administrator Whitman misusing agency investigators (04/26/03)

White House says "ready, aim, shoot" on wilderness (04/25/03)

Fish and Wildlife Service holds the line on habitat protection plans for imperiled wildlife in California (04/24/03)

White House unveils its pro-industry chemical security bill (04/24/03)

Forest Service permits grazing in violation of federal law, says judge (04/24/03)

Whitman changes her tune on Pentagon environmental exemptions (03/26/03)

Interior Department favors boosting offshore drilling by reducing corporate costs (03/26/03)

National Park Service officially adopts snowmobile plan (03/25/03)

EPA backtracks on pledge to close loophole for California air polluters (03/25/03)

EPA cooks fish data to allow more pollution (03/21/03)

GAO slams Bush administration for stalling on chemical security (03/18/03)

Interior ordered to continue protecting manatees (03/18/03)

Interior officials escalate rhetoric over Arctic Refuge (02/28/03)

Bush administration rejects wilderness protection in Alaska's Tongass (02/28/03)

Department of Transportation to expedite more environmentally harmful road projects (02/27/03)

Bush administration to build world's first emission-free power plant (02/27/03)

U.S. EPA seeks to weaken endangered-species protections (02/27/03)

Bush air pollution plan weakens current law, threatens public health (02/27/03)

Bush administration flunking on salmon recovery (02/26/03)

Bush administration sets sights on drilling in Western Arctic Reserve (02/26/03)

New EPA air rules for ocean vessels too weak (01/31/03)

GAO faults EPA oversight on factory farms (01/31/03)

Bush administration seeks waiver on ozone-destroying pesticide (01/30/03)

Bush snowmobile decision defies logic, not to mention scientific findings (01/30/03)

Polluting industries getting off easier under Bush administration (01/29/03)

Sierra Nevada forest protections under fire by Bush administration (01/29/03)

Bush administration wins court victory on mountaintop removal mining (01/29/03)

[nam78_two]

40. Stephen A Johnson- head of the EPA-targeted the poor for human testing

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7420

President Bush recently nominated Stephen L. Johnson, a 24-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency, to be the agency's new administrator. Mr. Johnson has been the acting administrator since January, and prior to that oversaw the EPA office handling pesticides and other toxic substances. In nominating Johnson, Mr. Bush described him as "a talented scientist" and having "good judgment and complete integrity."

Yet his record as the Assistant Administrator for Toxic Substances casts serious doubt on whether he is suited to lead the E.P.A., an agency directly affecting Americans' health and many significant industries, including automobiles and agriculture. During President Bush's first term, Johnson was a strong supporter of pesticide testing on humans.

During President Clinton's administration, the E.P.A. would not consider the results of controversial trials that tested pesticides on people. But after Mr. Bush was elected, Johnson changed the policy to permit consideration, saying, "We are willing to consider that such studies can be useful".

In 2001, the trials considered by the agency gave paid subjects doses of pesticides hundreds of times greater than levels that E.P.A. officials considered safe for the general public.
-----

The participants will be selected from six health clinics and three hospitals in Duval County. The E.P.A. study proposal noted, "Although all Duval County citizens are eligible to use the centers, they primarily serve individuals with lower incomes. In the year 2000, 75 percent of the users of the clinics for pregnancy issues were at or below the poverty level." The proposal also cited that "The percentage of births to individuals classified as black in the U.S. Census is higher at these three hospitals than for the County as a whole."



The E.P.A. is targeting the poor and African-Americans for the study, presumably in the hope that they will be less informed about the dangers of exposing their children to pesticides, and will therefore continue to expose them over the two-year period. The study actually mandates that parents not be provided information about the proper ways to apply or store pesticides around the home. And the parents cannot be informed of the risks of prolonged or excessive exposure to pesticides. Additionally, the study does not provide guidelines to intervene if the children show signs of developmental delay or register dangerous levels of pesticide exposure in the periodic testing.



Parents receive $970 for participating, but only if they continue over the two-year period. This is a powerful inducement for these impoverished parents to keep exposing their children to pesticides. Even some E.P.A. officials have been troubled by the lack of safeguards to ensure that these parents are not swayed into exposing their children to the chemicals. Troy Pierce, a scientist in the E.P.A.'s Atlanta based pesticides office, wrote to his colleagues last year via e-mail, "This does sound like it goes against everything we recommend at EPA concerning use of (pesticides) related to children. Paying families in Florida to have their homes routinely treated with pesticides is very sad when we at EPA know that (pesticide management) should always be used to protect children."

[nam78_two]

42. Bush Environmental Record in 2004

Bush oil and gas drilling policy forces taxpayers to pay a heavy cleanup price (12/26/04)

National forest rules rewritten to help timber industry (12/22/04)

Industry rewrites government article on perchlorate dangers (12/19/04)

Bush administration officials accused of downplaying danger of water diversion to fish populations (12/19/04)

Bush administration impedes progress at international global warming talks (12/18/04)

Interior Department official sides with industry over wildlife protections (12/18/04)

Bush administration fails to protect endangered fish from harmful dams (11/30/04)

Bush administration deal cuts critical habitat for salmon (11/30/04)

EPA will accept pesticide studies of human subjects (11/30/04)

EPA tells small incinerators to clean up (11/30/04)

Bush administration officials win exemption from international pesticide ban (11/26/04)

EPA stifles internal agency dissent over roadless rule (11/26/04)

Bush administration accepts global warming science but balks at solutions (11/24/04)

White House stifles global warming data, says NASA top official (10/27/04)

Environmentalists and EPA employees criticize coalbed methane mining (10/22/04)

Southern California to receive more water at the expense of imperiled fish species (10/22/04)

Bush administration's environmental policies ignore science, scientists say (10/19/04)

Snowmobiles revving up for Yellowstone again (10/15/04)

Camouflaged drilling wells won't hide the real problem, critics say (09/30/04)

Bush weakens decades old rule that protects wildife in forests (09/29/04)

Drill first, ask questions later on public lands (09/26/04)

EPA air policy penned by polluting industries (09/22/04)

USDA rule could triple use of ozone-depleting pesticide (09/16/04)

State Department attempts to bury global warming reports (09/16/04)

Feds preparing to remove grizzly protections (09/12/04)

EPA proposes easing standard on toxic metal (08/31/04)

Despite risk to salmon, dams to stay (08/31/04)

Bush administration finally acknowledges human causes of global warming (08/25/04)

Park Service issues new snowmobile plan for Yellowstone (08/19/04)

Department of Homeland Security aims to sidestep environmental reviews (08/16/04)

Health agency colludes with industry to downplay risks of toxic metal (08/15/04)

Prairie dog no longer candidate for ESA protections (08/13/04)

EPA scrutinized for issuing industry-friendly laundry rule (08/13/04)

BLM issuing record number of drilling permits (07/29/04)

Endangered minnow loses protected habitat in three states (07/29/04)

Bush forest policy shortchanges rural communities (07/27/04)

Less protection for imperiled tiger salamanders (07/26/04)

EPA tells General Electric: more dredging, not less (07/22/04)

Whistleblowing Florida panther scientist will be fired (07/20/04)

GAO criticizes Pentagon for perchlorate pollution (06/30/04)

BLM holds largest federal lands auction in Utah history (06/25/04)

EPA resists further mercury studies (06/25/04)

EPA goes soft on pollution control for oil refineries (06/25/04)

EPA lifts ban on drilling in Gulf of Mexico (06/24/04)

Bush administration protecting less wildlife habitat than federal biologists recommend (06/24/04)

Missouri River restoration battle takes bad turn for wildlife (06/22/04)

EPA bows to pressure to find "lost" mercury pollution (05/30/04)

For the EPA, wet asbestos removal up in the air (05/30/04)

Budget cuts hurting national parks, reports watchdog group (05/28/04)

Corps loosens clean water, stream protections for mountaintop removal mining (05/28/04)

Park Service seeks delay in Yellowstone snowmobile decision (05/28/04)

Reversing course, U.S. Army maintains environmental protections (05/27/04)

Bush administration may roll back fuel standards (05/27/04)

Public given limited access to drinking water information (05/27/04)

Pentagon misses deadline on perchlorate report (04/30/04)

Smoggy skies affecting more than half of all Americans (04/29/04)

EPA air experts accuse Bush administration of altering science (04/29/04)

Interior Dept. limiting "critical habitat" protection (04/28/04)

Court questions industry-friendly EPA fertilizer rule (04/23/04)

Church leaders chastise President Bush for bad air policies (04/22/04)

Court orders Energy Department to release more Cheney task force records (03/31/04)

EPA chief Leavitt failing to lay down the law (03/31/04)

Yellowstone bison slaughtered to please ranchers (03/31/04)

EPA letting Clean Water Act violators off the hook (03/30/04)

EPA uses utility company memos to craft controversial mercury policy (03/30/04)

Court orders Bush administration to stop hiding forest documents (03/30/04)

DOE holds nuke cleanup funds hostage (02/26/04)

More industry materials borrowed by EPA for its mercury rule (02/26/04)

Missouri River management plan ignores fish protections (02/26/04)

Bush cuts funding for endangered species (02/25/04)

Federal mining whistleblower silenced, demoted (02/24/04)

Get the lead out: EPA fails to protect D.C. drinking water (02/23/04)

EPA's mercury pollution plan mirrors industry's recommendations (01/30/04)

Bush administration leaves nuclear plant safety up to contractors (01/29/04)

White House wants to let EPA ignore pesticide consultations (01/27/04)

Forest Service to boost logging in Appalachian forests (01/23/04)

Forest Service drops "survey and manage" rule for loggers (01/23/04)

[nam78_two]

43. Distorting and Suppressing Climate Change Research

http://webexhibits.org/bush/5.html

Since taking office, the Bush administration has consistently sought to undermine the public’s understanding of the view held by the vast majority of climate scientists that human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are making a discernible contribution to global warming.

After coming to office, the administration asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and provide further assessment of what climate science could say about this issue.2 The NAS panel rendered a strong opinion, which, in essence, confirmed that of the IPCC. The American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest organization of earth scientists, has also released a strong statement describing human-caused disruptions of Earth’s climate.3 Yet Bush administration spokespersons continue to contend that the uncertainties in climate projections and fossil fuel emissions are too great to warrant mandatory action to slow emissions.4

In May 2002, President Bush expressed disdain for a State Department report5 to the United Nations that pointed to a clear human role in the accumulation of heat-trapping gases and detailed the likely negative consequences of climate change; the president called it “a report put out by the bureaucracy.”6 In September 2002, the administration removed a section on climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) annual air pollution report,7 even though the climate issue had been discussed in the report for the preceding five years.

Then, in one well-documented case, the Bush administration blatantly tampered with the integrity of scientific analysis at a federal agency when, in June 2003, the White House tried to make a series of changes to the EPA’s draft Report on the Environment.8

A front-page article in the New York Times broke the news that White House officials tried to force the EPA to substantially alter the report’s section on climate change. The EPA report, which referenced the NAS review and other studies, stated that human activity is contributing significantly to climate change.9

Interviews with current and former EPA staff, as well as an internal EPA memo reviewed for this report (see Appendix A) reveal that the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Office of Management and Budget demanded major amendments including:

The deletion of a temperature record covering 1,000 years in order to, according to the EPA memo, emphasize “a recent, limited analysis supports the administration’s favored message.” 10
The removal of any reference to the NAS review—requested by the White House itself —that confirmed human activity is contributing to climate change. 11
The insertion of a reference to a discredited study of temperature records funded in part by the American Petroleum Institute. 12
The elimination of the summary statement— noncontroversial within the science community that studies climate change—that “climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment.” 13
According to the internal EPA memo, White House officials demanded so many qualifying words such as “potentially” and “may” that the result would have been to insert “uncertainty... where there is essentially none.”14

In a process now-departed EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman has since described as “brutal,”15 the entire section on climate change was ultimately deleted from the version released for public comment.16 According to internal EPA documents and interviews with EPA researchers, the agency staff chose this path rather than compromising their credibility by misrepresenting the scientific consensus.17 Doing otherwise, as one current, high-ranking EPA official puts it, would “poorly represent the science and ultimately undermine the credibility of the EPA and the White House.”18

The EPA’s decision to delete any mention of global warming from its report drew widespread criticism. Many scientists and public officials— Republicans and Democrats alike—were moved to decry the administration’s political manipulation in this case. Notably, the incident drew the ire of Russell Train, who served as EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford. In a letter to the New York Times, Train stated that the Bush administration’s actions undermined the independence of the EPA and were virtually unprecedented for the degree of their political manipulation of the agency’s research. As Train put it, the “interest of the American people lies in having full disclosures of the facts.”19 Train also noted that, “In all my time at the EPA, I don’t recall any regulatory decision that was driven by political considerations. More to the present point, never once, to my best recollection, did either the Nixon or Ford White House ever try to tell me how to make a decision.”20

Were the case an isolated incident, it could perhaps be dismissed as an anomaly. On the contrary, the Bush administration has repeatedly intervened to distort or suppress climate change research findings despite promises by the president that, “my Administration’s climate change policy will be science-based.”21

Despite the widespread agreement in the scientific community that human activity is contributing to global climate change, as demonstrated by the consensus of international experts on the IPCC, the Bush administration has sought to exaggerate uncertainty by relying on disreputable and fringe science reports and preventing informed discussion on the issue. As one current EPA scientist puts it, the Bush administration often “does not even invite the EPA into the discussion” on climate change issues. “This administration seems to want to make environmental policy at the White House,” the government scientist explains. “I suppose that is their right. But one has to ask: on the basis of what information is this policy being promulgated? What views are being represented? Who is involved in the decision making? What kind of credible expertise is being brought to bear?”22

Dr. Rosina Bierbaum, a Clinton administration appointee to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) who also served during the first year of the Bush administration, offers a disturbing window on the process. From the start, Bierbaum contends, “The scientists knew the most about climate change at OSTP were not allowed to participate in deliberations on the issue within the White House inner circle.”23

Through such consistent tactics, the Bush administration has not only distorted scientific and technical analysis on global climate change and suppressed the dissemination of research results, but has avoided fashioning any policies that would significantly reduce the threat implied by those findings.

In the course of this investigation, UCS learned of the extent to which these policies seem to extend. In one case that has yet to surface in the press, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sought in September 2003 to reprint a popular informational brochure about carbon sequestration in the soil and what farmers could do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to one current government official familiar with the incident, the brochure was widely viewed as one of the agency’s successful efforts in the climate change field. The NRCS had already distributed some 325,000 of the brochures and sought a modest update, as well as proposing a Spanish edition.24

Notably, even this relatively routine proposal was passed to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) for review. William Hohenstein, director of the Global Change Program Exchange in the office of the chief economist at the USDA, acknowledged that he passed the request on to the CEQ, as he says he would “for any documents relating to climate change policy.”25 While Hohenstein denies that he has been explicitly ordered to do so, he says he knows the White House is concerned “that things regarding climate change be put out by the government in a neutral way.”26 As a result of CEQ’s objections about the brochure, staff at the NRCS dropped their proposal for a reprint.27 “It is not just a case of micromanagement, but really of censorship of government information,” a current government official familiar with the case noted. “In nearly 15 years of government service, I can’t remember ever needing clearance from the White House for such a thing.”28

[nam78_two]

44. Bush Environmental record in 2005

EPA to make toxics reporting standards more lenient for industry (09/16/05)

BLM director encouraged ranchers' lawsuits against her own agency (08/29/05)

White House proposes weak fuel economy standards for gas guzzlers (08/23/05)

Federal judge rebukes Bush administration for downgrading salamander protections (08/19/05)

Bush administration devalues estimated contribution of forest recreation to economy (08/15/05)

Bush administration slashes habitat protections for salmon (08/12/05)

Federal agency halves seasonal wetlands habitat (08/12/05)

EPA shelves bad-news report about auto fuel efficiency until after energy bill vote (07/26/05)

Interior Dept. drills away environmental protections (07/21/05)

BLM's new grazing rules issued in disregard of gov't scientists' concerns (07/16/05)

FDA experts often culled from the ranks of industry (07/14/05)

Federal fisheries agency broke the law, investigation finds (07/13/05)

BLM limits citizen input on drilling on public lands (06/30/05)

EPA to allow mine wastewater discharge into Alaskan bay (06/29/05)

FWS reinstates whistle-blower employee (06/29/05)

New fisheries rules could harm fish (06/22/05)

Pentagon ignored perchlorate pollution, GAO finds (06/21/05)

Former oil lobbyist employed by White House leaves to join ExxonMobil (06/15/05)

Bush administration disregards science on grazing damage (06/15/05)

Forest Service employee punished for reporting pesticide misuse (05/27/05)

Judge rules Bush administration played down threat to endangered fish (05/26/05)

EPA dumps its sewage dumping proposal (05/19/05)

BLM underestimates wildlife threats from drilling in Colorado (04/21/05)

EPA's mercury pollution plan won't meet reduction targets on time (04/21/05)

BLM shutting out public on Wyoming drilling plans (04/14/05)

EPA proposes weaker selenium standard (04/13/05)

Federal wildlife officials drastically trim endangered toad protections (04/13/05)

EPA decides against testing pesticides on children (04/08/05)

FWS cites national security as reason to reduce habitat protection in California (04/08/05)

States sue EPA over new mercury rule (03/29/05)

White House weakens EPA cancer safeguards (03/29/05)

BLM plans to open up protected desert land to recreation and development (03/24/05)

Florida crocodiles to lose endangered status (03/24/05)

Bush administration appeals mountaintop mining defeat (03/18/05)

EPA weakens mercury reduction requirements for power plants (03/15/05)

Federal court rules illegal EPA's lax factory-farm pollution rule (02/28/05)

EPA seeks controversial expansion of voluntary pollution-reduction programs (02/23/05)

Forest Service sued over its Sierra Nevada logging plan (02/20/05)

EPA making illegal, secret agreements with pesticide makers, NRDC charges (02/17/05)

More pollution at national parks promised by Bush drilling juggernaut (01/28/05)

FWS removes federal protections for imperiled mouse (01/28/05)

BLM opens tortoise habitat to motorized recreation (01/27/05)

Fish and Wildlife Service discards scientific advances on endangered species (01/27/05)

Otero Mesa grassland opened to drilling (01/24/05)

EPA shirks the growing electronics-waste dilemma (01/21/05)

EPA grants amnesty to polluting factory farms (01/21/05)

Industry buys access to Bush inauguration (01/20/05)

[nam78_two]

45. Whitehouse edited EPA's 9/11 reports

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/136350_epa23.htm...
White House edited EPA's 9/11 reports

By JOHN HEILPRIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- At the White House's direction, the Environmental Protection Agency gave New Yorkers misleading assurances that there was no health risk from the debris-laden air after the World Trade Center collapse, according to an internal inquiry.

President Bush's senior environmental adviser yesterday defended the White House involvement, saying it was justified by national security.

The White House "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having the National Security Council control EPA communications after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to a report issued late Thursday by EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley.

"When EPA made a Sept. 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, the agency did not have sufficient data and analyses to make the statement," the report says, adding that the EPA had yet to adequately monitor air quality for contaminants such as PCBs, soot and dioxin.

In all, the EPA issued five news releases within 10 days of the attacks and four more by the end of 2001 reassuring the public about air quality. But it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined that air quality had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels -- well after respiratory ailments and other problems began to surface in hundreds of workers cleaning dusty offices and apartments.

The day after the attacks, former EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher's chief of staff e-mailed senior EPA officials to say that "all statements to the media should be cleared" first by the National Security Council, which is Bush's main forum for discussing national security and foreign policy matters with his senior aides and Cabinet, the inspector general's report says.

Approval from the NSC, the report says, was arranged through the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which "influenced, through the collaboration process, the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

For example, the inspector general found, the EPA was persuaded to omit guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete.

James Connaughton, chairman of the environmental council, which coordinates federal environmental efforts, said the White House directed the EPA to add and delete information based on how it should be released publicly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[nam78_two]

46. In 2006-suppression of hurricane science; shutting down of EPA libraries

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_sc/hurricane_... ;_ylt=A0SOwkN1rxlFQhsBtAqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OTB1amhuBHNlYwNtdHM

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
Tue Sep 26, 6:54 PM ET

Washington- The Bush administration has blocked release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday.

The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ? part of the Commerce Department ? in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes.

According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect.

In May, when the report was expected to be released, panel chair Ants Leetmaa received an e-mail from a Commerce official saying the report needed to be made less technical and was not to be released, Nature reported.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=643
BUSH AXING LIBRARIES WHILE PUSHING FOR MORE RESEARCH — EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog


Washington, DC — Under President Bush’s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition to the libraries, the agency will pull the plug on its electronic catalog which tracks tens of thousands of unique documents and research studies that are available nowhere else.

Under Bush’s plan, $2 million of a total agency library budget of $2.5 million will be lost, including the entire $500,000 budget for the EPA Headquarters library and its electronic catalog that makes it possible to search for documents through the entire EPA library network. These reductions are just a small portion of the $300 million in cuts the administration has proposed for EPA operations.

At the same time, President Bush is proposing to significantly increase EPA research funding for topics such as nanotechnology, air pollution and drinking water system security as part of his “American Competitive Initiative.”

“How are EPA scientists supposed to engage in cutting edge research when they cannot find what the agency has already done?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson is moving to implement the proposed cuts as soon as possible. “The President’s plan will not make us more competitive if we have to spend half our time re-inventing the wheel.”

EPA’s own scientists and enforcement staff are the principal library users. EPA’s scientists use the libraries to research questions such as the safety of chemicals and the environmental effects of new technologies. EPA enforcement staff use the libraries to obtain technical information to support pollution prosecutions and to track the business histories of regulated industries.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Gabi Hayes]

34. thank you! bookmarking, adding to Woodward thread. Now, people:

use this list to call into radio shows

make whatever statement you have to do to get on air, then start READING these off, one by one, til they either cut you off, or ask you a question.

then, start reading them again!

why can't WE be the media, as much as those fricking FASCISTA do, all day long, every day?

huh?

damn, I wish I'd had this today when I was onair

[Red Right and BLUE]

36. Outstanding

bookemarked, kicked, rec'd!

[w8liftinglady]

47. my 1000th post-from 2005-more scandals involving these bastards

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[nam78_two]

48. Oh and also the "signing statements"

Some 750 so far! The latest two being the one saying that he can edit the DHS reports I think and also about FEMA (not requiring qualifications to head FEMA or something-people posted about both here).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Bush's Tactic of Refusing Laws Is Probed
Bar Association Panel Criticizes President's Many Challenges to Legislation
A panel of legal scholars and lawyers assembled by the American Bar Association is sharply criticizing the use of "signing statements" by President Bush that assert his right to ignore or not enforce laws passed by Congress.

In a report to be issued today, the ABA task force said that Bush has lodged more challenges to provisions of laws than all previous presidents combined.



The panel members described the development as a serious threat to the Constitution's system of checks and balances, and they urged Congress to pass legislation permitting court review of such statements.

"The president is indicating that he will not either enforce part or the entirety of congressional bills," said ABA president Michael S. Greco, a Massachusetts attorney. "We will be close to a constitutional crisis if this issue, the president's use of signing statements, is left unchecked."

The report seemed likely to fuel the controversy over signing statements, which Bush has used to challenge laws including a congressional ban on torture, a request for data on the USA Patriot Act, whistle-blower protections and the banning of U.S. troops in fighting rebels in Colombia.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/200...

Bush's use of signing statements criticized
Charlie Savage, Boston Globe

Thursday, October 5, 2006

(10-05) 04:00 PDT Washington -- President Bush's frequent use of signing statements to assert that he has the power to disobey newly enacted laws is "an integral part" of his "comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power" at the expense of the legislative branch, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

In a 27-page report written for lawmakers, the research service said the Bush administration is using signing statements as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws he believes are unconstitutional.

The "broad and persistent nature of the claims of executive authority forwarded by President Bush appear designed to inure Congress, as well as others, to the belief that the president in fact possesses expansive and exclusive powers upon which the other branches may not intrude," the report said.

Under most interpretations of the Constitution, the report said, some of the legal assertions in Bush's signing statements are dubious. For example, it said, the administration has suggested repeatedly that the president has exclusive authority over foreign affairs and has an absolute right to withhold information from Congress. Such assertions are "generally unsupported by established legal principles," the report said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love this thread-I could post in it all day long. This is so useful-I keep forgetting some of this shit since there is so effing much of it!
I think everyone should add to this...

Where is that John Conyers list someone posted a while ago with all the things Conyers is charging the assholes with?

[RedEarth]

49. Good work............

[BeHereNow]

50. Hell yes. This is "print and pass" material!

Canvas your neighborhood mail boxes with this...
Remove the poster info first though.
Just DU it.
Especially now, before the next sElection.
K&R.
BHN

[chill_wind]

51. "One Thousand Reasons"

(In case we missed any..)

One Thousand Reasons
Documenting the Failures of the Bush Administration

http://www.thousandreasons.org/reasons.php

I love lists. Again--- awesome and thankyou, Jc.

[Jcrowley]

52. 600,000+ Dead

When will we say enough through our actions?