I have an op-ed piece to write. Suggestions?

[jmowreader]

The editorial page editor of the local newspaper has asked me to write an op-ed entitled "** Reasons Liberals Want Bush Gone."

The ** is "as many reasons as I can get in 500 words."

I promised not to reference the National Guard, Clinton or Hitler.

So okay, let's make this a DU class project. So far I have...

* flip-flopping
* economic downturns
* unnecessary wars
* terrorism
* BCCI
* eminent domain abuses
* extensive vacationing

Anything else?

The first reason will be "Bush does nothing positive for this nation until he is forced." He didn't pay attention to terrorism until NYC was smoldering. He didn't appoint a 9/11 commission until he was forced. He didn't do a Department of Homeland Security until he was forced....

When it's done I'll post the piece. When it's printed I'll post the link. And when James Lancaster sends me the letter informing me that I'm going to hell for lying about Bush, I'll post that too.

[dogtag]

1. Alienation of the entire civilized world. (n/t)

[dogtag]

2. Supreme court appointments. (n/t)

[ewagner]

3. One BIG reason

Bush has played on our fears and prejudices for his, and his alone, political advantage. He cares nothing for uniting America.

[dogtag]

5. Party ahead of country. (n/t)

[Marymarg]

4. A good resource

Check out the Crawford, Texas newspaper editorial.

[mac56]

6. Turning a national tragedy into his biggest "triumph".

Making the worst thing that happened to us into the best thing that happened to him.

To paraphrase Bill Maher.

[MrBenchley]

15. He laughed in public about his lucky trifecta...

Just like he joked publicly about not finding the WMDs

[Sparkly]

7. Dividing the Country

He is BAD for the country, all the way around. The rhetoric of this campaign alone has been shameful, and if they win on this basis I cannot imagine how the rage will be resolved -- they've so infuriated BOTH sides.

Veteran against veteran; "Christians" against non-Christians; "heartland" vs. urban dwellers; polarization of poor and wealthy, and on it goes. They've even reopened old wounds from Vietnam.

They will do ANYthing to win, no matter how badly it hurts the country, and have set new lows for campaigning, accusing about half the country of wanting to "appease terrorists" simply because we do not agree with BushCo, using fear to sway people away from Kerry -- fear of terrorism, fear of their Bibles being banned, fear of gays "recruiting" their children, etc...

That just can't prevail.

[rndmprsn]

25. kind of un-christian huh?

[Goldmund]

8. I think you shouldn't fail to mention PNAC.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Merging of church and state, cronyism and sweetheart deals

soft on corporate crime, hard on public education, do-nothing when it comes to universal health-care, environmental rapist

[Francine Frensky]

10. You forgot the environment, healthcare, and pandering to big business

I don't even know what eminent domain abuses is or BCCI (connected to bush?).

Also, what about Patriot Act?

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Patriot act.. that's right. add trampling on civil rights

[jmowreader]

24. Eminent domain abuses go back to the Ballpark at Arlington

The Bush boy needed a stadium for his baseball club, and there was no good land available for one. So he used eminent domain (which is how you get around the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment--under eminent domain you can condemn land, claim that taking it is for the public good, and normally build a school or a road on it--Fayetteville recently had to do an eminent-domain thing to secure the land for the widening of one of our main thoroughfares; I don't know why, because the widest strip they took was a foot and a half and one guy got two inches of his road frontage condemned) and a massive bond issuance (paid for by the taxpayers of Arlington) to erect the Ballpark at Arlington. The city then donated the stadium and the rest of the ED land to the team. The team then turned around and sold the land they didn't need at a profit.

BCCI is the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. It was a very heinous bank, the source of about half of the terrorist funding in the world at the time. Among its accountholders were Osama bin Laden, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, Manuel Noriega and George W. Bush. Senator Kerry spent three years closing down this particular nest of vipers.

The PATRIOT Act is good if I can explain exactly what the hell is in it.

[sui generis]

12. here are my thoughts on terrorism

I grew up in Europe with Red September in Italy and Bader-Meinhoff in Germany. These were the "al qaeda" of their day. We all grew up with the ugliness of the IRA and splinter groups. Throughout mankind's history we have had groups of madmen and idealists seek power and disruption through terror. Terrorism is not new.

What is new is that George Bush, on his watch, let some people with boxcutters bring down the world trade center in New York City and crash a plane full of civilians into a field in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, when he could have prevented it.

Anybody with even half a firing brain cell would have picked up the phone to the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA and said "what are we doing to keep Bin Laden from His Determination To Attack". Not this clueless administration.

You are not safer from terrorists with GWB at the helm. Far from it, what will happen when the TSA can't find "real" terrorists? They are going to start hunting down people with parking tickets. How would you like to be on a no-fly list because you had a late book checked out from the public library? What about being on a no-fly list if you ever gave money to MoveOn.org?

Terrorists are not under every rock. If they could be, they would be. Beyond a sensible rational policy for managing the same kind of radical groups that we have always contended with, the "terrorism" bullshit is just that.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. PNAC, Patriot Act, Election 2000 thievery

disenfranchised voters, lost jobs (only prez since Hoover to not create ONE SINGLE job) and the Iraq quagmire. Maybe mention what OHIO is doing with the voter registrations! Perfect chance to let the sheeple know that the GOP is STILL using their slimey tactics to steal the 2004 election.

[NewJeffCT]

17. disagree on some

Most don't care about the election 2000 thievery - the non partisan types figure that this stuff goes on all the time and that both parties keep each other in check, only this time, the Dems were just not smart enough.

Patriot Act - on the surface - is comforting to many. They just don't realize how it has been & can be abused.

Lost jobs & outsourcing is a winner, though - I went out at lunch today & listened to AAR and they mentioned how the RNC outsourced to India some sort of voter database thingie. If you talk about lost jobs, make sure you say that Bush is bragging about 1.7 million jobs in a year when he needed to create 1,800,000 just to stay even with the growing population. Bush's real job deficit is closer to 6 million using normal economic growth figures (what should have been created to stay even - 4.5 million jobs in 30 months vs the reality - 1.3 million lost)

[MrBenchley]

14. Environmental disaster...

His appointments have been disgraceful. Arsenic in the water. Voluntary pollution controls. States are suing the EPA to try to get it to do its job.

http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/092404lb.htm

[noamnety]

16. the assault on birth control

Not abortion - but access to regular birth control (will horrify a larger number of people, and as an issue needs more publicity). Bush appointees like Hager, Stanford and Crockett would be a good place to start.

[MrBenchley]

18. Incompetence...

Running the country like a business reminds us that all of his businesses were crooked failures...

Ashcroft is 0 for 5,000 on terrorism cases....Rumsfeld has presided over a disaster in Iraq and disappered when the Pentagon came under attack. Ridge spent $58 billino to produce a color chart and duct tape, both national jokes.

[jmowreader]

27. And let's not forget the two dozen hookers

John Ashcroft launched a massive federal investigation of prostitution in New Orleans. They spent, IIRC, six months in the Big Easy and rounded up 24 prostitutes.

Folks, give me a $50 bill, a hotel room and a Mustang and I can catch more hos in one night than Ashcroft did in six months. All I gotta do is cruise the truck stops.

As crude as this sounds, I don't think the Ashcroft Justice Department knows shit about picking up pussy.

[SteppingRazor]

19. Presidential Records Act

Even before 9/11, Bush was acting horrifically dictatorial, unconstituionally overturning a LAW PASSED BY CONGRESS simply to protect the ex-Reaganites in his administration. Disgusting. Wretched. Unconstitutional. Treasonous, given his oath to uphold the constitution. Even before 9/11, his excuse for running roughshod over all of our rights, he had already begun the process. If that doesn't demonstrably show him for the pond scum he is, I don't know what does.

[MrBenchley]

20. Open corruption

Halliburton...

Ridge hands out contracts to companies he owns stock in, to line his own pockets. Ashcroft stood doing nothing while Enron and Arthur Andersen shredded evidence.

[rocktivity]

21. Could you say, "Blames failures on other leaders?"

Would that be nebulous enough?

- Had EPA lie about air quality at the World Trade Center, putting first responders and workers at risk for respiratory diseases
- Screwed seniors on medicare while enriching the pharmaceutical companies
- Exhibits eight symptoms of a narcissistic personality disorder when five is enough to get you diagnosed with it
- Tax cuts which concentrated on the rich
- Tried to exploit Jessica Lynch
- Chickened out on 9/11
- And of course, Fat Osama
- War Profiteering/Halliburton
- Screws soldiers on deployment, equipment and benefits while paying mercenaries ten times their salary


AND REMEMBER FAT OSAMA!

:headbang:
rocknation

[BillZBubb]

22. Massive deficits, with no end in sight, will bankrupt us.

The long term implications are disasterous for the country. Sooner or later, someone will have to pay off the debt. Bush* is doing everything in his power to make sure it isn't his base: the well-to-do set.

Social Security will be weakened, probably fatally, by a phony, underfunded "privitization" scheme.

Finally, the Bush* doctrine of "pre-emptive" war must be repudiated in this election. If you are going to start a war, it should be because you have indisputable evidence that it is necessary. Electing Bush* is tantamount to supporting a law of the jungle in international relations.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. Kick

[kentuck]

26. He's really NOT a very "likeable" person....

Contrary to what the spin says...