My Politics
Bush's Record of Shame
December, 1966: Bush, after having "a few beers," stole a Christmas wreath from a hotel in New Haven Connecticut. Arrested for disorderly conduct.
1967: Bush is arrested for disorderly conduct when he storms onto the Princeton University football field, climbs onto the field goal crossbar, and tries to break off a piece as a souvenir.
November 8, 1967: Bush defends the use of a red-hot coat hanger to brand pledges in The New York Times, claiming it is defensible because the resulting wound is equivalent to "only a cigarette burn." Before branding pledges, Bush would show them a full-sized branding iron to frighten them. His fraternity is fined $1000.
Late 1960's: After gaining entrance as a "legacy student," Bush maintains a low C average at Yale, the bare minimum to graduate. In his freshman year, he was in the 21st percentile of his class. While at Yale, says he cannot wait to leave the school, and hates its "intellectual snobbery."
Late 1960's: Bush admonishes a Yale schoolmate for admitting plan to avoid serving in Vietnam; calls him "irresponsible."
May 27, 1968: 12 days before his student deferment expires, George W. Bush applies to join the Texas National Guard. Despite a waiting list of 18 months, Bush is signed in the same day. Bush is assigned to a celebrity sons unit, with sons of two other senators (Bentsen and Towers), sons of oil magnates, and 7 sons of Dallas Cowboys players. He was assigned to pilot duty despite a 25% score (lowest possible for duty), and was commissioned to 2nd Lt. despite lack of qualifications or passage through Officer Candidate School. Is trained to fly an F-102, which is being phased out, guaranteed to never be called into duty in Vietnam.
April 1972: Military institutes drug tests in routine exams, including urinalysis, questions about drugs and "a close examination of the nasal cavities" (for cocaine). Bush is due for this exam by August 1972.
May 1972 to May 1973: Bush leaves NG for Alabama without transfer orders; later requests transfer, which is granted then cancelled; he then applies for transfer to Alabama 187th Tactical Recon group, and is approved--but never shows up.
December 1972: Bush returns to Houston for duty. But in May 1973, Bush's supervising pilots wrote in his annual efficiency report: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of the report" (i.e. through April 30, 1972). Later that month, two special orders commanded Bush to appear for active duty. He served 36 days of active duty during May, June and July before leaving the Guard early. Bush's official discharge date was October 1, 1973, but his last day in uniform was July 31, 10 months earlier.
December 1972: Did community service for Project P.U.L.L., an inner city Houston program for troubled youths; this is completely out of character for Bush at the time. Reports suggest that he was arrested for drunk driving or cocaine use in Houston, and the community service was quietly arranged.
1973: Bush applies for entrance into University of Texas law school, and is rejected. Harvard Business School apparently had lower standards than UT, as it accepted Bush. Bush graduates from Harvard with an MBA in 1975.
September 4, 1976, a state trooper saw Bush's car swerve onto the shoulder, then back onto the road. Bush failed a road sobriety test and blew a .10 blood alcohol, plead guilty, and was fined and had his driver's license suspended. Bush had drunk "several beers" at a local bar before the arrest. His underage sister was in the car when he was driving drunk.
Bush got a court hearing to get his driving suspension lifted early, even though he had not completed a required driver rehabilitation course. He told the hearings officer that he drank only once a month, and just had "an occasional beer." The officer granted his request. But Bush continued drinking for 8 years after that date and has said publicly that he drank too much and had a drinking problem during that time. Dick Cheney, incidentally, has been arrested twice for drunk driving, in 1962 and 1963.
Follow-up:
November 21, 1999: On 'Meet The Press', Tim Russert asks Bush about information about his past coming out; Bush replies, "If someone was willing to go public with information that was damaging, you'd have heard about it by now. You've had heard about it now." This was a direct lie, as his DUI arrest had not been reported publicly.
November 3, 2000: "Just after the governor's reelection in 1998, [Dallas Morning News reporter Wayne] Slater pressed Bush about whether he had ever been arrested. 'He said, 'After 1968? No.'" This was a direct lie, as he was arrested for drunk driving in 1976.
Late 1970's to 1980's: Founded Arbusto Oil Company with $20,000 of his own money and $4.7 million from 50 or so investors, mainly family friends. Arbusto fails and is bought by Spectrum 7, owned by Reagan/Bush supporters, in Sept. 1984, which appoints Bush as president. Later, Spectrum 7 also fails, and is bought by Harken, which assigns Bush to board of directors. After Bush joins Harken, it receives $25 million stock offering from bank with CIA ties and which was a top Bush Sr. contributor, a lucrative exclusive contract with Bahrain, and a board member is invited to White House policy meetings with George Bush, Sr.
April, 1986: Bush confronts Wall Street Journal editor Al Hunt in a Mexican diner in Dallas, in front of Hunt's wife and his four-year-old son, saying, "You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget this." Bush was apparently both drunk and upset that Hunt had predicted that Jack Kemp would be the Republican Party nominee instead of his father.
1989-1990: Bush borrows $180,375 from Harken, which later forgave $341,000 in loans to "unnamed" executives; in other words, the executives were allowed to walk off with said money.
May, 1990: Bush Sr. has access to State Department memo warning of possible oil price drops due to Iraq's possible actions. Harken's internal financial advisers at Smith Barney issue a report warning that the company is in financial trouble. Bush Jr. has potential access to the first bit of information, and absolute access to the second.
June, 1990: One month after having access to insider information signalling a drop in the firm's stock value, Bush sold 60% of his stock in Harken Oil for $848,560. 3 months later, Iraq invades Kuwait, sending Harken stock prices down 25%, dropping even more a few months later. SEC, run by his father, fails to investigate.
July 10, 1990: Bush fails to register his sale as an insider trade by deadline; does so in March 1991, far too late. He is not punished.
November 1994: Elected governor of Texas.
March 31, 1995: George and Laura Bush are given new driver's license numbers; Bush's is #000000005. Bush was born on July 6, 1946, and his license was not near expiration. The reason given for the change was "security," but there is no precedent for Texas governors doing this. The change destroyed the records of his previous license, which would have detailed any arrests.
September 1996: Bush called to jury duty, and accepts, saying it is a "feeble excuse" to say he's too busy or important. But he is then assigned to a DUI case, and might be asked under oath if he had ever been arrested for drunk driving. Bush asks to be dismissed from jury the night before the trial, and is helped by Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush's legal counsel. Bush later appoints Gonzales to the Texas Supreme Court, and later still to White House counsel. Gonzales is a candidate for a Supreme Court seat if a vacancy arises.
June, 1997: Bush signs law toughening penalties for underage drinkers.
December 31, 1997: Jenna Bush arrested on alcohol charge in Texas. Record is kept confidential as Jenna is 16 at the time, but her name appears in a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission database.
July 20, 1999: Bush named as defendant in case against funeral home operator SCI. After failing to appear for a deposition on July 1, Bush signs affidavit swearing he had no knowledge of a case involving SCI, which donated $45,000 to Bush, in order to avoid involvement in the case. He swore that he had had no conversations with its officials, but later (Aug. 99) admitted to a conversation with an SCI official, claiming that nothing substantive was discussed--a non-issue, as he did not swear to not having "substantive" conversations, but ANY conversations at all. Texas Funeral Service Commission chief testifies that he spoke with Bush on the matter, which Bush also swore in the affidavit that he did not do. Bush's chief of staff also testified that he spoke with Bush on the matter. Bush is shown to have lied under oath, a transgression that Republicans felt was worthy of impeachment.
August 18, 1999: Bush says, "As I understand it, the current FBI form asks the question, 'Did somebody use drugs within the last 7 years?' and I will be glad to answer that question, and the answer is no." This clears Bush up intil 1992.
August 19, 1999: Bush says, "Yesterday, I was asked what I thought was a relevant comment about whether or not I would, should I become the president, have background checks for people who work for me and in the White House, and, if I did, could I pass the standards of the background check. The answer is absolutely. Not only could I pass the background check of the standards applied in today's White House, I could have passed the background check on the standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was president of the United States, a 15-year period." This clears Bush up until 1974, as his father began his presidency in 1989. See Bush's record with community service and with the Texas National Guard just before 1974.
April 27, 2001: Jenna Bush arrested for possession of alcohol as a minor.
May 31, 2001: Jenna and Barbara Bush arrested trying to purchase alcohol as minors. This is Jenna's 3rd arrest, but she avoids the three-strikes law her father signed 4 years earlier.
George W. Bush's past is, to say the very least, shady. He stands as the only American president with a criminal record. As the new hero of the party that, prior to his election, touted "character" as the ultimate defining characteristic of any American president, this Republican icon's past demonstrates a man who is chronically definitively bereft of character, to say the least.
Geoge W. Bush and his administration have a long history and a continuing record of making statements which mislead or deceive the public and Congress, almost always in the interest of a political agenda
Between tax cuts for the rich, war profits for Halliburton, or support for our troops - which does the Bush Administration choose, time and time again?
George Walker Bush Governor of Texas 1999
"One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade·.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
~~ George Walker Bush, Governor of Texas, in 1999
Two Years Before 9/11
George W BuSh resume'...a man you cannot trust
Arrest Record, Crimes & Misdemeanors:
- Two negligent collisions, July & Aug 1962 at Houston TX. Fined.
- Two speeding tickets, July & Aug 1964 at Houston TX. Fined.
- Arrested for Disorderly Conduct, December 1966 at New Haven CT. Charges were dropped.
- Arrested for Disorderly Conduct in New Jersey, in 1967. I was cautioned and set free.
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At least one conviction for drunk driving
in Maine when I was 30 years old, where I pled guilty, was fined and suspended from driving.
Past work experience:
- Ran for congress and lost.
- Served for a decade on the board of a company that financed several R-rated, slasher and sundry B movies.
- >Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, so the company went bankrupt. Sold all my stock just in the nick of time to a wealthy Saudi friend of my father
- Bought a small portion of the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that forcibly took land using eminent domain and tax-payer money. Most notable decision: Traded Sammy Sosa to the White Sox for Harold Baines. Most notable profiteering: Parlayed a $605K loan into a $14.9 Million profit using taxpayer money and eminent domain laws to evict homeowners, obtain land and increase the value of the shares in the Texas Rangers
- Elected to governorship of Texas, with the help of George Bush Sr. and generous donations and support from wealthy oilmen and Christian evangelicals
Accomplishments While Governor of Texas:
- Relaxed pollution laws for power and oil companies (I "grandfathered" the dirtiest coal burning power plants, making them exempt from clean air laws, for example) and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union, in 1999. The same year, Houston had the "highest ozone level reading in the nation", and was second most ozone polluted city in the country from 1997 through 1999
- Slashed taxes, reduced state revenue to the point of bankruptcy and put the Texas government in debt for billions in borrowed money, the interest for which is now paid for by the Texas taxpayer
- Set a record for the most executions by any Governor in American history and became famous for publicly mocking Faye Tucker, a Christian female death row inmate, for her passionate clemency plea before she was executed. PRO-LIFE???^/font>
- Appointed US President, on a questionable decision by a highly partisan Supreme Court, after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes
Accomplishments While US President:
- Attacked and invaded two countries so far, losing more US soldiers after I claimed "Mission^ Accomplished" than the total number who were killed during full combat operations in both wars combined
- Spent the largest surplus in the history of the country and nearly bankrupted the treasury.
- Shattered records for the biggest annual deficit in history.
- Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in a 12 month cycle of any presidency, beating the previous record which was set during the depression years.
- Set all-time record for biggest loss of value in the history of the stock market during any presidency.
- First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
- First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record
- Bush Administration cuts $1.5 billion from military family housing. The Bush Administration cut $1.5 billion for military family housing, despite Department of Defense statistics showing that in 83,000 barracks and 128,860 family housing units across the country are below standard. ("Nothing But Lip Service," Army Times, June 30, 2003; "House Appropriations Committee Approves $59.2 Million for Ft. Hood," U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards Press Release, June 17, 2003)
- Bush Republicans support millionaires instead of military veterans. Bush allies in Congress stopped efforts to scale back the tax cut for the nation's millionaires by just five percent - a loss of just $4,780 for the year - in order to restore this funding for military family housing. ("The Tax Debate Nobody Hears About," Washington Post, June 17, 2003)
- Bush Administration underfunded veterans' health care by $2 billion. The Bush Administration's 2004 budget underfunded veterans' health care by nearly $2 billion. ("Vets Health Low on Bush's Priority List," The Hill, September 17, 2003; "Support for Troops Questioned," Washington Post, June 17, 2003; U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, September 2002)
- Bush Administration proposal would end health care benefits for 173,000 veterans More than 173,000 veterans across the country would be cut off from health care because of Bush Administration proposed budget cuts and its plan requiring enrollment fees and higher out-of-pocket costs. ("Support for Troops Questioned," Washington Post, June 17, 2003)
- Bush Administration budget cuts force more than 200,000 veterans to wait for health care. Over 200,000 United States veterans have to wait more than six months for a medical visit because of health care shortages. ("VA Health Care Funding Alert," Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Press Release, January 31, 2003)
- Bush Administration opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance. Despite the war efforts of America's National Guard and Reserve Members, the Bush Administration announced in October 2003 its formal opposition to give the 1.2 million Guard and Reserve members the right to buy health care coverage through the Pentagon's health plan. One out of every five Guard members lacks health insurance. ("Bush Opposes Health Plan for National Guard," Gannett News Service, October 23, 2003)
- Bush Administration cuts $172 million allotted for educating the children of military personnel. The Bush Administration's 2004 budget cut $172 million of impact aid funding. Impact aid funding assists school districts by making up for lost local tax revenue from tax-exempt property, such as military bases. These education cuts will especially affect school-age children of troops serving in Iraq who reside on military bases. ("Support for Troops Questioned," Washington Post, June 17, 2003)
- Bush Administration tax cut denies military families increase in child tax credit. The families of 262,000 children of military personnel do not receive the child tax credit increase because the plan fails to cover taxpaying families with incomes between $10,500 and $26,625. According to The Washington Post, the House version of the Bush Administration plan "wouldn't help many of those serving in Iraq." One solider who will not benefit is Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, the soldier and single mother who was wounded twice in the same convoy as Jessica Lynch. ("Ex-POW's Family Accuses Army of Double Standard on Benefit," Washington Post, October 24, 2003; "The New Senate Child Credit Legislation - What It Does and Does Not Do," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, June 25, 2003; "Whose Child Is Left Behind," Children's Defense Fund, July 23, 2003)
