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George
W. Bush and his administration are creating a legacy of lies and
unkept promises; they have demonstrated only incompetence in every
possible aspect of public governance. The state of the nation is not
good:
1.
The reasons we
were given for attacking Iraq turned out to be false; most of what
we were told about Iraq, Saddam Hussein and al-Quaeda also turned
out to be false.
2.
The way Bush has
conducted the war has been totally incompetent in that he and his
war…
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have
increased the insurgency
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killed
and injured great numbers innocent people
-
failed
in his fiduciary responsibility to protect innocent Iraqi
citizens and assets that belonged to
the Iraqi people
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is
ruining the reputation of the US as a nation that respects the rule
of law
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is
doing great damage to the Constitution and International Law,
undermining a legacy that was built over the entire history
of our republic and
particularly since WW II.
-
wasted,
through fraud and incompetence, billions of dollars of American
taxpayer's money
-
made
it more likely that Iraq will end up not as a Democracy but
as a theocracy with close links to Iran
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rather
than support our troops, actually denied them the tools they
needed to succeed, and he has denied them the care
they need when they return home. He called for the reduction
of their benefits. He
uses them and then betrays them with lies and broken
promises.
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made
perpetual war a likely scenario for the foreseeable future
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has
made every American and every world citizen less safe than
we used to be
3.
His tax
policies have damaged the fabric of our society and made life more
insecure for most Americans
4. His
"leave no child behind" initiative is a failure. There is more inequality
than every before and
more poverty for our children, and certainly more inequality between
the rich and the poor when it
comes to educating our children.
5. His
initiatives that were supposed to protect Americans in the event of
national emergencies turned out to be a
total failure. The promises he made in response to that failure
are not being kept.
6. He has broken
the law, violated his oath of office, demeaned his office, created a
Constitutional crisis, often in the name of national security.
Damaging the rule of law is, in and of itself, a failure
to protect us. It is, in fact, our worst nightmare. It puts every American and every American dream in jeopardy.
7. He has left
Americans less safe by lowering standards… for clean air, economic
security, worker safety, food safety, and more. He
broke agreements with the American people and with other nations by
ignoring the threat of global warming.
8. He failed to
create a credible energy policy, and allowed oil companies to take
advantage of the American people by not limiting their windfall
profits.
9.
He populated
the government at every level with political cronies instead of
competent administrators capable of executing their duties
responsibly and credibly. He prosecutes whistle-blowers
while he protects liars and cheats. He demoralizes honest
public servants and undermines their ability to serve.
10. He promised
to bring the country together and instead created deeper divisions
than ever before.
11. He has
undermined Congress by ascribing to himself greater power than the
Constitution provides and using various techniques such as signing
statements, is destroying the ability of Congress to make
law altogether.
He has corrupted members of Congress, pressuring them into joining
his conspiracy to defraud the American people.
12. He
has ignored Supreme Court judgments and directives, thereby showing
disrespect for the
Judicial branch of government, in the same manner that he has shown disrespect for
the legislative branch.
13. He
has undermined the public's access to the information they need to
be responsible citizens... by intimidating the press, allowing media
outlets to consolidate and be dominated by corporate interests, and
fraudulently using the media for his own propaganda purposes;
he has prevented the American people from learning what is really
happening in Iraq and in other places.
14. He damaged the first amendment by creating "free speech
zones" which are anything but that, and has excluded dissenters
from attending his public forums, which are staged, giving the
public the misleading appearance that his policies are generally
held in high esteem. In
fact, his appearances themselves are an egregious act of disrespect
for the American people and the Constitution.
His use of agencies to illegally spy on US citizens is a betrayal of
his oath of office.
15. He
has undermined the public's right to know by preventing transparency
in the operation of government processes; he operates in secret to an unprecedented degree; he thwarts laws that
were intended to provide citizens with information about their own
government; he disrespects the public's right to know what their
government is up to; and he disrespects congress's right to exercise
due diligence in their oversight responsibilities; he has made
secret the papers of prior administrations, inhibiting a better understanding and accounting of our
own history, and hides the truth
about the illegal activities of his administration and those that
came before.
16. He
disrespects the Constitution's requirement for keeping church and
state separate, which endangers every person's religious freedom,
making it more likely that the US will one day become a theocracy.
17. He
doesn't respect a woman's right to privacy or her right to make
decisions about her own body. He
makes it more likely that a woman will choose to have an abortion by
reducing the social safety net which denies all women of limited
economic means, access to resources for the support and benefit of their
born and unborn children. That destroys a woman's confidence that children she might bring into
the world will be treated fairly, or have a reasonable chance to enjoy the blessings
of a free and prosperous life. By working to take away her hope, he has made it more likely that she
will opt to abort her pregnancy. Most of what Bush has done during his presidency has
undermined his own
stated objective of valuing and supporting life.
18. The
gap between the rich and poor is greater than it has ever been.
The savings rate of US citizens is now as low as it was in
1933 for the first time since The Great Depression. Most states in the union are at or near insolvency, and their
ability to protect and support their own citizens are more at risk
than ever before. Bush
advocates for limiting loans to college students, undermining our
children's right to an education and making them less able to
compete in the world. He
advocates for the reduction of Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
He tried to destroy Social Security, the most successful
social program the US has ever had. The money he has wasted in Iraq
could have made these programs secure for many many decades.
His priorities are upside down, backwards, and irresponsible.
19. The US is the
most powerful nation on earth and yet the health of our citizens is
lower than every other rich country. We spend more on health care than other nations and yet by
any measure we have the worst health. Infant mortality rates are
higher than other industrialized nations and life expectancy is
among the lowest in comparison. Every initiative this administration has
undertaken
with respect to health care is making things worse, not better.
Millions of our citizens are without any health care at all,
which is tragically unique among all other wealthy nations.
Only our drug companies are doing well, but at the expense of our
people.
20.
This
administration is competent in only one area... in it's ability to
successfully lie to the American people and the world about what it is doing and
where it is heading. It's
lies have damaged the fabric of our society, undermined the rule of
law, made us all less safe, more afraid, less able to compete in the
world, less loved by others, more afraid of one another, and more
afraid of the future. Its lies and disinformation has made most of us
so uninformed that many of our citizens regularly vote
against their own best interests. This administration is a failure by any measure unless
we assume their purpose is to destroy this nation, perhaps in an effort to
satisfy some misunderstood religious prophesy... in which case, we
could say they are
succeeding.
21. This
President and his supporters are closely associated with the most corrupt
individuals who ever walked the streets of Washington or the halls
of Congress.
22.
Bush is
trying to populate the courts with those who do not love you. He has demonstrated that he loves power more than he loves
people.
23. The President
and his closest advisors have committed egregious crimes against the
people of this nation and others, including crimes against humanity,
war crimes, and crimes against peace. He and his closest advisors should be
impeached, and they
should face criminal prosecution. Those in Congress who have supported this government in
committing these crimes should also be removed from office and the
American people should look for new leadership... leadership that
respects the rule of law; leadership that respects the truth;
leadership that loves people and has the wisdom and a vision to make
peace and not war. Bush has undermined nearly every article of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He has shown us how
a nation should not be governed. In that, he has provided us
all a great service. We should be grateful for the education,
but now it's time for us to move on.
The state of our nation is at one of the lowest points in our history. We
are in a state of moral and spiritual decline. Our republic, our
heritage, and our children's freedom is hanging by a thread.
The state of our nation no longer depends on this President,
his corrupt administration, or our failed Congress.
The state of our nation now depends on you.
Mark
A. Goldman
www.gpln.com
www.gpln.com/citizen.htm
www.gpln.com/protect.htm
www.gpln.com/basicstrategy.htm
www.gpln.com/onwork.htm
www.gpln.com/udhr.html
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