Know Bush Fact #11

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:

On September 11, 2001, the best scientists in the world on toxicity/air testing were busy in Libby, Wyoming investigating the damages of asbestos and vermiculite from the Grace Corporation in that community, when the World Trade Towers were attacked, collapsed, and filled the New York air with glass fibers, concrete dust, fiberglass, asbestos, mercury, PCBs, lead, benzene, fire and smoke. These scientists were certain they would be asked to come test the air around Ground Zero.

But no such thorough testing was requested.

Early on September 12, Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued a memo throughout the agency: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the National Security Council before they are released."

According to a 165-page report from the Inspector General of the EPA released in August 2003, under pressure from the White House and the NSC (Bush's top cabinet members), "reassuring information was added" and "cautionary information was deleted" from the official EPA press releases. Warnings and safety recommendations were removed while statements of encouragement to get back to such activities as business and shopping were emphasized.

By September 16, the public was told, "Ambient air quality meets OSHA standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern," and on September 18, Christine Todd Whitman officially announced that the air in lower Manhattan was "safe to breathe."

The impact of the government's lies is evident for the 78 percent of tens of thousands of WTC rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who suffer serious lung ailments, the 88 percent who have ear, nose and throat problems, or the approximately 500 NYC fire fighters who remain out of work on disability because of lung and organ problems, most of whom are expected never to return to work.

The August 2003 report indicates that the agency was essentially hijacked by the Bush administration and its National Security Council, and that "final approval came from the White House."

To verify/research this information, Google: "Ground Zero +Whitman +asbestos +Bush".

February 28, 2004

Know Bush Fact #10

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:



Last Friday, February 20th, he did it again. Late in the afternoon, at the end of a week-long Congressional recess, Bush appointed Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Once again, he "recessed-in" a controversial ultra-conservative judge who could not get the support of the Senate.

And for good reasons.

When 36 state attorneys general urged the Supreme Court to uphold the Violence Against Women Act, Pryor alone argued that the law was unconstitutional.

He submitted a brief supporting Texas's law criminalizing gay sex.

He testified in favor of repealing a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

He urged the Supreme Court to take away the rights of 5 million state employees to sue under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Perhaps most interesting (and least reported) is his founding of the Republican Attorneys General Association, an organization which actively solicited campaign contributions for its members from industries that were at risk for large state lawsuits (such as firearms, paints, and tobacco), and laundered the money through a Republican PAC to conceal the identities of its donors.

To curb "lawsuit abuse," Pryor said before the Civil Justice Reform Group in 1999, "the business community must be engaged heavily in the election process as it affects legal and judicial offices."

Critics have charged that Pryor's RAGA effectively sells protection from state litigation.

Austin, Texas RAGA conference participants who contributed at least $5,000 were originally scheduled to attend an opening reception at then - Governor Bush's state mansion. But the event was cancelled the day that reporters questioned Bush's office about RAGA's stealth fundraising tactics.

To verify/research, Google: "Pryor +recess."

- February 25, 2004

Know Bush Fact #9

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:



On Monday, January 22, 2001, Bush's first action, on his first working day in office, was to issue an executive memorandum banning U.S. federal funding for any international organization family-planning clinic that mentions -- not performs but mentions -- the word abortion.

This action prohibited recipients of federal funds from providing abortion counseling or information regarding the availability of abortions, even in countries where abortions are legal, and even when abortion services are paid for by non-U.S. funds.

Clinics in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa had to close, leaving women without any health care, leading to a further spread of AIDS, and causing even more abortions because of more unwanted pregnancies.

The following year, in January 2002, he eliminated U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under the pretense that the program may fund or advocate abortion.

In fact, the UNFPA prevented abortions and saved lives by providing family planning services in 156 countries, as well as HIV and sexual violence prevention, maternal care, emergency disaster relief, and teaching women literacy and income-earning skills. UN officials estimated the loss of funding from the U.S. would undermine their ability to prevent 800,000 abortions and could result in the deaths of 4,700 women and 77,000 children.

This international funding issue had not come up during his campaign. It came as a complete surprise.

To verify this information, Google "global gag rule +January +Bush".

- February 22, 2004

Know Bush Fact #8

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:



In the Spring of 2000, the battle for ergonomic regulations, to protect workers from the damaging effects of heavy, repetitive production line work, had its final 47 days of hearings before the Department of Labor. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provided the frightening results of years of investigation: 1.8 million American workers disabled by injuries caused by physical stress on the job each year.

Vehemently arguing against the regulations was Eugene Scalia, "the Godfather of the anti-ergonomics movement." For seven years, he'd lead a high-profile attack against ergonomics, claiming it was founded on "junk science" created by doctors, reporters and hysterical workers.

Even with the approval of the Department of Labor, bureaucracy takes time, and it took a last minute order from President Clinton to list the rules in the Federal Register so the Ergonomics Program Standard would become a part of the OSHA Code of Federal Regulations.

Then came Bush.

Determined to get rid of this expensive problem for the business community, Bush pushed for a Congressional Review which could overturn an executive order that had been on the books less than 60 days. So, with the backing of the new White House administration, on April 23, 2001, the rules that had been 12 years in the making were wiped out.

Seven months later, Bush appointed Eugene Scalia to the position of Solicitor of the Department of Labor, in charge of enforcing federal workplace laws. Congress refused to confirm the appointment, so Bush "recessed" Scalia in, installing him in office while Congress was adjourned, twice.

It should be noted that Eugene Scalia is the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the five Supreme Court Justices who put Bush in office. Eugene Scalia had been a partner in the law firm that represented George Bush in that argument before the Supreme Court.

To verify this information, Google "Eugene Scalia +ergonomics +Department of Labor".

- February 19, 2004

Know Bush Fact #7

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:



This story is particularly frightening because it's been so well hidden.

Three weeks after the 2000 election, while the results were still up in the air, Greg Palast, an American reporter for the BBC and the Guardian of London, reported that in the months leading up to the November 2000 balloting, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (who was also George Bush's Florida campaign manager), in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush (George's brother), ordered local elections supervisors to purge 57,700 names from voter registries.

These names were removed because they were supposedly felons who, according to Florida law, may not vote. However, in review, 90.2% of the voters purged from this list were innocent. Their names were listed in error, and never verified. It should be noted that 54% were Black and Hispanic voters, and 90% were Democrat.

Remember, Bush supposedly won Florida, and thus the country, by only 537 votes.

When this report came out in England, CBS contacted Greg Palast, eager to run a version of the story. The next day, the CBS producer called Palast back.

"I'm sorry, but your story didn't hold up."

Palast asked why he thought that.

Simple, "We called Jeb Bush's office."

To verify and look further at this story, Google "Palast +Harris +felon".

- February 16, 2004

Know Bush Fact #6

,Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:



Harken Energy, a small oil company with no previous experience in international or offshore drilling, won a 35-year exploration contract with the emirate of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf in 1989. Odd, since this small company had no previous experience in international or offshore drilling. But it did have George Bush as a Director and major stockholder since 1986, when Harken bought another one of his many money-losing ventures, Spectrum 7 Oil.

"His name was George Bush," said Harken's founder, Phil Hendrick. "That was worth the money."

But not really. Harken soon began to lose money, too, but with the help of its accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, the shareholders were kept unaware of the losses because of a sale (on paper) of a Harken subsidiary to another division of Harken, with a cooked-up loan to and from itself, resulting in non-existent profits being posted.

The subsidiary sale was declared bogus by the SEC, but before a corrected profit-and-loss statement was released, Bush dumped $848,560.00 worth of Harken stock. With that money, Bush was able to buy into the Texas Rangers baseball team, and eventually earned $16 million from its sale because of the financial bonuses written into the contract by James Doty, his personal lawyer.

Meanwhile the Harken stock collapsed.

An investigation by the SEC ensued in 1991 when it was discovered that Bush had not, as required, reported his sale of the stocks until 8 months after the federal deadline. But by then, that same James Doty, Bush's lawyer, was the SEC's General Counsel, in charge of any litigation the commission would initiate, and President George H.W. Bush (I) had appointed old family friend and former economic advisor Richard Breeden to the position of Chairman of the SEC.

The investigation was dropped.

When Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1994, he repeatedly told reporters he had been "exonerated" by the SEC, as did his Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in 2002. But while the SEC officially said "there was no case there," a letter to Bush announcing the agency's decision stated that the end of the probe "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated."

To verify this information and learn more, Google "Doty +Breeden +Harken".

- February 13, 2004

Know Bush Fact #5

This morning on “Meet the Press”, as well as many other times, we heard Bush defend his attacking Iraq, by pointing out that Saddam Hussein had to be removed. After all, he “used weapons against his own people.”

But Bush never elaborates on that any further. There’s a reason.

He never includes the fact that the attack he’s speaking of occurred in August 1988, when Saddam used chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds at Halabja on the Iranian border. Nor does he state that the chemical weapons were dispensed using the helicopters Reagan’s administration supplied in 1983.

On December 20, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld (a civilian then, now our Secretary of Defense) personally delivered a hand-written note from Ronald Reagan to Saddam Hussein to assure him of U.S. friendship and materials support and to restore diplomatic relations.

Beginning October 1, 1984 and ending either on November 28, 1989 or October 13, 1993 (both long past the attack on the Kurds), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the approval of Ronald Reagan and later George H.W. Bush, provided anthrax, bubonic plague and botulinum toxin to Iraq.

According to the House Committee on Government Operations Report "Strengthening the Export License System," up until the day Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Bush administration [the father] approved of $4.8 million in advanced technology product sales to Iraq, the end-user being Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, identified in 1988 to be the facility for Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

So, the next time you hear Bush say that Saddam had to be removed because he "used weapons against his own people," remember that he's leaving out that Reagan, with Rumsfeld's help, supplied the helicopters and gas, and that even after that slaughter, Bush's father continued to supply Saddam with weapons and technology.

If you have trouble believing this, go to Google and type in "Kurds +1988 +chemical weapons +Reagan" and see what's there.

- February 9, 2004

Know Bush Fact #4

On Thursday, January 15, 2004, long-planned memorial celebrations for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Atlanta had to be completely changed because Bush came to town for a photo-op at Dr. King’s gravesite. His appearance brought protests and vocal demonstrators who realized what an election year gimmick it was (he had ignored invitations on previous years), especially as he left the King Center and headed straight over to his $1.3 million campaign fund-raiser.

Their belief in his insincerity was verified the very next day when Bush used the last day of Congressional recess to push through the appointment of Charles Pickering to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Senate Democrats had previously successfully blocked Pickering’s nomination, due to his anti-civil rights “activist judge” ways. Their example had been the judge’s effort in 1994 to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of burning a cross near the home of an interracial couple.

Other concerns they had included: efforts against the Voting Rights Act, 15 reversals of his judgments regarding constitutional, civil rights, criminal procedure and labor issues, and his severe criticisms of civil rights plaintiffs.

So Bush chose to use the Martin Luther King holiday weekend to do a recess appointment, ignoring the will of Congress.
It should be noted that on Dr. King’s birthday last year, Bush came out against the University of Michigan Law School affirmative action program.

- February 6, 2004

Know Bush Fact #3

Based on the belief that the truth shall set you free:


On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission by a 3-2 vote (3 Bush appointees, one of which is Commissioner Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), and with the White House’s endorsement, swept aside checks and balances developed over six decades. A series of bills, threatened vetoes, court orders, lobbying, secret meetings, votes, and broken promises ensued, resulting in the passage of the change of rules by Congress as 24 lines in the middle of the huge omnibus spending bill that passed January 22, 2004.

The two companies which benefited most from the final version of the rule changes are Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and Viacom, which owns CBS.

Two weeks ago, CBS refused to air a 30-sec ad from liberal online activist group MoveOn.org during today’s Super Bowl.

According to Boston Globe,

"MoveOn.org's 30-second ad, which has aired on CNN, is a gentle yet powerful depiction of how hard today's children will have to work to pay off the country's mounting deficit.”

28 members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to CBS which stated,

"The choice not to run this paid advertisement appears to be part of a disturbing pattern on CBS's part to bow to the wishes of the Republican National Committee.”

Or vice versa. The Bush 2000 campaign received $1,070,728 from media companies, more than any single campaign in history. But . . .

YOU CAN STILL SEE THE AD! During the Super Bowl half time show, at 8:10 and 8:35pm EST, switch over to CNN to watch the ad CBS won’t air.

- February 1, 2004