Know Bush Fact #29

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


Yesterday, Michael Moore's film, "Fahrenheit 9/11", opened in over 900 theaters across the nation to sold out audiences and standing ovations.

On the same day, the apparently desperate Bush-Cheney campaign began an ad called "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party - The Coalition of the Wild-Eyed" as the main feature on its official website. It shows very brief images of Gore, Kerry, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, and Dick Gephardt, all in the peak of impassioned speeches, followed by the sound and images of Hitler.

The Bush-Cheney ad also parenthetically states that the images of Hitler are from a MoveOn.org ad.

They're not. According to Wes Boyd, of MoveOn.org, the images are from two of the more than 1500 submissions from ordinary Americans to their ad contest last December and posted for the public to review, criticize and vote on at bushin30seconds.org. They were never chosen, endorsed, or sponsored by MoveOn.org.

However, during the 2002 Senate Race, supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the face of democratic Senator Max Cleland into that of Osama Bin Laden.

Sen. Cleland (D-GA) was the victim of this offensive attack because he had voted against Bush's preferred legislation on the creation of a homeland security department, in committee, without an amendment guaranteeing labor rights for federal workers.

To confirm/verify, Google: Bush +Hitler

Know Bush Fact #28

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


In June 2002, the Bush administration, through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH), and the Advertising Council teamed up for a National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign to encourage first-time mothers to breastfeed exclusively for six months, with PSAs set to air in December 2003.

Unfortunately, the ads, which listed well-researched numbers on increased risk for non-breastfed babies of obesity, diabetes, ear infections, leukemia, diarrhea, asthma and pneumonia, were inadvertently posted on the Ad Council website in November 2003.

That’s when the pharmaceutical companies stepped in.

It turns out that baby formulas such as Similac, Isomil, and Enfamil are produced by pharmaceutical companies, Abbott Laboraties and Bristol Myers Squibb, two of the most powerful members of the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which contributed nearly $11.2 million (87% of their party donations) to the Republican national committees in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles.

First the pharmaceuticals get to make money on the baby formulas; then they profit for the rest of the person’s life as the provider of medicines and other health care products needed to handle the acknowledged health problems shown in the PSA from choosing their formula products over breastfeeding.

Washington lobbyist Clayton Yeutter, the Secretary of Agriculture for Bush I (the father) and former Republican Party Chairman, with a few lobbyist cohorts, immediately met with Bush-appointee Secretary Tommy Thompson. They conveyed their clients’ objections to the "grossly misleading visuals" in the ad campaign and the questionable scientific validity of claims of a higher incidence of diseases in babies who are not breast-fed.

The lobbyists also contacted the National Institutes of Health, National WIC Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and members of Congress responsible for health care policy and WIC reauthorization, reviewing the formula industry objections.

The AAP, whose recent book on breastfeeding became an instant best-seller when Abbott Laboratories bought 600,000 copies, fell into line. AAP President Carden Johnston wrote to Secretary Thompson (without consulting Dr. Lawrence Gartner, Chair of the AAP Section on Breastfeeding), suddenly concerned for the ad campaign’s emphasis on not breastfeeding and unvalidated scientific information.

Tommy Thompson, who had to sell his sizeable portfolio of stock in drugmakers Merck and Abbott Laboratories once he was confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary, pulled the ad until it could be watered down to suit the needs of the pharmaceuticals – to show a heart-warming suggestion to breastfeed as a lifestyle choice, not an urgent need with major consequences. References to diabetes and leukemia were cut, as well as all specific risk numbers.

Tommy Thompson turned down meeting requests from breastfeeding advocates.

To verify/research, Google: Breastfeeding +Ad Council

Know Bush Fact #27

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

In January 2003, Bush appointed Retired General Jay Garner to serve as Civil Administrator in charge of reconstruction and humanitarian aid in post–Saddam Hussein Iraq.

On April 21, 2003, Garner arrived in Baghdad, stating that his top priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity.
"What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do." Garner said upon arriving.

Previously, in 1991, Garner helped lead Operation Provide Comfort, which delivered food and shelter to Kurds in northern Iraq after the first Gulf war, and had a reputation within military circles for believing that the military should be used as a "merciful instrument in shaping future humanitarian operations."

On April 28, Garner gathered 250 delegates in Baghdad representing the entire political spectrum of Iraq. It was agreed between the parties that a national conference would be held by the end of May to elect the first post-Hussein Iraqi government.

On 5 May, Jay Garner proudly announced "the beginning of a nucleus of a temporary Iraqi government" would be set up by mid-May.

Bush was not pleased.

The next day, on May 6, Bush announced his appointment of Paul Bremer as the new Presidential Envoy and Senior Coalition official in Iraq. Bremer landed in Iraq on May 12 and took over.

On May 21, Bremer announced that the national conference would not be taking place any time soon.

On May 23, Bremer dissolved the Iraqi Army, causing 400,000 people to lose their jobs. It had been Garner’s plan to utilize these people to rebuild Iraq. Instead, they were unemployed, and angry.

In an interview with Greg Palast which aired on the BBC on March 19, 2004, Garner noted, "I'm a believer that you don't want to end the day with more enemies than you started with."

Clearly different from Bremer, who, according to a former senior State Department official quoted in Newsday, is a "voracious opportunist with voracious ambitions."

Previously, Bremer was Henry Kissinger’s assistant in the State Department, and spent 11 years as Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, the powerful international business consulting firm.

At a February 2003 presentation for Cincinnati business leaders, Bremer said, "We're going to be on the ground in Iraq as soldiers and citizens for years. We're going to be running a colony almost."

For his Senior Advisor in Iraq, Bremer chose Daniel Senor, previously with The Carlyle Group (the investment company linking former President Bush with the Bin Laden family).

To verify/research, Google "Bremer +Garner."
June 6, 2004