Know Bush Fact #31

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

While the Bush Administration is discussing the possible postponement of the November election, and a newly revealed May 2001 memo shows Rep. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay requested $100,000 from Ken Lay at Enron to push redistricting Texas, and BBC journalist Greg Palast finally is testifying before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission regarding his investigation into the 57,000 voters purged in Florida in 2000 – it is timely to share another 2000 moment.

On November 21, 2000, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled against the Bush demand that the recount be stopped, and then required the three counties to send in the amended results by Saturday November 26th at 5:00 p.m., Bush was ready.

Because on November 18, the Bush/Cheney campaign had put the word out: "We now need to send reinforcements... The campaign will pay airfare and hotel expenses for people willing to go.” But if that failed, there was a backup plan. Reinforcements were hired.

The Capitol Hill office House Majority Whip (then) Tom DeLay (R-TX) organized the recruitment of over 200 Republican Congressional staffers, who were put on the Bush Cheney campaign payroll and flown to Florida in a fleet of corporate jets, including planes owned by Enron and Halliburton.

So, on Wednesday morning, November 22, on the 18th floor of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center for Miami-Dade County, as the 3-person Board of Canvassers met to begin the recount – a crowd of those "reinforcements," in the guise of irate locals, was growing outside the room. With the tension rising, and limited time, the Board announced that they and the official observers would be retreating to a smaller office on the 19th floor, where they would examine and count the 10,750 disputed ballots, away from the general public.

The Republicans seized the moment.

U.S. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) called out, “Shut it down!" and the hired mob went mad. They charged up to the 19th floor, raising a ruckus – pushing, banging on walls and doors, chanting, "Stop the count, stop the fraud!" – and preventing official observers and journalists from entering the office (from Paul Gigot, reporting in the Nov. 24 Wall Street Journal).

A Washington Post photograph of the supposedly-outraged-voter/rioters clearly identifies:
• House Majority Whip Tom DeLay’s Policy Analyst – Tom Pyle.
• Majority Chief Counsel and Staff Director for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice – Garry Malphrus – now Bush’s Deputy Director of the President’s Domestic Policy Council.
• Former Legislative Director to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.) – Roger Morse – now Senior Government Affairs Analyst for Federal Policy Practice (Lobbyist) for Preston Gates & Ellis.
• Regional Political Director for the Bush/Cheney 2000 Campaign, former Chief of Staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) – Matthew Schlapp – now Bush’s Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs at the White House.
• House Republican Conference Analyst – Kevin Smith – now Bush’s Senior Communications Counselor for the House Education and Workforce Committee (promoting No Child Left Behind).
• General Counsel to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources Committee – Duane Gibson – followed Young to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, then brought his Capitol Hill expertise to Greenberg Traurig’s Government Affairs Section (Lobbyist - *Update: Abramoff's law firm).
• Former Legislative Assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa) – Layna McConkey – now at Steelman Health Strategies, lobbying for the pharmaceutical industry.
and . . .

• **FORMER LAW CLERK FOR SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA** and Policy Advisor for Bush/Cheney 2000 – Joel Kaplan – became Bush’s First Special Assistant to the President in the Office of the Chief of Staff, and now Bush’s Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget (not shown in Washington Post photo but identified by multiple witnesses).

These were not just Pages and Gofers. Or Floridians.

To further engender fear in the Miami election administrators (who had just months earlier experienced the stand off and riots over Elian Gonzales), the crowd accused the election officials of deliberately excluding the Cuban dominated precincts (which hadn’t happened). The Spanish language radio station, Radio Mambi, had a reporter there, and the chaotic event and false accusations were on the air. Rumors of 1,000 angry Cubans on their way to storm the building were spread.

(Note: Radio Mambi, a vehemently anti-Castro station, was owned by the Cuban American National Foundation. The CANF was established in 1981 with covert funding from the Reagan/Bush administration, and run by CIA operative Jorge Mas Canosa until his death in 1996. Canosa served under CIA Director George H.W. Bush, and was linked to the Iran-Contra affair.)

That did it. The Board reversed its decision and shut down the recount – for good. Later that day, Bush filed his petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in his being handed the election.

The next evening, the Republican protestors were rewarded with a Thanksgiving celebration banquet at a Ft. Lauderdale Hotel, where they got treated to a conference call from George W. Bush himself, thanking them, and live entertainment by Wayne Newton, singing "Danke Schoen."

To verify/research, Google: "Bush +rioters +Florida +2000."

Know Bush Fact #30 - In Celebration of Independence Day

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


The Declaration of Independence we honor today was written to "LET FACTS BE SUBMITTED TO A CANDID WORLD." (All quotes in bold caps herein are from The Declaration of Independence, 1776)

Amidst the "LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES AND USURPATIONS" which caused the signers to be "ABSOLVED FROM ALL ALLEGIANCE" to their King George, were the following:

"HE HAS REFUSED TO ASSENT TO LAWS, THE MOST WHOLESOME AND NECESSARY FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD."

Our George has rolled back environmental regulations, ergonomic laws, created a federal deficit that makes the U.S. vulnerable to those who loan the money, created a tax credit that only benefits the already extremely wealthy; engaged the United States in its first pre-emptive strike, and sought to overstep the rules of the Geneva Convention, thus making the United States and its citizens a greater target internationally – and more. (Google: "Bush +[any of the above words/phrases]")

Our George has ignored scientific evidence and reports, causing more than 60 leading scientists — including Nobel laureates, leading medical experts, former federal agency directors and university chairs and presidents — to issue a statement and report on February 18, 2004 calling for regulatory and legislative action to restore scientific integrity to federal policymaking. Dr. Neal Lane, a former director of the National Science Foundation and a former Presidential Science Advisor, stated, "In case after case, scientific input to policymaking is being censored and distorted. This will have serious consequences for public health." (Google: "Bush +scientists")

"HE HAS FORBIDDEN HIS GOVERNORS TO PASS LAWS OF IMMEDIATE AND PRESSING IMPORTANCE, UNLESS SUSPENDED IN THEIR OPERATION TILL HIS ASSENT SHOULD BE OBTAINED; AND WHEN SO SUSPENDED, HE HAS UTTERLY NEGLECTED TO ATTEND TO THEM."

Our George neglected the warnings in 2001 from his experienced anti-terrorism advisor, Richard Clarke, from President Clinton, from the Hart-Rudman Commission’s Roadmap for National Security, from the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety & Security, from the CIA, from Jordan Intelligence, from Israeli Intelligence, from Russian Intelligence, from Morrocan Intelligence, and from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, all regarding an imminent Al-Qaeda attack. (Google: "Bush +ignored +warnings")

"HE HAS CALLED TOGETHER LEGISLATIVE BODIES AT PLACES UNUSUAL, UNCOMFORTABLE, AND DISTANT FROM THE DEPOSITORY OF THEIR PUBLIC RECORDS, FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF FATIGUING THEM INTO COMPLAINCE WITH HIS MEASURES."

Our George began making phone calls to Congressmen from Air Force One at 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, November 22, 2003, when his Medicare Prescription Drug Bill was rejected in a roll call vote by a margin of 218-216. Though such roll call votes are only supposed to stay open for 15 minutes, Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay refused to close the voting, stretching it to 2 hours and 51 minutes. That’s when the Bush phone calls, the Karl Rove phone calls, and the in-person pressure from Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson finally resulted in the vote Bush wanted, just before 6:00 a.m. with just two votes to spare. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts said, "I don’t mean to be alarmist, but this is the end of parliamentary democracy as we know it." (Google: "Medicare +vote +November 2003")

"HE HAS ERECTED A MULTITUDE OF NEW OFFICES, AND SENT HITHER SWARMS OF OFFICERS TO HARRASS OUR PEOPLE, AND EAT OUT THEIR SUBSTANCE."

Our George, before a Joint Session of Congress and the American People on September 20, 2001, announced, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." On October 25, 2001, with no time for the bill to be properly studied, the U.S. Patriot Act was passed. Aside from the abuses that have become obvious in the news of late, the Patriot Act has allowed the government to demand lists of individuals’ reading materials from librarians and booksellers, while forbidding them from uttering a word about such requisitions to anyone. Our ability to be informed, which is the substance of a democracy, is being eaten away. (Goggle: "Bush +Patriot +books")

"HE HAS AFFECTED TO RENDER THE MILITARY INDEPENDENT OF AND SUPERIOR TO THE CIVIL POWER."
and,
"HE IS AT THIS TIME TRANSPORTING LARGE ARMIES OF FOREIGN MERCENARIES TO COMPLEAT THE WORKS OF DEATH, DESOLATION AND TYRANNY, ALREADY BEGUN WITH CIRCUMSTANCES OF CRUELTY AND PERFIDY SCARECELY PARALLELED IN THE MOST BARBAROUS AGES, AND TOTALLY UNWORTHY OF THE HEAD OF A CIVILIZED NATION."

Our George has contracted dozens of private security firms, manned by highly-paid former U.S. military (such as Special Forces, Seals, etc.), foreign mercenaries and Iraqis to carry out military work in Iraq. This would have stayed more secretive had not pictures been taken at Abu Ghraib, where "Military Intelligence" ordered actual U.S. military to soften up prisoners. Hired as interrogators, these employees of Titan and CACI International, Inc., as well as others, have been paid to pursue top secret information, while they have no more loyalty to the U.S. than their next employer. (Google: "Iraq +private security")

Our George created the Coalition Provisional Authority, which has granted immunity to Private Security Contractors (not normally resident in Iraq) from Iraqi legal process. Such contractors are also not subject to U.S. military law; though the U.S. Department of Defense hires the contractors, maintaining discipline of contractor employees is the responsibility of the contractor’s management structure, not the military chain of command.

Our George had L. Paul Bremer, Pro Consul of the Coalition Provisional Authority sign several edicts on Saturday June 26, 2004, two days before leaving Iraq, which enforce future control by the United States. The edicts specifically include ongoing immunity for U.S. contractors. "If they know they have full immunity, they will do anything they want because they know no one can do anything about it," stated Interim Iraqi Minister of State Mahmud Farhad Othman. (Google: "Iraq +contractors +immunity")

Concluding his list, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "A PRINCE WHOSE CHARACTER IS THUS MARKED BY EVERY ACT WHICH MAY DEFINE A TYRANT, IS UNFIT TO BE THE RULER OF A FREE PEOPLE." (Google: "Declaration of Independence")

Happy Fourth of July. Let us make sure our leader is upholding our highest ideals for our democracy, that we pay attention.

July 4, 2004

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

Know Bush Fact #26

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

I apologize up front for the length of this story. It started with a simple "thanks. . . to the efforts of former Secretary of State James Baker . . . ," said by Bush last week, Monday, May 25, 2004, during his televised speech at the U.S. Army War College.

But why, out of the blue, was he thanking former Secretary of State James Baker?

He continued, ". . .many of Iraq's largest creditors have pledged to forgive or substantially reduce Iraqi debt incurred by the former regime."

Perhaps true. However, in fact, there are many other "efforts of former Secretary of State James Baker" for which Bush might offering thanks, going back many years.

It was James Baker's law firm, Baker & Botts, that wrote the contract for Bush to purchase the Texas Rangers baseball team, paying it off with the funds from his suddenly dumped shares in Harken Oil in 1990.

In 1991, that same lawyer from Baker & Botts, James Doty, was the new General Counsel for the SEC, along with his colleague from Baker & Botts, Richard Breeden, as the President Bush-appointed SEC Chairman, when George W. Bush’s insider trading at Harken Oil was investigated and dropped.

James Baker was also the man Bush called in November 2000, when Florida’s vote came into question, to lead the battle to take the White House. Baker started the spin immediately, declaring that the votes "have not only been counted, they’ve been counted twice" (blatantly untrue), attacking Gore for his "endless challenges to the results" (the recount was required by Florida law), and finally pushing it to the Supreme Court, where he knew there were five Republican appointees who had to answer to no one. Certainly, Bush owes a lifetime of thanks for that.

Baker's enduring value has been as the Senior Counsel for Washington’s Carlyle Group. The Carlyle Group was formed by former ranking Republicans in the early 90's as an investment group which took advantage of the end of the Cold War to buy up defense and intelligence businesses cheaply.

Thanks to James Baker, Bush I was immediately hired by The Carlyle Group after his 1992 re-election defeat to be guest speaker at events where big-time investors knew the value of access to the ex-President and all his contacts, inside both U.S. and foreign governments. Bush I then could take his sizeable "speaking fee" and invest it back into Carlyle subsidiaries for his own personal investment as well. Later, when Bush I’s son took power in Washington, it made access to Bush I, and therefore II, even more advantageous for all involved with Carlyle.

In 2001, The Carlyle Group showed $12 billion in holdings. With multiple contracts in Iraq, The Carlyle Group's holdings have grown exponentially, as has Bush I’s stock portfolio in Carlyle. Bush II stands to inherit untold millions/billions from his father now, especially since he made certain the inheritance tax was completely abolished soon after occupying the White House. Thank you, James Baker.

Coincidentally, on September 11, 2001, while the hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Carlyle Group was hosting an exclusive conference in Washington, D.C. Among the guests of honor was a valued investor named Shafig bin Laden, brother to Osama. He soon became one of the 140 powerful Saudis that Prince Bandar arranged to have flown out of the country immediately, despite a nation-wide ban on flights, without even being questioned by the FBI or CIA.

Currently, Baker's law firm, Baker & Botts, is defending Saudi Arabia against the trillion dollar lawsuit filed by the families of 9/11 victims. The families’ suit has forced open accounts that reveal the Saudi government’s role in funneling millions of dollars to Islamic charities that are widely suspected of covertly financing Al Qaeda and other international terrorist groups.

Which brings us back to Bush thanking Baker before the whole world last Monday night – because of his efforts "many of Iraq's largest creditors have pledged to forgive or substantially reduce Iraqi debt incurred by the former regime." Sounds good. But...

The U.S. has no right under international law to handle Iraq’s debts. So in December 2003, when Bush announced that Baker would negotiating the restructure of these debts with its foreign investors (while Colin Powell happened to be in the hospital in surgery), it was said to be "at the request of the Iraqi Governing Council," thus allowing Baker to do his business without answering to Congress or revealing who was paying him.

Thus Bush facilitated Baker’s pre-empting the complete debt write-off the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was seriously considering.

It’s worth knowing whose money Baker made sure will still have to be at least partially paid back. Most of the debt belongs to his clients, the Saudis, in the $100 billion range.

Much of this goes back as far as the 1980s, when both the United States and the Saudis covertly built up Saddam Hussein, giving him technology, biological weapons and training in his war against Iran, back when James Baker was President Reagan’s Treasury Secretary and Chairman of the President’s Economic Policy Council, and Bush I’s Secretary of State.
And so we come full circle.

Thank you, James Baker.

To verify/research, start your Google search with "Bush +Baker". You might want to get a cup of coffee first.

- May 30, 2004

Know Bush Fact #25

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


On April 24, 2003, while promoting his tax plan, Bush stopped in Canton, Ohio at the Timken Company, a Fortune 500 company, with 2003 sales of $3.8 billion, to speak before the workers at its steel ball-bearing manufacturing plant:

"The greatest strength of the American economy is found right here, right in this room, found in the pride and skill of the American work force. . . Here at Timken, last year, productivity rose 10 percent. Which means that America can compete with any nation in the world because we got the finest workers in the world."

On May 17, 2004, century-old Timken Company announced it was closing the doors to three of its ball-bearing plants in Canton, laying off 1,300 employees.

Timken President James W. Griffith tried to blame the closure on the United Steel Workers of America, but union President Stan Jasionowski said the USWA and Timken were not in any kind of contract negotiations. The union was blindsided by Timken's decision.

Timken’s ball-bearing production will be moved. It is timely that two new Timken NSK ball-bearing plants in China began production in January, and the Randleman, North Carolina plant failed to unionize in February.

W.R. "Tim" Timken, Chairman of the Board of Timken Company, whose decision it was to close the plants, earned more than $2.6 million last year, and stands to receive $59,000 in new tax breaks from Bush this year.

By contrast, 89% of Ohio residents will receive less than $100 by 2006 from the latest Bush tax cuts.

Last summer, Timken co-hosted a fundraiser for Bush's campaign which raised $600,000, and earned Timken "Ranger" status in Bush’s multi-level marketing donation pyramid structure.

W.R. Timken was signed in as the Bush-appointed Chairman of the Board of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation on April 22, 2003 (2 days before Bush’s speech at his plant), and is also a long-time Director of Diebold, Inc., manufacturer of the highly controversial electronic voting machines.

A final note: In December 2003, Mr. Timken hosted a $2,000-per-person fundraiser, where he spoke before featured guest Vice President Dick Cheney and an audience of Ohio's wealthiest business and civic leaders. Timken denounced liberal philanthropist Peter Lewis’s multi-million dollar pledge to partially match donations to MoveOn.org’s voter fund campaign as an "attempt to buy democracy."

Meanwhile, the Gannett News Service reported that the Cincinnati, Ohio zip code 45243 ranks second only to New York City's 10021 as the most lucrative fundraising neighborhood for Bush, surpassing wealthy communities in Houston, Dallas and even Beverly Hills.

To verify/research, Google: "Bush +Timken."

Know Bush Fact #24

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


On June 26, 2001 the State Department issued a worldwide caution to Americans traveling or living abroad.

The National Security Agency’s ECHELON electronic spy network gave warning that Mideast terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American culture.

That same month, the Bush Administration initiated the VISA EXPRESS service for expediting visa applications through out Saudi Arabia.

On June 25, 2001, the day before the State Department’s warning, the US Embassy in Riyadh proudly announced:

"Now all Saudis and non-Saudi applicants may obtain visas at their own convenience by submitting their applications through any of ten designated travel/courier companies operating throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. . . Applicants will no longer have to take time off from work, no longer have to wait in long lines under the hot sun and in crowded waiting rooms, and no longer be limited by any time constraints. Effective immediately, ALL APPLICANTS will be expected to use the US VISA EXPRESS service offered by any of the selected companies listed below."

To make this very clear, under this new rule instituted by the Bush Administration, both Saudis and non-Saudis could obtain U.S. visas without being photographed or having to apply in person just by going through one of ten designated travel agencies in The Kingdom.

Three of the Saudi hijackers in the September 11 attacks came into the U.S. on visas they obtained through the VISA EXPRESS program.

Still, the Visa Express program was not closed after September 11. In fact, in the first 30 days after 9/11, the U.S. Embassy at Jeddah, one of three offices in Saudi Arabia, issued 104 visas through the program, denying none.

It was not until Joel Mowbray, a journalist from The National Review, broke the story in June of 2002, pointing out that the Visa Express program was still in place, that the State Department found it necessary to make some changes.

Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, Ambassador Mary Ryan, the longest-serving career diplomat at the department, "to retire," announcing this change on the same day when two committees in Congress would be voting on legislation to remove the State Department’s visa authority.

Two days later, after questioning spokesman Richard Boucher at a State Department press briefing, Joel Mowbray was detained for about 30 minutes, as security demanded he reveal his sources. Yet a year after 9/11, the State Department had still not interviewed the single Foreign Service Officer in the Jeddah consulate who issued 10 of the visas to the Saudi hijackers.

To research/verify, Google "Bush +Visa Express."
- May 14, 2004

Know Bush Facts #23 A and #23B

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

Know Bush Fact #23 A

Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld received a letter from Amnesty International dated JANUARY 10, 2002 (with copies also sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell, FBI Director Robert Mueller, CIA Director George Tenet, and Commander in Chief General Tommy Franks), expressing concern over photographs showing Al-Qaeda suspects hooded while under guard by US troops, and pointing out that the United Nations Committee against Torture had condemned the hooding of suspects, and that such treatment is also covered by the Geneva Convention.

To research/verify, Google "Rumsfeld +hooding."

And #23 B

On September 11, 2001, Bush’s Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was not in Washington D.C. He was out of the country with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith, and William Luti, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Plans and Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, and four other like-minded advisors. They were "busy on unrelated missions in Europe and the Middle East."

Upon their return, Donald Rumsfeld commissioned a team, headed by that same Douglas Feith and William Luti, to scan and sort already-analyzed documents from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies to consider possible interpretations and angles of analysis that these agencies may have missed. Much of the information scanned had already been deemed "not credible" by the experienced intelligence agencies.

Eventually Rumsfeld’s team came to be named The Office of Special Plans.

Staffed by a tight group of like-minded neo-conservatives who advocated regime change in Iraq, the Office of Special Plans displaced the CIA and the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency as Bush’s main source of intelligence regarding Iraq’s possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al-Qaeda.

It was "the stovepipe" - a means of funneling upward directly to the White House and National Security Advisor selectively chosen intelligence to serve the ideological ends of the "neo-cons" in the Bush administration.

"They’d take a little bit of intelligence, cherry-pick it, make it sound much more exciting, usually by taking it out of context, often by juxtaposition of two pieces of information that don’t belong together,"

wrote retired Pentagon Middle East specialist, Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked in the office of Undersecretary for Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

She found the work of the Office of Special Plans to be "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-option through deceit of a large segment of the Congress."
Which resulted in Congress giving Bush the authority to use military force against Iraq.

To research/verify, Google "Rumsfeld +Office of Special Plans".

- May 9, 2004

Know Bush Fact #22

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



"The corporations don’t have to lobby the government anymore. They are the government." - Jim Hightower, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner.

For example:

Bush’s Chief Strategist, Karl Rove, was a lobbyist for Phillip Morris from 1991 to 1996.

Andrew Card, Bush’s White House Chief of Staff, was chief lobbyist for General Motors and head of American Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Thomas A. Scully, President of the Federation of American Hospital Group, lobbying for 1700 for-profit hospitals, became Bush’s Chief Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, until he resigned in December 2003, just after Bush’s Medicare Bill was forced through Congress.

Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. was Bush's Office of Management and Budget Director until recently. Prior to that he was a lobbyist for Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical for 13 years.

James Connaughton, Bush’s Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, previously lobbied on behalf of ASARCO Inc., Atlantic Richfield, Aluminum Co. of America, Chemical Manufacturers Association, and General Electric (focusing especially on Superfund toxic sites).

J. Steven Griles, Bush’s Deputy Interior Secretary, is known as one of the energy industry’s most powerful lobbyists. He was a lobbyist for United Company (a coal, oil, and gas development firm), and was also the former Vice President of National Environmental Strategies, representing the National Mining Association and Occidental Petroleum.

Rebecca W. Watson, long-time lobbyist and attorney for the extractive industries, was named Bush's Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management in the Department of the Interior.

William G. Myers, III served as lobbyist for the National Mining Association, the Public Lands Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, then became Bush’s Chief Solicitor for the Interior Department. This year Bush nominated him for a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the appellate court that hears cases from Alaska and the American West, where environmental law concerning 485 million acres of public lands is decided.

Bush made Nicholas Calio his Legislative Affairs Director. Calio spent the 90s lobbying for Anheuser-Busch, the Boeing Corp., AT&T, Atlantic Richfield Company, BP Amoco, and Tenneco Automotive, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems. Calio’s top deputy at the White House, Kirsten Ardleigh Chadwick, was also a registered lobbyist for Tenneco.

Monsanto, manufacturer of such food additives as the controversial bovine growth hormone, BST, used to have to lobby the Secretary of Agriculture. Then Monsanto executive Ann Venamin became Bush’s Secretary of Agriculture through April 2003.

Linda J. Fisher was Bush’s Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection Agency until she resigned in June 2003, just one day before her boss, Christie Todd Whitman, did the same. Previously, Ms. Fisher was Monsanto’s Vice President for Government and Public Affairs, lobbying on behalf of Monsanto’s interests on agriculture, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, environment, finance and trade issues, and managing the company’s political action committee and political contribution funds.

A former top lobbyist for private banks engaged in student lending, William D. Hansen, was Bush’s Deputy Secretary at the Education Department until July 2003.

Bush picked Texan James C. Oberwetter, of Hunt Consolidated Inc. and the American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry lobby group, to be U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

And last but not least...

In December, 2001, Bush named Marc Racicot, a lobbyist whose clients included Enron Corp, railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Recording Industry Association of America, to be Chairman of the Republican National Committee. In June 2003, Bush chose Mr. Racicot to be the Chairman of the Bush-Cheney Re-Election Campaign.

Bush replaced Racicot as Chairman of the Republican National Committee with Ed Gillespie, whose lobbying firm raked in $27.4 million from 2000 through 2002 working for a list of clients that includes Microsoft, Tyson Foods, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Viacom. Before its collapse, Enron paid Gillespie’s firm $700,000 to lobby against the "re-regulation" of Western electricity markets.

To verify/research, Google "Bush +lobbyist."
- May 1, 2004

Know Bush Fact #21

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


Two years ago, on Earth Day, Robert Martin, National Ombudsman of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response) for over nine years, resigned.

The Ombudsman’s job was to stand apart from the EPA and perform independent investigations of complaints from citizens to ensure that the EPA remained accountable and true to its mission of protecting human health and the environment, particularly in cleaning up toxic sites.

Even before Bush was in office, Bob Martin was investigating an EPA deal made with Citigroup and one of its several toxic waste sites, Shattuck Chemical Company site in Denver’s Overland Park.

Then Bush arrived, and appointed Christine Todd Whitman, whose husband John Whitman is a top investment manager for Citigroup, to the position of Director of the EPA.

As Martin’s investigation grew to question the obvious conflict of interest here, Ms. Whitman turned on him and announced that his previously independent office would be closed and he would be moved into the office of the EPA Inspector General, under the authority of . . . the Director of the EPA, Christine Todd Whitman.

In the spirit of the Bush opposite-meaning philosophy, Ms. Whitman said, "The General Accounting Office report recommended that the Agency ‘take steps to strengthen the independence' of the ombudsman. By relocating the position to the Office of the Inspector General we are doing just that."

While Martin was out of town on business, she had his files seized and his locks changed. He no longer had access to his files on the Citigroup/Shattuck/Whitman connection. The EPA declared that he no longer had any defined duties and would be stripped of his title.

No longer able to help those he cared about, he resigned.

There is no longer a truly independent Ombudsman for the EPA. The Bush policies that favor industry deals and questionable science are rubber stamped, and calls from residents of toxic neighborhoods are ignored.

Meanwhile, there are pictures of Bush in the wetlands for Earth Day.

To verify/research, Google: "Martin +ombudsman."

- April 23, 2004

Know Bush Fact #20

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

In 2003, promoting his tax cuts, Bush said, "These tax reductions will bring real and immediate benefits to middle income Americans. Ninety-two million Americans will keep an average of $1,083 more of their own money."

However, according to such organizations as The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Urban Brookings Institute Tax Policy Center, Citizens for Tax Justice, and many other analysts, these numbers were concocted via mathematical calculations that reveal the unreliability of the word "average".

For example, you take a group of ten people: 9 are unemployed and 1 makes $1,000,000; mathematically you can calculate the average income to be $100,000. It is a number that has nothing to do with truth. This is the same mathematical method that ends with the great-sounding numbers Bush uses to sell his tax cuts.

In actuality that $1083 "average" sits above 80 percent of those filing taxes. The top 20% would make that much and lots more. 80% would receive less than $1083. 50% would get less than $100.

To verify/research, Google "Bush +$1083."

- April 13, 2004