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Not a single Republican voted for President Obama's economic recovery plan in the House last night. If that happens in the Senate, Obama's plan won't pass. We've got a new TV ad to win over swing-vote Republican senators. Can you donate $10?
Did you see how many Republicans voted for President Obama's stimulus package in the House yesterday?
None. Seriously, not a single one.1
Americans voted overwhelmingly for change in November. We voted for an end to the partisan bickering and political games that are destroying our politics. And President Obama bent over backwards to get House Republicans to craft a bipartisan bill, to no avail.
As the bill moves to the Senate, we need bipartisan support, or the stimulus won't pass. Senate Republicans need to know they have a clear choice: support a stimulus package that will put millions of Americans back to work, or continue to play the games that got us into this mess.
We've put together a powerful new ad to pressure the key senators. Can you chip in $10 to get it on the air immediately?
President Obama spent hours meeting with Republican leaders personally. He made painful compromises to win them over.2
But Republicans refused to play ball. They're insisting on a plan that doesn't invest a cent in green jobs or health care or education. They just want more tax cuts for the rich and for corporations, even though that's part of what got us into this mess.3
GOP leaders will get their way—unless we can convince a few Republican senators who are on the fence.
Can you contribute $10 to our new ad to pressure swing-vote Republican senators?Click here:
Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
Offered with as little commentary as possible: the most astonishing and damning review of the Bush Administration ever seen, courtesy of Keith Olbermann. And half of the administration's morally negligent or even criminal activities didn't even make it into the 8-minute summary; much of the other half was mentioned only briefly.
Still, if you can bear to watch a replay of the misery through with we have suffered these last eight years, it has never been done better than this:
Transcript: George Walker Bush. 43rd president of the United States. first ever with a criminal record. our third story tonight, his presidency: eight years in eight minutes.
early in 2001 the U.S. fingered Al Qaeda for the bombing of the USS Cole Bush counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke had a plan to take down Al Qaeda. instead by February the NSC had already discussed invading Iraq, and had a plan for post-Saddam Iraq.
by March 5 Bush had a map ready for Iraqi oil exploration and a list of companies. Al Qaeda? Rice told Clarke not to give Bush a lot of long memos. not a big reader.
August 6, 2001 a CIA analyst briefs Bush on vacation: "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." Bush takes no action tells the briefer—quote all right, you've covered your ass now.
next month Clarke requests using new predator drones to kill Bin Laden the Pentagon and CIA say no.
September 11th Bush remains seated for several minutes to avoid scaring school children by getting up and leaving. he then flies around the country and promises quote a full scale investigation to find those folks who did it
Rumsfeld says Afghanistan does not have enough targets we've got to do Iraq. when the CIA traps Bin Laden at Tora Bora it asks for 800 rangers to cut off his escape Bush outsources the job to Pakistanis sympathetic to the Taliban Bin Laden gets away
in February General Tommy Franks tells a visiting Senator Bush is moving equipment out of Afghanistan so he can invade Iraq. one of the men who prepped Rice for her testimony that Bush did not ignore pre 9-11 warnings later explains quote we cherry picked things to make it look like the president had been actually concerned about Al Qaeda they didn't give a bleep about Al Qaeda
July and Britain's intel chief says Bush is fixing intelligence and facts around the policy to take out Saddam January 03 Bush and Blair agree to invade in March Mr. Bush still telling us he has not decided telling Blair they should paint an airplane in UN colors fly it over Iraq and provoke a response a pretext for invasion
the man who said it would take several hundred thousand troops fired the man who said it would cost more than a hundred billion fired the man who revealed Bush's yellowcake lie smeared his wife's covert status exposed the White House liars who did it and covered it up not fired one convicted Bush commutes his sentence
then in Iraq, stuff happens: Iraq's army, disbanded the government de-Baathified 200,000 weapons, billions of dollars just lost foreign mercenaries immunized from justice political hacks run the Green Zone religious cleansing forcing one out of six Iraqis from their homes Abu Ghraib the insurgency Al Qaeda in Iraq
other stuff does not happen: WMD post-war planning body armor vehicular armor
the payoff? oil and billions for Halliburton, Blackwater and other companies while Mr. Bush denies VA healthcare to 450,000 veterans tries to raise their healthcare fees blocks the new G.I. Bill and increases his own power with the USA PATRIOT Act with the Military Commissions Act public orders exempting himself from a thousand laws and secretly from the Presidential Records Act The Geneva Conventions FISA sparking a mass rebellion at the Justice Department
secret star chambers for terrorism suspects, overturned by Hamdan v Rumsfeld. denying habeas corpus, overturned by Boumediene v Bush. 200 renditionings sleep deprivation abuse
Rumsfeld warned in 2002 that he was torturing that it would jeopardize convictions out of 550 at Gitmo hundreds ultimately go free with no charges dozens are tortured eight fatally three are convicted
on U.S. soil twelve hundred immigrants rounded up without due process without bail without court dates without a single charge of terrorism
it wasn't just Mr. Bush no longer subject to the rule of law he slashed regulations on everyone from banks to mining companies appointed 98 lobbyists to oversee their own industries weakening emission standards for mercury and 650 different toxic chemicals regulators shared drugs and their beds with industry reps the Crandall Canyon mine owner told inspectors to back up because his buddy, Republican Mitch McConnell was sleeping with their boss McConnell's wife is Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao her agency overruled engineer concerns about Crandall Canyon and was found negligent after nine miners died in the collapse there
Mr. Bush's hands off as Enron blacks out California doubling electric bills after months of rejecting price caps Mr. Bush bows to pressure
the blackouts end
Mr. Bush further deregulates commodity futures midwifing the birth of unregulated oil markets which just like Enron jack up prices to an all time high until Congress and both presidential candidates call for regulations
and the prices fall
deregulating financial services and lax enforcement of remaining rules created a housing bubble creating the mortgage crisis creating then a credit crisis devastating industries that rely on credit from student loans to car dealers
firms that had survived the Great Depression could not survive Bush those that did got seven hundred billion dollars no strings, no transparency no idea whether it worked
unlike the auto bailout which cut workers' salaries. a GOP memo called it a chance to punish unions
but Bush failed even when his party and his patrons did not stand to profit investigators blamed management cost cutting communication for missed warnings about Columbia Bush administration convicts include sex offenders at Homeland Security convicted liars every kind of thief in the calendar and if you count things that were not prosecuted the vice president of the United States actually shot a man in the face
the man apologized.
Mr. Bush faked the truth with paid propaganda in Iraq on his education policy
tried to silence the truth about global warming rocket fuel in our water industry influence on energy policy
politicized the truth of science at NASA, the EPA, the National Cancer Institute, Fish and Wildlife and the FDA
his lies exposed by whistleblowers from the cabinet down "complete BS" the treasury secretary said of Mr. Bush on his tax cuts.
Rice's mushroom cloud Powell's mobile labs Iraq and 9-11 Jack Abramoff Jessica Lynch
Pat Tillman Pat Tillman again Pat Tillman, again.
the air at Ground Zero most responders still suffering respiratory problems.
global warming carbon emissions a Clear Skies initiative lowering air quality standards the Healthy Forests initiative increasing logging faith based initiatives the cost of medicare reform fired US attorneys politically synchronized terror alerts
the surge causing insurgents to switch sides that abortion causes breast cancer that his first recession began under Clinton that he did not wiretap without warrants that we do not torture.
that American citizen John Walker Lindh's rights were not violated that he refused the right to counsel
heckuva job Brownie some survivors still in trailers New Orleans still at just two-thirds its usual population
the lie that no one could have predicted the economic crisis except the economists who did no one could have predicted 9-11 except one ass-covering CIA analyst or thirty no one could have predicted the levee breach except literally Mr. Bill in a PSA that aired on TV a year before Katrina
Bush actually admitted that he lied about not firing Rumsfeld because he did not want to tell the truth. look it up.
all of it all of it and more leaving us with ten trillion in debt to pay for 31% more in discretionary spending the Iraq War a 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut
median income down two thousand dollars three-quarters of all income gains under Bush going to the richest one percent unemployment up from 4.2 to 7.2 percent
the Dow, down from ten thousand five hundred eighty seven to eighty two hundred seventy seven six million now more in poverty seven million more now without health care
buying toxic goods from China deadly cribs outsourcing security to Dubai still unsecure in our ports and at our nuclear plants more dependent on foreign oil out of the international criminal court off the anti ballistic missle treaty military readiness and standards down
with two unfinished wars a nuclear North Korea disengaged from the Palestinian problem destabilizing eastern european diplomacy with anti missile plans and unable to keep Russia out of Georgia
2000 miles of Appalachian streams destroyed by rubble from mountaintop mining at his last G-8 summit, he actually bid farewell to other world leaders saying quote—goodbye from the world's greatest polluter
consistently undermining historic American reverence for the institutions that empower us education, now "academic elites" and the law, "activist judges" capping jury awards
and Bin Laden? living today unmolested in a Pakistani safe haven created by a truce endorsed and defended by George W. Bush
and among all the gifts he gave to Bin Laden the most awful, the most damaging not just to America but to the American ideal was to further Bin Laden's goal by making us act out of fear rather than fortitude
leaving us with precious little to cling to tonight save the one thing that might yet suffice:
Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush War Crimes
Sponsored by Docudharma and Democrats.com: A Citizen's Petition to Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder asking him to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.
You can read and/or sign the Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush War Crimes by clicking on the Badge below.
Click Here
