Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Perfectly good reasons to impeach, any one of which should be sufficient.


Hugh at Firedoglake compiled this excellent list. It was too good to just let it disappear (everything is chronological at FDL, so old things just fall off the end ...) and just crying out for more additions. So, I wondered if he'd be OK with my posting it here, where it might be visible for longer. FDL is a brainstorming and neworking par excellence, but a quiet little blog like this is more into medium- and long-term memory. Next project: a geneaology of Washingon DC.

So this from Hugh:

I thought this might be a time to repeat my incomplete list of Bush era scandals and ask for any suggested additions.

1. Walter Reed outpatient treatment
2. Fired US attorneys
3. Scooter Libby/Plamegate
4. Iraq: lack of preparation for occupation, looting, including the National Museum, too few troops, lack of training, lack of equipment, lack of securing loose Iraqi munitions, disbanding the Iraqi army, banning the Baathists, the CPA, Paul Bremer, losing tons of money literally, lack of international inclusion in reconstruction and security, weak Constitution, formation of sectarian parties, weak government
5. Afghanistan and the resurgent Taliban and opium production
6. Iran and saber rattling
7. North Korea, ditching the 1994 agreement because of dubious uranium program, the plutonium program which led to a fizzled first nuclear test, and something like a return to the 1994 agreement
8. Osama bin Laden, where are you? Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and terrorism
9. Civilian contractors
10. The Military Commissions Act: torture, indefinite detention, the end of habeas corpus, and kangaroo courts
11. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the destruction of New Orleans, and the aftermath
12. NSA wiretapping
13. SWIFT surveillance of financial transactions
14. Black prisons and extraordinary rendition
15. Homeland Security: white elephant (organization), black hole (money)
16. K Street Lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, North Marianas
17. Kyle “Dusty” Foggo and the CIA follies
18. Duke Cunningham
19. Tom Delay
20. Mark Foley
21. Cheney and Energy Policy
22. Tax cuts for the wealthiest
23. Global warming: refusal to join Kyoto, denial of manmade origin, continued reliance on fossil and carbon based fuels, little movement on CAFE standards and conservation, political interference in scientific reports (Good guys: Hansen, Peltz; bad guys: Cooney, Deutsch), listening to Michael Crichton
24. Terri Schiavo
25. Big budget deficits and vastly increased national debt
26. The stacking of the federal judiciary
27. Medicare
28. Medicare Part D
29. Healthcare (in general)
30. Cooked intelligence and the Office of Strategic Plans/ Doug Feith
31. 2000 Presidential election
32. 2004 Presidential election
33. Attempts to torpedo the 911 Commission
34. Failure to implement 911 recommendations
35. Marginalization of the UN; John Bolton
36. Preventive war doctrine
37. Loss of US reputation internationally
38. No serious attempt to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians
39. Underfunding of basic research
40. Alberto Gonzales
41. FDA: drug testing
42. EPA: mercury levels for coal plants
43. Porter Goss and the gutting of the CIA
44. Militarization of intelligence
45. Rampant cronyism
46. Signing statements
47. Unilateral Executive doctrine
48. Overuse and abuse of the National Guard and Reserves; posse comitatus
49. Increasing unpreparedness of US ground forces (Army and Marines)
50. US balance of trade deficit
51. 2005 Grassley Bankruptcy bill
52. Mexican cross border trucking and safety concerns
53. Karl Rove’s security clearance and no firing of Libby co-conspirators
54. Detention of families for immigration violations; ICE raids
55. Dubai Ports deal
56. The Patriot Act; the Patriot Act extension
57. Attempts to privatize Social Security
58. The War on Science
59. David Safavian, former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy
60. Presidential adviser Claude Allen stealing from Target
61. Bush casually admits about lying about decision to fire Rumsfeld
62. Armstrong Williams and paid propagandists
63. Decimation of the Labor Department
64. Net neutrality and media policies
65. Backing Israel while it destroyed Lebanon
66. Presidential Daily Brief 8/01: Bin Laden determined to attack in US
67. EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman declares Ground Zero safe for cleanup
68. Sago mining disaster hearings and MHSA’s David Dye who walked out of the hearings
69. Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court
70. Vetoing stem cell research
71. Attack on Plan B contraception, staffing Women’s Health positions with religious conservatives: Dr. Eric Keroack at Health and Human Services who thought birth control demeaning to women and Dr. David Hager at FDA who tried to keep Plan B prescription only. His wife contended in divorce proceedings that he had repeatedly sodomized her without her consent.
72. Clear Skies Act and Healthy Forest Restoration Act
73. Missile defense shield that doesn’t work; withdrawal from ABM Treaty
74. Leandro Aragoncillo naturalized Filipino-American in Cheney’s office (previously Gore’s) accused of spying for the Philippines and possibly France, pled guilty to unlawfully possessing secret US government documents
75. Defunding overseas AIDS programs that promoted condom use for prevention.
76. Call for a constitutional amendment declaring marriage to be between one man and one woman.
77. Opening up Bristol Bay, the last pristine large-scale salmon fishery in the world, to oil drilling
78. Accusation that Clintons trashed the White House before leaving, including stealing the Ws from keyboards
79. Gannon/Guckert a working male prostitute in the White House press corps
80. Native American trust funds and the Trust Responsibility to Indian Country
81. Selling creationist materials at the Grand Canyon gift shop claiming it was 6000 years old
82. Banning photographing return of coffins of slain American soldiers
83. False military reporting: Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch
84. AIPAC espionage scandal; former DOD employee Lawrence Franklin pled guilty to passing information on Iran to Israel through two AIPAC employees
85. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Bagram
86. Asserted right to open US mail
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92. Refusal to grant security clearances to OPR (Office of Public Responsibility) lawyers investigating the role of Gonzales in NSA wiretapping thus quashing the investigation

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This really pissed me off back in 2001. HF, I always enjoy your comments at FDL

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/arsenic.cfm

President Bush has canceled a health regulation that would have
reduced allowable levels of arsenic in U.S. drinking water from
50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb. According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arsenic in drinking water
causes cancer of the skin, lungs, bladder and prostate in
humans.[1] Arsenic in drinking water is also linked to
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anemia, and disorders of the
immune, nervous and reproductive systems, EPA says.[1]
Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that arsenic even at very
low levels equivalent to 10 ppb in water interferes with
hormones, making it a potent endocrine disrupter. Hormones are
chemical messengers that the body produces to regulate critical
life processes.[2]

The current U.S. arsenic standard of 50 ppb was adopted in 1942.
After a decade of study and public review of scientific
evidence, EPA proposed the stricter standard while Bill Clinton
was president. Mr. Bush reversed EPA's decision shortly after
taking office.

March 16, 2007 4:09 PM  
Blogger Geneb5 said...

Thanks for the list! This is really helpful, and it's probably unavoidable that there are a lot of overlapping issues.

But I would get a bit more specific in some items:

--I see Civilian Contractors here, but I really think Halliburton should be mentioned by name. As well as the term, "war profiteering."

--Under Global Warming, I would add lack of a national initiative to find, promote and fund alternative energy sources. Or even just to establish "free market" incentives for present day energy-saving technologies, such as a national program that would allow consumers to sell back their excess energy to utility companies.

--Bush's deficits and debt seem a purposeful effort --through war, tax breaks and idiotic, religious-themed spending programs--to defund the government, ie, to do to the US what the neocons say Reagan did to Russia.

--The K Street Lobbyist program is simply one arm of a much broader program to pack Republican true believers into every aspect of government:

1. The Legislature, through arrant redistricting a la Texas, as well as through Justice Dept. investigations and the K Street Project;

2. The Judiciary, through JD firings (at least).

3. The entire infrastruture of the government, down to the lowliest typist, through Patrick Henry University, as well as by throwing loyal but unqualified campaign workers into serious positions in every aspect of government. ("Hm, typist or Rebuilder of the Iraqi Stock Exchange? Your choice, kid!")

--Some of these items could also be combined with pertinent side-notes, like Cheney's Halliburton and tax-cut profits, and Exxon having the largest profit in the history of American business last year.

March 25, 2007 8:30 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home