As the November elections draw near, the National Organization for Women
has been flooded with press reports and email alerts detailing the latest Bush
offenses. We want to pass these on to you so that you know what's
REALLY going on, the REAL Truth about George!
W's Flip Flops and Lies
The "John Kerry flip-flops on the issues" attacks have been
relentless these past few weeks, but has anyone really checked Bush's
record? For the most part, the media has ignored Bush's obvious
flip-flops, but on August 30, Bush's statement that the war on terror
could not be won caught national attention. The next day, Bush was back
to his firm resolution that "we will win" the war on terror.
Fortunately, people are beginning to notice this disturbing trend. The Center
for American Progress has issued a series of Bush's embarrassing flip-flops
on important issues:
1.
Social Security Surplus:
BUSH PLEDGES
NOT TO TOUCH SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS... "We're
going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding
the Social Security surplus." [President Bush, 3/3/01]
BUSH SPENDS SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS... The New York Times reported
that "the president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay
for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4
trillion in Social Security funds to other purposes." [The New York Times, 2/6/02]
2. Abortion:
BUSH SUPPORTS A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE...
"Bush said he...favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion
question." [The Nation, 6/15/00, quoting
the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 5/78]
BUSH OPPOSES
A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE...
"I am pro-life." [Governor Bush, 10/3/00]
3. Weapons of Mass Destruction
BUSH SAYS WE FOUND THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION..."We
found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for
those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons,
they're wrong, we found them." [President Bush, Interview in Poland, 5/29/03]
BUSH SAYS WE HAVEN'T FOUND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION...
"David Kay has found the capacity to produce weapons. And when David
Kay goes in and says we haven't found stockpiles yet, and there's theories as
to where the weapons went. They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam
and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could
be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find
out." [President Bush, Meet the Press, 2/7/04]
4. Osama bin Laden
BUSH WANTS OSAMA DEAD OR ALIVE...
"I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says,
'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" [President Bush, on Osama Bin Laden, 09/17/01]
BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT OSAMA...
"I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time
on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." [President Bush, Press
Conference, 3/13/02]
5. Gay Marriage
BUSH SAYS GAY MARRIAGE IS A STATE ISSUE...
"The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's
issue like you're trying to get me into." [Gov. George W. Bush on Gay Marriage,
Larry King Live, 2/15/00]
BUSH SUPPORTS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BANNING GAY MARRIAGE... "Today I call upon
the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an
amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of
man and woman as husband and wife." [President Bush, 2/24/04]
For more of Bush's troubling flip-flops visit
the Center for American Progress
Bushisms
"We've got an issue in America ... too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
--Bush, telling a crowd assembled in Poplar Bluff, Mo., about a previously underappreciated domestic problem, Sept. 6.
"I went to the Congress last
September and proposed fundamental--supplemental funding, which is money
for armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel."
--Bush, announcing an unintended policy position, at a Sept. 4 appearance
in Erie, Pa.
"Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you're
a -- you have been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."
---Bush explaining what tribal sovereignty means in the 21st
century to a gathering of minority journalists on Aug. 6.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They
never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither
do we."
---Bush addressing a group of witnesses at the signing of the Defense
Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005 in Washington, DC on Aug. 4.
Read more
Women's Rights / Civil Rights
The Log Cabin Republicans, the largest group for lesbians and gay men
in the Republican Party, have decided to oppose Bush's re-election this
year due to his support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
On Sept. 7, the board voted 22-2 against endorsing Bush. The group has
criticized Bush in the past for supporting the amendment. "Writing
discrimination into our Constitution violates conservative and Republican principles,"
Executive Director Patrick Guerriero said last February. "This amendment
would not strengthen marriage- it would weaken our nation." According
to Log Cabin statistics, about 1 million gay men and lesbians voted for Bush
in 2000.
Source: Capitol Hill Blue, "Gay
Republicans to Bush: You Ain't Our Guy," Staff and Wire Reports,
Sept. 8, 2004
Read more
Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's
Hoover Institution, recently published an article detailing a long list of miscalculations
in the war in Iraq.
He says that the Bush administration "was never willing to commit anything
like the forces necessary to ensure order in postwar Iraq." According to Diamond, different
kinds of troops with different rules of engagement are needed to ensure a successful
transition to democracy in the war-torn nation. He goes on to say that
the aftermath of major combat was very different from the Bush administration's
initial assessment. "[Bush] Administration officials repeatedly
deluded themselves into believing that the defeat of the insurgency was just
around the corner- just as soon as the long, hot summer of 2003 ended, or reconstruction
dollars started flowing in and jobs were created, or the political transition
began, or Saddam Hussein was captured, or the interim government was inaugurated."
However, as Diamond concludes, "The transition in Iraq is going to need a huge amount of international
assistance- political, economic, and military- for years to come."
Source: Foreign Affairs, "What
Went Wrong in Iraq,"
Larry Diamond, Sept/Oct 2004.
The Center for American Progress released a report
card for the Bush administration's war on terrorism last week. "Instead
of taking advantage of the historical opportunity presented after the 9/11 attacks,
the administration has emboldened the world's most dangerous regimes and terrorists,
and escalated the potential of another terrorist attack," said John Podesta,
CEO and President of the Center for American Progress. The disturbing
report card focused on four major issues: homeland security, nonproliferation,
military power, and combating the terrorist threat. On homeland security,
the administration received a D+ since it has "failed to allocate sufficient
resources to improve security at our ports, railways, and chemical plants. Management
problems, bureaucratic obstacles, and the lack of priorities hamper the Department
of Homeland Security and other government agencies. Intelligence and money fail
to flow adequately to state and local authorities." Podesta said,
"This is not a report card the Bush administration wants to take home
to the American people."
Sources: Center for American
Progress, "Bush Administration Gets 'Failing Grades'--New
report Concludes Administration Not up to the Task of Making American More Secure,"
September 2004.
Read more
Bush's Cronies
Speaking in Des Moines on Sept. 7, Dick Cheney implied
that a vote for John Kerry would result in another terrorist attack on the United
States. "It's absolutely essential that
eight weeks from today, on November 2, we make the right choice," Cheney
said, "because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll
get hit again. We'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from
the standpoint of the United
States." Critics were quick to respond.
Sen. John Edwards said that "Cheney's scare tactics crossed the
line." Al Gore called Cheney's comments "a sleazy and
despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear." The Center for
American Progress, in their daily Progress Report, characterized these comments
as, "Vote for us or die."
Sources: CNN, "Cheney: Kerry
win risks terror attack," Sept.
7, 2004.
Newsday.com, "Gore calls Cheney
remarks 'sleazy'," Combined News Sources, Sept. 10, 2004.
The Center for American Progress, "Daily
Progress Report," David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum, and Jonathon
Baskin, Sept. 8, 2004.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld mixed up the names of Osama bin Laden
and Saddam Hussein twice in a speech at the National Press Club on Sept. 10.
First he referred to Hussein as the leader of the al Qaeda-backed Northern Alliance
in Afghanistan.
Later in the speech he said, "Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is
spending a whale of a lot of time trying to not get caught. And we've
not seen him on a video since 2001." The search for bin Laden has
rarely been mentioned since the beginning of the war in Iraq. According
to a Washington Post reporter, Bush has mentioned bin Laden by name only 10
times since the beginning of 2003. In that same amount of time, he's
mentioned Saddam Hussein's name approximately 315 times.
Source: The Center for American Progress,
"Daily Progress Report," David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum,
and Jonathon Baskin, Sept. 13, 2004.
Special Reports
The Swift boat Veterans for Truth have relentlessly challenged John Kerry's
military records in the hope of tarnishing his image and credibility. However,
the group's allegations contradict the official Navy records and Kerry's
former crewmates, which weakens the group's objective. Recently,
President Bush finds himself in a similar, yet worse, situation. Texans
for Truth, created from a 20,000 member Texas
online activist group, DriveDemocracy, has serious doubts about President Bush's
National Guard service. The group released a TV ad featuring former Lieutenant
Colonel Robert Mintz claiming Bush was never in his unit in 1972. In the
ad, Mintz says, "I called my friends and said, 'Did you know that
George Bush served in our unit?' And everyone said, 'No, I never
saw him there.' It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that
size." In recent events, Texans for Truth is offering a reward of
$50,000 for original information proving Bush served in the Air National Guard
between May 1972 and 1973 at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Alabama.
The offer expires on September 30, 2004.
Sources: USA Today. "Texans
for Truth ad challenges Bush on Guard service," Mark Memmott, September
7, 2004. CNN, "Group Offers $50,000 reward for proof of Bush service",
September 14, 2004.
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