John Ashcroft (States' Rights, Lies, Hypocrisy) 

FACT: John Ashcroft once conducted an interview with Southern Partisan magazine Confederate rag that it is) entitled "John Ashcroft: Champion of States' Rights and Traditional Southern Values." States Rights aside, he then urged the FBI to trample California state law and shut down "cannabis clubs" which aided terminally ill patients. Now, it seems that Ashcroft's latest target is Oregon, where he's now urging the FBI to crack down on doctors who perform assisted suicides. The voters of Oregon approved the assisted suicide law last year.

COMMENT: It seems that the "Champion of States' Rights" should more accurately be dubbed the "Champion of States' Rights That I Agree With" So let that confederate flag fly and stamp the ten commandments on every public school wall, but don't ever give comfort and/or relief to the terminally ill. Got it?

John Ashcroft (Lies, Hypocrisy, Supporting Terrorism, Fanaticism) 

FACT: Following the September 11 attacks, the FBI arrested and detained many suspects of Middle Eastern origin, and in some cases the suspects were denied lawyers and held for weeks before they were interrogated and cleared of suspicion. Planned Parenthood recently received 250 letters in a two week period which contained white powder and the following message: "You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. Army of God, Virginia DARE Chapter." So far, the white powder in these letters is not anthrax. So far, the FBI hasn't taken action against the Army of God.

COMMENT: This raises the specter of John Ashcroft's confirmation hearing where he promised that he would not shirk his responsibilities when it came to protecting the legal rights (and indeed lives) of abortion clinic workers. Of course he would defend such accusations by stressing the critical need for the DoJ's resources to be focused on fighting the war on terrorism and raiding state-run clinics that care for the terminally ill. You know, the important stuff.

John Ashcroft (Liar, Traitor, Criminal, Anti-Environment) 05/2002

FACT: During the Ashcroft confirmation hearings, Ashcroft insisted that if he were confirmed as Attorney General, he would faithfully enforce all federal laws, even those with which he disagreed. Last week, however, Senator Charles Schumer unveiled a study, which showed that under Ashcroft's watch, the Justice Department has been purposely shirking its responsibility to enforce our nation's environmental laws. Typically, the DOJ would show up for the court cases, but they just wouldn't try very hard. Eventually, they either (a) lose the case and then don't bother to appeal or (b) enter into a sweetheart settlement that lets their corporate buddies get off scott-free. 

COMMENT: When is Ashcroft going to start enforcing all the laws and not just the ones that suit his personal agenda? Never. He must be removed!

Dan Burton (Taxpayers' Money, Ethics, Lies, Hypocrisy)

FACT: Dan went to Frankfurt to investigate the German postal system. Strangely, Burton traveled without any congressional aides, and had no formal agenda or briefing papers - highly unusual for an official "fact-finding" tour. Truth be told, Burton's wife is in Frankfurt right now undergoing experimental cancer treatment. To sum it up, Burton traveled abroad at taxpayer expense for the purposes of visiting his sick wife and then lied about it. He was taking a government-paid trip, including per diems and Air Force transport, but he'll never be investigated because the congressman in charge of the committee which investigates government waste is none other than….Dan Burton.

Bush Administration (Lies, Taxpayer's Money) 06/2002

FACT: The GAO released its final report on the matter which basically said that the damage left behind by Clinton staffers was not any worse than the damage left behind by Bush staffers in 1993. The cost of damage was estimated at $13,000-14,000, Meanwhile the investigation is estimated to have cost the taxpayer around $200,000.

The Bush Administration (Lies, Aristocracy)

FACT: The Bush Administration wants the American people to know that the skies are safe, and in a public display of confidence, they've been sending various cabinet officials on commercial airline flights around the country. However, it was discovered last week that they've been pressuring the FAA to re-assign air marshals to the commercial flights with cabinet officials on them - in some cases removing marshals from other flights considered to be at a greater risk of hijacking. 

Bush Administration (Lies) 

FACT: Immediately after seizing control of the White House, Ari Fliescher and Karl Rove claimed that former Clinton staffers had trashed White House offices. The Media jumped on this and played it 24 hours a day. Enraged, Senator Bob Barr demanded that the General Services Administration conduct a full investigation into the matter. Last week the GSA released their report, which concluded that the rumors of vandalism were completely and utterly false (i.e. a lie). 

COMMENT: After the release of the results and the exposing of the administration's blatant lie, both the media and the administration were unapologetic. Very little was mentioned of this revelation. What was mentioned was relegated to the back pages of the paper or in 10-second clips on radio/TV. 

Bush Administration (Lies, Stupidity, Corporate Interests)

FACT: "EPA says toxic sludge is good for fish" announced the Washington Times. Indeed, an EPA document concluded that it is not a "ridiculous possibility" that toxic sludge "actually protects the fish in that they are not inclined to bite [fishing lines] ... but they go ahead with their upstream movement and egg laying." 

COMMENT: Rep. George P. Radanovich, in response to the EPA's conclusion said, "To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because it prevents them from being caught by man is like suggesting that we club baby seals to death to prevent them from being eaten by sharks." 

Bush Administration (Lies, Cover up, Scrubbing the record, Stupidity) 

FACT: According to the Washington Post, the White House has been systematically scrubbing speeches by Bush (and by his staffers) to expunge all of the made-up words, mangled syntax, and other misstatements and Freudian slips. For example, Bush asked each American to volunteer "4000 years" (Meant to say "4000 hours") and called the lieutenant governor of the state by the incorrect name. But in the official transcript, all mistakes were corrected. In Knoxville, he got a hard time from some hecklers. Again, no mention in the transcript. In fact, the official record was edited when he called for a permanent extension of the estate tax (which he opposes), and it happened again when he made some bizarre comments about "devaluation" of the Japanese Yen. Even Ari Fleischer got scrubbed when he said that people "need to watch what they say." 

COMMENT: Like it or not, what the president says is a matter of historical record. These scrubbings are not simply corrections of innocent mistakes of grammar. They are covering up the real George W. Bush (and administration). Often, his slips are unintentional truth telling from a guilty mind that aches to spread its toxic thoughts throughout the land. It is these gaffes that will mark Bush's place in history and for that reason, their erasure from the record is criminal.

Bush Administration (Lies, Cover up, Scrubbing the record, Stupidity) 

FACT: According to the Washington Post, the White House has been systematically scrubbing speeches by Bush (and by his staffers) to expunge all of the made-up words, mangled syntax, and other misstatements and Freudian slips. For example, Bush asked each American to volunteer "4000 years" (Meant to say "4000 hours") and called the lieutenant governor of the state by the incorrect name. But in the official transcript, all mistakes were corrected. In Knoxville, he got a hard time from some hecklers. Again, no mention in the transcript. In fact, the official record was edited when he called for a permanent extension of the estate tax (which he opposes), and it happened again when he made some bizarre comments about "devaluation" of the Japanese Yen. Even Ari Fleischer got scrubbed when he said that people "need to watch what they say." 

COMMENT: Like it or not, what the president says is a matter of historical record. These scrubbings are not simply corrections of innocent mistakes of grammar. They are covering up the real George W. Bush (and administration). Often, his slips are unintentional truth telling from a guilty mind that aches to spread its toxic thoughts throughout the land. It is these gaffes that will mark Bush's place in history and for that reason, their erasure from the record is criminal.

Bush Administration (Undermining Democracy, Lies, Coup, Corporate Interests, Oil)

FACT: President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (the fourth largest exporter of oil in the world) has serious problems with his country's oil industry, which causes prices to rise. Next, administration officials meet clandestinely with Venezuelan military leaders and opposition activists, including an oilman named Pedro Carmona. Suddenly, dozens of Venezuelan military personnel working in various embassies around the world return to Caracas without explanation. There is a military coup, and the pro-Bush, pro-oil Pedro Carmona is installed as interim leader. Hugo Chavez is sent to an island prison where he sees an American plane, which he presumes is there to take him into exile. Venezuela's neighbors denounce the coup, but the Bush Administration quickly recognizes the new government, announces that Chavez has resigned and calls his actions undemocratic. Much glee and rubbing of hands at the thought of all that lovely oil ensues. Surprise - two days later there is a countercoup and Chavez is reinstalled as President. George W. Bush's response? Sickeningly, to tell Chavez that the US had absolutely nothing to do with the coup, and that Chavez must "embrace democracy" if he wishes to be a successful president. 

Bush Administration (Lies, Despicable behavior) 

FACT: Ari Fleischer and other White House officials spread the deliberate lie that outgoing Clinton Administration staffers have vandalized the White House, although no-one is allowed to see the damage. Office Depot donates thousands of dollars of computer keyboards to replace those supposedly damaged. Congressman Bob Barr demands a General Accounting Office Investigation. The GAO investigation turns up nothing but the Bush administration never returns the donated keyboards.

Bush Administration (Lies) 

FACT: The Bush Administration refused to confirm or deny rumors that former Clinton staffers had trashed White House offices. Conservative hacks from Limbaugh to Chris Matthews and even the major media devoted hours of airtime to the story. Luckily, Republican Bob Barr got in on the action, demanding that the General Services Administration conduct a full investigation into the matter. Last week the GSA released their report, which concluded that the rumors of vandalism were completely and utterly false.

COMMENT: Of course any of the media who bothered to address the report relegated it to the back pages. No one issued apologies.

George W. Bush (Lies, Lack of Leadership) 06/2002 

FACT: We all remember Bush's tasteless yet timely "trifecta" joke, when he said that only in times of war, as a result of a recession, or in times of national emergency would his administration run up deficits. Strangely, but not surprisingly, he's been lying about when he said it. You see, he would like you to believe that he made his deficits prediction long before his election, during his campaign and the administration has been constantly giving the impression that this was Bush's position all along. Lies! Lies! Lies! In reality, Bush promised (without condition) to avoid deficits, a convenient promise when running for office but wholly unnecessary and even burdensome once elected. Ha ha ha ha ha! Suckers. Wait till you see what he does to Social Security. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Bush (Lies, Enron, Corporate Interests) 06/2002

FACT:  The economic stimulus bill that Bush wrote had a secret quarter of a billion-dollar bailout in it for Enron.

Bush (Prescription Drugs, Aristocracy, Lies, Enron, Tax Cut) 06/2002

FACT: In Bush's prescription drug plan, you don't get any prescription drug help if you're a senior citizen who lives on more than $17,000 a year. 

COMMENT: From Paul Begala, "So that in George Bush's America, if you're an old couple, retired, living on $17,000 a year, you're so rich you can't get prescription drug help. But if you're an Enron executive living on $17 million a year, you're so poor that you get a tax cut and a bailout." Thanks Paul.

George W. Bush (Lies, Criminal, Perjury)

FACT: If you've never heard of "Funeralgate" you should. This is a scandal involving one of the largest 
funeral home businesses in the country. As Paul Begala put it in an interview with Buzzflash.com, "[Bush] swore under oath that he had never discussed an investigation of a funeral home company with either the funeral home company or its lobbyist for his state agency that regulates the industry. As the lawsuit went on, the funeral home company's CEO, the lobbyist for the funeral home company, and the Bush appointee to the state agency all testified under oath that Bush was lying -- that, in fact, he talked to all of them about it." And, "…it's absolutely clear that Bush committed perjury in a civil lawsuit, and that DeLay did as well."

Bush (Lies, Criminal, Imperiling the lives of others)

FACT: Bush was arrested for drunk driving in Maine. He kept this secret as long as he could until he was outed several days before the 2000 election. He claimed that he kept it secret to protect his children. You know, It’s all about doing it for the children. Yes these are the same little cherubs who have been arrested twice in a three month period for underage drinking and then spotted once again in  a Georgetown bar drinking illegally again

COMMENT: Let’s remember that this is no laughing matter. Thousands of people are killed or otherwise have their lives ruined every year by such grossly negligent and selfish imbeciles as Bush and Cheney. They shouldn’t be allowed to laugh this off.

George W. Bush (Lack of Leadership, Coward, Lies, Profiteering, 911) 05/2002

FACT: According to the GOP, the infamous Bush-9/11 exploitation photo they were hawking for cash demonstrated "the gritty determination of our new president." But in an interview last week for German television Bush revealed what was really going through his mind as he sat safe and sound on Air Force One. "I was concerned about things like, is my wife safe? You know, I was worried about that. I was worried about things such as my parents. I was worried about my [twin] girls....I mean, I was trying to get out of harm's way." 

Bush (Lies, Criminal, Cover-up) 

FACT: The scheduled release of 68,000 pages of Reagan era documents is delayed by the Enron administration, which says it wants until June 21 to review them, in violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The papers cover the period when Osama Bin Laden was recruited and trained by the Reagan Administration, as well as the period when arms were being sold secretly in the Middle East to finance the terrorist campaigns of the Contras.

COMMENT: This criminal infraction of the Presidential Records Act was designed to protect his father and members of his administration from the truths of Iran Contra.

George W. Bush (Despicable behavior, Stupidity, Lies)

FACT: Bush shamelessly claimed that, at the beginning of his administration, Bush said that he would only break into Social Security in the event of war, recession, or a national emergency. According to Mitch Daniels, the budget director, Bush said to him shortly after September 11, "Lucky me. I hit the trifecta." 

COMMENT: This has been proven to be a despicable lie designed to serve as a cover up for the surplus that he has squandered and the budget deficits that he has produced. In reality, Al Gore made these qualifications. Bush made no qualifications in his promise to avoid deficits. The fact that he would turn the lie into a joke encompassing the 9/11 disaster speaks volumes to the complete lack of class that permeates George W. Bush.

George W. Bush (Lies, 911) 

FACT: Last week a House committee was pressured by the White House to vote down a measure which would have provided billions of dollars to help New York rebuild. So while big business is suddenly reaping the reward of massive government handouts, New Yorkers will have to find another way to recover from the September 11 attacks. 

COMMENT: Now, remember when Bush took his bullhorn up to the top of that pile of rubble at Ground Zero and told emergency workers, "I hear you.". Apparently he only "hears" people during photo ops and elections.

George W. Bush (Lies) 

FACT: Even after congress had earmarked $20 billion to help rebuild New York and other areas affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks, Bush has only put forth a fraction of that amount with no intention of giving the rest. No, no, that money is needed for the "War on Terrorism" according to the Poughkeepsie Journal. 

COMMENT: Remember again the photo op of Shrub standing with the NYPD, FDNY And other emergency workers, megaphone in hand, proclaiming "I hear you"? Did you hear him then say under his breath that he was going to screw NY. Didn't think so. It doesn't fit very nicely into the photo op.

George W. Bush (Lies, Honor and Integrity)

FACT: Bush's attempt to protect his daughters by trying to bury his DUI conviction failed after Jenna Bush was caught on camera during a student binge-fest. 

George W. Bush (Anti Environment, Corporate Interests, Isolationism-Unilateralism, Lies) 

FACT: Abandoning his more moderate campaign promises, Bush decided to forget that pesky CO2 promise. You know the one where power plants' would have to curtail their carbon dioxide emissions.

COMMENT: Chalk up another trifecta for Bush Inc. 1) It pisses off our allies, stressing our bold independence from any sort of global responsibility 2) The environment gets trashed further and 3) Polluting corporations are free from those pesky profit-munching regulations. 

George W. Bush (Lies) 

FACT: Bush said, "People want tax relief. That's what the people want. Once they realize we've got money in our budget to meet our needs, the people want tax relief." A concurrent CBS News/New York Times poll, however, showed that only19% of Americans favored the tax cuts while 53% favored the preservation of Social Security as their top priority. 

COMMENT: Why would a president who was installed by 5 injustices care about the will of the people anyway? They didn't elect him. They voted for the other guy. 

Bush (Lies, Despicable behavior) 

FACT: Bush traveled to Atlanta to visit Egleston Children's Healthcare, an Atlanta-area children's hospital. One report says that he "got misty-eyed" as he listened to parents talk about their children's illnesses and the benefits of the children's hospital. Then, in April, 2002 he CUT their funding. 

COMMENT: Bush will "leave no child behind" in his assault on true American values.

Bush (Stupidity, Lies, Soft on Crime) 

FACT: Bush announced that the Community Policing Services Program (COPS), the centerpiece of Clinton's 1994 anti-crime initiative, will be cut by 13 percent because the nation's decrease in violent crime cannot be attributed to the 103,000 extra police officers hired through the program. Violent crime has declined every year since 1994, when COPS and the Brady Bill were enacted. 

COMMENT: It seems, however that the COPS program had not hired the 100,000 new police Bush now says it did. 

George W. Bush (Lies, Despicable behavior, lack of Leadership, Stupidity) 

FACT: According to the UK Guardian, when a child in Florida asked Bush what he thought after the first plane crash, Bush responded: "There's one terrible pilot." And then added "It must have been a horrible accident." It's such a typical conservative reaction, to laugh at the incompetence of the pilot before lamely acknowledging the suffering of the victims as an irritated afterthought. Bush also claimed that he learned about the crash by watching it on TV. "The TV was obviously on", he said just before he started reading to a bunch of elementary school children, even though published reports indicate that he got the news by phone from Condoleeza Rice, his National Security Advisor. 

COMMENT: There is little doubt that the pivotal moment in George W. Bush's presidency, and probably the most important moment in his entire life, was when two airplanes collided with the World Trade Center on September 11. His response is not surprising but it is both saddening and maddening.

George W. Bush (Anti-Labor, Anti-Women, Corporate Interests, Lies) 

FACT: Bush repealed ergonomic safety regulations, which were 10 years in the making. Gregory A. Denier, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said the regulation would have prevented 600,000 injuries a year through such changes as better workstation design for chicken de-boners and meat packers. Martha G. Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, an umbrella for 120 groups representing 6 million people, said women suffer many ergonomic injuries from keyboard work and machine cleaning, and called the repeal "a slap in the face of women." 

COMMENT: Meanwhile, Bush claims that, "The safety and health of our nation's workforce is a priority for my administration."

Bush (Lies, Fraud, Criminal, Corporate Interests, Anti-Environment, Punish the Citizenry) 

FACT: Bush announces he is preparing to let California roll back its air pollution requirements on power plants to help the state ease its electricity crisis, despite the fact that California pollution officials said the environmental restrictions had not interfered with power plants operations at maximum capacity. 

George W. Bush (Hypocrisy, Lies) 

FACT: Last week the Department of Transportation issued a rule which will impose a $2.50 "fee" on all air travelers, to help the government pay for the cost of providing security. 

COMMENT: This fee is obviously a TAX, despite the fact that Bush proclaimed, with his usual touch of dicombobulation and Freudian slippage that, "Not over my dead body will they raise taxes!" This just goes to show how dumb Bush thinks the American population is…to be taken in by such nonsense.

George W. Bush (Lies, Enron) 

FACT: Up until just before the Enron debacle, Bush made it clear that he and Enron chief Ken Lay have been best friends, even referring to him as "Kenny Boy." Once the Enron Scandal began developing however, Bush came down with a broad case of "memory" loss (ie. He lied.) In fact, Bush said, Ken Lay "was a supporter of Ann Richards in my run in 1994." Even though Lay and his wife give three times as much money to Bush than they gave to Richards?