George W. Bush (Lies, Secret Government)

FACT: On January 28, 2002 Bush defended his refusal to turn over records of Cheney's Energy Task force to the GAO. "We're not going to let the ability for us to discuss matters between ourselves to become eroded," 

COMMENT: This means that neither Bush nor his minions can say what they think without that advice being either criminal, unethical or immoral. In addition, Bush implies that the heads of corporations (in this case energy concerns) are privy to information that the rest of us lowly citizens are not allowed to know.. Note that Bush's gaffes inevitably reveal Bush's true thoughts. Freud 

George W. Bush (Lies, Punishing the citizenry, 911) 

FACT: New Yorkers were disgusted to learn that Bush has effectively slashed $5 billion from the promised $20 billion of aid for 9-11 related costs. It was revealed last week that the administration would simply steal $5 billion from the victims' compensation fund, so that federal funding would only need to provide $15 billion. Unfortunately New Yorkers had been led to believe every step of the way that the two funds would be kept separate. "It was repeatedly made clear that these dollars were not to be included as 
part of the $20 billion - and we're not going to let that happen," vowed Sen. Chuck Schumer. "This verges on a breach of faith." 

COMMENT: The Bush budget will include a series of cuts to important New York programs, "ranging from Head Start and Drug Free Schools grants to community-development block grants," according to the New York Post. Also, Bush's plan nearly-eliminates the COPS program, which has allowed the hiring of 7,000 new NYC police officers over the years. And don't forget that Bush, without hesitation, promised and delivered $15 billion in aid to the Airlines whose penny pinching on security was at least partially responsible for the 9-11 catastrophe.

Bush (Lies, Anti-Labor) 

FACT: Bush blocks rules meant to make it easier for sick coal miners to receive black lung benefits, despite the fact that he promised to support the same benefits while campaigning. United Mine Workers President, Cecil Roberts said, "It seems suspect that now, just a few weeks after Mr. Bush took office, we are witnessing a full-scale reversal on the assurance to fight for the immediate implementation of the regulations by the very same government lawyers who made it in the first place." 

Bush (Faith-Based Initiative, Abortion, Lies, Bigotry) 

FACT: In a meeting with Catholic groups, Bush inadvertently announces over an intercom to the entire White House that the Faith-Based Initiative plan would help them fund their anti-abortion activities. Karl Rove holds secret meetings this month with the Salvation Army offering to let them discriminate legally against gays if they would support the plan. 

COMMENT: So, the faith-based initiative is merely a covert funding scheme for the overturn of Roe vs. Wade.

Bush (Lies, Unilateralism, Isolationism, Stupidity) 

FACT: After Colin Powell announced that the U. S. will continue to support the efforts of South and North Korea to hold talks, as the Clinton administration had done, Bush says we will not support talks because North Korea is not living up to all its agreements with us. It emerges we have only one agreement with North Korea, and it has been verified they are holding up their end. North Korea cancels peace talks in Seoul. 

COMMENT: Bush apparently made this jack-ass move in retaliation for South Korean premier, Kim Dae Jung publicly supporting the ABM treaty (Which Bush unilaterally declared dead). Bush knows that peace = no money for defense contracting buddies. Thus, concludes the lame one, war = profits. Ha, ha, ha! This is further proof that there is nothing more important in the miniscule mind of Bush than that which inflates his pockets or his ego. World be damned. 

Bush (Lies, Hypocrisy, Corporate Interests) 

FACT: Bush announces he is ending the American Bar Association's (ABA) half-century role in vetting nominees for federal judgeships. White House Counsel Al Gonzales notified ABA president Martha Barnett in writing, saying, "In our view, granting any single group such a preferential, quasi-official role in the nomination process would be unfair to the other groups that also have strong interests in judicial selection. It would be particularly inappropriate, in our view, to grant preferential, quasi-official role to a group, such as the ABA, that takes public positions on divisive political, legal and social issues that come before the courts." Shortly thereafter, the Administration grants that preferential, quasi-official role to the fringe right wing Federalist Society, headed by Ed Meese. 

COMMENT: Of course we cannot forget the meaningful and invasive role that Enron and other energy interests played in the forming of the Cheney "Contributor Payback Program" as well as the firing of the FERC head by Ken Lay himself.

Dick Cheney (Hypocrisy, Honor and Integrity, Lies) 

FACT: In a dramatic departure from the unacceptable practices of the prior adminisstration, VP Cheney has banned fundraisers at the VP's Mansion. Instead, the VP will throw "thank you" parties in the VP's mansion for people who've previously made contributions to Bush/Cheney? See. A complete departure.

Dick Cheney (Lies) 06/2000

FACT: On June 30, 2000, Dick appeared on ABC's "This Week", and said, "I had a firm policy that we wouldn't do anything in Iraq, even arrangements that were supposedly legal. We've not done any business in Iraq since UN sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990, and I had a standing policy that I wouldn't do that." He backpedaled three weeks later when it was revealed that two Halliburton subsidiary companies had, in fact, been trading with Iraq since 1998. Appearing again on "This Week", Cheney explained, "We inherited two joint ventures with Ingersoll-Rand that were selling some parts into Iraq, but we divested ourselves of those interests." Hold on now. It was recently revealed that the subsidiaries signed nearly $30 million in contracts with Baghdad and traded for over a year before Halliburton finally sold them off. 

COMMENT: Of course, in the Enron Republican tradition of deniability, Chairman and Chief Executive Cheney didn't have a clue that such shenanigans were taking place.

Dick Cheney (Lies, Criminal, Imperiling the lives of others)

FACT: Cheney was arrested for driving drunk.

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.

Bill Clinton (Enron)

FACT: The Chicago Tribune, attempting to tie the Clinton to the Enron debacle as the Bush Administration has been, published a story claiming that, "Lay was no stranger to the Clinton White House, playing golf with the president and staying overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom." This is a complete lie. Ken Lay never stayed in the Lincoln Bedroom while Bill Clinton was president - although he has stayed there before, couurtesy of George Bush Sr. This little truth overturns the major "connection" between the Democrats and Enron in the GOP's attempt to convince people that Enron treated both parties equally.  In addition, Enron donated significantly more money to the Republican party - and to George W. Bush in particular - than they did to the Democratic party. Also, Newsweek reported that the bankrupt company routed more than $50,000 through Americans for Tax to a group called the 21st Century Energy Project. This group, headed by close friend of the Bush administration and conservative lobbyist Ed Gillespie, proceeded to run ads attacking the Democratic party. 

Hillary Clinton (In Defense) 

FACT: "Hillary Hijacks Senate Office," The article ripped Hillary Clinton for "grabbing" extra office space since the Democrats won control of the Senate. Hillary Clinton "is the only Democrat in the Senate to get extra rooms since her party took control last month," "The Democrats have had the gavel for two weeks and the first thing they do is give Hillary more space." If the Post had bothered to check his facts before writing this story, it would have discovered that according to Senate rules, Hillary now has exactly the amount of office space that the state of New York is entitled to. Prior to the Senate switchover, Trent Lott was wrongfully occupying the two extra rooms that belonged to New York.

Tom Delay (Lies, Criminal, Perjury)

FACT: It is well documented that Delay lied under oath in a civil lawsuit in Houston relating to a pest control business partnership. 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, 911) 05/2002

FACT: According to the Associated Press, Ari claimed that, "information was passed to the airlines and airports more than once last summer." However, the Fox News revealed, "no warnings indicated that a Sept. 11 scenario was credible or possible," "we’re not aware of any warnings or notifications of any specific threats," and "we were not notified by the federal government," according to spokespersons from United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and the Massachusetts Port Authority. 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, Hypocrisy) 

FACT: Ari was asked how George W. Bush's support for a new airline passenger surcharge could possibly be in line with Ari's previously held position that revenues is exactly the same as increasing taxes. "I never defined it that way," he said, and, "I defy you to find that statement because it has not been made." At the next press briefing reporters presented Ari with the transcript of the September 6th briefing, in which he said, and I quote, "If you raise money, it's a tax hike." 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, Cover-up) 

FACT: Most people would have given Bush the benefit of the doubt when he was shipped off to Nebraska by the Secret Service. The president was in danger and should be protected. According to Ari Fleischer, however, Air Force One received a phone call containing "code words" which indicated that it was a target. In fact, there was no such phone call. Ari later backed down - White House staffers had "apparently misunderstood comments made by their security detail." You originally could have read Ari's remarks for yourself at the White House website, but they have since been deleted from the transcript The White House claimed the deletion of the outrageous lie was a "transcription error", an "error" that they refuse to fix. Fortunately, the AP has it correctly. 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, Spin) 

FACT: In defense of Dick Cheney's refusal to hand over energy documents, Fleischer said, "the very document that protects our liberties more than anything else, the Constitution, was of course drafted in total secrecy.'' In fact, delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were publicly identified. 

Ari Fleischer (Lies, Enron, Corporate Interests) 

FACT: When questioned about Ken Lay's access to the president. "The President thinks that access should be across the board…And that's why the Sierra Club, for example, as you know, met repeatedly with the energy task force." In reality, the Sierra Club wasn't allowed to meet with anyone from the White House until after the energy policy was written and released, and even then, they were prevented from meeting with the full energy task force. 

Katherine Harris (Lies, Election 2000) 

FACT: A report was released regarding the deleted files recovered from computers which Harris's staff had used prior to Election Day. Harris maintained that at no time were any partisan activities conducted in the Secretary of State's office - a claim which has now been proven to be a complete lie. The recovered files showed that political work on behalf of George W. Bush was indeed conducted in Harris's office throughout the year 2000. Even more damning, investigators found a statement that called recounted Palm Beach County votes "unlawful" - BEFORE SHE EVEN RECEIVED THEM. Harris released a statement saying that the investigations "prove that despite the innuendo and misinformation reported in the media, no partisan political activity transpired in my office during the recount period." Then, according to the St. Petersburg Times a spokesman for Harris said, "Her policy is no apologies, no excuses, no regrets." Thanks for summing that up for us Katherine.

Katherine Harris (Lies, Criminal, Election 2000)

FACT: According to the New York Times Harris set up a GOP "war room" in her office during the recount process, and didn't appear at a single press conference without being thoroughly briefed by GOP strategists. She pronounced throughout the recount that Al Gore was never once in the lead, despite her very own website telling a slightly different story. Currently, she withheld from reporters public information held on publicly owned computers despite the fact that she has absolutely nothing to hide. 

Katherine Harris (Lies, Election 2000) 

FACT: The Palm Beach Post revealed that Ms. Harris attempted to have the state of Florida pay $12,000 to Adam Goodman, a Republican operative who was working out of her office during the recount. Obviously it was highly inappropriate for Katherine Harris to have been seeking advice from a partisan political consultant in the first place (considering she was supposed to be representing all of Florida's voters, not just the Republicans) but in defending herself Harris made it clear that Goodman was an unpaid volunteer. Not through want of trying though. In an April 9th letter to Goodman, Harris wrote, "As we discussed in DC - You said $12,000. I am not trying to be weird about this because I want to pay you what you deserve, but they have been working on this since I returned. Now you say $20,000. I am confused - they will be, too. This is a delicate matter." So who are "they" exactly? 

Dennis Hastert (Campaign Finance, Corporate Interests, Lies) 

FACT: According to the Associated Press, "Hastert privately cautioned Republicans that passage of campaign finance legislation could doom the GOP's grip on power in the House." 

COMMENT: Wait! What about individuals' right to free speech? I thought that was the reason for campaign finance outrage on the right. So in fact, it's about buying power. Who'd a thunk it?

Orrin Hatch (Lies, Hypocrisy, Self Serving, Taxpayers Money) 

FACT: Hatch was trashing Democrats for a "systematic and calculated effort to confirm the absolute minimum number" of George W. Bush's judicial nominees. "Contrary to the widely held belief," he whined, "the Republicans did not play such games when Bill Clinton was president." Back in the world of reality, the Washington Post had this to say of Hatch's claim: "During Mr. Hatch's tenure as committee chairman, the average time between a judicial nomination and final Senate action grew substantially, with individual nominees sitting around for outrageously long periods of time - sometimes years. In 1999, Mr. Hatch went so far as to freeze consideration of all nominees for several months in an effort to force Mr. Clinton to nominate a conservative lawyer favored by Mr. Hatch for a district judgeship in Utah. Before Mr. Hatch complains too loudly about the 28 nominees the Senate confirmed this year, moreover, he should recall that in 1996, the Senate confirmed only 17." 

Republicans (ANWR, Oil, Lies, Environment)

FACT: ANWR drilling proponents claim that it will take place in an area only one-fifth the size of Washington's Dulles airport (a figure oft-repeated by Dick Cheney), and yet will employ 700,000 people (according to Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski). This is a lie! The Truth: In 1980 Congress set aside 1.5 million ANWR acres for drilling, but Republican Congressman John Sununu of New Hampshire managed to get an amendment added to the energy bill which would limit drilling to just 2,000 of those acres. There's your Dick Cheney figure. But what proponents of drilling fail to mention is that that the 2,000 acres is spread out over the entire 1.5 million acres. According to a Time article, "Each drilling platform can take up as little as 10 acres. The pipelines are above ground. For space purposes, the amendment counts only the ground touched by the stanchions holding up the pipe." Road widths are conveniently left out of the calculation. According to a Sierra Club spokesman, "It's like a fishing net. If you count just the space of the string's width, that's small. But if you open up a fishing net and count the area it covers, that's much larger." The bogus figure of 700,000 new jobs is an estimate promoted, not surprisingly, by an eleven-year-old study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute. 

Republicans: (Lies, Enron) 

FACT: Most people are now familiar with the story of Bill Clinton's fabled golf game with Ken Lay (Head of Enron). From the way the story has been reported, you may have been led to believe that Clinton and Lay were old time golf buddies. In reality, It turns out that Clinton did play golf with Lay - once. And it's not even what you think. The facts are, from the Washington Post's "Names and Faces" back in 1993: "Clinton began his vacation with a bipartisan golf match Saturday at the Country Club of the Rockies in Vail, Colo., teaming up with fellow Democrat (and golf pro) Jack Nicklaus to take on the Republican duo of former president Gerald Ford and Houston businessman Ken Lay." 

COMMENT: Well, it does have about as much merit as all the rest of the faux Clinton scandals that the right-wing has made up over the years.

Pat Robertson (Hypocrisy, Lies) 04/2002

FACT: "Reverend" Pat Robertson owns a racehorse, but sees no contradiction between condemning gambling and owning racehorses. "I don't bet on my own horses, and I don't think anyone else should either," he said. Pat owns racehorses because he likes to "look at them as performers and study their bloodlines." 

COMMENT: Pat believes that gambling is a sin. But apparently providing the means for and profiting from others gambling is blessed by the almighty himself. Between his dealings with dictators, swindling of the elderly (see the 700 Club) and numerous other contradictions, Robertson earns our medal for THE #1 HYPOCRITE EVER. Congratulations Pat. May you burn in hell for eternity.

Karl Rove (Lies, Stupidity)

FACT: The New York Daily News reported that back in December 2000, Karl Rove signed his financial disclosure form (which was supposed to "list assets, positions held and other aspects of Rove's personal finances dating through at least the last year,") but accidentally forgot to mention one important item - that he was still president of Karl Rove & Co., the twenty year old company which made him a multi-millionaire. 

Karl Rove (Conflict of Interest, Lies, Criminal, Corporate Interest) 

FACT: Bush's top adviser, Karl Rove owned more than $250,000 of stock in Intel Corporation while he met with the company's chief executive and two lobbyists as they pushed for federal approval of a corporate merger. The administration approved the deal less than two months later, bringing Rove a fat profit.

Donald Rumsfeld (Lies) 2001

FACT:  Rumsfeld, at one of the anti-ballistic missile tests, proclaimed the system a success without qualification. The test was loudly trumpeted by the DOD as proof that the anti-ballistic missile system was on track. But days later it was quietly revealed that the test nuke carried a beacon which constantly relayed its position to the interceptor missile, making it quite difficult to miss. 

COMMENT: So lets hope that when those evildoers start launching ICBMs in our direction they have put a homing beacon inside so that we can shoot it down. 

Donald Rumsfeld (Hypocrisy, Lies, Military)

FACT: ABC News released details of Rumsfeld's defense plans last week, which include eliminating a carrier battlegroup (6,000-8,000 sailors, 80 airplanes, three to five support ships), 15,000 troops based in Europe, 30,000 troops from the National Guard and three fighter squadrons (about 70 planes and more than 1,000 people). After Bill Clinton was constantly bashed by Republicans for shrinking the U.S. military, the Pentagon has now decided that "it is essential to cut forces if the United States is going to realistically meet overseas commitments." The cuts are needed to pay for the administration's proposed missile defense system, and the new F-22 fighter (which was incidentally designed to fight wars against the former Soviet Union). 
 

Tommy Thompson (Lies, Stem Cell Research) 2001

FACT: Bush announced that more than 60 existing stem cell lines would receive federal research funding. But according to the New York Times, scientists were somewhat baffled by this news: "most of the existing lines are not ready for the kind of research that scientists believe may lead to treatments for a variety of diseases." After Bush's announcement, Health Secretary Tommy Thompson tried to prop up the idea, declaring that "the more than 60 stem cell lines are diverse, robust and viable for research." But just recently Thompson was forced to backpedal when it was discovered that his claims were, in fact, lies. In reality, only 24 or 25 of the lines are of any use to anybody. 

COMMENT: Just like all meaningful programs that don’t necessarily provide immediate pocket lining to republicans or instant comfort to flat-world radicals, the stem-cell research will be asphyxiated with unrealistic and ultimately lethal constraints. When these constraints disallow the research from making the hoped for progress, republicans will use that failure as “proof” that the stem cell research isn’t all that it was promised to be. They will then call for further funding cutbacks or even the complete termination of the project. Another obvious example of this strangle-condemn-underfund-terminate strategy is the public school system. Republican constantly focus on the systems failures which they use as “proof” that the system doesn’t work so they present school vouchers which, by design, suck even more funds out of the public school system.

Tommy Thompson (Lies, Spin) 

FACT: Tommy Thompson announced to the Conservative Political Action Conference that pregnant women would be eligible for prenatal care under a government health care program for children. Note that since the beginning of time conservatives have been steadfastly opposed to government health care programs for children; everyone at the Conference thought this was great news. All it took was a tiny little uncontroversial regulatory change that makes an "unborn child" eligible for care. When people questioned why the administration didn't just extend benefits to "pregnant women" instead of "unborn children," Thompson retorted "All we're doing is providing care for poor mothers so their children are going to be born healthy ... How anybody can now turn this into a pro-choice or pro-life argument, I can't understand it." 

COMMENT: Of course this is a transparent attempt to use health care as a foot-in-the-door to overturning Roe v. Wade. In addition, the mysogonistic proposal that the mother’s health should be ignored (ex: by not offering necessary post-pardom care) just gives us further evidence of true conservative priciples. I think Democratic Undeground.com hit the nail on the head when they said, “I guess I'm just so surprised that the conservatives have embraced government health care all of a sudden. Perhaps if we had re-classified adults as ‘post-born fetuses’ then we could have passed the Clinton health care bill.”