Bush's Scandals

1. Walter Reed outpatient treatment, poor living conditions, lack of caseworkers to oversee and facilitate patient care for amputees, brain injured, and psychologically disabled veterans; also out there the underfunding of the VA

2. Fired US attorneys, political appointees fired because they were insufficiently partisan. This was a typical Karl Rove operation. Monica "Loyalty oaths" Goodling senior counselor to Alberto Gonzales and liaison with the White House decides to plead the 5th before Congress, taking an indefinite leave of absence she eventually resigns; Kyle Sampson Gonzales's forgetful Chief of Staff contradicts Gonzales; Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty admits that he had misinformed Congress that the firings were for performance reasons. Gonzales in Congressional testimony April 19, 2007 said he didn't know 71 times. He didn't know who asked for the list (apparently he didn't and his subordinates have already denied it was them). He didn't know why some of the names were on the list, but he was sure that nothing improper was done.

3. Scooter Libby/Plamegate, perjury, obstruction of justice, outing a covert CIA agent, her cover, and contacts as political payback against her whistleblowing husband Joe Wilson; Patrick Fitzgerald at trial showed Cheney's guiding hand behind the outing and spoke of a "cloud" over the Vice President

4. Iraq: axis of evil, 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, cronyism, Paul Bremer, losing tons of money literally, lack of international inclusion in reconstruction and security, weak Constitution, formation of sectarian parties, weak government, denial of actual conditions in Iraq, ignoring 4 years of failed policies and the basic proposal of the Iraq Study Group to withdraw, escalating instead, continuing lack of any discernible mission

5. Afghanistan, transferring resources to Iraq before the job was finished, the results: a resurgent Taliban, continuing warlordism, and exploding opium production

6. Iran and saber rattling, axis of evil, lack of engagement, refusal to talk to, addressing the nuclear issue through threats, clumsy attempts to blame Iran for the debacle in Iraq and a failure to recognize their very real interests there.

7. North Korea, axis of evil, 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? The blown opportunity at Tora Bora. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the roles of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in terrorism. Pakistan's intelligence service the ISI created the Taliban. The government of Pervez Musharraf continues to give it safe haven in Pakistan and its efforts against al Qaeda in Pakistan which do occur are limited and often timed to the visits of American dignitaries. The Saudis for their part fund radical madrassas throughout the Moslem world and have a domestic educational system run by the most extreme of their homegrown extremists. Saudi and Gulf oil dollars find their way to many terrorist groups as well as the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

9. Civilian contractors; also no bid contracts; in Iraq Halliburton tainted food and water, overpriced gas; Blackwell use of private security contractors, what used to be called mercenaries, with little or no accountability

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, FEMA and "Heck of a job, Brownie," lack of preparation, lack of emergency aid, slowness of reconstruction, Bush ignores for days then gives address from Jackson Square in New Orleans promising aid which never comes or much of which goes to politically connected outstate no bid contractors, disparity between response to Louisiana and Republican Trent Lott's Mississippi; Bush refuses to waive 10% state match for federal funds (waived in many previous disasters) increasing the bureaucratic paperwork, reducing aid to affected areas, and further slowing and complicating rebuilding.

12. Warrantless NSA wiretapping, data mining, flouting of FISA, the attempted Specter "compromise" to retroactively sanction NSA illegalities; despite previous abuses, April 10, 2007 NSA's current head John McConnell proposes changes to FISA to permit domestic surveillance of foreign nationals completely outside of FISA, extend from 3 days to one week surveillance without seeking FISA permission "in emergency situations," immunize telecoms, and extend FISA warrants from 120 days to one year

13. SWIFT surveillance of international financial transactions

14. Black prisons and extraordinary rendition to facilitate interrogation by torture

15. Homeland Security: white elephant (organization), black hole (money), Tom Ridge and threat levels, Michael Chertoff and general incompetence

read more here http://www.netrootsmass.net/Hugh/Bush_list.html