One Week to Go
As everyone in the country knows, the election is only a week away, yet pollsters and pundits are still relatively clueless on the eventual outcome. There’s a strong push from both sides and everyone seems to be making their choice for 44th president of the United States public. Those who know me (or have read my political-oriented postings) understand that I have liberal convictions and I support John Kerry. This is bigger than just who I believe should be our next president, though. I believe we are at a crossroads as a nation and we can’t afford to take the nosedive that four more years of George W. Bush could put us into. It’s scary to imagine what a man with a real mandate from the people will do with four more years in office after the damage he caused in his first term. I understand that I’m most likely preaching to the choir, but I just wanted to point to an article from the The Nation titled 100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against Bush” by Judd Legum. I have pulled some of the facts I found most damning out, but I urge you to go to the site, read them for yourself and pass on the url (http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041108&s=facts) or print out the PDF and distribute it.
16. The Bush Administration has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden’s and Saddam Hussein’s money.
Source: Associated Press
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban.
Source: sfgate.com
24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11 Commission $3 million to investigate the September 11 attacks and $50 million to the commission that investigated the Columbia space shuttle crash.
Source: commondreams.org
70. The Bush Administration has spent $270 million on abstinence-only education programs even though there is no scientific evidence demonstrating that they are effective in dissuading teenagers from having sex or reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Source: salon.com
71. The Bush Administration slashed funding for programs that suggested ways, other than abstinence, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
Source: LA Weekly
75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration told people living near Ground Zero that the air was safe–even though they knew it wasn’t–subjecting hundreds of people to unnecessary, debilitating ailments.
Source: Sierra Club, EPA
After the hundred facts, the article ends with one opinion:
If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the United States and the world.