The Republican Urine Report - Bush administration activities for 2005

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The Republican Urine Report - GW Bush and his crimes - 2005 year end tally of destruction

How Republicans pissed on the working class and called it rain

JANUARY 2005
* $300 Billion for Iraq war. Six times the original estimate.
* US pharmaceuticals increased their prices.
* The Pentagon tells us that veterans benefits are "hurtful" to national security and they want to cut benefits.
* Bush administration spends $250, million on PR contracts for propaganda in the US.
* Male prostitute found in the White House under the guise of a reporter.
* CIA admits that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991.
* Bush deficit at $427 billion after "borrowing $114 billion from Social Security. The actual deficit is at $541 billion not including the "war".
* $300 million in cash walks out of an Iraqi bank and $9 billion is missing under Paul Bremer in the Iraq Provisional Government.

FEBRUARY 2005
* Bush administration asks Congress for $400 million to bribe the coalition of the greedy.
* Memo urged national security advisor Condoleeza Rice to meet with al Qaeda eight months before Sept. 11, 2001.
* Recently declassified reports show how "aviation officials failed to respond to dozens of warnings of a possible terrorist threat months before Sept. 11, 2001" (Reuters)
* US pays Iraq contractor "by stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunny sack and routinely made cash payments around Baghdad from a pickup truck." (AP)
* Male prostitute/fake reporter attends White House Christmas parties.
* 1,478 American troops dead in Iraq.
* "Out of 580,000 soldiers who served in GW I (Gulf War I), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of Disabled Vets means that a decade later, 56f those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!" (Arthur N. Bernklan, executive director of Veterans for Constitution Law in NY)
* "Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached." (Antonin Scalia)
* Bush administration uses the babies in an incubator tactic with fake testimony from Jamana Hanna who said, "she had been jailed, tortured and raped for nothing more than marrying a non-Iraqi." Fake story used to influence the public. In other words, propaganda.
* Fun Fact: If you piled a trillion dollars in $1,000 bills, the stack would be more than 68 miles high.
* As of February, 2005, Us national debt stood at $7.7 trillion and increasing by about $1.2 billion a day.

MARCH 2005
* FBI reports there are no true al Qaeda sleeper cells in the US.
* $12 billion of pork in defense legislation.
* Enron tapes show traders joking about stealing money from California grandmothers.
* Medical errors in the United States kills 98,000 people every year. Americans pay twice as much compared to any other developed country and receive the worst medical quality.
* Fun Fact: 80f Alaska north slope oil gets sold to Japan.
* Air Force estimates it costs $56,800 per hour to run Air Force One.
* Army spends $11 billion on faulty Stryker vehicles that put soldiers at risk and $157,000 on a grenade launcher that cant hit targets.
* "Prewar claims by the United States that Iraq was producing biological weapons were based almost entirely on accounts from a defector who was described as crazy by his intelligence handlers and a congenital liar by his friends."( LA Times)
* Custer Battles, a paramilitary firm defrauds taxpayers of $50 million dollars.
* US Department of Defense auditors find Kellog Brown & Root may have overcharged the military $61 million for gas deliveries. Kellog Brown &Root are a subsidiary of Halliburton.
* TV Marti, the US government station that broadcasts programs to Cuba spends $10 million a year and has their signal blocked by the Havana government.

APRIL 2005
* Patriot Act used to search Brandon Mayfields home and to gather personal information to portray him as a Muslim militant. The Justice Department is on record as denying it used the Patriot Act.
* EPA cancels a study to measure pesticide effects on children. They "had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and childrens clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla.." (AP)
* "Baffling in its complexity and often bizarre in its impact, the alternative minimum tax is a giant undeclared tax increase that will ensnare tens of millions of moderate income families in the next several years." ( NYT)
* Fun Fact: In 1997 Newt Gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethics violations.
* Bush's proposed 2006 budget "would drastically cut financial support for up to 80 percent of the veterans in the nations 129 state-run (nursing) homes."
* Trade deficit soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion.
* "Republicans beat back a Democratic attempt to provide almost $2 billion in additional health care for veterans, rejecting claims that Veterans Affairs hospitals are in crisis." (AP)
* Fun Fact: In Finland, civil fines are based on income.
* Because the report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, didnt support the claims that we are winning the war on terrorism, the State Department decided to quit publishing it. (Published since 1985)
* Gas prices in Wis. reach $3.00. Dick Cheney said, "Higher gas prices are a sign of a failed presidency." (1998)
* Connecticut, Utah and Texas refuse to follow federal regulations of No Child Left Behind.
* Government Accountability Office finds serious security flaws in the IRS system that leave taxpayers vulnerable to identity theft.
* The Transportation Security Administration spent $19 million on a crisis management center. $3,000 refrigerators, $252,392 in artwork," $29,032 on art consultants, $30,085 on silk plants and $13,861 on lamps and other items."(AP)
* Homeland Security ignores white supremacists, violent militiamen, and anti-abortion bombers.
* Senate agrees to spend $592 million on a Baghdad embassy as part of an $81 billion emergency spending bill to pay for Iraq, Afghanistan and tsunami relief.
* Texas fined $444,282 for defiance of the No Child Left Behind Act.
* Neil Bushs software company "preps students for the standardized tests required by NCLB."
* World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count. (Reuters)
* Fun Fact: In 1999 GW Bush signed the Futile Care Act in Texas that allows hospitals to discontinue life support against the wishes of the next of kin if the patient is broke.
* Ira Stern," convicted of stealing more than $600,000 in a business loan scam received an award from the National Republican Congressional Committee honoring his business leadership and party support." He received the Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal Award. (Nashua Telegraph)
* Bush evacuates to an undisclosed location with heavily armed secret servicemen because of a fast-moving cloud.
* Congress cuts Medicaid by $10 billion and gives $106 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy.
* Bush officials afraid that libraries are becoming terrorist "havens" push for renewed Patriot Act search powers which also applies to business and personal records. The government claims it has never been used for library, bookstore, medical or gun-sales records but Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales says its been used 35 times since September 2003.
* Custer Battles is accused of bilking taxpayers of at least $50 million by "making up invoices for work never done, equipment never received, and guards who didnt exist.
* A Republican (Chris Cannon, R-Utah) provision in the energy bill would require federal compensation to private companies for costs associated with oil and gas leases that cant be developed. This would force taxpayers to pay oil companies billions of dollars to oil companies that "dont want to develop the leases anyway." (AP)
* US officials in Iraq failed to account for almost $100 million for reconstruction projects. Possible embezzlement of Iraqi money.

MAY 2005

* US spent more than $4.5 billion on screening devices for ports, borders, etc. and has now "concluded they are ineffective, unreliable or too expensive to operate."
* Idaho nuclear lab has lost 998 items costing $2.2 million in the last 3 years. They include 200 missing computers and disk drives that "may have contained sensitive information."
* Marines issued 10,000 pieces of faulty body armor.
* The Homeland Security Data Network cost taxpayers $337 million and "does not have assurance that (it) will satisfy user needs and adequately protect classified information."
* Real wages in the US fall at their fastest rate in 14 years.
* Halliburton gets $72 million bonus for work in Iraq. (Reuters)
* Fun Fact: Eshu is the God of confusion.
* "Appeals Court OKs forced military extensions. The U.S. military has the right to keep soldiers in the service beyond their original contracted time by issuing so-called emergency stop-loss orders, a U.S. appeals court said Friday."
* Zarqawi is seriously wounded. This comes after he was dead twice and had a leg blown off and grown back in time to run away from US forces at a checkpoint. Just comic relief.
* $50 billion more asked for Iraq , Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. Three days ago Congress gave final approval for an $82 billion emergency war spending bill.
* "Comptroller General David M. Walker puts U.S. debt and obligations at $45 trillion in current dollarsalmost as much as the total net worth of all Americans, or $150,000 per person. Balancing the budget in 2040, he said, could require cutting total federal spending as much as 60 percent or raising taxes to 21/2 times todays levels." (Washington Post)
* It costs between $30,000 and $50,000 to scramble a single jet fighter according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
* Uncle William (Bucky) Bush has benefited from his nephews presidency by joining the board of directors of Engineered Support Systems (ESS, not to be mistaken for ES&S, Election Systems and Software) which so happened to be a major military contractor.
* "Under oath, Jimmy Palmer, whose title is Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agencys Region 4 Office, admitted advising the client to ignore EPA cease and desist orders regarding a real estate development in a wetlands area.
* Fun Fact: In the Republicans "Contract With America" they promised to "endgovernment that is too big, too intrusive and too easy with the publics money."
* Zarqawi is poised to revitalize al-Qaida. He's back.
* Republicans did not want to give National Guard and Reserve permanent health care, they wanted to cut funding for VA Hospitals and they would not approve emergency healthcare for returning vets.
* Iraq war costing the taxpayers $5 billion every month.
* FBI Director, Robert Mueller said the agency would abandon a $170 million Virtual Case File system and will build a new system called Sentinel but wont say how much that will cost.
* Election Board staffer Sherole Eaton swore in an affidavit that a Triad voting machine technician replaced the hard drive on Hocking Countys central "computer and tabulation machine." "I still cant understand what he was doing there on his own time replacing the hard drive on our computer, our brain, where all the countys voting information was, in the middle of a recount," Eaton said.
* Bush administration asks court to compel internet service providers to turn over information about their customers or subscribers as part of its fight against terrorism."
* Pope Benedict XVI seeks immunity from a sexual abuse lawsuit in Houston where he allegedly covered up abuse a decade ago.
* RAF dropped bombs in Iraq in 2002 to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war. (Sunday Times, UK) In the US it was called Operation Desert Badger.
* FOIA request shows the FBI and local police engaged in intimidation of political activists. Downing Street Memos show the Bush administration manipulated evidence of WMD to start the war in Iraq. "Scott McClellan has said there is "no need" to respond to the memos the authenticity of which has not been denied." (Fox News)

JUNE 2005
* Tests prove election fraud is possible because the machines are vulnerable to manipulation.
* Department of Homeland Security misspent $18 million in a six-month period.
* Pentagon wasted at least $400 million by "buying boots, tents, bandages and other goods while it was getting rid of identical items it had paid for but never used."
* CIA has an "excellent idea" where Osama Bin Laden is hiding. (But they aren't allowed to invade the Crawford Texas pig ranch?)
* To get his war involved a campaign to influence to create false stories, exaggeration, manipulating the numbers of stories released and a major campaign against anyone who disagreed. In other words propaganda and intimidation, the same thing that Hitler did.
* The Supreme Court ruled that cities may bulldoze peoples homes or businesses to make way for shopping malls or other private development.
* US military knows where Zarqawi isagain.
* The Supreme Court decision to broaden the eminent domain power that granted local governments sweeping powers to seize private property to generate tax revenue also acknowledged that states can restrict that power. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana South Carolina, Virginia and Washington already forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development unless it is to eliminate blight. ( World Net Daily)

JULY 2005
* Supreme Court ruled that police are not required to enforce restraining orders, even if state law mandates that they do. (LA Times)
* The government says terror attacks around the world jumped fivefold last year, to more than 32-hundred. (Channel 9 News Iowa)
* Army hires Halliburton to a new $5 billion contract in Iraq. "At his point, why dont we just hand Halliburton the keys to the U.S. Treasury and tell them to turn off the lights when they are done, " Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said.
* Robert Earl, who destroyed national security document during the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, is working as chief of staff to acting Deputy of Defense Secretary Gordon England. (Reuters)
* Congressional trip to cancelled shuttle launch cost taxpayers $73,000. (AP)
* The Bush administration has acknowledged a shortfall of at least $1.2 billion (for veterans health care).
* Jets have been scrambled more than 2,000 times since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001. (AP) (So the logical question would be, where were they on 9/11?)
* DOD impersonating FBI when using torture. "These tactics have produced no information of a threat neutralization nature to date and the CITF believes that techniques have destroyed any chance of prosecuting this detainee. If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done (by) the "FBI" interrogators. The FBI will (be) left holding the bag before the public." (Buried in more than 350,000 pages obtained from the government detailing detainee abuse.)
* Rove and Libby misled investigation into the outing of a CIA agent. Both provided testimony that was later contradicted by other evidence. (The Guardian)
* Fun Fact: Ronald Reagan started with a total debt outstanding of 930 million and increased it to 2.7 trillion (13.71 compound annual increase.) He never balanced a budget.
* GHW Bush started with 2.7 trillion debt and increased it to 4 trillion (10.32 ompounded annual increase.) He never balanced a budget.
* Clinton started with a 4 trillion debt and increased it to 5.6 trillion. (4.2 ompounded annual increase) He balanced his last three budgets.
* Bush II started with 5.6 trillion outstanding debt and increased it to 7.7 trillion (as of July 2005) (6.5 annual increase and this doesnt include the cost of the wars.) He has never balanced a budget.
* US House of Representatives voted itself a $3,100 pay raise.
* Energy deal has more than $8.5 billion breaks in tax incentives and billions more in loan guarantees and other subsidies for the electricity, coal, nuclear, natural gas and oil industries.
* US maternity leave is down there with Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland. (AP)
* Bush plans 50th ranch trip in 5 years. (USA Today)

AUGUST 2005
* Iraq bomb attack kills 14 Marines. (BBC News)
* Bush poised to set vacationing record. (Washington Post)
* "If you look at fiscal conservatism these days, its in a sorry state," said Rep Jeff Flake (R-Ariz) "Republicans dont even pretend anymore."
* General says no headway made in search for bin Laden (NBC)
* Haliburton reports a 284 percent increase in its second quarter profits. Because it sold key nuclear reactor components to Iran, in keeping with their "long history of flouting U.S. law by conducting business with countries that have ties to terrorism", they are closer to building a nuclear bomb. (World News Trust)
* "The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused global backlash against America because of the self-serving hypocrisy of the Bush administration over the Middle East."(Sunday Herald)
* CIA Commander Gary Berntsen says "he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members." (NewsWeek) Sy Hersh has been saying this for years.
* The Pentagon opposes the release of Abu Ghraib prison photos and condemns the treatment of prisoners while it continues the practice.
* GOP spends $722,000 defending James Tobin of Bangor Maine who was paid to jam the get-out-and-vote lines of the Democrats on election day 2002.
* Idaho has a rash of Creutzfeld-Jakob (the human version of mad cow) disease but "none is believed to have been caused by eating infected animals."
* The New York Times and Time magazine knew that Karl Rove was one of the people who leaked a covert CIA agents name but covered it up thus becoming "part of a conspiracy." (E&P)
* "Everythings a secret (in the Bush White House) except, of course the identity of a covert CIA operative whose husband went off script." (Herald Mail)
* Feds swarm the property of 77 year old Don Stout hours after he called Bush a liar on a local radio station. "It scared the hell out of me as eight or ten men swarmed my place. I was weeding my garden and the next thing you know, they were on my property, looked at this bush and left without saying a word. It was ridiculous, but the sheriff, the deputy sheriff and the game warden all raided my place for no reason and I am still looking for an explanation." (Arctic Beacon)
* Coalition of the Willing getting smaller.
* A Cornell University study found that "masculinity challenged men prefer war and SUVs. "I found that if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq war more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV" (That would explain Republicans.)
* Fun Fact: U.S. is ..42 in infant survivability, ..48 in life expectancy and ..46 in literacy. (That explains a lot)
* Pat Robertson calls for assassination of President Chavez of Venezuela. There is no backlash.
* VFW members not pleased with Bush. "They may have increased the (budget) numbers, but it hasnt kept up with all the veterans who are coming in," said George Watts, a South Carolina veteran. (The Salt Lake Tribune)
* No evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program according to a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists." (WP)
* Bulgaria will withdraw its 470 soldiers from Iraq.
* Blair is being lined up with a position in the Carlyle Group (a group with Bush family and war contract ties).
* 9/11 heroes health program gets lost in the bureaucratic shuffle after $3.7 million goes to a branch of the Dept of Health and Human Services but only 600 people were seen the only year it was in action, 2003.
* Support for Patriot Act shrinks the more people know about it. (AP)
* Had the minimum wage risen as fast as CEO compensation since 1990, the researchers calculated, it would now be $23.03 an hour instead of just $5.15. And the average production worker would be making $110,126 a year instead of $27,460. (CNN)
* Poverty rate at 12.7 percent, 4th straight rise. (AP)
* In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding.
* Power plants could pollute more with new Bush regulations. "Power plants account for two-thirds of the countrys sulfur dioxide emissions and 22 percent of its nitrogen oxide pollution. Both have been shown to cause respiratory and heart disease. (WP)
* U.S gives eight war jets to Pakistan valued at $36 million apiece. (Raw Story)
* U.S. military confirmed its troops killed Reuters journalist in Iraq. (Reuters)

SEPTEMBER 2005
* Bush goes to McCain's birthday party and accepts a new guitar while Hurricane Katrina destroys the coast.
* Bush faces growing revolt over education policy. About 20 states may opt out and forgo the funding. (Reuters)
* 52 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration deliberately misled them about the presence of banned arms in Iraq. (WP-ABC News poll in June)
* Halliburton hired to clean up storm damage at naval facilities hit by Hurricane Katrina.
* Homeland Security wont let Red Cross deliver food to New Orleans hurricane victims. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
* National Guard troops didnt get the go-ahead from Washington until days after Katrina hit. Congress will investigate. (AP) (Republicans are a majority in Congress, Bush is a Republican, therefore they will investigate themselves and find they did nothing wrong.)
* Homeland Security Website: In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency. The Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. (But only on March 1st, is the guess.)
* Government secrecy costs taxpayers $148 for storing secrets for every $1 spent declassifying old secrets. In the late 1990s the ratio was $15-17 a year to 1. (AP)
* Bush photo op in the Gulf Coast faked levee repair. (LA Senator Landrieu)
* White House shifts blame to state and local officials as thousands await evacuation in the Gulf. (WP)
* Volunteers from Florida with 500 airboats were turned away from the rescue effort by FEMA who said they had to "contract out" and couldnt use volunteers. Another "flotilla" of boats were turned back by National Guard who said the boats were too large and the water had "dropped during the night" when in fact it was still rising. National Guard refused food drops because they said it might start riots. There were reports of FEMA cutting phone lines and disrupting communications. U.S. Northern Command - 4,000 soldiers,sailors, airmen and marines were still waiting for Presidential orders on Sept. 3.
* Brown, the head of FEMA was "pushed" from his last job of judging horses. (Boston Herald)
* White House rolled out a planto contain the political damage from the administrations response to Hurricane Katrina. (NYT) (CYA)
* Offers of foreign aid keep pouring in : helicopters from Canada, cash from Japan, tents and military aircraft from Franceeven oil fromVenezuela, a political foe. At least 25 countries have offered humanitarian assistance to the U.S. to recover from Hurricane Katrina but the Bush administration has sent mixed signals on whether it will take them up on their offers. (Boston Globe)
* Federal Department of Education used taxpayers money to pay advocacy groups to produce Op-Ed columns, ads, and other material. (E&P)
* Fun Fact: GHW Bush on Larry King on Sept. 5, 2005: "I dont see those on the roofs complaining." (They were probably dead by the time you looked, George.)
* Fun Fact: Barbara Bush was part of a group in Houston, TX that included former Presidents Bush and Bill Clinton, along with Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. Barbara made it rather clear that she did not like the displaced Katrina victims getting too cozy in Texas. They appeared on the show American Public Medias Marketplace. In a segment at the top of the show, in reference to the evacuees to Houston, Barbara said, Almost everyone Ive talked to says Were going to move to Houston. What Im hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. Barbara then added, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this [she chuckled] - this is working very well for them."(E&P Sept. 5, 2005) (Rumor has it that the entire Bush clan refer to the military as "fodder units" and Kissinger calls poor people "useless eaters.")
* Top three jobs at FEMA went to Bushs political cronies with no experience coping with catastrophes. Brown ran horse shows, Patrick Rhode was an advance man for the Bush/Cheney campaign and Scott Morris was a PR expert producing TV and radio spots for B/C. (Daily News)
* ExxonMobils profits likely to soar above $10 billion this quarter. ($110 million a day.) (Boston Herald)
* Fun Fact: Republicans tell you not to trust the government. When theyre in control they demonstrate why.
* Pentagons "Freedom Walk" closed to anyone who does not register, fenced in to keep it "sterile" and police force threatening arrests. (WP)
* Police confiscate weapons in New Orleans. Including legally registered firearms from civilians except from the wealthy. (NYT)
* GOP moves ahead with cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits. (AP)
* FEMA chief Brown, approved payments in excess of $31 million to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by 4 hurricanes last year to win Bush votes. (Jason Leopold)
* German plane with 15 tons of emergency rations for Katrina victims was turned away by U.S. authorities. (AP)
* U.S. can confine citizens without criminal charges. (WP)
* Internal Memos show oil companies closed down refining capacity and drove independent refiners out of business to raise gas prices in the mid-1990s. (The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights)
* Pat Robertson used donations of his flock to set up an offshore mining company in the Caymen Islands called Freedom Gold Limited. (Caymen Net News)
* Afghan Official says commanders let Osama escape. (Reuters)
* Health care premiums jump 9.2 percent and fewer workers are covered. (Mercury News)
* FEMA orders doctor to stop treating hurricane victims because he wasnt registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA acknowledged that the agency does not use voluntary physicians. (The Advocate)
* Chavez vows to help U.S. poor by selling heating oil directly to poor communities. (The Journal News) (And he has kept his promise.)
* Government raises Medicare premiums again. (AP)
* Since the GOP took over Congress in 1994, the supposed party of small government has presided over the largest expansion of federal spending since the New Dealand, no, that doesnt count the post-9/11 spikes in military and homeland security spending. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
* U.S. government gives Pope immunity in abuse lawsuit. (News 24.com) (Whatever happened to "no man is above the law"?)
* Hundreds of truckloads of ice meant for hurricane victims end up in Maine. Some truck drivers who have been paid $800 a day while hauling the same loads for a week or more, say the process seems like a waste of taxpayers money. (Portland Press Herald)
* After years of saying his stock holdings in a for-profit hospital chain posed no conflict of interest, Frist dumped the stock in June. A month later the price tumbled 9 percent. (WP)
* Bush waives sanctions on Saudi Arabia even though it failed to do enough to stop slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. (AP)
* FEMA denies Wisconsin aid request even though the estimated damage was more than $47 million "it has been determined that the damage was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments." (AP)
* Fun Fact: If Freedom isnt Free then why do people complain about taxes?
* FEMA response to Hurricane Rita is "bunch of bull". Beaumont Texas officials disgusted that FEMA will not give generators for emergency hospital uses because they "had more paperwork". FEMA will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations for providing for hurricane victims. (WP)
* Religious belief can cause damage to a society, contributing toward higher murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide according to a paper published in the Journal of Religion and Society. (The Times-UK)
* Tom DeLay indicted and has connections with Jack Abramoff who is also in legal trouble. (Bloomberg)
* Soldiers still waiting for reimbursement for body armor and equipment they purchased because the military wont provide it. (MSNBC)
* Army faces worst recruiting slump in years and National Guard and Army Reserve are even worse off. (AP)
* FCC outlined new rules forcing broadband internet and VOIP phone service providers to open up their systems to federal, state and local law enforcement. (New Standard) (Because the Bush administration hates us for our freedoms.)

OCTOBER 2005
* Bush administration involved in illegal covert propaganda. (AFP) (This is in reference to the use of taxpayer money to pay for fake news favorable to the Bush administration.)
* Fun Fact: The swine flu "epidemic" only killed one person. Pvt. David Lewis, 19 years old. The vaccine killed 52 people and seriously injured hundreds of Americans.
* Dodd finally issues policy to reimburse troops for body armor and equipment. (Air Force Times)
* Pentagons DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) seeks authority to secretly collect information about US citizens and migrs even though the CIA and the FBI already have the authority. (AFP)
* VAs chronic under-funding has led to hiring freezes, layoffs and the closing of healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand of veterans are forced to go without healthcare. (Military.com)
* Venezuelan Gasoline arrives in Houston to help alleviate fuel shortages in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. (Bloomberg, AP and Red Nova)
* Government cant explain a change in airline passenger screening that cost taxpayers an additional $343 million. (WP)
* Fun Fact: "No, weve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." (GWB Sept. 17, 2003)
* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has let chaos reign in his $22.663 billion ballistic missile and other defense programs and he needs to take a hands-on administering role in sorting out the mess, according to a recent GAO report. (Government Accountability Office) (UPI)
* Secrecy is the most consistent trait of Bush administration. Refused to provide names of oil executives, who advised Cheney on the energy policy, prohibited photos of flag draped coffins and forbid the release of files on John Roberts. Makes Richard Nixon look almost transparent. (NYT)
* FEMA shuts down morgue operations on hurricane victims "with hours left in the workday." Minyard said federal officials told his people to stop conducting autopsies at 11:30 a.m., despite a backlog of 300 bodies. (LA Times)
* Alarming gaps in public oversight of the billions of dollars in federal hurricane relief for Katrina. Disclosure of many no-bid contracts isnt required by law. (AP)
* Air Force personnel assigned to combat roles to support Army operations. And some are being deployed for as long as 12 months rather than four. (Voices Magazine)
* Armys plan to recover from "this years painful recruiting problems" include financial incentives, greater use of computers, and finders fee for soldiers who refer recruits. (AP)
* Cheney's Halliburton stock options rose 3,281ast year. Worth $241,498 a year agoare now valued at more than $8 million. (Raw Story) (No conflict of interest or war profiteering if you are a Republican.)
* Halliburton awarded another $33 million contract of Katrina work. (Raw Story)
* Ron Paul, a Republican Rep. On Alex Jones radio show said the Bush administration is attempting an end run around the Constitution by creating a militarized police state to take effect in the event of an avian flu pandemicone that would include gun confiscation and ultimately martial law. Paul who is a medical doctor, went on record as stating that the bird flu threat was fear mongering. (Free Market News)
* Bush gives CIA oversight of all espionage operations with the creation of the National Clandestine Service within the CIA. (AFP) (Never enough spies for these guys.) Bush teleconference with solders was a "carefully scripted publicity stunt". (AP)
* Fun Fact: According to a Duke University survey, the enlisted ranks of the military (approximately 85f the military) only 32-34 are Republicans. Of the 15ho are officers 70-80 are Republicans.

* Abrahoff investigation has GOP holding its breath. Rove "has some serious problems" said Naomi Seligman, spokeswomen for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, "But while most of Washington is focused on Mr. Rove, we know that the lynchpin to the ethical downfall of the White House and some members of Congress is the Abramoff investigation." (Austin American-Statesman)
* Fun Fact: Whether you support Bush or not he is still a liar.
* Washington having trouble putting to use most of the $62 billion in emergency funds approved by Congress for Katrina recovery. (LA Times)
* Fun Fact: $7,989,493,970,116.21 is the national debt at 11:17 a.m. Oct 18, 2005.
* Bush administration notified states they would have to pay billions of dollars to the federal government next year to help finance the new prescription drug benefit for people on Medicare. Federal officials say that if states did not comply, the money could be deducted from federal payments to the states for other programs like Medicaid. (NYT)
* Credit card payments could double under federal guidelines that take full effect Jan.1. And new bankruptcy rules will make it harder for debt-ridden consumers to wipe their financial slates clean. "Theres no coincidence in the timing"said Rector, the bankruptcy lawyer. "First you have tighter bankruptcy laws, then a few weeks later new credit card minimums kick in? Its going to be rough for people." (Sacramento Bee)
* The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years. A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed the bonuses had been cancelled saying they violated Pentagon policies because they duplicated other programs. (News Tribune)
* Senate votes against putting more money into low-income heating program. (AP)

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