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Bush Stalls on Darfur Genocide
Nine months after the Bush administration first declared that ongoing violence in Darfur constituted ''genocide,'' 80 prominent national organizations and leadership figures representing millions of Americans urged the President to do more to protect innocent civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region. The Bush administration, which over the past year took the lead in approving several Security Council resolutions deploring the violence and authorizing the African Union mission, has appeared much less aggressive in recent months. Since conflict erupted in Sudan in February 2003, Amnesty International estimates that more than 70,000 people are believed to have lost their lives. Over 1.5 million civilians have been internally displaced by the conflict and 200,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad. Tens of thousands of women have been displaced, raped and killed since the violence began.
Sources: Common Dreams, "Bush Accused of Complacency, Double-Dealing on Darfur, Jim Lobe, May 25, 2005; Amnesty International, "Sudan Human Rights Concerns"; National Organization for Women, "Violence Against Women in Sudan Reveals Common Weapon of War," Lisa Alvy, December 3, 2004
Bush Can't Make Up His Mind on Student Grants
In his 2005 State of the Union address, Bush promised to increase Pell grant funding to help more low-income students in the U.S. afford college, as he had in his 2004 address. In fact, his 2006 FY budget eliminates the Perkins loan program, which provides low-interest loans to low- and middle-income college students, and uses those savings to increase spending on Pell grants and raise the maximum award by a meager $100, to $4,150, over the next five years. The announcement came barely a month after Bush and Congress decided to cut or eliminate Pell grants for about 1.4 million students, effective next fall, to save $300 million.
Sources: "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Feb. 2, 2005; "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Jan. 20, 2004; Knight Ridder, "Pell Grant Cuts Put Burden on Low-Income Students to Pay College Tuition," David Nivens, Jan. 17, 2005; "Bush Budget Drops Loans," Daily Northwestern, Feb. 8, 2005.
Bush Backtracks on Proposal to Stop Global Spread of HIV/AIDS
In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush called for Congress to give $15 billion over five years to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Only $2.9 billion in funding for HIV/AIDS and other disease programs was actually approved that year, and in the 2004 budget, funding was further cut by hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 2005 State of the Union address, Bush made no mention of his expansive 2003 proposal; instead he called on the government only to reauthorize the Ryan White Act, a federal law that helps pay the health care bills of people living with HIV or AIDS in the United States.
Sources: "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003; "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Feb. 3, 2005; Kaisernetwork.org, "Daily HIV/AIDS Report," Nov. 19, 2004; American Progress, "A Path Littered With Broken Promises," Christy Harvey, Judd Legum, and Jonathan Baskin, Feb. 2, 2005.
Bush Flip-Flops on Civil Unions
In an Oct. 24 interview with ABC correspondent Charlie Gibson, Bush claimed he disagreed with the Republican Party platform opposing civil unions of same-sex couples and that the issues should be left up to the states. "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do so," Bush told Gibson during the interview. Gibson then noted that the Republican Party platform opposed civil unions, to which Bush replied, "Well, I don't." Gibson then asked, "So the Republican Party platform on that point, as far as youre concerned, is wrong?" "Right," Bush said. However, Bush opposes same-sex marriage, continues to support a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and despite these latest remarks, White House officials have said that Bush would not have endorsed civil unions as the governor of Texas. In Oct. 2003, Bush issued a proclamation endorsing Marriage Protection Week, a week of anti-gay family events sponsored by more than two dozen right-wing religious organizations, which called on elected officials to sign a pledge not only opposing marriage equality for same-sex couples, but also opposing civil unions and domestic partner benefits.
Sources: New York Times, "Bush Says His Party Is Wrong to Oppose Gay Civil Unions," Elisabeth Bumiller, Oct. 26, 2004; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "Bush and today's civil unions statements," Oct. 26, 2004
Who Wears the Flip-Flops Now?
Joel Connelly, of the Seattle PostIntelligencer, demonstrates how Bush, who has charged John Kerry relentlessly with flip-flopping, has flip-flopped himself on a number of issues throughout the past four years. Some of Bushs flip-flops include: speaking against the Clinton administrations use of U.S. troops for nation-building, then using the same concept in Iraq; declaring Osama bin Laden as the real enemy and later claiming he is not a priority; originally opposing the creation of a 9/11 Commission, then later supporting this idea; declaring the administration would support (at least sign) the renewal of Congresss ban on military-style assault weapons with no follow-through; and promising to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, but ultimately doing nothing to help this problem. Connelly presents the voter with a more "educated" depiction of what it means to flip-flop. As it turns out, Bush is not one to talk. A web site dedicated to keeping track of Bushs flip flops continues to add more charges to its collection. Check out 50BushFlipFlops.com for a complete list.
Sources: In These Times, "Bush-Cheney Flip Flops Cost America in Blood," Joel Connelly, Sept. 29, 2004; 50BushFlipFlops.com, "Long Flip Flop List."
Bush Administration Pressures Agencies to Skew Facts: The Bush administration's attempts to "enshrine religious beliefs in government agencies" have led to the release of altered or misleading reports on important health issues. Despite the absence of scientific evidence proving that abstinence-only programs are effective in reducing teen sexual activity, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) removed a link from its website to a list of sex education programs that combined abstinence education with information on contraception. The CDC and the U.S. Agency for International Development hid scientific evidence proving that condoms were an effective means of preventing HIV/AIDS. The National Cancer Institute misrepresented the scientific evidence that having an abortion does not make a woman more likely to contract breast cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to allow the over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception, overruling the recommendations of the FDA staff and two advisory panels. In addition to these examples, the Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly been pressured to issue misleading reports to protect Bush's allies in big agriculture and the mining and oil industries.
Source: Philadelphia Daily News, "Bush sells out people's health to religious zealots, corporate contributors," Carol Towarnicky, Sept. 23, 2004
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Tracking Bush's Flip-Flops (Sept. 21, 2004): The "John Kerry flip-flops on the issues" attacks have been relentless these past few weeks, but has anyone really checked Bush's record? For the most part, the media has ignored Bush's obvious flip-flops, but on August 30, Bush's statement that the war on terror could not be won caught national attention. The next day, Bush was back to his firm resolution that "we will win" the war on terror. Fortunately, people are beginning to notice this disturbing trend. The Center for American Progress recently issued a series of Bush's embarrassing flip-flops on important issues:
Social Security Surplus
Bush Pledges Not to Touch Social Security Surplus: "We're going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus." [Bush, 3/3/01]
Bush Spends Social Security Surplus: The New York Times reported that "the president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4 trillion in Social Security funds to other purposes." [The New York Times, 2/6/02]
Abortion
Bush Supports a Woman's Right to Choose: "Bush said he...favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." [The Nation, 6/15/00, quoting the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]
Bush Opposes a Woman's Right to Choose: "I am pro-life." [Governor Bush, 10/3/00]
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Bush Says We Found the Weapons of Mass Destruction: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." [Bush, Interview in Poland, 5/29/03]
Bush Says We Haven't Found Weapons of Mass Destruction: "David Kay has found the capacity to produce weapons. And when David Kay goes in and says we haven't found stockpiles yet, and there's theories as to where the weapons went. They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." [Bush, "Meet the Press," 2/7/04]
Osama bin Laden
Bush Wants Osama Dead or Alive: "I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" [Bush, on Osama Bin Laden, 9/17/01]
Bush Doesn't Care About Osama: "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." [Bush, Press Conference, 3/13/02]
Same-Sex Marriage
Bush Says Same-Sex Marriage Is a State Issue: "The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's issue like you're trying to get me into." [Gov. George W. Bush on gay marriage, "Larry King Live," 2/15/00]
Bush Supports Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage: "Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife." [Bush, 2/24/04]
Bush Stalls on Darfur Genocide
Nine months after the Bush administration first declared that ongoing violence in Darfur constituted ''genocide,'' 80 prominent national organizations and leadership figures representing millions of Americans urged the President to do more to protect innocent civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region. The Bush administration, which over the past year took the lead in approving several Security Council resolutions deploring the violence and authorizing the African Union mission, has appeared much less aggressive in recent months. Since conflict erupted in Sudan in February 2003, Amnesty International estimates that more than 70,000 people are believed to have lost their lives. Over 1.5 million civilians have been internally displaced by the conflict and 200,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad. Tens of thousands of women have been displaced, raped and killed since the violence began.
Sources: Common Dreams, "Bush Accused of Complacency, Double-Dealing on Darfur, Jim Lobe, May 25, 2005; Amnesty International, "Sudan Human Rights Concerns"; National Organization for Women, "Violence Against Women in Sudan Reveals Common Weapon of War," Lisa Alvy, December 3, 2004
Bush Can't Make Up His Mind on Student Grants
In his 2005 State of the Union address, Bush promised to increase Pell grant funding to help more low-income students in the U.S. afford college, as he had in his 2004 address. In fact, his 2006 FY budget eliminates the Perkins loan program, which provides low-interest loans to low- and middle-income college students, and uses those savings to increase spending on Pell grants and raise the maximum award by a meager $100, to $4,150, over the next five years. The announcement came barely a month after Bush and Congress decided to cut or eliminate Pell grants for about 1.4 million students, effective next fall, to save $300 million.
Sources: "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Feb. 2, 2005; "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Jan. 20, 2004; Knight Ridder, "Pell Grant Cuts Put Burden on Low-Income Students to Pay College Tuition," David Nivens, Jan. 17, 2005; "Bush Budget Drops Loans," Daily Northwestern, Feb. 8, 2005.
Bush Backtracks on Proposal to Stop Global Spread of HIV/AIDS
In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush called for Congress to give $15 billion over five years to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Only $2.9 billion in funding for HIV/AIDS and other disease programs was actually approved that year, and in the 2004 budget, funding was further cut by hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 2005 State of the Union address, Bush made no mention of his expansive 2003 proposal; instead he called on the government only to reauthorize the Ryan White Act, a federal law that helps pay the health care bills of people living with HIV or AIDS in the United States.
Sources: "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003; "State of the Union," George W. Bush, Feb. 3, 2005; Kaisernetwork.org, "Daily HIV/AIDS Report," Nov. 19, 2004; American Progress, "A Path Littered With Broken Promises," Christy Harvey, Judd Legum, and Jonathan Baskin, Feb. 2, 2005.
Bush Flip-Flops on Civil Unions
In an Oct. 24 interview with ABC correspondent Charlie Gibson, Bush claimed he disagreed with the Republican Party platform opposing civil unions of same-sex couples and that the issues should be left up to the states. "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do so," Bush told Gibson during the interview. Gibson then noted that the Republican Party platform opposed civil unions, to which Bush replied, "Well, I don't." Gibson then asked, "So the Republican Party platform on that point, as far as youre concerned, is wrong?" "Right," Bush said. However, Bush opposes same-sex marriage, continues to support a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and despite these latest remarks, White House officials have said that Bush would not have endorsed civil unions as the governor of Texas. In Oct. 2003, Bush issued a proclamation endorsing Marriage Protection Week, a week of anti-gay family events sponsored by more than two dozen right-wing religious organizations, which called on elected officials to sign a pledge not only opposing marriage equality for same-sex couples, but also opposing civil unions and domestic partner benefits.
Sources: New York Times, "Bush Says His Party Is Wrong to Oppose Gay Civil Unions," Elisabeth Bumiller, Oct. 26, 2004; National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "Bush and today's civil unions statements," Oct. 26, 2004
Who Wears the Flip-Flops Now?
Joel Connelly, of the Seattle PostIntelligencer, demonstrates how Bush, who has charged John Kerry relentlessly with flip-flopping, has flip-flopped himself on a number of issues throughout the past four years. Some of Bushs flip-flops include: speaking against the Clinton administrations use of U.S. troops for nation-building, then using the same concept in Iraq; declaring Osama bin Laden as the real enemy and later claiming he is not a priority; originally opposing the creation of a 9/11 Commission, then later supporting this idea; declaring the administration would support (at least sign) the renewal of Congresss ban on military-style assault weapons with no follow-through; and promising to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, but ultimately doing nothing to help this problem. Connelly presents the voter with a more "educated" depiction of what it means to flip-flop. As it turns out, Bush is not one to talk. A web site dedicated to keeping track of Bushs flip flops continues to add more charges to its collection. Check out 50BushFlipFlops.com for a complete list.
Sources: In These Times, "Bush-Cheney Flip Flops Cost America in Blood," Joel Connelly, Sept. 29, 2004; 50BushFlipFlops.com, "Long Flip Flop List."
Bush Administration Pressures Agencies to Skew Facts: The Bush administration's attempts to "enshrine religious beliefs in government agencies" have led to the release of altered or misleading reports on important health issues. Despite the absence of scientific evidence proving that abstinence-only programs are effective in reducing teen sexual activity, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) removed a link from its website to a list of sex education programs that combined abstinence education with information on contraception. The CDC and the U.S. Agency for International Development hid scientific evidence proving that condoms were an effective means of preventing HIV/AIDS. The National Cancer Institute misrepresented the scientific evidence that having an abortion does not make a woman more likely to contract breast cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to allow the over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception, overruling the recommendations of the FDA staff and two advisory panels. In addition to these examples, the Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly been pressured to issue misleading reports to protect Bush's allies in big agriculture and the mining and oil industries.
Source: Philadelphia Daily News, "Bush sells out people's health to religious zealots, corporate contributors," Carol Towarnicky, Sept. 23, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tracking Bush's Flip-Flops (Sept. 21, 2004): The "John Kerry flip-flops on the issues" attacks have been relentless these past few weeks, but has anyone really checked Bush's record? For the most part, the media has ignored Bush's obvious flip-flops, but on August 30, Bush's statement that the war on terror could not be won caught national attention. The next day, Bush was back to his firm resolution that "we will win" the war on terror. Fortunately, people are beginning to notice this disturbing trend. The Center for American Progress recently issued a series of Bush's embarrassing flip-flops on important issues:
Social Security Surplus
Bush Pledges Not to Touch Social Security Surplus: "We're going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus." [Bush, 3/3/01]
Bush Spends Social Security Surplus: The New York Times reported that "the president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4 trillion in Social Security funds to other purposes." [The New York Times, 2/6/02]
Abortion
Bush Supports a Woman's Right to Choose: "Bush said he...favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." [The Nation, 6/15/00, quoting the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]
Bush Opposes a Woman's Right to Choose: "I am pro-life." [Governor Bush, 10/3/00]
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Bush Says We Found the Weapons of Mass Destruction: "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." [Bush, Interview in Poland, 5/29/03]
Bush Says We Haven't Found Weapons of Mass Destruction: "David Kay has found the capacity to produce weapons. And when David Kay goes in and says we haven't found stockpiles yet, and there's theories as to where the weapons went. They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." [Bush, "Meet the Press," 2/7/04]
Osama bin Laden
Bush Wants Osama Dead or Alive: "I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" [Bush, on Osama Bin Laden, 9/17/01]
Bush Doesn't Care About Osama: "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." [Bush, Press Conference, 3/13/02]
Same-Sex Marriage
Bush Says Same-Sex Marriage Is a State Issue: "The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's issue like you're trying to get me into." [Gov. George W. Bush on gay marriage, "Larry King Live," 2/15/00]
Bush Supports Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage: "Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife." [Bush, 2/24/04]
