The Nightmare We Are Waking Up From
Harper's has a list of "statistics" summarizing the Bush years.
This is long, but you don't have anything else to do, do you? A hundred or more measures of corruption, greed, and ineptitude, presented with some wit.
This is long, but you don't have anything else to do, do you? A hundred or more measures of corruption, greed, and ineptitude, presented with some wit.
Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206
Amount for which Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500
Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984
Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400
Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42
Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2
Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser: 1
Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02
Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0
Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6
Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9
Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01
Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182
Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0
Number charged with an immigration violation: 762
Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0
Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20
Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075
Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39
Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5
Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate: 1, 2, 3
Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1
Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000
Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069
Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100
Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0
Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02
Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1
Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25
Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s mansion: 2
Number by then–New York Times reporter Judith Miller: 1
Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6
Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120
Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6
Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4
Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35
Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677
Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9
Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295
Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05
Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wife’s “real killers”: 13
Minimum number of close-up photographs of Bush’s hands owned by his current chief of staff, Josh Bolten: 4
Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6
Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400
Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3
Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25
Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500
Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8
Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200
Date on which USA Today added Guantánamo to its weather map: 1/3/05
Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897
Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110
Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79
Number of the thirty-eight Iraq war veterans who have run for Congress who were Democrats: 21
Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62
Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10
Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40
Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4
Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4
Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000
Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172
Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15
Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9
Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121
Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5
Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113
Amount the Justice Department spent in 2001 installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice: $8,650
Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196
Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890
Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ: 711
Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so: 4
Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130
Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92
Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466
Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4
Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush: 61
Average number made yearly under Clinton: 65
Minimum number of pheasant hunts Dick Cheney has gone on since he shot a hunting companion in 2006: 5
Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1
Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4
Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4
Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm: +153
Rank of Nevaeh, “heaven” spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000: 1
Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal government’s online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17
Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000
Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000
Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88
Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +11, +15
Number of feet the Ground Zero pit has been built up since the site was fully cleared in 2002: 30
Number of 980-foot-plus “Super Tall” towers built in the Arab world in the seven years since 9/11: 4
Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 “road map” to a Palestinian state was to have been reached: 2005
Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions of the first phase that have yet to be completed: 12
Number of times in 2007 that U.S. media called General David Petraeus “King David”: 14
Percentage change during the first ten months of the Iraq war “surge” in the number of Iraqis detained in U.S.-run prisons: +63
Percentage change in the number of Iraqis aged nine to seventeen detained: +285
Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war: 1:1
Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31)
Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31
Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3
Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts: 15:6
Ratio in 2006: 14:15
Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000
Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000
Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4
Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000
Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies: 45,000
Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5
Estimated value of Henry Paulson’s Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it: $575,000,000
Estimated value of that stock today: $238,000,000
Salary in 2006 of the White House’s newly created Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641
Minimum number of Bush-related books published since 2001: 606
Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clinton’s memoir and in that of George W. Bush’s, respectively: 49, 5
Minimum number of nicknames Bush has given to associates during his presidency: 75
Number of associates with the last name Jackson he has dubbed “Action Jackson”: 2
Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14
Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149
Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37
Harper’s Index
posted by JimK at 2:12 PM
15 Comments:
Andrea-not anon
My favorite phrase these days- well, you know
Prsident Barack Hussein Obama! and I'll add Vice President Joseph Biden.
Did anyone hear that the reason Cheney was in the wheelchair at the inauguration is that he was getting ready to shed his human form and could no longer stand upright?
The Washington
Post is not too jazzed about the Obama performance so far:
"some in Congress and the new administration apparently see the country's present recession as an opportunity to change the federal government's spending priorities more generally or simply to reward loyal political constituencies.....it's risky to make new, multiyear commitments in the middle of a crisis without debate over competing priorities -- and without paying for them through some means other than borrowing.
Helping hire, equip and pay police, a $4 billion item under the bill, might be a good idea, but writing checks to individual households for the same amount would do more to stimulate the economy. Ditto for $16 billion in Pell Grants for college students, $2.1 billion for Head Start and $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. All of those ideas may have merit, but why do they belong in an emergency measure aimed to kick-start the economy? For sheer irrationality, it would be hard to top the $4.19 billion the bill would give to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, on top of $4 billion authorized last year. This program gives local governments money to buy and rehabilitate homes that have been foreclosed on -- thus giving lenders an incentive to foreclose on more houses.
Much of the stimulus bill does not really claim to deliver a short-term boost to the economy. Provisions to develop a "smart grid" for electricity and to enhance scientific research, alternative energy development and education seek to boost the economy's long-term efficiency, and, hence, its capacity to grow. We are sympathetic to the objective, and there might be much to recommend each of the various proposals. But given their cost, and the inherent difficulty of forecasting their impact, Congress should vet them through the normal legislative process, weigh them against other priorities and pay for them.
Fiscal stimulus is far from a sure-fire remedy. Economists disagree about the efficacy of every pump-priming effort from the New Deal to last year's tax rebates. In general, fiscal policy had fallen out of favor in economics; monetary policy, orchestrated by the Federal Reserve, is considered more efficient. Many economists note Japan's failed attempt to borrow and spend its way out of a recession during the 1990s. That country would have been better off, they say, if government had moved swiftly to recapitalize its banks instead of attempting repeated stimulus packages. As it is, Japan piled up a massive debt and recovered only modestly, leaving it vulnerable to today's downturn.
Fiscal policy is enjoying a political and intellectual comeback but in large part because the government is running out of alternatives; the Fed has already cut interest rates to zero and pumped its balance sheet up to more than $2 trillion. So legislators face a dilemma: They are being told that the stimulus package must be huge to work, but there may be no way to spend so much money quickly and effectively. Given the limitations, Congress and the administration would be well advised to trim the stimulus bill's more dubious spending, or reallocate it and focus on a definitive financial sector cleanup. Fiscal stimulus can be a part of the solution, but only if it is "targeted, timely and temporary." The efforts so far don't quite match that description."
Some historical perspective:
"Killing of Armenians in Turkey by the Turks, 1915: 1,5000,000 dead
Killing of the Chinese by the Japan, 1938: 300,000 dead
Nazi Holocaust, Adolf Hitler, 1940s: 6,000,000 dead
Soviet Political Killings, USSR, 1930s-1970s: 20,000,000 dead
Bosnian Conflict, 1994: 200,000 dead
Rwanda, 1994: 800,000 dead
Darfur, 2002-present: 300,000 dead
Roe v. Wade, USA, 1973-2009, 93rd-111th Congress: 38,000,000 dead"
Obama needs to live up to his rhetoric and side with the weak and defenseless.
Check the first figure in your latest post, AnonBigot.
1, 5000,000 is not a number.
As per usual, you get your stats from junk sources.
As usual, you miss the point, Derrick.
Everyone in Mexico still talking to you, Derrick?
Or did that minority who decided you're alright turn against you now that Obama has made it clear that he too will protect American interests abroad?
He bombed sites in Pakistan over the objection of their democratically elected leaders last week. I think Obama was right to do so but it's just the kind of thing foreign critics of Bush were always so supposedly livid about.
The Washington Post is not too jazzed about the Obama performance so far:
Sure it is. The Post likes "much" of the plan. You omitted the first paragraph of the commentary, which reads:
THERE IS much that makes sense in the $825 billion economic stimulus plan that the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is developing, in close cooperation with President Obama's advisers. Several core features -- increased food stamps and unemployment benefits; Medicaid money for state governments; increased infrastructure spending; a tax rebate to low- and moderate-income families -- are either temporary measures that are well calculated to enable quick spending by families and businesses or that could be amended to become so.
You missed the point, Bea. While acknowledging that there are some stimulus aspects to the bill, the Post is chagrined that Obama is confusing things by mixing up all kinds of other priorities that should be deliberated carefully rather than rushed through, as the stimulus package should be.
Most economists believe our economy needs 825 billion in stimulus not 300 billion in stimulus and 425 billion in liberal agenda funding.
Unfortunately, we're starting to see signs of politics as usual.
TTF's got their chunk, btw. Obama's proposal includes 325 million for distributing free condoms.
Don't forget that Obama has now broken his promise of a 4K tax credit for college tution. He reduced that to 2.5K, not because of new economic reality, he's spennding a trillion, for heaven's sake. He did it because he has different priorities now. The next election isn't for four years.
He has a history of this kind of thing. Remember when he opposed NAFTA while campaigning in the Rust Belt and then he went to Canada and told their leaders in private that he was just saying that for political reasons?
Andrea- not anon
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!
A GUY SPENDING HIS POLITICAL CAPITAL PRETTY FAST!
He had an approval rating of 80% on inauguration day, like most new presidents.
He's losing luster faster than most.
By the end of the week, it was down to 67%.
That might be a record for three days!
Obama is confusing things by mixing up all kinds of other priorities that should be deliberated carefully rather than rushed through, as the stimulus package should be.
At least the Obama Administration will allow members of Congress to read it before they vote on it, unlike the sweeping Patriot Act pushed through by the Bush Administration, portions of which have been struck down as unconstitutional.
Obama's proposal includes 325 million for distributing free condoms.
In 1986, C. Everett Koop, Reagan's Surgeon General, also called for the distribution of condoms and for teaching comprehensive sex education in our public schools to help slow the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Have you checked the GOP poll numbers lately? We notice you skipped reporting those.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recognizes 12,000,000 victims of the Holocaust, 6,000,000 of whom were Jews. The remaining 6,000,000 included Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti and Roma Gypsies, Polish and Russian civilians and prisoners of war, Homosexuals, political oponents of the regime, and those deemed "not worthy of life" (mentally or physically incapacitated individuals). These were all people who were selected to be identified, removed from the general population, and killed as a matter of Nazi policy and does not include the victims who were killed through war actions.
R.A.P.
"At least the Obama Administration will allow members of Congress to read it before they vote on it, unlike the sweeping Patriot Act pushed through by the Bush Administration, portions of which have been struck down as unconstitutional."
Good, Bea. Shift focus.
That's how we know you have no argument to counter we what we're saying.
"Obama's proposal includes 325 million for distributing free condoms.
In 1986, C. Everett Koop, Reagan's Surgeon General, also called for the distribution of condoms and for teaching comprehensive sex education in our public schools to help slow the HIV/AIDS epidemic."
That was over 20 years ago. After two decades, it doesn't look like that helped.
"Have you checked the GOP poll numbers lately? We notice you skipped reporting those."
After 27 years of the Reagan era, there was bound to be a bad patch. The biggest problem was misunderstanding. In a few years, we will see a consensus develop that (1) the establishment of a Democratic and stable Iraq is a turning point in the war on terror and (2) that the economic meltdown was a result of Chinese currency manipulations, which America is weathering better than some of the highly regulated countries.
"The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recognizes 12,000,000 victims of the Holocaust, 6,000,000 of whom were Jews. The remaining 6,000,000 included Jehovah's Witnesses, Sinti and Roma Gypsies, Polish and Russian civilians and prisoners of war, Homosexuals, political oponents of the regime, and those deemed "not worthy of life" (mentally or physically incapacitated individuals). These were all people who were selected to be identified, removed from the general population, and killed as a matter of Nazi policy and does not include the victims who were killed through war actions."
Thanks for correction. Still startling that legalized abortion has destroyed more than three times as many innocent lives since 1973 than Hitler did during the Holocaust.
Of course everyone is talking to me, AnonBigot. I am a nice person, so why wouldn´t they?
They, the Mexicans, really don´t care about what the USA does with its country, but what they do care about is what the USA does with Mexico. So far, Obama has been striking down a lot of the Bush bigotry tactics, so Mexico remains happy with Obama.
"At least the Obama Administration will allow members of Congress to read it before they vote on it, unlike the sweeping Patriot Act pushed through by the Bush Administration, portions of which have been struck down as unconstitutional."
Good, Bea. Shift focus.
The focus is on your quote from the Post:
"it's risky to make new, multiyear commitments in the middle of a crisis without debate over competing priorities."
You never once complained about the Patriot Act being rammed through Congress, not only without "debate over competing priorities" but without even knowing what was written in it. It's not a shift of focus, it's me pointing out your hypocrisy.
That was over 20 years ago. After two decades, it doesn't look like that helped.
For someone who claims to have a broader base of knowledge than some, you are stunningly uninformed. Reagan and conservatives in Congress made sure money was never appropriated for condoms, a CDC recommended HIV/AIDS preventive tool to be distributed. Here's how it went down. Koop made his scientific report on HIV/AIDS and called for comprehensive sex education and the distribution of condoms. Reagan did call for increased education campaigns, saying that "education is critical to clearing up the fears" surrounding AIDS, and issued a "denunciation of discrimination," saying, "This is a battle against disease, not against our fellow Americans." But he added that "AIDS education, or any aspect of sex education, will not be value-neutral," and drew "hissing" when he said, "Final judgement is up to God." (Condon, San Diego Union Tribune, 6/1/87). In all, Reagan's proposals were criticized as doing "almost nothing to stop AIDS" (Pike, Newsday, 6/10/87) Reagan never asked Congress to appropriate one red cent for the distribution of condoms so there was no "two decades" of condom distribution for you to complain about.
Your prediction about Iraq will turn out as wrong as your prediction of President Huckabee, et al, and your explanation of the cause of the world-wide recession is as inaccurate as your notion that condoms have been widely distributed since Koop called for them to be in 1986.
As I new to this topic I could find no mistakes or any missing elements.Its just had a good read and I feel Informations are also good.
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