Sandals at the Gate

I figured that I'd spend a little time trying to come up with a list of the outrageously stupid, criminal, and incompetent things George W. Bush has done. I found that making the list was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and the offenses just kept piling up--and I am certain that I am still missing a whole bunch of stuff. Here's what I could come up with, without even doing so much as a Google search:

• Has threatened long-cherished US freedoms, liberties and civil rights
• Has consistently used fear and fake security "alerts" to bolster his popularity and sabotage political opponents
• Pretended not to have links to corrupt figures like Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff, not to mention being in the pocket of the Saudis
• Has overseen rampant cronyism, mismanagement in many government agencies like FEMA
• Stayed on vacation and let New Orleans drown for several days while he did nothing
• Raced back from vacation to sign Terri Schiavo legislation that was later proven wrongful
• Staged fake relief operations in Louisiana as photo ops for himself while halting actual rescue operations during his visits
• Took more time off on vacation than any president in history, about 20% of total time in office
• Allowed energy industry to write US energy policy
• Signed legislation designed to benefit pharmaceutical industry against interest of the American people
• Signed legislation designed to benefit banking & credit industry against interest of the American people
• Abrogated multiple international treaties the U.S. had signed and long honored
• Turned international trust, respect and sympathy for the U.S. into contempt, anger, and suspicion
• Allowed the 9/11 attacks on his watch though his administration had multiple warnings and more than enough evidence to stop them
• Fought attempts to investigate 9/11 mismanagement at every turn
• Despite massive spending on "security," has underfunded domestic security
• Has left US ports unprotected and mostly unchecked, gave control of some to country where 9/11 hijackers came from
• Failed to follow up on policies urged by 9/11 commission
• Failed to capture Osama bin Laden
• Has enabled al Qaeda to make massive recruitments
• Lied about Iraq having "massive stockpiles" of WMD
• Lied about Iraq being close to completing a nuclear weapon
• Lied about Iraq trying to buy uranium
• Lied about Iraq's ties with al Qaeda
• Lied about Saddam Hussein's involvement in 9/11
• Lied about his early intent to invade Iraq
• Established dangerous and unethical policy of pre-emptive warfare
• Mismanaged the War in Iraq from the start
• Initially tried to avoid Congressional or U.N. approval for Iraq War before flip-flopping
• Failed to build a coalition that could succeed in winning a long-term war in Iraq
• Failed to prepare an exit strategy from Iraq
• Failed to send enough troops as per the advice of the generals
• Failed to supply troops with necessary gear, especially armor
• Allowed massive looting of everything except oil fields
• Lied about the cost of the war
• Tried to hide flag-draped coffins, does not take time to even sign letters to families
• Has allowed massive corruption and mismanagement causing billions of US tax dollars to be stolen
• Stacked Iraqi press office with GOP operatives during election to fabricate "good" news
• Administration blew cover of CIA operative in retribution for operative's husband exposing Bush lie about Iraq
• Turned a historic budget surplus into a string of record deficits
• Has overseen weakest overall job growth in nearly a century
• Has never used a veto while Republicans in Congress go on biggest pork-barrel spending spree in history
• Has stacked the Supreme Court with ultraconservatives who will destroy Roe v. Wade and dismantle civil rights
• Has consistently short-changed troops, taken away benefits, treated them like crap while constantly using them as window dressing for his photo ops and speeches
• Anemic "recovery" from recession is the weakest and latest-coming in more than half a century
• Has overseen a surge of McJobs: low-paying and benefit-free employment exploding
• Ignored Middle East until situation festered, oversaw terrorist group Hamas gaining power in Palestine
• Ignored North Korea and allowed its nuclear program to go unchecked
• Ignored Iran and allowed its nuclear program to go unchecked
• Did not object in the slightest when "ally" Pakistan gave nuclear secrets to Iran and others then pardoned leaker
• Instigated culture of torture, created secret prisons for that purpose, defended use of torture
• Oversaw sending of "suspects" to be tortured in third-party countries
• Has given multiple massive tax cuts and payoffs to wealthy individuals and to industries while short-changing lower- and middle-class Americans
• Paid journalists to say good things about him and his programs without disclosing payments
• Paid Iraqi journalists to report slanted news
• Lied about whether he'd apply an abortion litmus test to Supreme Court nominees
• Used taxpayer dollars to pay for ads for his campaign, disguised ads as fake "news reports"
• Mismanaged US military until stretched so thin it is unable to do anything more
• Mismanaged US military until recruitment crisis has developed
• Deliberately withheld true cost of Medicare bill from Congress, threatened job of actuary who wanted to reveal truth
• Sent thousands of US soldiers to die, tens of thousands to be maimed, then joked about not finding WMD
• Has sabotaged clean air and water regulations in favor of industry and to the detriment of the environment
• Underfunded education programs and pushed failed testing policies
• Slashed funding for welfare, education and housing while allowing record spending on weapons systems, wars, and wealthy people
• Has consistently suppressed scientific evidence that disagrees with his policies
• Supported "intelligent design" and pushed for it to be taught equal to evolution in public schools
• Smeared long list of former administration officials and agents who spoke out against him, including Paul O'Neill, Joseph Smith, Lawrence Lindsay, Anthony Zinni, Eric Shinseki, Richard Foster, John DiIulio, Scott Ritter, Joseph Wilson, and Richard Clarke
• Has been uniformly hostile to homosexuals and their rights
• Has consistently attacked the separation of church and state
• Authorized illegal wiretapping on American citizens
• Lied about obtaining court warrants for wiretaps before the program was made public
• Lied excessively about his reasons for authorizing illegal wiretaps
• Pretended to speak to the American public but closed events and only allowed in supporters even when taxpayer dollars funded events
• Removed protesters to "free speech zones" far from appearance areas or even travel routes
• Had protesters arrested on bogus charges even when they just wore T-shirts critical of him
• Has acted in an unprecedentedly partisan manner in political affairs
• Under Bush, oil prices have skyrocketed
• Got more of his judicial nominees approved than almost any modern president, then whined and attacked Democrats for being obstructionist, then re-nominated the ones he couldn't get passed previously
• Tried to kill off social security
• Encouraged businesses to move jobs overseas, supporting tax breaks to do so
• Prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies
• Has failed to raise the minimum wage, allowing it to fall to absolutely unlivable levels

• Consistently unwilling to admit to having made any mistakes at all