Bush-Cheney administration

Overview

This page covers the actions of George W. Bush's administration while he was President of the United States.

This administration had the good fortune (for them) of having Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency all controlled by the same party (itself having been taken over by the neoconservatives, a very self-protecting bunch), from the time of Bush's inauguration in 2001 until the November 2006 elections, thus acting with unusual unity. In the absence of any apparent dissent between these various bodies, acts of Congress and the Senate during that time can reasonably, therefore, be considered acts of the administration itself.

Personnel

• George W. Bush, President
• Dick Cheney, Vice-President
• Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
• Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, 2006-12-18 - present.
• former personnel
  • Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, 2005-02-03 - 2007-09-17
  • Karl Rove, advisor/strategist and Deputy Chief of Staff; resigned, probably to start working on the 2008 GOP campaign
  • Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense; resigned 2006-12-18 and was succeeded by Robert Gates. Was also SoD under Gerald Ford, 1975-1977.
  • Lewis Libby, former Chief of Staff and assistant for National Security Affairs to Dick Cheney; resigned 2005-10-28 after being indicted on criminal felony charges
  • John Ashcroft [W], Attorney General, 2001-01-20 - 2005-02-03; resigned, stating "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are both friends with Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia

Congress

• 109th US Congress, 2004-2006: Republican-led; often described as "the worst Congress in history"
• 110th US Congress, 2007-2009: Democrat-led; power-shift was a backlash against the 109th

Related Pages

• corruption in the Bush administration

Actions

Actions attributable to members of GWB's administration, including the majority-GOP-controlled Congress where there was no noticeable protest or apology from the President (and therefore presumably met his approval) are considered to be acts of this administration. Acts which are more or less directly attributable to GWB himself should be listed on his page.

• Has illegally assigned unprecedented powers to the President
• Apparently ignored many pre-9/11 warnings
• Spent $1.62 billion on advertising in 2.5 years (see [1] and [2]), an apparently unprecedented amount
• Changed a $5 trillion budget surplus into a $5 trillion budget deficit in only four years (while continuing to reiterate the ever-popular big lie about "tax-and-spend Liberals") – see US Presidential Administration Budgets); [3] (2006-03-06)
• The Invasion & Occupation of Iraq, which was carried through under false premises, was poorly planned, and has been thoroughly mismanaged [4]
  • Apparently stole millions of dollars from the Iraqi government [5] [6]
  • Has been less effective at rebuilding Iraq (despite multibillion-dollar levels of funding) post-invasion than Iraqis were in rebuilding it themselves (despite sanctions) after the 1991 war [7]
• Lackadaisical response to Hurricane Katrina
• 2006-10-17 Military Commissions Act of 2006 signed into law by Bush
• 2006-09-12 Military Commissions Act of 2006 is introduced
  • video commentary on MSNBC by Keith Olbermann
• 2006-05-15 U.S. restores full diplomatic relations with Libya
• 2003-10-30 Utah Public Lands First Victim of Bush Administration Anti-Wilderness Policies

Characteristics

• Repeatedly claims the United States is more secure now than it was immediately after 9/11, despite abysmally plummeting military readiness levels
• Has made it clear that they believe torture to be a legitimate weapon [8] in the "war on terror", which is consistent with repeated reports of torture by US military and officials
• Appears to be actively working to spread evangelism in the armed forces, especially at the highest levels, to the point of inviting religious control of the US military
• Anti-science, although they claim to be pro-science
• Anti-democracy: suppression of criticism, skyrocketing secrecy, and undermining freedoms of speech and of the press

Articles

• 2006-11-20 The Next Act by Seymour M. Hersh: inside notes on the administration's Iran strategy, both pre- and post- election
• 2006-10-17 The Worst Congress Ever by Matt Taibbi

Opinion

• 2007-08-22 Bush didn't have faith by Leonard Pitts Jr.: "The Bush administration, easily the manliest in recent American history, believed only weaklings, traitors and other liberal Democrats could be so naive as to believe you deal with a captured terrorist by reading him his Miranda rights. That, they told us, was evidence of "pre-9/11 thinking." But everything changed, they said, on that day, and the old rules, which had stood the nation through revolution, Civil War, Great Depression and social upheaval, no longer applied."
• 2007-07-15 Impeach Bush And Cheney Now by Paul Craig Roberts: "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."
  • 2007-07-19 Old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works' to trigger a police state: includes link to audio of interview
  • 2007-08-22 Reagan official warns America could be a police state within 1 year: commentary and embedded video (audio track is interview; video track is a mix of material including WWII-style posters both satirizing neo-patriotism and calling for aid from those who care about civilization)
• 2007-06-14 Shamelessness has been refined by Leonard Pitts, Jr.: "No administration in living memory has shown Team Bush's ability to reverse itself so blithely, to deny the obvious so serenely, to ignore precedent, propriety and responsibility with such placid unconcern for consequences or public perception."
• 2007-04-24 Fascist America, in 10 easy steps: "From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all."
• 2005-11-24 The long march of Dick Cheney (by Sidney Blumenthal, in Salon.com): "The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power."
• 2005-10-17 issue of Newsweek: On K Street Conservatism by George F. Will: "The fact that none of those responsible for the postwar planning, or lack thereof, in Iraq have been sacked suggests – no, shouts – that in Washington today there is no serious penalty for serious failure."

News

• 2007-08-15 The Professions Strike Back: "The organized bar – with a vote just one short of unanimity – has declared one of Bush’s executive orders illegal and vowed to seek Congressional action to override it. And psychologists appear poised to join their legal colleagues in an equally harsh denunciation. It’s about torture. Remember Bush’s claim, 'We do not torture'? Except, of course, we do, and on Bush’s personal orders." Finally, a group with real clout is standing up.
• 2007-03-09 Hyperpartisanship Watch by Kevin Drum: the Department of Justice under George W. Bush initiated far more investigations of Democrats (262) than Republicans (37) in local government offices, while the figures were much more balanced (36 to 30) for national-level offices more likely to attract national attention.
• 2006-11-20 Democrats call for ouster of U.S. health official: new family-planning chief apparently favors abstinence-based contraception
  • Discussion: Fake Family Planning Guy Has To Go
• 2006-08-20 I.R.S. Enlists Help in Collecting Delinquent Taxes: "Although I.R.S. officials acknowledge that this will be much more expensive than doing it internally, they say that Congress has forced their hand by refusing to let them hire more revenue officers, who could pull in a lot of easy-to-collect money."