Difference between revisions of "Bush-Cheney administration"

From Issuepedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m (→‎Overview: tweaks)
(→‎Characteristics: created new page for anti-democracy stuff and moved links from here)
Line 38: Line 38:
 
* Repeatedly claims the {{USA}} is more secure now than it was immediately after [[9/11]], despite abysmally plummeting [[US military readiness|military readiness]] levels
 
* Repeatedly claims the {{USA}} is more secure now than it was immediately after [[9/11]], despite abysmally plummeting [[US military readiness|military readiness]] levels
 
* Has made it clear that they believe torture to be a legitimate weapon [http://www.alternet.org/rights/36598/] in the "[[war on terror]]", which is consistent with repeated reports of [[Torture During GWB Administration|torture]] by US military and officials
 
* Has made it clear that they believe torture to be a legitimate weapon [http://www.alternet.org/rights/36598/] in the "[[war on terror]]", which is consistent with repeated reports of [[Torture During GWB Administration|torture]] by US military and officials
* Appears to be encouraging the spread of evangelism in the armed forces, to the point of inviting [[religious control of the US military]]
+
* 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]]/[[reality-based thinking|reality]], although they claim to be pro-science
+
* [[Bush II administration anti-science|Anti-science]], although they claim to be pro-science
** '''2007-03-23''' [http://www.miamiherald.com/285/story/50043.html Faking science? Bush team must think we're stupid] by Leonard Pitts, Jr.: names several examples of prior offenses
+
* [[Bush II administration anti-democracy|Anti-democracy]]: suppression of criticism, skyrocketing secrecy, and undermining freedoms of [[freedom of speech|speech]] and of [[freedom of the press|the press]]
** '''2006-11-28''' [http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801 How Old Is the Grand Canyon? Park Service Won't Say]: "Orders to Cater to Creationists Makes National Park Agnostic on Geology"
 
** '''2005-06-21''' [http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/15340res20050621.html The Assault on Scientific Freedom]
 
** "It is unambiguous that the GOP Congress cuts funding for the National Science Foundation and NOAA even while calling for "more research" on global climate change." [http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050911/news_lz1v11science.html]
 
* Anti-[[transparency]]:
 
** Accused of "[http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/12/bushs-war-on-press.html waging a war against the journalistic standards and practices that underpin not only a free press but our democracy]"
 
** '''Skyrocketing secrecy''': "Government secrecy has reached a historic high, even compared to the Cold War (San Diego Union July 3). Federal departments are classifying documents at a rate of 125 per minute... or two per second... and inventing new kinds of classification, while declassification efforts that peaked under the [[1992-1999 US Presidential Adminstration|Clinton Administration]] have slowed to a crawl." ([http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/] 2005-09-02 entry) See also:
 
*** [http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/12/gutting-freedom-of-information-act.html Gutting the Freedom of Information Act]  
 
*** [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21reclassify.html U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review]
 
*** [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000625.html Cold War Missiles Target of Blackout]: "The Bush administration has begun designating as secret some information that the government long provided even to its enemy the former Soviet Union: the numbers of strategic weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War."
 
** '''Suppression of contradictory viewpoints''':
 
*** Squelching of constructive critical discussion (e.g. "public dissent is strongly discouraged by the White House" mentioned in [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601281_pf.html]; [http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2005/11/dueling_article.html use of IRS] as a tool for preventing dissention); also [http://mediacitizen.blogspot.com/2005/12/eliminating-dissent-in-media.html Eliminating Dissent in the Media]
 
*** Repeated incidents of action against whistleblowers:
 
**** Bunnatine Greenhouse: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800881.html The Washington Post] [http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5104.html The Carpetbagger Report] (possibly problematic links: [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/international/middleeast/29halliburton.html?hp&ex=1125374400&en=f2175188366b5e36&ei=5094&partner=homepage] [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/army_contracting])
 
**** '''2004-11-14''': [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/14/161139/55 Bush Plans to Purge the 'Disloyal' at CIA]: "The White House has ordered the new CIA director ... to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush..." (a clear case of [[Equating the Individual with the Office]]) (also [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1114-01.htm another source])
 
**** The [[Wikipedia:Plame affair|Plame affair]]
 
*** Repeated [http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/scientists-signon-statement.html misrepresentation and suppression of scientific data] ([[Science Abuse]], and see also "anti-science" above)
 
**** articles about James Hansen:
 
***** '''2006-03-19''' [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/17/60minutes/main1415985.shtml Rewriting the Science] (from the ''60 Minutes'' TV show) ([http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/21/0152231 slashdot])
 
***** '''2006-01-30''' [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8650 Top climatologist accuses US of trying to gag him]
 
  
 
==Articles==
 
==Articles==

Revision as of 13:50, 11 July 2007

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
  • Karl Rove, advisor/strategist and Deputy Chief of Staff
  • Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
  • Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
  • former personnel
    • 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, former U.S. Attorney General; resigned 2005-02-03, 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

Related Pages

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.

Characteristics

Articles

Opinion

  • 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