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A Year of Shame
In George W. Bush's first year in office, he has done little
to serve the people and protect the resources we all depend on.
On the contrary, he has grabbed the reigns of power as if his vested
interests and spoilers depended upon it. And the media has only
helped him along.
By Liane
Casten
No one should be surprised by the polls showing that up to 90 percent
of Americans are satisfied with the performance of the President,
or that close to 80 percent of the citizenry applaud his administration's
seat-of-the-pants management of an undeclared war. After all, most
Americans get their information from the corporate media that have
pledged to give the American people only the President's and the
corporate side of the story.
TV pundits
have been the worst. With the kind of poll-and-ratings-driven bootlicking
that American television – the main source of news for most
Americans – provides on such occasions as his State of the
Union address, is it any wonder that Bush's job approval remains
record-high? The public is kept out of the loop.
Letters to
the editors in both the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago
Tribune continue a stream of heady praise: "President Bush
was always smart, emboldened and full of purpose." "He'll be a shoo-in
in 2004." A headline in the Sun-Times (1-20-02) reads,
"A year later, he's a new man," and continues with the subhead,
"War, recession turned Bush from comic target into commander in
chief."
There is a
reason for such laudatory exclamations: the public is simply not
aware of what this man is really doing to the country and to the
world – thanks to a servile media.
Before the
terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Bush was widely-perceived
as a dunce who could not untwist his tongue with both hands. Now,
Bush seems, as the media love to say, to have grown into the job;
he appears more decisive and effective during this period of crisis.
In fact, Bush dominates the Gallup Poll as the man most admired
by Americans.
Yet, at the
same time Bush is riding high in the polls, he has invoked his executive
powers to run roughshod over constitutionally protected civil liberties.
He is stepping up his campaign to appoint far right judges to federal
courts, and former Iran-Contra criminals to top administrative posts.
He seems more interested in providing retroactive tax subsidies
to big businesses than helping the growing number of jobless people.
And he has used the manipulation of fear to keep Americans off balance
and in need of "security."
Bush is the
CEO of corporate America. New York activist Jack A. Smith noted,
"To maintain
his unexpected political momentum, Bush must continue to convince
the people of the United States that their very lives are in immediate
danger from 'evil forces' bent upon destroying their society by
every conceivable means, from an envelope of anthrax to weapons
of mass destruction. The more the population fears, the more it
supports a president who promises to take effective action to save
them; who will, indeed, even launch a 'war on terrorism' to protect
them. And if this means huge increases in the already bloated war
budget, multi-billions more for 'homeland defense,' grave restrictions
on civil liberties, tax giveaways to rich corporations and individuals,
despoliation of the environment, and cutbacks in social programs
– so be it."
Clearly, the
bad news of September 11 also has been good for George W. Bush.
Under the radar screen of war and patriotism and high approval ratings,
George Bush is fulfilling his true agenda. According to The
Washington Post (10/07/01), Vice President Dick Cheney declared
that the government's war "may never end. At least, not in our lifetimes."
Politically
speaking, Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network are the best
thing that ever happened to the presidency of George W. Bush. The
expatriate Saudi millionaire made President Bush what he is today–a
remarkably popular chief executive who is opportunistically transforming
the Sept. 11 terror attacks into a political mandate for pursuing
strategic right-wing goals. And Congress can't wait to hand over
most of what this man and his corporate supporters want.
So while the
public is seduced by Bush's words–"sustain
and extend" the spirit of citizenship and service that has been
engendered in the wake of Sept. 11 and "lead the world toward values
that will bring lasting peace"–let's
look at what this man and his well-connected cabinet is doing away
from public scrutiny.
Environment
Cut Environmental
Protection Agency budget by $500 million.
Cut by 50%
funding for research into renewable energy sources.
Eliminated
funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program, which encourages farmers
to maintain wetlands habitat on their property.
Proposed to
eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the
coral reefs of northwest Hawaii.
Abandoned
a campaign pledge to invest $100 million for rain forest conservation.
Pulled out
of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty global warming agreement.
Cut funding
by 28% for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.
Canceled 2004
deadline for automakers to develop prototype high-mileage cars.
Abandoned
his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, the waste gas that
contributes to global warming.
Rescinded
the rule mandating increased energy-saving efficiency regulations
for central air conditioners and heat pumps.
Proposes to
ease permit process – including environmental considerations
– for refinery, nuclear and hydroelectric dam construction.
Unveiled a
plan in January to convert 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade
plutonium into fuel for nuclear power plants. Conversion will cost
$3.8 billion over 20 years, including construction of two new facilities
at the Savannah River weapons and research site in South Carolina,
set to begin in 2004.
Plans to serve
genetically engineered foods at all official government functions.
Significantly
eased field-testing controls on genetically-engineered crops.
Forced out
Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck and appointed a timber industry
lobbyist.
Nominated
ex-mining company executive David Lauriski to the post of Assistant
Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
Approved Interior
Secretary Gale Norton's controversial plan to auction oil and gas
development tracts off the coast of eastern Florida.
Approved Gale
Norton to send out letters to state officials soliciting suggestions
for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal
mining, and foresting.
Proposes that
$1.2 billion in funding for alternative renewable energy come from
selling oil and gas lease tracts in the Alaska National Wildlife
Reserve.
Announced
intention to open up Montana's Lewis and Clark National Forest to
oil drilling.
Moved to allow
road building in national forests, making it easier for mining companies
to dig for ore on public lands, while easing energy-saving standards
for air conditioners.
Proposes to
re-draw boundaries of nation's monuments, which would technically
allow oil and gas drilling "outside" of national monuments.
Suspended
rules that would require hardrock mining companies to clean up sites
on Western public lands.
Refused to
fund continued cleanup of uranium-slag heap in Utah.
Proposed to
curtail the ability of groups to sue in order to get an animal placed
on the Endangered Species List.
Proposes to
reverse regulations protecting 60 million acres of national forest
from logging and road building.
Allowed Interior
Secretary Gale Norton to shelve citizen-led grizzly bear re-introduction
plan scheduled for Idaho and Montana wilderness.
Appointed
a Vice President who once declared, "If you want to do something
about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear
power plants." (Dick Cheney on Meet the Press.)
Labor rights
Appointed
Eugene Scalia, who has a record of opposing worker protections,
as the US Department of Labor's top lawyer. Sen. Paul Wellstone
(D-Minn.) called Scalia's appointment a "continuation of President
Bush's direct assault on American workers and their families."
Repealed the
rule that would have allowed government agencies to refuse federal
contracts to companies that do not comply with labor, environmental
and consumer-protection laws.
Cut $200 million
of work force training for dislocated workers.
Renegotiating
free trade agreement with Jordan to eliminate workers' rights and
safeguards for the environment.
Repealed workplace
ergonomic rules designed to improve worker health and safety.
Issued an
executive order barring union representation at United States attorneys'
offices and the Justice Department.
Education
Cut federal
spending on libraries by $39 million.
Cut $35 million
in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
Blocked rules
that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance
to non-English-speaking persons. This from a candidate who would
readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of Hispanic
voters.
Proposed elimination
of the "Reading is Fundamental" program that gives free books to
poor children.
Eliminated
funding for the "We the People" education program, which taught
schoolchildren about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and citizenship.
Social
welfare
Cut $15.7
million earmarked for states to investigate cases of child abuse
and neglect.
Cut program
to provide childcare to low-income families as they move from welfare
to work.
Helped kill
a law designed to make it tougher for teenagers to get credit cards.
Cut the Community
Oriented Policing Services program.
Reduced by
40% the Low Income Home Assistance Program for low-income individuals
who need assistance paying energy bills.
Cut $60 million
from a Boys and Girls Clubs of America program for public housing.
Cut $700 million
in capital funds for repairs in public housing.
Public
health and safety
Revoked rules
(though later rescinded) that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic
in drinking water.
Allowed the
USDA to no longer close food processors that violate its salmonella
food-safety standard.
Continues
to hold up federal funding for stem cell research projects.
Reduced by
86% the Community Access Program for public hospitals, clinics and
providers of care for people without insurance.
Cut a program
that provided prescription contraceptive coverage to federal employees
(though it still pays for Viagra).
Closed White
House Office for Women's Health Initiatives and Outreach.
Gutted the
White House AIDS Office.
Earmarked
$4 million in new federal grant money for HIV and drug abuse prevention
programs to go only to religious groups and not secular equivalents.
Banned federal
aid to international family planning programs that offer abortion
counseling using other independent funds.
Led to the
de-funding of UNFPA (United Nations Family Planning Act). The President's
budget eliminates UNFPA funding for 2003, threatening family planning
for millions of poor women around the world. It also strips funding
for UNFPA in 2002, even though Congress approved $34 million for
the program last December.
Refused to
fund continued litigation of the government's tobacco company lawsuit.
Proposed to
eliminate a federal program, designed and successfully used in Seattle,
to help communities prepare for natural disasters.
Freedom
of information
Signed another
effort to govern by secrecyÑExecutive Order 13233, ending 27 years
of Congressional and judicial efforts to make presidential papers
and records available to the public.
Rescinded
a proposal to increase public access to information about the potential
consequences resulting from chemical plant accidents.
Economy
Proposed a
$2 trillion tax cut, of which 43% will go to the wealthiest 1% of
Americans.
Appointed
at least five current government officials who formerly worked for
Enron, a company whose mismanagement and fraudulent practices have
led to bankruptcy and robbed tens of thousands of employees and
investors of their jobs and savings.
Foreign
policy
Negotiating
to expand the dangerous NAFTA Chapter 11 investor provision to 31
more countries in the hemisphere, through the so-called Free Trade
Area of the Americas (FTAA). The Fast Track bill is part of this
giant corporate gift. Chapter 11 rules allow corporations to sue
countries directly to overturn public interest laws that might affect
potential corporate profits. These suits are decided in secret by
unelected bureaucrats, and have led to corporate assaults against
health, safety and environmental laws.
Is pushing
for development of small nuclear arms to attack deeply buried targets
and weapons, which would violate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Undermined
years of productive negotiations between North and South Korea that
involved a nuclear weapons freeze and a moratorium on missile development.
Domestic
and international law
Signed an
executive order – without consulting Congress – that allows
the US military to establish secret tribunals to try foreigners
charged with terrorism. Last year the State Department condemned
similar judicial practices in Sudan: "Military trials, which sometimes
are secret and brief, do not provide procedural safeguards, sometimes
have taken place with no advocate or counsel permitted, and do not
provide an effective appeal from a death sentence."
Will no longer
seek recommendations from the American Bar Association for federal
judiciary appointments.
Makes sure
convicted misdemeanor drug users cannot get financial aid for college,
though convicted murderers can.
Signed a bill
that makes it harder for poor and middle-class Americans to file
for bankruptcy, even in the case of daunting medical bills.
Is seeking
the dismissal of class-action lawsuit filed in the US against Japan
by Asian women forced to work as sex slaves during WWII.
The Center
for Public Integrity reported that George W. Bush violated federal
securities laws at least four times when he was a director of a
Texas oil firm in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to an
internal Securities and Exchange Commission report. The report was
part of a well-publicized investigation by the SEC on whether Bush
had benefited from insider information when he sold Harken Energy
Corp. stock before its value plummeted, and then failed to promptly
report the transaction to the SEC, in violation of federal law.
Bush's stake in Harken helped make him a multimillionaire.
The SEC memorandum
discloses that Bush had also been tardy in reporting three other
transactions involving stock in Harken, on whose board he sat as
director. At the same time Bush unloaded his Harken stock in 1990,
he also sold nearly $700,000 worth of shares in four other companies.
About $600,000 of the proceeds went to pay off a bank loan he had
taken a year earlier to pay for a minority stake in the Texas Rangers
baseball team. In 1998, Bush's trust sold that stake for $16 million,
catapulting him to the rank of multimillionaire.
Bush is the
stealth corporate standard-bearer. He is no friend of the American
people. Enron may have shoved us back to reality. In the absence
of a vigorous media, the public needs to spread the truth. Given
the media role as an apologetic lapdog for a man who is rapidly
undermining our Constitution and our future as a democratic nation,
we must alert everyone we know.
As E.L. Doctorow
said: "Corporations that pit themselves against the manifest needs
of the American people according to the issues that arise take turns
as enemies of the people." 
Liane Casten is an award-winning writer and president
of Chicago Media Watch.
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