So, this is my third of four diaries attempting to catalog all of the Bush Administration scandals, dirty tricks and attacks on democracy.
Please offer any critical advice. I've decided to refrain from saying ALL of the list are scandals and have accepted the suggestion of saying "dirty tricks." I know that some might feel that some on the list are more partisan debate rather than scandal or criminal, if you feel so, please let me know which ones rather than doing a blanket statement.
Please suggest anything that might be off the list, if you can, include a verifiable link to the crime/scandal/etc. that can help defend the accusation.
Once this round of vetting is over, I will publish the fourth diary with a word document complete with links, a PDF for printing and flyering and a prayer that our country will awake from this disaster and Impeach these sick fools.
Peace, and on to the list....
Bush Administration Scandal & Dirty Tricks Scorecard
- 2000 Election Fraud (FL & other states, Diebold & More)
- 2004 Election Fraud (OH & other states)
- Paid Armstrong Williams to Promote Education Reform Without Citing Admin Funding
- Cheney's Energy Task Force (Released Documents & WaPo Article)
- Jeff Gannon Journalist Mole/Closet-Gay Playmate (NSFW)
- Jack Abramoff (More)
- Katrina Response (Bush Debriefed on Conditions, Video & Timeline)
- Veto Stem Cell Research (First Use of Veto in 5½ years)
- Federal Funding for Churches to Distribute Community Based Services
- White House Rejects Most Foreign Aid for Katrina
- Carbon Dioxide (a Greenhouse Gas) Cannot Be Regulated as a Pollutant
- Kyoto Protocol Rejection
- New Nuclear Weapons Development
- Anthrax Letters (No Arrests/New Information)
- No Child Left Behind (Underfunding)
- Bankruptcy Bill (Ties to Credit Companies/Banks)
- Dick Cheney Saying, "Fuck himself," on the Senate Floor
- False Heroics of Jessica Lynch & Pat Tillman
- US Attorney Firings (Timeline)
- Torture World Wide Via Extraordinary Rendition (Must Read Static)
- Falsification of Iraq WMD Claims (PBS Fails to Contradict Perle Claims)
- Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson Retribution & CIA Leak
- No-Bid Contracts (Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, next? Watch Iraq for Sale)
- Halliburton Gas Price Gouging
- Halliburton (Cheney CEO @ time) & Iran Dealings (More)
- NH Phone Jamming During 2002 Election (Sadly, Overturned)
- Bogus "Video News" Releases (Society of Professional Journalists & Details)
- Ground Zero's Unsafe Air (Union of Concerned Scientists)
- Karl Rove Meets with Companies He Holds Stock In (Enron & Intel)
- Justice Scalia Refuses to Recuse Himself from Cheney Energy Task Force Case
- Bush's National Guard Service
- Niger Uranium Forgeries
- Sibel Edwards/Ashcroft FBI Translation States Secrets Cover Up
- Bin Laden Free (Possible Innocence in 9/11 & FBI Most Wanted Poster Last Updated 11/2001)
- 9/11 Questions Remain Unanswered (Molten Steel at Foundation, Buildings Falling Into Their Own Footprints, WTC 7, etc.)
- Enron & “Kenny-Boy”
- Pretzel Choking
- Mission Accomplished Carrier Production
- Monitoring Higher Education Courses & Teachings Via "International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2003"
- Bush Allows FBI to Confiscate Records of Business' Customers Without Being Allowed to Notify the Customers
- Sending Troops to War that are Unfit for Battle (Extended Tours, Inadequate Armor)
- Walter Reed Scandal
- Patriot Act
- NSA Spying on Peace Groups, et al.
- Banning Photographers on U.S. Military Bases from covering the Arrival of Caskets Containing the Remains Of U.S. Soldiers Killed Overseas
- Paying Iraqi Journalists to Write Positive Accounts of the U.S. War Effort
- Inviting U.S. Journalists to "Embed" with Military Units but Requiring Them to Submit Their Stories to the Military for Pre-publication Review
- Military Erasing Journalists’ Footage of Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
- Refusing to Disclose Statistics on Civilian Casualties
- Matteo Fontana Placed on Leave from the Department of Education for Receiving $100,000 in Stock from a Student Loan Lender
- Reducing Acceptable Levels of Arsenic for Gold Miners North of Yellowstone National Park
- Bush's #2 Domestic Policy Advisor, Claude Alexander Allen, Going Down in a $5,000 Shop-lifting Spree
- Terry Schiavo Intervention Theatrics
- Guantanamo Detention (UN Urged Closure)
- Guantanamo Torture (Prisoner Letter, Rumsfeld Pussyfoots, More Details)
- Geneva Convention’s Provisions for Prisoner Treatment Labeled "quaint" By Gonzales
- Abu Gharib Torture & “Gitmo-iz[ation]” by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller
- Erosion of Habeus Corpus
- August 2001 Presidential Memo, c/o Condi Rice: "bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S."
- U.S. Muslim Chaplain James Lee Falsely Accused of Aiding the Terrorists
- Bernard Kerik Nomination for Secretary of Homeland Security (Why Kerik Sucks)
- Robocalling Voters with Fake Democratic Candidate(s) Recordings
- Cheney Shoots Supporter in Face
- SAIC No-Bid Contract to Establish Iraq Media Network
- NPR and PBS Used as White House Propaganda Machine
- Car Bombs Excluded from Casualty Counts to Support Surge is “Working”
- Kidnapping of Haiti’s Democratically Elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
- USAID Secretary Caught in Call-Girl Ring
- Abramoff Trading Favors with Justice Department Lawyer
- Use of RNC Servers for Official Gov'ment Business (CNN w/ NSFW Image)
- Medicare Total Cost Misleadings
- REAL ID Act
- Bush Appointees Resign Under Clouds of Suspicion
- Continuation of Star Wars Program (Why It’s Probably a Bad Idea)
- Bullying North Korea During Korean Peninsula Reunification Talks (More)
- Domestic Surveillance (Illegal to Wiretap Domestically, Congressional Report, Media Falsehoods)
- No Fly List (Some for Attending Peace Rallies)
- Presidential Signing Statement Policy that Institutes Rule by Decree (More & Examples)
- Immunizing Cheney, Rove, Libby, Armitage and Hadley from Prosecution for Outing a Spy by Declassifying Her Identity
- Paul Bremmer’s Loss of $12-Billion in Iraq
- Government Contracts for a 20,000 Strong (BLACKWATER USA Mercenary Army, Exempt from Rule of Law)
- Reversing a Specific Prohibition in Law Against Unwarranted Searches of Registered Mail, by Decree
- Giving Medal of Freedom to Paul Bremer and George Tenet
- Paul Wolfowitz Nomination for World Bank President
- Bankrolling Al-Qaeda-related Terrorist Groups to Suppress Shiite Influence in Middle East
- Iraq War (Woodward Plan of Attack, Noam Chimes In)
- No-Bid Domestic Soil Detention Camps Built by Halliburton
- Warmongering with Iran (I’m Starting to Hate Tables, Polls Show US Behind)
- Adopting Pre-emptive Warfare Doctrine as US Policy (Last Gov’ment to Use Pre-emptive War)
- Ports Still Unsecured (PDF)
- Terrorism Protection Racket
- Using the Establishment of the Dept. of Homeland Security to Undermine Labor Laws and the Civil Service
- Contractors Using Foreign Labor for Iraq Reconstruction
- Failure to Protect the Iraqi National Museum from Looting (More)
- Conspiring to establish permanent colonial control over 70% of Iraq's oil
- Plotting to Overthrow the Democratically Elected Government of Venezuela
- Sidestepping International Court of Law
- Selling Control Operations of 6 US ports to the Dubai Port Despite Objections from Congress and the Public
- Bullying China with Aggressive Spy Plane Operations (China’s View)
- Breaking Non-Proliferation Treaty with Attempted Nuclear Arms Sales to India
- Much of Government Computer Infrastructure Run by Group with Terrorist Ties
- Establishment of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
- Censoring Scientists from Issuing Factual Reports on the Threat from Global Warming (More Scientist Censoring)
- Adopting a Policy Refusing to Honor FOIA Requests
- Citizens Ejected from Taxpayer-Funded Bush for Anti-Bush Bumper Sticker (Nurse Wins Ticket Over Bumper Sticker)
- Reclassifying Information Long Held in the Public Domain (Opinion with Good Stats)
- Using “National Security” as an Excuse to Avoid Judicial Scrutiny and Punishment
- Malicious and False Prosecutions of Political Dissidents (Bolton Gets in on the Action, Media Threats, Prosecutors Digging for the Truth Not Immune & More)
- Stacking US Courts with Religious Zealots (Role of Evangelicals)
- Recess Appointments of Controversial Appointees
- No Real or Hard Evidence of Iranian Government Involvement of EFPs Appearing in Iraq
- Taking Iranian Diplomats Hostage Despite Being in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi Government
- Alberto Gonzales "forgot" to Turn Over to Emails to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald
- Cheney Says Congress Can’t Stop President from Continuing Iraq War
- For Purposes of Inquiry of the Executive Branch, Vice President Dick Cheney is a Member of the Legislative Branch, and for Purposes of Inquiry of the Legislative Branch, Cheney is a Member of the Executive Branch (TPM with More)
- Purging the CIA of Democrats & Replacing with Bush “Yes Men” (More)
- Firing a Career Three-Star General for Criticizing Troop Levels
- Sending Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz Misled Congress on True Cost of War (More)
- Firing a Public Official for Telling the Truth About the Cost of a "Medicaid Reform" (Original Knight-Ridder Article in .DOC Format)
- Using "Terror Alerts" to Manipulate the News Media and the Public (Timeline, White House Excuses, Bush Approval Rating Graph)
- Falsely Claiming to Have Foiled Terrorist Plots, Later Revealed as Fabricated Hoaxes (More)
- Expanding Neighborhood Watch Program to Include Terrorism (Jews Chime In)
- Administration Declares Reconstruction Success, NYTimes Finds 7 out of 8 Failed
- Powell & Rice Declare Iraq Has No WMD and is Not a Threat
- Destruction of the Middle-Class (Krugman & More)
- Delay and Obstruction of 9/11 Commission (Reluctantly Embraced, 9/11 Commission Lapdogs & Finds No Link Between Al-Qaeda & Iraq)
- Condoleeza Rice Gets Memo on Al-Qaeda 9 Months Before 9/11/01 (PDF)
- Iraq WMD Intelligence & Facts Being Fixed Around Policy
- Letting Osama bin Laden Escape in Tora Bora
- Afghan Opium Production at Record Levels
- Terror Threats Increase Worldwide (Iraq Sees 91% Rise)
- Still Unprepared for Another Terrorist Attack
- North Korea Developing & Testing Nuclear Weapons
- American Ally Pakistan Sells Nuclear Material to Libya
- Favorable Opinion of America in Nosedive (Poll & Another Poll)
- Gasoline Prices at Record Highs (Cost of Barrel of Oil Goes Up)
- Tax Cuts Benefit Rich & Wealthy Most
- National Debt at Record Level & Rising (In Depth & Graph)
- Free Speech Zones & Threats Against Political Dissent (Behind Razor Wire[d])
- Loyalty Oaths (Gotta Sign the Line & Digby)
- Desire to Drill in Arctic Refuge (Other States)
- Bush Defends Most Corrupt Congressman, Tom Delay
- Vetoes War Spending Bill
- No Iraq Exit Plan
- … ?