Resume of George W. Bush

[LauraT28]

You've probably seen this before... but I think it's worth repeating.

RESUME

George W. Bush
The White House, USA

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

LAW ENFORCEMENT: I was arrested in Kennebunkport,
Maine in 1976 for driving under the influence of
alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my
drivers license suspended for 30 days. My Texas
driving record has been lost and is not available.

MILITARY: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and
went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any
questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air
National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in
Vietnam.
COLLEGE: I graduated from Yale University. I was a
cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland,
Texas in 1975.
I bought an oil company, but couldnt find any oil in
Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold
all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a
sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our right-wing friends
in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I
was elected Governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil
companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the
Union.

During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the
most smog-ridden city in America.

I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the
tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any
Governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the Governor of Florida,
and my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court, I
became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing
cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted
the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit
in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies
filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the
history of the U.S. stock market.

I am the first president in U.S. history to enter
office with a criminal record.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in
any one year period.

After taking-off the entire month of August, I
presided over the worst security failure in U.S.
history.

I am supporting development of a nuclear Tactical
Bunker Buster, a WMD.

In my State Of The Union Address, I lied about our
reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed the lies on
our British friends.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips
by a U.S. president.

In my first year in office over 2-million Americans
lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a
12-month period.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration
than any president in U.S. history.

I set the record for least amount of press conferences
than any president since the advent of television.

I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S.
history and refused to intervene when corruption
involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S.
history.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and
support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops
and their familiesin war time.

I have set the all-time record for most people
worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public
venues (15 million people) shattering the record for
protest against any person in
the history of mankind.

I've broken more international treaties than any
president in U.S. history.

Im proud that the members of my cabinet are the
richest of any administration in U.S. history. My
poorest millionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron
oil tanker named after her.

I am the first president in U.S. history to order an
unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military
occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the
will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S.
citizens, and the world community.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the
largest bureaucracy in the history of the United
States government.

I am the first president in U.S. history to have the
United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights
Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. prisoners
of war detainees and thereby have refused to abide by
the Geneva Convention.

I am the first president in history to refuse United
Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S.
election).

I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for
receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of
my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the
largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history. My
political party used the Enron private jets and
corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S.
Supreme Court during my election decision. I have
protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against
investigation or prosecution. More time and money was
spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than
has been spent investigating one of the biggest
corporate ripoffs in history.

I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the
World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later
made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the
largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I am first president in history to have a majority of
Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest
threat to world peace and security.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals
to be awarded government contracts.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring
Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES

All records of my tenure as Governor of Texas are now
in my fathers library, sealed, and unavailable for
public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider
trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in
secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my
Vice-President, attended regarding public energy
policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for
public review.

Please consider my experience when voting in 2004.

[user57]

1. 2004 Will Be the U.S.'S Best Year Economically in Last 20 Years...

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted
the U.S. Treasury.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031211/nyth120_1.html

NEW YORK, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Revising its year-end economic forecast sharply upward, The Conference Board today projected that real GDP growth will hit 5.7% next year, making 2004 the best year economically in the last 20 years.

"Growing business spending and continued strength in consumer spending are generating growth throughout the U.S. economy," says Fosler. "This burgeoning strength is reflected in The Conference Board's widely-watched Leading Economic Indicators, the Consumer Confidence Index and the Help-Wanted Advertising Index. While the labor market, a critical factor in sustaining growth, is growing slowly, a pick-up in hiring may already have begun."

Real consumer spending, which continues to fuel growth, will increase at a 4.7% pace next year, up from about 3.2% this year. Another gain of 4.3% is projected for 2005.

While the U.S. economy is expected to generate more than one million new jobs next year, the unemployment rate will edge down only slightly, averaging 5.6% in 2004.

Real capital spending, which will rise by only 2.7% this year, will climb 11.7% next year and another 8.6% in 2005. Pre-tax corporate operating profits will top $1 trillion next year, up from a projected $928 billion this year. Another trillion-dollar-plus gain in profits is expected in 2005.

It looks like Bush has turned the Economy around. There goes the 2004 Democratic Platform.

[pnb]

2. Lordy

n/t

[Killarney]

3. I'll help you understand simple economics

Let's say that a company has sales of $1,000,000 per year. Then, it switches CEO's. The new CEO does a horrible job and sales go down to $100,000 per year. Then, the next year the sales go up to $200,000 per year. The CEO proclaims victory... sales doubled! Sales have never doubled in one year in the company's history! I'm the greatest!

When in actually, the company needs to have growth like that for over 3 more years in a row to get back to where it was when the CEO first took over.

That is how our economy is right now. Yes, it's growing and that's good news but we need growth like this for many years to come to return our economy to the state it was in when Bush took over.

I hope this helped explain the situation to you. :)

[Pax Hayden]

5. This is good news.

Whatever is good for America, is also good for the Democratic party.

There is a common misconception among conservatives that they only way Democrats can win elections is due to bad economic or social conditions. They imagine Democrats to be like vultures, feeding from the carcass of sick zebras who could not keep up with the rest of the herd.

I hope the economy does well this year. I pray that the ranks of the unemployed will shrink and that corporations will reap high profits by providing their customers with needed goods and services. I expect nothing less from the greatest economy on the planet.

But a politicians futures does not live on good economic numbers alone.

Bush's lies about his motivations for going into Iraq, his blatant cronyism, his poor environmental record, his blind eye towards the needs of the uninsured, and his disconnect from the American People are more than enough to do him in.

If the economy does well in 2004, November 3rd will be the last day the Republicans will be able to use a bad economy as an excuse for losing elections. Perhaps then, they will look in the mirror and see who the real vultures are.

[imax2268]

4. The first time I saw this...

it was funny...the other 999 times were not...but I do like the way it strikes the nerves of freepers...!

[havenotidentified]

6. Problems with Democratic Underground

The way is see it, and it's only my opinion, is that the largest issue with the Democratic Party (and this site) is that there is much information put out that is untrue (or lies to be politically incorrect). For exapmle, in the Resume there are many untrue statements or mistatment of the truth.

Let's go down the "resume" and point out some facts. I did not write this but found it very interesting that the author provides evidence and links. Let's look at this with an open mind and not just hate, which seems to be very popular lately. What I am about to paste is from Curt King and you can e-mail him at [e-mail]

Thanks,

The entries in the resume are bolded and responses are not.

Changes
May 6, 2003
· The current number of detainees at Guantanamo is not 23,000, but 650.
(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/06/unlawful.combatants/index.html)
· To clarify the US Supreme Court’s role in the 2000 election. There were two rulings made by the court: the first,
which was a 7-2 unsigned opinion, reversed the Florida Supreme Court’s order for manual recounts. As the
opinion was unsigned, we don’t know which justices voted on which side. The second opinion, which was signed,
was a 5-4 decision terminating manual recounts. In the second decision, one Bush appointee voted with the
majority (Thomas), the other voted with the minority (Souter). (Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/12/13/scotus.election.05/index.html)

· Offutt is no longer the home of the Strategic Air Command. In June 1992, SAC was combined with Naval nuclear
forces to form US Strategic Command.
(Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Air_Command)
May 19, 2003

· I have received a number of e-mails regarding the story that GWB was AWOL for a period of months during the
Vietnam War. The story, which I believed to be mainly true, is in fact false. George W. Bush did not “go AWOL”
during his time in the service.
Here’s a link to a story that ran in George magazine:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39ea05224b3e.htm
I also received a very detailed e-mail from a Navy instructor in California, who asked to remain nameless:
All the cited documents so far are an assortment of standard form letters that are found in many reserve
pilots records. The "smoking gun" AWOL proof cite is actually a standard report evaluation of ANG
members that have transferred during an evaluation period. Each command is required to submit an
evaluation record even if the member is no longer there to keep a constant an unbroken line of
evaluation. The "smoking gun" terminology of "Not observed at this station" is the exact proper wording
found in any members record of evaluation during a transfer which oddly the previous cited documents
actually prove was the case. This is the standard evaluation extension language used in almost all
military records. For the Navy the block is listed with "Not Observed" for the Army it lists "not present for
evaluation”. The flight suspension letter is also a commonplace form letter suspending flying till an annual
physical exam is completed.
This other "smoking gun" is such a common occurrence especially in the ANG that there are other people
than George Bush listed on it using the same exact terminology.
Further investigating the documents finds that the AWOL claim is merely wishful thinking by some who
simply misunderstand what the military documents say or don't know how common they really are in
many service members records.
As you pointed out in your investigation in the final months of George Bush's ANG reserve commitment
"when Bush decided to go to business school at Harvard in the fall of 1973, he requested and got an
honorable discharge--eight months before his service was scheduled to end." The military does not and
cannot by regulation, issue an Honorable Discharge to anyone that has been AWOL or otherwise
seriously reprimanded as the resume tries to claim.
You can find reference citation on the Resume' claimed cites of AWOL at www.bupers.navy.mil under the
Uniform Regulations Manual and PERSNET as well the manpower regulations and report evaluation
procedures.
My thanks to the e-mailers who set me straight on this matter!

· Sammy Sosa was not traded to the Cubs—he was traded to the White Sox. (You mean there’s two teams in
Chicago? An e-mailer named “GraniteStateConservative” clears the whole mess up:
“Sosa was NOT traded to the Cubs. He was, in fact, traded to the Chicago White Sox.
As you mentioned, Sosa began his MLB career in 1989. He performed poorly, batting .238 with only 1 HR
in 84 at bats. That year, he was sent to the minor leagues several times and finally traded to the Chicago
White Sox. Marty Scott, the GM at the time for the Rangers, regretted in retrospect making the trade.
He stayed with the Sox for 3 years and struggled the whole time, with a batting average of .240 and
averaging 9 HR per season. They also sent him to the minors, as the Rangers had, to boost his
confidence, but that didn't help and so they traded Sammy, too, to their cross-town rivals. In 1992, he
became a Cub-- playing in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field and hearing the dearly departed Harry
Carey sing during the seventh-inning stretch.
Sosa realized that if he wanted to provide for his family here and in the Dominican Republic with the
money from a big MLB contract, he had to get his act together and learn to hit the baseball. His newfound
desire to improve his performance lead to better performance and the rest is history.”

George W. Bush Resume
Past work experience
Ran for congress and lost.
Every president in modern history has lost an election at some point:
Clinton -- Clinton lost his bid for reelection for Arkansas governor in 1980
Bush, Sr. – Lost to Clinton in bid for reelection in 1992
Reagan – Lost race for GOP nomination in 1976
Carter – Lost to Reagan in bid for reelection in 1980.
Ford – Lost to Carter in bid for reelection in 1976.
Nixon – Lost race for presidency in 1960

Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after
I sold all my stock.
Bush was not a tremendous success in the oil business. But the allegation here appears to be
that Bush sold his stock to “cash out” before the company went bankrupt. Bush sold his stock
for $4.00 per share. A year later, the stock was valued at $8.00 per share. The company,
Harken Energy Corporation, is still functioning. (http://www.harkenenergy.com/)
More info: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/13/president.2000/jackson.bush/

Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer
money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs.
Bush only owned 5% of the team.
Sammy Sosa only played for the Rangers for 25 games. His record as a Ranger? 84 at-bats,
and only 1 home run. His batting average was .238.
(Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?statsId=4344)
The Rangers aren’t the only team to have built a taxpayer-funded stadium, either: Since the
early 1950s, only one baseball stadium was built without taxpayer money, while 19 baseball
stadiums were 100 percent taxpayer-funded. (Source: Small Business Survival Committee,
“You're Out: Corporate Welfare for Major League Baseball”. http://www.sbsc.org/)
What have been the results of the new ballpark built by the taxpayers of Arlington? CNN:
“Fans love the stadium. And the team has flourished financially.”
(Source: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/13/president.2000/jackson.bush/)
(Correction on 5/19—Sosa was traded to the White Sox, not Cubs. See “Changes”.)

With father’s help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
No evidence is provided of any illegal, immoral, or unethical influence exerted by George Bush
in his son’s election. It is true that George W Bush has a famous surname that may have
helped him get elected. The same might be said of Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, and Hillary Clinton.

Accomplishments
Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
Here are the facts: Texas leads the nation in reduction of toxic releases. Texas has led the
nation in the reduction of toxic releases by 43 million pounds from 1995 to 1998 (during GWB’s
tenure as governor). It is not the most polluted state in the nation. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency's 1998 Toxic Release Inventory (the most recent data
available from the EPA, released in May 2000), Texas dropped from first to fifth place in 1998
(while GWB was still governor) for total emissions to the air, water and soil.

Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America.
Houston does not lead the nation in air pollution. Los Angeles
surpassed Houston in 2000 (while GWB was still governor) in ozone exceedances. Through
July 17, 2000 Los Angeles exceeded the federal ozone standard on 17 days, compared to
Houston's 13 days. (Associated Press, 8/7/00).
Much more on Bush’s Texas environmental record can be found at:
http://www.politicsandelections.com/usa/butts/bushaug8.htm
This is a Bush-Cheney press release from 2000, but much of it is corroborated by outside
sources, as illustrated by the Associated Press citation above.

Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
A Wall Street Journal article finds different results: “Finally, there is the question of the fiscal
record of George W. Bush while he was Texas governor. Mr. Bush racked up a decent, but not
a dazzling, pro-taxpayer record. He came into office promising tax cuts, tort reform, a lighter
regulatory burden for business, and stringent education standards. Mr. Bush delivered on each
of those promises, more or less. He signed two of the largest tax cuts in Texas history. But Mr.
Bush could leave conservatives frustrated. This is a politician who seems to always want to
please everyone. As the Austin Statesman wrote of Mr. Bush's final budget: "He took a $6
billion surplus, cut taxes by $1.5 billion and spent most of the rest." Still, the latest comptroller
report indicates that Texas still has a $1 billion-plus budget surplus.” (WSJ, 2/12/01)

Set record for most executions by any Governor in American history.
The death penalty is law in Texas and—believe it or not—the governor does not have the
power to execute people. In fact, the governor only has the power to stay an execution for 30
days. The governor is powerless in Texas to grant pardons or clemency:
“Prior to a 1934 constitutional amendment, the governor had independent pardon
powers. The amendment removing these powers was added after Jim and Miriam
Ferguson were accused of selling clemency during her term as Governor. In modern
times, governors have used what clemency powers they have been left with sparingly.

As the application of the death penalty in the state has come under increasing scrutiny
and criticism, and new technology has been made available to review old cases,
governors have used reprieves to deflect criticism by allowing for further review of death
penalty cases. These incidents have been rare, given the weak opposition to capital
punishment. In cases where there is some compelling question about carrying out an
execution, governors are ultimately in a safe position. Granting a thirty-day reprieve can
appear judicious but not overly soft on criminals, as the governor cannot prevent an
execution on his or her own. Yet in the event a mistake is found and a wrongful
execution prevented, the governor is likely to appear careful and just. Still, Texas
governors have granted such reprieves relatively rarely.” (“Texas Politics, The Executive
Branch”, http://texaspolitics.lamc.utexas.edu/html/exec/0700.html)

Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court.
Once again, a quick read of the constitution will clear up the “popular vote” matter:
http://freedom.house.gov/electoral/constitution.asp
The popular vote doesn’t elect the president: the Electoral College does.
Incidentally, George W. Bush received more popular votes than did his father in 1992 and Bill
Clinton in both his elections. In fact, you have to go back to Ronald Reagan’s landslide in
1984 to find a candidate with more popular votes. (http://www.presidentelect.org/)
Of the nine justices currently serving on the Supreme Court, two were appointed by George
Bush Sr.—Clarence Thomas and David Souter. This is important, so please take note. Two
appointments. (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/members.pdf)
The “resume” says that GWB became president “with the help of my father’s appointments to
the Supreme Court. “ There’s only one problem with that: President Bush the elder appointed
two justices to the Supreme Court. The ruling that ended the recounts in Florida was a 7-to-2
vote. Even if President Bush’s two appointees had voted in favor the Florida Supreme Court,
the vote would have still been 5-to-4. (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0884144.html)
To counter the critics’ claim that the US Supreme Court’s decision was “bought”, there is a 65-
page opinion (and dissent) which enumerates the precedents that the Supreme Court used in
making their ruling: (http://wire.ap.org/APpackages/election2000/scotusruling.pdf)
There’s a clarification to this issue in the “Changes” section at the beginning of the document.
Accomplishments as president

Attacked and took over two countries.
Afghanistan’s Taliban regime was displaced by US intervention in 2002. A government led by
Afghans is currently in power:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/central/06/13/afghan.council/index.html

As to why we “attacked and took over” in Afghanistan, I refer you to the 2000 report by
Amnesty International:
“Human rights abuses by the warring factions against members of rival ethnic groups
occurred throughout 1999. Taleban forces burned homes, destroyed orchards, wheat
fields and irrigation systems and forcibly displaced more than 100,000 mainly Tajik
people. The UN imposed financial and aviation sanctions on the Taleban for not
surrendering Osama bin Laden to stand trial for his alleged involvement in US embassy
bombings in August 1998. Women, children, human rights defenders, members of
ethnic groups, people accused of homosexual activity, and refugees were
systematically targeted by the Taleban and other warring factions on the basis of their
identity. Taleban courts imposed sentences of death, amputation and flogging after
apparently unfair trials.”
(http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/ar2000web.nsf/countries/f45d4bd4ae8ee428802568f
200552988?OpenDocument)
As for Iraq, we removed Saddam Hussein from power. Here are just a couple of articles
detailing the abuses of his regime:
http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/ar2000web.nsf/countries/24fe8ccc9d037845802568f2
00552932?OpenDocument
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2003/03/24/son_of_saddam/
But the reason we gave for attacking Iraq was Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and
violation of the UN resolutions 660, 678, and 1441. Here’s the evidence for that:
The United States has documented violations of these UN resolutions since the end of Desert
Storm in 1991. In fact, UN Ambassador Bill Richardson, of the Clinton Administration, testified
in 1997 about the Iraqi non-compliance:
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1997/11/97111011_tpo.html
The Bush administration laid out its case for the Iraqi invasion by detailing each UN resolution
and the UN’s own conclusion that said resolutions had been violated:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/decade/sect2.html

Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
As a quick reading of the Constitution will attest, the President has no power to spend. That
power lies with Congress.

Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
Again, spending power resides with Congress.

Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
Bankruptcies have been on the rise since 1940, with the exception of a few years. The Cato
Institute statistics only show data through 1997, but the trend is clear.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg20n4f.html
The claim that GWB set a record for the most private bankruptcies in one year can be made
about every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Look at the reasons most often cited for filing personal bankruptcies:
Credit card bills 63% Lawsuit/legal bills 12%
Job loss/cut in pay 50% Taxes 10%
Mismanagement of personal finances 37% College expenses 8%
Medical bills 28% Death in family 7%
Difficulty with business 15% Gambling 2%
Divorce/marital breakup 13%
I don’t think anyone would argue that the increase in private bankruptcies is a good thing, but
the blame cannot be laid at the feet of any president. At the same time bankruptcies have
increased, so has consumer debt. Interestingly, between 1990 and 1997, credit card
solicitations tripled from 1 to 3 billion per year.

Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
Facts on File disagrees (http://www.facts.com/cd/v00066.htm):
“The largest stock-market drop in Wall Street history occurred on "Black Monday" --
October 19, 1987 -- when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508.32 points,
losing 22.6% of its total value.”
If you’d like to suggest that the phrase “biggest drop” refers to a period of time and not a single
day, then Bush isn’t to blame either:
The Ten Worst Stock Market Crashes of All Time (as of 10/28/02)
http://mutualfunds.about.com/library/weekly/aa102802a.htm
Date Started Date Ended Number of Days Total Loss
4/17/1930 7/8/1932 813 -86.0%
3/10/1937 3/31/1938 386 -49.1%
1/19/1906 11/15/1907 665 -48.5%
9/3/1929 11/13/1929 71 -47.9%
11/3/1919 8/24/1921 660 -46.6%
6/17/1901 11/9/1903 875 -46.1%
1/11/1973 12/06/1974 694 -45.1%
9/12/1939 4/28/1942 959 -40.4%
11/21/1916 12/19/1917 393 -40.1%
9/7/1932 2/27/1933 173 -37.2%

First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
The first federal prisoner “in decades” to be executed was Timothy McVeigh, who was
responsible for 168 deaths, including children in the buildings day care center. The federal
death penalty is law. Regardless of your opinion on the death penalty, it is hard to have any
sympathy for Timothy McVeigh.

First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
I will not dispute that President Bush was arrested in 1976 for driving under the influence. He
has admitted it, though understandably he didn’t volunteer the information. For a complete
story, here’s a link:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/02/bush.dui/
I will leave it up to the reader to determine what other presidents have had such indiscretions,
yet were never caught.
First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
No proof is provided by “the resume”, and I can find none.

After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history in September.
Here’s a few notes on the President’s schedule for August 2001:
August 1, 2001: Nominated six US Attorneys, two judges for affirmation by Congress.
Placed phone calls to PM Blair and Ahern to discuss matters between Britain and
Northern Ireland.
President announces an agreement on the Patients Bill of Rights
President addresses National Urban League Conference
August 2, 2001: President meets with House and Senate education leaders.
August 3, 2001: Placed six more nominations for US Attorneys.
President speaks to press at meeting to discuss his first six months in office and
the agenda for the future.
President attends a ceremony in East Room honoring Lance Armstrong.
August 4, 2001: President’s Radio Address
August 7, 2001: Press conference in Waco, TX with pool of reporters.
August 8, 2001: President helps build a home with Habitat For Humanity, then addresses the
group on faith-based and community initiatives.
August 9, 2001: Addressed the nation on stem-cell research.
August 10, 2001: Announces nomination of two US Ambassadors.
August 11, 2001: President’s Radio Address
August 13, 2001: Presidential Ceremony to sign the Agriculture Supplemental Bill.
President holds two press conferences with traveling White House pool.

The rest of the month had just as much, if not more, activity. I will omit it here to save space,
but you can find complete information at the following sites:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010801.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010803.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010809.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/20010822.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010831-15.html
The President was in Texas from August 7-13 and 21-25. The rest of the month was spent
traveling to New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin, Missouri and then back to Washington at the
end of the month. A review of the White House news archive for August 2001 shows this
month to be anything but a “vacation”. It is naïve to think that the President spent an entire
month doing nothing, as “the resume” infers.

Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips than any other president in US history.
No proof is provided by “the resume”, and I can find none.

In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
President Bush took office in January 2001. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has data for 2001
and 2002 on their web site:
http://data.bls.gov/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=L
NU03000000&years_option=all_years&periods_option=specific_periods&periods=Annu
al+Data
If you assume that GWB is responsible for what happened in 2001, which I believe is a faulty
assumption, then 2.5 million Americans were added to the unemployment rolls during his first
two years in office. I suggest that the 2001 statistics probably should be attributed to Clinton
policies, though that is a subject for some debate.
Are 2.5 million jobs lost in two years unprecedented in history? Hardly. Here are some other
examples of such a drop:
1954: 1.7 million added to the unemployment rolls (1.04% of the population)
1958: 1.7 million added to the unemployment rolls (.97% of the population)
1970-1971: 2.2 million added to the unemployment rolls (1.05% of the population)
1974-1975: 3.6 million added to the unemployment rolls (1.67% of the population)
1981-1982: 2.4 million added to the unemployment rolls (1.02% of the population)
1991-1992: 2.6 million added to the unemployment rolls (1.02% of the population)

What’s interesting is that based on population change, the 2001-2002 job loss is only .77% of
the population—significantly lower than the other six periods of evaluation.
US Population Estimates: http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/national/tables/NAEST2002-
06.php
Historical Population Numbers: http://www.npg.org/facts/us_historical_pops.htm
I would never argue that 2.2 million Americans losing their jobs is insignificant, but it is not
unprecedented in other economic downturns in US history. However, that has now changed and the economy is going to be the best in 2004

Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
I have searched CNN’s database for the past three years and can find no evidence that
President Bush ever cut unemployment benefits. The closest I came was this:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/27/job.benefits/index.html
In December 2002, unemployment benefits for 800,000 Americans expired. Congress did not
pass legislation that would have extended those benefits. However, two weeks earlier, the
President had encouraged Congress to extend benefits:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/14/bush.address/index.html
Benefits were lost to these 800,000 workers on December 28 and Congress passed legislation
on January 8 to renew benefits to these workers. President Bush signed the bill immediately.

Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
Unfortunately, foreclosures have been on the rise since at least 1980. According to Mr. Irv
Ackelsberg, Managing Attorney of Community Legal Services, Inc:
“Between 1980 and 1999 both the number and the rate of home foreclosures in the
United States have skyrocketed. The absolute number of foreclosures rose 277%. This
means that although this was a period of economic prosperity, almost four times the
number of homes were foreclosed upon in 1999 as in 1980.”
Mr. Ackelsberg testified before Congress in 2001 and cited four reasons for the increased
number of foreclosures:
· the deregulation of home lending laws;
· the limitation of tax deductibility of consumer debt to home secured loans;
· the increases in real estate values which has expanded availability of home equity for
many households; and
· the proliferation of mortgage brokers.
May 19, 2003 Page 12 of 28
Mr. Ackelsberg’s report to the Senate Banking committee can be found online:
http://banking.senate.gov/01_07hrg/072701/aklsbrg.htm
To emphasize one important point of the above quote, I will repeat it here: “This means that
although this was a period of economic prosperity, almost four times the number of homes
were foreclosed upon in 1999 as in 1980.?? There does not appear to be a direct correlation
between economic prosperity and foreclosures, nor between presidential policies and
foreclosures.
I would never diminish the effect of foreclosures on individuals, but to pin this one on Mr. Bush
ignores the evidence.

Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
There’s no evidence provided here for this claim and I can find none on my own. I did,
however, find statistics on Mr. Bush’s predecessor, Bill Clinton:
Number of individuals and businesses associated
with the Clinton machine who have been convicted
of or pleaded guilty to crimes
47
Number of these convictions during Clinton's
presidency 33
Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges 61
Number of imprisonments 14
Number of congressional witnesses who have pled
the 5th Amendment, fled the country to avoid
testifying, or (in the case of foreign witnesses)
refused to be interviewed) as of 9/99)
122
(http://www.thevrwc.org/ClintonRecord.html)
I know that it does not refute the argument that “the resume” makes: but since they felt no
need to prove their claim, I didn’t feel the need to help them. What is clear is that the Bush
administration has quite a way to go in order to surpass the Clinton record.

Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent
of television.
According to a study done by Richard Strout in 1966:
(http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/99-4_00-1NR/Strout_LBJ_Shou.html)
Roosevelt had just under 1,000 conferences. Mr. Truman, if my figures are right, had
well over 300; General Eisenhower cut the number down to 200, and President
Kennedy in his bright 1,000 days had a conference about once a fortnight.

Alas, this tradition has not continued in recent days. President Johnson has been one of
the most accessible men to the press of any President, that is, in informal gatherings,
meetings with individual bureau chiefs, or tips to favorite correspondents. But as for
formal press conferences, I can only figure that he had nine last year. So far in 1966 he
has held only a few.
Strout criticizes LBJ for not having more press conferences, so the criticism of Bush is nothing
new.
However, the point that GWB has held fewer press conferences than other presidents is valid.
Here are the numbers, researched by Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University political
science professor who specializes in presidential communication:
“At the same point in their presidencies, President Bill Clinton had held 30 solo news
conferences (that is, without a foreign leader at a twin lectern) and Bush's father had
held 58, according to research by Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University political
science professor who specializes in presidential communication.
After two years and 45 days in office, President Ronald Reagan had held 16 solo news
conferences, President Jimmy Carter had held 45, President Gerald Ford had held 37,
President Richard M. Nixon had held 16 and President Lyndon B. Johnson had held
52.” (Quote from “Bush's Distaste for News Conferences Keeps Them Rare” by Mike
Allen, Washington Post, March 7, 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wpdyn?
pagename=article&node=&contentId=A53542-2003Mar6¬Found=true)
As of March 7, 2003, GWB had held 8 formal press conferences. So while it is true that he has
held fewer than any other modern president, the numbers are not so vastly different.
Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US
history.
President Bush has not signed any laws amending the US Constitution. Only Congress can
pass a law amending the Constitution and they have not done so since 1978.
http://www.usconstitution.net/constamfail.html
As to Executive Orders, Bush isn’t even close to signing “more…than any president in US
history: (http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/executive_orders/disposition_tables.html)
President Number
of Orders Signed
Years in
Office Orders Per Year
GWB 99 2 50
Clinton 363 8 45
Bush 165 4 41
Reagan 380 8 48
Carter 319 4 80
Ford 168 2 84
Nixon 345 6 58
Johnson 323 5 65
Kennedy 213 3 71

A quick glance of the executive orders of GWB at
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/executive_orders/wbush_subjects.html will reveal
their sinister nature:
“Increasing Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs”
(Executive Order 13125)
“Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor”
(Executive Order 13126)
“Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With the Taliban” (Executive Order
13129)
Just to clarify one point: there seems to be a suggestion that Executive Orders are some sort
of secret, evil machination of presidents. Not so: Every Executive Order is available for review
on the government’s own web site:
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/executive_orders/disposition_tables.html

Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption
was revealed.
I’d suggest that the energy crises of the early 1970’s were worse. Here’s an article describing
the conditions during those crises:
http://www.mainchance.org/upward/read/march2003/gas.html
· Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national
reserves as past presidents have.
Using California as an example, the first part of this claim is blatantly false:
(Source: http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_cpi_adjusted.html)
Year
Adjusted
Price Year
Adjusted
Price Year Adjusted Price Year Adjusted Price
1970 1.32 1979 1.92 1988 1.26 1996 1.48 (peak $1.73)
1971 1.31 1980 2.41 1989 1.31 1997 1.46 (peak $1.58)
1972 1.23 1981 2.42 1990 1.41 1998 1.26 (peak $1.35)
1973 1.28 1982 2.11 1991 1.44 1999 1.46 (peak $1.74)
1974 1.62 1983 1.82 1992 1.34 2000 1.74 (peak $1.94)
1975 1.64 1984 1.77 1993 1.46 2001 1.68 (peak $2.00)
1976 1.62 1985 1.69 1994 1.41 2002 1.53 (peak $1.64)
1977 1.61 1986 1.30 1995 1.41 2003 1.74 (peak $2.01)
1978 1.52 1987 1.28

As to the second part of the claim, GWB has long favored using our oil reserves in Alaska
(ANWR), but has been vehemently opposed by wildlife and environmental groups.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010329.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/01/20010129-7.html
Finally, the use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (http://www.fe.doe.gov/spr/) by “past
presidents” is somewhat fallacious. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat from New York,
urged President Clinton to use oil from the SPR to stem a crisis in 2000. “Schumer said
presidents have exercised the power at least three times in the past -- twice simply to boost
federal revenue to help balance the budget.” So the claim that past presidents have used the
SPR to relieve high gasoline prices, as the “resume” clearly infers, is fallacious as well.
(http://www.house.gov/bernie/publications/articles/2000-02-29-oil-atu.html)

Cut health care benefits for war veterans.
Without a date or more specific information, I’m not sure what they’re referring to. But here’s
an article from US Representative Rob Simmons, who represents eastern Connecticut in
Congress:
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/mktplace/re.aspx?reIDx=87B14AD5-CB27-4A38-86B4-
AEF38476134E
And here’s a summary of the facts directly from the House Budget Committee:
http://www.budget.house.gov/04brbveterans.htm

Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to
protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the
history of mankind. (http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/)
Hey, finally they cite some evidence! Unfortunately, the web site they point to is simply
pictures from protests held on March 14 and 15, 2003. The protesters seem to be against a
potential war in Iraq, which is interesting because that would not indicate that they were
protesting President Bush alone, rather they were protesting the concept of a war in Iraq.
Considering that the war was supported by more than 30 countries, the “resume” has
presented another false claim.
I
would opine that if you’re convinced that your beliefs are right, it doesn’t matter how many
people protest against them.

Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
I’ve searched CNN and Google’s news search and can’t find any treaty that the president has
dissolved. The State Department’s web site lists 500 pages of treaties currently in force:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/legal_affairs/tifindex.html
If anyone wants to do the research, go at it. “The resume” offered no proof and I found none.

My presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
How do you go about arguing this? With no evidence cited, I can’t refute it.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (the 'poorest' multimillionaire,
Condoleeza Rice has an Exxon oil tanker named after her).
Yes, this one’s true. Bush has 13 millionaires in his Cabinet (out of 16 secretaries), while
Clinton had 7 and Bush Sr. had 6:
http://www.agrnews.org/issues/110/nationalnews.html
And the “oil tanker” story? True, except it’s Chevron, not Exxon.
(Source: http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01june/june01names.html)
Now, the question is this: why is being rich a crime? Why is it wrong to have rich people in
your Cabinet? Generally speaking, people who are qualified to serve in positions such as
Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State are people who have done well in their field. People
who are successful generally make more money.

Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the
history of the world.
“Presiding” is what a “President” does. In that sense, he was in office while fraud occurred, but
no serious claim has been made that he had any hand in it. It’s kind of like saying “President
Carter presided over the Olympic Hockey team’s gold medal in 1980.” No one seriously thinks
he had anything to do with it.

Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
I suspect we’re talking here about the Department of Homeland Security, which was created in
2003 and combines the work of the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Immigration and
Naturalization Service, Customs Service and the Transportation Security Administration.
The Associated Press refers to the creation of the department as the ”the largest government
reorganization since the Defense Department was created in 1947.”
Since this agency combines the work of already existing agencies and consolidates efforts, I’m
not sure how this could be a bad thing, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
(Source: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/Homeland-Security-$33B-28feb03.htm)

Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president
in US history.
Time to cite directly from the Constitution:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,
to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the
United States…” (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1)
http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html
There’s a great summary of the US Budget Process on the House’s web site:
http://www.house.gov/rules_bud/annual.htm
In a nutshell, the President is not required to submit a budget, but normally does. It is
considered a starting point for the Congressional Budget, which is eventually passed and sent
on to the President for his signature.
To reiterate, the President does not spend the money – Congress does.

First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights
commission.
On May 4, 2001, the United States was voted off of the UN Human Rights commission. Why?
From GlobalPolicy.org’s reporting on the vote:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/unitedstates/unpolicy/gen2001/0504hrc.htm
“Amnesty International USA called the removal of the United States from the commission "part
of an effort by nations that routinely violate human rights to escape scrutiny." Amnesty accused
members of commission of failing to do their job, succumbing instead to political and economic
pressures. "The U.S. was among the few nations willing to actively push for condemnation at
the U.N.H.R.C. of the brutal human rights violations committed by nations like China," it said.
At Human Rights Watch, Joanna Weschler, the group's representative at the United Nations,
said the commission was becoming "a rogues' gallery of human rights abusers." But she
added: "It wasn't just enemies. It was friends as well who voted the U.S. out of the
commission." Friends of the United States in Europe and elsewhere have grown increasingly
impatient, disappointed and annoyed with actions by Washington.”
More information from the group Human Rights Watch can be found at:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/05/unvote0503.htm
http://www.hrw.org/un/

It should be noted that the current members include Cuba, Sudan, and China: nations that
routinely kill political prisoners and suppress human rights. A complete list of the UN Human
Rights Commission can be found at:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/chrmem.htm
The United States is once again a member of the Commission.

First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections
monitoring board.
First, the United Nations doesn’t have an “elections monitoring board”; however, they do have
an “Electoral Assistance Division”. Here’s the web site:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ead/ea_content/ea_un_system.htm
Second, the UN doesn’t appear to have a committee or board that is comprised by nations,
such as the Security Council or Human Rights Commission. Instead they have a “roster of
experts” which assists in election monitoring worldwide.
Finally, I can’t find any evidence that the UN removed the US from anything having to do with
election monitoring over the last three years.
If anyone knows what the “resume” refers to on this point, please let me know.

Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight
than any presidential administration in US history.
No evidence is cited for this, so I’m not sure what they’re referring to. I could find no evidence
of the dissolution of any Congressional committees of oversight, so I’m not sure what to argue.

Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
There is no such thing as the “World Court of Law.” There is a body popularly known as the
“World Court”, though its official name is the Permanent Court of International Justice.
According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, the United States was never a member of the World
Court, because the Senate refused to ratify the protocol:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/wo/WorldCrt.html
What the Bush Administration did do, however, is remove the United States from an
agreement to establish an International Criminal Court:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1970312.stm
Incidentally, as of May 6, 2002, when the United States removed itself from the agreement,
here are some of the other nations that refused entry into the new court: China, India,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Israel and Russia.

Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by
the Geneva Conventions.
This is blatantly false. Red Cross officials have reviewed the conditions at Guantanamo Bay,
where the Afghan detainees are being held, as well as the conditions of the Iraqi POWs. CNN
has written a story addressing the Geneva Convention and its salient points:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/31/timep.rules.tm/index.html
There are two issues raised by the CNN piece:
o No hearings have been held to establish the status of the 23,000 detainees at
Guantanamo (Corrected on 5/6, see “Changes” section for more info.)
o The reporters “embedded” with the military showed some Iraqi captives on television.
However, no one has seriously suggested mistreatment of those held by the United States, nor
has anyone seriously accused the US of abandoning the Geneva Conventions.

First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US
elections).
Try as I might, I could not find evidence of this anywhere. I’d be happy to hear from anyone
who can provide documentation on it.

All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
Certainly GWB had more campaign money to spend in 2000 than did Al Gore. According to
PoliticalMoneyLine.com, GWB had approximately $200 million to spend, whereas Gore
collected $140 million. Interestingly, if you look at the breakdown of the two candidates, the
difference lies in “individual contributions”, not in corporate/PAC/labor union money.
The following page provides a very interesting breakdown of money contributed by various
industries to both political parties from 1991 forward:
http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/x_sic.exe?DoFn=
While the GOP leads in most industries, the Democratic Party collected nearly $50 million
dollars from labor unions.
So “the resume” is very cunning in specifying only “corporate campaign donations”. If you add
in labor unions (and Buddhist monks), the numbers tell a very different story.

My biggest lifetime campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy
frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
Not quite sure how to approach this one, since numbers would be very difficult to locate. We
can establish this: Enron was an energy trading company; however, the largest corporate/PAC
contributors to Bush’s 2000 campaign were Finance/Insurance and single-issue groups:
http://www.fecinfo.com/cgi-win/x_candpg.exe?DoFn=P00003335*2000
According to OpenSecrets.org, Kenneth Lay contributed only $75,000 to the Bush
gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998:
http://www.opensecrets.org/2000elect/other/bush/index.asp
(Just in case you think Lay contributed to Bush through Enron itself, please note: In Texas,
corporations and labor unions are prohibited from making direct contributions to candidates,
but may make unlimited contributions to political parties up to 60 days before the election.)

Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
Unfortunately for the “resume”, this is another falsehood. President Bush, by even the largest
estimates, spent about 1 million dollars in his first year in office on pollsters and focus groups.
President Clinton spent 2 million. The source? None other than Bush-basher extraordinaire,
Maureen Dowd:
“In the new Washington Monthly, Joshua Green reveals the extent of Bush polling:
Republican records show that "Bush's principal pollsters received $346,000 in direct
payments in 2001. Add to that the multiple boutique polling firms the administration
regularly employs for specialized and targeted polls and the figure is closer to $1
million."
(That's about half as much as Mr. Clinton spent his first year, but about $1 million more
than Mr. Bush led us to expect he'd spend.)” (Source: “Addiction to Addition”, New York
Times, April 3, 2002)

First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the
United Nations and the world community.
I earlier outlined the reasons we attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. Please refer to that section for
more information. I would add this opinion: Just because the UN and “world community” is
against your actions don’t make those actions wrong.
Incidentally, we went into Iraq with the second-largest coalition of nations since WWII:
Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea,
Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

First president to run and hide when the US came under attack on September 11th (and then
lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
Since there was only one president “when the US came under attack on September 11th”, this
is kind of an odd assertion. Secondly, it only makes sense when there are multiple attacks
being carried out on the United States simultaneously that the president would not present
himself as an open target. Third, I suspect that it was the military and secret service that
suggested the president “run and hide”, rather than the President himself.
President Bush’s first step on 9/11 was to travel to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
Since the United States was on nuclear alert, transporting the President to an Air Force base is
not an unusual step. President Bush’s second trip on 9/11 was to Offutt Air Force Base in
Nebraska, at that time the home of the Strategic Air Command—again a quite logical step
considering that we didn’t know what other attacks would take place on that day. By 7:00PM
that night, the President was back in Washington. (Clarification on 5/6, see “Changes” for info.)
(Source: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/sept112001.html)
Interestingly, only evidence of the “lie” that “the enemy had the code to Air Force 1” is from
William Safire’s column on September 13, 2001 entitled “Inside the Bunker”. Mr. Safire quoted
a “high White House official" who told him "A threatening message received by the Secret
Service was relayed to the agents with the president that 'Air Force One is next.'" Safire
continued: "According to the high official, American code words were used showing a
knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible."
It is a far stretch indeed to then claim that Mr. Bush himself made the claim.

First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
I can’t say whether or not GWB was the first to establish a secret shadow government (after
all, it is secret), but here the Washington Post article outlining the reasons:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20584-2002Feb28?language=printer
The Post article documents the plan for “continuity of government”, which was first outlined
under President Reagan.
It’s important to note that the need for a continuity plan is real: should a rogue nation or
terrorist group attempt to decapitate the American government, a contingency plan must be in
place.

Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 9/11, and in less than a year made the US
the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world
history).
I’m not sure how you’d even measure the “most resented country in the world”. (Is it a Gallup
Poll or something?) Furthermore, I can think of a few “diplomatic failures” in world history that
are a little more egregious than what’s happened in Iraq. (If you can even call that a diplomatic
failure.) Off the top of my head, I’d say that WWI and WWII were probably a little worse.

With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least
30 years.
Again, history bears out that relations at times have been worse between the Israelis and
Palestinians than they are right now. Here are a few examples: (from
http://www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm):
Oct. 6, 1973
Yom Kippur War (October War). In a surprise attack on the Jewish Day of Atonement, Egypt
retook the Suez canal and a narrow zone on the other side. Syria reconquered the Golan
Heights. Following massive US and Soviet resupplying of the sides, Israel succeeded in
pushing back the Syrians and threatening Damascus. Ariel Sharon crossed the Suez Canal
and cut off the Egyptian Third Army.
June 6, 1982
Massive Israeli invasion of Lebanon to fight PLO. UN Security Council Resolution 509
demands that Israel withdraw all its military forces forthwith, but Israel advances rapidly to
Beirut, surrounding the capital by 13 Jun. Israeli cabinet is split on the sudden expansion of the
war, beyond the 40 KM limit originally declared by Sharon.
Sept. 28, 2000
Palestinians initiated riots after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount,
which is also the location of the Haram as Sharif holy to Muslims. Violence was apparently
encouraged by Fatah Tanzim, as admitted by Marwan Barghouhi. Violence escalated rapidly
from rock throwing to machine gun and mortar fire, suicide bombings and lethal road
ambushes, including some incidents instigated by settlers against Palestinians. Israelis killed
15 Israeli Arabs in riots in September/October 2000, and over 2,000 Palestinians in retaliatory
raids thereafter. Palestinians kill over 700 Israelis. Violence continues for over a year present - March 2003].

First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my
presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
Again, I’d suggest that when you’re sure that what you’re doing is right, it doesn’t matter who
protests.

First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US
than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
If I read this correct, this means that the United States is more of a threat to South Korea than
is North Korea. Again, I’m not sure how this is measured, but I’ll try to present some evidence
myself.
Here’s a Harris poll taken among the Japanese and South Koreans regarding the US action
post-9/11:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=276

There was a report done by Gallup Korea in December 2002, which does appear to bear out
“the résumé’s” allegation:
http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2003/April/04-23-eww.htm
So I don’t quite know what to make of this one. I would say this: The Bush administration is
probably not so much concerned about relations between North and South Korea as they are
about the North’s possession of nuclear weapons and their stated intention to use them.

Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
I haven’t been able to find any evidence of this. I searched CNN’s database, but didn’t come
up with anything close. Since pleading guilty to a speeding ticket would make one a “convicted
criminal”, I’m kid of skeptical that there was such a policy in the first place.
If anyone can find any details on this, please let me know.

Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling
huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
“The resume” provided no evidence for this. I searched CNN and couldn’t find any evidence.
You’d think if they set an “all-time record”, there’d be more proof of it, but I couldn’t find any.

Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
We still have troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Osama certainly does appear to be a
sneaky SOB, but we have hardly “failed”. We haven’t given up.
(See answer to next question for more information.)

Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United
States Capital building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
The Department of Justice/FBI investigation continues. If you’re interested to know what’s
going on, please refer to:
http://www.fbi.gov/anthrax/amerithraxlinks.htm
How “the resume” knows that there are no suspects is a mystery. Attorney General Ashcroft
has named one person a “person of interest??, though no action has been taken.
What’s curious about this claim and the previous one is this: Criminals, such as the anthrax
killer and Osama Bin Laden, don’t want to get caught. Therefore, they do their evil deeds out
of plain sight. It took the FBI nearly twenty years to catch the Unabomber. Eric Rudolph, the
abortion clinic bomber, has been on the lam for over 5 years now.

In the 18 months following the 9/11 attacks I have successfully prevented any public
investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
On the contrary, as early as June 2002 there were congressional hearings on the September
11 disaster: (The sessions were “closed-door”, but they were public, bipartisan investigations.)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/04/terror.lapses/index.html
There was indeed opposition from the Bush administration:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/19/911probe.rice/index.html
By September 2002 (well within the “18 months” cited by “the resume”), the President agreed
that an independent probe needed to occur:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/20/independent.probe/index.html
Note that Congress couldn’t get its act together and the commission wasn’t actually formed
until November 2002:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/10/11/911.commission.congress/index.html

Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US
history.
How do you measure this? Again, no proof is given, so it’s hard to research. I will say this:
Since September 11, security measures have been implemented that probably have curtailed
freedoms and civil liberties to some extent. But I’m not sure how to prove or disprove this
point.

In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most
divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
I would suggest that 1968 was probably a little more contentious than 2001-2003. Here’s a
great web site devoted to the events of that year, compiled by Brown University:
http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968/
Let’s look at a few events from that year:
· Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated: “his death sparks rioting in Baltimore, Boston,
Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, Washington, D.C., and many others. Across the
country 46 deaths will be blamed on the riots”
· Riots in the streets at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
· Vietnam war rages: US troops kill 500 women and children at My Lai
I’d like to think that we have an appreciation of our history as American citizens. If anyone
seriously thinks that the few protests over the Iraq war rival anything that happened in 1968, I
may need to reconsider that opinion.

Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned
every single economic category heading straight down.
As the economy is a cyclical beast, some presidents are blessed with a good economy, while
others are not. The financial policies of any president do not impact the economy immediately;
therefore, I’d argue that President Clinton had something to do with the problems we’re seeing
today, just as Bush Sr. deserves some credit for the good economy during the 1990s.
But, if you’re going to pin the economy solely on Bush, at least look at the numbers:
(http://www.econstats.com/blssaq1.htm)
· President Bush took office with a 3.8% inflation rate. It fell every quarter between Q1
2001 and Q1 2003. This most recent quarter it is back to 3.8%.
· Average hourly earnings for Americans have risen every quarter that President Bush
has been in office.
· Unemployment has risen for 8 of the 10 quarters that President Bush has been in office,
but is still 1.5% lower than during the 1991-1993 recession. Unemployment numbers
actually began to turn during President Clinton’s last year in office.

Records and References
At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is
not available)
The President himself, as I mentioned earlier, has confirmed the first claim. The evidence I
have found some evidence for the second claim is that when he became Governor, Mr. Bush
received a new driver’s license with a new number. I can find no evidence that the original
record was erased.

AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.
This is a false claim! Updated information can be found in the “Changes” section at the
beginning of the document.
Again, this claim does appear to be true. I can’t do any better explaining the whole mess than
Cecil Adams does, on his website, “The Straight Dope”:
Here's the story as generally agreed upon: In January 1968, with the Vietnam war in full
swing, Bush was due to graduate from Yale. Knowing he'd soon be eligible for the draft,
he took an air force officers' test hoping to secure a billet with the Texas Air National
Guard, which would allow him to do his military service at home. Bush didn't do
particularly well on the test--on the pilot aptitude section, he scored in the 25th
percentile, the lowest possible passing grade. But Bush's father, George H.W., was then
a U.S. congressman from Houston, and strings were pulled. The younger Bush vaulted
to the head of a long waiting list--a year and a half long, by some estimates--and in May
of '68 he was inducted into the guard.

By all accounts Bush was an excellent pilot, but apparently his enthusiasm cooled. In
1972, four years into his six-year guard commitment, he was asked to work for the
campaign of Bush family friend Winton Blount, who was running for the U.S. Senate in
Alabama. In May Bush requested a transfer to an Alabama Air National Guard unit with
no planes and minimal duties. Bush's immediate superiors approved the transfer, but
higher-ups said no. The matter was delayed for months. In August Bush missed his
annual flight physical and was grounded. (Some have speculated that he was worried
about failing a drug test--the Pentagon had instituted random screening in April.) In
September he was ordered to report to a different unit of the Alabama guard, the 187th
Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery. Bush says he did so, but his nominal
superiors say they never saw the guy, there's no documentation he ever showed up,
and not one of the six or seven hundred soldiers then in the unit has stepped forward to
corroborate Bush's story.
After the November election Bush returned to Texas, but apparently didn't notify his old
Texas guard unit for quite a while, if ever. The Boston Globe initially reported that he
started putting in some serious duty time in May, June, and July of 1973 to make up for
what he'd missed. But according to a piece in the New Republic, there's no evidence
Bush did even that. Whatever the case, even though his superiors knew he'd blown off
his duties, they never disciplined him. (No one's ever been shot at dawn for missing a
weekend guard drill, but policy at the time was to put shirkers on active duty.) Indeed,
when Bush decided to go to business school at Harvard in the fall of 1973, he requested
and got an honorable discharge--eight months before his service was scheduled to
end.”
(Source: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030411.html)
This is a false claim! Updated information can be found in the “Changes” section at the
beginning of the document.

Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
Not true.
First, it should be noted that on a number of occasions George W. Bush has acknowledged he
drank too much as a young adult. He has since quit drinking and from all reports, he is in
excellent physical condition.
Contrary to the claims of “the resume”, Mr. Bush did answer questions during the presidential
campaign about rumors of past drug use.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/08/19/president.2000/bush.drug/index.html
I’ll leave it up to you to determine whether a presidential candidate should submit to a drug
test.

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my father's library,
sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
Again, completely untrue. Here’s the website:
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/findingaids/bush.html
And a direct quote from the web site:
The records of Governor George W. Bush are available for research. Researchers will
expedite the fulfillment of their reference requests by first consulting finding aids.
Requests for records must follow the procedures set forth in the Texas Public
Information Act.
The Records of Governor George W. Bush are available for research despite the fact
that they have not been fully prepared for research. As the Archives' staff prepares each
group of records, this finding aid is updated on the Web at TARO (Texas Archival
Resources Online).

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed
in secrecy and un-available for public view.
I cannot find any evidence that these records have been “sealed in secrecy”. The SEC has
released some documents pertaining to the Harken investigation. I cannot find any reference
to the investigation on the SEC website, but the search engine does not appear to cover
documents prior to 1998.
Alexander’s Gas and Oil Connections, described on their website as “a site for the gas, oil and
affiliated industry giving an overview of the trends and happenings in and around the global
energy-value chain”, refers to “The internal corporate documents, released by the Securities
and Exchange Commission”
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:klUtI1fKf-
AC:www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn04079.htm+SEC+records+Harken+Bush&hl=en&ie=
UTF-8
I
wish I could be more specific on where to find these documents, but I did find one
corroborating source to show they are not “sealed in secrecy”.

All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy
and un-available for public view.
Referring to the claim above, internal corporate documents have been released from the
Harken investigation. I don’t know if they contained “minutes of meetings” as addressed in
“the résumé’s” claim.

Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are
sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.
Here’s a link to a lot of information on the White House’s energy policy:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/
The crux of this website is the report from the National Energy Policy Development Group, of
which Vice President Cheney is a member. The report is in PDF format and is downloadable.
Now, if you’re talking about the secret meetings that Cheney attends with the aliens who are in
control of the government, or the meetings where the President takes briefcases full of cash
from corrupt businessmen, then yes—records and minutes from those meetings are “sealed in
secrecy.” (Please, it’s a joke!)

For personal references please speak to my daddy or uncle James Baker (They can be
reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)
This claim is no different than any other claim in “the resume”: it is filled with venom and anger.
Though it is impossible to prove or disprove, I suggest you look at the rest of “the resume” to
assess its veracity.

[Pax Hayden]

7. I enjoyed this post.

Thank you for giving me something to think about and research. I am relatively new here to DU, but I imagine that there is a thread that addresses all your points.

I do suggest that the next time you simply write a brief paragraph and then post a link. (At least, I think that's what the mods on this discussion board request you do.)

I have seen the Bush resume at least twenty times over the past year. I suspect that this topic will come up dozens more times in the coming eleven months to the election.

[havenotidentified]

8. Thanks

Thanks, I'm new to posting here too and haven't had a chance to explore all the threads as of yet.