Let's Start A List

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

Federal Agencies that the Bush Administration has politicized:

FEMA
Doin' a heck of job, Brownie! Bush hires a political hack with no emergency management experience to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The city nearly drowns in Hurricane Katrina, and is still waiting to be rebuilt.

Department of Justice
Doin' a heck of a job, Fredo! Bush fires United States Atorneys who refuse to participate in politically-movitived prosecutions of Democrats. Replaces them with "Loyal Bushies." One study shows that since 2001, the DOJ has initiated about 60 investigations of Republicans and nearly 300 investigations against Democrats.

General Services Administration
Doin' a heck of a job, Doanie! Bush has staff at the GSA attend a political orientation meeting lead by the Deputy Director of Political Affairs. Lurita Doan asks how the GSA can help "our candidates" in the upcoming election.

Department of Faith-Based Initiatives
Doin' a heck of a job, Jesus! Bush Administration provides funing to right-wing political supporters but snubs organizations like Big Brother & Big Sisters. The first Director of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, in comments after his resignation, is the individual who coined the phrase "Mayberry Machiavelli's" with regard to the Bush Administration.

Others? And please include a specific example -- we're creating talking points here.

[IDemo]

1. EPA

Clear Skies Initiative, mercury and arsenic are natural and healthy.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

7. Of course.

That was a no-brainer. Republican Administrations always turn the EPA into a tool for corporate polluters.

[maggiegault]

2. Department of Education

With his ridiculous "No Child Left Behind" policy. Or, as my teacher sister calls it, "No Child Left Anything But Debt"

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Testing...Testing...

I've not sure how testing makes a kid any smarter. If I take my temperature every five minutes, will it make me any more healthy?

[maggiegault]

17. Them's Numbers, Jeff

Numbers is math. It ain't that touchy-feely librul shit that comes with an actual education.

Rote memorization and drilling. That's a good Republican education.

Or you can just have Big Daddy bribe school officials at Yale. That always works, too.

[lpbk2713]

3. FCC

It's not even a govt agency any more. It is an arm of the RNC.

[stirlingsliver]

4. Wouldn't I Just Be Easier To Do This?

Wouldn't it just be easier to list those Federal agencies that * and his thugs have not politicized???

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. Probably

But I'm looking for specific examples. One of those "argument aids" that we can all use in debates with our Freeper in-laws.

[SharonRB]

5. Here's a few more

J. Steven Griles: Deputy Secretary of the Interior:
A former oil and coal lobbyist, J. Steven Griles violated recusal agreements in order to lobby on behalf of a company he formerly owned and from which he is not fully divested. A longtime lobbyist for the energy industry, Griles has met regularly with clients of his former employer, National Environmental Strategies (NES), during his tenure at Interior while receiving $284,000 per year from NES as part of a $1.1 million payout for his "client base." Griles has played a key role in decisions affecting the Clean Air Act, oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, coal bed methane development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, and wetland permit rules. While a lobbyist, Griles represented oil, gas and coal clients with interests in these same issues. Lawsuit Filed to Obtain Information about Payments from Previous Employer and Meetings with Former Mining, Oil and Gas Industry Clients

Lynn Scarlett: Undersecretary of the Interior
Recycling foe Lynn Scarlett, one of the architects of Bush's "new environmentalism". Scarlett began working for the libertarian Reason Foundation, becoming its president and CEO in 2001. The Reason Foundation is funded by industry groups such as the American Forest and Paper Association, the American Petroleum Institute, American Plastics Council, Chevron Corporation, Dow Chemical, etc. The author of "A Consumer's Guide to Environmental Myths and Realities," Scarlett cites the following as common myths about the environment: Disposables Are Bad; We Are Running Out of Resources; Americans Are Especially Wasteful; etc. Scarlett was a board member of The Thoreau Institute which "seeks ways to protect the environment without regulation, bureaucracy, or central control." Source

David Lauriski: Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety
David Lauriski, is a long-time coal industry executive and lobbyist. Shortly after taking office, Lauriski bragged to a group of coal industry executives that his regulatory agenda "is quite a bit shorter than some past agendas." Indeed, death warrants usually tend towards brevity. Part of Lauriski's abbreviated agenda is to reduce the number of times a mining company has to sample coal dust levels inside the tunnels, a move that is certain to increase incidence of black lung disease. And yes, Lauriski wants to get rid of the chest X-ray program that tests miners for black lung disease. Lauriski also wants to slash the number of mine inspectors by 25 percent.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. Oooo. Good call on Mine Safety

Especially after the Sago Disaster. Great specific example!

[SharonRB]

12. Google is your friend

Just Google "Bush Cronyism" and you can find lots of good stuff.

Who was the guy who was opposed to birth control who was appointed to a post that had to do with birth control, etc.?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. Eric Keroack

Appointed Deputy Assistant for Population Affairs, who would have responsibility for providing family-planning services funded by the federal government. Publically opposed not only to abortion, but also to all forms of birth control.

[SharonRB]

15. Thanks!

That's the one I was trying to think of. A classic Bush appointment.

[leftofthedial]

6. Department of Commerce

Council of Economic Advisors
Department of Labor


have been issuing propaganda instead of legitimate economic reports since the bush cabal seized power.

[Breeze54]

8. WH Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach Closed - Office of Women's Health....

Women's Outreach Office Closed
Feminist Leaders Decry Bush's Shuttering of Clinton Creation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A8599-2001Mar28

By Amy Goldstein and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 29, 2001; Page A21

Callers to the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach listen to the telephone ring
six times before a recording begins. "As of January 19, 2001, this office no longer exists, and we
will not be able to retrieve your calls," a pleasant, female voice says. "We apologize for the
inconvenience."

Aides to President Bush had given no clue they had disbanded the small office created by the Clinton
administration as a conduit for women's political concerns.

--------------------------

Last month,(February, 2001) similar special offices on AIDS policy and race relations were
essentially closed and their duties split between public liaison and the White House's Domestic
Policy Council.

----------------------------

War on Terror, War on Women

by Heather Wokusch

www.dissidentvoice.org

March 11, 2007

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar07/Wokusch11.htm

Bush then tried to close the Department of Labor Women's Bureau regional offices,
thus prohibiting women from learning about their legal rights in the workplace.

Most recently, the administration took revenge on the Office of Women's Health, presumably
because it had backed scientific research supporting the emergency contraceptive Plan B.
Previous attempts to punish the office had included appointing a veterinarian as its
director (speaks volumes, Bush wanted an animal doctor to be in charge of US women's health),
but two weeks ago, the hammer fell. The Women's Health Office learned that its budget for
this year would be slashed by 25%, thus threatening ongoing operations and research into
everything from menopause to birth control.

More.........

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. All Agencies

From the NY Times:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

[sandnsea]

16. National Parks

Selling corporate sponsorships on trails, benches, bathrooms, etc. All kinds of grief in the national forests and parks.

[me b zola]

18. Wasn't there a story that came out a year or two ago

...about how applicants for the forest service were asked their political affiliation as a screening?

[maggiegault]

19. The FAA

Scare tactics, armed air marshals, TSA jackboots, and ridiculous arbitrary restrictions like the currently idiotic limit on liquids aboard.

All that they have done is make it seem like we are safer...which is how the GOP thugs do things. They never actually get anything done. It is just all on the surface, and all about screwing the little guy.

Oh, and don't forget the No Fly List. We can never forget the No Fly List. Have an unpopular opinion? Hope you don't plan to fly home for Christmas this year...or any year! It's super secret, it cannot be appealed, and you can never be taken off. It's the very portrait of All Things *.

Air marshals, by the way, have quotas each month. There was a recent story about an air marshal who wrote up people on a flight out of Las Vegas simply because he had to make his numbers. Their crimes ranged from taking photos of the Las Vegas skyline as the plane ascended and banked (and the pilot made a point of mentioning the great photo op passengers would have as the plane readied for departure), to asking the FAs for an extra drink, to accidentally getting up out of their seats when the "seatbelts fastened" sign was lit.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

22. Let's not forget...

holding up on the hiring of TSA employees because Bush didn't want them to be unionized, federal employees.

[me b zola]

20. It is my belief that the 'dept of faith based initiatives'

was created as a political federal agency (well really it's just a scheme to funnel tax payer money from the US treasury into the gop's election treasury). It may be a small distinction but I feel as though it is an important one, especially if we want the dept of fbi to go away.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

21. I think you're correct.

DFBI was never anything more than a checkbook to reward the religious right. You can't corrupt the organization if it was corrupt from the beginning.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

23. Short list:

1) All of them.

[maggiegault]

24. I Agree, But...

I think that it is important that they be listed, one by one, with the reasons why...otherwise Old Ladies Like Me will forget!

:D