Double Flee A

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush

"The USA Patriot Act, signed in 2001 by President Bush, allows the government to indefinitely detain immigrants, and conduct searches and surveillance without the Fourth Amendment's rule of probable cause.

In February, 2004, the President explained that the U.S. is facing a deficit of $500 billion, the largest in American history, because "we went through a recession, we were attacked, and we're fighting a war." But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the single biggest cause of the deficit was the President's tax cuts for the wealthy. (The top 1 percent of earners get an average $52,000 tax break this year, and the majority of taxpayers only get $850.) Specifically, 36 percent of the deficit resulted from tax cuts, and only 31 percent resulted from defense/war-related spending increases. The remaining 33 percent of the deficit was caused by economic recession.

The President released a signed report in early 2004 that promised to create 2.6 million new jobs this year. When economic statistics estimated much lower numbers, the President claimed he never signed the report, and would not comment on the quoted figures. The administration predicted 2,142,000 new jobs would be created in the first seven months after the 2003 tax cuts took effect. Only 296,000 jobs were created in that period.

The Bush Administration's "Clear Skies Initiative," announced in 2002, allows 125 percent more sulfur dioxide, 68 percent more nitrogen oxide, and 420 percent more mercury air pollution than existing laws."

-citations onsite

posted by dale @ 11:22 PM