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Bush Endorses U.S. Jobs Moving Overseas

Jason Sutter — 2004-02-10T21:28:44Z

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BUSH ENDORSES U.S. JOBS MOVING OVERSEAS

On Labor Day, President Bush said, "I want people to understand that when
somebody wants to work and can't find a job, it says we've got a problem in
America that we're going to deal with. We want everybody in this country
working." But yesterday, President Bush directly contradicted himself,
releasing a report which "supports the shift of U.S. jobs overseas." When
asked about the report and how it contradicts the president's supposed
concern about job losses, the president's top economic adviser said,
"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade."

With more than two million jobs lost since President Bush took office,
newspaper headlines across the country told readers of the White House's new
support for the practice of wealthy corporations eliminating U.S. jobs and
shipping them to lower-wage countries. The Seattle Times headline read,
"Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
said, "Bush Economic Report Praises 'Outsourcing' Jobs" and the Arizona
Republic said, "Bush Report Lauds 'Outsourcing' Jobs."

And while this may be troubling to the millions in the United States who are
out of work and suffering from stagnating wages, it was celebrated in India,
where thousands of good paying, white-collar U.S. jobs have moved. The
headlines in India read, "Bush Aides: Outsourcing win-win for India." The
story said the Administration believes exporting jobs to India and other
lower-wage countries "is a win-win for both exporter and importer" - failing
to explain how this is a win for American workers who the president just
months ago purported to care about.

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Bush Claims Of Released Military Records Are False

Jason Sutter — 2004-02-09T20:39:57Z

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BUSH CLAIMS OF RELEASED MILITARY RECORDS ARE FALSE

On Meet the Press yesterday, President Bush claimed he has already released
all records of his whereabouts during the Vietnam War. However, this does
not appear to be the case. Bush is being scrutinized for his failure to
provide evidence of his service during a year when he should have been in
the National Guard. Yesterday, Bush specifically claimed that "we did
[release all the records] in 2000" to prove his case. But as the Washington
Post reported, "no such information has been released."

Bush reiterated claims that he reported for duty, but "records have never
been produced to document that Bush was there." Furthermore, during the 2000
election, Bush's campaign spokesman "acknowledged that he knows of no
witnesses who can attest to Bush's attendance" between late 1972 and
September 1973.

When questions were asked in 2000 about the issue, "Bush refused to be
interviewed on the topic." That same year, Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) - both distinguished war heroes - "called on Bush to
release his full military record to resolve doubts" about his record, but
they were rebuffed.

Almost three years later, those same calls continue to go unheeded. As
reported by the Washington Post, Bush last week "did not release new
information to clear up questions about a one-year gap in the public record
of Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War."
Today the Post reports that payroll records and Bush's annual "point
summary" from the time should definitively prove whether Bush did show up
for duty, but "neither has been released so far" by Bush. Additionally, a
2000 FOIA request for Bush's military records withheld certain documents.
(http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=17347
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=17348 )

While Bush falsely claimed to have released all records and now says he will
cooperate with inquiries, he has simultaneously dispatched aides to attack
those demanding answers. Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot said "To
suggest...that the military should 'answer questions' about President Bush's
honorable discharge is an outrage."

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Tenet Exposes Bush's Misleading on WMD

Jason Sutter — 2004-02-05T20:45:03Z

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TENET EXPOSES BUSH'S MISLEADING ON WMD

In a stunning blow to the president's credibility, CIA Director George Tenet
said this morning that intelligence "analysts never said there was an
imminent threat" from Iraq before the war. His comments are consistent with
various warnings sent to the White House from the intelligence community
that specifically told the president his claims that Iraq definitely had
chemical/biological and nuclear weapons were unsubstantiated. Tenet's
comments call into question whether the Bush Administration was knowingly
ignoring intelligence and misleading the country by claiming definitively
that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was therefore an "imminent,"
"immediate," "urgent" and "mortal" threat to the American people.

Though the White House has claimed it never said Iraq was an imminent
threat, the record proves otherwise. When White House communications
director Dan Bartlett was asked before the war whether Saddam Hussein was an
imminent threat, he responded, "Of course he is." When White House spokesman
Scott McClellan was asked why NATO (and thus the United States) should
support Turkey's request for defensive troops, he responded, "This is about
an imminent threat." When White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked
whether the invasion of Iraq was because Iraq was an imminent threat, he
responded, "Absolutely."

The president also used other language aimed at misleading Americans into
thinking that U.S. intelligence definitively knew Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction that threatened America - even though the intelligence community
told the president it had no such evidence. The president said before the
war that Iraq was an "urgent threat" and a "grave threat" to "any American."
In his speech informing Americans that the invasion had started, the
President said Iraq "threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."

These comments were echoed by other top Administration officials. Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said on September 19, 2002 that "no terrorist
state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people
and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
And Vice President Cheney called Iraq a "mortal threat," and said "there is
no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction...to use
against our friends, against our allies, and against us." And Secretary of
State Colin Powell, in pressing for U.N. support, said definitively that
Iraq possessed "deadly weapons programs" that "are real and present dangers
to the region and to the world."

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Bush Sabotages WMD Commission Before It Starts

Jason Sutter — 2004-02-04T20:38:05Z

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BUSH SABOTAGES WMD COMMISSION BEFORE IT STARTS

Over the last two days, President Bush and the White House have claimed that
they are going to establish an "independent" commission to promptly
investigate the over-hyping of intelligence before the Iraq war. But as
details come out about the White House's proposal, it appears the commission
will be neither independent nor prompt.

Specifically, the president will appoint the entire commission himself,
breaking the previous tradition of allowing lawmakers from both parties to
appoint commission members. Although lawmakers have raised objections to the
commission's lack of independence, the White House is moving forward with
its plans.

Additionally, despite the fact that the commission's work will be critical
to national security, the president will only authorize a commission that
produces a report after the election -- so as to minimize any political
fallout for himself. This contrasts sharply to British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, who is putting national security ahead of politics. As the Los
Angeles Times reports, "in contrast to a bipartisan investigating committee
announced by Bush, the British panel is to announce its conclusions by July.
That would put any damaging disclosures for Blair's government well in
advance of parliamentary elections, expected in 2005." It also contrasts
with similar investigations in the United States. In 1983, after the
terrorist attacks on U.S. troops in Beirut, a commission was appointed and
finished its work within 3 months.

As one major newspaper editorial board summed up, "The president's goal is
to delay any objective findings about prewar intelligence until after the
election, leaving him free to decide what the administration knew and didn't
know and who is to blame." And the President's continued misleading on WMD
could come at a price. As Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said, a failure to
convince the public that Bush did not "exaggerate" the case for war "would
put the president in a very bad position. He said people would start asking,
"Do we trust his word? Do we trust him to lead this country?"

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Bush Misleads Public About Cause of Deficit

Jason Sutter — 2004-02-03T20:50:38Z

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BUSH MISLEADS PUBLIC ABOUT CAUSE OF DEFICIT

On the same day the White House unveiled its 2005 budget, President Bush
calculatingly obscured the reason the nation now faces a record $500 billion
deficit. He said, "The reason we are where we are, in terms of the deficit,
is because we went through a recession, we were attacked, and we're fighting
a war."

But according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the single
biggest cause of the deficit is the president's massive tax cuts for the
wealthy -- which he conveniently did not mention. Specifically, 36% of the
deficit comes from the tax cuts, while only 31% comes from
defense/war-related spending increases, and the rest comes from the economic
slowdown. In fact the president actually acknowledged in last year's budget
that the deficit is primarily his fault. Table S-3 of Bush's 2004 budget
"shows unambiguously that the administration's fiscal 2004 budget proposes a
massive annual increase in the deficit" and that without those proposals the
nation would return to surplus. In other words, the president is falsely
invoking national security, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the war in
Iraq to hide the fact that his tax cuts for the wealthy have created the
largest deficit in American history.

With 88% of Americans now believing that the deficit is a "very serious" or
"somewhat serious problem," the president has also tried to blame government
spending for the deficit. But again, as the CBO notes, spending is at "a
lower level than in any year from 1975 through 1996." And as the president
starves veterans health care, low-income housing, and health care programs
of funding, he is pushing more than $1 trillion in new tax cuts, primarily
for the wealthy.

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Bush's Optimism Belied by Deficits, Jobless

Jason Sutter — 2004-01-30T19:43:04Z

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BUSH'S ECONOMIC OPTIMISM BELIED BY DEFICITS, UNEMPLOYED

Visiting New Hampshire yesterday, President Bush argued on behalf of making
his tax cuts permanent, saying, "government has got plenty of money." But
in Washington, the White House announced that the Medicare law signed six
weeks ago would cost 35% more than indicated. White House officials have
maintained the $134 billion increased estimate was "understandable and
relatively close."

The president also said yesterday that the government needs "needs to stay
focused and principled." But the administration's budget, to be unveiled
next week, is expected to produce a $520 billion deficit, about $150 billion
more than the deficit for 2003.

President Bush hasn't yet articulated how he'll successfully "cut the
deficit in half over the next five years," other than being "wise with the
people's money," as announced in his State of the Union. The White House
has already announced an increase in spending for homeland security by 9.7%,
a 7% increase for defense spending, and is stumping hard to make his tax
cuts permanent, an additional cost of $2 trillion over ten years, according
to the non-partisan Brookings Institution.

The president spent much time yesterday claiming his tax cuts were
successful and fair, "as opposed to trying to pick or choose winners in the
political debate." All analyses, however, show that the top 1% received
almost half of the president's tax cuts, even though that group pays only 21
percent of federal taxes.

The Washington Post characterized Bush's speech as an "economic pep talk,"
in which the president lauded his tax cuts and an improving economy.
Bush said his tax cuts were "working. People are finding work." However,
the Post also reported on the facing page of Bush's speech, that a record
number of jobless workers, 375,000, will exhaust their unemployment
benefits tomorrow, the highest number ever recorded for a single month.

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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Bush's WMD Misleading Continues to Escalate

Jason Sutter — 2004-01-29T23:11:45Z

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Watch MoveOn.org's new video for more on the president's misleading of America
on Iraq. -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=16333

BUSH'S WMD MISLEADING CONTINUES TO ESCALATE

Faced with evidence that no WMD existed in Iraq before the war, President
Bush is citing different rationales for going to war. He said this week that
the war was justified because "the world is a better place without Saddam
Hussein." The president's recent statements, however, are belied by what he's
said in the past. A look at the historical record shows President Bush
justified an invasion of Iraq by making unequivocal statements that Saddam
Hussein possessed WMD that threatened all Americans, even claiming that
inspectors had found WMD when they had not.

On November 23, 2002, President Bush said a war was justified because there
was "an urgent threat posed by Iraq whose dictator has already used weapons
of mass destruction to kill thousands." In early January 2003, President
Bush said, "The Iraqi regime is a threat to any American. They not only have
weapons of mass destruction, they used weapons of mass destruction...That's
why I say Iraq is a threat, a real threat." And in his speech announcing the
invasion, President Bush said the war was justified because Americans were
"living at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with
weapons of mass murder." None of these assertions have since been
substantiated.

The president and his advisers had been warned repeatedly in the fall of
2002 by the intelligence community, including the CIA and Defense
Intelligence Agency, that the WMD case was weak. However, ten days after the
war began, Secretary Rumsfeld asserted the U.S had pinpointed the location
of WMD, saying, "We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit
and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Less than two months
later, President Bush went on television to claim that WMD had been found,
saying, "we found the weapons of mass destruction" - an assertion that was
false. Asked a follow-up question, the president again contended they'd been
found, saying, "For those who say we haven't found [them], they're wrong, we
found them." The statement has not been repeated since by the Administration
or supported by the Iraq Survey Group's months-long search for WMD.

Independent observers are speaking out about the administration's pre-war
assertions on Iraq versus the reality that's emerging. The respected
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote that the administration
"systematically misrepresented the threat" from Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction. The Army War College called the war "unnecessary," and the
President's own Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board believes the White House
was so desperate "to grab onto something affirmative" to demonstrate Iraq's
weapons that it ignored intelligence reports undermining that claim.

Watch MoveOn.org's new video for more on the president's misleading of America
on Iraq. -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1316866&l=16333

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
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