“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”President Bush, U.S. News & World ReportJanuary 3, 2000 “Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?”President Bush, Florence, S.C.January 11, 2000 “This is still a dangerous world. It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mential losses.”President Bush, speaking at a South Carolina oyster roastJanuary 14, 2000 “When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they’re there.”President Bush, Iowa Western Community CollegeJanuary 21, 2000 “What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society.”President Bush, possible TrekkieJanuary 21, 2000 While campaigning in New Hampshire at the Nashua Chamber of Commerce, George W. Bush tried to show he was just a regular guy by advising the audience members to place themselves in the role of a single mother “working hard to put food on your family.” He did not, however, tell them what kind of glue to use.January 27, 2000 “This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It’s what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve.”President Bush, speaking during Perseverance Monthat Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, NHJanuary 28, 2000 “I’ve changed my style somewhat, as you know. I’m less – I pontificate less, although it may be hard to tell it from this show. And I’m more interacting with people.”President Bush, in an interview on Meet The PressFebruary 3, 2000 “Put the ‘off’ button on.”President Bush, giving advice to parents troubled by the graphic fare on televisionFebruary 14, 2000 President Bush made a lot of political hay by labeling Al Gore a “waffler” and John Kerry a “flip-flopper”.  But there were plenty of times Bush himself changed his mind.  For instance, on this date, Bush told Larry King and his Republican primary opponent, Arizona Senator John McCain, that he believed that it was up to the individual states to decide what to do about gay marriage.  However, he soon changed his tune when several states actually took big steps toward legalizing gay marriage. On February 24, 2004, he called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.February 15, 2000 During the debate leading up to the presidential primaries, on this date, George W. Bush suggested to opposing candidate Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) that “by far the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum.” However, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported on April 23, 2004, the “the top 20 percent of earners received 69.8 percent of President Bush’s tax cuts.”February 15, 2000 “It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature.”President Bush, Los Angeles, CAFebruary 23, 2000 “The Bob Jones policy on interracial dating, I mean I spoke out on interracial dating. I spoke against that. I spoke out against interracial dating. I support the policy of interracial dating.”President Bush, Interview with CBS NewsFebruary 25, 2000 “Laura and I really don’t realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis.”President Bush, on CNBCApril 15, 2000 “It just seems so un-American to me, the picture of the guy storming the house with a scared little boy (Elian Gonzalez) there. I talked to my little brother, Jeb – I haven’t told this to many people. But he’s the governor of – I shouldn’t call him my little brother.”President Bush, on NewsHour with Jim LehrerApril 27, 2000 “Actually, I – this may sound a little West Texas to you, but I like it. When I’m talking about – when I’m talking about myself, and when he’s talking about myself, all of us are talking about me.”President Bush, on MSNBC’s HardballMay 31, 2000 “I’m gonna talk about the ideal world, Chris. I’ve read – I understand reality. If you’re asking me as the president, would I understand reality, I do.”President Bush, regarding abortion on MSNBC’s HardballMay 31, 2000 “Unfairly but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being against things. Anti-immigrant, for example. And we’re not a party of anti-immigrants. Quite the opposite. We’re a party that welcomes people.”President Bush, Cleveland, OHJuly 1, 2000 “I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.”President Bush, Bartlett, TNAugust 18, 2000 “We cannot let terriers and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile.”President Bush, Des Moines, IAAugust 21, 2000 “As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public schools, and I have met those standards.”President Bush in a CNN online chatAugust 30, 2000 “Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you’re going to win. And that’s where I’m coming from.”President Bush, Detroit, MISeptember 7, 2000 “I don’t need to be subliminabable.”President Bush, Orlando, FLSeptember 12, 2000 “I know that the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.”President Bush, amateur zoologistOctober 1, 2000 “It’s a school full of so-called at-risk children. It’s how we, unfortunately, label certain children. It means basically they can’t learn. It’s one of the best schools in Houston.”President Bush, speaking about KIPP Academy in Houston,TX in the first 2000 Presidential debate in Boston, MAOctober 3, 2000 “I would have my secretary of treasury be in touch with the financial centers, not only here, but at home.”President Bush, in the first 2000 Presidential debate in Boston, MAOctober 3, 2000 “There’s a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, ‘I don’t want you to let me down again.’”President Bush, in the first 2000 Presidential debate in Boston, MAOctober 3, 2000 “I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders.”President Bush, in the first 2000 Presidential debate in Boston, MAOctober 3, 2000 “I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can’t answer your question.”President Bush, in response to a question about whether he wished hecould take back any of his answers in the first debate, Reynoldsburg, OHOctober 4, 2000 “Our priorities is our faith.”President Bush, Greensboro, NCOctober 10, 2000 “I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.”President Bush, St. Louis, MO, during the second presidential debateOctober 11, 2000 “I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun.”President Bush, in the third 2000 Presidential debate in St. Louis, MOOctober 18, 2000 “Mr. Vice President, in all due respect, it is – I’m not sure 80 percent of the people get the death tax. I know this: 100 percent will get it if I’m the president.”President Bush, in the third 2000 Presidential debate in St. Louis, MOOctober 18, 2000 “Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one.”President Bush, New York City, NY, on William F. BuckleyOctober 19, 2000 “This is an impressive crowd: the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base.”President Bush, speaking at an $800-a-plate benefitOctober 20, 2000 “It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet.”President Bush, Arlington Heights, ILOctober 24, 2000 “Laura and I are proud to call John and Michelle Engler our friends. I know you’re proud to call him governor. What a good man the Englers are.”President BushNovember 1, 2000 “They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it’s some kind of federal program.”President BushNovember 2, 2000 “They misunderestimated me.”President Bush, Bentonville, ARNovember 6, 2000 “The legislature’s job is to write law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law.”President Bush, Austin, TXNovember 22, 2000 When a Miami canvassing board started examining the 10,750 disputed presidential election ballots, a crowd of angry protesters showed up to raise hell. Banging on walls, chanting slogans, shoving officials, and barricading reporters, the crowd eventually intimidated the canvassing board into canceling the recount. It turned out that those “local voters” were actually Republican Capitol Hill staffers, many of whom wound up with top White House jobs, including Matt Schlapp, the eventual White House political director, and Gary Malphrus, the eventual deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. On April 19, 2006, Joel Kaplan, who supposedly liked to brag about his involvement in the “Brooks Brothers Protest,” succeeded Karl Rove as deputy White House chief of staff. None of the rioters were prosecuted.November 22, 2000 “I knew it might put him in an awkward position that we had a discussion before finality has finally happened in this presidential race.”President Bush, describing a phone call to Sen. John Breaux, Crawford, TXDecember 2, 2000 “Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession. We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work.”President Bush, 60 minutes II, CBSDecember 5, 2000 On this date, about a month after the presidential election, the Supreme Court halted the election-recount process in a controversial 5-4 ruling along ideological lines, effectively pulling the rug out from under Al Gore’s candidacy and making George Bush president. “One thing…is certain,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissenting opinion. “Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.December 12, 2000 Before he was nominated as President Bush’s attorney general on this date, John Ashcroft had lost a senate race to a dead man, Mel Carnahan. He had also received an honorary degree from ultraconservative Christian school Bob Jones University, in part because, according to the college’s founder, he had pushed for President Clinton’s impeachment.December 22, 2000 “It’s about past seven in the evening here so we’re actually in different time lines.”President Bush, congratulating newly elected PhilippinePresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Washington, D.C.January 1, 2001 “I’m going to work with every Cabinet member to set a series of goals for each Cabinet.”President Bush, Austin, TXJanuary 2, 2001 “I’ve always found the best investments are those that you salt away based on economics.”President BushJanuary 4, 2001 “I would have to ask the questioner. I haven’t had a chance to ask the questioners the question they’ve been questioning. On the other hand, I firmly believe she’ll be a fine secretary of labor. And I’ve got confidence in Linda Chavez. She is a – she’ll bring an interesting perspective to the Labor Department.”President Bush, Austin, TXJanuary 8, 2001 “I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that’s responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be – a more literate country and a hopefuller country.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.January 11, 2001 “Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment.”President Bush, confusing the confusersJanuary 12, 2001 “She’s just trying to make sure Anthony gets a good meal – Antonio.”President Bush, on NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw, regardingLaura Bush inviting Justice Antonin Scalia to dinner at the White HouseJanuary 14, 2001 “The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants.”President Bush, in an Interview with the New York TimesJanuary 14, 2001 “I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I’m going to be the president of everybody.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.January 18, 2001 “Then I went for a run with the other dog and just walked. And I started thinking about a lot of things. I was able to – I can’t remember what it was. Oh, the inaugural speech, started thinking through that.”President Bush, before the first inaugural addressJanuary 20, 2001 In his first inaugural address, President Bush called for an end to cynicism and trumpeted civility, courage, compassion, and character. This sentiment takes on further meaning when compared to how Bush himself escaped fighting the Vietnam War by joining the Texas National Guard; oversaw the execution of more than 130 people while he was governor; and relied heavily on the suspect machinations of personal friends like Florida’s secretary of state at the time, Katherine Harris, in his “victory” over his presidential opponent Al Gore.  As for an end to cynicism, some found this difficult to envision when the president accepted more than $35 million from various corporations to pay for his inauguration.January 20, 2001 On this date, President Bush’s antiterrorism czar, Richard A. Clarke, recommended to then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice to convene a high-level meeting concerning the Al Qaeda threat. Clarke explained to Rice that the group “is not some narrow, little terrorist issue” but an organization that “affects centrally our policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North Africa, and the GCC.” Clarke also forwarded her a December 2000 strategy paper, which suggested that the United States bomb the terrorist organization’s training camps and made mention of possible Al Qaeda sleeper cells within U.S. borders. Clarke’s plan was never seriously considered, and seven months later, Al Qaeda succeeded in attacking the World Trade Center.January 25, 2001 “I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but of predecessors as well.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.January 29, 2001 “I appreciate that question because I, in the state of Texas, had heard a lot of discussion about a faith-based initiative eroding the important bridge between church and state.”President Bush, speaking to reporters, Washington, D.C.January 29, 2001 “We’re concerned about AIDS inside our White House – make no mistake about it.”President BushFebruary 7, 2001 During President Bush’s first inaugural address, he stressed the need to re-instill character in government, a veiled jab at the cloakroom antics of President Clinton.  Apparently, Bush meant characters, not character, as on this date he tapped John Negroponte – a man closely linked to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s – to be ambassador to the United Nations. While serving as ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte helped gain backing for the right-wing Nicaraguan rebels, cautioned the White House that peace talks were probably just a “Trojan horse,” and suggested that his good pal, General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, the head of the Honduran military, was largely misunderstood. Alvarez Martinez would eventually be removed from office by his military peers, as even they thought he was too ruthless.March 6, 2001 “Our nation will not try to force peace.”President Bush, making promises to Israel’s leader,Ariel Sharon, two years before the Iraq warMarch 20, 2001 Just before he left office, President Clinton approved a new drinking-water regulation that had been in the works for 10 years. The rule would have reduced the allowable levels of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10, the first such change since the law was made in 1942. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, arsenic in water can cause cancer of the skin, lungs, bladder, and prostate; a 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the current standard “could easily” result in a 1-in-100 risk of cancer. On this date, however, President Bush cancelled the regulation, declaring it was based on unsound science. The mining industry, which stood to lose gobs of money under the new decree, applauded Bush’s decision.March 21, 2001 “In terms of the CO2 issue, I will explain as clearly as I can, today and every other chance I get, that we will not do anything that harms our economy. Because, first things first, are the people who live in America.”President Bush, discussing his reasons for ignoring the Kyoto ProtocolMarch 29, 2001 On this date, the Bush administration proposed dropping tests for salmonella in ground beef for federal school lunches. Instead, the schools would be asked to irradiate their beef, a process that was supposed to kill salmonella and other bacteria but was thought to be less safe. According to Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Food Policy Institute of the Consumer Federation of America and an Agriculture Department official during President Carter’s term, Bush’s plan would mean that “neither federal inspectors nor companies involved will test for a potentially deadly pathogen in meat going to millions of schoolchildren nationwide.” Foreman disclosed that 5 million pounds of meat with salmonella in it was caught in 2000, all of which would not be discovered under the new rules.April 5, 2001 “He married, like me, above his head.”President Bush, on U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci, Quebec City, CanadaApril 22, 2001 According to an investigation published in the April 30 issue of The Nation by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Lantigua, over 200,000 Floridians did not get their presidential election votes registered in 2000. This was not just an example of incompetence, although a huge number of ballots went uncounted because of machine error and badly designed voter cards. But it was also because of a carefully thought out plot to purge likely Democratic voters, many of them African American, from the system. When asked what he would do for black voters when he ran for governor in 1994, Jeb Bush answered, “Probably nothing.”April 30, 2001 President Bush nominated Priscilla Owen, whose hometown newspaper, the Austin-American Statesman, called “so conservative that she places herself out of the broad mainstream of jurisprudence,” to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth District. A group of 19 Texas organizations protested the pick, stating that “Owen’s rulings often favor the interest of corporate Texas or government at the expense of ordinary Texans.” Even Bush’s future attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, criticized Owen, calling one of her votes “an unconscionable act of judicial activism.” Democrats in Congress filibustered her until May 2005, when a group of 14 moderate senators reached an agreement to vote on Owen, Miguel Estrada, and other ultraconservative nominees. On May 25, 2005, Owen was confirmed by a 55-43 vote.May 9, 2001 “There’s no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead.”President BushMay 11, 2001 “For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three nonfatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It’s just unacceptable. And we’re going to do something about it.”President BushMay 14, 2001 “It’s important for young men and women who look at the Nebraska champs to understand that quality of life is more than just blocking shots.”President Bush, in remarks to the University of Nebraskawomen’s volleyball team, the 2001 national championsMay 31, 2001 “It’s amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency.”President Bush, speaking to Swedish Prime Minister GoranPerrson, unaware that a live television camera was still rollingJune 14, 2001 “We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.”President Bush, at a news conference in Gothenburg, SwedenJune 14, 2001 “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy… I was able to get a sense of his soul.”President Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir PutinJune 16, 2001 President Bush nominated Judge Carolyn Kuhl to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Critics complained that Kuhl’s viewpoints were way outside the mainstream of American thought. During her tenure at the Reagan Justice Department and on the bench, Kuhl was repudiated by the Supreme Court many times, including during atempts to grant tax-exempt status to colleges like Bob Jones University (which denies enrollment for people in interracial relationships), to “outright” overturn Roe vs. Wade, to make it harder to prove sexual harassment in the workplace, to prohibit veterans from suing for denied benefits, and to make it more difficult to protect whistle-blowers from being illegally fired. Democrats filibustered Kuhl’s nomination until she eventually withdrew.June 22, 2001 “It’s negative to think about blowing each other up. That’s not a positive thought. That’s a Cold War thought. That’s a thought when people were enemies with each other.”President Bush, as quoted in The Wall Street JournalJune 25, 2001 Neva Dyer, a Yorkville, California resident, and her family were ushered away from the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. “A policeman ordered everyone to leave. People objected, dawdled, and asked why,” Dyer wrote in a letter to the Washington Post. “He was forceful, even rude, and ordered us all out of the monument. We all stood around, cordoned off, to wait and see what was happening. Soon President and Mrs. Bush arrived by motorcade. Imagine our surprise when we saw television coverage of the event showing the Bushes shaking hands with ‘visitors’ to the memorial. What visitors? We had been rudely ejected. The visitors must have arrived in the motorcade or been bused in around the other side of the building while the real visitors were rudely herded out. This is democracy?”July 2, 2001 “Well, it’s an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great inalienable rights of our country. We’re blessed with such values in America. And I – it’s – I’m a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values.”President Bush, visiting the Jefferson MemorialJuly 2, 2001 “It’s my honor to speak to you as the leader of your country. And the great thing about America is you don’t have to listen unless you want to.”President Bush, speaking to recently sworn in immigrants on Ellis Island, New York, NYJuly 10, 2001 After an exhaustive six-month investigation into the November 2000 presidential election, the New York Times reported that Florida officials had been pressured by Republican staffers into accepting hundreds of absentee ballots that did not comply with state laws. The paper also stated that four out of five ballots accepted were from counties that favored Bush, and that Republican consultants worked closely with Florida’s then secretary of state, Katherine Harris, in deciding which ballots should be counted. Harris, it must be pointed out, was Bush’s campaign co-chairperson.July 15, 2001 The House Appropriations Committee granted President Bush’s request to pay Vice President Cheney’s official-residence electric bill out of the Navy’s budget. The energy bill for the residence, which was actually owned by the Navy, had risen to an unsightly amount of $186,000 a year. The committee did not suggest that Cheney turn off the lights whenever he left a room.July 17, 2001 After attending the G-8 Summit in Genoa, President Bush traveled to Rome to meet His Holiness Pope John Paul II. In addition to posing for photos, the two leaders took a short walk together and talked privately.

July 23, 2001 “A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.”President BushJuly 26, 2001 “The suicide bombings have increased; there’s too many of them.”President BushAugust 15, 2001 “Arbolist … Look up the word. I don’t know, maybe I made it up. Anyway, it’s an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees.”President Bush, as quoted in USA TodayAugust 21, 2001 On the morning of the World Trade Center attacks on this date, President Bush was visiting the children at Florida’s Emma T. Booker Elementary School. Before entering the classroom, he had already heard of the first plane hitting the Twin Towers but thought it was due to pilot error. Then, as he sat in front of the schoolchildren, his then chief of staff, Andrew Card, notified him that a second plane had hit, and that the country was under siege. Bush sat peacefully in his chair for more than five minutes, staring blankly as the kids read from the book The Pet Goat.September 11, 2001 “When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.”President BushSeptember 13, 2001 President Bush announced that rooting out the terrorists responsible for the attacks of 9/11 was a matter of vast importance. “They will try to hide, they will try to avoid the United States and our allies – but we’re not going to let them. They run to the hills; they find holes to get in. And we will do whatever it takes to smoke them out and get them running, and we’ll get them.” Asked about Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Bush replied, “There is no question he is what we would call a prime suspect. And if he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he will be sorely mistaken.” By March of the following year, however, the president had recanted, offering, “You know, I just don’t spend that much time thinking about him…I am truly not that concerned about him.”September 15, 2001 “When I was a kid I remember that they used to put out there in the Old West a wanted poster. It said, Wanted: Dead or Alive.”President Bush, refering to Osama bin Laden, Washington, D.C.September 18, 2001 “Nobody can threaten this country. Oh, they may be able to bomb buildings and obviously disrupt lives.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.September 20, 2001 “Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.”President Bush, in a press conference withCanadian Prime Minister Jean ChretienSeptember 24, 2001 “We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.October 4, 2001 “Well, you know, I think the American people are sacrificing now. I think they’re waiting in airport lines longer than they’ve ever had before.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.October 11, 2001 The USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law, with only two senators – Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) – not voting for the bill. Some of the most controversial sections dealt with “sneak and peak” searches (which allow police to enter houses without the residents’ knowledge), accessing public library records, and wiretapping phones and monitoring e-mail. Eight states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, and Vermont) and 396 cities and counties (including New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cambridge, Massachusetts) passed decrees complaining that the act runs roughshod over civil liberties.October 26, 2001 “And it seems to me that it’s up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don’t know, and recognize that we’re dealing with people that are perfectly willing to lie to the world to attempt to further their case. And to the extent people lie, ultimately, they are caught lying and they lose their credibility, and one would think it wouldn’t take very long for that to happen dealing with people like this.”Defense Secretary Donald RumsfeldOctober 28, 2001 On June 4, 2001, President Bush visited the Florida Everglades, promising to protect the environment. Five months later, on this date, Interior Secretary Gale Norton closed the Office of Everglades Restoration and reassigned director Michael Davis, who had helped mold the restoration plan over the last decade. Norton said the move would save $1.3 million, which would go to relocating endangered deer and protecting trees in the area. Critics, however, said the move was merely a favor to Bush’s brother Jeb, the governor of Florida and an adversary of the OER.November 6, 2001 All 165 countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol approved the first set of international rules for combating global warming. However, the world’s biggest polluter, the United States, did not participate. President Bush had refused to support the treaty in March, because he said it made exceptions for developing countries and would hurt the U.S. economy.November 10, 2001 “I’m not going to speak too long, because our guest of honor looks a little nervous. Nobody’s told him yet that I’m going to give him a pardon.”

President Bush, just before the customary pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkeyNovember 20, 2001 The Washington Post reported that the Environmental Protection Agency had overturned the Clinton-era ban on human pesticide tests. “It’s not bad science – it’s not even science,” said Herbert Needleman, a pediatrician from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, as well as a member of a 1998 panel that convened to discuss the issue of testing on humans.November 29, 2001 “I couldn’t imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Chanukah, or the joy of Christmas, or celebrating peace and hope.”President BushDecember 10, 2001 President Bush formally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. “I have concluded the ABM treaty hinders our government’s ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue-state missile attacks,” Bush said. Russian president Vladimir Putin called Bush’s decision a “mistake” but did not suggest it would harm the countries’ ties. However, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) felt the ploy would spark an arms buildup in India, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Bush’s alternate plan included the installation of a “Star Wars”-like missile-defense shield, which proved a big, expensive bust back when it was first proposed in the Reagan years.December 13, 2001 “But all in all, it’s been a fabulous year for Laura and me.”President Bush, summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacksDecember 20, 2001 Just before leaving office in 2001, President Clinton designated a 149-mile stretch of land in Montana as the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. On this date, the New York Times reported that under President Bush, the Bureau of Land Management intended to place eight natural gas wells adjacent to and inside of the monument. The land, whose dynamic white and red sandstone cliffs had been largely unspoiled for the 200 years since Lewis and Clark first viewed them, would be subject to serious environmental changes, according to Dennis Tighe, the former president of the Montana Wilderness Association.January 22, 2002 On this date, Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and CEO of the Enron Corporation after the company declared the biggest bankruptcy in history and let go more than 4,000 employees. Eventually, Lay was convicted on 10 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and the Enron scandal became forever linked to corruption and white-collar greed. President Bush tried to stay clear of the stench by claiming he barely knew Lay, but democrats showed that the Texas businessman had been one of the largest individual donors to Bush’s 2000 campaign, had served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Advisory Committee, and almost had been chosen as secretary of the treasury. Bush even wrote several letters to Lay, referring to him as “Kenny Boy”.January 23, 2002 “We know there are known knowns: There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: That is to say we know there are things we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during a Department of Defense news briefingFebruary 12, 2002 “For a century and a half now, American and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times.”President Bush, forgetting that whole World War II thingFebruary 18, 2002 “He [Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi] said I want to make it very clear to you exactly what I intend to do and he talked about non-performing loans, the devaluation issue and regulatory reform and he placed equal emphasis on all three.”President Bush, in Tokyo, Japan, saying “devaluation” issue ratherthan “deflation” issue, which sent the Japanese Yen tumblingFebruary 18, 2002 What better way to get people off welfare than to have them marry each other? That was the idea behind part of President Bush’s welfare plan, announced on this date. Bush allocated $300 million of the law’s budget for “demonstration plans” and helpful “get yourself a man” workshops, as well as $135 million to teach kids about the wonders of abstinence in the event that they did actually score a partner. The president did not stipulate whether this money could be used for buying such marital aids as bouquets and Prince CDs.February 26, 2002 “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”President Bush, showing off his inner gangsta to a handful of senatorsMarch 2002 “They didn’t think we were a nation that could conceivably sacrifice for something greater than our self; that we were soft, that we were so self-absorbed and so materialistic that we wouldn’t defend anything we believed in. My, were they wrong. They just were reading the wrong magazine or watching the wrong Springer show.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.March 12, 2002 “First of all, I’m not going to let Congress erode the power of the Executive Branch. I have a duty to protect the Executive Branch from legislative encroachment.”President Bush, at a White House press conferenceMarch 13, 2002 “I don’t know where he is. I – I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him.”President Bush, in a White House Press Conference, flip-flopping on Osama bin LadenMarch 13, 2002 “There’s nothing more deep than recognizing Israel’s right to exist. That’s the most deep thought of all…. I can’t think of anything more deep than that right.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.March 13, 2002 On this date, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer explained President Bush’s opposition to a Homeland Security Department: “Creating a cabinet office doesn’t solve the problem. You still will have agencies within the federal government that have to be coordinated. So the answer is that creating a cabinet post doesn’t solve anything.” On June 6, 2002, less than three months later, Bush changed his tune, saying, “Tonight, I ask the Congress to join me in creating a single, permanent department with an overriding and urgent mission: securing the homeland of America and protecting the American people.”March 19, 2002 “We’ve tripled the amount of money – I believe it’s from $50 million up to $195 million available.”President Bush, Lima, PeruMarch 23, 2002 “And so, in my State of the – my State of the Union – or state – my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation – I asked Americans to give 4,000 years – 4,000 hours over the next – the rest of your life – of service to America.”President Bush, Bridgeport, CTApril 9, 2002 “It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.April 10, 2002 “This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating.”President BushApril 23, 2002 “The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society.”President BushMay 1, 2002 “After all, a week ago, there were – Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protestors and all kinds of people. They’re now out. He’s now free to show leadership, to lead the world.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.May 2, 2002 The Environmental Protection Agency released the first report under the Bush administration to admit that global warming is mostly due to human actions. Documents eventually surfaced showing that the White House considerably weakened the report, adding uncertainty in language and making it so the study “no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change.” Also, a London paper dug up an e-mail from June 3 in which Phil Cooney, chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, contacted a director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an ultraconservative lobbying group, to figure out how to downplay the report. The CEI staffer suggested tapping EPA head Christine Whitman as a scapegoat. (She eventually stepped down on June 27, 2003.)June 3, 2002 “There’s another way to phrase that, and that is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn’t exist.”Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, discussing the missing weapons of mass destructionJune 6, 2002 “You know, when I was one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, ‘Would you ever have a deficit?’ I said, ‘I can’t imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or a national emergency, or a recession.’Never did I dream we’d get the trifecta.”President Bush, Houston, TXJune 14, 2002 “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”President BushJune 18, 2002 Since 1993, the U.S Army Corp of Engineers had been dumping 200,000 tons of “toxic sludge” into the Potomac River in Maryland every year. A clear violation of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, the deed was rubber-stamped by the Environmental Protection Agency, which, on this date, had to answer to the House Resources Committee. It seemed the EPA had sent a memo saying that the sludge was good for fish because it made them flee fishermen in the area. “To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because it prevents them from being caught by man is like suggesting that we club baby seals to death to prevent them from being eaten by sharks,” said Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-California), chairman of the subcommittee on national parks, recreations, and public lands.June 19, 2002 “Over 75 percent of white Americans own their home and less than 50 percent of Hispanos and African Americans don’t own their home. And that’s a gap, that’s a homeownership gap. And we’ve got to do something about it.”President Bush, Cleveland, OHJuly 1, 2002 In 1990, the then-governor of Texas filed a disclosure form to the Securities and Exchange Commission, a full eight months after it was due, concerning the $848,560 worth of Harken Energy stock he sold a full eight months after it was due. (Because Bush was a director of the Texas oil company and Harken suffered huge losses just two months after the stock sale, he was eventually investigated for insider trading.) At the time of his 1994 gubernatorial race, Bush claimed the SEC must have lost the filing, because he had mailed it on time. But on this date, the president admitted that he had not promptly mailed it, but that it was Harken’s lawyers’ fault. Years later, following the Enron scandal, President Bush called for more corporate responsibility, including making sure that all business heads announced when they either bought or sold stock in their own companies.July 3, 2002 “I also understand how tender the free enterprise system can be.”President Bush, at a White House press conference, Washington, D.C.July 8, 2002 Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that the administration was withdrawing $34 million in moneys earmarked for the U.N. Population Fund, an organization dedicated to saving lives and reducing the amount of abortions abroad. Right-to-life groups had been quietly petitioning the White House for some time, claiming that the fund was used to push the abortion process in China. Even though two fact-finding groups, one American and one British, came to the conclusion that the sums weren’t being used for such a purpose, and Powell himself said the agency “provides critical population assistance to developing countries,” Bush was not deterred. “We’re very sad and shocked,” said Sterling Scruggs, communications director for the organization. “We are not involved in coercion with China or anywhere else in the world and never have been.”July 22, 2002 The State Department attempted to stop a human-rights suit against Exxon Mobil. The lawsuit, which was filed by the International Labor Rights Fund on the behalf of 11 residents of the Indonesian province of Aceh, alleged that the company’s security forces committed “serious human rights abuses, including genocide, murder, torture, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, and kidnapping” during the 1990s. In a letter to a U.S. district court, State Department legal adviser William Taft wrote that the lawsuit could “risk a potentially serious adverse impact on significant interests of the United States, including interests directly related to the ongoing struggle against international terrorism.” Mila Rosenthal, of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, suggested that “the war on terrorism is now going to be used as a cover for all kinds of corporate malfeasance.”July 29, 2002 “When one of us suffer, all of us suffers.”President Bush, likely causing suffering to the ears of English teachersAugust 5, 2002 Vice President Cheney claimed that Halliburton is “a fine company” that he is happy to be “associated with.” It was nice to hear the veep standing up for a corporation that had paid a $2 million settlement due to claims of fraudulent work at a job at Fort Ord (a military base in California), had allegedly offered $180 million in bribes for a Nigerian oil facility, and had been warned repeatedly by the Pentagon about running Iraq war mess halls with blood-covered kitchen floors and rotting meats and vegetables.August 7, 2002 “I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn’t here.”President Bush, speaking at the President’s Economic Forum in Waco, TXAugust 13, 2002 “I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society.”President Bush, Waco, TXAugust 13, 2002 “There may be some tough times here in America. But this country has gone through tough times before, and we’re going to do it again.”President BushAugust 13, 2002 “Tommy (Thompson) is a good listener, and he’s a pretty good actor, too.”President Bush, apparently confusing his Health and Human Servicessecretary with Sen. Fred Thompson, Waco, TXAugust 13, 2002 Bush capitalized on three straight summers of forest fires, claiming that allowing lumber companies to ignore parts of the National Environmental Policy Act and remove sellable trees would help prevent more disasters. Congress had already agreed to spend millions of dollars removing brush and small trees that might lead to fires, but neither of those would have net any profits for private corporations. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Washington), the ranking Democrat on the House Forest Committee, remained skeptical about the administration’s motives. “They’re interested not so much in streamlining the process but in streamlining the ability of their special-interest friends to take a national asset and turn it into private profit,” Inslee said.August 21, 2002 “The federal government and the state government must not fear programs who change lives, but must welcome those faith-based programs for the embetterment of mankind.”President Bush, Stockton, CAAugust 23, 2002 “There’s no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide.”President Bush, Oklahoma City, OKAugust 29, 2002 “I’m plowed of the leadership of Chuck Grassley and Greg Ganske and Jim Leach.”President Bush, working to get the farming voteSeptember 16, 2002 “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”President Bush, Nashville, TNSeptember 17, 2002 “People say, ‘How can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil?’ You can do so by mentoring a child, by going into a shut-in’s house and say, ‘I love you.’”President BushSeptember 19, 2002 “We need an energy bill that encourages consumption.”President BushSeptember 23, 2002 President Bush gives instructions to his dog Spot on the South Lawn of the White House. Bush had just returned from a fund-raiser for Republican Douglas Forrester in Trenton, New Jersey.

September 23, 2002 “After all, this [Saddam Hussein] is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.”President BushSeptember 26, 2002 Former President Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize, beating out a record 156 nominees, including Afghanistan’s new president, Hamid Karzai, and pop singer Bono. The award “should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken,” said prize committee chairman Gunnar Berge. “It’s a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.”October 11, 2002 The government’s National Cancer Institute altered its Web site to imply that having an abortion might increase one’s risk of developing breast cancer. Representative Henry Waxman (D-California) wrote an angry letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, stating that the change in the site blatantly ignored a recent broad study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that concluded that there was no link between breast cancer and abortion. “This is nothing more than the political creation of scientific uncertainty” in an attempt to “unnecessarily scare women,” wrote Waxman.November 25, 2002 “The law I sign today directs new funds and new focus to the task of collecting vital intelligence on terrorist threats and on weapons of mass production.”President Bush, Washington D.C.November 27, 2002 The Bush administration added working parents to the long list of people it had angered. Officials said the White House would repeal a Clinton-era law that would have allowed states to use unemployment moneys to pay new parents for extended leaves of absence. The Labor Department claimed that the cuts were necessary because of the dwindling unemployment reserves due to the bad economy, but critics of the move pointed out that business leaders had fought the measure from its inception.December 3, 2002 While running for president, George W.Bush wrote that he and running mate Dick Cheney would help cash-strapped Americans by increasing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. But on this date, CBS reported that Bush had cut LIHEAP funding by $300 million since the previous year, even though unemployment rates were higher and the weather was colder. The cutbacks had the potential of affecting 500,000 people who relied on aid for help paying utilities.December 3, 2002 “There’s only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death of their loved one. Others hug but having committed the troops, I’ve got an additional responsibility to hug and that’s me and I know what it’s like.”President Bush, Washington D.C.December 11, 2002 The Bush administration scuttled a worldwide agreement that would have made it easier for third-world countries to buy cheaper, generic drugs in order to battle rampant diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. More than 140 other countries had signed off on the deal, but U.S. negotiators said they could not condone a plan that would allow other, noninfectious illnesses to be treated with less expensive drugs. “I have to say, there is no way to sugarcoat this bitter pill,” said the Canadian representative, Sergio Marchi, who most likely intended no pun.December 21, 2002 On this date, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed that the Bush administration had covered up a public health emergency the previous year. In April 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency was ready to warn 35 million Americans that their homes might contain the asbestos-contaminated insulator Zonolite, which has been known to cause asbestosis and lung cancer. News releases had been composed, a list to politicians to contact has been compiled, and EPA head Christine Whitman was considering where to announce the catastrophic details. But the announcement was never made. Instead, the White House Office of Management and Budget dissuaded the agency from any action, recommending that they merely put a warning up on the agency’s Web site. “It was like a gut shot,” said an EPA senior staffer. “It wasn’t that they ordered us not to make the declaration; they just really, really strongly suggested against it. Really strongly. There was no choice left.”December 29, 2002 “One year ago today, the time for excuse making has come to an end.”President Bush, about to excuse his bad grammarJanuary 8, 2003 On this date, in the midst of a growing energy crisis, President Bush offered an ecomomic plan that would give small-business owners huge tax breaks on the largest SUVs and pickup trucks (those weighing more than 6,000 pounds). Under the plan, any business owner – a podiatrist, real estate agent, or jeweler, for instance – could buy a massive, gas-guzzling $100,000 Hummer for approximately $25,000.January 21, 2003 In early 2003, President Bush named a right-wing, evangelical Christian, Jerry Thacker, to the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS. The Bob Jones University grad, who became HIV-positive through his wife’s blood transfusion, had on his Web site referred to AIDS as the “gay plague,” called homosexuality a “deathstyle,” and had suggested that gay people could “cure” themselves through prayer. Perhaps Bush chose him to make sure that the commission luncheons would be livelier. On this date, Thacker withdrew his nomination.January 24, 2003 “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”President Bush, in the State of the Union Address, making a claimthat administration officials knew at the time to be falseJanuary 28, 2003 “The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.”President Bush, terrorizing his grammar coachJanuary 29, 2003 “And, most importantly, Alma Powell, secretary of Colin Powell, is with us.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.January 30, 2003 During the days before the second Iraq war, President Bush claimed he was offering Saddam Hussein the option of disarmament. However, a memo of a private meeting that occurred on this date between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that Bush had already decided to attack Iraq. In fact, the pair admitted that weapons of mass destruction most likely wouldn’t be discovered in the weeks to come. Bush even went so far as to suggest provoking Hussein into providing a reason for war, offering to paint a plane with United Nations colors and fly it over Iraq.January 31, 2003 “Now, we talked to Joan Hanover. She and her husband, George, were visiting with us. They are near retirement – retiring – in the process of retiring, meaning they’re very smart, active, capable people who are retirement age and are retiring.”President Bush, Alexandria, VAFebruary 12, 2003 In 2003, President Bush was looking for someone to say something nice about his tax-cut package in the hopes that it might get passed. No one did. So, rather than drop the idea, he started saying that the Blue Chip Economic Forecast, a survey of 53 private-sector economists, had approved of his plan. Even after the editor of the Blue Chip’s newsletter denied making such an approval, the president and his mouthpiece, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, continued to tout the group’s endorsement.February 25, 2003 On this date, the Bush administration recommended that several hundred thousand acres of the country’s last remaining old-growth area, Tongass National Forest, be opened for logging, which would reverse a law President Clinton put into action during his second term. Opening up the Alaskan area, which was also the largest national forest in the United States, at 16.8 million acres, would provide a huge paycheck to the forestry industry; which, perhaps unsurprisingly, doubled its contributions to the Bush-Cheney ticket in 2004 (for a grand total of close to $630,000). And they say money doesn’t grow on trees.February 28, 2003 On this date, Vice President Cheney went on NBC’s Meet the Press and said, “I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators…I think it will go relatively quickly…[in] weeks rather than months.” Just two weeks later, the official policy had changed, with Air Force general Richard Myers appearing on the same program to suggest that “nobody should have any illusions that this is going to be a quick and easy victory. This is going to be a tough war, a tough slog yet, and no reasonable official I know has ever said anything different once this war has started.”March 16, 2003 “We know where [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.”Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, east, west, south, and north of the answerMarch 30, 2003 On this date, just after Congress took off for spring break, President Bush selected April H. Foley, a self-proclaimed homemaker from South Salem, New York, to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. Foley’s only discernable experience had been as director of business planning for corporate strategy with PepsiCo, Inc. and director of strategy for Reader’s Digest Association. It was later reported that Foley used to date Bush when they were at the Harvard Business School together.April 10, 2003 “Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”Defense Secretary Donald RumsfeldApril 11, 2003 “It will take time to restore chaos and order … order out of chaos.”President Bush, speaking of the mess in IraqApril 13, 2003 “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”President Bush, putting the cart before the horse aboard the USS Abraham LincolnMay 1, 2003 “We’ve got hundreds of sites to exploit, looking for the chemical and biological weapons that we know Saddam Hussein had prior to our entrance into Iraq.”President Bush, Santa Clara, CAMay 2, 2003 The government’s top whistle-blower protector, Elaine Kaplan, resigned her position at the Office of Special Counsel. Kaplan had turned a small, ineffective agency into a crack unit, offering relief for federal employees who dared to come forth and expose their employers’ wrongdoings, including national park rangers who revealed leaky boats, border patrol agents who uncovered security leaks on the Canadian perimeter, and Army Corps of Engineers members who revealed severe mismanagement. Even though six senators and numerous advocacy groups wrote President Bush to sing her praises, he refused to reappoint her for another term, thought most likely to be because she had originally been hired by President Clinton.May 12, 2003 “We’ve had a great weekend here in the Land of the Enchanted.”President Bush, Albuquerque, NM (New Mexico’s state nickname is Land of Enchantment)May 12, 2003 “First, let me make it very clear: Poor people aren’t necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn’t mean you’re willing to kill.”President BushMay 19, 2003 On this date, Pentagon officials tried to revive its Total Information Awareness system by changing the program’s name to Terrorist Information Awareness. The program had raised hackles when it was initially proposed in 2002, because many people found the idea of a humongous database compiling financial, medical, and personal information on all Americans to be a serious breech of privacy. Even without approval for TIA, however, the Pentagon was already budgeting huge sums for the project: $9.2 million for 2003, $20 million for 2004, and $24.5 million for 2005. As for the name change, perhaps “Big Brother” was already copyrighted.May 20, 2003 “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue – weapons of mass destruction – because it was one reason everyone could agree on.”Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy secretary of defense, explaining how the Bush administrationdecided to sell the war in Iraq, in the May 2003 issue of Vanity FairMay 28, 2003 “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They’re illegal. They’re against the United Nations resolutions, and we’ve so far discovered two. And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong. We found them.”President BushMay 29, 2003 “Oftentimes, we live in a processed world – you know, people focus on the process and not results.”President Bush, speaking about the Middle East peace processMay 29, 2003 Janet Rehnquist – daughter of William Rehnquist, then chief justice of the Supreme Court, who helped put President Bush in office by stopping the 2000 election-vote recount – resigned her post as the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. Rehnquist’s job entailed finding fraud within Medicare and Medicaid, but even though federal spending rose by 20 percent for those programs during Rehnquist’s tenure, her office recovered only half as much money as in the two years before she joined.June 1, 2003 “I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that.”President Bush, speaking to Israel’s then-prime minister Ariel SharonJune 3, 2003 House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) thwarted an attempt by Democrats to pass a tax credit that would have provided assistance to 6.5 million low-income families. The credit, which was supported by several Republicans as well, would have extended the $400-per-child payment from families making less than $10,500 to those earning $26,625. DeLay refused to vote for the credit unless it was tacked onto a package benefitting far wealthier families – a package that had no way of passing. “There are a lot of things that are more important than that,” DeLay said of the credit. “To me, it’s a little difficult to give tax relief to people that don’t pay income tax.”June 3, 2003 Several advocacy groups requested that the Justice Department get a special prosecutor to investigate J. Steven Griles, the second most important official in the Interior Department. The groups – which included the Sierra Club, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Endangered Species Coalition – alleged that the onetime lobbyist was still receiving yearly payments of $284,000 from his former firm, which represents a number of oil, gas, coal, and other energy companies. “The energy industry’s huge political contributions, combined with the direct payments to Mr. Griles, make … an investigation imperative,” said former U.S. attorney Whitney North Seymour, a Republican who served as independent counsel in the 1980s.June 3, 2003 “I used the expression ‘ride herd.’ I don’t know if anybody understood the meaning. It’s a little informal in diplomatic terms. I said, ‘We’re going to put a guy on the ground to ride herd on the process.’ See them all scratching their heads.”President BushJune 4, 2003 “I’m the master of low expectations. I’m also not very analytical. You know I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things.”President Bush, aboard Air Force OneJune 4, 2003 President Bush proved he had as much trouble with his feet as with his mouth. While attempting to ride a Segway scooter, the motorized vehicle designed to make travel easier for the elderly, Bush spilled forward, capsizing the transport and almost falling face-first into the pavement. He had not figured out how to turn it on correctly.

June 14, 2003 In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush expressed his support for volunteerism. “Our country also needs citizens working to rebuild our communities,” he said. “We mentors to love children, especially children whose parents are in prison. And we need more talented teachers in troubled schools. USA Freedom Corps will expand and improve the good efforts of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps to recruit more than 200,000 new volunteers.” On this date, however, the Republican-led Congress pushed to gut AmeriCorps, a governmental outreach program addressing education, health, and public safety issues, which cut the number of government-subsidized workers from 16,000 to just 3,000. This followed Bush’s 2003 budget, which actually decreased funding for the program.June 16, 2003 “Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history – revisionist historians is what I like to call them.”President Bush, Elizabeth, NJJune 16, 2003 “It’s very interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left here to go to America, because of their steadfast and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America.”President Bush, Dakar, SenegalJuly 8, 2003 CIA Director George Tenet admitted that he had successfully removed the claim that Iraq had tried to buy plutonium from Niger from a speech previous to President Bush’s infamous 2003 State of the Union address, which included the claim. “These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the president,” Tenet said. Tenet stated that he did not know the phrase had been slipped into the speech, and he faulted his staff. “The question is how the management of the system, and the process that supported it, allowed this kind of misinformation to be used and embarrass the president.” Later, it was discovered that the Bush administration and the CIA had discussed the line.July 11, 2003 On September 30, 2003, President Bush claimed that none of his staff had leaked classified information to the press. However, during a grand jury investigation, it was discovered that, on this date, Vice President Cheney had directed his then chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, to “get the facts out” about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. Libby then broke the law by relaying the classified information to several journalists, one of whom also spoke to Bush’s right-hand man, Karl Rove. On October 28, 2005, hours after being indicted for obstruction of justice and perjury, Libby resigned from his post; Rove, however, maintained his position.July 12, 2003 Folk singer Julie Rose was banned from performing at the Borders bookstore in Fredericksburg, Virginia, after suggesting that President Bush had a scrawny physique. The singer, who is a fitness nut, took a break between songs to remark, “George Bush has chicken legs – he needs to pump some iron.” Apparently, some audience members complained about her political stance and got her nixed from performing at the store ever again. Rose was mystified: “I never bashed Bush as president. I merely said his lower body needs some serious definition.”July 18, 2003 “The President of the United States is not a fact-checker.”A senior administration officialJuly 18, 2003 “I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq”Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, probably willing tomake an exception for the United StatesJuly 21, 2003 A Secret Service agent named Peter Damos showed up at the Los Angeles Times offices, requesting a sit-down discussion with cartoonist Michael Ramirez, who was seen as a possible threat to President Bush because of an editorial comic he had drawn. Ramirez declined to be interrogated and pointed out that the cartoon – which featured a figure labeled quot;politics” pointing a gun at Bush, with “Iraq” written in the background – was actually defending the president. “President Bush is the target, metaphorically speaking of a political assassination, because of 16 words that he uttered in the State of the Union [speech],” said Ramirez, referring to Bush’s claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.July 21, 2003 President Bush nominated Janice Rogers Brown to be U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the country’s second-highest court. Throughout her career, Brown had been dogged by charges of incompetence, extreme conservatism, and inexperience. The American Bar Association gave Brown its lowest possible passing grade, and three-fourths of the California State Bar’s Commission on Judicial Nominees rated her as “unqualified” when she was nominated to the California Supreme Court. After being filibustered for nearly two years, Brown finally was confirmed.July 25, 2003 “Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.July 25, 2003 “And the other lesson is that there are people who can’t stand what America stands for, and desire to conflict great harm on the American people.”President Bush, Pittsburgh, PAJuly 28, 2003 George Akerlof, the co-winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, told the German paper Der Spiegel that the Bush administration was “the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history.” He described Bush’s budget policies as “a form of looting” and suggested that the idea of tax cuts for the rich was “going in the exactly wrong direction.” He even went as far as to encourage people to protest via civil disobedience (as long as they paid their taxes, too).July 29, 2003 President Bush attributed the woeful state of the U.S. economy to the media’s constant trumpeting of “the drumbeat to war.” “Remember on our TV screens – I’m not suggesting which network did this, but it said, ‘March to War’ every day from last summer until the spring. ‘March to War, March to War.’ That’s not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear ‘March to War’ all the time.”July 30, 2003 The Senate Finance Committee revealed that Glen Bower, a Bush nominee for one of 19 spots on the U.S. Tax Court, had illegally filed tax returns for 1999 through 2001. When the committee returned his forms to him earlier that year, Bower amended them, but the senators found he still had not fully come clean, improperly deducting “entertainment expenses, nondeductible gifts to employees, gifts to elected state officials that exceeded legal limits, and meals with no legitimate business purpose.”July 30, 2003 President Bush nominated three-term Utah governor Michael Leavitt to succeed Christine Whitman as the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Leavitt showed what kind of protector he would be right away, standing beside Bush and saying, “To me, there is an inherent human responsibility to care for the earth. But there’s also an economic imperative that we’re dealing with in a global economy to do it less expensively.” During his tenure in Utah, he suggested building a highway through a wetlands area along the Great Salt Lake, opposed the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, and opened up millions of acres to mining, drilling, and road building. “I can’t think of too many governors more hostile to government regulations than Mike Leavitt,” said Phillip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.August 11, 2003 “We need to thin our forests in America.”President Bush, on the evil of treesAugust 11, 2003 On April 1, 2003, President Bush nominated a controversial Middle East scholar, Daniel Pipes, to be on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a government think tank devoted to concord around the world. Critics like Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) were aghast, as Pipes’s past suggests that he is virulently anti-Muslim. At one point he advocated a war on Islamic extremism, saying, “What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection.” Kennedy said he would not vote for Pipes, explaining, “His record and experience do not reflect a commitment to bridging differences and preventing conflict.” Seeing his chances of a successful vote disappearing, Bush avoided a congressional vote by slipping Pipes in with a recess appointment on this date.August 22, 2003 President Bush came out in support of a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power “to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.” Bush himself would have been one of the first people to be tossed in the clink if the law passed. In July, during a campaign rally in Livonia, Michigan, the president signed a devotee’s flag, desecrating it in full view of hundreds of people.August 31, 2003 By the end of August 2003, the number of Americans killed in Iraq since President Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and proclaimed major combat operations to have ended surpassed the number killed during the period preceding the declaration. One hundred forty U.S. soldiers died during the invasion, whereas 150 more had been killed between May 1 and August 31. (That number would continue to rise, reaching 2,000 by October 25, 2005.) Iraqis saw anywhere between 30,000 and 100,000 civilians die by December 12, 2005 (the number changes, depending on whom you ask).August 31, 2003 Pop star Britney Spears suggested that everyone should do and believe whatever President Bush said. “Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes,” she offered, “and we should just support that.”September 3, 2003 “We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who’s a parent, and a mom or a dad.”President Bush, Jacksonville, FLSeptember 9, 2003 Vice President Cheney appeared on Meet the Press and stated, “I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven’t had now for over three years.” But also on this date in 2003, CNN told how a congressional report had uncovered more than 433,000 Halliburton stock options under Cheney’s name as well as deferred salary payments of up to $360,000. “The ethics standards for financial disclosure is clear,” said Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey). “Vice President Cheney has a financial interest in Halliburton.”September 14, 2003 President Bush visited a Detroit power plant, ostensibly hoping to show that his recent relaxation of the Clean Air Act would be good for the environment. The previous month, Bush had made it easier for plants and factories to upgrade equipment without installing antipollution devices, supposedly making the air cleaner and the profits bigger. But critics pointed out that his laws would actually allow the Detroit plant to increase emissions by more than 30,000 tons a year, maintaining the amount of pollutants it would release. Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont), ranking minority member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the regulations “the exact opposite of what the nation needs,” saying it “will lead to more pollution and therefore more disease and premature deaths.”September 15, 2003 Attorney General John Ashcroft suggested that librarians and other critics were acting silly over the possible loss of civil liberties thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act. Ashcroft said the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union were fueling “baseless hysteria” over the FBI’s ability to pry into the personal lives of all Americans and that the FBI does not really care “how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.” Under the act, federal officials could access any U.S. citizen’s library records, and the library could not even tell the patron – or the general public – about it. “If he’s coming after us so specifically, we must be having an impact,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA’s Washington office.September 15, 2003 “I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably reading the news themselves.”President Bush, in an interview with Brit Hume, Washington, D.C.September 21, 2003 “The best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”President Bush, confusing objective with subjectiveSeptember 22, 2003 “We’ve had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch, and I’ve spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the leakers are.”President Bush, commenting on the CIA leak that he andCheney later admitted they approved, Chicago, ILSeptember 30, 2003 “I know of nobody – I don’t know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action…Leaks of classified information are a bad thing.”President Bush, two years before “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’schief of staff, resigned under the cloud of the CIA leak scandalSeptember 30, 2003 “Washington is a town where there’s all kinds of allegations. You’ve heard much of the allegations. And if people have got solid information, please come forward with it. And that would be people inside the information who are the so-called anonymous sources, or people outside the information – outside the administration.”President Bush, turning the inside outSeptember 30, 2003 After the fall of Saddam Hussein in May 2003, lobbyists with major connections to the Bush administration began lining up to get a piece of the projected $20 billion in prospective projects in Iraq. Joseph Allbaugh – campaign manager for President Bush’s 2000 campaign and the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency – founded New Bridge Strategies, an Iraq construction consulting firm that also included two top aides to President George H.W. Bush, and Diligence-Iraq, a security company for corporations traveling within Iraq, which featured former members of the U.S. and Iraqi militaries. Another company, BKSH & Associates – whose chairman, Charles Black, Jr., served in the presidential campaigns of both Bushes – had hooked up one client, Fluor Corporation, with a contract from the Army Corps of Engineers. On this date, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) was quoted as saying, “It’s like a huge pot of honey that’s attracting a lot of flies.”October 2, 2003 “See, free nations do not develop weapons of mass destruction.”President Bush, forgetting that the United States has developed plenty of WMDOctober 3, 2003 On March 17, 2003, two days before the Iraq war began, President Bush said, “Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.” But, later that year, David Kay, the leader of the CIA’s search team, told Congress that he had been unable to find evidence of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, save for a single vial of botilinum toxin. The Bush administration quickly jumped on the vial as proof, until, on this date, Kay admitted that the vial had actually been sitting in an Iraqi scientist’s refrigerator since 1993, 10 years before the invasion.October 6, 2003 “Whether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like they’d like to be called themselves.”President BushOctober 8, 2003 “Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers.”President Bush, some months before the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal brokeOctober 8, 2003 President Bush spoke in front of a crowd of military reservists in New Hampshire, many of whom could soon be called up for duty in Iraq. Bush said that the situation in Iraq is “a lot better than you probably think.” On this same date, Iraq was enduring one of its bloodiest post invasion days, with a car bomb killing eight policemen, a convoy attack slaying one soldier, and a Spanish diplomat being assassinated. Bush made no mention of these activities. Instead, he suggested, “Our challenges will be overcome with optimism and resolve and confidence in the ideals of America,” leaving out the detail about lots of body armor.October 10, 2003 Several Democrats suggested that the Environmental Protection Agency stop running ads on Spanish-language radio stations that praised Bush’s “Clean Skies” initiative. Congress prohibits the EPA from utilizing government moneys to support or defeat laws; also, federal workers are not allowed to take part in legislative campaigns. EPA spokesperson Lisa Harrison explained that the public service announcements were okay because “they do not expressly request members of the public to contact Congress in support of Clear Skies.”October 14, 2003 As first reported by NBC on this date, Army Lieutenant General William Boykin – the undersecretary of defense in charge of hunting down the top terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan – told a religious gathering the “George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States,” but rather he “was appointed by God.” Boykin is not a stranger to heavenly signs. While stationed in Somalia during the failed “Blackhawk Down” situation, he had taken a photo from a Navy helicopter. When he had it developed, he saw not just foot soldiers and burned-out jeeps, but also “a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.” The United States would be victorious in Iraq, he said, because God is on our side.October 15, 2003 It was reported that the soul of President Bush had been captured in a clay pot and then drowned in Thailand’s Ping River as a protest of U.S. agricultural and military policies. More than 300 farmers gathered in Chiang Mai to watch as a photo of Bush was placed in a receptacle while a village elder provided chanting. “This is a traditional northern Thai ceremony aimed at keeping his spirit down on the riverbed so he could not come and exploit our natural resources or suppress our [farming] brothers with his superior influence,” said Weerasak Wan-ubol, a member of the Northern Farmers Alliance.October 18, 2003 President Bush often described himself as a compassionate conservative who just wanted to bring democracy to the rest of the world. On this date, however, he got a glimpse at what the rest of the world thought of him. After meeting with moderate Muslim leaders in Bali, Bush seemed amazed at their perception of him – and his administration – as a pro-Israel, anti-Muslim bully. Confused, he asked his staff, “Do they really believe that we think all Muslims are terrorists?” At a visit to the Australian parliament, he was booed as if he were an opposing rugby squad.October 20, 2003 “As you know, these are open forums, you’re able to come and listen to what I have to say.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.October 28, 2003 President Bush claimed, “We welcome Muslims in our country.” However, earlier that year, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights noted that in August 2002, the Justice Department decided that men with temporary visas from 25 mainly Muslim countries had to meet special registration requirements to make their papers valid. Since then, more than 82,000 Muslim men have been rounded up, photographed, fingerprinted, and questioned.October 28, 2003 President Bush claimed that the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was strategically placed behind him on the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 was made and hung by crew members of the ship. “I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff,” Bush said. “They weren’t that ingenious, by the way.” Later, however, an administration official said that the crew had actually asked the White House to make the banner. And the next day, the president’s press secretary,Scott McClellan, backtracked even further, stipulating that Bush never claimed that the sailors made the banner, nor placed it right where the cameras could capture it.October 28, 2003 The nonprofit Center for Public Integrity released a study that showed that people and political action committees connected with the 70 companies that received government contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan contributed more than $500,000 to President Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. While the companies involved donated to both political parties, they favored the Republicans two to one and gave more to Bush than they had any president in 12 years.October 30, 2003 One of the jobs of the Justice Department is to protect citizens’ civil rights. However, on this date, the New York Times reported that an internal report on diversity within the department had discovered that minority employees found it biased and unfair. When the department placed the report on its Web site, it blacked out a whopping half of its 186 pages, including most of the negative findings. (The expurgated sections came to light after a Tucson writer, Russ Kick, electronically uncovered the original report and posted it on his Web site.) Senators John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) wrote a letter to the department’s inspector general, stating that it was “outrageous that the very agency that is charged with rooting out discrimination would make it so difficult for the public to scrutinize its own civil rights record.”October 31, 2003 “America stands for liberty, for the pursuit of happiness, and for the unalienalienable right of life.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.November 3, 2003 German chancellor Gerhard Schroder told President Bush that the recent banning of Muslim head scarves in public schools might violate international law. “International law?” the president said. “I better call my lawyer.”December 11, 2003 The White House printed up a fact sheet that called attention to the achievements that the Bush administration had accomplished including “investing more money in elementary and secondary education than at any time in American history.” But according to a House Appropriations Committee report, the figures did not back up his statement. The proposed budget deep-sixed 45 education programs, slashed after-school programs, froze teacher-training grants, and cut vocational-education grants. He could not even fund his own No Child Left Behind Act, which was budgeted at $9.7 billion below the amount he originally stipulated.December 13, 2003 “There is plenty of time ahead for politics. Now is not the time.”President Bush, after more than 30 recent fund-raisersDecember 15, 2003 “The Iraqis need to be very much involved. They were the people that was brutalized by this man.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.December 15, 2003 Former Clinton administration officials revealed that a Bush plan to loosen regulations on mercury pollution had been considered and then deemed illegal in 2000. Under Bush, the Environmental Protection Agency was proposing to let coal-fired power plants trade mercury-pollution credits, which is not allowed under the Clean Air Act. The administration hoped to get around the regulations by reclassifying mercury as a less-regulated pollutant, which is kind of like deciding that Twinkies are not junk food.December 15, 2003 In November 2002, the Bush administration overturned a Clinton-era ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, even though a National Park Service report concluded that the best way to protect the lands was to keep the ban in effect. Interior Secretary Gale Norton claimed that new technology had made the machines more compatible with natural environments, but that to appease conservationists, they would allow only 1,100 vehicles in the park a day. On this date, however, a judge struck down the new, permissive regulations, saying the change was arbitrarily reversed and “completely politically driven.”December 16, 2003 President Bush was queried by TV reporter Diane Sawyer about the weapons of mass destruction that had still not been uncovered in Iraq nine months after the administration had said it had found them. Bush kept interjecting the word “yet”, as if they would be found any minute. When Sawyer persisted in suggesting that the administration had said Iraq had the technology rather than the desire to obtain it, Bush shrugged and replied, “So, what’s the difference?”December 16, 2003 The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second District ruled that President Bush does not have the power to imprison U.S. citizens indefinitely, even if they are deemed to be “enemy combatants.” The judges ordered the release of Jose Padilla, a onetime gang member who had been arrested in 2002 for suspected involvement in a terrorist “dirty bomb” plot. Classified as an enemy combatant, Padilla had been held for 18 months without being charged or allowed to speak with his lawyers. The court did say that the government could transfer Padilla from military to civilian custody and try him in a different court. On November 22, 2005, the government switched tactics, charging that Padilla “conspired to murder, kidnap, and maim people overseas,” all crimes that had nothing to do with what he was allegedly first imprisoned for.December 18, 2003 By Christmas Eve 2003, President Bush still had not gotten in the holiday spirit. Up to this point in his term, he had pardoned a mere 11 people, and he had not commuted a single sentence out of the nation’s 174,000 federal inmates. By comparison, by this point in their presidencies, Bush’s father had pardoned 38 convicts and commuted one, while Bill Clinton had granted 53 pardons and 3 commutations. The younger Bush was the least pardon-friendly president ever, save for William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, both of whom died within six months of taking office.December 24, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s intelligence organization, the Mukhabarat, was widely feared, and with good reason. The agency was alleged to have killed numerous opposition leaders within Iraq, planned to assassinate the first President Bush and the emir of Kuwait, and tortured and intimidated thousands of people. So it was with no small relief that the people of Iraq greeted the organization’s dismantling after Hussein’s fall in 2003. However, on this date, the Telegraph reported that President Bush was quietly setting up a new secret police, to be made up of Iraqi exiles, Kurdish and Shiite forces, and former Mukhabarat agents.January 4, 2004 “So thank you for reminding me about the importance of being a good mom and a great volunteer as well.”President Bush, St. Louis, MOJanuary 5, 2004 President Bush announced a new plan to spend $1.5 billion to promote heterosexual marriage. Two days later, he met Scott Reid, a senior aide to Canadian prime minister Paul Martin. “You got a pretty face,” Bush remarked. “You’re a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott, anyway.” The Canadian papers made the unusual comment into a patriotic statement, running headlines like “Bush Prefers Our Pretty Boy to His.” As for Reid, he was confused. “I’ll take what I can, I guess,” he said. “When a Texas Republican says you’ve got a pretty face, then I guess there is just no way around it.”January 14, 2004 “I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous spacial entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.January 14, 2004 “More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than – I say more Muslims – a lot of Muslims have died – I don’t know the exact count – at Istanbul. Look at these different places around the world where there’s been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill.”President Bush, making the complex issues sound so simpleJanuary 29, 2004 President Bush promised to root out terrorists, fight the war on terrorism, and defeat the evildoers at all times. However, when, on this date, Pakistan’s leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted he’s sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea, countries specifically cited as evildoers by the president, Bush did nothing. When Pakistan’s leader, General Pervez Musharraf, gave Khan a full pardon, Bush managed a small chastisement, recommending that Pakistan should not serve on the International Atomic Energy Agency anymore.February 5, 2004 “In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn’t serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences.”President Bush, on Meet the PressFebruary 8, 2004 By February 9, 2004, the United States had already seen 3 million jobs disappear during President Bush’s term, many of them being moved to cheaper-wage countries like China, India, and Mexico. Unfazed by the outrageously high statistics, N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, stated that the outsourcing of American jobs is “probably a plus for the economy in the long run.”February 9, 2004 “But the true strength of America is found in the hearts and souls of people like Travis, people who are willing to love their neighbor, just like they would like to love themselves.”President Bush, Springfield, MOFebruary 9, 2004 It is widespread lore that President Bush avoided the Vietnam War by enlisting in the Texas National Guard. However, some mystery remains surrounding what Bush did during his time at Dannelly Air Base in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1972. On this date, the New York Times reported that of the 16 key retired officers and senior enlisted men who had served at the installation that year and who the paper interviewed, none of them could remember Bush’s presence at the base. One group of Alabama Vietnam veterans went so far as to offer a $1,000 reward for proof that the president had served his time, but no one came forward to collect the money.February 13, 2004 President Bush understood what it felt like to slip into his daddy’s big loafers, having taken over the presidency after his pa, George H.W. Bush, had served. Maybe that’s why he placed a call on this date to Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the winner of the Daytona 500 car race. “I said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with a fellow following in his father’s footsteps,’” Bush remarked. Considering how Dale Senior had died during a car crash in that very same race three years earlier, Bush may want to brush up on his sensitivity training.February 16, 2004 On this date, in remarks to the National Economists Club and Society of Government Economists, N. Gregory Mankiw, Bush’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, suggested that fast-food jobs might need to be reclassified, changing them from food service to manufacturing. While it seems unusual to consider putting an all-beef patty between lettuce and a sesame-seed bun akin to placing an engine inside a 2-ton truck, such a modification would help lessen the sting of plummeting employment numbers during Bush’s administration. Since his inauguration, approximately 2.7 million manufacturing jobs had been lost, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.February 17, 2004 In 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, which was supposed to provide accountability in the public school systems. The National Education Association, the union of 2.8 million educators nationwide, wasn’t too keen on the law, especially certain parts such as Section 9528, which states that schools have to turn over information on all students to military recruiters. On this date, education secretary Rod Paige struck back, calling the NEA a “terrorist organization” for opposing NCLB. Apparently, he wasn’t too worried about annoying a union that gave 90 percent of its donations to the Democratic Party.February 23, 2004 On this date, President Bush promised that he was dedicated to educational reform. “I’m going to vigorously defend No Child Left Behind because I know in my heart of hearts it’s the absolute right role for the federal government – to provide money, but insist upon results.” And yet Bush’s 2005 budget had requested $9.4 billion less for NCLB than he had required for it when he’d originally signed it, which meant that approximately 5 million low-income kids would indeed be left behind.February 23, 2004 “Even if you don’t have health insurance, you are still taken care of in America. That certainly could be defined as universal coverage. Every American’s health care is far superior to what the health care is in Iraq.”Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy ThompsonMarch 3, 2004 “God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear.”President Bush, Los Angeles, CAMarch 3, 2004 President Bush routinely blamed the huge budget deficits of his first term on the recession, the attacks of 9/11, and a lack of consumer confidence following scandals like the Enron debacle. But on this date, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published a report that suggested that the federal deficit was mainly caused by Bush’s tax cuts and spending increases. The CBO estimated that only 6 percent of the deficit was the result of causes outside of his control.March 15, 2004 “We have been out of control for the last three years. We kind of got a little carried away.”Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), describing the Republican-sponsored spending that led to massive budget deficitsMarch 15, 2004 On this date, Richard A. Clarke, head of counterterrorism under four presidents – including, until a year before, President Bush – published a book, Against All Emenies, chronicling the job Bush had done protecting the country. “Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for reelection on the grounds that he’s done such great things about terrorism,” Clarke said in an interview with 60 Minutes. “He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11.”March 22, 2004 “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere.”President Bush, looking around the office jokinglyMarch 24, 2004 On a number of occasions, President Bush claimed that his first priority was to keep terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. But Bush also planned to take needed dollars away from forces that would protect likely terrorists targets and use the money to fund his nascent missile-defense-shield project. On this date, 49 retired generals and admirals – including Admiral William Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1985 to 1989 – sent a letter to Bush, pleading for him to reconsider. The military leaders deemed the shield untested, unnecessary, and financially prohibitive. Even the Pentagon’s top space planner admitted that an important section of the shield would be more costly and more difficult to complete than originally thought.March 26, 2004 On this date, scientists at NASA were ordered not to talk to reporters about the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow. The movie, which featured a pompous vice president who looked a lot like Dick Cheney, depicted a country eviscerated by a new ice age brought on by the onslaught of harmful emissions from factories and cars. Some scientists were angered by the gag rule. “It’s just another attempt to play down anything that might lead to the conclusion that something must be done,” said one climate expert.April 1, 2004 Former White House counsel John Dean published a book, Worse Than Watergate, which suggested that the Bush-Cheney administration was the most corrupt, unethical, and undemocratic in history – worse even than that of Dean’s ex-boss, Richard Nixon. Dean believed the high level of secrecy within the White House was “not merely unjustified and excessive but obsessive,” as well as “frighteningly dangerous.”April 6, 2004 Former White House counsel John Dean published a book, Worse Than Watergate, which suggested that the Bush-Cheney administration was the most corrupt, unethical, and undemocratic in history – worse even than that of Dean’s ex-boss, Richard Nixon. Dean believed the high level of secrecy within the White House was “not merely unjustified and excessive but obsessive,” as well as “frighteningly dangerous.”April 6, 2004 Before being elected, George W. Bush said he would “ensure that the federal government, which is the country’s largest polluter, complies with all environmental laws.” By this date, however, Bush’s Department of Defense had requested that it be exempted from such environmental regulations as the Clean Air Act of 1970 – for three years running. The request in any case superfluous since under Bush, the Environmental Protection Agency had not actually applied the policies to the military training facilities in question.April 7, 2004 On this date, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 Commission. She acknowledged that President Bush had received a memo titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States” as far back as August 6, 2001, but explained Bush’s lack of action by saying the report was “historical information based on old reporting.” She also admitted that the memo mentioned the possibility of terrorist sleeper cells in the United States, but since the report did not suggest it be acted on, they did not.April 9, 2004 Tom McGinnis, director of pharmacy affairs at the Food and Drug Administration, proclaimed that the FDA stood by its “long-held position” that importing prescription drugs from Canada is dangerous. And yet, just a mere four months earlier, he had admitted that the agency could not find a single American who had been injured by Canadian prescription drugs. “I can’t think of one thing off the top of my head where somebody died or somebody got put in the hospital because of these medications,” said McGinnis.April 13, 2004 On this date, President Bush held only his third press conference up to this point in his presidency. When asked what the biggest mistake he’d ever made was, Bush decided he hadn’t made any. “I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn’t [sic] yet,” Bush answered. “I just haven’t – you just put me under the spot here and maybe I’m not quick – as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.”April 13, 2004 “We knew they were hiding things. A country that hides things is a country that is afraid of getting caught. And that was part of our calculation.”President Bush, defending his decision to attack IraqApril 13, 2004 On this date, London’s Guardian newspaper reported that President Bush didn’t bother to read his daily briefs, even though they were supposedly very short. Instead, he had CIA director George Tenet orally summarize them for him. Other reports that he should have been shown – for instance, the 17-volume “Future of Iraq,” which described many of the postwar pitfalls, and “Reconstructing Iraq,” prepared by the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, which predicted problems with Iraqis that the United States could “barely comprehend” – were suppressed by administration hawks.April 15, 2004 On this date, the White House denied the validity of a claim in Bob Woodward’s book, Plan of Attack, that in early 2002 the Bush administration had diverted funds for homeland security to Iraq war planning without asking Congress for permission. Woodward said that Bush had approved 30 projects on the sly, accounting for nearly $700 million in funds. “Congress, which is supposed to control the purse strings, had no real knowledge or involvement, had not even been notified that the Pentagon wanted to reprogram money,” Woodward wrote.April 19, 2004 “Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires – a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think PATRIOT Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.”President Bush, before he was caught approving non-court-ordered wiretaps.April 20, 2004 On this date, President Bush made an eyebrow-raising claim. “My administration has put in place some of the most important antipollution policies in a decade – policies that have reduced harmful emissions,” he said. Under Bush, most of the Environmental Protection Agency’s programs had been voluntary, and few were successful. For instance, “Climate Leaders” was Bush’s voluntary alternative to the mandatory emission-reduction emphasis of the Kyoto Protocol, from which the United States withdrew. By January 1, 2004, only 50 companies had offered to join the program, and only 14 of them had come up with goals for reducing carbon dioxide and other gases suspected of wreaking havoc on the environment.April 22, 2004 President Bush suggested the United States should put energy into researching the hydrogen-powered car. “It’ll make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy when this technology comes to be, which is vital to make sure America is on the leading edge of technology and innovation,” Bush suggested. “It’ll help improve the environment.” But according to his own administration’s National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, almost 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels, the same resources tapped now for conventional cars, with the last 10 percent made via nuclear energy.April 27, 2004 During Saddam Hussein’s reign, Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison was one of the most notorious, a cesspool of torture and mayhem. In December 2003, following Iraq’s liberation, the prison’s new commander, Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, said that “living conditions are now better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn’t want to leave.” On this date, however, 60 Minutes II made public pictures depicting U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqis in humiliating fashion at the complex. Seven soldiers, including one general, would eventually face court-martial for conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts.April 28, 2004 House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) dismissed the idea of a full-fledged congressional investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison abuses, which he likened to “saying we need an investigation every time there’s police brutality on the street.” He told reporters that the House should be passing “good” legislation and “not doing a bunch of make-work.” During the first week of the Abu Ghraib scandal, the House accomplished such notable tasks as renaming a post office in Rhode Island, naming a Miami courthouse after a judge, and honoring the founder of the Lions Club. “Given all the issues and problems the country faces, it’s scandalous that we’re only coming in to work three days a week, and even then most of the time we’re renaming post offices,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland).May 4, 2004 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld went before Congress to condemn the horrific treatment of prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail by American soldiers and civilian contractors. “Let there be no doubt about that,” Rumsfeld said. “[President Bush] was just as blindsided as the Congress and me and everyone else [by the torture].” On June 17 of the same year, senior Pentagon officials admitted that Rumsfeld had himself allowed for the possibility of such extreme torture when he told officials to keep a suspected Iraqi terrorist off the list of enrollees at a prison center near Abu Ghraib. The Red Cross cannot monitor the health of prisoners if they don’t know where they are.May 7, 2004 “Like you, I have been disgraced about what I’ve seen on TV that took place in prison.”President Bush, Parkersburg, WVMay 13, 2004 President Bush fell off his bicycle while riding on his ranch, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Bush, who was accompanied on his bike ride by his doctor, Richard Tubb, a military agent and a member of the Secret Service, fell about 16 miles into a 17-mile ride. Bush suffered minor abrasions to his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees, but was able to ride back home, Duffy said. Tubb treated the president at the scene. Bush was wearing a helmet and a mouth guard when he fell, Duffy said.

May 22, 2004 “Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.”President BushMay 27, 2004 President Bush was interviewed by Paris Match about his relationship with French president Jacques Chirac. The European leader had been a friend of Bush’s father, but had fallen out of George W.’s good graces over the issue of Iraq. Asked if Chirac would be welcome at Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch, Bush said, “If he wants to come and see cows, he’s welcome to come out here and see some cows.” Perhaps Bush was not aware that Chirac is both a former agriculture minister and an expert on cattle.May 28, 2004 President Bush said, ” The reports from Afghanistan, at least the ones I get, are very encouraging. You know, we’ve got people who have been there last year and have been back this year, [and they] report a different attitude. And they report people have got a sparkle in their eye.” Just a day earlier, right-wing commentator Robert Novak described the situation as far less sparkly. “The overlooked war continues with no end in sight,” he wrote in a column for Townhall.com. “Narcotics trafficking is at an all-time high. If U.S. forces were to leave, the Taliban – or something like it – would regain power. The U.S. is lost in Afghanistan, bound to this wild country and unable to leave.”June 1, 2004 President Bush claimed that “had we drilled in ANWR [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] back in the mid-’90′s, we’d be producing an additional million barrels a day, which would be taking enormous pressure off the American consumer.” But the U.S. Geological Survey disagreed. In November 2005, the National Resources Defense Council quoted the USGS’s estimate of the total amount of oil that could be extracted and sold from the region – the last part of America’s coastline that wasn’t being drilled – as less than a year’s supply. It would also take 10 years for any of that oil to reach consumers, at which point it would satisfy only 2 percent of American’s daily needs.June 1, 2004 Bush’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, told a Senate Judiciary Committee that he condemned torture. “I don’t think it’s productive, let alone justified,” he said. However, a 50-page memo from August 2002 had just surfaced, in which Ashcroft’s Justice Department advised the White House that torturing Al Qaeda terrorists outside the United States “may be justified” and that international laws “may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations” conducted during the war on terrorism. The memo, written for the CIA and addressed to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, suggested that inflicting minor or short-lived pain doesn’t count as torture – only that which “is equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”June 8, 2004 President Bush suggested that using Medicare’s system was easy: “You can go to www.medicare.gov. It’s not all that hard. And there will be all kinds of information available to you.” The only problem was that much of that information was incorrect. In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) wrote, “In Representative [Louise] Slaughter’s district, the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee … surveyed 10 independent pharmacies. Information on the Medicare.gov Web site was inaccurate for every single pharmacy.”June 14, 2004 President Bush met with Afghanistan’s leader, Hamid Karzai, who allegedly had been making deals with corrupt warlords. While Bush was saying the country’s ouster of the Taliban represented the “first victory in the war on terror,” more than 20,000 troops were engaging in daily gunfights, including one attack on NATO forces by a rocket that very day. And the next day, Hamid Agha, Kandahar’s director of the Ministry of Refugees and Rehabilitation, was assassinated outside his home.June 15, 2004 “The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda.”President Bush, dotting his T’s and crossing his I’sJune 17, 2004 On a Bush-Cheney 2000 election Web site, the campaigning duo stated how they wished to bring civility back to government. On this date, the same day that the Senate passed the Defense of Decency Act by a score of 99-1, Cheney stood on the floor of the Senate and told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to “go fuck yourself.” Leahy had questioned Cheney’s ties to construction giant Halliburton.June 22, 2004 “I mean, if you’ve ever been a governor of a state, you understand the vast potential of broadband technology; you understand how hard it is to make sure that physics, for example, is taught in every classroom in the state. It’s difficult to do. It’s, like, cost-prohibitive.”.President Bush, the education presidentJune 24, 2004 On a Bush-Cheney 2000 election Web site, the duo promised to “attack pork-barrel spending.” But by 2004, even conservatives had had enough of the other white meat. On this date, the right-wing Heritage Foundation wrote that Bush had failed to veto a single bill, despite many being overwhelmed with pet projects tacked on by members of Congress. A recent corporate-tax-reform bill, which the Taxpayers for Common Sense described as a “platinum-plated pig” full of “gift-wrapped giveaways,” included such awards as $169 million for Puerto Rican rum, $9 million for archery products, and $35 million for fishing-tackle boxes..June 28, 2004 The Senate confirmed James Leon Holmes, President Bush’s nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District, by a 51 – 46 vote. The controversial Holmes, the former president of Arkansas Right to Life and the onetime secretary of the Unborn Child Amendment Committee, was conservative enough that five Republicans voted against him. He once said abortion was “the simplest issue this country has faced since slavery was made unconstitutional” and, in a letter recommending a constitutional ban on the procedure, wrote, “concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.” He had also been quoted in a 1997 religious publication as saying that a “wife is to subordinate herself to her husband.” This is something you might expect out of a Neanderthal era,” said Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). “Why in heaven’s name did the president nominate him?”July 6, 2004 President Bush accused Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina), the newly chosen running mate of Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, of being too inexperienced. No one pointed out that prior to Bush’s election as president, his only political experience had been serving as governor of Texas, which was considered by many to be little more than a hand-holding position.July 7, 2004 The Pentagon revealed that the payroll records of numerous National Guardsmen, including the First Lieutenant George W. Bush, had been accidentally destroyed while an attempt was made to transfer them from damaged microfilm. The notes from the period in question – three months in 1972 and 1973 – has been requested by newspapers for almost six months, in order to finally ascertain whether Bush had served his rightful military obligation, a fact that had been called into serious question. Now, no backup copies, on paper or otherwise, could be found. The disclosure caught even some Bush supporters by surprise, including retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd, who had looked up Bush’s records for the administration.July 8, 2004 “This is a special day for me. One of my daughters, a new graduate of the University of Texas, is traveling with me. Jenna, thanks for coming. She’s already given me good advice. She said, ‘Dad, change your shirt.’”President BushJuly 9, 2004 “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.”President Bush, to a group of Amish he met with privatelyJuly 9, 2004 During the reelection year, President Bush had a hard time making up his mind. For instance, during a February 8, 2004 interview on Meet the Press, Bush said, “I’m a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign-policy matters with war on my mind.” But on the campaign trail in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in front of supporters at Kirkwood Community College on this date, Bush suggested, “No one wants to be the war president; I want to be the peace president.”July 20, 2004 The independent, nonpartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States released the 9/11 Commission Report, which flatly stated that the terrorist attacks were preventable. “As you read the report, you’re going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn’t done and what should have been done,” said Thomas Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, who had been appointed the head of the commission by the Bush administration. “This was not something that had to happen.”July 22, 2004 “It reads like a mystery, a novel. It’s well written.”President Bush, applauding the 9/11 Commission ReportJuly 26, 2004 The New York Times reported that the layoff rate during the first three years of the Bush administration was the second highest on record. According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics – first initiated by President Reagan – 8.7 percent of all adult jobholders were laid off between 2001 and 2004. That works out to about 11.4 million jobs, the worst rate since the early 1980s and approaching that of the Great Depression. Those who found new jobs relatively quickly were hard-pressed to make equal wages, with 56.9 percent earning less than with the jobs they had held before.August 2, 2004 “We are a nation in danger,” President Bush said. “We’re doing everything we can in our power to confront the danger.” That is why it took him so long to follow up on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission and create a government position of national intelligence director, who would coordinate the CIA, FBI, and the National Security Agency. Even after complying, Bush did not go as far as the commission suggested, refusing to make the position cabinet level or to place the office within the White House.August 2, 2004 “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.August 5, 2004 President Bush acknowledged that the war on terrorism had been “misnamed.” He said that it ought to be called “the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies who happen to use terror as a weapon to try to shake the conscience of the free world.” Of course, that would have been harder to put on a bumper sticker.August 6, 2004 “The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.”President Bush, explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, VAAugust 9, 2004 “As you know, we don’t have relationships with Iran. I mean, that’s – ever since the late ’70s, we have no contacts with them, and we’ve totally sanctioned them. In other words, there’s no sanctions – you can’t – we’re out of sanctions.”President Bush, Annandale, VAAugust 9, 2004 “So community colleges are accessible, they’re available, they’re affordable, and their curriculums don’t get stuck. In other words, if there’s a need for a certain kind of worker, I presume your curriculums evolved over time.”President Bush, Niceville, FLAugust 10, 2004 “I hope you leave here and walk out and say, ‘What did he say?’”President Bush, Beaverton, ORAugust 13, 2004 Former senator (and Vietnam vet) Max Cleland went to President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, to plead for an end to the attacks on the wartime record of Bush’s presidential opponent, Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts). Bush refused to meet with him, prompting Cleland to ask, “The question is, ‘Where is George Bush’s honor?’” As for Bush’s fellow hawks, Vice President Dick Cheney received five deferments from service. Cheney’s defense: “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.” Meanwhile, Attorney General John Ashcroft supposedly had said, “I would have served, if asked,” when in fact he had requested six student deferments and one occupational deferment.August 25, 2004 CBS News reported that the FBI was investigating a spy scandal in the Department of Defense. While serving as a high-ranking Defense Department official, Larry Franklin also worked as a spy for Israel. Franklin eventually pleaded guilty to having passed along classified information about U.S. policy toward Iraq to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – one of the most influential lobbying groups in the United States – which may have then turned over the information to Israel. Providing classified documents to a foreign power while working at the Pentagon is a crime against national security, and on January 20, 2006, Franklin was sentenced to 12-1/2 years in prison, along with a $10,000 fine for espionage.August 27, 2004 President Bush told Matt Lauer on the Today Show that he thought the war on terrorism could not be won. Then, later on in the same interview, he changed his mind, saying, “If we believe, for example, that you can’t win, and the alternative is to retreat…I think that would be a disaster for your children.”August 30, 2004 “That’s why I understand that the enemy could misread what I say; that’s why I try to be as clearly as I can.”President Bush, in a Rose Garden news briefingSeptember 3, 2004 “We will make sure our troops have all that is necessary to complete their missions. That’s why I went to the Congress last September and proposed fundamental – supplemental – funding, which is money for armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel.”President BushSeptember 4, 2004 “Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”President Bush, speaking about frivolous lawsuits, Poplar Bluff, MOSeptember 6, 2004 The New York Times reported how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that, much like in Florida in 2000, if a majority of the votes in the upcoming Iraqi election were to be counted, that would be enough. “Let’s say you tried to have an election, and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country,” Rumsfeld hypothesized. “But in some places you couldn’t because the violence was too great. Well, so be it. Nothing’s perfect in life. So you have an election that’s not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet.”September 24, 2004 At a campaign stop in Ohio, President Bush claimed, “As a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence.” And yet, two days later, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage warned the House International Relations Committee that the Taliban were very much alive and could be planning on disrupting Afghanistan elections, “perhaps even by attempting a large-scale attack on election day itself.”September 27, 2004 “I believe it is the job of a President to confront problems, not pass them on to future Presidents and future generations.”President Bush, Columbus, OHOctober 2, 2004 In October 2000, 300 million gallons of coal slurry flooded land, polluted rivers, and destroyed property in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, comprising a disaster 25 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill. In an interview with 60 Minutes on this date, Jack Spadaro, an engineer on the team investigating the mess, said, "It polluted 100 miles of stream, killed everything in the streams, all the way to the Ohio River." The engineer raised a stink after the Bush administration cut short the investigation of Massey Energy, the company responsible for the spill as well as several big campaign donations. "I’ve been in government since Richard Nixon," said Spadaro. "I had never seen anything so corrupt and lawless in my entire career as what I saw regarding interference with a federal investigation of the most serious environmental disaster in the history of the eastern United States."October 4, 2004 Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) reported that President Bush had attempted to kill the Innocence Protection Act, which would have provided funds for better defense counsel, even though the House of Representatives passed it by a 357-67 vote. Assistant Attorney General William Moschella sent the House and Senate Judiciary Committees a 22-page missive that stated the administration’s objections to the bill. "I have rarely seen a letter from an executive branch agency so hostile to a bipartisan legislative effort that had already passed one house of Congress," Leahy said.October 7, 2004 President Bush became the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs during a term in office. More than 800,000 jobs had been lost since Bush took office in 2001, the most since the Great Depression. "Clearly, we are on the right path," said an unflappable John Snow, secretary of the Treasury. "I am confident we will see that continue."October 8, 2004 “When a drug comes in from Canada, I wanna make sure it cures ya, not kill ya… I’ve got an obligation to make sure our government does everything we can to protect you. And one — my worry is that it looks like it’s from Canada, and it might be from a third world.”President Bush, St.Louis, MO, in the second presidential debateOctober 8, 2004 “Let me see where to start here. First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator of all.”President Bush, St.Louis, MO, in the second presidential debateOctober 8, 2004 “The truth of the matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the United States, and we’d be a lot better off.”President Bush, St.Louis, MO, in the second presidential debateOctober 8, 2004 “Our health care system is the envy of the world.”President Bush, perhaps thinking of a different world than this oneOctober 13, 2004 “We will stand up for terror. We will stand up for freedom.”President BushOctober 18, 2004 “Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up — you know, is up in the air.”President Bush, commenting on the “war on terror” in an interview with Sean HannityOctober 27, 2004 “I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place for people standing outside – they’re getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed by the atmosphere, and they say, ‘Man, you’re looking pretty.’”President BushNovember 4, 2004 Secretary of State Colin Powell resigned from his position. Powell was seen as a voice of moderation within the administration, often at odds with the more hawkish tendencies of Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice – who was so close to Bush that she had once mistakenly referred to him as her husband – was expected to be named to the post, and she was.November 15, 2004 “The president [of Chile] and I also reaffirmed our determination to fight terror, to bring drug trafficking to bear, to bring justice to those who pollute our youth.”President Bush, finally showing that he can be tough on pollutersNovember 21, 2004 Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) revealed the results of an investigation into President Bush-favored abstinence-only sex-education programs, which promoted refraining from sexual activity and did not discuss contraception whatsoever. Waxman discovered that 80 percent of abstinence curricula contain "false, misleading, or distorted information" about condoms, HIV transmission, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health, abortion, and other issues.December 1, 2004 At a Kuwait pep rally for Army personnel, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was surprised by a pointed question about the poor quality of the Army’s equipment. Reports estimated that half of those Americans killed in Iraq might still be alive if they had been better equipped. "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" asked a National Guard member. Rumsfeld responded grumpily, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want to wish to have at a later time."December 8, 2004 “There’s a trade deficit. That’s easy to resolve: People can buy more United States products if they’re worried about the trade deficit.”President Bush, explaining the intricacies of international finance to Italian prime minister Silvio BerlusconiDecember 15, 2004 “Justice ought to be fair.”President Bush, tautologicallyDecember 15, 2004 “It’s okay to correct the president – just not in front of all the TV cameras.”President Bush, after being corrected by a participant at the White House Economic ConferenceDecember 16, 2004 “They can get in line like those who have been here legally and have been working to become a citizenship in a legal manner.”President Bush, on immigrant workers, Washington, D.C.December 20, 2004 President Bush called 10 members of the military – 6 stationed in Iraq – to thank them for their sacrifice and wish them a Merry Christmas. Or Happy Chanukah. Or even Kwanzaa. The approximately 133,000 others would have to settle for canned ham – or, God willing, some stronger armor.December 25, 2004 When Alberto Gonzales was questioned about torture during his attorney general nomination hearing, the White House lawyer said, "Abuse will not be tolerated by this administration." Later, he offered, "If confirmed, I will ensure that the Department of Justice aggressively pursues those responsible for such abhorrent actions." As of April 2006, however, not one of the 19 civilian men and women accused of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had been charged with a crime – not even civilian contractor Daniel Johnson, who was seen in photos making a prisoner engage in "an unauthorized stress position," according to an Army investigation. (Seven enlisted male and female soldiers were convicted of such crimes as cruelty, dereliction of duty, and assault.)January 6, 2005 On this date, conservative columnist Armstrong Williams admitted that he had been paid to make President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act look good in print. Both Williams and the White House saw nothing wrong with him receiving $240,000 from the Department of Education in exchange for writing articles supporting the education program. The National Association of Black Journalists thought otherwise, immediately suggesting that all media outlets carrying Williams’s columns dump him. "I thought we in the media were supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs," said NABJ vice president Bryan Monroe. "I thought we had an administration headed by a president who took an oath to uphold the First Amendment, not try to rent it."January 7, 2005 On this date, President Bush’s new secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, took time out from her busy first week of work to whip off a vehement letter to the Public Broadcasting Service. Spellings was disturbed by an episode of the children’s TV program Postcards from Buster, in which the main character, an animated bunny, learned how cheese and maple syrup are made while visiting two Vermont families. Spellings objected to several of the parents being lesbian moms. "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in this episode," she suggested. No one, however, had complained over past episodes, in which the rabbit hung out with Mormons, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims, and single parents.January 25, 2005 At the end of 2004, President Bush needed someone to succeed Tommy Thompson as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, someone who would be dedicated to taking care of American’s health issues. Someone like Utah’s former governor, Mike Leavitt, a man who supported a total ban on abortion throughout pregnancy that didn’t include safeguards for mothers. A man who, in 2000, vetoed abstinence-only sex-education legislation for Utah schools – not because he felt abstinence to be an unsound method of birth control, but because it would allow for the discussion of contraception (albeit only its failure rates). When he was nominated for the cabinet position, Leavitt was serving as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, where it was reported that he "consistently undercut and failed to enforce regulations to protect public health." Nonetheless, the Senate confirmed Leavitt on this date.January 26, 2005 Officials from the White House admitted that Michael Chertoff, President Bush’s nominee to replace Tom Ridge as head of Homeland Security, had advised the CIA on the kinds of torture they could get away with. When he was head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, Chertoff explained to the agency that its officers would not likely be prosecuted if they strapped someone down and made them feel as if they were drowning. Even harsher techniques might be allowable, he offered, depending on the hardiness of the prisoner. However, the "threat of imminent death" was a no-no.”January 28, 2005 During his State of the Union address, President Bush promised to "make it easier for Americans to afford a college education by increasing the size of Pell Grants." How could the government afford to take such as action, with the economy in a funk and the Iraq war to pay for? By eliminating the Perkins loan program, which provided low-interest loans to low- and middle-income college students, as well as cutting Pell Grants for 1.3 million students. Thus, Bush could raise the Pells for the remaining students by a minuscule $100 a year, bringing the maximum award up to $4,150 – a small fraction of the cost of most college educations.February 2, 2005 “You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. Get any sleep?”President Bush, to a divorced mother of threeFebruary 4, 2005 The Fish and Wildlife Service was created to help preserve the many species of animals that flourish throughout the United States. According to a survey that was released on this date, however, 71 percent of its scientists questioned said that their own agency "cannot be trusted to save endangered species." Recent controversial decisions included allowing the hunting of wolves, permitting logging in grizzly bear country, and ignoring the need to place the sage grouse on the endangered species list.February 9, 2005 “I am not going to give you a number for it, because it’s not my business to do intelligent work.”Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, when asked at acongressional hearing how many insurgents there wereFebruary 16, 2005 “This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And, having said that, all options are on the table.”President Bush, with perhaps the quickest contradiction in political historyFebruary 22, 2005 “After all, Europe is America’s closest ally.”President Bush, perhaps forgetting that several of the countrieswithin Europe strongly disagree with his policiesFebruary 23, 2005 On this date, President Bush surprised Democrats and Republicans alike when he nominated one of the most vehement critics of the United Nations, Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, to be U.S. ambassador to the international body. Bolton – who served with the first President Bush and President Reagan (and kept a mock grenade signed by the latter in his office) – had led the opposition to the inclusion of the United States in the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, saying that the day he finalized the nation’s withdrawal was "the happiest moment of my government service." In the past, he had shown off his particular brand of diplomatic skill numerous times, including sneering at European attempts at disarmament talks with Iran.March 7, 2005 “It turns out, in this job you’ve got a lot on your plate on a regular basis. You don’t have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, ‘How do you think my standing will be?’”President Bush, waxing wistfulMarch 16, 2005 “I’m occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term.”President Bush, who once declared his favorite book to be "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"March 16, 2005 On this date, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was approved to be the new leader of the World Bank, whose mission is to help developing nations reduce poverty and establish businesses, agriculture, and infrastructure. Even though he was approved, Wolfowitz — one of the main architects of the Iraq war and a self-proclaimed hawk — was a controversial choice. Bush passed over other equally unqualified (but perhaps better-suited) candidates, such as rock singer Bono. ActionAid, an aid organization based in the United Kingdom and South Africa, released a statement calling Wolfowitz "a deeply divisive figure who is unlikely to move the Bank towards a more pro-poor agenda."March 31, 2005 “I’m going to spend a lot of time on Social Security. I enjoy it. I enjoy taking on the issue. I guess it’s the mother in me.”President BushApril 14, 2005 “I can only speak to myself.”President Bush, White House press conference, Washington, D.C.April 28, 2005 President Bush announced the capture of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, identified as the alleged No. 3 man in Al Qaeda’s terrorist hierarchy. Bush called him a "major facilitator and chief planner for the Al Qaeda network" and said the strike was a "critical victory in the war on terror." However, on May 8, it was revealed that al-Libbi was actually an operative of little consequence. One past associate of Osama bin Laden’s was amused by al-Libbi’s capture, saying, "What I remember of him is, he used to make the coffee and do the photocopying."May 5, 2005 “I made my position very clear on embryonic stem cells. I’m a strong supporter of adult stem cell research, of course. But I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers’ money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is — I’m against that.”President Bush, unclear on how he feels about stem cell researchMay 20, 2005 “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”President Bush, explaining his Social Security reform strategyMay 24, 2005 President Bush honored the men and women who fought in the armed forces by giving a speech at the Arlington National Cemetery. "Another generation is fighting a new war against an enemy that threatens the peace and stability of the world," he said. "Across thhe globe, our military is standing directly between our people and the worst dangers in the world, and Americans are grateful to have such brave defenders." Bush repaid these patriots in his 2006 budget by doubling copayments and adding initiation fees for veterans, while doing little to nothing for the large influx of new veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq. The Veterans of Foreign Wars called the budget "especially shameful during a time of war."May 30, 2005 It was announced that Halliburton, the company at which Vice President Cheney had served as CEO, had been hired to build a $30 million jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This news followed a slew of allegations that prisoners were being tortured at the old facility, which Amnesty International called "the gulag of our times."June 16, 2005 “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”Vice President Cheney, promising peace any day nowJune 20, 2005 “I was going to say he’s a piece of work, but that might not translate too well. Is that all right, if I call you a ‘piece of work’?”President Bush, to Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, Washington, D.C.June 20, 2005 The Justice Department lowered the sum it was requesting in a racketeering settlement from Big Tobacco by an astounding amount. Originally asking for $280 billion to fund a stop-smoking program for kids, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanded on $14 billion of the penalty, which amounted to one-twentieth of the initial fee. Democratic lawmakers complained that the Bush administration was afraid to hinder the tobacco industry, which had donated large amounts to their coffers. Big Tobacco lawyers weren’t happy either: Even with such a minuscule payment, they complained that the stipulations penalized past actions rather than offering to pay for future prevention, as the judge had demanded.June 27, 2005 “I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”President Bush, on visiting DenmarkJune 29, 2005 Not since the heyday of President Ford had a president been as accident prone as George W. Bush. On this date, Bush knocked over a Scottish policeman while riding his bicycle at the Gleneagles golf resort. The leader of the free world, who was visiting the British Isles for the G8 summit, suffered scrapes on his hands and arms and had to be taken to the hospital. The officer received an ankle injury. White House spokesperson Scott McClellan pointed out that it was raining at the time.July 6, 2005 President Bush has a little birthday fun with a cake presented to him for his 59th birthday by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark at Fredensborg Palace.

July 6, 2005 Military investigators told the Senate Armed Services Committee that they recommended disciplining Army Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison, for not stopping the abuse of at least three inmates. One prisoner — Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi captured in December 2001 near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border — was made to wear a bra, walk like a dog on a leash, wear a thong on his head, and stand naked in front of female guards. He was also subjected to strip searches for no reason, terrorized with dogs, and made to dance with other men. However, General Bantz Craddock, leader of the U.S. Southern Command, overruled the recommendation, stating that it was a job for the Army’s internal system, not U.S. courts.July 13, 2005 ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman got a lesson in the Bush administration’s version of freedom of speech in 2005. After Kofman showed enlisted soldiers expressing displeasure with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraq conflict, a White House communications staffer allegedly informed right-wing Web gossip hound Matt Drudge that not only is the reported Canadian, he is also homosexual. On this date, Drudge linked the ABC story to a profile of Kofman in the Advocate, along with a headline that screamed his nationality. For its part, the White House denied everything, with a spokesman saying, "This is the first we’ve heard of it, and it would be totally inappropriate if true."July 16, 2005 “The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who’s spending time investigating it.”President Bush, expressing hope that the probe into how CIA agent ValeriePlame’s identity was leaked will yield answers, Washington, D.C.July 18, 2005 “First thing that Medicare has done is it says that if you’re – when you join Medicare, you get preventative screenings. Put in Texas terms, in order to solve something, you got to diagnose it.”President Bush, at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, Atlanta, GAJuly 22, 2005 By October 2005, President Bush had taken 11 months of vacation time, approximately 20 percent of his time in office. On this date, he headed to his Crawford, Texas, ranch for the 49th time, relaxing for the 319th day (and the first in a five-week stretch). Bush was quite close to topping the modern presidential vacation day record of 335, set by President Reagan during his eight years – and Bush still had three and a half years to go. By comparison, President Clinton took off only 152 days in his two terms.August 2, 2005 A federal grand jury indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy in the purchasing of SunCruz Casinos, a Florida casino-boat company whose previous owner was later killed in an alleged mob hit. Abramoff — who, in Bush’s first ten months in office, contacted his staff more than 200 times — was also under investigation for his use of lobbying fees given to him by Native American tribes, which allegedly went to help the Christian Coalition defeat a pro-gambling law in Alabama, as well as other avenues. He was also being investigated for allegedly bribing Congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) with golf trips to Scotland, free passes to sporting events, and large amounts of campaign monies.August 11, 2005 President Bush said he did not have time to meet with war protester Cindy Sheehan while he was on vacation, even though she had lost her son in the Iraq conflict. “I think it’s important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say,” Bush said, “but I think it’s also important for me to get on with my life.” That apparently meant taking his bike for a spin with seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and tossing off bon mots at a golf resort in El Mirage, Arizona.August 13, 2005 The New York Times reported that the FBI was demanding library records — including e-mail usage and books borrowed — of patrons from a Connecticut library. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the FBI on behalf of the Bridgeport-area facility, this was the first time an intelligence agency had gone to such lengths. The FBI had garnered new powers under the USA PATRIOT Act, which allowed the organization to use previously illegal means to root out terrorists. “This is a prime example of the government using its PATRIOT Act powers without any judicial oversight to get sensitive information on law-abiding Americans,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU.August 26, 2005 Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans. At the same time, President Bush’s hand-picked Federal Emergency Management Agency leader, Michael Brown, was writing e-mails to a friend, proclaiming himself “a fashion god” due to the lovely outfits he had gotten at Nordstrom. In the days to follow, he asked around for a dog sitter and rolled up his sleeves to look like he was working hard.August 29, 2005 President Bush appeared on Good Morning America and said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breech of the levees.” However, the flooding that resulted in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina had been anticipated by numerous sources, including National Geographic, ABC’s Nightline, the Associated Press, New Orleans’ Times-Picayune, Scientific American, and Bush’s own Federal Emergency Management Agency.September 1, 2005 “The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”President Bush, a few days after the disastrous Hurricane KatrinaSeptember 2, 2005 “My thoughts are, we’re going to get somebody who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to rebuilding cities.”President Bush, on how the rebuilding of New Orleans might commence, Biloxi, MSSeptember 2, 2005 “And Brownie… you’re doing a heck of a job.”President Bush, to FEMA director Mike Brown who resigned 10days later amid criticism over his job performance, Mobile, ALSeptember 2, 2005 “What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them.”Former first lady Barbara Bush, mother of the president, discussing the goodfortune of the Hurricane Katina evacuees staying at the Houston AstrodomeSeptember 5, 2005 On this date, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported how the Humane Society of the United States had sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, requesting that the Army end the abuse of goats at Fort Carson, Colorado. The goats were being drugged and then killed so that special forces could learn battleground medical methods. The Army refused to apologize for its techniques, claiming that the goats needed to die so that soldiers could live. “It’s very important training,” said Ben Abel, a spokesman for Army Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is responsible for the training exercise at Fort Carson.September 8, 2005 “Now tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?”Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), speaking tothree kids at a Hurricane Katrina refugee camp in HoustonSeptember 9, 2005 In 2003, Michael Brown took over for Joseph Allbaugh as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. While many people criticized FEMA’s slow, haphazard response to Hurricane Katrina, in which 1,200 people died, President Bush stood behind its leader. At one press conference, he told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie.” Ten days later, on this date, Brownie resigned.September 12, 2005 The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Richard Skinner, claimed that he had received a large number of accusations of fraud during the cleanup of Hurricane Katrina. He said he planned to scrutinize several no-bid contracts granted to companies connected to Joseph Allbaugh, a lobbyist who just happened to be the ex-director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as President Bush’s former campaign manager. After leaving FEMA in 2003, Allbaugh and his wife, Diane, established the Allbaugh Group, which was eventually hired by Kellogg Brown & Root, which soon received a multimillion-dollar contract for rebuilding sections of New Orleans.September 13, 2005 President Bush attended a three-day summit honoring the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. Sitting among 150 sultans, kings, prime ministers, and other heads of state, Bush suddenly needed to use the toilet. So, naturally, he did what every other chief executive does: He asked his secretary of state for permission. In a note to Condoleezza Rice, the president wrote, “I think I may need a bathroom break? Is this possible?” The note was captured on camera by Rick Wilking, a Reuters photographer and onetime White House staffer, and later reprinted on the Internet.September 14, 2005 In the wake of the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush again showed his grasp of the stunningly obvious. "I mean," he said, "people just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption and that if they’re able to maybe not drive when they — on a trip that’s not essential, that would [be] helpful."September 26, 2005 New York Times writer Judith Miller was released from prison, having spent 85 days in jail for declining to name the source of her information about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Miller finally relented after receiving a note from Vice President Cheney’s right-hand man, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, which spoke to her in a most poetic manner. "You went to jail in the summer," the missive read. "It is fall now. You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats, bird flu, and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."September 29, 2005 Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the former House Majority Leader, was indicted for laundering $190,000 in what prosecutor Ronnie Earle said was a violation of bans on corporate contributions. This was DeLay’s second indictment, following charges of conspiracy that concerned the same incident in September 2002, when DeLay and two aides transferred corporate donations from a Texas political action committee to the Republican National Committee and then back to Republican candidates for the Texas state house.October 3, 2005 In October 2005, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers, a White House lawyer who had never been a judge, to the Supreme Court. On this date, the president tried to explain to the gathered press why he had picked a relative unknown with little judicial experience to be on the most important court in the country. "I think it’s important to bring somebody from outside the system, the judicial system, somebody that hasn’t been on the bench and, therefore, there’s not a lot of opinions for people to look at," Bush explained.October 4, 2005 President Bush’s former chief procurement official was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements and obstructing the investigation of high-powered Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. David H. Safavian, onetime chief of staff for the General Services Administration, was accused of lying about his business connections with Abramoff. The charges center around a 2002 golf trip to Scotland that the lobbyist paid for, during which Safavian allegedly gave Abramoff advice and some "nonpublic information" about federal properties.October 5, 2005 China became the 89th country to ratify the global tobacco treaty (aka Framework Convention on Tobacco Control). While the United States signed the treaty in May 2004, it had not yet ratified it, because that would mean President Bush would need to send it to the Senate, where two-thirds would need to vote for it. Ratifying the treaty would mean placing in effect tougher tobacco-control measures, including restrictions on advertising, stronger indoor air laws, higher taxes, and larger warning labels. Many of Bush’s advisors were heavily connected to Big Tobacco. Then chief of staff Karl Rove was a tobacco lobbyist for years, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson had received $72,000 in campaign contributions from Philip Morris, and the Food and Drug Administration’s chief counsel, Daniel Troy, had, before taking the position, represented the tobacco industry when it sued the FDA.October 11, 2005 President Bush accepted the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, who had been picked to fill the seat of Sandra Day O’Connor. As an excuse for her departure, Bush said she did not feel comfortable turning over documents "concerning advice provided during her tenure at the White House — disclosures that would undermine a president’s ability to receive candid counsel." But most commentators suggested she had stepped aside after conservatives had mounted surprisingly virulent opposition. "I picked the best person I could find," Bush said.October 27, 2005 “I understand not everybody agrees with the decisions I’ve made, but that’s not unique to Central or South America. Truth of the matter is, there’s people who disagree with the decisions I’ve made all over the world.”President BushNovember 1, 2005 The Washington Post reported that the CIA had built covert prisons in foreign countries so that it could hold and interrogate prisoners without federal oversight. Constructed after 9/11, the "black sites" are spread throughout eight countries, including Afghanistan, Thailand, and several Eastern European countries. Sources said there are a least 100 captives being held, but almost nothing is known about who they are, how they have been interrogated, or how long they have been under guard. When asked about what goes on within the prisons, President Bush said simply, "We do not torture."November 2, 2005 “Wow! Brazil is big.”President Bush, after being shown a map by Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da SilvaNovember 6, 2005 A Democratic hawk who had often sided with the Republicans on military matters changed his tune and called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq. "It is time for a change in direction," said Representative John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), the first Vietnam War veteran elected to Congress. "Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people, or the Persian Gulf region." Murtha also took umbrage at Vice President Cheney’s pro-military stance, saying, "I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."November 17, 2005 President Bush proved himself adept at avoiding reporters’ questions, but not so adept at escaping the actual reporters. While visiting Beijing, Bush gave a press conference, at the end of which he cut short a reporter and tried to make a quick exit — only to discover that both doors he tried were locked. "I was trying to escape," he said. "Obviously, it didn’t work."

November 20, 2005 London’s Daily Mirror reported that President Bush had suggested to British prime minister Tony Blair that someone should bomb the headquarters of the Al Jazeera news network. Understanding that destroying the pro-Arab, pro-Muslim station — which was based in Qatar, a U.S. ally and the home of the base for the U.S. Central Command — would have been calamitous, Blair supposedly talked him out of the mission. In Bush’s defense, a Blair aide said the comment was "humorous, not serious."November 22, 2005 The Washington Post reported how a Vermont teacher had been admonished for testing students with liberally biased vocabulary questions. Bret Chenkin, who taught both social studies and English at Mount Anthony Union High School, administered questions like, "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring [sic] him Republican votes." No student had come forth to complain about the questions.November 26, 2005 “Those who enter the country illegally violate the law.”President Bush, Tucson, AZNovember 28, 2005 Vice President Cheney flew halfway around the world, canceling visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, so he could break a tie in the Senate over $40 billion worth of budget cuts. The bill — which five moderate Republicans voted against, causing the tie — would barely affect the federal deficit, cutting less than one-half of one percent from the $14.3 trillion shortfall over the next five years. The poor suffered the most from the cutbacks — losing funds for Medicaid, child support, and student loans — while the pharmaceutical companies and private insurers got off easy.December 21, 2005 Early on in his first term, President Bush began issuing bill-signing statements, which allowed him to interpret the law in almost any way he liked. By this date, he had used the power more than 500 times, far more than any other president, including his predecessor Bill Clinton (105 times in eight years), his dad (146 times), and Ronald Reagan (71 times). "It’s nothing short of breathtaking," said Phillip Cooper, a public-administration professor at Portland State University. "In every case, the White House has interpreted presidential authority as broadly as possible, interpreted legislative authority as narrowly as possible, and preempted the judiciary."January 7, 2006 “You took an oath to defend our flag and our freedom, and you kept that oath underseas and under fire.”President Bush, addressing war veteransJanuary 10, 2006 “It’s a heck of a place to bring your family.”President Bush, speaking about New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, LAJanuary 12, 2006 On this date, the New York Times ran an interview with the top climate scientist as NASA, James E. Hansen, in which he charged that the Bush administration was attempting to muzzle him. Once considered a White House favorite, Hansen ruffled feathers in 2004 by saying he was planning to vote for John Kerry and again in late 2005 by providing data that showed 2005 was the warmest year in a century. According to Hansen, NASA officials soon began warning him that there would be "dire consequences" if he didn’t stop issuing such statements. They also curtailed his media appearances, including an interview with National Public Radio, because, a public affairs officer allegedly said, the outlet was too liberal and his job was "to make the president look good."January 29, 2006 “I like my buddies from West Texas. I liked them when I was young, I liked them when I was middle age, I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after president.”President Bush, Dr. Seuss-styleFebruary 1, 2006 In December 2005, it was revealed that President Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to begin spying on Americans without a court order, an action that was specifically forbidden by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. On this date, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss why it was okay for Bush to break the law. Gonzales cited presidential precedent, offering that, "President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale." Of course, all of those presidents served long before FISA became law in 1978, and one even before the existence of electronic surveillance.February 6, 2006 When the media broke the National Security Agency domestic-spy story, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales suggested that newspapers had seriously compromised national security. On this date, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) asked Gonzales how the public knowledge of the scandal could hurt efforts to root out terrorists. "You would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance," Gonzales replied. "But if they’re not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget."February 6, 2006 Vice President Cheney is known as a take-no-prisoners kind of guy. Just ask Harry Whittington, the 78-year old lawyer whom Cheney shot in the face, chest, and neck while the duo were quail hunting at the private Armstrong Ranch on this date. It took Cheney 14 hours to report the incident to the authorities, and he didn’t visit Whittington — who would eventually suffer a minor heart attack because of the shooting — until late the next day.February 11, 2006 To combine a couple expressions, if politics make strange bedfellows, then President Bush always relied on the kindness of strangers. One such strange fellow was uberlobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was found guilty of bribery, fraud, and tax evasion and sentenced to nearly six years in prison in January 2006. Attempting to distance himself from Abramoff, Bush claimed he could not recall having met him, even though the lobbyist detailed how they had talked in person over a dozen times and how he had been invited to Bush’s ranch in Texas. Also, Abramoff had donated $100,000 to Bush’s reelection campaign and funneled approximately $2 million from his clients to other Republicans running for office. On this date, a photo surfaced of Bush greeting one of the lobbyist’s clients, Raul Garza, while Abramoff happily looked on in the background.February 11, 2006 President Bush often promised to combat evildoers and do battle in the war on terrorism. However, on this date, it was reported that a secretive government panel consisting of members of Bush’s Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, State, and Homeland Security departments had agreed to a deal with Dubai Ports World — a company from the United Arab Emirates — that would allow the firm to take control of six U.S. ports. Such a transaction would not be a big deal if the company’s home country had not had ties to the 9/11 hijackers, serving as home to two of the terrorists as well as being one of the few countries to acknowledge the Taliban’s authority in Afghanistan.February 12, 2006 In the days following Hurricane Katrina’s horrific mauling of New Orleans, President Bush attempted to shrug off the blame of appearing unprepared to meet such an emergency. "I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," he claimed. But on this date, the Associated Press revealed a video of an August 28, 2005 briefing in which a concerned Bush listened to warnings about that city’s poor flood defenses. Even though he was obviously anxious, the president did not ask a single question. When he later spoke to Louisiana officials, he suggested that "we are fully prepared to help."March 1, 2006 “I believe that a prosperous, democratic Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India, and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world.”President Bush, evidently unaware that Pakistan is a Muslim, not an Arab, countryMarch 3, 2006 The theory of checks and balances is one the Founding Fathers believed in strongly. On this date, President Bush attempted to bypass this time-honored concept, proposing that he should be allowed to use a line-item veto on any budget that Congress passed. No matter that the Supreme Court had ruled in 1998 that such a power was unconstitutional. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said, "I just think it’s an effort by President Bush to divert attention from real issues this country has."March 6, 2006 On this date, Claude Allen, the recent assistant to the president for domestic policy, was arrested for allegedly swindling Target and other stores out of $5,000 worth of merchandise. Allen was controversial long before he resigned a month prior to his arrest. In 2004, he was nominated to be a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, even though the American Bar Association deemed him “not qualified.” His nomination lapsed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, partially because of opposition by such groups as the People for the American Way, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National Organization for Women.March 9, 2006 On this date, President Bush nominated Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne, the recipient of $86,000 in campaign contributions from the timber, mining, and energy industries, to oversee the Interior Department. A 2003 report by the Knight Ridder newspaper chain said that "during Kempthorne’s four-and-a-half-year tenure as governor, Idaho’s pristine air has gotten dirtier, more rivers have been polluted, fewer polluters have been inspected, and more toxins have contaminated the air, water, and land." Philip Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said, "Dirk Kempthorne has been an unabashed champion of the resource-extraction and development interests that profit most from public land. The president could not have chosen a more divisive nominee." Bush, however, stood by his choice, mentioning that Kempthorne must like nature, because he got married outside. Kempthorne’s nomination was approved.March 16, 2006 “If the Iranians were to have a nuclear weapon, they could proliferate.”President Bush, showing off his grasp of the birds and the beesMarch 21, 2006 “No question that the enemy has tried to spread sectarian violence. They use violence as a tool to do that.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.March 22, 2006 In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, philanthropy abounded. On this date, reports stated that former first lady (and mother to the current president) Barbara Bush donated a large, unspecified amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. The funds, however, carried a stipulation: They must be used only to buy educational software from Ignite Learning, a firm owned by one of her other sons, Neil.March 24, 2006 “We’re a country of deep compassion. We care. One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry.”President Bush, defining compassionate conservatismMarch 29, 2006 On this date, the hammer came down on President Bush’s longtime pal, Representative Tom DeLay (R-Texas), who announced he would withdraw from his reelection campaign. While the former pest exterminator had given up on being House majority leader in 2005 after being indicted for conspiracy, DeLay had remained committed to holding his seat. That seemed to change when two of his former aides, communications director Michael Scanlon and chief of staff Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to corruption charges tied to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (It was later uncovered that DeLay had voted against gambling legislation disliked by Abramoff’s clients, soon after the lobbyist had given DeLay a trip to Scotland and the use of a private skybox for a Three Tenors concert.)April 3, 2006 When running for president, George W. Bush made a lot of political hay from promises he’d bring honor back to government. And yet, on this date, Bush’s deputy press secretary of Homeland Security, Brian Doyle, was arrested for attempting to corrupt a 14-year-old girl. Doyle, 55, was charged with seven counts of using a computer to seduce a supposedly underage child (actually an undercover detective) and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor.April 4, 2006 “I strongly believe what we’re doing is the right thing. If I didn’t believe it — I’m going to repeat what I said before — I’d pull the troops out, nor if I believed we could win, I would pull the troops out.”President Bush, Charlotte, NCApril 6, 2006 On February 15, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration’s "principal objectives are to stem the tide of terrorism and to help advance freedom and democratic rights." On this date, Rice met with Equatorial Guinea’s president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo — a man who had made Parade‘s "Annual List of the World’s 10 Worst Dictators" four years in a row — and called him "a good friend." Under Mbasogo’s rule, there was no freedom of speech, no bookstores or newsstands, and one radio station (owned by his son), and torture was "the normal means of investigation." He’d deposited more than $700 million in U.S. accounts, thanks to rich oil reserves, while his people lived on less than $1 a day.April 12, 2006 On this date, Vice President Dick Cheney threw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game two months after accidentally shooting his friend in the face while hunting. "I have never, ever, heard anyone get booed like that man," said Harry L. Horton, 64, a longtime usher and Democrat. As Cheney ambled to the mound, boos rained down on him, only to increase after his pitch — thrown from the grass instead of the mound — dive-bombed like a wounded quail in the dirt in front of the catcher.April 12, 2006 On this date, Army Major General Charles H. Swannack, Jr., who led troops in Iraq as recently as 2004, joined four other retired senior generals in calling for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq," Swannack said. While in the past generals have tended to voice their opinions after retiring, this instance is unusual in that the conflict they discussed was ongoing.April 13, 2006 On this date, The New Yorker printed an article by Seymour Hersh, in which he reported that the Bush administration was considering using nuclear weapons against Iran in order to prevent the country from acquiring its own atomic warheads. One Pentagon source told the reporter Bush believed that Iran’s hard line leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was "the new Hitler" and that he must do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do": use nuclear weapons against Iran.April 17, 2006 On this date, President Bush proclaimed April 22 through April 30 to be National Park Week. At the very same time, he ordered the parks to operate at 80 percent or less of their operating budgets, which park officials said would lead to "gut-wrenching" choices being made and ultimately service suffering — or being cut out all together. At Glacier National Park, for instance, three campgrounds would not be able to afford trash service or potable water. This was in addition to a proposed $100.5 million cut in the park budget and a $5 billion maintenance backlog throughout the system.April 18, 2006 “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”President BushApril 18, 2006 On this date, President Bush said he had tried to avoid war with Iraq "diplomatically to the max." He didn’t say, however, that he felt that peace was "totally tubular."April 24, 2006 “There are limits to how much corn can be used for ethanol. After all, we got to eat some.”President Bush, breaking down the alternative-energy crisisApril 25, 2006 On this date, Fox News commentator Tony Snow was named as the successor to White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Snow, who served as a speechwriter for George H. W. Bush when he was president, had been highly critical of the younger Bush in the past. The previous November, he had called the president "something of an embarrassment," while before the 2000 election, Snow wrote a column for Townhall.com that went even further. "Never in recent history have two major presidential candidates seemed so dispensable," Snow wrote. "Little in the character of [sic] demeanor of Al Gore or George Bush makes us say to ourselves: Now, this man is truly special!" Bush, he claimed, "has inherited his mother’s attractive feistiness, but he also got his father’s syntax. At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s."April 26, 2006 “They ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.”President Bush, concerned with the influx of immigrantsApril 28, 2006 Freedom of speech may not count for much under President Bush. That was the message that housing and urban development secretary Alphonso Jackson sent on this date. During a speech at an event sponsored by the Real Estate Executive Council, a minority real estate syndicate, Jackson related a story. Having worked for 10 years to get a deal with HUD, a contractor finally had his proposal chosen, only to blow the deal when he mentioned to Jackson that he did not like Bush’s policies. "Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president?" Jackson asked. "Logic says they don’t get the contract."April 28, 2006 On December 13, 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher declared the obesity crisis to be so dire that it might soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. He stated that approximately 13 percent of all children are already obese and recommended schools provide healthier food options and restrict access to junk foods on the premises. Instead of heeding his warnings, the Bush administration decided to do nothing: The Federal Trade Commission refused to ban junk food advertising to kids, and the Department of Agriculture rejected the idea of halting mealtime soda sales. On this date, the William J. Clinton Foundation brokered a deal with the biggest beverage distributors in the United States, which agreed to stop sales to public schools of sodas not designated as diet drinks.May 1, 2006 In the May 4, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz pondered whether George W. Bush was the worst president in history. Bush’s competition included James Buchanan, who "confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that…probably amounted to disloyalty"; Andrew Johnson, "who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction"; Warren G. Harding, whose administration was amazingly crooked; Herbert Hoover, who presided over the stock market crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression; and Richard M. Nixon, who was hounded from office for various crimes. According to an informal 2004 survey by the nonpartisan History News Network, 81 percent of the 415 historians queried said that Bush was a "failure" (10 percent of those rating him a success said they were being facetious). Historians, Wilentz pointed out, tend to be a very cautious bunch not prone to outlandish claims.May 4, 2006 On this date, CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly. He stated that his departure was "just one of those mysteries." Rumors abounded that the real reason he was leaving was a fear of being implicated in the Randall "Duke" Cunningham scandal, along with the CIA’s No. 3 man, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo (who resigned several days after Goss). Cunningham, a former representative from San Diego, had been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes, including money from defense contractor Brent Wilkes, a childhood friend of Foggo’s. He was also being investigated on suspicion of receiving prostitutes, hotel suites, and limos in exchange for certain favors.May 5, 2006 “That’s George Washington, the first president, of course. The interesting thing about him is that I read three — three or four books about him last year. Isn’t that interesting?”President Bush, talking to a German newspaper reporter in the Oval Office, Washington, D.C.May 5, 2006 President Bush was asked by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag what his best and worst moments in office had been. His worst seemed rather obvious: September 11, 2001. But his best? Capturing Saddam Hussein? Winning reelection? Liberating Iraq? Nope. "I would say the best moment was when I caught a 7-1/2 pound largemouth bass on my lake," he said.May 6, 2006 USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, most of whom were not suspected of committing any crimes. While the program — which used data from AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon and had been in place since shortly after September 11, 2001 — didn’t allow the NSA to listen to or record conversations, the agency did analyze the data for any evidence of suspicious activity. Members of Congress were stunned by the revelations. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) admitted, "We’re really flying blind on the subject, and that’s not a good way to approach the Fourth Amendment and the constitutional issues involving privacy."May 11, 2006 On this date, the Harris Interactive Poll showed that President Bush had an approval rating of 29 percent, the lowest of his administration. (His rating in the last Harris Poll, in January, had been 43 percent.) The only other presidents to be so thoroughly disliked — indicated by an approval rating below 30 percent — had been Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon. Of the people polled, 69 percent believed that "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track."May 11, 2006 On a Bush-Cheney 2000 election Web site, the duo proclaimed they would "pay the debt down to a historically low level." But by this date, the national debt was at a record high of $8,372,167,824,862.35. Also, on February 8, 2006, budget analyses by Democratic Party members of the House of Representatives showed a $423 billion deficit — itself another record.June 7, 2006 “I tell people, let’s don’t fear the future, let’s shape it.”President Bush, Omaha, NEJune 7, 2006 “Are you going to ask that question with shades on? I’m interested in the shade look, seriously, [but] there’s no sun.”President Bush, to Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten,who suffers from macular degeneration and is partially blindJune 14, 2006 “Russia’s big and so is China.”President Bush to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 SummitJune 16, 2006 “We shouldn’t fear a world that is more interacted.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.June 27, 2006 President Bush teases with first lady Laura Bush under the belly of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, MD as they wait for Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to arrive for a trip to Memphis, TN. Koizumi is a lifelong fan of Elvis Presley and was to tour Graceland, the home of the late rock and roll legend."

June 30, 2006 President Bush hands back a crying baby that was handed to him from the crowd as he arrived for an outdoor dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Trinwillershagen, Germany.

July 14, 2006 “You see, the thing is, what they need to do is get Syria, to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s all over.”President Bush to Britain’s then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, when they thought their microphones were offJuly 16, 2006 Unlike his predecessors Reagan and Clinton, President Bush got on a hawg during a visit to Harley-Davidson’s York plant. Bush sought — and gained — permission from Joel Toner to start a Harley. Bush observed that Toner had a cool job. Toner said, "I agreed and said, ‘Yeah, I think I got one of the greatest jobs in the world.’"

August 16, 2006 “I would guess, I would surmise that some of the more spectacular bombings are done by al Qaeda suiciders.”President BushAugust 21, 2006 “And I suspect that what you’ll see, Toby, is there will be a momentum, momentum will be gathered. Houses will begat jobs, jobs will begat houses.”President Bush, Gulfport, MSAugust 28, 2006 “You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”President Bush, in an interview on CBS News, Washington, D.C.September 6, 2006 “The United States Congress was right to renew the terrorist act — the Patriot Act.”President Bush, Atlanta, GASeptember 7, 2006 “I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy.”President Bush, in an interview on CNNSeptember 24, 2006 “One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.”President Bush, in a CNBC interview with Maria BartiromoOctober 24, 2006 At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, China’s Hu Jintao, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and President Bush modeled ao dai tunics.

November 19, 2006 “Today I heard from some opinions that matter a lot to me, and these are the opinions of those who wear the uniform.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.December 13, 2006 “Secondly, is the battle against the Sunnis — Sunni extremists — some of them are Saddamists, some of them are al Qaeda, but all of them are aiming to try to drive the United States out of Iraq before the job is done.”President Bush, almost declaring jihad against an entire religious group, Washington, D.C.December 20, 2006 “Well, no question decisions have made things unstable.”President Bush, regarding Iraq in an interview with 60 Minutes, Camp David, MDJanuary 14, 2007 “And one thing we want during this war on terror is for people to feel like their life’s moving on, that they’re able to make a living and send their kids to college and put more money on the table.”President Bush, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer interviewJanuary 16, 2007 “Some call this civil war; others call it emergency — I call it pure evil.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.March 28, 2007 “That’s why we are inconveniencing air traffickers, to make sure nobody is carrying weapons on airplanes.”President Bush, speaking about the ongoing need for heightened airline security, Washington, D.C.April 3, 2007 “My job is a job to make decisions. I’m a decision — if the job description were, what do you do — it’s decision maker.”President Bush, Tipp City, OHApril 19, 2007 “One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.”President Bush, commenting on benefits provided to the military, Tipp City, OHApril 19, 2007 President George W. Bush dances with members of Kankouran West African Dance Company during a Rose Garden event to mark the Malaria Awareness Day at the White House in Washington, D.C.

April 25, 2007 “This process has been drug out a long time, which says to me it’s political.”President Bush, Sofia, Bulgaria, talking about the justice departmentscandal regarding Attorney General Alberto GonzalezJune 11, 2007 “These are big achievements for this country, and the people of Bulgaria ought to be proud of the achievements that they have achieved.”President Bush, Sofia, BulgariaJune 11, 2007 “Amnesty means that you’ve got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.”President Bush, regarding his immigration reform bill, Washington, D.C.June 26, 2007 President Bush casts a baitfish as he goes fishing with his father, former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, off the coast of Kennebunkport, ME.

June 29, 2007 “I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison.”President Bush, thus ensuring his administration pays no consequencesfor the treasonous exposure of CIA agent Valerie PlameJuly 3, 2007 “I’m going to try to see if I can remember as much to make it sound like I’m smart on the subject.”President Bush, Cleveland, OHJuly 10, 2007 “As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year…”President Bush, confusing ‘Austrians’ with ‘Australians’ at the APEC Business Summit, Sydney, AustraliaSeptember 7, 2007 “All of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.September 20, 2007 “We’re also talking to different finance ministers about how we can send a message to the Iranian government that the free world is not going to tolerate the development of know-how in how to build a weapon, or at least gain the ability to make a weapon.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.September 20, 2007 “My hearts are with the Jeffcoats right now, that’s what I’m thinking.”President Bush, after meeting with California wildfire victims, San Diego, CAOctober 25, 2007 “All I can tell you is when the governor calls, I answer his phone.”President Bush, San Diego, CAOctober 25, 2007 “The decisions we make in Washington have a direct impact on the people in our country, obviously.”President Bush, New Albany, INNovember 13, 2007 “If you’ve got somebody in harm’s way, you want the president being — making advice, not — be given advice by the military, and not making decisions based upon the latest Gallup poll or focus group.”President Bush, New Albany, INNovember 13, 2007 “And I will explain the need to reform a confirmation process that is making it more difficult to persuade decent and intelligence people to accept the call to public service.”President Bush, Washington, D.C.November 15, 2007