*Ø* Blogmanac | 2003: BUSH'S YEAR IN REVIEW

Two from Eric's TooManyReasons:


Center for American Progress: 2003 Review of Bush claim vs Bush fact

Once again SmirkingChimp.com has provided a link to even more superb information to document the massive errors of the Bush regime. This time, SmirkingChimp recycled a report from the Center for American Progress which provided specific data to counter the various inaccurate and deceptive claims from the White House propaganda machine.

On Dec. 13, the White House issued a document entitled "2003: A Year of Accomplishment for the American People." The document made various inaccurate and deceptive claims about the administration's record over the last year. This report by the Center for American Progress seeks to correct those distortions, matching the White House's rhetoric with facts.

This is an excellent document, discussing the specific distortions on the subjects of drug coverage, drug costs, health savings accounts, economy, deficits, 'healthy forests,' power plant emissions, mercury emissions, education, consumer protection, veterans' benefits, AIDS, international financing, international military help, weapons of mass destruction, Saddam-Al Qaeda ties, military support, funding, terrorist financing, first responders, and cyber security.

This is an absolute must-read.

Read the full article here or here.


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Bush and the Mad Cow

Like the defective energy policy so eloquently described by Greg Palast in his often-seen article Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House, President Bush cotinues to exhibit extremely poor judgement, this time in the matters of public health.

Sandra Blakeslee of New York Times writes about the problems of the Mad Cow disease, and how the Bush administration has stood in the way of intelligent government policy. Again, another reason why America desperately needs a better president.



Expert warned that mad cow was imminent --
but Bush administration did not listen
By Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times

Ever since he identified the bizarre brain-destroying proteins that cause mad cow disease, Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco, has worried about whether the meat supply in America is safe.

He spoke over the years of the need to increase testing and safety measures. Then in May, a case of mad cow disease appeared in Canada, and he quickly sought a meeting with Ann M. Veneman, the secretary of agriculture. He was rebuffed, he said in an interview yesterday, until he ran into Karl Rove, senior adviser to President Bush.

So six weeks ago, Dr. Prusiner, who won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on prions, entered Ms. Veneman's office with a message. "I went to tell her that what happened in Canada was going to happen in the United States," Dr. Prusiner said. "I told her it was just a matter of time."

The department had been willfully blind to the threat, he said. The only reason mad cow disease had not been found here, he said, is that the department's animal inspection agency was testing too few animals. Once more cows are tested, he added, "we'll be able to understand the magnitude of our problem."

Read the rest of the story here or here.