No time to read through 500+ reasons before election day? Here are the highlights from Bullying and Arrogance:
June 2003: The Bush administration refuses to send to the U.S. Senate for ratification the treaty that created the International Criminal Court – a body which uses international law to try individuals charged with genocide, war crimes, and other widespread crimes against civilians.
No doubt Bush believes that American soldiers would not commit human rights violations. But there are some survivors in a village called My Lai who would beg to differ. Perhaps if the American soldiers who slaughtered civilians in My Lai had known they could be indicted for their actions, they might not have shot so indiscriminately. And if policy-makers could have been indicted, they may not have left such unfit soldiers in the field.
That was nearly a year before the abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light.
September 2003: The Justice Department investigates whether Bush administration officials broke the law by revealing the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative whose husband disparaged claims by the White House that Iraq was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
October 2003: Bush declines a customary joint press conference after his address to the Australian Federal Parliament:
The media event, which normally allows two or three questions from Australian media and an equal number from the visiting press, would have been the only official opportunity for Australian journalists to quiz Mr. Bush on the Iraq war and its aftermath.It would also be the only opportunity to ask the US President about the two Australian citizens being detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay.
Australian journalists have also been denied any place in a so-called "close-up media pool" that will follow Mr. Bush on all his official stops on the day. All positions in the four-member pool have been allocated to members of the White House press corps.
The decision, which ordered that Padilla be released from military custody within 30 days, could force the government to try the "dirty bomb'' plot suspect in civilian courts.In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Padilla's detention was not authorized by Congress and that Bush could not designate him as an enemy combatant without the authorization.
Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel wants the high court to consider whether the government acted improperly by secretly jailing him after the attacks and keeping his court fight private. He is supported by more than 20 journalism organizations and media companies.Solicitor General Theodore Olson told justices in a one-paragraph filing that "this matter pertains to information that is required to be kept under seal."
Justices sometimes are asked to keep parts of cases private because of information sensitive for national security or other reasons, but it's unusual for an entire filing to be kept secret.
April 2004: George Bush campaigns on the taxpayer's dime:
As the deadline for filing tax returns approached, news releases from the Internal Revenue Service included a little something extra, a sentence promoting the administration's tax policies that said, "America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the president's policies are doing, or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation."
Within months of the Sept. 11 attacks, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales reportedly wrote President Bush a memo about the terrorism fight and prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions."In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions," Gonzales wrote, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Secretary of State Colin Powell "hit the roof" when he read the memo, according to the account.
August 2004: In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials:
For several years the United States and other nations have pursued the treaty, which would ban new production by any state of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons. At an arms-control meeting this week in Geneva, the Bush administration told other nations it still supported a treaty, but not verification.
September 2004: White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a ''10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent.
Lawmakers of both parties say the measures are needed to prevent retaliation against such whistleblowers, who reveal threats to public health, safety and security.But the administration says the bill unconstitutionally interferes with the president's ability to control and manage the government.
