Signs you have an Errant Government

[ignu]

Over at codeLeft we're working on a succinct list and Flash animation documenting the more egregious atrocities of our government. We plan to use this list to rally lethargic voters this November.

I'd like to know what some fellow DUers think:

Signs you have an Errant Government

• Republican Leaders of both houses are under criminal investigation.
  
• Bush appoints evangelical Christian Dr. David Hager to the FDA's panel on women's health.
  Although staunchly opposed to pre-marital sex and abortion, Hager would anally rape his sleeping wife after she suffered bouts of narcolepsy. Ms. Hager never complained, just took the large piles of money off the dresser the next morning. When these allegations finally surfaced, Hager, a gynecologist, claimed that he missed. Meanwhile, Dr. Hager has single-handedly blocked over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill from being legal because of his strong, Christian values.
  



• Senate Majority Leader and Medical Doctor Bill Frist, who collected stray cats and dissected them for extra practice, supports abstinence only education that teaches HIV is transmitted through tears and sweat[/b>.]. When pressed, Frist admits "it would be difficult."
  
• The President's nominee to head the E.P.A. tested pesticides on poor black babies.
  
• The administration forces NASA to add the word "theory" to any publication referencing "The Big Bang."
  
• "Philip Cooney, a former top oil lobbyist now serving as chief of staff for President Bush's Council on Environmental Quality, edited scientific government
  reports on climate change to exaggerate the appearance of uncertainty and doubt"
  
• Jack Abramoff
  
• Republicans shoot down amendments to the bankruptcy bill that would prevent the elderly from losing their homes if they're forced into debt due to medical expenses.
  
• A gay prostitute and ">drooling plagiarist idiot enters the White House daily under a pseudonym and uses the opportunity to inject lies and propaganda into the national discourse. The scandal lasts only a few days.
  
• House Rules Committee Chairman David Drier won't say if he's heterosexual, isn't married,
  lives with his male chief-of staff whom he pays $156,600 a year and has a perfect record voting for anti-gay legislation.
  
• Republicans elect John Boehner to replace ethically-challenged Tom DeLay as House Majority reader. In 1995, John Boehner distributed "money from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor to members who had voted in favor of tobacco interests."
  
• High ranking members of the Administration out an undercover CIA agent[/b>] and in doing so also compromise Brewster-Jennings, an undercover operation working on neutralizing actual WMDs. The administration did this to enact revenge on the dude who said that Saddam really didn't seek uranium in Niger.
  
• After 9/11, Bush removed the security clearance of 92 Senators. Karl Rove still has security clearance.
  
• Republicans cut 40 billion dollars from the National Budget including 12.7 billion dollars from student loan programs and 11.2 Billion from Medicare and Medicaid "ll of the cuts combined add up to little more than one-fifth of the already enacted tax cuts for the top 1 percent of the population."> The next day, the Senate hands out another $70 billion in tax cuts.
  
• Alberto Gonzales, now attorney general, wrote a series of memos saying torture does "not apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants." and that "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functions [must happen> in order to constitute torture."]
  
• Deborah Majoras was put in charge of investigating gas price gouging for the FTC.
  Previously, she was a lawyer for Chevron-Texaco. She found no wrongdoing.
  
• Alaska Rep. Don Young creates a $255 million bridge to a town of 50 people and another bridge to be named "Don Young's Way"
  
• Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach is tapped by Bush to head the FDA. He's currently head of the National Cancer Institute, which funds researching
  of cancer drugs. While heading both, he'll be able to fund a drug's research and then be in charge of approving the same drug. Under Eschenbach, "the NCI changed the language to indicate tests disproving the abortion/breast cancer link were `inconclusive.">
  
• We're down with using chemical weapons.
  
• Congressional Republicans are down with creating new nuclear weapons and using them preemptively.
  
• We're building a Robot Army.
  
• Donald Rumsfeld still has a job.
  
• Paul Wolfowitz was sent to run the World Bank
  
• Paul Bremer, while viceroy of Iraq, fires the Iraqi army and sends them home with their guns, doesn't attempt to quell looting the results in the loss of much of Iraq's
  heritage, doesn't worry about restoring Iraqis' water or electricity and was in charge when 8.8 BILLION DOLLARS goes missing. President Bush awards him the
  "highest civilian honor," the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
  
• Congress won't investigate the missing nine billion dollars[/b> of tax-payer money that could be improving the lives of millions of Iraqis] out of fear Republicans might be involved
  
• Former CIA Director George Tenet says the case for Saddam's WMD's was a "slam dunk." He also receives a Medal of Freedom.
  
• After invading Iraq, our government appoints a comptroller who was previously convicted of fraud to handle the 82 billion dollars of reconstruction money. Funny story, besides giving millions to friends and buying his wife jewelery with the $600,000 he personally took, he uses Iraqi reconstruction money to pay off the restitution of his fraud conviction.
  
• The newest Supreme Court Justice is a fan of shooting unarmed fifteen year-olds in the back of the head, not regulating machinegun sales, forcing women to notify their husbands before getting abortions, allowing racist hiring practices, strip-searching ten year old girls and removing the restrictions of safety and environmental laws from employers.
  
• Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) says we should Nuke Mecca[/b> if another terrorist attack should happen on U.S. Soil]
  
• Chris Cox has a very, very long history of protecting corporations from investors and citizens. Bush appoints him to head the SEC.
  
• The White House hires actors to play journalists and broadcast this propaganda on television stations throughout the country.
  
• The White House pays at least three real nationally syndicated journalists[/b>] to praise its policies.
  
• DeLay and other Republicans prevent imposing immigration and minimum wage restrictions on Saipan,
  a U.S. territory. Saipan is home to sweatshops encased in barbed wire that engage in human trafficking and sex slavery. While attending a banquet in Saipan, Tom DeLay proclaimed "Even though I have only been here for 24 hours, I have witnessed the economic success of the Marianas <...> You are up against the forces of big labor and the radical left." He also called Saipan "a Free Market Success."
  
• Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT), who had previously supported US oversight over Saipan, reverses his vote after receiving $5,000 from a client of Jack Abramoff.
  
• Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts blocks examination into Bush"cooking the books" on Iraq as Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neil and The Downing Street Memos claim, saying such an inquiry would be a "monumental waste of time."
  
• Bill Frist Staffer Manuel Miranda steals documents and strategy memos off of Ted Kennedy's computer on a regular basis.
  
• All Senate Democrats vote for an independent commission to look into the Katrina response, but Senate Republicans shoot them down, claiming they can just look into it themselves.
  
• A Bush crony since 1980, Karen Hughes has been made an undersecretary of state responsible for improving America's image in the Middle East. While not knowing much of anything about the Middle East, she has been armed with flash cards with such tips as "Turkey is a Democracy." Turkey wasn't impressed.
  
  In Egypt last September, she said "Terrorists, their policies force young people, other people's daughters and sons, to strap on bombs and blow themselves up." and "Many people around the world do not understand the important role that faith plays in Americans' lives. <...>

  revious American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'.""
  

• Randall "Duke" Cunningham sits on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee that doles out money to defense contractors. Micthell Wade, a defense contractor, purchases his house, put it on the market the next day and takes a $700,000 loss. Meanwhile, while Duke is in Washington he lives on a yacht owned by Mitchell Wade that is named the "Duke Stir."
  
• Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee James Sensenbrenner, who wants to 'police the behavior' of judges, who negotiated the REAL ID Act in backroom meetings Democrats were barred from
  and just fucking rewrites an amendment a Democrat submitted to make it appear it helped sexual predators evade the law, throws a tantrum when Democrats question witnesses about Patriot Act abuses, gaveling the hearing to a close and storming out, shutting off lights and the Democrats' microphones. Sensenbrenner does encourage the Patriot Act be used in cases not related to terrorism.
  
• A Federal Judge ruled on July 3rd that the Pentagon had to release the bad images from Abu Gharib. Seymour Hersh says "boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking.[/b>"] The Pentagon spent a month claiming it was PhotoShopping soldiers' identities out, then decided it was in American interests not to release the images. Federal Judges keep ruling that they need to be released and the Pentagon keeps stonewalling.
  
• The President of the United States promises to veto a military spending bill if it contains language prohibiting the use of torture.
  
• Diebold and Republicans see no need for verifiable voting. Diebold software stores election results as a single integer in a Microsoft Access Database.[/b>]
  
• "I believe it was titled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike within the United States'"
  
• My Pet Goat
  
• John McCain's illegitimate black child.
  
• Osama Bin Laden escapes in the mountains of Tora Bora while troops are diverted to Iraq.
  
• 'Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.'
  
• Depending on who you talk to, the rectangular bulge on Bush's back during the presidential debate didn't exist, was a "poorly tailored suit" or a bulletproof vest.
  
• The President of the United States calls his wife "Bushie," he call Karl Rove "Turd Blossom" and The President of Russia "Pootie-poot."
  

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If you'd like to pass this list on, the latest version along with HTML and BBCode are available at ErrantGovernment.com.

And if you'd like to become a part of this or any other project, please sign up at codeLeft.com

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. This mis-admin has given us a wealth of things to choose from but

you will want to pull the top worst ones.. maybe 10 or so. Otherwise viewers might get so overloaded they won't remember half of what they saw. So nail down the worst ones you can come up with and present them in an unforgettable way. Though I would also suggest taking the long list of info you have compiled and making it available to viewers who want to know more. Just break it down into certain subject areas so that it is easier to navigate.

Other than that, great job! *two thumbs up*

[Orangepeel]

2. I agree, it is too much

I know that's their fault, not yours that there is so much to list, but it is overwhelming. Also, some of them are just stupid (pootie-poot), some involve immorality, and some corruption. I think it would be easier to process if it were organized differently.

nice, comprehensive list, though.

[Mnemosyne]

3. Sorry, wrong.

Not an Errant government, a Fascist one. It may not be as extreme as Hitler or Stalin yet, but it IS fascist all the same.

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

The 14 characteristics are:

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.


Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.


Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.


Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.


Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.


Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.


Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.


Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.


Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.


Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .


Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.


Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.


Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.


Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.


In peace and continued hope,
V

[DemInDistress]

4. That is one powerful list of atrocities...did you leave anything out?

excellent piece and how could I help? Any 911 material left out? I sure would like to see them hang,AT ONCE.