More time was spent clapping then talking about the rebuilding effort in New Orleans or the disregard of helping the people in desperation. Bush offered no new ideas for rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and no apologies.
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," Bush said. America's dependence on foreign oil has increased since this Administration took office. In 2000, 58.2 percent of the oil consumed in the United States was imported. That has increased to 61.7 percent today. (EIA, "Overview of US Petroleum Trade"). Bush did call for increased investment in solar and wind-power research, although the dollar amounts in his 2007 budget, less than $200 million together are small (ExxonMobil sells five times that much every day).
Bush Invaded the One "Axis of Evil" Country without WMD. Out of all three of the 'Axis of Evil' countries Iran, Iraq, and North Korea Bush attacked the one that didn't have a weapon of mass destruction. But four years, 2,300 American lives, and more than $250 billion dollars later, we have found that Iraq had no nuclear weapons and no established links with Al Qaeda. (Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD 9/30/04).
Bush claimed the state of the economy was strong. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, real wages fell 0.9 percent last year, while workers' overall compensation (including benefits) was essentially flat. Hourly and weekly wages for working families when adjusted for inflation were $46,058 in 2000 and have declined to $44,389 today.
Bush spent no time on any proposals to curb lobbying abuses in Congress that have led to the investigation of Jack Abramoff, a once powerful lobbyist and a major fundraiser for Bush.
The subjects that got the greatest amount of time in the president's 53-minute speech were surprise, surprise Iraq and terrorism. There was nothing about how to finish the military mission in Iraq so the Orwellian war machine continues spending that tax payer money with a vengenance.
Sources: Huffington Post and NPR.
2 interested person(s)
like the site, K. found it from bo's eatmorekale.com. a site you should see if you are into progressive politics: www.thinkprogress.org. may be old news. thanks for the new music to explore.
Yesterday's NYT brings up one glaring issue with the White House's new commitment to alternative energies:
The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget. ... The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent.
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