Monday, January 19, 2009

A countdown from the past eight years.

Stonewall just sent me this list from Harper’s Index. Since I’m already gearing up for inauguration day tomorrow, it seemed like a good time to recall the fuckedupedness of the past eight years. You should read the whole list, but here are a few that jumped out at me, for various reasons:

Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206

Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02

Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0

Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39

Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50

Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069

Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4

Portion of [Bush's] presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25

Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40

Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4

Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000

Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92

Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466

Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement No Child Left Behind: $71,000,000,000

Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1

Don’t let the White House door hit you on the way out.

PS Also in the spirit of the retrospective, here's a video from the Daily Show. From last week, but still fresh.


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