“Mr. President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”
The expression, “You can run, but you cannot
hide.” has become a mantra for President Bush’s stump speech, and
he used it in the second debate. Ironically,
it applies much more to the Bush Administration and the Republican
leadership.
Below are some examples of where all the President’s staff need to reminded that . . .
“Mr.
President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”
1. In the Wednesday
Debate, Senator Kerry said President
Bush had said in the Fall
of November 2001, that getting Osama Bin Laden was
essential, remember the quotes “Smoke Him Out!” and “Wanted, Dead or
Alive!”? Then, Kerry quoted President
Bush saying in March 2002, as saying “ I don’t know
where he is, I am not that interested, etc.” President Bush said he never said that, and
that he thought Osama Bin Laden is still important,
and that what Kerry said was an exaggeration.
Of course, those of us who have
seen Fahrenheit 9-11, saw the video of President Bush making both quotes. The media also showed clips of the second
quote, following the debate. So, to you
Mr. President, we say “Mr. President,
you can run, but you cannot hide.”
2. The President originally said the vast
majority of his tax cut helps the lower income groups, and said it again in the
third debate. In truth, more than half
goes to the top 20%. Since the Bush
tax cut, the tax burden has made an incremental shift to the middle class
paying more. This while the is an
increase in those in poverty, decreased wages and increased costs for the
middle class, all while the rich get richer.
The cost of medical care is going up, and 5 million people are
uninsured. Mr. President, your tax cuts and other policies favor the wealthy and
the corporations, at the expense of the middle class, the poor and the most
vulnerable. “Mr. President, you can run, but you cannot
hide.”
3. The President,
Condoleeza Rice, and others took no action following
the August 6, 2001 Presidential
Daily Briefing memo saying “Bin Laden determined
to strike within the United States”.
The memo said Bin Laden would like to follow the example of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, and
“bring the fighting to America. Bin Laden wanted to hijack US Aircraft to gain release of
US held extremists. During 9-11
Commission hearings, an acting head of the FBI, said Ascroft
did not want to hear about Bin Laden (Ascroft denies
this), Rice said the above PDB was an “historical” document. She was prepared with this excuse, the moment
the PDB was introduced, a pre-emptive
strike on what would be “damning” evidence of inaction. On 9/11/01, Rice was
going to speak about a missile defense system.
Counter-terrorism czar said he could not get a meeting with the Bush
National Security team, to discuss this and other concerns. On 9/11/2001, the President continued with a photo op at a swing state (Fla) grammar school, knowing one plane hit the first tower. No one in the Administration made a connection
with the 1993 attack, even as the second
plane hit the second tower, and the President was advised we were under attack,
he proceeded with the photo op for 7 minutes, as other Administration staff
stood by. They should have never
entered the school, or should have left after the first crash, at least until
there was certitude about what the crash was about. They
should have assumed a terrorist attack first and foremost, given the 1993
attack. “Mr. President, you can run, but
you cannot hide.”
1. It is well documented that the Bush
Administration planned to take out Saddam, even before 9-11 occurred. Cheney made references to Saddam’s nuclear
weapon program, during the 2000 Vice Presidential debate. Bush was quoted as saying on two occasions, that he was going to take out Saddam. The day after 9-11, Bush told his counter
terrorism advisor to find a link between Saddam & 9-11. Rumsfeld said we
should bomb Iraq, because
there were no good targets in Afghanistan, where the perpetrators
of 9-11 were in sanctuary. As early as
December 2001, limited funds were diverted from the war in Afghanistan, to fund
preliminary plans for invading Iraq. Then came the “Axis
of Evil” in the 2002 State of the Union speech.
Then came the 237 misleading statements made by Bush Administration
leaders, prior to the invasion of Iraq. It is
now apparent that the Bush Administration ignored credible intelligence in
favor of suspect intelligence, and they ignored prudent advice from the
military and other advisors. On top of
that, they sent enough troops to complete an invasion, but not enough to secure
the peace (prevent 1 looting, 2 an influx of
terrorists, 3 a build up of insurgents, & 4 kidnaping
and corruption. “Mr.
President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”
2. In September,
2004, the Bush Administration stood by,
while the automatic assault weapons ban was not renewed by Congress, thereby
breaking a 2000 campaign pledge to support renewing the ban. Tom Delay said there were not enough votes. (That
did not stop the President and Tom Delay from pushing for a hopeless vote on a
Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage, or a vote to remove gun control
laws in Washington DC, even though the Senate did not have a companion bill.) The
President wants to have it both ways, to say he supports the assault weapons
ban, while letting it die, and picking up a NRA endorsement. He also allowed the community cops program
die. So, we now have more guns on the street, with less police, even as we are
being told we will be hit again with another terrorist attack, in our homeland. “Mr. President, you can run, but you
cannot hide.”
3. This President likes to preach about an era
of personal responsibility, a culture that values life and restoring honor to
the Presidency. But this
Administration is second to none in evading responsibility and failing to admit
errors, inconsistencies and past statements.
The President, as Governor of Texas for 6 years, presided over more executions than any other
Governor. He misled us into a war,
that has resulted in between 13,000
and 15,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, and close to 1100 deaths of American service
people, and over 7500 Americans injured. The ruthless dictator was replaced by the
random violence and chaos. George W Bush
has never “suffered any doubt” about his decisions of death. It
almost suggests a sociopathic (lack of remorse) type
of thinking. His abandonment of
environmental protection shows a further lack of regard for life. Finally, every time this President has said
“I approve of this message” and proceeded to show a misleading, distorting,
divisive ad, he has brought dishonor to the office he swore to uphold and
honor. “Mr. President, you can run,
but you cannot hide.”
4. The
common denominator of the fundamentally and morally flawed decision making of
this Administration can be summed up in corporate greed. This Administration takes on a high moral tone
of family, Christian, compassionate, conservative values, but their record is
consistently that of a lap dog for the wealthiest people and the largest
corporations. “Mr. President, you can run,
but you cannot hide.”
a. In 2000, Bush
pledged to support buying cheaper drugs from Canada. He pledged a medicare
prescription plan that would benefit seniors.
However, the plan he and the Republican majority passed, banned buying
Canadian drugs (which are originally made in America, so they are safe), and
made it illegal for the government to bargain for cheaper group prices for
Americans, and the tax payers who pay the bill for these medicines. The President says taxes are “our money”, but
he has no problem passing up bargains for us tax payers, from his corporate
pharmaceutical friends. “Mr.
President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”
b. The “Clear Skies” Act relaxes standards for
corporate polluters. The “Safe Forests” Act allows corporate
loggers access to public forest lands.
His energy policy includes drilling in a natural preserve in Alaska, knowing that
America has less than
3% of the oil reserves so this will help the oil corporations, but will do
little to increase our energy independence.
“Mr. President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”
c. President Bush
supports a questionably effective
missile defense system, that
will give a lot of tax payer dollars to a defense contractor. He refused to roll back tax cuts for the
wealthiest, to pay for their war in Iraq, as many of
them will benefit from war profiteering.
This was the infamous 87 billion appropriation, to fund the Iraq war (20
billion was for rebuilding and some was for Afghanistan). President Bush threatened to veto this bill
if included loans versus grants to Iraq, in spite of
the early optimism, that Iraqi oil would pay for the war. The Republican majority (supported by the
President), voted down sanctions against war profiteering and rolling back the
tax cut for the wealthy, to pay for the war.
Cheney’s company, Halliburton, has been found to be overcharging tax
payers for gas and for services not provided.
Thus, the 87 billion was put on
our nation’s credit card, which is currently maxed out. We are only paying interest on this 7.3
trillion dollar debt, and the Administration will seek a higher ceiling for our
national debt. The President
abandoned a “pay as you go” process,
where new expenditures have to include a means of funding the expenditure. This is the most fiscally irresponsible
Administration in our history. Alan
Greenspan, a Republican Federal Reserve Chair for decades, supports extending
the Bush tax cuts, and funding them with cuts in Social Security benefits. We
borrow money from our dedicated fund for Social Security, as well as our
economic competitors like China and Japan. This may have
contributed to Social Security becoming less solvent. “Mr. President, you can run, but you
cannot hide.”
d. Speaking of Social Security, if the
President gets his way of allowing young Social Security contributors, to
divert some of their contribution, to private investments, private brokers will flourish, while the fund
for elder recipients will be further destabilized, because present contributors fund
present recipients. “Mr.
President, you can run, but you cannot hide.”