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 sayMr. 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 sayingBin 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.