|
Links Located On This Site |
Links Located On Other Sites |
|
How Bush Plans To Destroy The Separation Between Church And State |
|
|
Download The Entire Book of The Unofficial
Biography of The Bush Family-The Hitler Project (You can get the entire book at once, by
dowloading the following compressed file: bushbook.zip |
From The Dallas Morning News - The Bush Campaign
12/08/99
Bush extols background
PHOENIX - Gov. George W. Bush said
Tuesday that he's better qualified to be president than some Republican rivals whose Washington experience isn't
exactly "an attractive feature of being the nominee.
11/21/99
Bush aided by religious lobby effort
AUSTIN - The call came out of the
blue, a Texas pastor doing some political missionary work on behalf of home state Gov. George W. Bush.
11/18/99
State faulted for emissions of mercury
AUSTIN - Texas leads the nation
in emissions of mercury, a deadly toxin thought to retard development of the brains and central nervous systems
of fetuses and young children, according to a report released Wednesday
11/14/99
Public money for Bush security criticized
AUSTIN - Partisan bickering erupted
Saturday over the $1.8 million in state money that has been spent on security for Gov. George W. Bush and Lt. Gov.
Rick Perry this year.
11/13/99
Texas spending 6 times as much on Bush security
AUSTIN - The state is spending six
times as much money this year than a year ago to provide security for Gov. George W. Bush as he runs for president,
according to state records.
10/30/99
Lottery operator settles lawsuit that sparked Bush allegations
AUSTIN - The company that runs the
state lottery announced Friday that it has settled a lawsuit that prompted questions about how George W. Bush got
into the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
10/22/99
Bush's openly gay appointments bother conservatives
WASHINGTON - Gov. George W. Bush
has named openly homosexual gay-rights advocates to his campaign steering committees, though Christian conservatives
say he recently promised that, if elected, he would not appoint such individuals to government positions. (To see
what Bush Supports with The Christian Coalition Click Here)
10/20/99
Bush backs states' rights on marijuana
WASHINGTON - Gov. George Bush said
he backs a state's right to decide whether to allow medical use of marijuana, a position that puts him sharply
at odds with Republicans on Capitol Hill.
10/04/99
Bush military record doesn't rile Texans
Questions about whether family friends
greased the wheels for George W. Bush's admission into the National Guard during the Vietnam War seem to be drawing
more yawns than outrage from Texans.
10/02/99
Bush courts Christian Coalition
WASHINGTON - Texas Gov. George W.
Bush faced a partly skeptical Christian Coalition audience Friday and came away with, if not converts, an important
blessing from its leader, Pat Robertson. (To see what Bush Supports with The Christian Coalition Click Here)
09/28/99
Barnes says he urged Guard slot for Bush
AUSTIN - Former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes
confirmed Monday that he recommended Gov. George W. Bush for a slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the
height of the Vietnam War, at the request of a Bush family friend.
09/09/99
Bush denies favoritism in gaining Guard post
WINDHAM, N.H. - Gov. George W. Bush,
facing renewed questions about his Vietnam-era military service, said Wednesday that neither he nor his father
asked a family friend to help him get into the Texas Air National Guard.
09/08/99
Friends: Barnes was asked to help get Bush in Guard
AUSTIN - Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes has told friends that in the late 1960s, a well-known Houston oilman
asked him to help George W. Bush get a spot in the Texas Air National Guard.
09/03/99
Bush would withdraw aid at low-performing schools
LOS ANGELES - Republican presidential
candidate George W. Bush said Thursday that he would end "30 years of failure" in education programs
for the poor by taking money from weak public schools and turning it over to private institutions.
09/01/99
Barbara Bush never asked son about cocaine use
WASHINGTON - Barbara Bush says she
and her husband never asked their eldest son, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, whether he has used cocaine. "We
had no need to," she said.
08/23/99
Bush debate goes on
WASHINGTON - The flap over Gov.
George W. Bush's refusal to say whether he used illegal drugs continued Sunday as supporters and some in rival
camps disagreed on how forthcoming he should be.
08/20/99
Bush adds to drug-use statement
ROANOKE, Va. - George W. Bush said
no Thursday: No, he hasn't used illegal drugs in the past 25 years - and no, he's not going to say what he did
before that.
08/19/99
Fired state funeral agency director says governor is lying
A former state official accused
Gov. George W. Bush on Wednesday of lying in a sworn affidavit in an effort to avoid testifying in a whistle-blower
lawsuit.
Bush gets more specific about drug use
ROANOKE, Va. -- George W. Bush said
today that he could have passed stringent background checks for illegal drug use when his father was president,
from 1989-1993.
Bush says he hasn't used drugs in last seven years
Gov. George W. Bush, dogged by criticism
for refusing to say whether he has used illegal drugs, answered part of the question Wednesday and said he had
not done so in the last seven years.
08/18/99
Governor's role questioned in funeral agency oversight
AUSTIN - A top state Democrat on
Tuesday questioned whether partisan politics played a role in Gov. George W. Bush's decision to have the comptroller's
office oversee the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
07/23/99
Bush backs funds for church groups to help needy, sick
INDIANAPOLIS - Highlighting his
faith in faith, George W. Bush said Thursday that billions in public resources should be funneled to religious
groups and charities to help the sick and needy.
07/17/99
Bush takes tobacco donations
AUSTIN - Gov. George W. Bush, who
rejected contributions from tobacco interests as governor, is accepting thousands of dollars from the cigarette
industry as a presidential candidate.
07/14/99
Aides to governor dismiss racist clause on his former Dallas
home as legally null
Aides to Gov. George W. Bush said
Tuesday that he never knew that his Dallas home had a whites-only deed restriction, but they dismissed the language
as legally unenforceable.
06/26/99
Fund-raiser admits guilt in tax case
TAMPA, Fla. - One host of Friday
night's presidential fund-raiser for Texas Gov. George W. Bush is a businesswoman who pleaded guilty this week
in a tax evasion case.
06/15/99
Bush won't require justices to take anti-abortion stance
NEW CASTLE, N.H. - George W. Bush,
bucking an anti-abortion pledge sought by some GOP conservatives, said Monday he would not require Supreme Court
nominees to make any commitments other than strictly interpreting the Constitution.
05/12/99
Bush putting faith to fore in public
AUSTIN - George W. Bush said he
didn't really want to talk about his faith. He said it was personal.
08/19/99
[....] (source - Bush says he hasn't used drugs in last seven years, From The Dallas Morning News )
Texas Gov. George W. Bush answers questions during a news conference Wednesday.
Mr. Bush's statement came in response to a question from The Dallas Morning News about whether, as president, he
would insist that his appointees answer drug-use questions contained in the standard FBI background check.
"As I understand it, the current form asks the question, 'Did somebody
use drugs within the last seven years?' and I will be glad to answer that question, and the answer is 'No,' "
Mr. Bush told The News.
Mr. Bush, the GOP presidential front-runner, would not elaborate about drug use beyond seven years ago. He also
said that if elected, he would make no change in the federal policy that requires high-level presidential appointees
to answer questions about drug use.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[....]
Right This Way, Ladies
and Gentlemen, to...The Bush Wedding Video!!! (click here)......
Notes on the Video. As P.T. Barnum once said, "there's a sucker born every minute." First, consider the
initial source of this fabricated event...Matt Drudge, and consider the political leanings of he and his friends.
Secondly, consider who shot and provided the video, an invited guest at a country club wedding in West Texas whose
father owned the New England Patriots at the time. Not exactly an outsider, is he? While Bush was part-owner of
the Texas Rangers at the time, the bride and groom both became higher-level political appointees when Bush became
governor a few years later. Thirdly, consider the fact that Bush is actually funny on the tape. While he drinks
something at the end of the tape, years after he claims to have gone cold turkey, when some reporter asks Bush
what was in the drink, he'll then have the opportunity to attack the media, Washington politics, the Gore camp,
and anything else he can think of to look like a put-upon candidate in the eyes of the voters. In short, the tape
and Bush's reaction make a good way for Bush to go on the attack and move away from the issues, where Gore is beating
him, to a defense of his character, which would give him an excuse to beat up on Gore through Clinton. As Bush
told Tucker Carlson in the "Talk" interview when the rumor of a photo of a half-naked Bush dancing on
a bar came up, "They think it's like a high school election, where if you beat up your opponent enough you
can win. They've lost their fucking minds." Ironically, Bush would like to turn this race for the presidency
into a high school election, an election based on personality rather than issues, because most believe he then
would have a better chance of winning. Spending valuable time discussing a meaningless wedding party video does
just that. It stops Gore's momentum and gives Bush a personality spotlight. --Politex, 8/29/00 From
The Bush Watch Site
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...] Quotes of Pat Robertson, the current head of the Christian Coalition
Source:
Biding Time, Conservatives Hold Breath and Brimstone, by
ROBIN TONER, PHILADELPHIA --
"The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous
document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you
turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic
people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And
that's what's been happening."
"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now
doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same
thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the
liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians.
Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any
group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority
in history."
"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the
Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing.
Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can
love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to
them."
[Note]
For the record, George Bush is a Methodist.
----
"It is interesting, that termites don't build things, and the great builders
of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have
the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he
builds. The people who have come into (our) institutions (today) are
primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been
built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own
traditions, that we have.... The termites are in charge now, and that is not
the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation."
[Note]
When Robertson says “… the time has arrived for a godly fumigation …” he is
showing his support for the killing of all non-Christians. Fumigation,
relates to extermination, which relates to kill. Thus, the leader of the
Christian Coalition is now advocating the killing of anyone who is not
Christian. Moreover, Bush, because he is a member of the Christian
coalition, and a supporter of Robertson, is taking the position that he
supports Robertson. Thus, Bush, by his own actions, is now supporting the
killing of anyone who is not Christian. This is the real agenda of the
religious right.
-----
The Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in
America by the end of this decade." And, "We have enough votes to run this
country...and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take
over!"
Pat Robertson
[Note]
Here Robertson is saying “…. And when the people say, ‘We’ve had enough,’ we
’re going to take over!…” that he advocates a takeover of the United States
government. This, as strictly defined in the United States Constitution, is
what is called “… insurrection …”. In addition, such a move, by any group,
against the United States is against the law. Thus, we have the leader of
the Christian Coalition, defending and inciting an insurrection against the
government of the United States. Thus, any member of the Congress who is a
member of the Christian Coalition is then guilty of supporting these
remarks, and thus … supporting a move of insurrection against the government
of the United States. And Bush, who is a staunch Christian Coalition
member, is, by his association and his actions, supporting this position by
the leader of the group that he belongs to. Thus, Bush then supports a move
of insurrection against the United States government.
To see where Bush supports these ideas, click here.
George
W. Bush on Principles & Values : Aug 4, 2000
Love and compassion are from God, not government
Earlier today, at a prayer breakfast, Bush said, "Our job as leaders-- Republicans, Democrats, nonaffiliateds-- is to rally that compassion of America, is to call upon the love that exists not because of government, that exists because of a gracious and loving God."
Source: AP story in LA Times
George
W. Bush on Civil Rights : Apr 24, 2000
No gay adoptions; but listens to gay GOP group
Bush invited us, a dozen gay Republicans, after he’d refused to meet with a gay Republican group that criticized him. Bush didn’t like everything we had to say. I was struck with his lack of familiarity with the issues, as well as by his desire to learn.
Bush admitted that, growing up in Texas, he had not been as open to elements of America’s diverse culture. He had a narrow set of friends and a firm set of traditions. But he was surprised and dismayed to hear that people saw him as intolerant. "What have I said that sent that signal?" he asked repeatedly.
He assured us he would hire gays who both were qualified and shared his political views. When one of us talked about his lesbian sister and her partner adopting children, he acknowledged his often-stated belief that gays should not adopt.
Though Bush was attentive--and does show a willingness to hear all sides--I don’t think we changed his positions. He still opposes gay marriage and opposes classifying crimes against gays as hate crimes.
Source: Former Congressman Steve Gunderson, Newsweek, p. 43
George
W. Bush on Civil Rights : Feb 15, 2000
Against gay marriage, but leave it to the states
Q:
So if you have gays working for you, that’s fine and you don’t have a problem-you’d appoint gays in the Cabinet
and so forth.
A: Well, I’m not going to ask what their sexual orientation is. I’m going to put conservative people in the cabinet.
It’s none of my business what somebody’s [orientation is]. Now, when somebody makes it my business, like on gay
marriage, I’m going to stand up and say I don’t support gay marriage. I support marriage between men and women.
Q: So therefore if a state were voting on gay marriage, you would suggest to that state not to approve it.
A: The state can do what they want to do. Don’t try to trap me in this state’s issue.
Source: GOP Debate on the Larry King Show
George
W. Bush on Civil Rights : Jul 2, 1999
Hate-crime rules don’t apply to gays
Bush opposes the extension of hate crime laws to protect gays and homosexual adoption.
Source: cnn.com
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Jun 27, 2000
Fund faith-based private programs that promote independence
The cornerstone of Bush’s welfare reform agenda gives states the flexibility to fund private, public or faith based programs that successfully move people from welfare to work. Welfare reform is an ongoing mission. Through successful efforts in states across America, millions of people have moved from welfare to work, and Bush says we must continue to help others develop the skills and find the jobs that will lead to truly independent lives. Bush said, "I have made welfare reform a priority as Governor, and I will do so as president. I will renew our national commitment to the principles of welfare reform: Job training. Independence. Personal responsibility. A safety net for those who still face struggle. And flexibility for the states, to continue doing the fine work we see here today."
Source: Press Release, "Welfare Reform"
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Apr 11, 2000
$1B & tax credits for Individual Development Accounts
The 1996 Welfare Reform law allowed states to incorporate matched savings accounts-"Individual Development Accounts" (IDAs)-into their welfare programs. IDAs are designed to help low-income families accumulate wealth. Financial institutions, charities, & faith-based groups match low-income depositors’ savings. Depositors can then withdraw the funds for education, home ownership, and entrepreneurship.
Bush believes the private sector should take the lead in encouraging IDAs. To help accelerate their development, his New Prosperity Initiative will:
Support legislation encouraging low-income families to save and invest through IDAs
Provide $1 billion of tax credits over five years to sustain 1.3 million or more IDAs
Provide a 50% tax credit to financial institutions that match deposits of up to $300 annually made by individuals making less than 60% of the area median income.
Banks will receive a Community Reinvestment Act credit equal to 10% of matched contributions.
Source: Fact Sheet: "New Prosperity Initiative"; GeorgeWBush.com
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Apr 2, 2000
Compassion Capital Fund to foster church-based welfare
Proposals to Promote Faith-Based and Community Organizations:
Lift federal regulations that hamper faith-based institutions from involvement in the delivery of services to the needy
Expand ‘Charitable Choice’ to all federal social service programs, allowing religious organizations to be eligible for funding on the same basis as any other provider, without impairing their religious character
Establish an ‘Office of Faith-Based Action’ in the Executive Office of the President
Provide federal matching funds for the establishment of state offices of faith-based action
Promote alternative licensing regimes that recognize religious training as an alternative form of qualification for delivery of non-medical social services
Establish a ‘Compassion Capital Fund’ a public/private partnership to identify and invest in charitable best practices
Provide civil liability protection for corporate in-kind donations of equipment or facilities to charities
Source: GeorgeWBush.com: ‘Issues: Policy Points Overview’
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Apr 2, 2000
Church-based solutions for drugs, daycare, & crime
Proposals to promote solutions to social problems based on Faith-Based and Community Organizations:
Open certain federal after-school programs to faith-based and community groups
Fund certificates to help lower-income parents pay for after-school activities
Launch a new program, offering competitive grants to faith-based and community groups, to address the needs of children of prisoners
Make performance-based drug treatment grants available to the states and ensure that non-medical, faith-based providers are eligible for funds on the same basis as other groups
Provide funding for pilot, faith-based prison pre-release programs
Establish pilot ‘Second Chance’ maternity homes, through a block grant to the states for certificates to individuals or competitive grants to providers
Source: GeorgeWBush.com: ‘Issues: Policy Points Overview’
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Dec 9, 1999
Religious charities deserve government support
Participation in faith-based programs must be voluntary, and we must make sure secular alternatives are available. But government should welcome the active involvement of people who are following a religious imperative to love their neighbors through after-school programs, child care, drug treatment, maternity group homes, and a range of other services. Supporting these men and women. is the next bold step of welfare reform.
Source: "A Charge to Keep", p.232
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Oct 5, 1999
Churches provide "armies of compassion" to help the poor
Bush spoke so often about "armies of compassion" -- the phrase he uses to communicate his idea that churches and charity groups, rather than Government, should assist the poor -- that he sounded like something of a drill sergeant. Bush’s aides said the Baptist church at which Bush spoke was chosen because it was known for for helping the poor with its own resources. "Government can hand out money," Bush said. "But what it cannot do is put hope in our hearts and a sense of purpose in our lives."
Source: New York Times, p. A18
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Aug 11, 1999
Look first to faith-based organizations
"In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to help people, we will look first to faith-based organizations, charities and community groups that have shown their ability to save and change lives." Governor Bush has stressed the necessity of encouraging acts of compassion. "These aren’t ‘crumbs of compassion’ to people whose lives are changed, they are the hope of renewal. These are not the crumbs, they are the bread of life. They are strengthening the soul of America," he said.
Source: News Release: "Great Outdoors"
George
W. Bush on Welfare & Labor : Jun 12, 1999
Religious groups compete for state service contracts
In 1996, Bush allowed religious-based organizations to compete for Texas state contracts to provide welfare services while maintaining their "unique ecclesiastical nature." The Governor’s Faith-based Task Force [led to laws which]:
Permits child care facilities to be accredited by private sector entities.
Exempts licensing for alcohol & drug treatment programs which rely exclusively on faith.
Protects from legal liability those who donate medical devices in good faith.
Source: GeorgeWBush.com/News/ "Faith in Action"
George
W. Bush on Civil Rights : Jan 16, 2000
Ten Commandments OK in schools for "inherent values"
Q:
Does posting the Ten Commandments in schools invalidate the religious expression of children who are not in the
Judeo-Christian heritage?
A: "Thou shalt not kill" is pretty universal. Districts ought to be allowed to post the Ten Commandments,
no matter what a person’s religion is. There’s some inherent values in those great commandments that would make
our society a better place for everybody. I also believe our schools ought to expand character education.
Source: GOP Debate in Johnston, Iowa
The Day Compassion Died.
From
The "Bush Watch" Site
Why Bush Lacked Compassion for a Fellow Human Being at His Meeting with the Daughter of James Byrd, Jr.
At the Democratic Convention on Wednesday Al Gore honored the memories of two 1998 hate crime victims, Matthew Shepherd, the gay man from Wyoming, Mr. Cheney's "home" state, who was beaten to death while tied to a fence, and James Byrd, Jr., the black man from Texas who was dragged to death from a chain behind a pick-up truck. Dennis and Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepherd's parents, and Renee Byrd Mullins, James Byrd, Jr.'s daughter, were members of a panel devoted to crime and victim's rights, an issue that Gore promises to focus on if he becomes president.
Shepherd and Byrd have been linked together as victims of hate crimes ever since their killings. In April of this year, Shepherd and Byrd survivors met at the Millenium March on Washington for Equality, a civil-rights demonstration. But one year earlier, Renee Byrd Mullins observed first-hand that the well-publicized talk of Governor George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is a sham, a political play on words that has little meaning in the real world of Bush politics.
At the time of her ten-minute meeting with Bush in the solemnity of the Governor's Office in the Texas State Capitol, Mullins had come to Austin to lobby for a hate crimes bill that had been proposed by a Democratic legislator. Although the bill had passed the Dem House, Mullins had the opportunity to visit with Bush prior to a vote in the Republican Senate. Texas had a vague, toothless hate crimes law passed by a previous Democratic legislature and signed into law by Bush's Democratic predecessor, and Bush was determined that if he couldn't eliminate it, at least he could prevent if from being strengthened. First, the Governor let it be known in the Senate that he did not want the bill to reach his desk. (Republican senators who had previously voted for hate crimes legislation were told that the Governor wanted a "no" vote.) Then Bush did what he often does in such instances, he told the press that since the matter is being considered by the legislature, in order to be fair he would not comment upon it until it reached his desk. Given Bush's willingness to get behind bills that benefit his corporate friends, it's clear that his "fairness" is as selective as his "compassion."
Bush wanted to kill the proposed hate crimes bill, which was more specific about penalties as well as groups covered, such as homosexuals. First, he thought of the bill as affirmative action legislation, and he was on record as being against affirmative action bills. Secondly, for the first time a proposed bill of its kind specifically included gays, and his Christian Coalition backers were against that. Looking ahead to his run for president, it made good political sense to Bush not to rile his limited number of African-American backers by reminding them of his position on affirmative action. Later, after the bill was killed by the Senate, it became convenient to have his spokesmen in the Lege report that the bill would have passed if not for the inclusion of homosexuals in its language. This was a calculated, convenient excuse. Remember, though, when Byrd's daughter visited Bush, the Senate had not had its way with the hate crimes bill passed by the Dem House, and Bush was anxious to get it killed.
A pregnant Renee Byrd Mullins was able to get a short meeting with Bush through the help of Texas Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston), who accompanied her to the meeting. Later, the specifics of the meeting were reported by Mullins to Newsday columnist Marie Cocco, whose story of the meeting was published in the Austin American-Statesman on 2/14/00. "It didn't feel [like] a good greeting I had a very short handshake. In his essence, he was saying, 'OK, tell me what you want and get out.'... He's a very hard person. He had a wall built up before I even got in there."
Bush told Mullins that he hadn't looked at the hate crimes bill but "he said he would look at it when it came out of the Senate." Here, Cocco adds that Mullins already knew that Bush had instructed the Republican Senate to vote the bill down. At that point, "Mullins took out her own copy of the legislation. She placed it on a table in front of Bush. He didn't pick it up. She recounted her father's death, asked Bush if she were a homosexual, would she deserve to die?" She began to cry.
"The Governor did not offer a glass of water. Or a Kleenex. [Rep. Thompson] said she waited to see what Bush would do. Then she dug out an extra tissue and walked across the room to offer it to Mullins. Bush offered Mullins and her family his condolences." While Bush has attended a funeral service for white victims of a Fort Worth hate crime, he did not attend the funeral service for James Byrd, Jr., nor did he visit the family at any time. He claims he called the family once, but the family says it never received any such call.
At the end of the Cocco story, the columnist points to Bush's behavior as a failure of leadership: "Bush runs on his record of leadership in Texas, saying it shows the world he would serve the nation well. Mullin's story is about how Bush showed leadership at that instant when the eyes of the world were upon him, but really could not see." We see Bush's behavior differently. While the idea of hate crimes legislation is open to debate, hate crimes is not what this story is about. It's about the maturity of a politician and it happened last year, not when he was "young and foolish." In his callous treatment of Renee Byrd Mullins, Bush showed the world that votes are more important to him than people. While he talks "compassion" in front of the camera, in the privacy of his own office he is anything but compassionate. --Politex, 8/16/00
"LOVE died. POWER failed. HOPE was abandoned, and FAITH just faded away," writes Mary Alice Davis in the 8/13 AAS. "These optimistically named schools were among seven that relinquished or lost their state charters in these wobbly first years of the [Bush] charter school experiment. Last year, Texas had about 140 charter schools, the hybrid institutions that since 1995 have used public money to operate as loosely regulated public schools with the independent attitudes of private facilities. The number is likely to rise to 175 this school year, with about 25,000 students who have eschewed public or private schools to see if tuition-free, state-chartered, alternative education suits them. It's the nation's fourth-largest charter experiment. So far, the results have been generally disappointing, occasionally heartbreaking and, in a few well-publicized [by Bush] instances, heartwarming." For example, when Bush wanted to publicize his support of charter schools, recently, he went to the successful KIPP Academy in Houston, and abandoned all discussion of LOVE, POWER, HOPE, and FAITH. The failure of the latter charter schools represent the rule in Texas. KIPP is the exception.
Take the Emma L. Harrison Charter School of Waco, not too many miles from Bush's new ranch in Crawford, Texas. "After the debt-ridden school abruptly closed in late 1999, about 90 percent of the school's pupils had to repeat their grade, estimates Bob Browning, the veteran educator the state dispatched to monitor the situation. He found a school with no governing body, insufficient food for children's lunches, untrained teachers who hadn't been paid in months, unpaid bills and a whiff of fraud. Inflated attendance figures had been used to wrest significant overpayments from the state and $300,000 had been spent -- in the educator's delicate phrase -- 'on areas not germane to instructional services.'"
Here are the conclusions based on surveys and presented last week to a Texas House subcommittee looking at the performance of Bush's charter school system:
"* Charters are touted as a way to rescue children the public schools would assign to "failing" institutions with sorry test scores. But data presented to the committee by researcher Catherine Clark showed that most often children are sent to charter schools with even lower scores.
* Charters are more "racially distinct" than the schools their pupils left. Children from all ethnic groups gravitate to charter schools in which their group is more predominant than at their previous schools.
* Mobility among charter students is high. More than half the students don't return. Dropout rates at charters dramatically exceed state averages.
* Staff turnover at charter schools is higher than the state average, and pay is below average. Accreditation is uncommon.
* Data comparing groups of similar students [was used] to contrast performance in charter schools with that in nearby conventional schools. In four cases out of five, performance was worse in the charter schools.'The public schools show better results, any way you slice it,'" the chairman of the subcommittee said.
There are two obvious problems with Bush's charter school program. First, it was hastily put together under the direction of the Governor's office to satisfy the pressure put upon him by the voucher/anti-public school forces who support him politically and contribute handsomely to his campaigns. Like too many other plans initiated by Bush, not only was it done under political pressure, but it also avoided providing oversight and safeguards. Secondly, the charter program is, in effect, one more attempt to privatize a part of the governmental system that does not lend itself to privatization, thus creating a solution with more problems than it solves. "The state doesn't limit the total number of charters -- although the data suggest a slowdown would be prudent. To fuel growth in charter schools, management companies are being created to site and run schools. Officials of two, ABS Management Co. and Advantage Management Co., addressed lawmakers last week. [The House subcommittee chairman] summarized the corporate approach as similar to locating a new convenience store: Do the demographics, zero in on a likely market and find someone to create and market a school there.... LOVE, POWER, HOPE and FAITH have faded. CAUTION shouldn't." When you model an educational system after a convenience store, you end up with what is most often found at convenience stores--gas, junk food, overpriced services, and underpaid workers. --Politex, 8/14/00
Bush's Texas "experiment with the public-private hybrids called charter schools is producing disappointing results. A report submitted to legislators this week showed that, in general, students fare poorly at the state's charter schools, which now number about 175. The lawmakers also heard grim descriptions of havoc created when a mismanaged charter school closes its doors with little warning....Survey data from the Texas Center for Educational Research indicate that, generally, charter school test scores are inferior to those of the schools their students left. The data also show that charter school teachers are poorly trained and underpaid, that turnover rates for staff and students are high and that dropout rates at charters are nearly 15 times the statewide average. Dunnam said he found particularly significant the study's paired comparisons of similar groups -- children in charter schools compared to a specific peer group in a nearby traditional school. In four of the five cases studied, academic performance at the charters was worse than at the comparison school. "This is a direct `apples to apples' comparison that we've not seen before," said Dunnam, chair of a House education subcommittee on charters.
"Proponents tout charters as an escape route from low-performing public schools, an option particularly vital to disadvantaged minority groups. The schools are said to offer the advantages of private institutions, but with no tuition. Parents told researchers they chose charters in search of moral-values instruction, higher test scores and better discipline. What they find may not be what they sought, said researcher Catherine Clark, attempting to explain why 65 percent of students enrolled in charter schools for at-risk students didn't return. "Charters may not be what they expected," she said. They may not be what taxpayers and legislators expected, either. The experiment is still new, having begun in Texas [by Bush] in 1995, and research should continue. Meanwhile, the state must pick up the pieces when fledgling charters fail and firmly discourage those who view schools as places to make a quick profit off tax money." --Austin American-Statesman, 8/10/00
"Until Bush backed off this position after Billy Graham told him it was a decision for God, not governors, it was unsettling news for Jews, Muslims, and believers in any faiths other than the Christian — perhaps even for backsliding Christians." (more )
Bush joked to reporters about his '94 answer a year or so ago, prior to a trip to the Middle East. According to stories in the Austin American-Statesman, he told reporters that he planned to stop in Israel and tell the Jews they were all going to hell. An exchange of messages between Bush and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League followed. While no one has accused Bush of anti-Semitism, there have been comments about his insensitivity, both toward the Jews and his own family. A Jewish reporter said Bush's remarks were quite upsetting to his son. No one in the Bush family has commented, but there's little doubt that Bush has touched a sore spot in family history.
According to a story in the Albian Monitor,"Prescott Bush, the father of the former President and the grandfather of the current candidate, spent more than a decade helping his father-in-law George Herbert Walker finance Adolf Hitler from the Wall Street bank, Union Banking Corporation. (Union Banking Corp. was eventually seized under the Trading With The Enemy Act. See Office of Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 248; Filed, November 6, 1942, 11:31 A.M.; 7 Fed. Reg. 9097 (Nov. 7, 1942).) Walker was one of Hitler's most powerful supporters in the United States, and landed Prescott Bush a job as a director at the firm. From 1924 to 1936, Bush's bank invested heavily in Nazi Germany, selling $50 million of German bonds to American investors. In 1934, a congressional investigation believed that Walker's Hamburg-America Line subsidized a wide range of pro-Nazi efforts in both Germany and the United States. One of Walker's employees, Dan Harkins, delivered testimony to Congressional leaders regarding Walker's Nazi sympathies and business transactions. According to US Government Vesting Order No. 248, many of Union Banking's assets had been operated on behalf of Nazi Germany and had been used to support the German war effort. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian vested the Union Banking Corp.'s stock shares and also issued two other Vesting Orders (nos. 259 and 261) to seize two other Nazi-influenced organizations managed by Bush's bank: Holland American Trading Corporation and Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. Many major firms had dealings with Nazis in the years leading up to World War II, but relatively few engaged in such extended cooperation with Hitler's Germany after Pearl Harbor. (The Secret War Against The Jews by John Loftus and Mark Aarons. New York; St. Martins Press, 1994.) " For More Information Please See The Unofficial Biography Of The Bush Family, Regarding Prescott Bush And the Nazis.
More recently, both George W. Bush and his father, the former President, had been forced to deal with anti-Semitism in Poppy's campaign, according to the Albian Monitor story: "Nazism was more than a joke to George Bush when he was running for President.... In the fall of 1988, Vice President Bush had to fire several neo-Nazis and anti-Semites from his Presidential campaign. The scandal erupted when Washington Jewish Week and other media outlets discovered that the Bush campaign harbored well known neo-Nazis, including Jerome Brentar, a holocaust revisionist who claims that the Nazis never deliberately gassed victims of the Holocaust, and Akselis Mangulis, who was involved in the SS-influenced Latvian Legion during World War II.8 George W. Bush, the campaign's hatchet man, fired the Nazis.... After the election, four of these came back to work for the Republican Party according to USA Today. (Old Nazis, The New Right And The Republican Party by Russ Bellant. Boston, MA; South End Press, 1991.)...In September of 1999, when many Republicans were calling for Pat Buchanan to resign from the Party for his seeming affection for Hitler and criticism of the US actions during World War II, the presidential front-runner remained silent."
With George W. Bush's insensitive remarks and the Bush family history as background, one would hope that the Republican candidate for president will practice his newly-found maturity and be particularly wary of , in his words, the "soft prejudice" of callous remarks, wherever he may find them. --Politex, 8/8/00
As of today, the Texas Legislature, with the advice and consent of the Bush Governor's Office, has spent $11 million in Federal money to shift an additional $162 million in Federal money into Bush's tax cut account, upon which Bush has built his presidential campaign. And since the Legislature broke Federal guidelines in doing so, it might very well cost Texas taxpayers another $173 million, all, ultimately, for Bush's presidential campaign. The initial $11 million was spent to free up $162 million that would normally fund Texas children's programs. This money, already lost and not used for tax cuts, could have paid for health insurance for over 10,000 kids who are in need of it right now. --Politex, 7/31/00 (more)
Records show legislators admit that if their plan was unacceptable to the Feds after the fact, they would stall until the 2001 session. Meanwhile they would face a "potentially hobbling state government with a monumental budget shortfall." They were willing to risk all of this to provide Governor Bush with the largest tax cut possible to be used as a presidential campaign issue. What did Bush know and when did he know it? --Politex, 7/27/00 --(more)
"I did the right thing. It's a little early to project the amount of money the Legislature will be dealing with, and as you know I hope I'm not here to deal with it. I'm seeking another office." --Governor George W. Bush, on the effect of his tax cuts on the Texas budget. 7/13/00
"If you asked me, life or death, 'You've got to tell me how big the tax cut is, that George is proposing,' I couldn't tell you. I don't give a damn. Because I'm out of it. I'm out of it." --ex-President Bush, recent NYT interview
While the Dems are getting ready to attack Dick Cheney's Sec. of Defense record of opposition to gays in the military, Mary Cheney, his 31 year-old daughter has recently quit her job as a corporate relations manager for the gay and lesbian community at, of all places, Coors Beer. (The Coors family publicly espouses the most conservative values in the beer industry.) Mr. Cheney has been quoted as saying, ""I have operated on the basis over the years with respect to my personal staff that I don't ask them about their private lives. As long as they perform their professional responsibilities in a responsible manner, their private lives are their business." While Mary Cheney has been a subject of concern within the Bush camp, Bush, himself, has yet to comment upon it. According to one report, a Bush spokesman said this week, ""The governor believes Mr. Cheney has a wonderful family. Being gay or lesbian is not a liability in this campaign. The governor embraces both of Mr. Cheney’s daughters and will invite them to campaign with him." Like nephew Pea's exclusive campaigning among Hispanics, openly gay Mary Cheney would be used exclusively to campaign within the gay and lesbian community. While word of these circumstances has not yet reached Governor Bush's "Bob Jones" voting bloc, we await their responses to this latest turn of events.--Politex, 7/26/00 (Photo. Lynn Cheney, right, with her two daughters, Mary, left, and Elizabeth, center.)
George P. Bush might be a hunkalicious young Republican, but he still seems a bit creepy. So TSG wasn't too surprised to learn that "P" was involved in a troubling 1994 incident described in this Metro-Dade Police Department report. On December 31, 1994, Bush showed up at 4 AM at the Miami home of a former girlfriend. He proceeded to break into the house via the woman's bedroom window, and then began arguing with his ex's father. Bush, then a Rice University student, soon fled the scene. But he returned 20 minutes later to drive his Ford Explorer across the home's front lawn, leaving wide swaths of burned grass in his wake. Young Bush avoided arrest when the victims declined to press charges. (3 pages)
Dade County Police Report naming George Bush as the man who illegally broke in and violated the law.
[...]
In early April 1986, for instance, George W. was miffed at a prediction by the Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt that Jack Kemp -- not Vice President Bush -- would win the GOP nomination in 1988. At a Dallas restaurant, Bush spotted Hunt having dinner with his wife, Judy Woodruff, and their four-year-old son.
Bush stormed up to the table and started cursing out Hunt. "You [expletive] son of a bitch," Bush yelled. "I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget this."
Bush supporters have excused the governor's behavior that occurred before his 40th birthday on the grounds that Bush was still drinking heavily in those days. [WP, July 25, 1999]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
