Bush Legacy Tour

Below are some photos of the bus we shot in Fairfax County, Virginia on Sunday. More photos after the launch on Tuesday!

From the Katrina exhibit of the Bush Legacy Tour:

From the Iraq exhibit of the Bush Legacy Tour:

George W. Bush's ‘legacy' shadows his eight-day trip to Europe as journalists and leaders alike focus on reflection. Many Europeans are now apathetic to the outgoing leader who was greeted with three solid days of ardent protests during his 2003 trip. This time around they seem faithful that he can no longer do any harm and that change is on the way, focusing instead on nostalgia, farewells, and hypotheticals. The International Herald Tribune reported last week on this question of legacy.

"The guy said, 'Now what could you do over?"' Bush said in Meseberg, Germany... "First of all, you don't get to do things over in my line of work," Bush went on. "But I could have used better rhetoric to indicate that, one, we tried to exhaust the diplomacy in Iraq; two, that I don't like war."

Bush's war-hungry cowboy persona made him extremely unpopular with the European public; however the leaders he met with this time around gave him a warm and fuzzy reception. Bush praised the European leaders for their alliance.

"In leaders like Berlusconi and Brown and Merkel and Sarkozy, I see a commitment to a powerful and purposeful Europe that advances the values of liberty within its borders, and beyond," he said, also referring to Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

"And when the time comes to welcome the new American president next January," he went on, "I will be pleased to report to him that the relationship between the United States and Europe is the broadest and most vibrant it has ever been."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown ingratiated himself to Bush with the announcement of extra troops going to Afghanistan and tougher sanctions on Iran. Both men, with low approval ratings, dealing with the question of how history will portray them, shared a dinner with a group of British historians.

With all this talk of history and how it will be written or rewritten one might assume Bush has decided he's done all he can do, that he can't mess anything else up, however he has other ideas.

[Bush] has an ambitious agenda that involves the most pressing and intractable international issues of the day: peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, resolving the confrontations with North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs.

Don't get too apathetic; he has just over 200 days left in and there's plenty more damage to do.

It's been more than five years since the U.S. invaded Iraq, but new light continues to shine on the dishonest way the Bush Administration sold the war to the American people.

This month the Senate Intelligence Committee released the final [two] [sections] of its comprehensive examination of the Bush Administration's use of pre-war intelligence. It's been known for a while now that Bush and his fellow hawks misled the American people, but the Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information clearly illustrates exactly how they did it.

As Committee Chair and report author Sen. Jay Rockefeller [said],

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence. In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.

The report lists the specific instances in which public statements by Bush, Cheney, and other officials did not accurately reflect intelligence findings. Some examples:

• Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence.
• Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information.
• Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products.
• Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing.
• The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
• The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remarked on the findings:

As we have seen in the ensuing six years, this coordinated propaganda campaign is among a series of profound misjudgments by the Bush administration and its Republican enablers, who have collected a long and shameful track record of mismanagement that has gravely damaged U.S. national security.

War should always be a last resort. But this report makes it undeniably clear that the Iraq War -- with more than 4,000 American casualties, tens of thousands wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars spent -- was not a last resort. It was a war of choice by George Bush, Dick Cheney, other Administration officials, and their backers in Congress.

That's a legacy no one can be proud of.

Americans who are hurting and out of work need a break.

With the unemployment rate ballooning from 5 percent to 5.5 percent in May -- the largest monthly increase since 1986 -- Congress is considering a crucial bill to extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who can't find jobs and whose benefits run out.

The House will vote this afternoon on this legislation, which provides up to 13 weeks of additional benefits to all out-of-work Americans, and up to 26 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rate. In these difficult economic times, Congress is working to provide an important lifeline for those hit hardest by the looming recession.

Paying for groceries, gas, and rent shouldn't be impossible. Extending unemployment benefits would not only provide assistance to needy Americans, but would be an important boon to the economy. The Congressional Budget Office has found that every $1.00 invested in unemployment benefits generates $1.73 in new demand, reinvigorating the economy and stimulating growth.

But President Bush still opposes this bill. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino casually noted last week, "While it's a concern that the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent, that is still historically low." The President should tell that to the millions of Americans crunched by home foreclosures, a credit crisis, sky-high gas prices, and an economy that has already shed 324,000 jobs this year alone.

George Bush's policies of corporate welfare and tax cuts for the wealthy have failed to trickle down to ordinary Americans. While he offers billion-dollar bailouts to Bear Stearns, the President continues to oppose action in Congress that would help those who need it most.

Today, Congress can make a statement that they stand with struggling American families, not George Bush.

Americans United for Change debuted a new radio advertisement today rebuking Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) for their votes against the Fair Pay Act. By standing with President Bush, Ensign and Porter voted against Nevada's women and minorities who have seen their right to earn a fair wage weakened. Across the nation, women make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, and African-American women earn just 63 centers for every dollar a man makes. Hispanic-American women earn just 52 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Senator Ensign recently voted to block the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act – meaningful legislation that would level the playing field for women and men who have been victims of pay discrimination by allowing them to seek justice in the courts.  Rep. Porter voted against sister legislation which passed in the U.S. House in July. 

Click here for supporting material

Americans United for Change is rolling out a series of radio ads targeting two Senators and four Members of Congress who have contributed to the Bush Legacy on Iraq and the economy. The ads call on them to reverse course and put American families first.

Rep. Jon Porter

Porter Ad Transcript

Senator Norm Coleman

Coleman Ad Transcript

Senator John Sununu

Sununu Ad Transcript

Rep. Don Young

Young Ad Transcript

Rep. Tim Walberg

Walberg Ad Transcript

Rep. Steve Chabot

Chabot Ad Transcript