I thought this was a good read, hopefully it will get some of those libertarians voting bush to vote libertarian **cough**gilligan**cough**
by Bill Winter
The Bush Betrayal, by James Bovard. 330 pages. Published by Palgrave Macmillan. Hardbound, $26.95. Available at: Amazon.com.
The Chicago Tribune once described humorist P.J. O'Rourke as "a trophy hunter let loose in an unguarded zoo." They should have saved that description for James Bovard.
In his new book, The Bush Betrayal, Bovard opens fire on President George W. Bush with a thunderous barrage of facts and revelations that proves, beyond any doubt, that Bush has broken every small-government promise he ever made, and has shattered any credibility his Republican lackeys in Congress have for claiming to be a party of "limited government."
The premise of the book is simple: Bush is a terrible president who is savagely shredding the liberties of the American people.
As Bovard writes in the first chapter: "Bush is expanding federal power and stretching prerogatives in almost every area that captures his fancy."
Sure, Bush loves to talk about "freedom." But, as Bovard acerbically notes, "Bush is as qualified to speak about freedom as former President Clinton is to speak about chastity."
You want specifics? The only question is where to start, because the "unguarded zoo" that is the Bush Administration is a target-rich environment for Bovard. Here's a sample of the Bush Administration's big-government crimes:
* On stifling dissent: Bush's Secret Service detail arrested or detained peaceful American protesters who made the mistake of carrying "No War for Oil" or other anti-Bush signs at Bush campaign appearances in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas. As Bovard notes, the Secret Service has now apparently been relegated to suppressing "any affront to the dignity of the supreme ruler."
* On free trade: Despite claiming that he is a "fierce free trader," Bush slapped a 30 percent tariff on imported steel in 2002. One consulting firm estimated that the move destroyed eight American manufacturing jobs for every one steel-producing job it saved. But as Bovard notes, the tariff was never about fair trade -- it was about "the president's own political advantage," since some steel-producing states were up for grabs in the 2004 election.
* On education reform: Bush claimed that his No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, which mandated standards and testing for local schools, was "the boldest plan to improve our public schools in a generation." However, Bovard notes that the law only requires schools to improve their "baseline" standards -- so most states immediately dumbed-down their existing standards so they could easily show future gains. For example, the NCLB baseline standard set in Delaware required only 33 percent of children to test at grade-level in math. NCLB also required states to identify "dangerous" schools. So, New York politicians mandated that 5 percent of a student body had to be suspended for weapons violations before a school could be declared "dangerous." Such standards, notes Bovard, "practically guarantee no school would be found guilty." Needless to say, NCLB also came with a hefty price tag. At various times, Bush boasted that he had increased federal spending on education by 36 percent or 49 percent.
* On continuing the Clinton legacy: Bush has been the #1 fan of former president Bill Clinton's AmeriCorps program, which pays people $16,000 a year in cash and benefits to "volunteer." Bush increased funding for the program -- whose employees engage in such vital civic activities as organizing gay proms at high schools, paying children a $5 bounty for toy guns, and recruiting people for food stamp programs -- by more than $120 million in 2004.
* On government subsidies: During his 2000 campaign, Bush claimed to support a "market-driven approach" to agriculture. So, when he became president, he signed a bill that earmarked an additional $50 billion in federal handouts to farmers over 10 years. The bill funneled two-thirds of that money to the richest 10 percent of farmers, and will, by one estimate, cost every American family $4,377 over the coming decade in higher taxes and inflated food costs.
* On government-run health care: In 2003, Bush pushed through Congress a $400 billion-a-year Medicare bill to provide prescription drugs to seniors. (More accurate estimates later said the annual cost would actually be $576 billion.) Bovard notes that the program is the "worst financial blow Medicare ever suffered" -- and pushed Medicare's bankruptcy forward by seven years, to 2019.
* On the government's failure to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks: After the attacks, Bush claimed that no one "could envision flying airplanes into buildings." But Bovard notes that "in the previous few years, the CIA had issued several warnings that terrorists might fly commercial airplanes into buildings or cities."
* On spying on Americans: Bush enthusiastically endorsed the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the federal government's ability to read your e-mail, search your home without notifying you, obtain a list of the books you checked out at your local library, and subpoena information from businesses without a court order. Bush's hand-picked attorney general, John Ashcroft, explained that the USA Patriot Act protects what he called "ordered liberty." Bovard disagrees, and writes, "The only way to reconcile the Patriot Act with freedom is to assume that unjustified government intrusions into people's lives are irrelevant to freedom."
* On extra-Constitutional powers: On November 13, 2001, Bush signed an executive order giving himself the power to designate Americans as "enemy combatants" and put them on trial before secret military tribunals -- with no right to appeal. The move, which stripped Americans of their Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Amendment rights to a fair trial, was necessary to fight terrorism, Bush declared. In fact, Bovard counters, if Bush can, by imperial decree, deprive Americans of fundamental civil liberties at his whim, it means the president is no longer "bound by the Constitution." And that, ultimately, is more dangerous than any terrorist.
* On waging unnecessary war: Bush invaded Iraq after claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed "the most lethal weapons ever devised." After intensive postwar searches turned up no such weapons (and after more than 1,000 American soldiers where killed in an increasingly violent insurgency against the U.S. occupation), Bush backpedaled slightly and claimed the invasion was justified because of the "possibility" that Hussein might acquire weapons of mass destruction. As evidence for even that claim evaporated, Bush backpedaled further, and said the invasion was necessary because the United States has "an obligation to help the spread of freedom." In reality, Bovard notes, "Bush was determined to demagogue the American people into war" -- no matter how feeble the rationale. Bovard notes, "Bush's war against Iraq may be his greatest abuse of power."
That's not all: The Bush Administration also launched a campaign to arrest medical marijuana users; proclaimed Thailand a "force for good" after its government ordered police to execute 2,700 suspected drug dealers (and innocent civilians) without trials; federalized airport security at a cost to taxpayers of more than $10 billion; helped cover up the brutal beating of dozens of post-9/11 detainees in U.S. prisons; and signed the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, which made it illegal for Americans to engage in certain kinds of free speech in federal elections.
By the way, Bovard doesn't just make these claims; he documents them. If some of his allegations seem unbelievable, just check the 42 pages of footnotes -- it's all there.
Add up all of the president's anti-freedom actions, and you can't help but to agree with Bovard when he writes: "The monarchization of America is proceeding by leaps and bounds under Bush."
As I read The Bush Betrayal, I thought about the group called "Libertarians for Bush," which supports the president's re-election. After finishing the book, I am tempted to write to them and encourage them -- in the interest of accuracy -- to change their name to "Libertarians for Massive Government." As Bovard makes clear, any Libertarian who votes for George W. Bush is voting for a bloated, expensive, un-Constitutional, warmongering, civil liberties-smashing, anti-free trade, pro-Drug War federal leviathan. Could you please explain to me how any so-called "libertarian" could support that?
There's almost nothing to quibble about in this book. Yes, Bovard does recycle Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 claim that Bush sat in a Florida classroom with a "deer-in-the-headlights" look after being informed of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So what? I would prefer that Bush sat and did nothing -- if our choice was the barrage of un-Constitutional measures that followed once he stood up. Why waste time criticizing Bush for the one time he didn't do something bad?
But, wisely, Bovard sticks to the important issues most of the time. And it's that relentless focus on Bush's war against freedom that makes this book so shocking, eye-opening, and important.
With The Bush Betrayal, Bovard cements his claim as America's journalistic superman -- fighting for truth, justice, and the American way of freedom and limited government. We may have been stuck with George W. Bush for four years, but at least we have Bovard on our side.
And that evens the odds just a bit.
[About the author: Bill Winter is communications director for the Advocates for Self-Government. From 1997 to 2004, Winter was editor of LP News.]