Bush Factoids

The Dynamic Driviller has this little snip from Harpers.

Nice compilation of  factoids with commentary:

From Harpers – not the full list, my commentary added

• Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984 (Bet s/he was a Democrat too)
• Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400 (No conflict of interest there )
• Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42 (nepotism or necrophilia you choose)
• Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98 (No conflict of interest there )
• Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6 (I’m shocked I say shocked)
• Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9 (explain Palin don’t it – must be the air up there)
• Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01 (That’s good old Yankee capitalism for you)
• Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182 (so few was Brownie in charge?)
• Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0 (I’m shocked I say shocked)
• Number charged with an immigration violation: 762 (9/11 the best thing to ever happen to the INS)
• Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20 (Mitch Romney your relatives have bee found)
• Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075 (domestic tererists evry one)
• Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39 (that way we can identify the 61% that can’t be trusted)
• Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000 ( that explains all the pork)
• Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50 (I just can’t make light of this)
• Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069 (or this)
• Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100 (another get rich quick scheme)
• Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0 (Bernie Madoff eat your heart out this guy’s a master scammer)
• Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1 (never buy from Sony again)
• Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25 (too late)
• Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6 (making Iraq and the world safer for Democracy
• Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120 (Ibid)
• Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6 (Ibid)
• Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4 (Ibid)
• Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35
• Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
• Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677 (support the troops – don’t forget your yellow ribbon now!
• Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9 (no problem finding suicidally depressed youths now)
• Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295 (Americans should fear their armed forces – felonious Christians – excuse the redundancy)
• Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400 (and here we thought exercise made you smarter)
• Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3 (nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you lie)
• Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25 (Of course that didn’t play any part in Donnie boy’s buying the place now then did it)
• Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8 (the US does not condone torture, unless they do it then it isn’t torture, just enhanced interrogation)
• Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200 (free flights to exotic places, no holds barred)
• Date on which USA Today added Guantánamo to its weather map: 1/3/05 (words fail me)
• Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897 (Go Jack go)
• Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110
• Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79 (gotta love it the best and the brightest coming north)
• Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10 (first order of business for President Obama should be clean up the voting booths)
• Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4 (let ‘em eat cake)
• Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000 (let’s hear it for trickle down economics – yeah Chicago)
• Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172 (Hello Canada)
• Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15 (But you don’t say how many wall streeters would have had much better retirements – shame)
• Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9 (they’ll learn, wisdom comes with age)
• Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121 (A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do to survive)
• Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130 (Hey Scooter – you win alright!)
• Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92 (that few? Boy he’s more popular than I thought)
• Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466 (Cheney needs the extra roughage for his colon)
• Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4 (now that is sad)
• Rank of Nevaeh, “heaven” spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000: 1 (Hallelujah brothers and sisters Hallelujah – we has dummed down da USA)
• Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal government’s online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17 (Ibid)
• Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000 (Ibid)
• Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000 (Ibid)
• Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88 (Ibid)
• Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +11, +15 (Ibid)
• Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war: 1:1 (crank up the presses)
• Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (pocket change)
• Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clinton’s memoir and in that of George W. Bush’s, respectively: 49, 5 (it speaks for itself)
• Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
• Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37 (Ibid)