The dark side of the street

"The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. "

Well, that's what the email said, but President Bush doesn't get any love from this "nonpartisan" institute. They are not the "glass is half full" kind of people when it comes to the current Administration. Here is how they describe "A look at the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers Under the Bush Administration":

Of course not everyone had a tough time over the past seven years. Here are the five who came through their Bush Years relatively footloose and problem-free.

Big Oil
Even as oil companies raked in record profits, the White House fought to make sure they kept $7.6 billion in tax subsidies and the legal loophole that lets them dodge paying $10.7 billion in royalties from oil found in public U.S. lands in the Gulf of Mexico. IHT IHT

Contractor Mercenaries
President Bush has thrown billions of dollars—and undue faith—behind corrupt contractor mercenaries to fight his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And like members of his administration, the president lets these contractors act outside the law. Take Blackwater: top State Department officials knew about incidents of the contractor killing innocent civilians in Iraq for more than two years—and it turned a blind eye. ABC

The Filthy Rich
Welcome to the new Gilded Age. From 2003 to 2005, the increase in income from the richest one percent of Americans was higher than the total income of the poorest 20 percent. How’d we get this way? Bush’s tax cuts for the uber-wealthy. NY Times

Cronies and Bushies
From the Department of Justice to FEMA, from the Coalitional Provisional Authority to the FDA, Bush has packed his administration with friends and partisans, prizing loyalty over experience and ideology over competence. Washington Post Washington Post ] CNN NY Times

People Who Fear Human-Animal Hybrids
President Bush was able to keep one promise from his previous State of the Union addresses. In 2006, he pledged to fight the creation of “human-animal hybrids,” sparking visions of fearsome ManBeasts terrorizing the nation. As of today, we’ve spotted no half-man/half-animal creatures. Breaking News: We may have given the president credit too soon—just this week, we’ve discovered, British scientists created a ManCow clone. State Of The Union BBC

TK: I'm sure that's not how President Bush would like to characterize the "winners" under his Administration. Here is what has gone wrong under Bush, according to Center for American Progress:

As President Bush’s days of power draw to a close, one thing is clear: We’ve got a lot more problems now than we did seven years ago. Here are 99 of them, everything from less money to more war and a planet in crisis. It’s not a comprehensive list.


TK: The extremely long email does have 99 problems, so I won't list them all. But here are a couple:

Problem: Freezing Families
In 2008, the average U.S. household will have to spend $986 to heat their homes in winter, up 11 percent from the year before. Millions of the elderly and poor rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to heat their homes, yet in 2007, President Bush asked Congress to slash funding for LIHEAP by $379 million. [ Associated Press ]

Problem: Starvation
According to the USDA, the number of hungry families in the United States rose 26 percent between 2001 and 2006. Worse, the number of families with the least access to enough food rose 32 percent. That’s 1.3 million American families, not including the homeless. [ USDA ]

Problem: Killing Us with Carbon Emissions

After President Bush pledged a cap on carbon emissions in 2000, President Cheney filled the White House Committee on Environmental Quality with industry representatives. Following their appointment, the group released a report saying “the current state of scientific knowledge about causes of and solutions to global warming is inconclusive” and no caps were needed. [ Rolling Stone ]

Problem: Killing the Polar Bears
In January of 2008, the Bush administration missed a deadline requiring a final decision on whether to give polar bears—often the poster children of global warming—federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Geological Survey’s September report, meanwhile, found that melting Arctic sea ice could wipe out polar bears in Alaska and kill off two-thirds of the species’ global population. [ ABC ]

TK: Bush has had a rocky run, admittedly, but can a "nonpartisan institute" lay the blame on him for the fact that "Afghan women still live in fear" and his role in "killing the polar bears"? I'd hate to see what a "partisan" group would say.