Things McCain & Bush hope you'll forget

Republicans are hoping that when Americans watch this week's Republican convention, we'll forget about the last eight years.

So we (MoveOn.org) have put together this list of the Bush administration's "accomplishments."

It's actually shocking, even when you've lived through it. Take a moment to read it and pass it along:

Misleading about Iraq's WMD

Implying a connection between Saddam and 9/11
Launching a war that's killed 4,150 Americans and wounded more than 30,000

Challenging Iraqi insurgents to attack U.S. troops: "Bring 'em on"

Granting no-bid contracts to Halliburton in Iraq

Failing to respond to Hurricane Katrina

Hiring unqualified crony to run FEMA

Praising crony's performance: "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job"

Neglecting reconstruction of New Orleans' homes and levees

Promising American troops would be greeted as liberators
Declaring "Mission Accomplished" and later blaming the banner on troops
Cherry-picking facts about WMDs in Iraq, then blaming the CIA

Promising the Iraq war would lower gas prices

Claiming the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" in 2005

Allowing Osama Bin Laden to escape

Launching a war that's killed countless Iraqi civilians

Using Terri Schiavo for political gain

Attempting to alter Constitution to allow discrimination against gay people

Wiretapping our phones without court order

Fighting to privatize Social Security

Stealing the 2000 election (remember Katherine Harris, voter purges, and the Supreme Court?)

Concealing the pre-9/11 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

Ignoring security at nuclear plants after 9/11

Battling the wall between church and state

Enforcing abstinence-only programs in public schools

Doing too little to halt genocide in Darfur

Trying to slash funding for PBS and NPR

Rejecting the Kyoto Treaty to stop climate change

Giving tax cuts to the rich in a time of war

Failing seniors with the costly Medicare prescription drug benefit

Suppressing the vote in the 2004 elections (remember Diebold and long lines in Ohio?)

Swiftboating John Kerry

Outing CIA agent Valerie Plame to retaliate for truth about Iraq's WMDs

Telling the 45 million uninsured Americans to just go to the emergency room

Spending $341 million a day in Iraq

Neglecting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center

Allowing Afghanistan to fall into chaos, with the Taliban and al Qaeda regaining control

Pressuring PBS to carry pro-government propaganda

Paying columnists like Armstrong Williams to promote government policies

Creating fake news reels to promote the controversial Medicare law

Holding prisoners without trial at Guantanamo Ba

Covering up torture at Abu Ghraib

Breaking the Geneva Conventions

Appointing extreme right-wing Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito

Forcing the Patriot Act into law

Firing federal prosecutors who failed to accuse Democrats of voting fraud

Turning a budget surplus into massive budget deficit

Letting more than a million homes go into foreclosure—the highest rate ever recorded

Watching as bank failures surge

Setting the record for most days on vacation by any president in U.S. history

Losing 2.7 million manufacturing jobs

Presiding over Enron scandal—the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history

Increasing nuclear threat by withdrawing from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia

Appointing John Bolton as U.N. ambassador despite his promise to dismantle the U.N.

Holding secret meetings with Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell, and BP to set energy policy

Letting gas prices double while resisting fuel efficiency and clean energy

*This* is the leader of the free world?!?

Barack Obama, save us!

Great Moments in Presidential Speeches...or not!

(All from our ill-us-trus prezident!)

“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”
- George W. Bush

“The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.”
- George W. Bush

“I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“The future will be better tomorrow.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“We’re going to have the best educated American people in the world.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.”
- Governor George W. Bush


“I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“Public speaking is very easy.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“For NASA, space is still a high priority.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“The most important job is not to be Governor, or First Lady in my case.”
- Governor George W. Bush

“I was raised in the West. The west of Texas. It’s pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California.”

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”

“What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society. So I don’t know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that’s my position.”

“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”

“We must all hear the universal call to like your neighbor like you like to be liked yourself.”

“If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.”