Still undecided? Consider these facts on Bush

[Guest guest]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/roeper/cst-nws-roep02.html

 

Still undecided? Consider these facts on Bush

 

November 2, 2004

 

BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

 

This one's for the Undecideds. If you're planning to vote today and

you haven't made up your mind, here are 50 reasons not to vote for

President Bush.

 

Osama bin Laden: Looking rested, fit and loony. Still not captured.

 

Bush just says " Yes " to attending fund-raisers.

 

Bush says " No " to attending military funerals.

 

He's not much of a reader. Said he doesn't read newspapers, and didn't

bother to read an August 2001 brief titled, " Bin Laden Determined to

Strike Inside U.S. "

 

He's the president of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Morris and Ann

Coulter.

 

Wore a flight suit, landed on the deck of the USS Lincoln, stood in

front of a " MISSION ACCOMPLISHED " banner and declared, " Major combat

operations in Iraq have ended, " as if he were starring in a Michael

Bay movie.

 

Since then, thousands of Americans and Iraqis have been killed.

 

Said " Internets " in a way that made us wonder if he's ever been on the

Internet.

 

Claimed a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.

 

America was under attack, and he just kept reading along with " The Pet

Goat. "

 

More than 45 million Americans don't have health care coverage.

 

The future makeup of the Supreme Court is at stake.

 

If you're a woman or a minority, how can you possibly rationalize

voting for Bush?

 

" Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs

aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country. "

 

Doesn't know if gays choose to be gay, or are born that way.

 

In the first debate, he told us that being president is hard work.

 

He also said he knows war is hell because he's seen it on TV.

 

Doesn't understand how stem cell research works.

 

Doesn't want to expand stem cell research.

 

At one point he had spent 40 percent of his presidency at Camp David,

his Texas ranch or his Kennebunkport, Maine, retreat.

 

John Ashcroft.

 

Donald Rumsfeld.

 

Dick Cheney.

 

Couldn't have cared less as the FCC ran roughshod over free speech and

actively encouraged a new era of censorship in America.

 

He won't get fooled again

 

" There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably

in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you.

Fool me -- you can't get fooled again. "

 

Never fully explained his National Guard Service, and stood mute as

Republicans produced factually challenged ads attacking John Kerry's

war heroism.

 

Abu Ghraib.

 

That Alfred E. Neuman debate face smirk.

 

Unemployment rate on Inauguration Day: 4.2 percent. Unemployment rate

today: 5.4 percent.

 

Net job loss since Bush took office: nearly 1 million.

 

A Homeland Security effort that included searches of 90-year-olds and

the confiscation of millions of pocket knives, knitting needles and

sharp thingies.

 

The backdoor draft.

 

Abused and neglected the environment on dozens of fronts, from

weakening clean air standards to increasing logging in protected areas

to opposing legislation requiring better fuel efficiency in cars to

easing protection on some 200 million acres of public land.

 

Medicare " reform " : a disaster.

 

In 2003, the president proposed cutting $1.3 billion in veterans'

health care and cutting combat bonus pay by one third.

 

Favors a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, in part because

it will " protect the sanctity " of marriage between a man and a woman.

Yes, because the likes of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline are such

better role models than a gay couple who have been living together in

a loving relationship for years.

 

It is what it is

 

" This is historic times. "

 

Never adequately explained that mysterious bulge in his back.

 

Has a snickering, dismissive attitude toward any nation that doesn't

bow to his policies.

 

Budget surplus when he took office: $281 billion. Budget deficit

today: $412 billion.

 

Failed to equip some troops in Iraq with adequate armor and weapons.

 

Tax cuts for the wealthy.

 

The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 since the late 1990s. The cost

of just about everything has gone up since the late 1990s.

 

He's the outsource president.

 

" We all thought there was weapons there. . . . My opponent thought

there was weapons there. "

 

No Child Left Behind has left behind millions of children.

 

Based on Bush's comments in the third debate, he loathes the entire

state of Massachusetts.

 

Has used 9/11 as a springboard to strip away more of our individual

freedoms than any president ever.

 

Do you really need a flu shot this year? Come on, get tough!

 

The man running against him is smarter, calmer, more sophisticated,

more tolerant, more interested in civil rights and better equipped to

lead this country out of a war and into the future.

 

God bless America.