NO THANKS, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THAT COURSE

Well, Dubya held another one of his "press conferences" (i.e., propaganda moments) today. He's resolutely "staying the course." The Stakeholder looks at the reality behind his rhetoric.

Rhetoric:

“We’re not leaving so long as I’m the president.” [Bush Press Conference, 8/21/06]

Reality:

Republican Congress has refused to hold Bush administration accountable about Iraq intelligence, spending and planning.

$9 billion in reconstruction funds have been unaccounted for, and as of the end of April, almost $2 billion in appropriated funds remain unobligated, largely due to a lack of security. [CRS Report RL 31833, Page 15]

There have been close to 4,000 Iraqi casualties due to sectarian violence from February 2006 to April 06, almost the same number of casualties suffered between February 2004 and January 2006. [DoD’s Quarterly Report on Iraq, Page 40]

American troops: 2,610 fatalities, 19,300 troops wounded in action.

Estimated Iraqi Casualties: 8,643 civilian deaths between March 2005 and April 2006. 3,269 police and security force deaths between January 2005 and April 2006. [CRS Report RS22441, Page 4 and http://icasualties.org/oif]

Rhetoric:

“I have been talking about gas prices ever since they got high.” [Bush Press Conference, 8/21/06]

Reality:

$1.52 When Bush Took Office
$2.32 Price per Gallon of Gas When Bush Signed his Energy Bill
$2.93 Price per Gallon of Gas Today
$2.6 billion Amount in Giveaways for Big Oil and Gas by GOP Congress Included in Bush Energy Bill

Rhetoric:

“I made a commitment that we would – we’d help the people there recover…I also want the people down there to understand that it’s going to take awhile to recover. This was a huge storm.” [Bush Press Conference, 8/21/06]

Reality:

Nearly 1,200 families in the St. Bernard Parish of New Orleans are still waiting to get into trailers that are locked on their home sites but need utilities or other services. [AP, 8/8/06]

400 families waiting for trailers have none at all. [AP, 8/8/06]

Tens of thousands of houses are waiting for repair from the widespread flooding of last year’s storm. [AP, 8/8/06]

The Bush White House refused to provide Congress’ Katrina Committee the emails exchanged by former head of FEMA Michael Brown and the White House.

A motion to subpoena those documents was rejected.

As a result of lack of information, the House Select Committee on Hurricane Katrina failed to obtain the most relevant evidence of the White House role in the failed federal response to Hurricane Katrina

David Corn takes issue also.

Tags: stay the course, Bush press conference