Snoping Around

Been a little busy here today, and then there was a longish post I was writing that just didn't feel right--containing mostly links to stories already referenced on other blogs.

I just got out of yet another meeting, and took a quick look at Snopes.com--they link to this page from the Independent UK that offers Dubya by the numbers.

Here are some that fall under the "Zero" category:

Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.

Number of times Bush mentioned Saudi Arabia in his three State of the Union addresses.

Number of guardsmen from that period who came forward with information about Bush's guard service (i.e., providing proof he did Guard Service in Alabama).

Number of minutes that President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the assistant Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the former chairman of the Defence Policy Board, Richard Perle, and the White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove ­ the main proponents of the war in Iraq ­served in combat (combined).

Number of principal civilian or Pentagon staff members who planned the war who have immediate family members serving in uniform in Iraq.

Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home that the Bush administration has permitted to be photographed.

Number of memorial services for the returned dead that Bush has attended since the beginning of the war.

Amount Bush allocated for port security in 2003.

Number of new drugs or vaccines against "priority pathogens" listed by the Centres for Disease Control that have been developed and introduced since 11 September 2001.

You'd think Bush was a total zero. But, I guess in the interest of balance, the Independent has some numbers from the other side:

$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.

75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.

10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).

79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration.

Then, to balance the balance, let's go back to Bush's zeros:

Number of times Bush mentioned global warming, clean air, clean water, pollution or environment in his 2004 State of the Union speech. His father was the last president to go through an entire State of the Union address without mentioning the environment.

Number of environmentalists asked to attend Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings.

Number of endangered species voluntarily added by the Bush administration since taking office.

Take the time to look over the whole list if you can. In the end, though, I think you'll agree that George W. Bush is truly the Zero of the United States of America.