God Bless America...We’re gonna need it.

What is one to say about today? To the horror of its well-wishers across the world, the United States—once the “last, best hope of mankind”- is re-inaugurating the worst president in its history; one who has exploited an attack, the success of which its own incompetence helped enable, in order to execute an extremist agenda that is killing thousands, costing trillions and leaving all of us far more insecure than when it began. Before November 2, we could argue it was all a mistake; the guy ran as a “compassionate conservative,” misrepresented his record, Nader screwed everything up, and we actually voted for Gore anyway. It took the Republicans on the Supreme Court—two of whom were appointed by the guy’s dad—to stick the country with this regime filled with ideological fanatics and corrupt incompetents. Now, what are we to say? Fifty-nine million members of our nation do not mind that we were deliberately misled into a war that has drained our blood and treasure to create nothing but hatred and chaos; and that the very people who were at fault have been rewarded and promoted, encouraged to look for new targets to spread their hubristic malevolence. It defies all logic and truthfully, my ability to explain or even fully understand it. One thing is for certain: Based on an virtually unanimous unwillingness to consider its past mistakes and learn from them, things are going to get far, far worse before they get better. Thousands more will die. (Twenty six yesterday.) Trillions more will be squandered. Millions more will grow to hate and revile the name of the United States of America and prepare to attack us in ways for which our government is resolutely unwilling to prepare. Avoidable catastrophe awaits this nation and its victims during the next four years as we will undoubtedly reap what we have sown. One thing’s for certain, none of this would have been possible without the enthusiastic cooperation—if not cheerleading—of the nation’s mainstream media. Thomas Friedman, considered a liberal opponent of the Bush administration who nevertheless advocated for its mendacious arguments vis-à-vis Iraq and then explicitly excused its willingness to lie because, after all, Hussein was a vicious dictator, cannot help but recognize the damage the administration has done to the nation’s good name the world over. Still, he once again chooses to empower its worst instincts vis-à-vis yet another abominable adventure in Iran by finding what? A single Oxford student in Paris. And pronouncing on the basis of this intrepid bit of investigative reporting that Iran is a “Red state” by extension, would welcome an American invasion of the type outlined by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Four years from now we will be assessing the fallout from that catastrophe undoubtedly in dead Americans, Iranians and additional hatred—and terrorists—bred the world over. God Bless America. We are going to need all the help we can get.

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By the Numbers: The U.S. After 4 Years of Bush

Poverty Rate 2000: 11.3% or 31.6 million Americans 2003: 12.5% or 35.9 million Americans Stock market Dow Jones Industrial Average 1/19/01: 10,587.59 1/19/05: 10,539.97 NASDAQ 1/19/01: 2,770.38 1/19/05: 2,073.59 S&P 500 1/19/01: 1,342.54 1/19/05: 1,184.63 Value of the Dollar 1/19/01: 1 Dollar = 1.06 Euros 1/19/05: 1 Dollar = 0.77 Euros Budget 2000 budget surplus $236.4 billion 2004 budget deficit $412.6 billion That's a shift of $649 billion and doesn't include the cost of the Iraq war. Cost of the war in Iraq $150.8 billion American Casualties in Iraq Deaths: 1,369 Wounded: 10,252 The Debt End of 2000: $5.7 trillion Today: $7.6 trillion That's a 4 year increase of 33%

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"Escalation"
Life in the Second Bush Administration

Throughout the last forty years a legitimate Revolution was taking place in this country. It was quieter and more clandestine than the Socialist revolutions of the 60's, growing from within, from the grassroots upward. It was by the Right, and they now have control of the nation. Orwell may be spinning in his grave, but Barry Goldwater is cackling like a madman in his.

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  thanks to wood s lot

Inauguration: Lifestyles of the Rich and Heartless

Due to $17 million worth of inaugural security - paid for by the city of Washington, D.C. - the Progress Report is unable to access its office. Never fear - it takes a lot more than that to keep us down. We put this list together for you ahead of time. Your regularly scheduled Progress Report returns tomorrow. A look at this week's festivities by the numbers: $40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs. $2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 - about $20,000 in today's dollars. $20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton. 200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.

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  thanks to Yolanda Flanagan