Bush Won't Rule Out Libby Pardon

[Confed]

And Peady, the GOD!! reference is to the movie "Napoleon Dynamite." I could have used another word that is more apt in exclamation.

[CrankyChrissy]

Bickering like squalling brats over whether Bush should have commuted Libby's sentence is a waste of energy. The whole affair was a debacle of squandered resources -- time, money, manpower -- from the beginning. That's the outrage -- that any of it happened at all.

Bush may pardon who he pleases - whether YOU think it's just or not. Get used to it.

[peady2]

"...I felt Gov. Bush did an excellent job."

Let's let his record as Governor of Texas speak for itself:

During GWB's terms as Governor, Texas was:

#1 In overall toxic releases

#1 In recognized carcinogens in the air

#1 In suspected carcinogens in the air

#1 In developmental toxin in the air (affecting brain and nervous-system development in children)

#1 Cancer risk

49th in spending for the environment

#1 In major discharge facilities with 575 major facilities

#2 In total number of minor Nipdes facilities, about 5,700.

3,000 Miles, or one third, of Texas rivers and 44% of Texas bays are polluted to the point that they do not meet the standards set for recreational and other uses.

13 Texas lakes were covered by advisories or bans on fish consumption in 1996.

#1 in use of Deep Well Injectors as method of Waste Disposal

#1 in Total Number of Hazardous Waste Incinerators

#1 in Environmental Justice Title 6 complaints

#1 in production of Cancer causing Benzene & Vinyl Chloride

#1 Largest Sludge Dump in Country

#1 in the Emission of Ozone Causing Air Pollution Chemical

The state of Texas under G.W. Bushís leadership is ranked 50th in spending for teachers salaries

41st in per capita spending on public education

43% of Texas teachers plan to leave or are considering leaving teaching.

Money that could have gone into raising teacher salaries went into tax cuts for the rich.

The high school dropout rates in Texas are 30% overall

The high school dropout rate in Texas is 50% among minorities

Missing students and other mirages in Texas enrollment statistics profoundly affected both reported dropout statistics and test scores.

At the start of every school year, school begins with literally hundreds of classrooms without teachers

Governor Bush appointed a teacher certification board that, instead of working on improving the standards for the teaching profession and improving teacher quality, he decided instead to allow people who have poor credentials to enter into the teaching profession

One in five Texas high school teachers are not certified

About 41,000 of 63,000 vacancies in Texas public schools were unfilled in 1999

Since about 1982, the rates at which Black and Hispanic students are required to repeat grade 9 have climbed steadily, such that by the late 1990s, nearly 30% of Black and Hispanic students were "failing" grade 9.

Texas charter schools were even poorer than public schools. Even though the racial mix was skewed to non-white, and the number of schools (66) is small, the economically disadvantaged rate was very similar, the percent of special ed students was less in the charter schools, and the test scores were uniformly substantially lower.

On national tests (NAEP), with one exception (4th grade math), Texas scores have remained flat over the period Bush was governor

After Bush took office, Texasís own state test TASP (a college readiness test) results showed a sharp decrease (from 65.2% to 43.3%) in the percentage of students passing all three parts (reading, math, and writing).

Performance on the SAT in Texas did not improved since the early 1990s, (compared with SAT takers nationally)

79% of Texans who are 25 or older have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate and 24% have bachelor's degrees - both lower than the national average

147,000 people in state prisons. Counting state jails and on parole, there are 545,000 people in the system.

On any given day 450 people were on death row. Since 1976 Texas has executed 138 people - some of which were people who were mentally ill, profoundly retarded, and people who are innocent.

48th in per capita funding for public health

47th in delivery of social services

5th in percentage of people living in poverty

#1 in percentage of poor working parents without insurance

#1 in children without health insurance

[PaulaJo]

Peady, don't know where you got your 'facts'. Some are true, but did not start or end with Gov Bush. I feel he was not governor long enough to make a difference. Please remember when you read statistics that they include millions of Mexican Illegals who gut our health, education and social service programs.

Living here day by day, watching what legislation was passing, paying taxes, etc. I found life much better under George Bush than under Ann Richards (dem) or Rick Perry (rep).