FACTS ARE HARD ON POOR GEORGE BUSH....
harpers.org
Harper's Index -- October 2003
Percentage points by which George Bush Sr.'s approval rating in August 1991 exceeded his son's last August : 11
Reelection campaign funds raised by Bush Sr. as of June 1991 and by his son as of last June, respectively : $0, $67,687,000
Percentage of Americans who believe that George W. Bush was legitimately elected president : 54
Percentage who believed this in March 2001 : 56
Rank of last year among those in which the largest number of federal records were officially classified : 1
Months before September 11, 2001, that Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil resources : 6
Years before Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001 that the IRS asked the SEC to investigate the firm : 2.5
Number of SEC investigations of Enron that resulted : 0
Amount in "disgorgement" that the SEC has ordered a former Xerox CEO to pay in connection with alleged fraud : $7,600,000
Percentage of this payment that Xerox will cover : 100
Percentage of Americans who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of this year's tax cut : 88
Average amount these Americans will save : $4
Estimated market value of the usable body parts of an adult human : $46,000,000
Age at which a Missouri basketball prodigy was welcomed into "the Reebok family" last May : 3
Amount, in inches, by which the average North Korean 7-year-old is shorter than the average South Korean 7-year-old : 2.9
Percentage of Botswanans requiring highly active anti-retroviral therapy for whom it is available on request : 100
Percentage that have requested it : 9
Percentage of U.S. doctors who say they have not told patients about a treatment because their insurance didn't cover it : 31
Chance that a Londoner believes that epilepsy is caused by "evil spirits" : 1 in 20
Chances that a person executed as a witch in Iceland between 1625 and 1685 was a man : 9 in 10
Percentage change in the number of Colombians killed or disappeared since the U.S. implemented Plan Colombia : +33
Number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last two years : 354
Number who died in Vietnam in 1963 and 1964 : 324
Percentage of Iraqis who said in July that they would rather live under the Americans than under Saddam Hussein : 29
Percentage of Palestinians in refugee camps who say that given a choice they would live nowhere but Israel : 10
Percentage who say they would accept compensation and homes in a Palestinian state : 54
Percentage of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who say they would relocate if compensated : 83
Number of the U.N.'s 15 ongoing peacekeeping missions that have been in operation for at least a decade : 8
Ratio of Liberia's GDP last year to the amount Americans spent on skis : 1:1
Rank of Sudan and Belgium, respectively, among 122 countries assessed for water quality : 118, 122
Chances that farmed salmon contains PCB levels that are 4 times higher than those found in beef : 7 in 10
Chance on any given day that the only "vegetables" served in a U.S. public school are potatoes : 1 in 2
Minimum number of states where tuition at one or more public universities will be raised by at least 20 percent this year : 7
Number of states that require energy companies to derive a percentage of their output from alternative sources : 13
Number of U.S. senators last year who voted against creating a similar federal requirement to take effect in 2020 : 70
Year in which House Republicans thrice rejected an amendment to upgrade the U.S. electrical grid : 2001
Number of Democratic legislators absent for this year's 213–210 vote restricting workers' overtime-pay eligibility : 7
Number of Virginia Republican Party officials fined this year for eavesdropping on Democratic Party conference calls : 3
Years after the Watergate break-in that deputy campaign director Jeb Magruder admitted hearing President Nixon order it : 30
Year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs : 1983
Sources: harpers.org |
