.

His first day in office, George Bush began to reverse many
of the economic, social, and international accomplishments
of the Clinton years, dragging the government in small but
constant increments to the right. Every day we found one
more reason to lament the Florida election travesty, to
appreciate even more the values of the previous
administration, and ultimately to vote Bush out of office.
It was immediately clear that he preferred corporations and
their profits to the well being of the environment, and
within months we found that he placed little value on
women's rights, our hard-won respect in the world, or those
unlucky enough to have been born poor. Eventually, we saw
that he would consistently choose war over peace, that he
was incapable of telling the complete truth, and that he had
no skill whatever in managing our economy.

After three years, Bush's accomplishments make us shudder:
our air is dirtier, our water is dirtier, our forests are
thinner, our jobs are disappearing, our deficit is
ballooning, education is more expensive, teachers are being
laid off, the states are reeling from unfunded mandates, our
young men and women are dying by the hundreds in unnecessary
wars, we cannot buy a book without risking government
spying, and the rich -- especially the very rich -- have
stuffed their pockets with his largesse.

The past few years have been difficult for those who care
deeply about the actions of our government. At times
maddening, often frustrating, but ultimately energizing, it
has come to this: the list.

One Thousand Reasons began as an idea: if people saw in one
large space -- say a full-page ad in the New York Times --
all his harmful decisions and policies, they would turn Bush
out. While generous people may overlook one rule that allows
logging in a wilderness area, or another that allows more
arsenic in drinking water, or even much larger actions like
his almost immediate withdrawal from the international
global warming treaty, they could not overlook them all
together in a huge list. All those "under the radar"
actions, when seen together, could no longer be ignored.
Much as in law, where evidence upon evidence can tip the
scales of justice, these reasons, we believed could tip
public opinion.

The web site www.thousandreasons.org began in spring, 2003,
first as little more than categories and a firm commitment
to document Bush's damaging actions. By borrowing heavily
from other sources who had already been watching Bush, the
list grew quickly. Over the months it has grown and become
more substantial in its support. Still, it does not pretend
to be complete; the range of his offenses is too vast to be
included in a list of this size. It is, however,
unquestionably damning: the inescapable truth is that George
Bush is a bad president, committed not to the people but to
corporations, committed not to peace but to power, committed
not to democracy but to control.

This is not about hate. We carry no personal animosity
toward George Bush. Instead, it is about policy. Although
matters of attitude and character are important and
undoubtedly contribute to his decisions, it is not because
of his character that we call for his replacement. It is
because of one bad decision after another, a three-year
torrent of them, and the effects those decisions have had on
our country, on all of us, Republicans, Democrats, Greens,
Socialists, and Independents. All of us have suffered under
George Bush, and we therefore rededicate ourselves to his
removal from office by someone with a positive vision and a
strong commitment to planet earth and all its inhabitants.