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Nick Baumann and Dave Gilson: Bush's Reign of Error ... A Timeline

NEWS: "You never know what your history is going to be like until long after you’re gone." —W

2000

NOVEMBER Election fiasco; Sandra Day O'Connor gripes that a Gore win would ruin her retirement plans.

• Thousands of people are wrongly turned away from the polls in Florida due to a flawed voter "purge" list produced by a private company; many have names that bear slight similarities to those of felons. Bush wins Florida by 537 votes.

2001

JANUARY Would-be labor secretary Linda Chavez revealed to have hired an illegal immigrant.
• Ousting Saddam Hussein discussed at first national security meeting.

FEBRUARY Dick Cheney secretly meets with oil executives to write energy policy.

MARCH Bush nixes new standards for arsenic in drinking water.

MAY FEMA chief Joe Allbaugh says the administration plans to privatize many of FEMA's functions. Meanwhile, FEMA planners report a strong hurricane hitting New Orleans is "among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

AUGUST Bush's monthlong vacation interrupted by intel briefing: Osama bin Laden "determined to strike in US."

SEPTEMBER Terrorists attack; "The Pet Goat" is immortalized.

• White House pressures EPA to downplay risks of breathing at ground zero.
• Bush: "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile."...
Read entire article at Mother Jones